Have you reached that point in the year when you don’t know how to start a new show and keep digging yourself further into a media slump? Well, don’t worry, because that’s what those single or double season shows are meant for! Here’s a list of short-form content to get you through!
The Shivering Truth
The Shivering Truth is a surreal dark comedy anthology meant to tap into the unconscious minds of its viewers by presenting human sociological and psychological topics in a dream-like image.
There aren’t too many stop-motion animated shows out now, which makes this one a very special find, and with the complex themes, it is also a good late-night watch. It isn’t comparable to any of the typical 2D animated series out currently, the stop-motion puppets acting in dream-like scenarios are extremely binge-worthy. Originally debuted on Adult Swim, this show has only two seasons and a total of 13 episodes, with a total run-time of about 2 and a half hours. Add this easy watch to your list on Hulu or HBO Max!
Undone
Undone dives into the life of the main character Alma who almost died after a life-threatening car crash, but instead is now able to manipulate time and uses her newfound abilities to uncover the truth behind her late father’s death.
Stylistically, Undone is very interesting to watch because it uses a technique called rotoscoping. This describes tracing live-action footage frame-by-frame to create realistic motions in the animated characters. It’s a more contemporary version of hand-drawn frame-by-frame (traditional) animations because there are real-time references, but it’s still very time-consuming. The show was Amazon Prime’s first original animated series and has only one season right now with eight episodes and a run-time of around 3 hours. It has been renewed for a second season to come in the near future, but while it’s still a short series you should definitely go check it out on Amazon Prime!
The Midnight Gospel
The Midnight Gospel is a typical 2D animated series about a spacecaster, Clancy, from an unfamiliar planet and owns an unlicensed device that allows him to conduct multi-dimensional travel to different worlds. During his travels, he visits new places in disastrous states and interviews the residents of those planets for his space cast show.
All of the interviews that Clancy conducts in the show are based on one of the creator’s podcasts called The Duncan Trussell Family Hour. The show highlights lots of deep and thought-provoking conversations, revolving around life, death, religion, love, and so on. This is another good late-night watch and is designed very beautifully with lots of bright colors and shapes. It only has one season with eight episodes that can be watched in 3 and a half hours, and although it hasn’t been renewed for a season 2 yet, you can go stream the released episodes on Netflix!
Love, Death & Robots
Love, Death & Robots is hard to describe because all of the episodes are one-offs that have been produced by different crews and casts from all over the world, with each episode focusing on one or more of the themes: love, death, and robots. The show is said to have been a reimagination of a 1981 animated science fiction film, Heavy Metal.
Given that the production of each episode is reimagined across the studios that have been partnered with it, the length of episodes ranges from 6-18 minutes. This makes the series even more bingeable because none of the episodes need to be watched in any particular order, so you can bounce around from short to long ones depending on how much time you have or what you’re in the mood for. The run time for the whole series is roughly 4 hours and has only two seasons right now, with the third season lined up for release in 2022. It is available for viewing on Netflix!
Close Enough
Close Enough is a cartoonish sitcom about a young couple and their 5-year-old daughter living together with their divorced friends in a duplex in LA. What are supposed to be normal domestic issues that arise often lead to science fiction-like crises, making the show even funnier with its outlandish take on live-action sitcoms.
The show features some popular voices like Jason Mantzoukas who stars in Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth, as well as two Orange Is The New Black stars, Kimiko Glenn and Danielle Brooks. The creator of Close Enough also produced another popular long-running series on Cartoon Network, Regular Show, that is similar in production and humor. There are two seasons of Close Enough on HBO Max which can be binged in a little under 6 hours. It’s one of the longer series, but highly addicting, so we recommend the watch!
Tuca & Bertie
Tuca & Bertie is the last on our list and follows two best friends, Tuca and Bertie, that live in the same apartment complex and balance their lives as young adult birds in their careers and with their relationships with the cast of characters around them.
The show had a complicated run, being canceled by Netflix after the first season, but fortunately, it was picked up for a second season on Adult Swim that finished airing in August. Netflix has the first season of 10 episodes for you to watch that will take about 4 hours of your time and if you fall in love with the series, the second season of another 10 episodes is available on YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. Altogether, the show is about 8 hours of streaming but is worth the watch for those that like a lighthearted cartoon about friendship and finding yourself.
