What to watch this week – harputburgerwiesbaden

In today’s newsletter, binge-worthy TV recommendations for the break. Addition:

Naomi Fry
Staff writer

This past year it felt like a decade, and I, for one, would love a little break. To that end, this holiday season, the week down between Christmas and New Years, I plan to go nowhere and do nothing; or, rather, I plan to go somewhere (my couch) and do something (huffing hour after hour of television). If you’d like to join me on my pajama-clad journey, here are some favorites worth watching.

“Mad men.” I actually got a head start on Matthew Weiner’s AMC drama about men in the ’60s (and the women who love them), and I’m currently finishing season 3. I hadn’t rewatched the show—a pinnacle avatar of Golden Age TV—since when it went off the air in 2015 and I was relieved to find that it remains shockingly great and that Jon Hamm as Don Draper is still the worst/best man in the world.

“Laguna Beach.” For a trip back to a seemingly simpler time, how about a binge-watch of MTV’s mid-TV answer to “The OC”? What could be lower stakes than the tan, Orange County teenagers dating, shopping and gossiping in the fat years before the subprime crisis? If God made anything more relaxing, he kept it to himself.

“Strangers with candy.” I’ve long been planning to show my teenage daughter this amazingly funny series, in which Amy Sedaris plays Jerri Blank, a junkie who drops out of the seventies in an after-school special, who returns to the ninth grade in her 40s. This might be the season to finally do it.

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PS Canadians, Australians and Brits traditionally we celebrate Boxing Day on December 26 by packing up goodies to donate to those less fortunate. In the US, the tradition differs slightly. “Americans observe the day by sitting at home with their families and staring glassy-eyed at empty Christmas gift boxes,” writes Kate Hahn, in a useful and humorous guide for visitors to the Commonwealth. And don’t forget to order the perfect boxed meal: pizza.

Hannah Jocelyn contributed to this edition.