It's not exactly what you were asking for, but I'll say one thing that definitely helped me was to remove the mobile apps to sites like reddit from my phone. It was much easier to break its hold on me when I couldn't just view it anywhere. Obviously, it was still an issue on the desktop but nudged me in the right direction that made breaking away much easier. And once I could go several days without hitting a site at all, the addictive nature of the site really subsided a lot.
Series:
- Dark: I love this series. It's complex and smart and isn't afraid to let the viewer think and not hold our hand. I re-watch this at least once a year, sometimes more. The show runners also made another series, 1899, which I liked - but didn't love - and Netflix killed it after only one season.
- Alta Mar/High Seas: The first season especially just captured my heart. It's a fun murder-on-a-cruise-liner scenario with absolutely lavish set dressing, costumes, etc. The cast is a delight. There are a few unnecessary twists and the subsequent seasons didn't grab me as hard, but this is one I happily come back to periodically.
- Paranormal: This is, in some ways, only an "okay" series if I'm honest. The stories are solid, but mid-tier, the effects are pretty low grade, and the episodes didn't connect well. But why I still have a fondness for this one: This series wasn't just set in Egypt, it was an Egyptian production. So you don't have some of the baggage of Hollywood/the U.S. or even other, major media countries. It's refreshing to get a different cultural view occasionally.
- Control-z: This was a fun, stylish mystery series set in a Mexican high-school. Not terribly deep and after the first season the quality drops pretty quickly, but it was enjoyable.
- Squid Game: Who doesn't love a game? :)
- Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes: Not very long series but it was enjoyable if you like the possibly over used trope of someone coming back from the dead and the challenges they encounter.
- Katla: A short Icelandic supernatural series. Creepy vibes aplenty.
- Money Heist: Spanish bank heist series. Good, not great, but good. A little predictable in places, a little unpredictable in places. Went for several seasons and spawned a couple of spin-offs.
- Fallet: An interestingly little series from Sweden. The premise is a stretch, but the characters were kind of endearing. I enjoyed it.
Movies:
I know I've watched a lot more foreign films recently that I liked than this, but I'm having a hard time recalling any that stand out. Here's still a few I felt like mentioning:
Classics: Pan's Labyrinth, Run Lola Run, Seven Samurai.
A few you might not have heard of:
- Errementari: a stylish, enjoyable fable of a blacksmith and the devil
- The Little Switzerland: A silly little comedy set in Spain. Not a lot of depth, but entertaining.
This statement, from the company that looked at Recall and collectively said "yeah, this is a good idea".
That, as others have mentioned, is a moderately difficult question for us without knowing what you like or what the specs on your laptop are.
If you install Steam, they have a pretty generous return policy. You just need to act within 2 weeks of the purchase OR before you hit a total of two hours played in that game - whichever comes first. I like Steam because the Proton compatibility layer built in makes gaming on Linux so incredibly easy.
I'm hesitant to do so because you undoubtedly like different things, but here is a short list of some of the games I've played that I really enjoyed based on total time played.
Sid Meier's Civilization (the whole series is good, but 5 is my favorite)
Stellaris
Battletech
Satisfactory
Valheim
Football Manager (think of this title as the complex strategy game to FIFA's action game)
Another vote being cast here for a both Brother and laser. The nice thing about laser is that you can go without printing for weeks, or even, months, and just pick up right where you left off. My old ink jets, if you left them that long, would have completely dried out and need to be replaced.
They're not subs, but you may be looking for something like The Onion or Hard Times
It might not be exactly what you're looking for, and it's no where as good a movie as Chinatown, but "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065462) definitely ends on a very "down" note. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and was kind of blown away by the ending.
Clementine
If you liked Clementine, check out Strawberry. Clementine hasn't been updated since 2016. Strawberry is a fork of the Clementine code base and essentially picks up where Clementine left off.
The one I bumped into recently: the Coastline Paradox
"The coastline paradox is the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length. This results from the fractal curve–like properties of coastlines; i.e., the fact that a coastline typically has a fractal dimension."
A good pair of comfortable shoes for your day-to-day circumstances.
Admittedly, this can easily break the $100 limit depending on where you live, your circumstances, etc. but buy the best pair you can afford.
"continuing to push the boundaries of consent."
If by "push the boundaries" you meant "completely ignore them", then yes. This kind of behavior from MS, or any vendor, should always be considered strictly unacceptable.