The 15 best shows to watch while quarantining with family!
For many, staying at home means spending the quarantine with their family. While the presence of everyone at the house all the time might be offputting – even more so for those unaccustomed to remote work – this does also mean a lot more availability for binge watching the best shows to watch together.
These shows can be found on a myriad of websites to watch movies, but particularly so Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, places where you can watch some of the best movie trilogies!
If you’re ready to get together with your family during this quarantine and watch shows recommended for all ages, then just check out our comprehensive list down below!
1. Modern Family
Which one among the best shows on Netflix should you watch with your family while quarantining? Well, a show about families, of course!
With 11 seasons, Modern Family will certainly be along for the ride for quite a while. From 2009 to 2020, the show portrayed the daily lives of three families that are connected by blood to one another.
The first of them is made up of the couple Phil and Claire, with their three kids. The second is made up by Claire’s father, Jay, in his second marriage to the Colombian immigrant Gloria, who is considerably younger than him, and her 11-year-old son, Manny.
Finally, the last of the families is made up of a gay couple, Mitchell (Jay’s son), and his husband, Cameron, who have adopted Lily, a young orphaned Vietnamese baby.
The show portrays with a lot of good humor the family conflicts of their daily lives and jokes about the generational differences a family must face. Modern Family brings some amazing jokes in a lighthearted comedy, as well as quite a few tender moments, but always keeping its good humor.
Ten out of its 11 seasons are available on Netflix!
2. The Office
The Office is one of the most popular sitcoms around, even though it was finished back in 2012. The show is shown in a sort of fake recording of a documentary, or a mockumentary, that portrays the daily lives of a company located in the small town of Scranton, in Pennsylvania.
Throughout its nine seasons – that went on air from 2005 to 2012 -, The Office plays with corporative stereotypes, business jargons that make no sense, and bosses that are absolutely out of touch with reality, all while following the lives of the employees that must deal with all of that.
Even though it is much more outlandish, those who are used to working in offices will be able to relate with quite a few of the situations portrayed in the show starring Steve Carrell. The Office can be watched on Amazon Prime Video.
3. Community
Once upon a time, Jeff Winger was a famous and successful lawyer. However, his career suddenly faces a “minor” issue: his diploma is fake! As such, he finds himself in need of going to college to get back on track and decides to sign up to a community college.
Even though he’s quick-witted, things don’t go that well for the “lawyer”, who finds himself stuck in a study group made up of people with totally opposing personalities, which nets some amazing jokes for the series.
However, what makes Community funny is not found in the characters themselves, but in the many satires, they make to varied cinema genres and stereotypes.
80’s action movies, science fiction movies, and even the feature-length movies about the mafia by Martin Scorsese are satirized in many of the episodes of the show, making it one of the best comedy shows to watch while quarantining with your family!
Community has 6 seasons and it is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
4. Stranger Things
While all the shows we’ve talked about are mostly comedy, a genre that will usually have a wider reach and relate to all people and that certainly helps to lift the moods during quarantine, it’s not necessary for us to stick to it.
Even suspense shows can be enjoyed by all, and Stranger Things is a good example of that. Filled with homages and references to the toys and famous shows of the 80s, in Stranger Things we follow the story of a group of friends who live in a fictional small town in the US.
The calm and filled with games life is interrupted after one of the members of the group goes missing, and they find a girl without a name who has some special powers.
Inspired by conspiracy theories about monsters and other dimensions, Stranger Things’ three seasons manage to find a good balance between comedy, suspense, and action in what is one of the best teen shows on Netflix.
Follow this link to watch Stranger Things right now!
5. Glee
Even though it was massively successful, Glee is one of the few musical shows that has a large audience. The show follows a class of teenagers in the highschool’s choir, which is frowned upon and even antagonized by other teachers and students in the school.
With some memorable performances, songs that influenced generations, and sensitive themes about growth and relationships, Glee can be extremely relatable with a good chunk of the teenagers of today.
All of its seasons are available to watch on Netflix!
6. The Good Place
With four seasons, The Good Place is a show that’s amazing whether you want to laugh a lot or if you want to think about philosophical questions about our existence and morality. Even if you have children at home during the quarantine, the show has a lot of funny and absurd scenes that can please them!
After dying in an accident, the protagonist – whose behavior leaves much to be desired – wakes up in what is called the Good Place, where the people who scored more “good” than “evil” points during their lives.
What looks like a miracle soon falls apart: the main character was mistaken by someone else with the same name, a selfless lawyer who fought for environmental causes. To avoid being sent to the Bad Place, she will have to adapt to the place while fooling everyone around her, making them think she’s a good person.
The Good Place, one of the best fantasy fiction shows, had its last season in 2020 when its fourth season finished, and it is a Netflix exclusive.
7. Good Omens
A miniseries with only six episodes, Good Omens is the adaptation of a 1990 book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The plot tells the story of the angel Aziraphale and of Crowley, who get together to prevent Doomsday, which would come in the shape of the antichrist and would mean the final war between Heaven and Hell.
However, what would make an angel and a demon unite instead of taking their places in the unavoidable conflict? The reason is simple: after thousands of years on Earth, they grew fond of human life and they don’t want the planet to end.
Good Omens has only one episode with six episodes. That is to say, it’s a great option to binge watch with your family during the quarantine. This, which is one of the best shows to watch, is available on Amazon Prime VIdeo!
8. Brooklyn 99
From one of the creators of The Office, Brooklyn 99 is a fun police show that follows the daily lives of the investigative team in the 99th precinct of New York City, in Brooklyn.
The show starts when the new captain, Holt, arrives, and how the way he acts as the boss – entirely opposite to the previous management – affects the team, especially the main character Jake Peralta. Although he is a genius at what he does, he doesn’t take anything seriously, and so he faces some issues regarding the serious personality of the new captain.
Other than this first conflict, we can also see the routine of the other investigators, each with their own personality and antagonistic traits. The show takes a spotlight for avoiding the seriousness of other cop shows and how well it deals with the screen time and the interactions of its characters, always with funny and unexpected situations.
Brooklyn 99 is still ongoing and it currently has seven finished seasons, with an eight set to be released this year. Six of the seasons are available on Netflix!
9. The Magicians
A full plate for any Harry Potter fans among us, The Magicians follows a pretty similar premise to one of the most famous wizards of literature and cinema. In what is one of the best shows to watch while quarantining with family, the main character is accepted into a secret institution specialized in magic.
There, he will discover that everything he read in his favorite books about fantastic worlds is, in fact, true. Both the fun interesting parts and the dangerous, deadly parts.
The show is filled with some of the best special effects around in a journey of discovery for the main characters, at the same time as they try their hardest to save the world. The Magicians is available on Amazon Prime Video.
10. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
It’s almost impossible for you to not know about one of the most well-acclaimed comedy shows in the 1990s, even if you were born much after it ended in 1995. In the main role, we have a much younger Will Smith, and the show places the until then unknown star as a poor boy who’s sent to live with the rich part of his family.
There, he goes to school with his cousins – who live in a totally different world than his, with many more privileges -, and the show makes many jokes about the relationship between Will and his new family. In fact, it’s from this show that we have the iconic and famous to this day “The Carlton Dance”.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is one of the must-watch comedy shows, and you can check it out both on Netflix and on Amazon Prime Video!
11. One Day at a Time
A remake of a classic 1970s show, One Day at a Time tells the story of a Cuban immigrant family in the United States. Made up of a mother, her two kids, and the grandmother attached to traditions, the comedy show talks about cultural questions that immigrants must face, and a generational conflict in a very lighthearted and funny way.
One Day at a Time is available on Netflix!
12. Everything Sucks!
Another show that plays a lot with our nostalgia, Everything Sucks! is ideal to show your kids how the last decade before the change of the millennium was.
It’s set in an American city in 1996, and the series shows the routine of a group of teenagers from those years, where things such as smartphones and streaming services weren’t a thing, and nobody even dreamed of going through a global quarantine.
Everything Sucks! is available exclusively on Netflix.
13. Atypical
With an autistic main character, Atypical shows the life of a teenager starting when he is looking for a girlfriend and for independence. The overbearing mother ends up having to adapt to this new situation in the show that portrays many questions that are usually out of most “traditional” families’ minds.
With three finished seasons, Atypical, one of the best shows to binge watch is available on Netflix. Its final and fourth season with 10 episodes will be released this year. Starting to watch one of the best shows around during this quarantine is a good idea to be up to date for when the next season comes out!
14. Fuller House
A direct continuation of the classic Full House, this show tells the misfortunes of D.J., a veterinarian from San Francisco who becomes widowed right when she’s about to give birth to her third child. To help out in this hard task, she receives the help of two of her friends, one of which has a teenage daughter.
The show portrays the difficulties of living with others and of raising three kids, and it is full of comical and unexpected situations. Nominated to an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program, Fuller House has five seasons that you can watch on Netflix!
15. A Series of Unfortunate Events
Ideal for small kids and for those who are just entering their teenage years, A Series of Unfortunate Events brings the story of three siblings who were orphaned and are looking for a home. However, the distant relative Count Olaf is always right behind them, after their inheritance.
Starring Neil Patrick-Harris, most well known as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, A Series of Unfortunate Events brings all the elements a fantasy show needs to please children and young people alike.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is available on Netflix, where you can watch its three seasons.
Which one of the best shows to watch while quarantining with your family will you watch first?
Leave a comment letting us know whether or not you liked our list, if you agree with the options we’ve talked about, and tell us other shows you like! Don’t forget to also check out our 2021 anime list, the best anime of all time, and the best Netflix documentaries!
