Guilty pleasures like Desperate Housewives and X-Files coming to Disney+

Susan, Bree and Gaby in Desperate Housewives

There's a whole bunch of new titles set to drop onto Disney+ very soon. The amount of content available on the home entertainment site will double thanks to a link-up with Star. 

Two big Star originals will include Big Sky from David E Kelley of The Undoing, Big Little Lies and Ally McBeal fame. And the critically acclaimed Love, Victor which is set in the world of the original 2018 film, Love, Simon will also be available on Disney+ from  February 23. 

Big Sky is an intense thriller following private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt as they join forces with his estranged wife and ex-cop, Jenny Hoyt, to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to find the women before it’s too late.

Big Sky stars Katheryn Winnick as Jenny Hoyt, Kylie Bunbury as Cassie Dewell, Brian Geraghty as Ronald Pergman, Dedee Pfeiffer as Denise Brisbane, Natalie Alyn Lind as Danielle Sullivan, Jade Pettyjohn as Grace Sullivan, Jesse James Keitel as Jerrie, with John Carroll Lynch as Rick Legarski and Ryan Phillippe as Cody Hoyt.

Big Sky

Love, Victor is set in the world of the original 2018 film Love, Simon. The series follows Victor, a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation. When it all seems too much, he reaches out to Simon to help him navigate the ups and downs of high school.

Some absolutely ace classic series are also set to land on Disney+ next month. These include 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, The X-Files, Prison Break, Black-ish, Atlanta and How I Met Your Mother. 

Looking at some of these through a lockdown lens and there might be an extra special magnetism to a series about the lives, loves and shenanigans of a bunch of extremely glamorous neighbours who sashay in and out of each other's houses every day. We're all Desperate Housewives now but in a different sense. 

Lost

Sure, the survivors of Oceanic Air Flight 815 had to contend with secrets, impossible challenges and a very limited number of people they could meet every day but they got to do it all on a tropical island. We might end up envying the cast of Lost if we settle back into this one. 

X-Files and Prison Break — need I say more. Things were weird and difficult in both of these series but they might be just the escapism we need right now. And even that X-Files theme tune will bring you right back to the mid-90s when this peaked.

Scully and Mulder in X-Files

24 stars Kiefer Sutherland in this precedent-setting television series where the entire season takes place in one day, with each of the 24 episodes covering one hour, told in real time.

How I Met Your Mother is a comedy about Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love. It all started when Ted’s best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel), dropped the bombshell that he was going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, and now wife, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher. The series is narrated through flashbacks from the future.

Atlanta revolves around Earnest 'Earn' Marks (Donald Glover), a loner who returns to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia (The Peach State) after dropping out of Princeton. Upon his arrival, he discovers his cousin Alfred has become Atlanta's hottest new rap act. The show follows the cousins on their way up through the Atlanta rap scene, where their opposing views on art, commerce, success, and race will make their quest anything but easy. 

black-ish

Black-ish Like any parents, Andre 'Dre' (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) Johnson want to give their children the best. But their offspring’s childhood is turning out to be much different than theirs. They now realize at least two things: There is a price to pay for giving their children more than what they ever had, and these loving parents are totally unprepared for the fallout. 'Pops' (Laurence Fishburne), Dre’s dad, takes every opportunity to offer his old school opinion on family issues.

And for fans of just settling down with a classic action film then the Die Hard movie franchise could be just the ticket. You can argue about whether they are Christmas movies or just action movies set at Christmas time among yourselves. 

Disney+ is available for an annual €69.99 subscription or €6.99 per month. There are parental controls on the app and you can set limits on access to content for specific profiles and you can add a PIN to lock profiles out of mature content for example.