It’s on everyone’s mouths, yes, the topic everyone is talking about: September is here and summer is gone (I’ll leave the whole discussion of whether it is truly and officially gone, date-wise, for another time).

I love summer, of course. I love the heat, the light, the sun, the feeling that I’m full of energy and being outdoors… I also love autumn, and winter and spring! OK, spring a bit less, mainly because I have allergies, but it’s still right there in the top four!

Here I have to say that I’m not one of those: oh my god, autumn is here, drink all the pumpkin-something-tiny-drop-of-coffee-lots-of-milk-spices-spices kind of drinks girl. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those… Ever. I like autumn because the world around me changes. Suddenly, the days start getting shorter, and the light changes, everything looks as if through a grey filter, very thin at first and a bit thicker as we approach winter. I like seeing the colours of the trees change. I like the fact that I can start wearing all my jumpers, scarves (I have a lot of them) and my boots (I have two lots of them!), but that doesn’t mean it’s my favourite.

Another reason why I like autumn is because all my favourite series start again. I watch TV sometimes, but if I’m sitting on a sofa, with the TV on, I’m probably logged into Amazon Prime (former LoveFilm.com), or watching something from an external disk. I have a very varied taste in series, I think… And the moment they end the season, I’m already eagerly waiting for them to start again.

I thought I would write about my favourite series to celebrate September, and to give you a peek into what I like doing when I’m not doing anything and I’m just being a coach potato.

Sons of Anarchy

We’re starting season… seven, I think (I’m the worst for keeping track of that) which is the last one. I can’t believe it’s the last one! I remember my mum telling me on the phone once she was watching it with my brother, and I didn’t know what it was. Then, one time I visited the family, back in Madrid, I watched a couple of episodes… and I was hooked.

We follow a group of bikers who are slightly outlawed. They deal with weapons around a small town called Charming, in North California. The series start with Jax, whose father died a while ago, following orders from Clay, the president of the charter (the Sons of Anarchy, or SOA, or SAMCRO) while he tries to figure out how to provide a better life for his newborn son. Roughly. There are a lot of battles between different gangs, a lot of racial confrontation (unfortunately, these gangs are pretty selective with who they include, and they use a lot of un-PC language to refer to each other) but as it happens, it’s mostly enemies today but allies tomorrow against a common enemy, only to be enemies again next week. Still, the Sons are awesome. I don’t want to spoil many secrets for you, so I’ll leave you with this: trying to get out of that life, seems to be getting Jax deeper into it, and everything the SOA do have repercussions further down in the series. At the moment, it feels like a pressure cooker about to explode. Can’t. Wait.

Watch it if… You like  motorbikes, bike clubs and tattoos and all that, mixed with a lot of intense scenes and tricky situations, and especially if you’re up for rooting for the bad guys (they’re outlaws after all). I love the soundtrack, and I have a bunch of faves on my Spotify playlist: This life (Curtis Stigers and The Forest Rangers), House of the Rising Sun (The White Buffalo and The Forest Rangers), Hey, Hey, My, My (Battleme), to name a few.

The Big Bang Theory

I saw a few eyes rolling out there. I know, I know, some of the so-called true geeks hate The Big Bang Theory. I don’t care, I like it. It’s fun and simple, and I learn stuff when I watch it. For example, I learnt that The Cheesecake Factory is a real restaurant chain in the US, of which I had no idea. Thanks to TBBT, I learnt about Battlestar Galactica, which I would have never watched otherwise. I also learnt that nobody likes to dress up as Aquaman. I also discovered Firefly thanks to TBBT! It’s one of the few series my brain thanks me if I watch it with subtitles, as that means it can get most of the jokes (yup, a lot of the very geeky ones too). I’ve seen the episodes a lot of times, pretty much every time they show them on TV, and I still laugh.

The series is about a group of friends who work in different scientific fields at Caltech. They’re all very brainiac, and super geek. Lots of stereotypical situations ensue: how they don’t know how to flirt with women, comic nights, lots of Star Trek and Star Wars references, social ineptitude… Everything goes crazy when a cute waitress moves in across the hall because one of the guys, Leonard, falls in love with her. Little by little, more women start joining the group, and more hilarity ensues, when the guys are put in difficult situations, some that sometimes they can’t fully understand.

Watch it if… You are a bit geeky, and like laughing at yourself. Also, if you like wondering about ridiculous situations and conversations about superheroes and all things geek. If you’re a bit strict and serious about geekiness, then this is probably too lighthearted for you and you’ll think it’s stupid.

Castle

I love Castle. I could just leave it at that, and so you would have to watch it to know what I mean, but OK, the point of this is to tell you about the series, so here it goes.

Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog) is Richard Castle (only that should already make you run to your nearest TV already), a rich mystery writer in New York. He’s famous from his book series about Derrick Storm, and now wants to write about a female police detective. Since he’s friends with the Mayor, he gets to shadow a team on the NYPD. The detective is Kate Beckett, and the character he writes about is Nikki Heat. I know what you’re thinking, that it’s another police series, solving murders and chasing the bad guys. Yes. And no. It’s all that, and much more. Castle is funny. Think of this: he’s rich, like, absurdly rich, and he’s a writer. He is also a geek. The main premises of the series is that he always comes up with these crazy theories of how, why and by whome the victim was murdered, while Beckett is the voice of reason, and a bit of a baby sitter sometimes.

Watch it if… You like having a good laugh, and you don’t mind much all the police talk, or if you like coming up with your own theories for crime solving. Awesome piece of trivia: you can buy Castle’s books!

Grimm

Now, this is a relatively new addition to my list of best series ever. Shout out to my friend Brian!

The story is about Nick Burkhardt, a police detective in Portland who one day, all of a sudden, starts seeing people change into monsters. The poor thing gets quite scared because of course he doesn’t understand what’s going on… What really is going on, is that he’s a Grimm, a hunter. All the creatures he sees are the monsters from our myths and legends and he (and other grimms) is the only one who can see their true selves. What makes this really cool is that every episode starts with a quote from a story or legend, and then you know it’s going to be a good one. Some of the stories, I’ve never heard about, but they sound like terrifying legends. All the creatures (Wesen) are scared of Nick, but he’s trying to be a different type of grimm and not just go around beheading people. He makes friends with some of the Wesen.

Watch it if… You like supernatural stories and fairy tales, mixed with a bit of action. Even after three seasons, the writers still managed to end the last one with a really cool cliffhanger, enough to have me almost biting my nails as to what is going to happen. If you get easily discouraged by obscure Germanic terms, then this is probably not for you.

Those are the main series I’m watching. Of course, I need to do a couple of special mentions as well… Series that have already started, of some that I’m a bit behind!

Doctor Who

I had never heard of Doctor Who until I moved to the UK and even then, I didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. Then, I heard about Eccleston and Piper featuring in the new series, but I didn’t really pay attention. Time went on, and one day I caught up with one of David Tennant’s episodes, and boy! I loved it. I decided I needed to start the series from the beginning, and went all the way to the first doctor. However, I got a bit bored, I wanted to catch up already, so I just started watching them from Eccleston’s season. I finally caught up just towards the end of Tennant’s doctor, I think, and I was following it fully with Matt Smith (yes, my favourite, I can’t help it).

I went to the cinema for the new season’s premiere and I was very excited. I had been waiting for it to start again for ages! The episode wasn’t disappointing, and I’m happy to say I don’t hate the new doctor, even though he’s replacing Matt Smith, so that’s alright. I’ve seen already episode 2, and I’m looking forward to the third one, since Robin Hood will be there!

As to what Doctor Who is about… Well, it’s about the Doctor, an alien from Gallifrey, who travels in time and space. He has a companion (sometimes two) who travels with him and helps him solve mysteries, right any wrongs and generally keep peace in the universe. They travel in the TARDIS, that looks like a blue police box, but is bigger on the inside.

Watch it if… You like time travelling and police boxes. Also if you like adventures and aren’t too bother about amazing special effects, or if monsters don’t need to look utterly terrifying CGI creatures and you like a bit of banter and cheekiness. I would recommend you watch “Blink” at some point. Your life will never be the same.

Supernatural

Another one about, well, supernatural stuff. Yes, it’s one of my main recurrent topics, what can I say.

Supernatural follows the Winchester brothers in pretty much a never-ending road trip around the US in a ’67 Impala (Dean’s baby), fighting monsters. It has a strong religious tint, with a lot of exorcisms and demons and angels appearing, but don’t let that put you off, it’s not a brain washing kind of thing. Taking into account that they’re drinking all the time (because they’re tough guys), a bit outlaws (fake IDs and all that), and Dean has an obscene love for pie, you’ll be alright.

Monsters here aren’t cute or even child-friendly versions, some of them are pretty disgusting and scary. Vampires in this series give me the creeps. There’s also this monster… Gosh! It drugs you so you sort of fall asleep, and then makes you dream about what you want, so you believe it’s reality, while in the meantime, it’s harvesting your blood or something (I don’t remember what exactly it was) so you’re just there, hanging in a warehouse, arms tied, pretty much being eaten alive, while you’re dreaming you’re living the life you always wanted. How twisted is that?

Watch it if… Again, you like monsters and supernatural stuff. If you like the whole chopping heads off the bad guys and you’re not prone to having nightmares, this is a good one. Also, it has nice soundtrack (like Carry on Wayward Son, from Kansas, every time they do a recap of what’s happened previously!) Also, you should watch it if you like pie.

Series that are currently in between seasons or over, that I also watch: Vikings, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Sherlock, Suits (as soon as more seasons become available on Amazon Prime Instant), 30 Rocks (same), Once Upon A Time (same), and I’m currently watching Weeds, and about to start Penny Dreadful.

You might wonder how I find time for anything else… Well, I watch these while eating my dinner or lunch (at weekends). I also go to bed late sometimes because, who needs sleep, right?

What are the series you’re watching?