I have a confession to make: I’m bad at follow-through. Like, really bad.

I’m talking unfinished novels, letters never sent, and partially put-together furniture, not to mention a basket of clean laundry that never seems to get put away. And I have a bunch of shows – good shows – in streaming queues that I started with every intention of finishing, but haven’t yet for one reason or another.

But recently I managed a huge achievement: I watched the last episode of Supernatural. And not just the last episode, but every episode up to and including the last one. Sure, I started in 2005, but that’s 327 episodes over 15 years, so I feel a smug sense of accomplishment.

Now that I’m on a roll (and I have at least one free hour a week to devote to other shows,) my thoughts have turned that ‘continue watching’ screen on my Netflix homepage. And the one on HBO Max. And Amazon Prime, and…well, you get the idea.

Here are ten good shows that I plan to start watching again. Really.

NETFLIX

Show: Dark

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 7.
• Episodes yet to watch: 19 (3 seasons).
• About the show: Dark is a German-language show, a kind of Teutonic Stranger Things (which I am caught up on) but without the whimsy or Winona Rider. Two boys disappear without a trace from the town of Winden, one in 1986 and one in 2019, and thanks to a wormhole (I think) the two boys end up in each other’s timeline, much to the confusion of all. The show is interesting, but moody and serious, and well-written and -acted. Watching it was a pleasure, but I can’t remember why I stopped – probably to do with the subtitles and my short attention span.

Show: The Haunting of Bly Manor

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 7.
• Episodes yet to watch: 3
• About the show: Like its predecessor, The Haunting of Hill House, with which it shares cast and crew members, The Haunting of Bly Manor is a ghost story set in a creepy old house. Unlike Hill, this story is built on the familiar foundation of another story, namely The Turn of the Screw by Henry Miller. It has good scares and creepy children, but Bly didn’t grab me by the heart the way its sister show did. Still, with three episodes yet to go, this is one I am confident I can finish soon.

Show: You

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 10.
• Episodes yet to watch: 10 (Season 2; Season 3 hasn’t premiered yet).
• About the show: Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg is the dating cautionary tale that will have you seriously considering deleting your Tinder profile, forever. At the end of Season 1, Joe was looking for a new love, having made a real mess of his previous relationship, and not in a good way. I haven’t started Season 2, but I see that it stars Victoria Pedretti, who is also in The Haunting of Bly Manor. I hope this show is less terrifying for her. The first series was distressing to watch; the ‘hero’ of the show was anything but, so I’m not sure when I will have the nerve to watch the continuing adventures of the world’s worst boyfriend.

HBO MAX

Show: His Dark Materials

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 10.
• Episodes yet to watch: 12 (Seasons 1 and 2).
• About the show: Based on the trilogy of books by Phillip Pullman, His Dark Materials is the story of Lyra Belacqua, who lives in an alternate-universe version of Oxford, England, where animals can talk (and bond with humans so completely they are a metaphor for the soul.) There’s steampunk technology and a knife that can slice a hole in the veil between worlds. The book series is one of my favorites and the show does a very good job of bringing Lyra’s world to the screen. I look forward to finishing the series, hopefully soon.

Show: The Flight Attendant

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 4.
• Episodes yet to watch: 4
• About the show: Kaley Cuoco is the titular Flight Attendant, a party girl and functioning alcoholic who jets all over the world bedding hot guys. But it’s not a show about her glamorous life; rather it’s a murder mystery /psychological thriller that gets more interesting with every episode. I didn’t think I’d like it – I’m not a big fan of Cuoco – but the mystery is compelling and I really want to see what happens next. I’ll get to it when I’m not quite so busy.

Show: Lovecraft Country

• Where I stopped: Season 1, Episode 3.
• Episodes yet to watch: 7
• About the show: Stylish and scary, Lovecraft Country is executive-produced by J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele (among others) and stars Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett as Atticus and Leti, who are on an odyssey through the 1950s Jim Crow Such to find Atticus’ missing father. It’s hard to tell what’s more frightening: the literally Lovecraftian nightmare creatures or the never-ending supply of white supremacists shadowing the couple. Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire also stars, so although I just started, I’m invested in this show – and Jurnee Smollett’s amazing wardrobe.

AMAZON PRIME

Show: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

• Where I stopped: Season 2, Episode 1.
• Episodes yet to watch: 18 (Seasons 2-3; 4 hasn’t started yet).
• About the show: Rachel Brosnahan is a delight as Midge Maisel, who goes from 1950s Manhattan housewife to standup comedian, effectively usurping the dream of her unambitious husband (and being way better at her than he tried to be.) Midge is a performing dynamo, but also kind of selfish and sometimes ruthless in her desire to make it to the top of the comedy food chain. It’s very funny, and Brosnahan shines in the role. Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle and Alex Borstein are superb as Midge’s parents and her manager. I do plan to return to this one day; hopefully before the start of Season 4.

Show: Catastrophe

• Where I stopped: Season 3, Episode 4.
• Episodes yet to watch: 9 (Season 4 was the last one).
• About the show: Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney play Sharon and Rob, and Irish lass in London and an American ex-pat who have a no-strings-attached tryst only to find one unbreakable bond between them: a baby. They decide to do the unthinkable and get married. It’s all fun and games from there, because the duo are a winning combination: funny and unconventional, they manage to solve clichéd marital problems in surprising and delightful ways. The supporting cast is phenomenal; Carrie Fisher played Rob’s mother and Ashley Jensen and Mark Bonnar are their cringeworthy best friends/confidantes. and Season 3 ended in 2017; I really should finish this show soon.

HULU

Show: The Handmaid’s Tale

• Where I stopped: Season 2, Episode 13.
• Episodes yet to watch: 13 (Season 3; season 4 hasn’t begun yet).
• About the show: Elisabeth Moss is Offred, to use the name given to her by her captors in the dystopian and misogynistic hellscape that is the newly-formed country of Gilead, which is a thinly-veiled rendering of an American theocracy. There, most women have become infertile, leading the men in power (and their collaborating wives) to abduct the fertile women and children, redistributing them to the country’s elite. The captive women are forced to breed with the male head of household in a sickening ceremony in order to produce offspring, as though they were livestock. Offred, whose true name is June, becomes part of a rebellion that aims to overthrow the new world order. It’s based on and expanded from the novel by Margaret Atwood, and co-stars Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski as June’s captors. It’s an excellent show, and has won many awards, but perhaps over the past couple years it began to feel a bit too on the nose: there’s only so much dystopia a person can take.

PEACOCK

Show: The Good Place

• Where I stopped: Season 4, Episode 2.
• Episodes yet to watch: 11
• About the show: Kristen Bell is Eleanor, who dies and wakes up in “The Good Place,” which is akin to what we believe heaven to be…or is it? Eleanor teams up with fellow Good Place residents Chidi, Tahani and Jason to figure out what’s up with this afterlife. Ted Danson is Michael, the architect of the The Good Place and D’Arcy Carden is Janet, his all-powerful assistant. It’s a terrific show, with so much heart and warm-fuzzies and yet also tons of laughs, from creator Michael Schur, who worked on The Office, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, among others. I’m so close to the finish – I really need to watch the rest of the last season!

Looks like I have my work cut out for me, but I can do it. Unless I get started on Schitt’s Creek instead. That’s only 80 episodes…

What’s waiting in your queue? Let us know in the comments!