Binge List for Escapists

Foreword: 

I have a video collection that surprises me, when I look at its size, and there is a lot from many genres, that I caught on all kinds of sales.

This list however fills 2 criteria:

1. It has currently available series, that are available on affordable streaming services not snobbish about connection requirements and preferably without ad interruptions! In other words, you don't need a ton of money for fast connections. 
2. They are also offering an "escape" from daily life, as in they take you to places and worlds not normally seen.

 
When I look at these favourites of mine on streams, and my DVD collection (Netflix is apparently not very active in DVD sales though), it proves that women are just excellent in creating and acting content with brains! Believe it or not, I do not care too much for most "action" flicks anymore, unless they are different and have something extra, like Vin Diesel's movies. The others just bore me to tears with their mucho-macho antics, because they have been doing the same shtick for decades. More of them is just more of the same.

If you like to escape, here is what is currently included in a couple of budget streaming options. SciFi/Fantasy has gotten really much better in the last 20 years, so most series on this list ran their last episode within the last 10 years or very recently, but if it's good, it never gets old:

Netflix and Hulu, but also Amazon Prime, are budget internet-connection friendly services. They work surprisingly well through my T-Mobile phone as hot-spot feeding my 58in el-cheapo Roku-TV or the computer hooked to it. Amazon Prime seems a little shifty and rotates offerings a lot more than Netflix or Hulu, so it is here today, and gone when you finally got to it on your list, but it does work just fine. I have the Prime account frozen, because I grazed off everything I wanted to see.

UPDATE: Amazon rotates a lot, but I have found they eventually bring back what goes away, at least some of the things I was interested in! At least until now, they seem to have had smart buyers, who secured rights that default back to Amazon Prime, when a lease from another company expires!

The CW and its cwtv.com website is also in the running!

FORGET AppleTV+. It plain crashes its Roku app, and on computer browser it was constantly buffering and caused major errors every 5 minutes. "Foundation", slightly modernised version of Isaac Asimov's literary classic multi-book series, was worth the trouble, but I let the trial expire.

UPDATE: AppleTV+ is now available as an add-on to Amazon Prime, and there it actually works, just like all other Amazon videos! 

SHOUT! is a 3 dollar add-on to Amazon Prime and damned well worth it, NO ADS, but tons of classic stuff, like a few spin-offs from the Doctor Who universe, and other morsels!

THE STREAM LIST:

Here are really neat ones you may have missed, and it is an interesting variety, from sci-fi to fantasy and classic sagas and folk and fairy tales:

YIKES! I just added this. How could I forget about one of the most delightful and quirky series ever?

Lucifer

(Netflix)
Was there ever as much fun in and out of hell as with Lucy?
The cast is just stellar talent throughout, the comedy roars, the demonic, angelic, and even godly family infights are out of this world, Lucifer runs his club the way he likes it and is a great sidekick to his detective and love, and crime finds justice.
You have to just love the cast, lead by naturally born total showman Tom Ellis in the title role, Lauren German as Det. Chloe Decker, and a crew of cops and demons kneedeep in the plot. Every one of them gets a chance to steal a scene, and they all do!

Lost Girl 

(CW, streams fine on cwtv.com , Roku app works) 2010-2016
OK, so here is one ad-interrupted offering, but if you did not catch it on Netflix before it left, and are on a budget, this is too good to pass up!
Xenia Solo as streetwise survival artist Kenzi, Anna Silk's (playing main character, the succubus Bo) sidekick, constantly steals the show being so damned cute, and is just a riot and a total hoot to watch! Keep an eye on her, because Xenia Solo is one of those chameleon actors, who can do complete transformations in a flash without any costumes or masks! In another series, "Project Bluebook", she plays a Soviet era sleeper spy in a completely different role.
Take all the old folk tales and sagas, with all their creatures, chimeras, demons, spirits and whatever, mash them up, populate a modern city with creatures from all legends, fanged or not, in an underground world, have a bit internal wrestling for power and the need to hide from humans, and you get:
A Fae World! Fae being creatures of the magic realm that is.
There is a lot going on here, and a big story arc, for a grand story that draws you in.
DVD set is really worth it.

Grimm 

(Amazon Prime) 2012-2017
There is a lot of offbeat humour here, just like in Lost Girl!
Again, we have creatures from all sort of old legends, hiding in plain sight, and causing a lot of mischief! While it may not seem as overtly political as some others here, there is a strong theme of anti-racism.
Between a princess in peril, a werewolf and a fox-lady in a forbidden love affair, the titular main character as a cop initially clueless about being "a Grimm!", and the revelation, that the fairytales collected by the Grimm brothers were REAL, and the Grimms were the first monster hunters, who scared and murdered even the most innocent wild creatures out of superstition, there is enough to fill a few books. Grimm books that is.
Love it!
DVD set is really worth it. 

Sense8 

(Netflix) 2015-2018
From the same creators that brought us The Matrix trilogy!
Being about a "pod" of 8 people with connected minds, including of course everything and their most intimate lives, it is just as trippy as The Matrix, even more so, and it is much hated by certain people for being "woke", which is why I love it. Sense8 has a cult following and is must see!

Northern Rescue 

(Netflix) 2019
OK, this is soapy family drama, with a search and rescue commander relocating his family after his wife dies. The thing is neat though. Don't ask me how I stumbled over it, I'm just glad I did, because there is actually stuff to miss here.

The 100 

(Netflix) 2014-2020
Save this for last, because while I have a long watch-list, all else seems trivial now. I was left in awe, it is that good.
The 100 is a post apocalyptic ride through yet more hardship and catastrophes, without being a wham-bam stupid-thriller.
So despite all the action, the pace is good, and it does not exhaust you, and it takes TIME to unfold the story and characters.
THAT was difficult to pull off, but they did it. Neat full character development, insight into human nature without anybody ever doing annoying "philosophical waxing", total drama in classic Greek Theatre style, fun to watch, and also so heart breaking, it leaves you in tears. The conclusion in season 7 is a nice wrap up!
The cast is international, with a lot of Canadian and Australian as well as USA talent, all just excellent and delivering characters so believable, they all become real, frightening, loveable, and hateable.
DVD for all 7 seasons can be found (careful, many sets only have 1-5 or 1-6) and are available at low prices. Damned well worth it!

Travelers 

(Netflix) 2016-2018
Time travelers try to fix things in their past (our present), before it all goes to pot. Nothing new there. What is however totally new and different, is the so far only plausible way to travel in time, that actually would be feasible from a real theoretical point of view. Effectively they replace existing people, which of course causes a few complications.
This series is different and intelligently written.

Motherland: Fort Salem 

(Hulu) 2020-2022
Alternate universe, where witches became the Army that fought for the revolution, instead of getting burned at the stake. The deal goes sour thanks to anti-witch zealots. This is political dynamite, and a stinging slap against ... that would be telling, but the writing is excellent! One person's terrorist is another's hero.
DVDs were made, but hard to find.

Siren 

(Hulu) 2018-2020
A charming series about a mermaid. With FANGS that is. Again, a vehicle for a lot of thoughtful observations about human nature, like environmental destruction, racism, sexism, etc. Who would have thought old fairytales could deliver so much?
DVD is well worth it, use a search engine.

Saving Hope 

(Hulu) 2012-2017
A Canadian cult favourite!
OK, let's mix up another medical drama (fine, call it soap) and a ghost story, and you get ... something completely different.
Michael Shanks, known as archeologist Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG1, is not a doctor of Egytian history burried in sand and on other planets this time, but a surgical doctor Charlie Harris. The series is not just charming and a big love story, but also sets what has to be some world records!
I swear, they toss out this misunderstood one particular organ with a reputation for being of little use in just about every single episode, when another accident victim rolls into the OR. "This one is crushed, no good" "Toss it!", and whoopsy goes another spleen!
Aside from that, as already mentioned, there is this whole arc of a big love story, but with ghosts in the building!
Get out yer hankies, ye sniveling lot, and watch out for the ghosts, because they haunt this place!
DVD sets hard to find right now.

The OA 

(Netflix) 2016-2019
WARNING: Do NOT tackle, if depressed under any circumstances!!!

This is a tour-de-force, created and acted by Brit Marling. As the villain, we see Brit Marling's husband Jason Isaacs, also seen in the new Star Trek alternate universe.
The first season is brutally dark, but the second one makes watching the whole thing worth the pain of watching the first. Heavy stuff! Especially when I'm down, I cannot digest comedies, but this is so far out and bizarre, it is a total trip to the far side of existential experience. This is ultimately all about recovery from severe trauma and getting into a new life.

Stitchers (Hulu) 2015-2017
The concept seem morbid, a secretive crime investigation department pulling in a young student to perform "stitching". They connect her into what is left of the minds of dead crime victims. Somehyow, the creepy factor is minimised to deliver a really good "who dunnit", but there is more going on, otherwise I would not have gotten hooked on it!

Dollhouse (Hulu) 2009-2010
Modern slavery gone high tech in a hidden lab, with mind alteration of people used as "dolls" for assassination and espionage. They are empty minds between "missions" and never remember a thing about any past events, even their own lives. That is how it is supposed to work. Two people, one detective looking for missing people, and one "doll" become aware, toss a wrench into this empire of manipulators.
Brought to you by Joss Whedon, known for "Buffy, Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly".
Eliza Dushku, from "Buffy" fame, stars and coproduced this one.
DVD is worth it, but rare.


Finally, to the big legends most people know of:

Stargate SG1,
the 1997-2007 series inspired by the 1994 movie, was a whopper of a success and ran for over 213 episodes. It is on Netflix moved to Amazon Prime.

Stargate Atlantis 2004-2009 is on Amazon Prime.
Stargate Universe is on Amazon Prime.

The whole Star Trek franchise was consolidated on Paramount+. I have not tried Paramount+, so I do not know, how well it streams on a budget connection without a hard internet line!

Star Wars is on Disney+, part of ABC's Hulu offerings, so I would expect it to be OK as well.

Babylon 5 apparently moved from HBO-Max (available as an add-on on Amazon Prime, so it works!) to some free streamers. I don't watch anything with ad-interruptions, but Babylon 5 is just too loaded, with brainy content and biting political commentary, to miss it! Keep an eye out for it!