10 TV series you should buy or rent and watch back to back

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YEH JO HAI ZINDAGI (TWO SEASONS; 1984) 
This is the mother of all Indian sitcoms and they set the bar high. Ranjit Verma, wife Renu, the unmarried, unemployed brother Raja, friends, bosses, neighbours and crazy Bombay types all create hilarious situations and somehow get by. Ah, then there’s Satish Shah, playing a different character in every episode, spoofing one community one day, a profession the next, twisting the plot in a way no one’s done since. Of course, all this was back in the ’80s, when people put their fridge in the living room...

VEEP (ONE SEASON; 2012)
Sue, did the President call? In the world where Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Selina Meyer – the Vice President of America – the big man never, ever calls. But there’s still plenty of fires to put out every day and lots of laughs for those of us watching. Selina gets a hurricane renamed so they don’t mistake her for disaster, she nimbly backtracks on her own machinations, she ad libs, she eats yoghurt on a bad stomach. And the rest of her team is just as good on their feet. Dreyfus won an Emmy for this role. You only have to watch the pilot to know why.

BREAKING BAD (FOUR SEASONS; 2008-2011)

When a broke, mild-mannered, high school chemistry professor learns he’s dying of cancer, there’s only one way to secure his family’s finances – by joining forces with the local drug peddler and using his chem genius to produce the world’s finest crystal meth. It is slightly ridiculous and completely illegal – the easy money is never quite so easy. Watch the show for its great writing, the shifting power dynamic and the acting.

THE NEWSROOM (ONE SEASON; 2012)

The genius Aaron Sorkin ( The Social Network, West Wing, Studio 60, On The Sunset Strip) is behind this well-intentioned, slightly self-righteous show about a show. When news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniles) lashes out at a hapless student about how America isn’t the greatest country in the world, it sparks off the idea for a news show that, for once, reports the news instead of chasing ratings and advertising. Ex girlfriend Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) is producer and the team struggles with more than just the truth. Try to keep up.

GIRLS (ONE SEASON; 2012)

Close to the beginning (in the second episode, actually), twentysomething Hannah Horvath is at the gynaecologist’s, her feet in stirrups as she gets checked for signs of STDs. She says she’s kinda hoping she, y’know, does have HIV – so the fact that she’s educated, jobless, broke and trying to survive New York will cease to matter. We’re not sure she’s joking. Her three friends don’t fare much better – this is the flip side to Carrie Bradshaw’s NYC, where everyone’s struggling with life and love. “You couldn’t pay me enough to be 24 again,” says her doc. “Well,” she responds. “They’re not paying me at all.”

THE WIRE (FIVE SEASONS; 2002-2008)

First, the warnings: The Wire is violent. It’s filmed on location in run-down Baltimore using an ensemble of mostly non-actors who slur in their local accent. It demands a great deal of patience, attention and conscience. It will break your heart over and over. The show follows a police unit in a crime-riddled neighbourhood, their efforts to bring down a drug mafia using wiretaps and its impact on the rest of the city. Each episode, each season, builds on the previous – skip 15 minutes and you’re lost – which explains why the show became a cult hit only after it was released on DVD.

GAME OF THRONES (ONE SEASON; 2011)

The TV version of George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books is racy in more ways than one. It not only fits 700 pages into crisp, delicious episodes, but also features lots of nudity (most of it during key moments in the plot so prudish types can’t fast forward). Seven families fight for the control of the Iron Throne on the continent of Westeros. They resort to everything: beheading, incest, poison, sex and dark magic, and battle dragons, the undead, the winter and each other to survive. There’s no single hero and no way to predict what’s coming next. But you can’t tear your eyes away.

DEKH BHAI DEKH (ONE SEASON, 1993)

Hey, everyone loved the Diwan family. And if you’re wondering who they are, then you probably shouldn’t be reading this. They were the perennially-in-trouble family with a penchant for humour in the popular ’90s sitcom. Starring Shekhar Suman, Navin Nishcol and Sushma Seth, the serial takes the viewer through the various ups and downs faced by the family and crazy things which can only happen to them. And man, they all spoke really fast.

DOWNTON ABBEY (TWO SEASONS; 2010-2011)

Take one gorgeous English estate. Populate it with high-mannered aristocrats and their equally snooty servants. Throw in the news of the Titanic sinking, remind the family they’ve just lost the heir to the estate and watch everybody scramble. Then throw in WW1. Downton Abbey’s residents have secrets, odious personalities, alarming personal agendas and some very cunning tricks up their sleeves. It’s madly addictive, I dare say. Will you stay for tea?

MALGUDI DAYS (ONE SEASON, 1986)

Oh come on. You weren’t really paying attention to all the subtle details when they first aired the show in 1986. Or perhaps you were too young to pick up on the poverty, the hopelessness, the magic. All these make excellent reasons to watch the 39 half-hour episodes of RK Narayan’s stories. Swami is there – and so are his friends. But what’s also there is an India that may seem removed from our own, though not a bad place at all.