9 Surprisingly Unrelated Shows For When You’re Burned Out

As much as we all hate it, it’s still true: burnout is normal. You can run from it, and you can deny it, and you can push yourself to your limits to get your job done right, but when the inevitable comes, it comes with crushing your creativity and willingness to work away from you. Okay, maybe it’s not as hopeless as I’ve made it sound, but the point stays: burnout is inevitably normal. And as normal as it is, there are a lot of different things you can do to get through it. One of those ways is to watch TV shows.

According to a survey, 96% of millennials are affected by burnout in their daily life, and how do they cope with it? By watching TV. Given that we live in the age of binge-watching, that shouldn’t come as a surprise either. The problem occurs when your burned-out mood won’t allow you to watch even the shows you love watching on regular days.

For this purpose, we’ve come up with a list of totally unrelated shows, from different genres, to help you out during different moods.

1. The Blacklist

The Blacklist, a show running since 2013, has impressed viewers across the globe with James Spader’s brilliantly witty character, Raymond Reddington, taking the lead while helping out Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone) and her FBI task-force to solve crimes, catching ‘off-the-books’ and seemingly hard to find criminals on Reddington’s ‘blacklist’ that he acquired his intellect, skills, and a huge plethora of resources that he gathered after quitting the bureau, going underground for 20 years, and becoming part of FBI’s top 10 most-wanted list.

Everyone knows the reason Reddington is helping the FBI: to get immunity. What no one understands though, is why he’s so adamant about working only with Agent Keen. A mysterious yet interesting watch, The Blacklist should definitely be on your list if you need a distraction from the mainstream.

2. Gilmore Girls

We love Amy Sherman-Palladino for a lot of reasons, and one of them happens to be Gilmore Girls. One of the best shows to watch, or re-watch, when you feel overwhelmed with everything else is the journey that Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) go through in the small town of Stars Hollow.

A light-hearted show, paired with the humorous narrative of Lorelai, and her witty relationship with everyone around her and Rory, Gilmore Girls is the best option when you need a heartwarming yet humorous plot to get you through your days.

3. My Hero Academia

Tired of the regular shows? Then just watch the plethora of anime available at your disposal, starting with My Hero Academia. Well, you don’t have to start here, it’s just a fun watch if you want to. Focusing on UA’s class 1-A’s journey of becoming a hero, the show highlights the struggles Izuku Midoriya goes through, alongside his friends and mentors, and how they battle villains together.

The show does have its dark themes and deeper plot-points, but overall it’s a good watch, especially when you’re exhausted from the regular.

4. Bridgerton

Not everything you watch needs to have an intricate plot or a point to its existence. Bridgerton is one of the recent launches from Netflix that became highly popular. It doesn’t possess a deep plot or a dark story, at times some plot-points might even seem too immature, to say the least. But overall, it’s a light, stress-free show that all of us need to watch after the intensity of our workload and the stressors we face every day in our lives.

5. The Boys

Starring Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, and Erin Moriarty, this is a show you should definitely watch, especially if you’re tired of the mainstream superhero trope. Disclaimer though: it’s definitely not-safe-for-work and has some really deep points that may get addressed through humor, but if you’re not in the mood for that humor, you may not even watch it.

The Boys is a realistic look into what would happen if our beloved superheroes got capitalized on by the corporate world of today. The vigilantes aren’t the heroes owned by corporations, rather the commoners trying to fight those heroes and restore peace in the world.

6. Lupin

Want something with mystery-genius-intrigue combined? Then Lupin is the show for you. The French mystery series focuses on the story of Assane Diop, who gets inspired by his idol Arsene Lupin, a thief and legendary character from a novel; Assane uses this name as his alias as he goes on the path of seeking revenge for his father being wrongfully accused of theft and sent to jail when Diop was a child.

7. Schitt’s Creek

If you thought we’re done suggesting Schitt’s Creek, then you’re wrong. Starring an amazing cast, with perfectly portrayed characters, and a wholesome plot, this show deserves every award and fame it has received.

Portrayed by Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, and Annie Murphy, the Rose family loses their fortune and are forced to leave their luxurious life and move to a small town by the name of Schitt’s Creek. What happens next as the family adjusts to life in the town and their people, is what makes this show so wholesome, to begin with.

8. The Queen’s Gambit

If you haven’t watched Queen’s Gambit yet, then you’re missing out on one of the most brilliant shows that ever came out of Netflix. Beth Harmon, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy, is a rising star in the world of chess that’s highly dominated by men.

Watch Beth’s journey as she goes from her orphanage to an adoptive home, battling addiction, while also learning to become a world master in the game of chess. The show might seem slow in the beginning, but as you proceed through the plot, you won’t be able to switch the screen off, sitting at the edge to find out what’s going to happen next in Beth’s journey.

9. Demon Slayer

My Hero Academia is not the only anime we’ve added to the list. Sure, there’s a lot to where Demon Slayer came from, namely Death Note, Attack on Titan, and what-not. But it’s Demon Slayer whose movie, Mugen Train, ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time in Japan, breaking all the records previously set by Studio Ghibli movies.

Demon Slayer is about a boy, Kamado Tanjiro, who finds out something horrific about the world he lives in, and ever since his only goal in life becomes to protect his sister, Nezuko, and find a way to cure her. An exciting, at times sad, and equally mysterious watch, Demon Slayer is a good choice for when you need something darker and more creative to focus on.

These were my suggestions for the shows you can invest your time in as you look for a distraction and deal with your burnout. And all of these shows are very much re-watchable if you don’t want to look for anything new. Have fun!