It’s 9pm, your weekend has ground to a halt, and you’re about thirty seconds away from mentally cataloging everything that you might conceivably have done wrong in work last week – and everything you might conceivably get wrong next week. The Sunday blues are a well-documented phenomenon, which seem to be exacerbated in the summer: one moment, it seems, you're enjoying an impromptu staycation, the next you're on a low-speed train to King's Cross with no air-con and a mounting awareness of everything you conveniently 'deleted' from Friday's to-do list. That's where Netflix - or, at least, a specific sort of Netflix show - comes in.
There's no scientific studies to back us up, but the mood-boosting power of a comforting, easy binge watch shouldn't be underestimated. Sunday nights aren't the time for catching up on the worthy but harrowing likes of Orange Is The New Black and The Handmaid's Tale: they're ripe for distracting yourself with a nostalgic favourite or clever comedy. Here are some of our favourites...
Netflix sunday blues - Grazia
1 of 7The Good Place
Thanks to a celestial admin error, the not-so angelic Eleanor Shellstrop ends up in heaven (that's the Good Place of the title) following her bizarre accidental death. Desperate not to let her new neighbours discover the truth about her former self, she resolves to become a better person. Come for the entry level philosophy jokes and Jameela Jamil's acting debut, stay for the genuinely jaw-dropping plot twists.
2 of 7Queer Eye
If anything can ward off a Sunday night mood-spiral, it's the combined charm offensive of Queer Eye's Fab Five. In each episode of the newly rebooted makeover show, Jonathan, Tan, Karamo, Antoni and Bobby are tasked with transforming the life of someone (unlike the Noughties original, the show's subject doesn't have to be a 'straight guy') who's feeling a little lost, whether that means overhauling their wardrobe, teaching them to chop avocados or instilling them with some much-needed confidence. It's heart-warming stuff that'll encourage you to, in the words of Jonathan, 'just like own your own space, and stuff.'
3 of 7Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is televisual serotonin. It's hard not to be charmed by the relentlessly sunny Kimmy (Bridesmaids' Ellie Kemper) as she adapts to life in New York after being liberated from an underground doomsday cult, but best of all are the gang of supporting characters: her musically-inclined roommate Titus (Tituss Burgess), her erratic landlady Lillian (Carol Kane) and her glamorous trainwreck of a boss, Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski).
4 of 7Glow
Big hair, neon and a whole lot of spandex: GLOW transposes Flashdance's underdog story to the hyper-camp world of '80s wrestling, with an added dose of female empowerment. Alison Brie stars as Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress whose last-ditch attempt at success leads her to try out for an all-female wrestling league. Consider it the cheerier cousin of Orange Is The New Black (the shows share an executive producer, Jenji Kohan).
5 of 7Lovesick
An STI diagnosis forces Dylan (Johnny Flynn) to reconnect with his former partners: if the premise sounds familiar, that's because the show formerly known as Scrotal Recall was first broadcast on Channel Four a few years back. Happily, it was saved by Netflix, given a more, ahem, palatable name, and is now in its third season. Think of it as an extended, more foul-mouthed Richard Curtis comedy, populated with characters you've probably met on a night out.
6 of 7Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Don't be put off by the title. To paraphrase the show's theme song (yes, there's songs. Lots of songs), Crazy Ex Girlfriend is 'a lot more nuanced than' re-hashing boring relationship tropes. The brainchild of writer and comedian Rachel Bloom, the series follows compulsive over-achiever Rebecca (also played by Bloom) as she decides to pack in her high-flying city job and move to California, following a random encounter with a childhood crush. Even if you're not a musical fan, Bloom's songs and scripts have a knack of skewering everything from relationships to mental health.
7 of 7Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
There are few things more reassuring than a chapter of Gilmore Girls, and the four feature-length episodes that make up Netflix's Year In The Life reboot, set ten years after the show's final bow, have all the qualities we love. There's the speedy script, delivered at break-neck pace by Rory (Alexis Bledel) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham), the soothing backdrop of Stars Hollow, the same low-stakes romantic dramas and coffee. So much coffee. Though the ending - spoiler alert - has proved divisive, it's still the perfect comfort watch.