Chillin’ Island
Super dumb and non consequential but goddamn if its not mellowing. Perfect show for any kind of burnout or blahs
The Good Place
Old episodes of MST3K. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really relaxing to watch. Puts me right to sleep if I watch it at night :)
I’m not saying this as criticism though, I love the show. It’s just that combination of old movies with bad sound and the fact that I don’t get a lot of the outdated jokes puts me in a very relaxed mood.
The detectorists, very gentle comedy but not in a shit way.
One of my favorite shows ever!
How It’s Made
Vice Grip Garage (YouTube)
James May The Reassembler (YouTube)
One more vote for How its Made. So relaxing.
Damn, I loved how it’s made
The other James May series Manlab? I think are also pretty good.
Britbox has a category called Cozy Mysteries. They’re all formulaic and easy watching.
Death in Paradise
Beyond Paradise
Murder in Suburbia
Father Brown
Sister Boniface
Agatha Christie’s Marple
The Mallorca FilesNice list, I watch most of these.
Love Father Brown
Relaxing Footage with Joe Pera
Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep
There was another one I forgot the name of on Adult Swim that was just like videos of rivers/streams, fireplaces, and other relaxing elements put to a lo-fi girl style soundtrack. Look Around You? Or something like that. When they started that one, I used to fall asleep to it nightly.
Edit: Not Look Around You; that was the BBC science show parody. Also good, but not the relaxing thing I am thinking of.
Puffin Rock
A kids show about puffins and other animals on a small island.
I always liked No Reservations when I wanted to zone out. Anthony Bordain not being here anymore bums me out though.
Edit: Community , Shaun the sheep, and Good Eats
“Nailed it!” is my goto chill show, all the contestants are failing miserably at making fancy cakes but they’re also not taking it too seriously and Nicole Byers keeps up a positive and encouraging attitude even when she’s making cracks about the cakes.
I don’t know if it’s “weirdly” relaxing given how chill it’s supposed to be, but Joe Pera Talks With You is perfect.
Not sure if anime fits your bill here but Mushi-shi is incredibly relaxing and even though i don’t really watch anime anymore it still jumps out to me when i think of chill/mellow/relaxing. Traveler investigating forest spirits and whatnot, soft Japanese music score, taps hard into those nature vibes, more of a rainy day relaxing though not really happy-chill.
Mortimer and Winehouse gone fishing.
Want a seat next to two comedy legends as they enter their chill years and ponder things while fishing? Look no further
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0b7r2k6/mortimer-whitehouse-gone-fishing
This is the one. It’s a perfect relaxation show.
When I was having long term medical problems Shark Tank helped me survive. Every episode is exactly the same and nothing really bad happens.
Here’s a list:
- Shark Tank (didn’t want to leave it out)
- Taskmaster which has full episodes on YouTube
- Pawn Stars (uncountable numbers of episodes)
- Forged In Fire
- Lego Masters
Taskmaster, every season has 5 comedians complete a set of tasks and be judged on them by The Taskmaster. All so they can win a golden effigy of the Taskmasters head.
Very good show Season 18 just wrapped up. There are some other countries that did good spinoffs like New Zealand and Australia, and others that didn’t America.
Forged In Fire. Each episode 4 blacksmiths compete to create a blade with limited time which each round someone being voted off by judges. When the last 2 are remaining they are sent home for a week to make a historical weapon to be tested by the judges.
Very wholesome, judges are kind and will explain how it went wrong and how they can improve their techniques. One of the early winners even goes on to become a judge.
Maybe a little out of left field, but the animated show Star Trek: Lower Decks. I’m not much of a Trekkie at all, but Lower Decks is funny, endearing, and even though each season has an overarching plot, much of the episode plots are relatively self contained.
Highly recommend it.
Shrinking is pretty chill. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Ted Lasso in that people aren’t total pieces of shit and try to learn from their fuck ups. Also, Harrison Ford.
Actually, I was going to say both those shows.
