Instead of thinking "one more page" or "one more chapter", you convince yourself to watch "just one more episode" before trotting off to bed.

These are the shows you could easily sit and watch hour after hour for an entire weekend. In other words, they're binge-worthy.

Now, with the holidays coming up, you're going to have a lot of free time on your hands. You need to fill it with something, and a massive TV binge could do the trick. So, here are the 22 most binge-worthy shows in TV history. You should try to watch them all.

BREAKING BAD

We know there will be howls of outrage if Breaking Bad isn't on the list, so let's get it out of the way. This story about a meek chemistry teacher who turns into a ruthless drug lord is probably the best thing that's been on TV for years. You'll become as addicted to the show as Walter White is to the meth business.

GIRLS

Finally, a realistic show about women. The characters in Girls are imperfect and often cringe-worthy, just like real people, which is why Girls has been hailed by so many viewers as a breath of fresh air. Of course, there are others who absolutely despise it, but controversy isn't necessarily a bad thing for a TV show.

MAD MEN

Mad Men is pretty much the polar opposite of Girls. It transports viewers a generation or two into the past, to a time when all the rules were different. The men in this show are unfailingly sexist. Everyone smokes and drinks to excess. The moral order is completely upside down, and we find it perversely fascinating.

HOMELAND

Remember 24? This is a more sophisticated version of that. Season one is excellent, but after that the writers of Homeland are constantly trying to trick you into thinking the plot is moving forward when it really isn't. At all. It's still worth watching though.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

We love a show with some basis in history, and right now that show is Boardwalk Empire. The period drama series is set in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era, and its lead character is based on historical crime figure Enoch Johnson. Lead actor Steve Buscemi is creepily good.

DOWNTON ABBEY

Downton shows a bunch of rich people falling in love with each other and getting served fancy dinners by a bunch of poor people, who also fall in love with each other. In scattered moments of scandal, some of the rich people fall in love with the poor people. In all the other moments you get to laugh at the timeless wit of Maggie Smith, otherwise known as the Dowager Countess AWESOME.

THE SOPRANOS

A mob boss tries to balance his family life with the demands of running a criminal organisation. With a premise as compelling as that, it's hardly surprising that so many people regard The Sopranos as the best TV series ever. Great acting and scripting helps as well. It is in no way OK for you to miss this show.

FRIENDS

Come on guys, it's Friends. Do we even need to explain this one? The series' final episode was watched by 52.46 million people in the US, and if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know, you don't really deserve to enjoy this classic anyway. Come for the nineties time warp, stay for the laughs.

THE WALKING DEAD

Lots of blood. Lots of zombies. Cowboy hats. What more could you want in a post-apocalyptic horror show? The Walking Dead is jam-packed with tension, paranoia and people with dirty faces who often manage to destroy, then restore your faith in humanity during one episode.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Are you a fan of American football? Neither am I. That doesn't matter one jot when you watch Friday Night Lights, which is based around a high school football team in Texas. It deals with issues like racism, drugs and abortion without getting tiresome. In short, it was always the one high school drama on TV that didn't suck.

THE WEST WING

Every university student in Australia has a rampaging crush on President Jed Bartlet. The West Wing is idealistic, optimistic and brilliantly written, with arguably the best dialogue of any show on TV. Sadly, it also gives those uni kids unrealistic expectations of politics in the real world.

HOUSE OF CARDS

From rose-tinted idealism to gritty cynicism. The American version of House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, is actually adapted from an earlier British miniseries, which was itself adapted from a novel. Whichever version you pick, you're guaranteed a thrilling and disenchanting ride.

SEINFELD

The comedic brainchild of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld lasted nine seasons, which isn't shabby for a show about absolutely nothing. Cosmo Kramer is the only TV character who can crack you up just by opening a door, and Seinfeld is the only show we know of that spawned its own public holiday. Long live Festivus.

NCIS

You won't hear hipster TV critics raving about it in the streets, but this military crime drama was the most watched show in the US last year. The Japanese love it too. Fox Japan is planning to air a 10-day marathon of 234 episodes across December and January.

HOUSE

My most vivid memory of actor Hugh Laurie is his starring role as the dipstick prince in Blackadder, but he also played a misanthropic, drug-addicted doctor in House. The show finished last year, but it's still the medical drama that leaves ER flatlining.

THE NEWSROOM

According to people who work in actual newsrooms, the newsroom portrayed in The Newsroom is nothing like a real newsroom. But the show's fictional, so who cares? The Newsroom is written by Aaron Sorkin, making it a great show for political nerds who need to feed their West Wing nostalgia.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

This is one for the Joss Whedon acolytes, and for those who like their TV shows with a bit of girl power. Buffy's a relic from an earlier age, before vampires were ruined forever by you know who writing you know what. It also has the most awesome British character on television, Rupert Giles.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

If you casually tune into this show once or twice a year, you will think it's absolutely nonsensical. But commit to watching every episode and you'll be rewarded with a gold mine of running gags and quotable lines such as "I am having a love affair with this ice cream sandwich."

GAME OF THRONES

This used to be a niche show for fantasy geeks, but now my mum likes it, so you'd have to concede it's gone mainstream. No other program kills off its main characters with such verve, and that makes Game of Thrones tense and unpredictable ... unless you read the books first.

SCRUBS

You can't go past Scrubs for addictive, lighthearted comedy. The show's biggest highlight, aside from television's greatest bromance, is the manic, curly-haired Dr Cox. That guy's better than House. His middle name is Ulysses for goodness' sake.

DOCTOR WHO

I'm going to be honest here. I don't get Doctor Who at all. The plots don't make sense and the characters are silly. The biggest villains in the series are so ridiculous that for years people thought they couldn't go up stairs. But the show has earned an unrivalled cult following over the last 50 years, so we can probably presume I'm the problem here.

THE WIRE

Before they had Breaking Bad, TV officionados raved endlessly about The Wire, and with good reason. Masterfully written by former police reporter David Simon, the show portrays life in urban America from dozens of perspectives. It's devastatingly authentic, because the stories were taken from real life. The funny thing is, hardly anyone watched the show when it first aired.

What have we missed? Continue the conversation on Twitter: @SamClench |@newscomauHQ