What comfort shows I’m watching this autumn

Autumn is one of the best times of the year for TV and film, it’s the season for rewatching cosy classics and keeping up with all the new reality shows.

Here is a list of the films, series and TV shows which will be getting me through autumn this year. 

Pretty Little Liars

A teen mystery drama which follows a group of girls after their best friend suddenly goes missing. The disappearance becomes suspicious, and the friends get dragged into being suspects in the police investigation. And, to make it worse, they have a mysterious stalking cyberbully who seems to be determined to set them up for murder. The eerie, moody atmosphere throughout the series, with Hitchcockian references, makes it a spooky-season watchlist pick. 

Available to watch on BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and NOW TV. 

Gilmore Girls

A classic autumn rewatch for many, appearing on almost every autumn TV list. For good reason, though. Set in Stars Hollow, a fictional small, community-driven town, the show follows Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, an inseparable mother-daughter duo, as they go through life’s highs and lows together. The show encompasses many of the best feelings in autumn, from the show’s aesthetic choices, characters’ fashion, the constant coffee in hand and Rory’s academic drive; it is a great cosy autumn watch. 

Available to watch on Disney+, Channel 5, and Netflix 

Once Upon a Time

Personally, I love the autumn weather where it’s overcast and a little gloomy and Once Upon a Time matches that perfectly. This show is magical to its core; almost every fairy tale character you have ever heard of is put under a curse by the Evil Queen. This sends them out of their fairy tale world to live in sleepy Storybrooke in the real world, where they’ve forgotten their true identities. It’s not until protagonist Emma Swan, who has more connection to the town than she realises, visits Storybrooke that the curse starts to unravel. Magical themes, classic autumn weather and an intriguing plot lead me to rewatch this show every year.

Available to watch on Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

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Celebrity Traitors UK

Pulling in over 15 million viewers in the first two episodes, it’s fair to say a fair few of us are hooked on this show of murder and betrayal. Featuring 21 celebrities who are either Team Faithful or Traitor and, depending on their team, must lie, murder and betray their fellow celebrity. Or need to work as a team to analyse behaviour and banish all Traitors to win at the end. Famous faces such as Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, and Romesh Ranganathan are a few members of the cast for this year’s series. The final airs next week on the 30th of October, and for both the Traitors and the Faithful, it is still all to play for. 

Available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Big Brother

How would you cope if you were put in a house with 15 strangers, cut off from the outside world and constantly watched by cameras? Well, that’s what the Big Brother social experiment is. Inspired by George Orwell’s book 1984, 16 people unknown to each other become housemates for up to eight weeks, where one of them gets crowned the winner and receives a cash prize. Each week, the housemates nominate who should go home, and the public votes on who should stay. The show airs six days a week, and each day viewers see housemates go through many highs and lows due to the challenges Big Brother sets and differences between people in the house. Each housemate responds to the environment differently, and some leave the house as the public’s favourite while others are the show’s villains. 

Available to watch on ITV.

The Great British Bake Off

I think of Bake Off in a similar way to watching a Christmas film in December; it brings comfort and can always be relied upon to make me eat something sweet. This show follows 12 amateur bakers as they compete every week for the title of Star Baker and to stay in the competition, with the hopes of being crowned the champion of the series. The show brings lots of fun and creativity over the weeks through the different themed weeks, such as dessert week or bread week.  

Available to watch on Channel 4.