There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, Flavorwire is compiling the five best bets for the coming week. This week, lay your weary head to rest on the arm of your couch and celebrate the end of an exhausting year with a slate of holiday-themed TV marathons. Aside from the requisite Christmas Day marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS, HBO is airing all six seasons of Game of Thrones, back to back, from Monday through Saturday. If that doesn’t rev your engine, we’ve got five more picks, below. Happy holidays!
Friday: How I Met Your Mother
FX is airing a marathon of How I Met Your Mother, beginning at noon today and ending at 4 p.m. The slate kicks off with the Season 2 Christmas episode “How Lily Stole Christmas” and includes other classics like “The Limo,” from Season 1 (3:30 p.m.) and “Little Minnesota,” from Season 4 (12:30 p.m.). And if you’re reading this after 4 p.m., fear not — FX will repeat the first two hours of its HIMYM marathon on Saturday morning, from 7-8 a.m.
Sunday: TBS Binge-a-Thon
TBS had a good year, and this weekend it’s sharing the love with a 121-hour “Binge-a-Thon” of its five current original comedies, all of which premiered this year. If you missed any or all of Angie Tribeca, Wrecked, The Detour, Search Party, or People of Earth, the holiday weekend is your chance to catch up. All five shows will air on repeat from Sunday night through Friday; TBS will also air a full season of each show every weekday night, starting at 7:30 p.m. (Check out the full schedule on their website.)
Monday: Breaking Bad
Remember Breaking Bad? That was a good show. Let’s re-watch it, together! AMC has scheduled a marathon of all five seasons of the beloved drama over the holidays. From Monday to Friday, beginning at noon and ending at 4 a.m., the channel will air every episode of Breaking Bad from start to finish. (The series finale airs at 2 a.m. on Friday.) Save your money this Boxing Day; watch TV instead.
Monday: The Staircase
Since true crime is having a “moment,” now would be a good time to revisit The Staircase — and if you were a fan of Making a Murderer or The Jinx and never saw this miniseries, get on it! The Staircase is an eight-part docu-series about the 2002-03 murder trial of novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of killing his wife, Kathleen, who was found dead at the bottom of the staircase in their Durham, North Carolina home. Directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the series originally aired on French TV in 2004 and was picked up by the Sundance Channel the following year. SundanceTV is showing the full series on Monday, starting at 3 p.m. and ending after midnight.
Wednesday: Homeland Season 1
Remember Homeland Season 1? That was a good season. Let’s re-watch it, together! If you don’t have to work during that mushy time between Christmas and New Year’s, Showtime is airing Homeland‘s first season in its entirety on Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. If you braved it through the show’s third and fourth seasons, it actually picks up in its fifth, which aired earlier this year; the sixth, which moves the action to New York City, premieres on Jan. 15.