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| Undone, The People v. O.J. Simpson, & The Terror. Amazon Studios; FX; AMC |
There are so many good shows to stream these days that it's impossible to watch them all, especially when some of them run for dozens, or even hundreds, of episodes. This is all the more true if you're someone who enjoys the comfort of rewatching old favorites. Thus shorter running shows can be a godsend, allowing you to experience a great story in a limited amount of time. With that in mind here are twenty-four* shows that run for less than twelve hours each, meaning you can knock them out in one day if you're motivated or over a few days more casually.
*Two of the shows are anthology series, but I'm only counting their first seasons which are entirely unrelated from their second.
For each show I've included a description of the plot, shows/movies that are similar in tone, visuals, and/or subject matter, as well as who's in it. You can also click on a show's title to see a trailer for its first season.
There are six shows each from the main streamers (Netflix, Hulu, & Amazon), three from HBO, & one each from Apple TV+, CBS All Access, & Disney+, to ensure you'll have something to check out no matter what services you have.
Netflix
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| American Vandal may be a comedy but it takes its mysteries seriously. Netflix |
American Vandal (2 seasons, 16 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: Two high school students film their investigation of serious, but childish pranks committed at their own school (season 1) & a prestigious private school (season 2).
What it's like: Making of a Murderer meets 21 Jump Street (the movie)
Who's in it: The standouts, & most notable actors, are U of A's own Jimmy Tatro (22 Jump Street) in season 1, & Melvin Gregg (High Flying Bird, The Way Back) in season 2.
The Haunting of Hill House (1 season, 10 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: In 1992 the Crain family moves into Hill House, a place that will leave its mark on them in more ways then one. Twenty-six years later the family must reunite in the face of tragedy to face their fears of the house once & for all.
What it's like: Stephen King (though it's based on a novel by Shirley Jackson) meets Oculus (writer/director Mike Flanagan made both that movie & Hill House)
Who's in it: Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Elizabeth Reaser (Grey's Anatomy, Twilight), Victoria Pedretti (You), & Carla Gugino (San Andreas, Spy Kids)
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| If you liked How I Met Your Mother you'll fall hard for the gang in Lovesick. Netflix |
Lovesick (3 seasons, 22 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: A group of friends in Glasgow, Scotland, one of whom finds out he has chlamydia & must now inform all of the women he's had sex with. Each episode flashes back to his relationship with those women (hence the show's original title, Scrotal Recall).
What it's like: How I Met Your Mother if it was set in the UK & didn't have audience laughter or a want to kill off the main character's love interest
Who's in it: Johnny Flynn (Emma.), Antonia Thomas (The Good Doctor), Daniel Ings (The Crown), & Joshua McGuire (About Time)
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (1 season, 10 episodes, 10 hours)
What it's about: The events leading up to & surrounding O.J. Simpson's trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, & how they changed America.
What it's like: When They See Us, with the protagonists & antagonists swapped
Who's in it: Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire), Sterling K. Brown (This is Us), & David Schwimmer (Friends)
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| The women behind Russian Doll, Amy Poehler, Natasha Lyonne, & Leslye Headland. Rick Loomis/For the LA Times |
Russian Doll (1 season, 8 episodes, 4 hours)
What it's about: A woman is stuck in a time loop wherein she keeps dying & returning to the night of her 36th birthday.
What it's like: Groundhog Day meets Fleabag
Who's in it: Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black), Charlie Barnett (Chicago Fire), & Greta Lee (High Maintenance)
Unbelievable (1 season, 8 episodes, 7 hours)
What it's about: Switches between two timelines. In 2008 Washington state a young woman is raped, but police doubt her story, force her to recant, & she must do her best to survive these dual traumas. In 2011 two female detectives in Colorado combine their rape investigations when they realize they're dealing with a serial rapist. Based on a true story.
What it's like: Law & Order: SVU meets Happy Valley
Who's in it: Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart, Short Term 12), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Godless), & Toni Collette (Hereditary, Little Miss Sunshine)
Hulu
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| Donald Glover's Atlanta is one of a kind. FX |
Atlanta (2 seasons, 21 episodes, 10 hours)
What it's about: A Princeton dropout back home in Atlanta balances managing his cousin's rapping career & his relationship with the mother of his child, though Donald Glover's goal in making the show may be more descriptive than the plot, “The thesis with this show was to show people what it’s like to be black, and you can’t write that down. You have to feel it."
What it's like: Insecure meets Louie (That's the best I could do, there isn't really anything quite like Atlanta)
Who's in it: Donald Glover (Community), Bryan Tyree Henry (Widows), LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You, Short Term 12), & Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2)
Party Down (2 seasons, 20 episodes, 10 hours)
What it's about: A group of caterers in LA work various events, ranging from a sweet sixteen to an orgy to a funeral, while hoping to eventually make it big.
What it's like: The Office meets Silicon Valley
Who's in it: Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), Ken Marino (Children's Hospital), Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks), Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars), & a bunch of fantastic guest stars
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| The best TV friendship of 2019 was on PEN15. Hulu |
PEN15 (1 season, 10 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: Two 13-year-old girls (played by actresses in their early 30s) deal with the trials & tribulations of 7th grade (all other kids are played by actual children) in the year 2000.
What it's like: Freaks and Geeks meets Big Mouth
Who's in it: Maya Erskine (Plus One, Casual) & Anna Konkle (Rosewood)
Ramy (1 season, 10 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: A young Egyptian-American living in New Jersey attempts to balance his social life with the expectations of his immigrant parents while exploring his relationship with Islam.
What it's like: A more grounded Master of None
Who's in it: Comedian Ramy Youssef, Hiam Abbass (Succession), Amr Waked (Lucy)
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| The best unlicensed PI's in California got cancelled too soon, but their one season was great. Hulu |
Terriers (1 season, 13 episodes, 10 hours)
What it's about: An ex-cop & ex-con are best friends working as unlicensed PI's in Ocean Beach, California.
What it's like: The Nice Guys if it were set in present day & neither guy had a daughter.
Who's in it: Donal Logue (Gotham), Michael Raymond-James (Once Upon a Time), Laura Allen (Awake), & Rockmand Dunbar (Prison Break, Sons of Anarchy)
The Terror (1 season, 10 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: The failed Franklin expedition that attempted to navigate the Northwest Passage, from England to the Pacific, through the Arctic. All 129 crew members were never seen again, to which the show offers various reasons - harsh conditions, infighting, & a mythical beast.
What it's like: The Grey crossed with Crimson Tide & Chernobyl
Who's in it: Jared Harris (Mad Men, Chernobyl), Tobias Menzies (Game of Thrones, The Crown), Adam Nagaitis (Chernobyl), Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones, Tinker Taylor Solider Spy), Paul Ready (Utopia, The Bodyguard)
Amazon
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| Sometimes heroes aren't all they're cracked up to be. Amazon Prime Video |
The Boys (1 season, 8 episodes, 8 hours)
What it's about: A regular guy joins a group of vigilantes attempting to take down corrupt superheroes & the corporation that controls them, while the newest superhero in the Seven (basically the Justice League) finds out just how rotten things are on the inside.
What it's like: Preacher meets Justice League/Watchmen (the movie)
Who's in it: Jack Quaid (Plus One, Logan Lucky), Erin Moriarty (Kings of Summer, Jessica Jones), Karl Urban (Star Trek, Lord of the Rings), Antony Starr (Banshee), & Elizabeth Shue (Piranha 3D, The Karate Kid)
Catastrophe (4 seasons, 24 episodes, 11 hours)
What it's about: An American ad-exec visiting London has a week long affair with an Irish schoolteacher, that leads to pregnancy. He moves to London & they try & make it work.
What it's like: You're the Worst meets Casual
Who's in it: Comedian Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2, Bombshell) & Sharon Horgan (Game Night) who co-wrote every episode together
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| The best show of 2019, Fleabag. Steve Schofield/Amazon Studios |
Fleabag (2 seasons, 12 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: A young woman in London struggles to figure out her life after the loss of her best friend.
What it's like: High Fidelity meets Russian Doll & Catastrophe
Who's in it: Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo, Broadchurch), Olivia Coleman (The Favourite, The Crown), & Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock)
Homecoming (2 seasons, 17 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: Cuts between two timelines, one in which a social worker is running Homecoming, a facility to help soldiers transition back to civilian life, & another four years later where she's a waitress with almost no memory of her time working there. Season 2 is a sequel with a different lead, & a plot I purposely haven't read about.
What it's like: Michael Clayton meets In Treatment, with a dose of The Manchurian Candidate
Who's in it: Julia Roberts, Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk, Selma), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire, Vice Principals), Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire, Master of None), & Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures) is the lead of season 2.
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| Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) plays the protagonist's mom in Red Oaks. Amazon Studios |
Red Oaks (3 seasons, 26 episodes, 12 hours)
What it's about: A college student in mid-80s New Jersey takes a job at a Jewish country club for the summer, where he & the other workers will gradually come of age.
What it's like: Risky Business meets Caddyshack (& a dozen other 80s movies)
Who's in it: Craig Roberts (Submarine, The Fundamentals of Caring), Oliver Cooper (Project X), Richard Kind (Spin City, Big Mouth), & Paul Reiser (Mad About You, Stranger Things)
Undone (1 season, 8 episodes, 3 hours)
What it's about: A young woman feeling stuck in her normal life gets in a car accident & begins seeing her dead father, who tells her she can manipulate time & save him from being murdered in the past.
What it's like: BoJack Horseman meets Fringe, with an added focus on indigenous culture
Who's in it: Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Angelique Cabral (Life in Pieces), & Constance Marie (George Lopez, Switched at Birth)
HBO
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| If you haven't met Barry's NoHo Hank yet, you need to. HBO |
Barry (2 seasons, 16 episodes, 8 hours)
What it's about: An ex-Marine working as a hitman in the Midwest goes to LA to do a job, but stays when he finds greater purpose after joining an acting group.
What it's like: Gross Pointe Blank meets Get Shorty with a side of Patriot
Who's in it: Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live), Henry Winkler (Happy Days, The Waterboy), & Stephen Root (Office Space, Dodgeball)
Chernobyl (1 season, 5 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: The events following the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukrainian USSR.
What it's like: Real life right now if you swapped the U.S. & COVID-19 for the USSR & nuclear radiation, with Dr. Fauci as the main character.
Who's in it: Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Terror), Stellan Skarsgård (Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3), Emily Watson (Punch-Drunk Love), & Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose, Judy)
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| You'd never guess these guys were white supremacists. HBO |
Watchmen (1 season, 9 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: 34 years after the events of the graphic novel, the Seventh Kavalry, a white supremacist group inspired by the vigilante Rorschach, are waging war against the police & African-Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma in response to reparations for the descendants of victims of the real life Tulsa Massacre. Police, who are now masked to protect their identities, work with vigilantes to crack down on the Kavalry, while some of the original Watchmen slowly get drawn in.
What it's like: Watchmen (the comic) meets The Leftovers & the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates
Who's in it: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk, American Crime), Jeremy Irons (Die Hard with a Vengeance, Scar in the original Lion King), Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) & Jean Smart (Legion, 24)
Apple TV+
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (1 season, 10 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: The people behind the world's number one online multiplayer game attempt to keep their game on top without driving each other completely crazy.
What it's like: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia meets Community
Who's in it: Rob McElhenney & David Hornsby (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Danny Pudi (Community), & F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Homeland)
Disney +
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| Take the Mandalorian's helmet off & you'd see Oberyn Martell. Left, Helen Sloan/HBO; Right, LucasFilm |
The Mandalorian (1 seasons, 8 episodes, 5 hours)
What it's about: A lone bounty hunter traveling the outer reaches of the Star Wars galaxy between the events of Episode VI & Episode VII.
What it's like: I haven't actually watched it yet but it seems like Star Wars meets a Clint Eastwood western
Who's in it: Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Narcos), Carl Weathers (Rocky, Predator), & Gina Carano (Haywire, Fast and Furious 6)
CBS All Access
Evil (1 season, 13 episodes, 9 hours)
What it's about: A forensic psychologist teams up with a seminarian (guy studying to be a priest) & tech expert to investigate supposedly supernatural happenings for the Catholic Church.
What it's like: The Exorcist mixed with The X-Files by way of The Good Wife creators
Who's in it: Katja Herbers (Westworld), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show), & Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest)
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