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Whether you went on a Harmony Korine-style spring break or just lived on your couch watching TV all week, now that school is back you’re going have to deal with Bobst and the works until May comes around and you are free once again. And although that’s seven weeks of class, it’s also seven weeks of opportunity to burn through a TV series as you coast towards finals.
There’s a right way how to marathon through a show, and Local is here to aid your procrastination habits. May 13th is the last day of classes. With seven weeks left, that means there are 55 days. Therefore, to figure out how hard you’ve got to be watching TV, do some math: divide total # of episodes by 55 to see how many you have to watch per day.
Here’s a simple strategy for six shows that would be relevant to watch right now, ranked easiest to hardest to complete time-wise. Already seen these ones? Rewatch! Or do some math and go crazy with whatever show it is you do want to watch. Finals are looming, the time to distract yourself begins now.
Why: Edgar Wright’s At World’s End just moved its American premiere up to August. The movie ends the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (the other two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) but Spaced exists as a sort-of 90′s British television prequel to the trilogy. The show melds sci-fi and comedy and features all the Simon Pegg/ Nick Frost buddy comedy you could want with Jessica Hynes and a perfect cast and writing to boot. With only two short seasons, this is an easy project to complete.
Total: 30 eps / 12 h
Per week: 5 eps / 2 h
Per day: up to 1 ep / 24m
Why: This May, Arrested Development makes its long-awaited return to TV (er, Netflix)! The widely-adored comedy series finished its initial run a full eight years ago, and though there’s a fairly good chance you’ve already seen every episode a million times and have it all memorized, now is a good time to review all three original seasons in order before Season 4 gets dumped in your lap all at once (the glorious gift of Netflix original programming).
Total: 53 eps / 18h 33m
Per week: 8 eps / 2h 48m
Per day: 1 ep / 21m
Why: Breaking Bad comes back this summer for the series’ final eight episodes. What will happen to Jesse? What will happen to Walt? What will happen to Hanks rock/damnit-Marie-they’re-minerals collection? Season five’s first eight episodes aren’t up yet, but you can probably find those somewhere by the time you need to watch them.
Total: 54 eps / 42h 18m
Per week: 8 eps / 6h 16m
Per day: 1 ep / 47m
Why: The dark and charming high school noir series made history with its multi-million dollar Kickstarter fundraising effort, and now they’re going to be making the VM movie this summer! Did you know that The WB still has a website up and running? There, you can watch a few episodes of Gilmore Girls, The O.C., and the entire second season of Pushing Daisies which was a show on ABC so I don’t really get that, but more importantly you can watch all of the first two seasons of Veronica Mars. The only problem? Veronica Mars is three seasons. But like Breaking Bad, you can probably find those last bits somewhere on the Internet. And it will all be 100% worth it.
Total: 64 eps / 44h 48m
Per week: 10 eps / 7h
Per day: 2 eps / 1 h 24m
Why: No particular reason. Seems like a good idea all the time. Texas forever!
Total: 76 eps / 54 h 28m
Per week: 11 eps / 7h 53m
Per day: 2 eps / 1h 26m
Why: J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars might not be coming out until 2015, but the next in his Star Trek movies (co-written by Damon Lindelof!) comes out this June. Now is a good time to watch or re-watch Lost. Also watch because Lost is good. Do you not think Lost is good? It’s probably because you haven’t watched all of Lost.
Total: 120 eps / 86h
Per week: 18 eps / 12h 54m
Per day: 2 eps / 1h 26m
While there probably isn’t enough time to watch all of ER or Law and Order, there are plenty of other epic shows that can and should be watched before it gets sunny out. Let us know your favorites in the comments section.