31 Pieces Of Entertainment You Can Sink Some Serious Hours Into

Never before has any video game felt as open and free as the latest installment in the Legend of Zelda franchise. As usual, you play as Link and are on a quest to save Princess Zelda and the world. This time, you're dropped in a field with an ancient-looking phone and some shorts. Slowly, you can gather your resources, meet allies, and hone your skills before taking on the Big Bad, Calamity Ganon. Oooooor, you can just charge right in.

The freedom to do whatever you want in the game is exhilarating. You can challenge tough enemies right away or choose to run away from everything until you find better weapons. Or you can just go for long horseback rides and watch the sunset while sitting next to a waterfall in the jungle. The game is fun and scary and stressful, but it can also be peaceful and serene. It's really all about how you prefer to play it. I, for one, really enjoyed hanging out in the tundra hunting moose and cooking up grub. Other people like to play with the physics with often interesting results. This game can take anywhere from 50 to 182 hours to complete, depending on how much of a completionist you are.

Download it from Nintendo for $59.99 or buy it from Target for $49.49.

Sometimes I legit get teary-eyed thinking about how good Buffy the Vampire Slayer is. Its influence can still be felt in all the best fantasy television shows on today. Even if you never watched when it was on the air, it's never too late to try out this classic WB teen drama. You have strong female characters, gay witches, stuffy British dudes, a musical episode, a healthy dose of the occult — what more could you want? With seven seasons and 22 episodes a pop, this show can tide you over for at least a month.

Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a Hulu subscription.

It's not like The Vampire Diaries is as good as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it certainly satisfies all your fantasy drama needs. After I first finished all of Buffy, I felt disoriented, lost, and in desperate need to fill the hole the show left behind. VD works in a pinch. It has vampires, witches, ancient curses, werewolves, and tons of angsty, teen romance. Boasting eight seasons and a somewhat decent spin-off (The Originals), this is a great time killer. The plot moves at breakneck speed and somehow manages to end each episode with a completely bananas cliff hanger. It has 40 minute episodes, so buckle up for a looooot of vampire brooding.

Watch The Vampire Diaries with a Netflix subscription.

I'm not going to lie to you, this entire post may or may not have been a vehicle for me to tell people to read the web comic Homestuck. What started as a fun spoof on text-based video games soon spiraled into a vast multimedia masterpiece. The cultural mammoth has more than 8,000 pages and more than 800,000 words. Some pages are just an image, some are mini video games, and others are long, artfully made flash videos with custom music made by fans. Since I started reading the comic in college, I struggled to recommend it to people — who has the time to read that many pages of a super weird, dense web comic? But now, most of us have some time to kill and I have been waiting for this moment to scream at you about a weird alien space opera. If you have the patience to jump into a story about some kids who accidentally destroy the world with a video game and then try to remake it with some alien pals, I highly recommend.

You can read Homestuck here for free.

Miss going to shows? Might as well dive into the extensive archives of Austin City Limits, the longest-running music series in American television history. You can watch performances by everyone from B.B. King to Mitski. There are 45 seasons, but currently you can only watch certain episodes from seasons 8, 37, 40, 43, 44, and 45.

Watch on PBS.org for free.

If you're feeling unproductive, try not to think about the late Terry Pratchett, who managed to put out 41 Discworld books from 1983 until 2015. The series focuses on a fantasy world that's a flat planet on the back of fours elephants on top of a turtle. The books are engaging, wonderful, and best of all — very, very funny. Most fans say you should start at the beginning, but the books all work as standalone works, so you can jump around or pick one that best appeals to you. The first book is The Color of Magic, but I'm currently reading Guards! Guards!, which is a strong recommendation for dragon lovers.

Read the Color of Magic on Kindle for $4.99, or buy it from Barnes & Noble for $8.99 or from a local bookseller through Bookshop for $9.19.

Along with The Sopranos, Six Feet Under helped put HBO on the map. The smart funeral drama follows a family who have to take over the funeral business after their father passes away. Each episode begins with a death and then the rest of the plot follows the family as they prep for that person's funeral. It's a great exploration of loss, grief, and moving on. This show has five seasons, and afterwards, you'll spend a good amount of time contemplating life and death.

Watch Six Feet Under with an Amazon Prime account.

I can't think of any better way to pass some serious time than by putting on some sweatpants and reading six installments of Bryan Lee O'Malley's absurd epic comic about a slacker goofball who has to defeat his dream girl's seven evil exes in order to date her. The plot is ridiculous, the jokes are silly, the characters are lovable. Best of all, you can watch the movie version with Michael Cera afterward.

Get the color collection set from Target for $78.99.

Remember Lost? Remember how everyone was completely obsessed with it? All those twists??? Maybe it's time to revisit that twisty, kinda-ridiculous show. Or if you're like me, watch it for the first time. With six seasons, the show can be a promising candidate for your "put on in the background" show, especially if you've seen it before.

Watch with a Hulu subscription.

You watched Game of Thrones, so why not start on the books? While the HBO show stays pretty faithful to the literature in the beginning, things veer off course when certain characters are combined or completely omitted. Books have the luxury of being a lot more dense and detail-heavy, so you get a toooon more lore than you would with the TV series. There are so many little side stories and minor characters (don't even get me started on Wenda the White Fawn or Patchface) in the books that really enrich the reading experience. While the show is over, the books are still technically in the works, so you can join the rest of us while we speculate and agonize over tiny clues and details in the text. There are five hefty books in all, so that should take you a minute to get through. And then the best part? After you finish, you get to read up on tinfoil fan theories.

Get the box set from Target for $30.99 or from a local bookseller through Bookshop for $81.

What could be more comforting than checking in on Liz Lemon and watching her work on her night cheese? This much-loved sitcom will always feel like a comforting slanket to me. For those who missed this truly perfect show, it's about Tina Fey's character as she tries to "have it all" while working as a writer for The Girly Show, a variety show that's basically a less successful version of SNL. This smart and snappy show is so jam-packed with quips, one blogger actually calculated that there are roughly 9.57 jokes each minute. If you need a good laugh and want to watch some truly wacky characters, this is your best bet. There are seven seasons, and each one is perfect.

Watch with a Hulu subscription.

OK, fine, this will only take like three or four hours, but still. I simply insist every human being be well acquainted with this charming comedian's work. He currently has three Netflix stand-up specials: New In Town, The Comeback Kid, and Kid Gorgeous at Radio City. After you tackle those, there's also his surreal kid's variety show, The Sack Lunch Bunch. It's basically like a tamer Wonder Showzen, but just as funny. Then, there's Big Mouth, an adult cartoon that explores the horrors of puberty where he voices one of the main characters, Andrew. And THEN there's the play Oh, Hello that he performed with Nick Kroll. Anyway, if you haven't gotten super invested in John Mulaney, do it now!!!

Watch all of John Mulaney's stand-up specials with a Netflix subscription.

Did you know there are 45 seasons of Chopped? The cooking reality show has been putting chefs through the ringer since 2009. Each episode features four chefs who face off to win $10,000. On top of the hours of fun you can have watching the original show, there are also tons of spin-offs like Chopped Junior and Chopped Sweets. Even if you're no cuisinier, it's always fun to yell along with the judges.

Watch with a Hulu subscription (only seasons 14–36, sadly).

Sure, you've seen the 2018 version of A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, but have you seen the original 1937 version? Or the one with Barbra Streisand? There are four of them in all, so might as well watch them all back to back, and decide which one is best. You might be surprised!

Watch the 2018 version with an HBO subscription, the 1937 from Amazon Prime Video for $0.99, the 1976 version from Amazon Prime Video for $2.99, and the 1976 version from Amazon Prime Video for $2.99.

Name a better show to find while scrolling through cable television and leave on for an unexpected marathon. Truly the best show to just let happen to you. The docuseries uses cheesy reenactments and voiceovers to walk you through creepy and bloody mysteries. You can feel like an armchair detective as you gravely nod and say "the husband did it." There are 14 seasons in all, but only a select chunk are available online.

Watch with an Amazon Prime (12 available seasons) or Hulu subscription (7 seasons available).

Oh my god. This video game has taken sooooo many hours of my life and still, I have more to give. It's basically an RPG meets Minecraft. You play as a heroic builder and travel to various islands with your very cool pal, Malroth, to help out villagers against the evil Children of Hargon. The main storyline is great (albeit hand-holdy and over-loaded with dialogue) but the real fun starts after you beat the game. You get your own island to build and design as you see fit. You can make secret speakeasies tucked behind waterfalls, tiny homes perched on mountains, grand castles, aquariums with all the fish you caught, scenic railways — you name it. The best part is filling it with your own villagers and watching them interact with the structures you create. Personally, my favorite creation was a haunted house with a secret passageway behind a bookshelf. I like to show it off with the same glee and excitement of a child who made some macaroni art for their parents. If you wanna feel like a kid again but also an amazing architect, play this game!

Download Dragon Quest Builders 2 from Steam, or buy the version for Nintendo Switch or PS4 from Best Buy for $59.99.

First of all, if you haven't played Stardew Valley, stop reading this and go download that. It's the best game in the world and will completely consume your life. If you have already played it, and are hungry for more farming/sandbox type games, My Time at Portia will scratch that itch. Like Stardew Valley, you'll explore a colorful world filled with interesting townsfolk to befriend, fish to catch, materials to scavenge, and monsters to fight. The only difference is that this game is 3D and you play as a builder instead of a farmer (but there is a little bit of farming too). The game is plagued with glitches and the character backstories are a bit thin, but I really don't think it hinders the gaming experience. You'll still have a ball exploring ruins, building structures for the town, and courting a townsfolk or two.

Download it from Steam or Nintendo for $29.99.

Leading up to the release of Avengers: Endgame, Alamo Drafthouse’s Brooklyn location threw a Marvel marathon, where fans could watch all 22 movies back to back. By all accounts, it was a miserable experience, and now you can re-create that horror right at home! JK, it would probably be a lot more enjoyable at your place with plenty of breaks to do non-superhero activities. With more than 45 hours worth of content, it's sure to keep you busy.

Watch them all with a Disney+ subscription.

This is that one show that everyone keeps telling you to watch and you're like "yeah, yeah, yeah, of course." But you never actually get to it. Well, now you can finally do it! I believe in you. The HBO crime drama focuses on a different institution each season and how it interacts with law enforcement. It has been celebrated for its realistic look at politics in urban life. There are five seasons and 60 episodes in all, and it's one of a ton of shows and movies that HBO has made available to stream for free.

Watch The Wire on HBO Now for free.

31! Seasons! As the longest running cartoon of all time, it's a pretty obvious choice for your marathoning needs. Sure, some people say the show drops off after season 10, but I think the show remains fairly watchable until about season 17. Regardless, I could just watch "You Only Move Twice" a million times in a row, so the show is a great time filler no matter what. And after you finish, you can treat yourself to the Simpsons Movie, a classic.

Watch The Simpsons with a Disney+ subscription.

I think we can all agree that The Sims 4 has always been the ultimate time suck. You spend hours designing your family, applying cheat codes (shout out to "motherlode"), renovating the house — and then spend maybe five minutes actually playing the game. At least that's how I used to play! The latest installment of the simulation video game is actually pretty engaging. With expansion packs like Get Famous, Get to Work, and Vampires, you can spend a lot of time helping your Sim make it big, whether that's as a celebrity, a successful doctor, or a highly esteemed creature of the night. As I write this, The Sims 4 is on sale, so you can spend that saved money on fun expansion packs. There are eight expansion packs to choose from, so you're sure to have endless fun with your new virtual families.

Download it from EA for $4.99 (originally $39.99).

Remember how The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2004? If you never gotten into the epic fantasy series filled with orcs, elves, wizards and — of course — hobbits, maybe now is the time to have a movie marathon. You can even start with The Hobbit trilogy to make this marathon a sextuple feature. Ooor you could pick up the classic novels if you're more in a sustained silent reading type of mood. Either way, there are hours of entertainment waiting for you.

Rent The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring for $3.99 or The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for $3.99 from Amazon.