We all have our personal experiences with chaotic energy from time to time. Some of us live it on a day-to-day basis. When I was in the Marines, we had a saying: “Hurry up and wait.”
But when that “wait” time was finally over, buckle up. But it’s not the hot mess of chaotic energy that makes these shows so popular. That’s just part of the formula.
No show survives on a fast pace and too many subplots. Season 3 of Justified, Season 8 of Game of Thrones, and the random, often pointless subplots of What If…? are just a few examples.
Within the swirling madness and pandemonium, there has to be an element of stability—a tale that takes us from point A to Point B, regardless of the roller coaster’s track design in between.
If you’re in the mood to watch something a touch frantic, something that matches your inner intensity, here’s a parade of hot messes for you to binge-watch when you’re not indulging in it personally.
BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman is an absolute gem of a show, insultingly misunderstood and either unknown or unwatched by many. It holds up a proverbial mirror to the messy, complicated reality of human existence.
It does so in a darkly barnyard way that’s often as laugh-out-loud entertaining as it is complex and deliberate.
BoJack struggles with addiction and depression and is generally self-destructive, kind of like a teenage daughter at the breakfast table right after a breakup.
The cast is fantastic as well — probably one of the most unconventional and multi-dimensional ensembles you’ll find on TV today. They run the gamut of relatable issues as well, including careers, identity, relationships, and personal growth.
It sounds a little boring as I write it, though it’s anything but. Mixing satirical Hollywood, relatable (if a tad dark) humor, the personal crisis of self-worth, societal issues, and existential themes galore is a recipe for controlled madness.
It’s also a lot of fun to watch.
Watch BoJack Horseman Online
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
My dad is retired Florida Highway Patrol, and the chaotic energy of police work was not unknown in our household.
Sure, there’s the paperwork downtime, sitting in a patrol car in the middle of an empty parking lot, but presenting all of that is not how showbusiness works on the small or large screen.
The stress-related humor endemic to police work is not unlike the military, especially the Marines, where dark and crude humor is as much a part of life as fat-facing some generic blob of chili-mac in the chow hall.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine humanizes its police officers while magnifying the chaotic energy of diverse personalities collaborating as a team and the interpersonal dynamics of workplace bonds and relationships, including those of a romantic nature.
Humor is often the relief valve for stress, a coping mechanism that Brooklyn Nine-Nine does a fantastic job of presenting. It humanizes the flawed personalities within.
“Overcome, adapt, and improvise” (yes, I’m just full of Marine Corps aphorisms today) is the beating heart of a franchise that ran for nearly a decade.
Police work is not Robocop stepping out of a 1986 Ford Taurus. It’s gritty, sometimes boring, and oftentimes chaotic. In other words, it’s a fun binge-watch.
Watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine Online
Desperate Housewives
The characters in Desperate Housewives are not exactly desperate, and their chaotic energy does not stem from a sense of despondency.
What Desperate Housewives does (and does very well) is pop the translucent bubble that exists in perpetuity around everyone.
The cheerful cashier you meet at the convenience store, the grumpy businessman on the subway car, and the coach of your son’s or daughter’s sports team are people you meet in passing, each with their own histories, perceptions, and desperate moments that define their current character.
However, the bubble is translucent, and those personal moments never pass through the gates of their presentation to the public around them. Desperate Housewives is about four women living in the suburbs.
They do drugs, engage in infidelities, make terrible and brilliant decisions, backstab, stress out, struggle, sometimes succeed, and sometimes fail. The bubble is removed, and Desperate Housewives does a solid job of revealing what we don’t get to see in passing.
It is undoubtedly a hot mess of chaotic energy, but what makes it effective is the scope of its dramedy and how closely it touches home in an uncomfortably familiar way for many.
Watch Desperate Housewives Online
Fleabag
First and foremost, Fleabag is a character study that sometimes breaks the fourth wall, giving the entire series an atmosphere of desperation — desperation being the desire to escape.
We can all relate to that. Humor as a mechanism for defense, impulsive decision-making, shallow relationships due to fear of commitment, and struggling with the death of a loved one encompass this singular character series.
It’s not as if Phoebe Waller-Bridge is destitute. But beneath the middle-class veneer is a struggling business, complex familial relationships, the recent death of a best friend, a failed attempt at acquiring a business loan, and a fruitless dating life.
In other words, the believably chaotic energy of a woman caught in the rain, and when it rains, it pours.
Not exactly living the high life, which, of course, is the entire purpose of the show. People love their drama, after all, and Fleabag is a competent dramedy with a believable protagonist.
Unfortunately, “believable” means suffering from all of the various pitfalls that assault us daily, except she’s getting it in one large dose.
Watch Fleabag Online
Shameless
Okay, this is definitely a show that takes chaotic energy to a level that’s almost unbelievable at times, similar to Euphoria, which is next on the list.
Think of it as a mirror to the hot mess of our own lives; only the mirror is an interactive pseudo-TV that amps our everyday struggles well beyond the red line.
Shameless features a little bit of everything, from moral ambiguity, impulsivity, and parental irresponsibility to pure survival mechanisms and wild family dynamics.
Shameless manages to take chaos and contain it, a commendable effort considering all the characters and subplots.
Better yet, it expresses the consequence of community in both a negative and positive light. Though the Gallaghers live on the South Side of Chicago, they are both isolated and immersed in their surrounding community.
This dichotomy is an all too familiar feeling for those living on the edge of the suburbs or moving into a new area for the first time.
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Euphoria
Euphoria is absolute madness stuffed into a Pandora’s Box of hysterical lunacy. It’s probably one of the most in-your-face collections of degeneracy run amok in modern television history.
The surprise is in the fact that scenarios presented within the series actually go on in real life. Somewhere in America, a family is having a knock-down, drag-out fight because a family member’s drugs or alcohol is missing.
Euphoria is a manic representation of the brutal and unforgiving cost of addiction. It’s also a referendum on social media and it’s often rampant amplification of societal issues.
It’s a dirty yet hallucinatory view of adolescence and the mental health, identity, substance abuse, and technological impacts on teenagers growing into adulthood.
As a fictional series, there are certainly moments of exaggeration throughout, though the show effectively magnifies many of the problems youths face in America, or anywhere for that matter.
As an expression of chaotic energy, there is nothing on TV today or, arguably, any time before that matches Euphoria’s level of youthful turbulence.
If you’re just starting the series for the first time, it’s best in small doses.
Watch Euphoria Online
The Bear
The Bear takes the hectic ups and downs of the day-to-day and condenses them into the smaller framework of life on the job. In this case, the job is the kitchen.
The kitchen, however, tells the disorganized, tumultuous story of the individuals who work there—the chaotic energy of lives affected by loss, grief, inordinately high-stress levels, and the confusing, often misplaced line between interpersonal relationships and work.
It’s insanity with good food and is often touted as one of the most anxiety-inducing shows ever to grace the small screen. Euphoria and perhaps Shameless may have something to say about that.
It’s telling that The Bear’s leading actor, Jeremy Allen White, also plays a large role in Shameless. The Bear is not a show to sit down and watch after a stressful day at work.
In fact, you should probably avoid any and all stimulants, such as coffee and nicotine, before indulging in an episode of The Bear.
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Are there any additional shows that accurately (or even semi-accurately) reflect the chaotic energy of our lives that you would like to add?
Let us know in the comments!
