"Background shows" aren't bad shows. Some of my favorite shows are the ones that are so soothing I somehow find myself waking up hours later to an " are you still watching? " screen. There's no one thing that makes a show good to put on in the background, it just needs a nice soundtrack, a warm vibe, and nothing too jarring or complicated that you'll find yourself confused about when you tune back into it after a meeting and brief trip to to the coffee shop — and so many of the best ones are just a Netflix-search away.