Have you heard of The Boroughs? It’s a new series that recently dropped on Netflix, produced by the Duffer Brothers (you know, the Stranger Things guys) about a retirement community where the residents have to band together to fight back against a supernatural threat. It’s a fantastic show, something that’s really smart and engaging and…and…and I’ve gotta be honest here, I haven’t watched an episode of it. 

Yet. I have to stress YET. Because it absolutely sounds like the sort of thing I would be into, and I’ve heard from people whose opinions I trust that it’s well worth watching. I am, perhaps, a little disturbed by the hard facts that this show is forcing on the world, specifically the notion that Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, and Geena Davis are apparently old enough to convincingly play nursing home residents.

The problem is, I still haven’t gotten around to finishing the FIRST gift the Duffer Brothers gave to the world, namely Stranger Things. The final season of that show is still sitting in my “to-be-watched” list, mainly because there was such an excruciatingly long gap between the last two seasons that I felt the need to rewatch the earlier ones before I got to the new one, and I just haven’t had the time. And that’s to say nothing of the spin-off animated series, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, which I don’t know anything about except for the fact that apparently there’s a pink-haired girl named “Nikki” who joins the Party, and I only know that because she was in my son’s Happy Meal last week.

No, the REAL truth that I suspect we can learn from The Boroughs (this is based on the extensive research I did reading the first paragraph of the show’s Wikipedia page) is that of all the precious resources that we have, TIME is the one most subject to theft. I really want to watch all of these shows, but when? When you’ve got a job and a family and a million (admittedly self-imposed) writing obligations, it can be hard to find the time to squeeze in even one episode of a show, let alone an entire season. Fortunately for me, as a teacher, I do have at least one sliver of opportunity that a lot of people don’t get to enjoy: summer.

Having a couple of months where I’m not getting up at 5 am to get to work every day is a good opportunity to play some catch-up. The question, of course, is where to begin? Like I said, I want to finish Stranger Things, but that’s by no means the only series where I fell behind. I’m still two seasons behind each on The Boys and Cobra Kai, both of which have finished their runs. I’m behind on animated series as well, like Invincible and Harley Quinn. And while we’re on the subject of superhero shows, did I mention I never got around to watching Cristin Milioti’s Emmy-winning turn in The Penguin? And before I even got around to ANY of those, Prime Video and Sony had the unmitigated GALL to drop Nicolas Cage in Spider-Noir earlier this week.

Then there are the science fiction shows that keep garnering acclaim that I haven’t even STARTED yet. I’ve been reading Isaac Asimov since middle school, but I’ve yet to watch an episode of Foundation. The same goes for Silo and Severance, both of which seem – by all accounts – right up my ally. I suppose I should be grateful that I snuck in Pluribus earlier this year it was excellent, by the way), and that Vince Gilligan doesn’t seem to be in any rush to push out the second season. That can be frustrating, to be certain, but at least it will give me a little bit of time to watch some other things. 

And it’s not only genre stuff that I’m behind on. I’ve got two seasons of Only Murders in the Building staring me in the face, and if I hear any more good stuff about The Pitt I’m going to…well, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but it probably involves a lot of watching Noah Wylie. 

So how do you tackle a task like this? Should I take one series at a time and push through it? Should I break it up and shuffle them around, watching a comedy, then follow it up with a sci-fi show? Should I blend a crime drama like Penguin with a dash of horror like the two Mike Flanagan miniseries that I haven’t gotten around to yet? (The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass. They came out before I discovered and became a fan of Flanagan’s work, but to date I’ve enjoyed roughly everything the man has done, so they’re on the list.)

And don’t even get me started on the MOVIES I haven’t watched yet.

So, my devoted hive mind, I put it out to you. How would you tackle this mountain of entertainment? Where would you start? How would you divide and conquer? 

And work fast. I’ve only got until August here.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. We’re not gonna talk about how far behind he is on the Marvel and Star Wars shows.