The best bingeable boxsets

It’s time to nestle in and finally stop shelling out tenners here and there for warm glasses of wine in the sun, and instead save your pennies and curl up in front of the TV for hours on end.

Aye, the nights are fair drawing in. It’s time to nestle in and finally stop shelling out tenners here and there for warm glasses of wine in the sun, and instead save your pennies and curl up in front of the TV for hours on end.

Easy on Netflix

This ingenious show needs more attention. Couples and individuals living in Chicago are at the centre of the storyline, many of whom are facing some kind of sexual crisis. Each episode focuses on a different character or plot line, but the characters’ lives are loosely linked, with familiar faces appearing in one another’s episodes as cameos. It commands this complex form of storytelling sublimely. Heads up, in one episode, Orlando Bloom has a threesome. That’s all we’re gonna say.

Catastrophe on Channel 4

Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney team up for four delicious seasons of this genius sitcom. After a flurry of romantic encounters, Horgan’s character becomes pregnant by American ad man Rob. The pair struggle through a life together. It’s warm, silly, and Rob’s mum is played by Carrie Fisher. Need we say more? When you’ve finished, try This Way Up. It’s Horgan’s latest dark comic drama with fellow Irishwoman Aisling Bea, that perfectly captures complex sisterly relationships, surviving life in the city, and discussions of mental health. Superbly judged.

Portrait Artist of the Year on Channel 4

Well this is a bit wholesome, isn’t it? That’s us. Think Bake Off, but with more paintbrushes. Amateur and professional portrait artists compete to win a major commission. Simple. Each week, different celebrities are brought in for the artists to translate to canvas, from David Gandy to Sophie Ellis-Bextor via Laura Linney and Anna Chancellor.

W1A on BBC iPlayer

The BBC is not especially renowned for its ability to laugh at itself, but W1A squashed that stereotype in one fell swoop. Set at the BBC itself, the mockumentary will be enjoyed by anyone who has worked with the Beeb, or, to be honest, anyone that’s had anything to do with a similarly bureaucratic organisation. With job titles like Head of Values and Director of Better, open-plan working spaces named after Mary Berry and Claudia Winkleman and nonsense meetings for the ‘More of Less’ campaign. It’s pitch perfect.