Definitely recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I
Spike).
Also recommend the Tudors (Jonathan Rhys Myers is a delight to women and alternative male viewers alike), a documentary series on military training (either Surviving or Making the Cut, I can't recall which right now and I'm lazy), Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Family Guy, and A&E series like Intervention and Hoarders.
IDK why, but I find watching mentally ill people struggle to make a breakthrough oddly compelling and uplifting.
Except when they show animals that get caught up in hoarding, and then I become very sad and I pet my cat and assure him that I will never allow him to become buried under piles of trash.