With the pandemic coercing people around the world to quarantine, there’s one thing for sure – there’s going to be a lot of down time, and people are going to get really bored, really easily. Here are some of my favourite Netflix shows you too can binge on through self-solation.

1. Ballerina

Ballerina (titled Leap! in the United States) The movie tells about the story of an orphan girl who strives to fulfil her dream to become famous ballerina. Together with her best friend, the two slip away from the orphanage and began their journey towards each dreams. A plethora of moral lessons can be learned from this movie. It taught me to NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAM. This movie paints a picture of a poor little girl struggling in life. She used her strength in the hopes to achieve her dreams.That no matter how powerful is your competitor, don’t just yield and let them win the game.

2. THE KINDNESS DIARIES

The Kindness Diaries is a documentary television series on Netflix. The series stars former broker Leon Logothetis and debuted in 2017. Leon is a man with a mission. Counting solely on the kindness of strangers for food, shelter and fuel, he travels around the world on a vintage motorcycle looking for the good in humanity. This is an uplifting social experiment that examines the nature of generosity and gives glimpses into the hearts of some truly selfless people. It gives one real hope in a world where too often greed is revered as a virtue and caring as a liability.

3. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

The overriding theme of The Haunting of Hill House is grief and its accompanying sense of fear—fear of losing the people you love the most, and fear of not being able to protect them. That kind of fear, the show suggests, can turn people into monsters.

4. BENJI

A dog comes to the rescue and helps heal a broken family when a boy and his sister stumble into serious danger.

5. ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES

One of the main themes that this film tackles is the struggle to believe that life is worth living, and how we muster the strength to move forward when so much continues to pull us back into the darkness. All The Bright Places handles this beautifully, and in ways both subtle and obvious reignites our desire to savour life for all its beautiful complexities, even when it feels purposeless and empty.

6. THE WITCHER

Netflix’s The Witcher is a show a lot like its protagonist: large, rugged, and not fond of explaining a damn thing. The fantasy epic stars Henry Cavill as silver-haired hunk Geralt of Rivia, a gruff wanderer and the eponymous Witcher. For some of us, that will be enough: Henry Cavill can Geralt our Rivias all day long. Unfortunately, The Witcher is not as straightforward an adventure as, say, The Mandalorian. There’s a lot of action happening around Geralt, and everything about it is understated to the point where it feels like you’re expected to know what everyone’s talking about.

7. KINGDOM

It is a show that mixes the political intrigue of Game of Thrones and the class struggles of Parasite with a zombie threat, and it’s as timely as it’s ever been with deadly viruses dominating the news. Directed by Kim Seong-hun and written by Kim Eun-hee, Kingdom takes place in medieval Korea during the Joseon dynasty, where news comes out that the king has fallen ill with what is officially being described as smallpox. The king’s condition leads to the death of a doctor’s assistant, who is fed to the provincials of the assistant’s village because that’s a preferable meal than starving to death. Of course, eating tainted meat, particularly zombie-tainted meat, transforms the villagers into flesh-eating zombies and starts spreading a deadly virus across the land.

8. THE LETTER FOR THE KING

The Letter for the King follows Tiuri (Amir Wilson), the stepson of a great knight, adopted from the southern land of Eviellan (and therefore faces prejudice, since it’s considered a less civilized land). In the midst of his knighthood qualifications, Tiuri aids a dying knight, who entrusts him with a secret letter that must be urgently delivered to the king. Bound by his own personal honor, Tiuri sets off on his quest, and in the process partners up with street-savvy Lavinia (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), the daughter of a mayor from an impoverished town, who dreams of leaving her tiny village. On his trail are his former knighthood class, four plucky teens plus one younger brother. Neither group of young people knows that the prince of one of the two indistinguishable fantasy kingdoms (Unauwen) is massacring the Shamans of Eviellan and using their power for something greater, but the audience learns of his master plan as the show jumps back and forth between its characters.

9. THE DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

A US drama in which a low level minister in the US administration becomes the President after the incumbent President and all of Congress and House Representatives are killed in a terror attack on Washington DC. One of the most commonly used expressions in this drama is the expression “we need to get ahead of this”. Meaning, when something goes wrong, or something looks like it is going to go wrong, you need to be ready with your response. You may even need to deal with the problem before it becomes a problem. The only way to do this to be completely aware of what is going on in your world.

10. PAPER TOWNS

Paper Towns is peppered with various life lessons. The main overarching theme of the film is that people are rich and complex and have sides to them that the average person may not see. It’s disingenuous to assume that you know everything about a person when you aren’t close to them.

11. WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY

In a world where families are allowed only one child due to overpopulation, resourceful identical septuplets must avoid governmental execution and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.

12. TOMB RAIDER

Lara Croft, a courageous and independent young woman, sets out on a dangerous journey to unravel the truth behind her adventurer father’s mysterious disappearance.

13. THE FOREIGNER

The Foreigner (based on the book The Chinaman) is Jackie Chan’s latest U.S. release. It tells the story of Quan Ngoc Minh (Jackie Chan) and his story of revenge.Quan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love — his teenage daughter — dies in a senseless act of politically motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

14. BFG

The BFG is ridiculous, hilarious, and dark, but it also has a sentimental message or six at its core. The story follows young orphan Sophie and her friendship with the Big Friendly Giant, who blew happy dreams into the rooms of children as they slept. Not to get all warm and gooey, but Roald Dahl is basically the BFG himself; I mean, the man was a whopping 6’6” tall, and his cosy bedtime stories definitely gave me happy dreams at night.

So, thats all for now. On my next blog…I might post some Asian series recom. Enjoy!