5 escapist shows to watch while you're staying home, on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video

2020 is the year of the staycation. With airlines running a fraction of their usual flights, many of us are choosing to enjoy pollution-free skies a little closer to home this summer. But, there are other ways of soaking up some foreign culture. In the age of global streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, you can access thousands of hours of high-quality TV from around the world with just a few clicks.

Indulge in the steamy sexual tensions and class politics of an exclusive Spanish private school in Elite; be amazed by the progressiveness of India’s take on a reality dating show in What the Love!; or throw yourself into a Berghain-style Berlin techno club without having to make it past the doorman in Beat. Sit back and take a virtual vacation without adding to your carbon footprint.

Elite

Running into its third season on Netflix, with two more just announced, Elite has exploded across the Spanish-speaking world. Following the messy, intertwined lives of a group of teenage students at Las Encinas, an exclusive high school in the suburbs of an unnamed Spanish city, it’s a sexually fluid cocktail of teen angst and real issues. The brilliant young cast have become a kind of Spanish brat pack, many of them also appearing in Money Heist, another Netflix Spanish hit. Arón Piper, who plays Ander, a brooding gay party boy and tennis champion, is particularly hot right now, having fronted campaigns for Jacquemus and Lacoste.

When not throwing drug-fuelled parties or having sex in architectural villas, they occasionally murder each other, with a whodunit narrative forming the dramatic spine for all of the debauchery to hang off.

Streaming on Netflix

Sky Castle

The 21-episode series is one of the highest-rated shows in all of Korean television history. Presenting a peek inside the lives of South Korea's richest families, Sky Castle chronicles how success, private education and entrance exams are perceived in the upper-class society. Through a culture-soaked, lavish and true-to-life portrayal of the same, witness four housewives obsess over their children's futures.

The one-upmanship, combined with dark comedy and an ensemble cast, contributes to the show being a dramatic weekend binge; as well as a glimpse of the elite community of South Korea.

Streaming on Netflix

Beat

Beat opens with wild-eyed and sweaty club promoter, Robert ‘Beat’ Schlag (Jannis Niewöhner) staggering through industrial Berlin. Before we’ve heard a word of dialogue, we’ve seen him drop a pill, skip the queue into a pumping techno club, dance through the strobe light, and passionately kiss a woman and then a man, as graphics appear on screen telling us this is Club Sonar at 7:34am.

Everything about Beat screams the infamous nightclubs of Berlin—Berghain and Tresor—and of warehouse parties and art students in slightly oversized bomber jackets. The storyline revolves around a series of gruesome murders in and around the club, and Beat being pressured into working undercover for the police. But it’s the nightclub scenes that make this show stand out. They feel like they’ve been shot at real parties by someone who really knows and understands that world. If you close your eyes, you can smell the smoke machines, cigarettes and sweaty bodies on the dancefloor. Niewöhner plays the lead role perfectly — beautiful and charismatic — though he always looks like he could use a quick shower.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Samurai Gourmet

Samurai Gourmet is wonderfully unconventional. It’s a show about food that could sit on a watch list alongside Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown or Chef’s Table, but this Japanese series, based on a manga by Masayuki Kusumi and Shigeru Tsuchiyama, isn’t a documentary or a travelogue. It’s a gentle scripted comedy that mixes the tenderest of narratives with sumptuous food porn.

Takeshi Kasumi (Naoto Takenaka) is a recently retired businessman filling his free time with pottering around, reminiscing about past adventures, eating and drinking. He is occasionally visited by his alter ego, a grumpy samurai (Tetsuji Tamayama). It’s a pinch of Larry David and a sprinkling of Anthony Bourdain, served up in a completely Japanese style.

Streaming on Netflix

Home for Christmas

Home For Christmas is a Norwegian Christmas romcom series that is actually perfect pandemic viewing, even at the height of summer. Johanne (Ida Elise Broch) is a 30-year-old single nurse who has given herself 24 days to find a date to take home for Christmas. The narrative covers timeless romcom tropes: the kooky best friend, the lovable parents, the disastrous dates and the one that gets away, all set against an icy-cool Scandinavian backdrop. Though each episode is only 30 minutes long, the show has a real romcom movie feel to it, and Johanne is a great lead character. Her quest to find love feels a little desperate but never tragic, and Broch has true star quality.

Also read:

Rajasthan, New York, Tokyo: 9 movies that will take you on a virtual vacation

4 travel books to satisfy your wanderlust in the time of coronavirus

8 movies that give you a tour of the Big Four fashion cities across the world, on Amazon Prime Video and more