The Drinking Issue: Sip and Stream

Being outdoors in July is for chumps. The day after you get scorched on the lake, there’s nothing better than cooling your house to a brisk 68 degrees, getting all your meals delivered and enjoying a few cold ones while you binge-watch something addictive. For me, great binges must do three things: 1) Suck you in after two episodes; 2) include some element of fun (no Chernobyl for this exercise); and 3) have at least one full season in the can so the only interruption is your judgmental streaming service asking, Still there? Yes, Hulu, and I will be for the next 12 hours. Strap in. 

Here are five shows to binge this summer, plus what to drink while doing it. 

Broad City (Comedy Central, five seasons)

Stream: Twenty-something best friends seek employment, fulfillment and weed in New York City. This raunchy, offbeat comedy ended its run in 2019, but it will forever be remembered for its extreme candor, Seinfeld-on-crack-level plotlines and portrayal of a supportive female friendship that feels weird, unique and true, in part because it is: The show’s stars/creators, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer (see our interview with Glazer in the May 30 issue of the Scene), are longtime friends. Bonus: It’s executive-produced by another comic goddess, Amy Poehler. 

Sip: A CBD-oil cocktail. Visit Music City Hemp Store in Germantown to pick up a TN Homegrown hemp infusion. Local blues musician and store owner David Duncan will help you find the right taste and dosage (I like 500-milligram in coconut oil), which you can float atop any cocktail for maximum aroma and relaxation. Tip: If you aren’t a fan of hemp’s sometimes skunky flavor, mix the oil into the froth of a gin fizz to dull the taste, along with your anxiety. 

Fleabag (Amazon, two seasons)

Stream: Witty, selfish, magnetic “Fleabag” (played by show creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge) butts up against her family — most notably, her bonkers, infuriating godmother, played deliciously by Olivia Colman — while dealing with the death of her best friend and sleeping her way around London. If you haven’t yet heard someone say, “Oh my God, Season 2 of Fleabag is a masterpiece,” congratulations; you live on your own private island and we hate you. But it is a masterpiece — biting, incisive and thoughtful — so power past the (off-putting to some) fourth-wall-breaking direct-to-camera bits knowing that by the series finale (which you’ll reach in five short hours), Fleabag will leave you wanting more. Still not sold? Three words: Hot Irish Priest.

Sip: Canned gin cocktail. It’s not a spoiler to say that Season 2 relies on canned gin-and-tonics, and Nashville is newly awash in delicious premade cocktails. My favorite is locally owned Deep Bay Gin Soda, which is basically spiked sparkling water that actually tastes like something — in this case, crisp citrus and mint. Founder Kevin Albrecht spent six years in Bermuda working for Bacardi before creating his sugar- and carb-free cocktails, so you can polish off a four-pack and still look slim and chic in your own version of Fleabag’s now-famous black jumpsuit. 

Stranger Things (Netflix, three seasons)

Stream: A boy disappears in the 1980s. Supernatural mischief ensues. Curmudgeonly sheriff, unraveling mom and ragtag team of kids save the day. Think The Baby-Sitters Club meets Poltergeist with better music and a telekinetic 12-year-old.

Sip: Season 3 debuts July 4 and is set during the summer of ’85, which means an all-American throwback is in order. In the mid-’80s, wine coolers were all the rage, but since the taste of Bartles & Jaymes gives me flashbacks to 10th grade, I recommend beer. Pay tribute to the town of Hawkins’ many supernovas with Southern Grist’s Purple Skies, a fruited lactose sour that’s actually purple. Whether that makes you think of the “purple drank” that Lil Wayne was at one point known to indulge in, or Sunny Delight’s “purple stuff” commercial, one thing is sure: This beer equals instant nostalgia. Because lactose is unfermentable by yeast, the beer comes out creamier — and at 5.4 percent ABV, you can have a few and still be coherent when Eleven saves the world (again).

PEN15 (Hulu, 1 season)

Stream: PEN15 is a brutally honest retelling of the most terrifying time of any female’s life: middle school. While the show is set in 2000, the nostalgia is timeless, as, apparently, are PEN15’s creators: Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle — both currently age 32 — play stupefyingly believable versions of their 13-year-old selves in all their awkward, earnest, cringe-inducing glory.

Sip: Bourbon. What do you think of when you hear the word “awkward”? Give that feeling a bowl cut, a mouthful of braces and a wedgie, and you might approach PEN15’s level. Do not watch it with your parents or your kids, and be prepared for scenes so realistic you’ll want to stuff yourself into a locker just so you don’t have to make eye contact with anyone. Returning to seventh grade calls for weapons-grade reinforcements, and my choice is Belle Meade Bourbon Finished in XO Cognac Cask. It’s sweet, strong and fancy, which sounds like something the PEN15 girls would appreciate, then try to drink and promptly puke into a hamper. 

Killing Eve (BBC America, two seasons)

Stream: This psychosexual spy thriller/dark comedy follows checked-out intelligence officer Eve Polastri as she and the audience become bewitched by Villanelle, Europe’s sexiest, craziest, most fashionable assassin. Think the brutality of Dexter, the skills of Alias and the humor of Shameless. Sandra Oh is excellent as Eve, and our aforementioned lord and savior Phoebe Waller-Bridge show-ran the first season. If you aren’t obsessed with Jodie Comer’s Villanelle by the time she screams, “Take me to the hole!” my condolences, because you are dead inside.

Sip: Aperol spritz. Taste a prime example at Nicky’s Coal Fired, and then make your own: half Prosecco, half Aperol — a biting, bright-orange, herbaceous liqueur — finished with club soda and orange peel. It’s a perfect choice, because Aperol is attention-seeking, dangerously addictive and hard to quit, just like our favorite psychopath. Plus, Villanelle loves Champagne, so she’d either respect my Prosecco usage, or she’d smash the bottle, slit my throat with it and make me watch in a mirror as I bled out. Honestly? I’m good either way.