Laurie Holden, Thomas Jane and Nathan Gamble star in Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist.; Credit: Ronn Schmidt

For many, the growth in availability of streaming entertainment has been a godsend.

Now thanks to services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others - there are thousands of movies and television shows available at any given time. But there’s a problem - there are thousands of movies and television shows available at any given time.

But we’ve got the solution - a new segment aimed at sorting through the clutter and giving you some clear winners

THE BINGE Our guide is Take Two contributor - and also writer & film historian Mark Jordan Legan And in this first segment, we’re going with a varied list, a good comedy, a good horror film and then two murder mysteries that were made for binge-watching.  First up, when you find yourself in the mood for a good laugh, here’s a terrific comedy from 1996, Flirting With Disaster:

It’s a  very early David O. Russell film and it is chock full of hilarious performances - Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni and Patricia Arquette all shine but the amazing supporting cast includes everybody from Richard Jenkins to Mary Tyler Moore to Alan Alda. Next we have a great suggestion for you horror fans out there - Frank Darabont and Stephen King have collaborated before on some powerful films - The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile but from 2007 is the rather overlooked gem, The Mist:

It has the feeling of a good old fashioned monster movie combined with a gritty social drama from the 70’s.  And we’re going to end with two highly recommended TV crime mysteries.

The first one is from writer/director Jane Campion, and the riveting seven episode series Top of the Lake.

Elisabeth Moss, who many will remember as Peggy in MAD MEN, won a Golden Globe for her intense portrayal of a detective who returns home to visit her ailing mother, only to be drawn into the investigation once the young girl, named Tui, runs away and goes missing.  The series is haunting, moody and richly textured. And definitely for mature audiences only.

And our final recommendation is the excellent BBC crime drama Broadchurch:

It stars the former Dr. Who himself, David Tennant and the marvelous Olivia Coleman who plays a police detective in an idyllic seaside town that is suddenly shaken to its core when a young boy’s dead body is found on the beach.  She has to try and separate herself from living in this close-knit community and yet still do her job

Mark Jordan Legan is a writer and film historian, living in Los Angeles,