Tv-shows that make you think

Binge-watching must be one of the best things ever: going totally into the world of the tv-serie. This is possibly combined with a nice snack and good company. What makes it even better if you don’t have to think a second about what you’re watching. However, sometimes you find something that just doesn’t let you go for some reason. These are often the series you will talk about later, the series you will have nightmares about. Since I have seen a lot of series, films and documentaries like that, I’d love to share my 5 most interesting tv-shows!

1. Black mirror

This one is kind of obvious, but I would really recommend watching it. Every episode is a story of its own, containing a different life lesson. The episodes mainly warn the viewer for the dangers of technology. However, every single one of them presents a reality that is not very far from the reality from now. It’s warning you for the dangers of our society. The episode that haunted me the most was White Bear. It is a story about a lady waking up in a horrible world with people hunting her and others filming it while it happens. But then, the whole story flips around and your whole perspective changes. It has been two years after watching the episode and I still haven’t completely finished my opinion about the sketched situation yet.

2. Westworld

Westworld is sort of in the same range as Black Mirror, since it is made to warn us about the dangers of technology. In this tv-show, there was a theme park made that takes people back to the Wild West. The robots that occupy the park are very realistic, maybe somewhat to realistic? What I like about this serie is that it challenges you to think about what consciousness is and what that means in terms of morality. The show is however very explicit, so I would not watch it under the age of 16.

3. Outside Man

This is a documentary serie that follows the reporter Reggie Yates. He tries to understand views that challenge his own world views (just like mine) and to other culture. In this series, he goes to South Africa and Russia, but he also looks at difficult situations in the U.K. How are people with other skin colours, sexual orientations or genders treated? Are those opinions always as strait forward as it looks to be? It covers such hidden topics that are so relevant for us to understand the world, that this is an absolute must when it comes to any list of 5 most interesting tv-shows.

4. Dark Tourist

This show is a lot more light-hearted, which is nice sometimes as well after all these heavy programs. In Dark Tourist, journalist David Farrier travels around the world to see different tourist spots, just not the regular ones. From highly radioactive spaces to serial killers and a town filled with vampires, nothing is what it seems.

The reason I included this show, is because when you are living in the Netherlands, things like voodoo seem almost a myth, but in some countries, it is still seen as a very real and dangerous practice. By seeing these ‘darker’ sides of different cultures, you might get a different perspective of what is deemed ‘normal’ and it challenges your own worldview, which is, I think, always a good thing.

5. Derren Brown

To be honest, I couldn’t choose. From ‘the Push’ where he plays with psychology to see how far someone would go due to group pressure, to ‘Apocalypse’, where he pushes someone into an apocalyptic world to see how he could start taking responsibility. Derren Brown is always interesting and could not be missing when it comes to my 5 most interesting tv-shows.

As a concerned woman, I find the ethics of the experiments to be highly questionable. However, as a curious psychology student, I can’t stop watching the psychological experiments of Derren Brown. Challenging faith and common perceptions of the nature of humans, he still amazes me with the seemingly simplistic tactics he uses that create enormous changes in people – for better and for worse. What do you think about these experiments and would you fall for his tricks?

What now?

Get your popcorn and start watching! I will update this article as I come across more series and films, so please keep an eye out when you have gotten through the movies and  episodes of the series already mentioned above.

Have you got any favourite tv-shows? Please mention them in the comment section below so that me and other readers can watch them as well! If you’d like to see more content like this, please follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter or subscribe and get a free e-book on saving money.

Lots of love,

Lisa