Lose yourself this mid-winter break through days of seemingly endless TV marathoning. The Patriot Press has come up with a few recommendations that will send you into an abyss of heart-wrenching pain, laugh-out-loud humor, and inspiring character development.

The unique retelling of Arthurian tales: “BBC’s twist on the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table offers a fresh perspective to this tale. Merlin and Arthur are the same age, and Camelot is a land where magic is banned. I really enjoy Merlin because of instead of teaching Arthur how to grow up, Merlin and Arthur are forced to grow up together, and turn their relationship from prince and servant to brothers-in-arms.”-Logan Allan, Online Editor

The crime show that shows the darkest of humanity: “I love Criminal Minds because of the well-developed characters that each have their own approach to the cases they are given. Criminal Minds is a unique crime show to me because of how they incorporate a deeper explanation through psychology and sociology as to why the criminals and serial killers commit their crimes.”-Isabella Francavilla, Staff Writer

The drily sarcastic and well-balanced hospital drama: “House is special because unlike other medical dramas, the plot of the drama is focused around the characters. It’s a character development driven show, and while the show spends an adequate amount of time on the patient’s problems, it always comes back to how the characters are doing with their own dramas.”-Sabrina Suen, Staff Writer