Reality competition set in the underground ballroom scene

There’s dancing and then there’s voguing. Legendary on HBO Max is a reality tv show competition that follows “Houses” (team members primarily from the LGBTQ+ community) as they compete in weekly themed challenges that include voguing, walking, posing, floor work, best face, best body, fashion, creativity, precision…all without blowing out your knees, or blowing out your knees and still competing. It’s a peek into the remarkable underground ballroom scene that, for decades, has birthed and influenced culture we see in the world today. Come for the performance, stay for the kinship.

Netflix's much-better version of Project Runway (I said it!)

It’s easy to dismiss Next In Fashion (2020) as Netflix’s Project Runway ripoff but there are some key differences: 1) Alexa Chung and Tan from Queer Eye are delightful and actually bring a lot of joy and goofiness to the show in a way that Tim and Heidi did not. 2) The challenges are less to do with craftiness (there are no unconventional materials challenges) and more to do with wearability, vision and craft. They scolded a designer for making a dress his model couldn’t pee in. 3) There isn’t a ton of drama so it was easy to tune in for the beginning and then zone out during the middle - to do online shopping or whatever - and then catch the runway at the end. Sometimes you need a show you can 30% watch.

Survivor except everyone is isolated in separate hotel rooms

Netflix’s nutty reality show, The Circle (2020), is social media-based Survivor. Eight strangers who never meet in real life and are supposed to judge each other based on voice command chat conversations and profile photos only. If you’re liked, you stay on the show. If people don’t like you, you get kicked off. If you can get through the first episode you’ll find yourself rooting for an Italian meatball named Joey (“YEAH BUDDDDY”) and his bromance with a nerdy UCLA-grad and supposed social media hater Shooby. It’s a weird social experiment for sure, but I really believe these strangers made genuine connections with each other, albeit guised under loyalty voting. Could the Breakfast Club come together if they were isolated into hotel rooms and had to rank each other? I think not.