With eleven straight days of vacation looming ahead, catching up on these treasured recent classics is a surefire way to burn through the days and de-stress from schoolwork:

Friends

Classic, lighthearted and available for instant streaming on Netflix. What more can you want? ‘90s sitcom Friends has 10 seasons’ worth of addictive, witty banter; ridiculous scenarios and just enough silly drama to keep you constantly hooked. Arguably the formative part of the show — as suggested by the title — is the six main characters’ group dynamic and intra-group relationships. Everything from Joey and Chandler’s indefatigable friendship to Phoebe’s love affair with “Smelly Cat” creates an incredibly hilarious, binge-worthy and surprisingly heartfelt series that should definitely make its way onto your watch list.

The Office

Also a decade-long sitcom, The Office bears an ironically boring premise: a documentary crew follows around the employees of paper company Dunder Mifflin’s small branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The show itself, however, is everything but boring; each 20-minute episode kicks off with an ordinary yet bizarrely hilarious prank or accident. The cast of characters is lead and anchored by Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, regional branch manager and host to a personality so unbelievably oblivious and silly that’s it’s hilarious. He and Dwight Schrute, the core cast’s other resident funny man character, are oft contrasted to Jim and Pam, co-stars of the show’s main romance plot and the “straight men” characters famous for spawning the reference “staring into the camera like you’re on The Office.” Tied together by a similarly hilarious recurring cast, The Office is a refreshing sitcom that makes the everyday things binge-worthy.

Gilmore Girls

Filled to the brim with early 00s pop culture references, lightning-fased happy banter and realistically complex but heartwarming family dynamics, Gilmore Girls follows the mother-daughter duo of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in Stars Hollow, an almost unbelievably idyllic microcosm of small-town east coast life where everyone knows everyone else’s business. It’s a masterpiece of dynamic, multifaceted female characters and it’s funny, light and still full of enough drama and heart to keep you watching all seven seasons. Be warned, however, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the Netflix sequel from last fall, falls fairly short of the original in terms of both characterization and plot, despite all its warm and fuzzy nostalgia.

To pinpoint your perfect spring break TV show, trace your way through the Winged Post’s recommendation flowchart:

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 28, 2017.