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The original A Different World was a groundbreaking sitcom in its era, spending six seasons highlighting Black academic drive among a cast of characters so indelible that we're now checking in on them decades later. Spearheaded by Queen Sugar's Felicia Pride, the update has been a critical and ratings hit for Netflix, earning the rarest prize of all in streaming television: a quick second season renewal. While you're waiting for season two, here are some other smart coming-of-age shows that blend heart and humor with realistic drama.
An easy pairing with A Different World, this show follows Black-ish's Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) as she leaves home to attend a (fictional) California liberal arts college (the last couple of post-graduation seasons shift the focus to her brother Andre, played by Marcus Scribner). The emphasis is on driven young people who are capable of making big mistakes on the path to adulthood. A true comedy-drama, Grown-ish feels real(-ish) in a way that few other college shows have managed. Stream Grown-ish on Hulu.
Adapted from and expanding upon the 2014 movie, this show takes us to a (fictional) Ivy League school for a comedy-drama that tackles campus life and politics from a rather different perspective than that of Rooster. Logan Browning leads the ensemble cast as Sam White, who kind of inadvertently starts the titular radio show following a racially charged incident on campus. Far from the racial screed that some bad-faith YouTubers seem to find it, it's never shy about confronting the complicated and occasionally silly contradictions of campus activism, with each episode approaching life at Winchester University from a different character's perspective. Stream Dear White People on Netflix.
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naïve scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur) is an aspiring comedy writer on the make for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is an overachieving athlete and senator’s daughter; and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They're all randomly assigned to room together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, this comedy-drama isn't nearly as salacious as its title suggests. There's sex for sure, but mostly it's a funny, queer-friendly show that's a little less about one overarching romance than it is about growing up, and the value of female friendship. Stream The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.
Even though we're backing up a couple of years to follow teens in their high school years, this British import's setting is a decent match, finding its students living away from home and family for the first time in their lives. At the fictional prestigious boarding school St. Gilbert’s, five Black teens are newly attending on scholarships, but their integration into the existing cliques is less than smooth—especially given that they're there largely as a PR stunt. Boarders blends teen romance, coming-of-age drama, and a delightful willingness to take the piss when it comes to the whole "rich private school" thing. Stream Boarders on Tubi.
Another modern take on a beloved '80s/'90s sitcom, this one's a bit different, serving as a total reimagining with no narrative connection to the original. And while A Different World is a comedy with dramatic heft, this one's more of a straight drama. It’s jarring for fans of the beloved original to tune in to find a serious show with the same premise as the Will Smith original—one that often leans into heavy realism. Jabari Banks plays, er, Will Smith, a 16-year-old from West Philadelphia who moves in with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air following a gun charge and a run-in with a Philly drug lord. Banks is charismatic and believable, bringing a ton of personality to a show that occasionally veers down dark alleys. Stream Bel-Air on Peacock.
Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, kinda, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college while desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's both a frequently raunchy college comedy and a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel), and, though it's more a story of one young man's coming of age, there's a strong ensemble backing him up. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.
The heart of All American (for most of its run) is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player for his high school team in Crenshaw, he's recruited by the coach (Taye Diggs) of a team in Beverly Hills to come and play for them, forcing Spencer to navigate two very different worlds while trying to build a life and potential career. Stream All American on Netflix.
Following a family tragedy, the already awkward 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) has a pretty terrible freshman year of high school, and decides that she’s going to turn things around the following year, hoping that a nearly academic study of sex will get her the boyfriend(s) her raging hormones have begun to demand. It works, to a point—but getting a surprise yes to sex from her crush leads her to question what she’s really ready for. More about burgeoning sexuality than sex specifically, this Mindy Kaling-produced series is both honest and charming. Stream Never Have I Ever on Netflix.
For realism in a show about the college experience, you could do a lot worse than this docuseries following several students at Gallaudet University, a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults. In one sense, it's a specific setting where perspectives on deafness vary wildly, even in Gallaudet's self-contained world (aside from being a show about academically driven and horny college students, this is also a great primer for hearing people about some of the issues). But even for all of that, the challenges in building a life and future away from home are pretty universally relatable. Stream Deaf U on Netflix.
There's a reason A Different World has returned in 2026, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there was nothing else on TV quite like it back in the late '80s and early '90s. For all of its sitcom sensibilities, the show tried hard (especially after multi-hyphenate creator Debbie Allen arrived to rework things after its first season) to paint a realistic picture of college life and an HBCU. Of the few shows on TV with largely Black casts, almost none would go so far as to highlight achievement and excellence; A Different World managed to do so while building a cast of characters so memorable that we're more than willing to catch up with them nearly forty years later. Stream A Different World on Netflix.
Holiday content returns to Netflix in November, with the monthly slate weighted toward dozens of Christmas and seasonally themed films and shows as well as season nine of The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (Nov. 23). Netflix will also be hosting a Thanksgiving Eve NFL game with the Packers vs. Rams matchup on Nov. 25.
Other titles of note include The Altruists (Nov. 19), a limited drama series about the rise and fall—and crimes—of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison (played by Julia Garner of Ozark and Inventing Anna fame). Jessica Chastain stars in the Netflix original film Heartland (Nov. 13), a thriller about a former country music star whose niece disappears.
On the documentary side, there's Ron Howard's Avedon (Nov. 11), a film about the photographer's life and influence, plus comedy specials from Mike Tyson (Return of the Mike, Nov. 3), Janelle James (How Romantic, Nov. 10), and Mike Ward (Modest, Nov. 17).
Here's everything else coming to Netflix in November, and everything that's leaving.
Gordon—Netflix Series
100 días para enamorarnos: Season 1
A Sudden Case of Christmas
Air Force One
Barbie in the Nutcracker
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Bridesmaids
Cliffhanger
The Croods
The Day After Tomorrow
El Chema: Season 1
Falsa identidad: Seasons 1-2
Fury
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas
Happy’s Place: Season 2
Insidious: Chapter 2
Insidious: Chapter 3
Looper
Mistletoe Murders: Seasons 1-2
The Mummy
No Sleep 'Til Christmas
Public Enemies
Rectify: Seasons 1-4
The Red Road: Seasons 1-2
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Richard Jewell
Same Time, Next Christmas
Stand by Me
Weekend at Bernie's
Whiplash
A Cinderella Christmas Ball
Bass X Machina—Netflix Series
Christmas Time Is Here
Menorah in the Middle
Mike Tyson: Return of the Mike—Netflix Series Comedy Special
St. Denis Medical: Season 2
Will Trent: Seasons 1-4
A Dog's Perfect Christmas—Netflix Film
A Runaway Bride for Christmas
Anaesthesia—Netflix Series
Deck the Hallways
Ninho: Fame Ain’t Worth It—Netflix Documentary
Taken: Natalee Holloway—Netflix Documentary
Black Doves: Season 2—Netflix Series
Deck the Halls
The Neighborhood: Season 1-8
North of North: Season 2—Netflix Series
One Year to Live, Buy a Man—Netflix Film
Overacting—Netflix Film
Carolina Caroline
Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story
Possible Love—Netflix Film
Under Siege—Netflix Series
Unprotected: Murder in Galicia—Netflix Documentary
Doozie's Doghouse—Netflix Family
The Good Lawyer—Netflix Film
Misty Green
Power: Seasons 1-6
The Devil's Plan: Season 3—Netflix Series
Janelle James: How Romantic—Netflix Comedy Special
Last One Standing: Season 4—Netflix Series
Reminders of Him
Alicia's Law—Netflix Series
Avedon—Netflix Documentary
The Body—Netflix Series
ChiaroScuro—Netflix Series
The Gospel of Christmas—Netflix Film
How to Fall In Love By Christmas
Rodeo Christmas Romance
A Christmas Castle Proposal: A Royal in Paradise 2
Allen—Netflix Film
Bros: Season 2—Netflix Series
The Christmas Switch—Netflix Film
The Empress: Season 3—Netflix Series
Ethos: Season 2—Netflix Series
The First 48: Season 16
Love Is Blind, Habibi: Season 2—Netflix Series
Miracles of the ER—Netflix Series
Never Surrender—Netflix Film
A Merry Christmas Wish
Heartland—Netflix Film
Murder in Galicia—Netflix Series
Stars and Vows: Anele & Buzza—Netflix Series
Insidious
Smile
Christmas On The Ranch
Reporting for Christmas
Mike Ward: Modest—Netflix Comedy Special
Obsession
RBG
Run the World: Seasons 1-2
America's Test Kitchen Friendsgiving: Season 1
Gentle Monster—Netflix Film
Guarding Stars—Netflix Film
The Law of Beasts—Netflix Series
Valentina and the 12 Signs—Netflix Series
Win the Mall—Netflix Series
A Cherry Pie Christmas
The Altruists—Netflix Series
Christmas at Fields Ranch
On Behalf of My Son—Netflix Film
Primetime Preacher$—Netflix Documentary
Steps—Netflix Family
The Family Holiday
Marry Christmas
Mistletoe Mixup
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 9—Netflix Series
Mark Rober's CrunchLabs: Season 6
Sesame Street: Volume 4—Netflix Family
The Trials of Karen Read—Netflix Documentary
All for Christmas
Rob Lowe: The Outsider—Netflix Documentary
The Trouble With Mistletoe
The Mosquito Bowl—Netflix Film
NFL Netflix Gameday: Thanksgiving Eve, Packers vs. Rams—Netflix Live Event
Always on Call—Netflix Series
Fool Night—Netflix Series
The Hunting Wives: Season 2—Netflix Series
Toos: The Van der Valk Kidnapping—Netflix Series
The Child—Netflix Film
The Hunchback, Soul of Paris—Netflix Film
Salish's 12 Games of Christmas—Netflix Series
Pressure
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
13 Going on 30
42
American Sniper
Black Adam
Broadchurch: Seasons 1-3
Catch and Release
Eat Pray Love
Fast Five
Hitch
Jumanji
Nightcrawler
Pompeii
Speed
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Starship Troopers
Steel Magnolias
Under the Skin
The End of the F***ing World: Seasons 1-2
Safe Haven
The Lost City
The Big C: Seasons 1-4
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Shallows
Saw X
True Romance
The Resident: Seasons 1-6
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: Limited Series
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If horror films have taught me anything, it's that nothing good ever comes out of the fog, but the haze-filled thriller Below has definitely earned record ratings and enthusiastic audiences for Netflix—it's the top debut for a Canadian show in the streamer's history, as it happens. In its wake, consider these 10 other series that take you to isolated and evocative landscapes filled with horrors both human and monstrous.
Claustrophobic, mysterious, and perpetually misty (seriously, you can't see shit in any of these towns), Midnight Mass is very much about the monsters within being no less frightening than those without. It may or may not be the best of Mike Flanagan's Netflix work, but it's certainly the most emotionally devastating. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the tiny, isolated community of Crockett Island, his arrival coinciding with that of Catholic priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). Riley is wrestling with his justifiable guilt over a drunk-driving death for which he was responsible, while the charismatic priest is reviving the town's once-flagging religious fervor while exacerbating local tensions. The brewing conflict, involving the limits of both faith and guilt, is fascinating, while the inseparably horrific elements are terrifying. Stream Midnight Mass on Netflix.
Running to the darker end of the spectrum, the often devastating Katla moves slowly until it doesn't, deliberately picking up speed as it builds to an emotional climax. Set in Iceland, the show takes place one year following the eruption of the real-life Katla volcano, which buries the nearby town of Vik in choking ash. The few people who've elected to remain are surprised, to say the least, when soot-covered figures from the past start arriving, including the dead son of the volcanologist studying the meteorite in the nearby glacier. Stream Katla on Netflix.
Each season of The Terror is distinct, but all converge on the idea that real life is far, far more horrifying than the supernatural stuff going on in the background. Season one, adapted from the Dan Simmons novel, is our focus here, involving as it does the true story of two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage before becoming trapped in a field of ice. Starvation, madness, and monsters ensue. While set in the 1840s (and in an ice field), the vibe isn't wildly dissimilar to Below. Stream The Terror on AMC+ and Shudder.
This weird, ambitious slice of folk horror finds Jude Law's Sam arriving on Osea Island while grieving his murdered son and trying to save his failing business. After he intervenes when he sees a young woman attempting to hang herself, Sam is caught up in some wildly atmospheric creepiness around the town. Later, Naomie Harris' Helen arrives on the island with her daughters only to discover that everything's gone to hell, and that the causeway that connects the island to the mainland is gone. In between the two halves of the miniseries, the creators produced an immersive 12-hour, single-camera livestream capturing a day in the life of the island, a wild bit of innovation. Admittedly, it's all a bit more vibes than plot, but the vibes are genuinely disturbing. Stream The Third Day on HBO Max.
One of the better creepy-stuff-in-an-isolated location narratives of recent years, moving away from the schvitzy bro energy of earlier seasons in favor of a darker (literally) and frostier mystery involving missing scientists at a research station near a tiny and necessarily remote Alaskan town, where the dark and the cold are practically characters themselves. The resulting case ties together veteran Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), two women with complicated pasts and screwed-up present family lives. Stream True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max.
Set in 1945 Gyeongseong (modern-day Seoul), and during the Japanese occupation of Korea, this series finds the title's monster arising out of human experimentation conducted in secret by the Japanese army. The scars of occupation have been justifiably fertile ground for storytelling in the last few years (see also Apple’s Pachinko), and Gyeongseong adds science fiction to that mix. The second season moves the action to the present day, with a third season renewal looking likely. If Below's monster is a primary draw, South Korean import Gyeongseong is about as good a follow-up as you're likely to find. Stream Gyeongseong Creature on Netflix.
Set near the real-life Lago di Resia in northern Italy, this show was inspired by the lake's singular view: the bell tower of a 14th century chapel rising above the water, the only visible remains of a village submerged by a dam in the 1950s. That eerie setting is home to Anna Raina (Valeria Bilello); it was, anyway, until she fled while pregnant with her twin daughters following her mother's tragic and mysterious death. The twins are now teenagers, and the three of them have returned—except nobody seems to want them around. They come to learn that Anna's been having dreams about her mother's death in which she's the killer, and then she herself disappears. It all ties back to that lake and the creepy bell tower—more about family mystery and vaguely supernatural menace than monsters, but the evocative setting ties this and Below together. Stream Curon on Netflix.
Another recent addition to the atlas of regrettable vacation destinations is Widow's Bay, an isolated New England island trying to shrug off its literally cursed reputation in favor of becoming a tourist destination à la Martha's Vineyard—but, alas, the timing isn't great. Cozy and idyllic on the surface, Widow's Bay appears to be "waking up," according to a few of the more tuned-in locals. Mayor Tom Loftus (Matthew Rhys), a relative newcomer, is having none of it—at least until a killer clown and waterlogged lady come for him, convincing him to join forces with local eccentric Wyck (Stephen Root) who seems to be on to something with his crackpot theories. The show is frequently funny, but also legitimately scary, with an everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach to the horror genre. Stream Widow's Bay on Apple TV.
As we in the real world well know, monsters can be tiny at least as easily as they can be large. This import finds us on a Scottish oil rig (obvi) in the North Sea, abruptly cut off by a mysterious fog (never a good thing) just as the facility is beginning to experience catastrophic system and structural failures. The mysterious haze is more than just a weather phenomenon, though, as there seems to be a microorganism carried within it that causes dramatic behavioral changes, and that may have a relationship to every mass extinction event in Earth's history. But hey—anything to push down the price of oil, amirite? Stream The Rig on Prime Video.
The tone is wildly different, but so many of the shows here are included on the basis of their claustrophobic, mist-shrouded settings and similarly hazy human motivations, so it's only fair to give you some actual monsters, and no show has more creatures than this Godzilla spin-off. Monarch does a surprisingly effective job of telling its own story within the universe of all those American Godzilla movies of the past decade or so, bringing the narrative back down to Earth while building out an entire monster-verse mythology in the process. Anna Sawai stars as a young teacher searching for her father, missing since Godzilla's attack on San Francisco (depicted in the 2014 film), and finds herself drawn into the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the Army colonel who helped set the whole thing in motion. Kong and Godzilla make appearances alongside the whole Toho monster stable. Stream Monarch on Apple TV.
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The new streaming series Crystal Lake takes us back to the early days of the Friday the 13th franchise to explore the origins of hockey-masked killer Jason's power and fury—by focusing, once again, on his mom (Linda Cardellini). Is this backstory we needed? Probably not! But I'm happy to revisit the bloodiest (and horniest) summer camp in America. If you're looking for other like-minded horror adaptations, here are 10 chilling shows to stream next.
You want some more backstory on an iconic serial killer and his mom? Say no more. Freddie Highmore stars as Norman Bates, the character author Robert Bloch based on the real killer Ed Gein, with Vera Farmiga playing his mother Norma (in her pre-desiccated-corpse days). Norman might not have accrued nearly the body count of Jason, but he's a lot more charming. Like a lot of media spun off from Alfred Hitchcock's seminal Psycho, it's better than it has any right to be, with impressively compelling character development and several surprises, even if we already know more or less where it's headed. Stream Bates Motel on Prime Video.
More high-minded than Crystal Lake, this reboot/prequel/fresh take on the Thomas Harris novels came from Bryan Fuller, who took a first crack at the Friday series before A24 decided it wanted something a little closer to the movies than what he'd proposed. Fuller goes back to the source material here, adapting the first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television (you're still unlikely to find more gorgeously constructed scenes of carnage). What's more, the deeper, sexier relationship between the Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but the three seasons still make for a satisfying meal. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video.
Just a British meta-slasher-comedy on a boat (initially). Oscar Kennedy plays Jamie Walsh, who takes a job on board a cruise ship in order to investigate the disappearance of his sister, last seen working on the same vessel. Once on board, he soon realizes that everyone is a suspect and, being that he's on a boat, there's no escape from the murderous web of conspiracy in which he's deliberately entangled himself. The show has an infectious energy that blends Agatha Christie-style mystery elements with gnarly kills among a largely queer group of suspects. Season two moves the action to an island camping retreat for the ultra-wealthy, offering up an even more explicit Friday the 13th vibe. Stream Wreck on Hulu.
Drawing inspiration from Evil Dead, Stan Against Evil stars John C. McGinley as the crotchety, obnoxious former sheriff of a New Hampshire town overrun with vengeful spirits. Janet Varney comes to town as his replacement, and the two soon realize the uneasy spirits and demons aren’t going to be quiet for much longer. The awkward chemistry between the leads is a big selling point, as are the old-school practical monster effects that harken back to the great slasher horror movies of the late '70s through the '80s. The show leans more toward funny (and it’s often very funny) than scary, but the monster effects are well done, and the show doesn’t shy away from great 80s-style gross-out gags. Stream Stan Against Evil on Shudder and AMC+.
One of our most reliable horror franchises went the series route with impressively smart results—not really surprising for fans of the tongue-in-cheek, increasingly meta film series. Zackary Arthur is Jake Wheeler, a queer teen subject to relentless bullying at school and abuse at home from his homophobic father. Jake picks up America's favorite serial-killing doll at a garage sale school art project, and Chucky begins to see the (justifiably) angry kid as a potential protégé. Before long, characters from Chucky's past pop in to complicate things, but the relationship between Jake and Chucky remains the show's beating heart. Even with its dark sense of humor and over-the-top murders, the show became an unlikely critical favorite. Stream Chucky on Peacock and Prime Video.
Each season of this series tells the story of a single serial killer and their would-be victims, stretching out a traditional slasher-movie narrative over several hours. With that time, the show (like Crystal Lake) manages to actually build lives and backstories for its characters, something that movies don’t always have time for or can't be bothered with. It works here, and each season has introduced fairly compelling characters—it doesn’t hurt that the focus is largely on adults, rather than more typical teenage victims. The whole series is excellent, but for our purposes, I'll direct your attention to season two's "Guilty Party," in which a group of former counselors returns to the scene of the crime to retrieve the body of the camper they all accidentally killed, and whose death they purposely concealed years earlier. Stream Slasher on Netflix.
Cheating just a tiny bit by including this series, technically a run of movies, but it plays so much like a miniseries as to be pretty indistinguishable. Adapted from the R. L. Stine books, Fear Street Part One: 1994 kicks off the series by introducing the town of Shadyside, which the local kids call “Shittyside,” and which has a dark history of multiple murders. A group of teens upsets the grave of a witch, kicking off the revival of a killer cult, which requires a trip back in time to truly understand. There is some legit gore and scares (it’s YA, more or less, but definitely not kids’ stuff) as Janiak pays homage to a wide range of horror movies past, particularly with an impeccable camp slasher homage in Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and then an origin tale that brings the initial trilogy to a conclusion in Fear Street Part Three: 1666. Stream Fear Street on Netflix.
Mike Flanagan never really misses, and this series has a summer camp vibe with a deeper, darker twist while rarely feeling entirely gloomy. Based on a few different YA Christopher Pike novels, it concerns a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice home run by a secretive and mysterious doctor (A Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp). Each night the kids meet to share scary stories covering a wide range of genres and styles, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when their time comes. It's spooky and often moving without ever being schmaltzy or precious. It was planned as more than a miniseries, so the cancellation leaves several questions unanswered—but that works in terms of the overall tone and subject matter, which grapples with unanswerable mysteries about life and death. Stream The Midnight Club on Netflix.
AHS is always wildly divisive and more or less critic-proof. The fun 1984 season is as over-the-top as you'd expect, with the show's style grounded thoroughly in the milleau of '80s slasher sequels. Starting with a prologue involving a summer camp threesome that turns into a slaughter, we jump forward 14 years to revisit the same camp with a new group of counselors, hunted this time by both the fictional Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) and the real-life Night Stalker Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa)—at least until the mid-season twist throws everything out the window. The references come fast and furious and the period vibes are exquisite. Stream American Horror Story: 1984 on Prime Video and Hulu.
How does Friday the 13th: The Series tie into the Jason mythology, you may well be asking? It doesn't—not even a little bit, sharing nothing with the film series other than a name, the presence of a couple of actors, and the involvement of producer Frank G. Mancuso Jr. And yet, this creepy, late-night gem has much to recommend it, blending an anthology format with bits of serialized storytelling and a recurring cast. The premise: Cousins Micki Foster (Louise Robey) and Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay) inherit an antique shop from an uncle who died under mysterious circumstances that turn out to involve years of dealings with Satan that eventually went wrong. Now, the two are stuck trying to reclaim a bunch of cursed artifacts with the help of family friend and occult expert Jack (Chris Wiggins). There's no Jason, but much of the horror goes impressively hard, even if we know that our leads will (mostly) make it through to the end. And if you aren't convinced, consider this: Guest directors David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan helmed standout episodes. Stream Friday the 13th: The Series on Fubo.
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It turns out the kids can't get enough of John Steinbeck. The Florence Pugh-led, Zoe Kazan-created adaptation of his novel East of Eden has been a massive hit for Netflix, its epic story covering decades in the lives of two California families in the run-up to World War I. And why not? It's got grand family drama and plenty of sex, set against a massive historical backdrop and stuffed with biblical allusions that make it all feel like less of a guilty pleasure. If this is your bag, here are more similar shows to stream after you've finished your binge-watch.
One generation will inevitably influence those that follow, for better and worse—sins and strengths in equal measure, dramatized most succinctly, perhaps, by Steinbeck's East of Eden and in Isabel Allende's seminal novel, adapted here (indicentally, both books are among the most frequently challenged in the United States). Told from the perspective of Alba (Rochi Hernández), House of the Spirits starts in the 1970s and works backward as Alba explores four generations of family history through he journals of her grandmother, Clara (Dolores Fonzi). Though their country is never named, Allende based it all on the real history of Chile through those decades of political violence and upheaval, and on her own family's triumphs and tragedies in its wake. Stream The House of the Spirits on Prime Video.
The most recent adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's epic, and a pretty good one. We begin in 1805, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, meeting Pierre (Paul Dano), the idealistic illegitimate son of an oligarch; romantic and impulsive dancer Natasha (Lily James); and thoughtful, high-minded Andrei (James Norton), destined to become a soldier. Throughout the years of war that follow, the three of them and their families move in and out of each other's lives, as tragedy alternately unites and divides them. Stream War and Peace on Peacock and Prime Video.
Starting in 1915, this multigenerational saga follows one woman (played in different time periods by Youn Yuh-jung and Kim Min-ha) and her family, taking us from the Japanese occupation of Korea through the decades of the Korean diaspora. With her opportunities limited, Sunja leaves her home and family in Busan to pursue a life in Japan, even as racism and anti-immigrant sentiment are rampant amid the war. In a parallel narrative that begins in 1989, we see what has and hasn't changed for Sunja and her family. It’s a journey as personal as it is epic, with better location cinematography than most movies. Stream Pachinko on Apple TV.
I haven't been the biggest fan of the newer adaptation of the John Galsworthy novels—though The Forsytes has already been renewed for a further two seasons, so I'm apparently in the minority. Nevertheless, I'll direct you back to 2002 and this extended miniseries led by Damian Lewis. It starts off in 1884 when the slightly scandalous engagement of one of the wealthy new-money Forsytes is marred by the revelation of an affair between cousin Joylon (Rupert Graves) and the governess, kicking off an impossibly complicated series of events that plagues the family for decades. Author Galsworthy was inspired to write by his own extramarital affair, so the drama is in the show's DNA. Stream The Forsyte Saga on Netflix.
An epic love story that cleaned house at the 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards (that's South Korea's most prestigious entertainment award ceremony), Tangerines stars IU as Oh Ae-sun (and as Ae-sun's daughter and the series' narrator, Geum-myeong), a young woman born in the 1960s on rural Jeju Island. The series spans decades in her life with friend and later romantic interest Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum), as South Korea changes around them. The focus is more on Ae-sun's own love story than some of these broader narratives, but the scope is epic all the same. Stream When Life Gives You Tangerines on Netflix.
Not to be confused with the American Civil War miniseries North and South from the 1980s, this series adapts Elizabeth Gaskell's 1851 novel that follows Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and her family, forced to leave their Hampshire home and travel to the industrial north of England to avoid religious scandal involving the clergyman father. Poor but well-educated, Margaret runs up against the wealthy owner of the local mill, John Thornton (Richard Armitage), whose family sees her as haughty despite her circumstances; meanwhile, hers sees John and his peers as gruff and inhumane where workers are concerned. Despite their very opposing views, you won't be surprised to learn that Margaret and John find themselves growing closer over the subsequent years, even as their families remain divided. Stream North & South on Prime Video and Tubi.
There's plenty of upper-crust family drama in this loosely-based-on-real-events series, but it comes from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), so expect bloody fisticuffs, too. The first episode begins shortly after the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, who became the wealthiest man in Ireland by expanding the trade in Guinness beer throughout the British Empire. The cracks begin to show on the way to the funeral: Religious leaders deplore all of the beer-drinking, while Irish Republicans want the company brought down for colluding with the Empire. Sir Benjamin's four heirs have wildly different goals and/or hate each other, so, you know—lots of drama, and lots of beer. The show has been renewed for a second season, so a second round is on the way. Stream House of Guinness on Netflix.
Subtitled The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley in his novel, Roots, in any of its incarnations, is hard to top as an epic family drama grounded in history. Absolutely nothing can match the cultural importance of the 1977 miniseries, also an easy recommendation, which centered the generations-long story of a Black family at a time when such narratives were rare on television. The 2016 version couldn’t possibly have that kind of impact, but it works just the same: it's impressively acted and adds a modern polish that doesn’t detract from the story’s power. Covering much of the same ground, the newer version goes further in focusing on the American family at its center, spending less time leading white viewers into the story that begins with Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) captured in Gambia and sold as chattel. There’s a very reasonable debate about the preponderance of slave narratives in film and television and the purpose they serve for white audiences; while both versions of Roots are unflinching in that area, they also go beyond it by engaging with what came before and after. Stream Roots on Prime Video and Tubi.
A dark turn down an alternate path in American history, The Plot Against America asks: what if Charles Lindbergh had succeeded in his bid for political power in the 1930s, bringing to bear his vision of an America that followed in the footsteps of Nazi Germany by halting the “infiltration of inferior blood” (by which he meant, mostly, Jewish people). Adapted from the book by Philip Roth, the series bends imagination with real history, depicting Lindbergh's successful campaign for the American presidency against Franklin D. Roosevelt, which ultimately keeps the U.S. out of World War II—and which results in things at home growing increasingly dangerous for the Jewish family at the show's center, which splinters between members who advocate for resistance, quiet acquiescence, or active participation. Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro star. Stream The Plot Against America on HBO Max.
Rarely has so much drama been sparked by a herd of sheep, but here we are with this blockbuster miniseries adapting Colleen McCullough's novel in suitably grand style. It's set on a sheep station in the Australian outback over several decades in the 20th century. Rachel Ward plays Meggie Cleary, a tough but damaged young woman who becomes the de facto leader of her family after her father uproots the family from New Zealand to New South Wales to live and work on a ranch owned by her wealthy, widowed Aunt Mary (the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, whose performance lives on in "Kiss me on the mouth!" gif reactions). Both Mary and Meggie have eyes for the same man, Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain), who just happens to be a priest. It's expensive, star-studded melodrama par excellence. Buy The Thorn Birds from Prime Video.
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The Ian Brennan/Ryan Murphy true crime anthology series Monster is back with its first trip into the more distant past, taking us back to 1892 to examine one of the most famous and discussed murderers in American history: Lizzie Borden, a woman said to have killed her father and stepmother with an axe. Borden was never convicted; controversy and conspiracy theories linger; and though it happened more than a century ago, the crime was recent enough that we can pore over police files and crime-scene photos and argue over the facts, which makes for thrilling dramatic television.
After all, while a story about an evil killer is one thing, one following an ambiguous, possibly sympathetic killer? That's the stuff of truly juicy true crime. If you're looking for more in the same violent vein, here are 10 shows to stream next.
The real-life Candy Montgomery has been portrayed multiple times—by Barbara Hershey in a 1990 CBS movie, by Jessica Biel in this Hulu miniseries, and, more recently, by Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max's Love & Death. Like Lizzie Borden, Candy is a woman killer (maybe?) who we can't seem to get enough of. Jessica Biel is so good here, though, that this one earns extra points. In an impeccably reproduced 1980, Candy was accused of murdering her neighbor, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), following the woman's affair with Candy's husband, Allan (Pablo Schreiber). And with an axe, no less. Was it cold-blooded murder, or self-defense? Stream Candy on Hulu.
This TV movie could be described as speculative—it plays a bit like high-end Lizzie Borden fan fiction (or perhaps a fever dream), with a phenomenal cast led by Christina Ricci. Set after Lizzie Borden's acquittal for crimes that, the movie makes clear, she absolutely did commit, we find Lizzie and Emma (Clea DuVall) trying to get on with their lives, even as a Pinkerton agent (Cole Hauser) dogs their every move. A trip to New York City finds Lizzie in a love triangle involving a playwright and a sex worker, a woman whose pimp tries to extort our young murderer. That turns out to be every bit as bad an idea as you might expect. Stream The Lizzie Borden Chronicles on Prime Video.
Inspired by a documentary of the same name, The Staircase sidesteps true crime tropes by taking a meta approach to its twisty story. Colin Firth stars as real-life crime novelist Michael Peterson alongside Toni Collette as his wife and, perhaps, his victim, Kathleen, who dies following a fall down a flight of stairs. Peterson was convicted of murder, a charge later reduced to voluntary manslaughter, but there are a lot of lingering questions about the case, and the drama focuses on many of the tangential players—lawyers, family members, and the French film crew that turns up to document everything—offering a glimpse of what life might be like inside of such a whirlwind. Stream The Staircase on HBO Max.
In 2007, 19-year-old American student Amanda Knox was studying in Perugia, Italy, only to find herself arrested and accused of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. The prosecution did a remarkable job at smearing Knox's name in the Italian press, such that she was eventually convicted of the crime despite an almost total lack of evidence, and the fact that the actual killer had already been tried and convicted. Grace Van Patten is great in the lead, and the series does a phenomenal job of dramatizing the various missteps and fabrications that lead to a conviction. A bit of fascinating behind-the-scenes with this one: While the family of Meredith Kercher did not participate, Knox herself executive produced alongside Monica Lewinsky, another person who knows what it is to be tried in the media. Stream The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox on Hulu.
As its subject has become something of a social media influencer and a reality star in the years since, the story of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has become more complex, not less, since this show's 2019 debut. At the time, though, the series earned rave reviews for its exploration of the childhood of Gypsy-Rose (Joey King), who ultimately conspired in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette), after years of apparent psychological abuse. Stream The Act on Hulu.
Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) created this dark comedy series with a title that makes the premise entirely clear: it’s the story of women (Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Allison Tolman) with reasons to kill. The first season took place in three time periods (the '60s, the '80s, and the present) with three main characters linked by a single home, each caught in a web of lies and infidelity that pushes them to the brink of murder, or beyond. The stronger second season sticks to 1949 Los Angeles. It’s a gorgeously photographed and deliciously soapy series—not true crime per se, though it does explore the big themes of the Lizzie Borden story: What drives a seemingly contented woman to contemplate murder, and how much can we blame her? Stream Why Women Kill on Paramount+.
Another true crime story that's been dramatized multiple times, The Girl from Plainville doesn't redeem its murderer, but does add nuance to our understanding in the manner of the best true crime dramas. Elle Fanning is Michelle Carter, who undertook an extended campaign to encourage her emotionally fragile boyfriend, Conrad (Colton Ryan), toward a death by suicide, mostly via text messages. Elle Fanning is phenomenal, as is Chloë Sevigny (who, incidentally, played Lizzie Borden back in 2018) as Conrad's grief-stricken mother. Stream The Girl from Plainville on Hulu.
Set in the 1950s, the miniseries dramatizes the story of nightclub performer Ruth Ellis, the last woman to have been executed in the United Kingdom (in the U.S., we're clearly far less chivalrous). Lucy Boynton is phenomenal in the lead role as Ruth, a tough and sometimes callous woman who found herself seeking escape from an abusive relationship with an emotionally manipulative lover. When she shot David Blakely dead, there was really no chance whatsoever that the British press or legal system were going to have any pity on her, despite the best efforts of her attorney, John Bickford (Toby Jones). This series might have impacted her conditional pardon in 2026, a reprieve that came around 70 years too late for Ruth. Stream A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story on Britbox.
Another Ryan Murphy true crime epic (for better and worse, given the creator's penchant for the operatic), this one stars Darren Criss as sociopath and serial killer Andrew Cunanan, whose last victim was legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez). With an emphasis on the sun-soaked sex and party life of Miami Beach in the 1990s, Murphy here refined his signature style: polish, heightened drama, and a focus on the killer that borders on the sympathetic. Stream The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Season Two) on Hulu.
The other big Margaret Atwood novel adaptation (existing in the shadow of the buzzier Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments), this miniseries is every bit as biting and well-crafted. It’s based on the true story of a poor Irish immigrant found guilty of a double homicide in 1843 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and following a life of trauma. Years later, a psychiatrist comes to examine her and explores her past and the circumstances that might (just might) have led a disenfranchised and powerless girl to kill. As with the best explorations of Lizzie Borden, the show understands that knowing whether or not she did it isn't as interesting as understanding what might have gotten her to that point. Stream Alias Grace on Netflix.
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Do we need another adaptation of Carrie? Maybe/maybe not, but the horrific bullying faced by the teen protagonist of Stephen King's first book is not even the tiniest bit less relevant now than it was way back in 1974, and Mike Flanagan has proven himself King's most adept modern-day translator—and that's before taking his other work into consideration. So we'll happily give it a shot before diving into these other shows to remind ourselves that growing up is hell.
There are at least a couple of different levels to The Glory, a justifiably well-received South Korean import, rather remarkably holding together despite some wild shifts in tone. Most obviously, it's a revenge drama, with a relatively simple set-up: Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, an elementary school homeroom teacher who's playing a very long game: Her school bullies are grown up now, and their kids (some of them, anyway) are now in Dong-eun's care. Right where she wants them. Smartly, the show makes clear the extent of the past violence faced by Dong-eun (much of it hard to watch), and the resulting post-traumatic stress that's consumed her life. The parents of her tormentors were all far too wealthy for the girls to face any consequences for their actions, so Dong-eun feels like she has no choice. It could have been a revenge fantasy, or a straight horror show about a woman carrying out a questionable revenge, but instead it's a more nuanced tale of high school bullying, with a victim whose revenge takes a much colder path than Carrie's. Stream The Glory on Netflix.
Sophia Lillis, straight from playing Beverly Marsh in the It movies (if you wanted a Stephen King connection), stars as Sydney Novak, a 17-year-old living in a small town with her mother and sister. Her father recently died by suicide; she has a crush on her best friend; and all she and her mother do is argue. In the middle of all of that, she discovers that she has powers triggered by her emotions, both of which she'll need to learn to control if she wants to get her life in order. As the lead, Lillis sells the hell out of this offbeat coming-of-age story—the tone is more dark comedy than horror, but Sophia definitely has some Carrie moments of her own before it's over. Stream I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix.
Situated between flashbacks and flash-forwards (think Lost or Yellowjackets), mystery/thriller The Wilds sees an airplane full of teenage girls crash on the way to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It quickly becomes clear that the accident was engineered and that the whole thing is some sort of social experiment, and the survivors are forced to compete against each other if they want to live. The show understands the ways in which young women are exploited and expected to compete against each other in the real world, mirroring the horrors of the high school social hierarchy that dominate Carrie's life. Stream The Wilds on Prime Video.
Likely the least buzzy of Mike Flanagan's Netflix offerings, coming, as it did, near the end of his contract with the streamer, is every bit as good as the others. Based on the YA novel by Christopher Pike, it follows a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice home run by a secretive and mysterious doctor (A Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp). Each night, the kids meet secretly to share scary stories, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when the time comes. Spooky, funny, and impressively moving as a coming-of-age story about kids who know they'll never come of age, the show was planned as more than a miniseries, but the ending is still pretty satisfying. Stream The Midnight Club on Netflix.
Kathryn Newton heads this surprisingly smart William Golding/Lord of the Flies riff about a group of teenagers forced to create their own community after all the adults disappear and a dense new forest crops up around their small enclave, cutting them off from everything and everyone else. This one's about coming of age in a world where the usual rules are no longer in effect, and about how we're quick to reestablish an oppressive social order even when outside forces are no longer at work. Stream The Society on Netflix.
A cloistered, repressive upbringing for a young woman with dramatic telekinetic powers? The stories of Carrie and Eleven play out very differently, but that's largely because they're in different kinds of stories—one's a more introspective high school drama, while the other is a retro government conspiracy adventure involving demons and parallel universes. Still! You kinda feel like Carrie and El would recognize each other's trials, with hope that the bullied kids of Hawkins would welcome them both. You're probably familiar with Stranger Things by now, but just in case: An ensemble cast of mostly kids uncover dark deeds in their small Indiana town after a mysterious girl (Millie Bobby Brown) turns up displaying impressive, if alarming, abilities. Stream Stranger Things on Netflix.
The big link here is, of course, Stephen King, who's not just great at situating horror in small towns, but in conveying the unique trauma of being a kid trapped in a small town—Carrie and It being two of his best in that vein. Set in the 1960s, this It prequel dives into the backstory of Derry and Pennywise the clown through the eyes of children who met him during his previous visit to the town. By the end of the first episode, it's clear that even the most adorable children aren't safe, and this is a show that will, if nothing else, go hard—and that's before Bill Skarsgård's memorably creepy Pennywise even shows up, and before we dig deeper into the secrets and lies of the adults of Derry. As in the book and earlier adaptations, each kid here has their own specific family and social issues, and Pennywise is very good at exploiting those dynamics to make the kids feel isolated and afraid. Stream It: Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.
Hang in there, Carrie! Help is on the way! Well, OK...maybe if you lived in South Korea and in the very specific world of this webtoon adaptation. Following a rise in bullying, violence, and generally shitty behavior in high schools, including the murder of a teacher, the government establishes the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB)—tasked with reforming the school system BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. The team's first assignment takes them to a school where a bullied student has recently died by suicide, strongly related to the actions of the son of a prominent politician. What else to do but expose dad's secrets, knocking the bully down a few pegs and leaving him vulnerable to the consequences of his own actions. It's a little less Carrie and a little more Avengers: High School, but it's a fun fantasy for anyone who had a rough time back then. Stream Teach You a Lesson on Netflix.
Mariam (Andria Tayeh) is brutally bullied by the cool clique at her private school in this Jordanian import, a high school drama that's both universal and distinctly Muslim in character. Fed up, Mariam convinces a couple of similarly outcast friends to join forces with her in a revenge plot that quickly gets out of hand. The show deals with Jordanian-style patriarchy head-on, without drawing any easy conclusions about its characters—Mariam catfishes one of her bullies and convinces her to send a revealing picture, one that she immediately posts, exploiting the very same repressive cultural elements that she claims to deplore. It's a smart and compelling drama with soapy elements (as well as a surprise hit for Netflix), and few if any clear heroes or villains. Stream AlRawabi School for Girls on Netflix.
One of our most reliable horror franchises went the series route with impressively smart results. Zackary Arthur is Jake Wheeler, a queer teen subject to relentless bullying at school and abuse at home from his homophobic father. Jake picks up America's favorite serial-killing doll at a garage sale school art project. Before long, Jake's tormentors are facing consequences rather a bit beyond what Jake would have hoped for, and he's torn between fighting Chucky or leaning into the chaos. The tone is very different, of course, but Chucky's violence plays out very much like an externalized (and quippier) manifestation of Carrie's abilities—both teens dealing with forces that they have little control over. Stream Chucky on Peacock and Prime Video.
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Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere, The Invitation) is guilty of givign a great performance in the legal drama Reasonable Doubt, now back for its fourth season on Hulu. She plays Jax Stewart, a former public defender now working at a high-powered LA firm, s a self-righteous do-gooder and deeply messy by turns. Jax is not always the most likable character, and she often feels more strongly about her cases than about her actual clients.
For all the show's soapy charms (it comes from Scandal writer Raamla Mohamed), that occasional indifference feels real, as does her complicated personal life. If you're seeking other shows that balance compelling cases with the lawyers' messy lives out of the courtroom, here are 10 shows to stream next.
This David E. Kelley legal thriller (from the Scott Turow bestseller, previously adapted into a movie with Harrison Ford) spends more time in the courtroom than many of these other dramas, which gives it a distinct flavor. Jake Gyllenhaal is Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor charged with investigating the murder of his colleague. His attempts to steer the inquiry land him in hot water when it's discovered that he'd been having an affair with the dead woman—and she was pregnant when she was killed. Rusty quickly becomes the prime suspect, his case not at all helped by his previous shady behavior. The show will be returning for a second season with new lead in Rachel Brosnahan and a new story drawn from the novel Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray. Stream Presumed Innocent on Apple TV.
A straight reboot of Matlock could've been an easy hit for CBS, but the show pulls a fast one right from the jump: the classic series is just a TV show in the world of Kathy Bates' Maddy Matlock, who just happens to share a name and demeanor with the folksy original—or so we're made to believe, until a bigger plan and longer game are revealed, and we discover that her cute old lady act is just that. She signs on with driven junior partner Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall), the two alternating between friend and enemy with some all-time great TV chemistry. Stream Matlock on Paramount+.
The legal drama is a durable invention in part because it's so versatile: It can be classy and trashy in equal measure. This one's from Ryan Murphy, which ought to give you some idea of where it falls on that spectrum. The savagely reviewed divorce-centric legal drama was called the worst show of the year—but some of that feels like an anti-All's Fair arms race developed among critics to see who could go the hardest: The Telegraph's Ed Power said it's "a crime against television," The Guardian's Lucy Mangan said of it: "I did not know it was still possible to make television this bad." And yet! Its debut was Hulu's biggest in three years, and viewers kept streaming it, for camp value or otherwise. Good, bad, or gloriously bad, it became one of the year's most talked-about shows, with an A-list cast including Niecy Nash-Betts, Brooke Shields, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson, Judith Light, and Glenn Close. Stream All's Fair on Hulu.
Still one of the juiciest of Shonda Rhimes’ unfailingly juicy shows, How to Get Away With Murder won a number of awards during its run, and is as smart as it is sexy. As the title suggests, it deals more exclusively in murder and conspiracy than Reasonable Doubt, but both shows are anchored by talented, driven lead characters with messy personal lives, constantly navigating the compromises and complexities of the legal system. Here, it's Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, a law professor who, at the show's outset, inadvertently gets five of her most talented students entangled in a murder plot—and things only get more complicated from there. Stream How to Get Away with Murder on Hulu.
A clever and justifiably acclaimed drama, Woo stars Park Eun-bin as an attorney newly hired by a major Seoul law firm. Despite having graduated at the top of her law school class, prejudice made finding work a struggle for the autistic Woo, and much of that follows her into her new workplace. Still, her coworkers (mostly) gradually adapt to her sensory triggers and communication style, made easier by her obvious skill when she's allowed to be herself. With some throughlines that include an office romance, each episode of the show finds Young-woo assigned to a complex case with ties to broader social issues (spousal abuse, governmental corruption, ableism, etc.). A second season is in production. Stream Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix.
This spin-off/sequel to The Good Wife puts the spotlight on Christine Baranski (always a smart move) in her role as Diane Lockhart, on the rocks after a financial scandal involving her goddaughter Maia (Rose Leslie) wipes out her savings and gets her fired. In the aftermath, Diane joins her friend Lucca (Cush Jumbo) at a prestigious Black-owned firm specializing in police brutality cases. The liberal firebrand finds herself at sea not only in her career but in Trump-era America, and the show doesn't shy away from real-life legal and social issues while retaining The Good Wife's tasteful bits of soapy drama. Baranski is joined by the likes of Erica Tazel, Mandy Patinkin, John Larroquette, Audra McDonald, Delroy Lindo, and Alan Cumming, and the show ends on a highly satisfying conclusion to Baranski's 13 years playing Diane. Stream The Good Fight on Paramount+.
Shonda Rhimes was already a powerhouse producer and screenwriter with several successful seasons of Grey's Anatomy under her belt when Scandal debuted, but its blend of political thrills and sexy, soapy drama is what solidified her brand—and her spot atop of the modern TV landscape. Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope, head of the D.C.-based crisis management firm Olivia Pope & Associates (OPA), who is the person to call when you've got a PR disaster to fix. If you want to get a sense of the stakes involved, consider that Tony Goldwyn costars as Fitzgerald Grant III, who is both the president of the United States and also Olivia's lover. This is where Raamla Mohamed, Reasonable Doubt showrunner, cut her teeth as a writer and producer. Stream Scandal on Hulu and Netflix.
Technically a spin-off of The Practice, this occasionally surreal legal drama from David E. Kelley took on ripped-from-the-headlines type legal cases via the legal minds at the high-end (fictional) law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. James Spader is Alan Shore, a lawyer with good intentions but highly questionable methods, who is allied with eccentric and self-obsessed firm partner Denny Crane (William Shatner), in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease yet determined to maintain a virile image. The friendship between the two, despite their wildly opposing perspectives, buoys the legal drama, as does the presence of co-leads Candice Bergen, René Auberjonois, John Larroquette, and Taraji P. Henson. Stream Boston Legal on Hulu.
I always like to sneak in a bit of counter-programming, so here's a legal drama focused on one of the first women lawyers in modern history. A fun and fast-moving crime drama, the show (heavily) dramatizes the live of the real-life Poët, Italy's first female lawyer—disbarred as the series opens in 1883, because LADY LAWYER?! WHAT? While she fights the ruling, she takes a job at her brother's law firm where, of course, she's the real brains of the operation, solving big cases in grand period style (and with a fair bit of sex, as well). Stream The Law According to Lidia Poët on Netflix.
What if a lawyer...but out of the back of a car? Have we done that one yet? Gimmick aside, this is a solid legal drama from genre master David E. Kelley, based on a series of novels from the similarly reliable Michael Connelly. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo stars as Mickey Haller, a recovering addict who inherits the caseload of a murdered colleague. He teams up with Izzy Letts (Jazz Raycole) another recovering addict and former client, to help with cases and to enocourage his sobriety. Meanwhile, he's trying to get joint custody of his daughter with his first ex-wife (Neve Campbell), now a prosecutor, and winds up hiring his second ex-wife (Becki Newton) as a legal aide. You want high-stakes legal drama and messy personal drama? Look no further. Stream The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix.
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Sports, romance, and the drama of starting over: Netflix's Crew Girl has it all, or at least everything you could ask for in a coming-of-age YA drama. Miku Martineau (Bet, The Miniature Wife) stars as Teagan Tao, a champion rower who flees a family scandal with her mother and ends up at a private school—but the school has no girls' rowing program, so, despite a lack of experience, she signs on as a coxswain on the boys' team, intending to show 'em all how it's done (while also managing a teen love triangle for the ages). If you're looking for more angsty teen dramas—some also with a sporty edge—try these other shows.
Another coming-of-age sports drama, this one shares with Crew Girl not just a Canadian origin but an executive producer in Jeff Norton. Oh, and also a love triangle—this time involving ice dancing partners. Madelyn Keys is Adriana Russo, scion of a family of competitive ice skaters fallen on hard times. Adriana and her sister hope to reclaim past glory, but things are complicated by her developing feelings for her new skating partner, Brayden, as well as reawakening feelings for her ex-boyfriend, now a competitor. Stream Finding Her Edge on Netflix.
Less about sports, but nevertheless one of streaming's most compelling teen love triangles. And it takes place near water, so I'm counting it. Adapted from the trilogy of YA bestsellers by Jenny Han, this series focuses on the coming-of-age of teenager Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), who is 16 as the series starts. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that's all well and good until she starts to develop a romantic attraction for first one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney), and then the other (Gavin Casalegno), planting the seeds for a love triangle that unfolds over the course of several summers, and which sees Belly grow into young adulthood to a soundtrack made up largely of Taylor Swift tunes. The three-season run is over, but there's a continuation movie on the way. Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
Crew Girl co-star Thomas Cadrot (Coach Hayden) described the show as "Gossip Girl and Friday Night Lights on a boat," so our next couple of entries will follow that train. Teen drama at its finest and most bitchy, Gossip Girl follows the many, many scandals of a group of young Upper East Side socialites and hangers-on. The tangled teenage lives of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), her best frenemy Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), scholarship kid Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), and plenty more pretty young boys and girls are chronicled in meticulous detail by the title's mysterious, omnipresent Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). The short(-er)-lived 2021 follow-up is also available on HBO Max. Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max and Netflix.
Speaking of: A show that survived on viewer affection and critical acclaim more than ratings (at a time when such a thing was still possible), Friday Night Lights ran for five seasons without ever being a particularly big hit, but it's had an impressive afterlife. A drama about small-town high school football rather than a comedy, the show nonetheless stays positive and inspirational, even as it captures the highs and (often heartbreaking) lows of life for the kids, coaches, and families around tiny Dillon, Texas. It's one of TV's most successful sports dramas, expanding the tragedy and triumph of the original movie into a long-form narrative. A reboot is in the works. Stream Friday Night Lights on Prime Video and Paramount+.
Not so much with the athletics here, unless we're going to count underground gambling at a private school, which, why the hell not? Our biggest link to Crew Girl is in series leads: both star (the very busy) Miku Martineau, here playing Japanese transfer student Yumeko Kamamoto. Based on a manga series, this one's a bit less grounded, but it's an awful lot of fun: St. Dominic's is an exclusive prep school where the social hierarchy is dictated by success or failure in its highly organized secret betting pools. Luckily, Yumeko is a pretty good gambler, which is no coincidence: Her parents were murdered by a member of the school's board of governors, and her motivation is to climb the ranks, figure out who the killer is, and get revenge. It's returning for a second season. Stream Bet on Netflix.
More mature (meaning only that there's a bit more sex) than Crew Girl, Off Campus plays in the Heated Rivalry/horny hockey sandbox. The show stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, a music student who has a meet-cute with Boston Bruin-in-waiting Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) when she accidentally walks in on him naked in the gym showers. He needs a tutor; she needs to make the guy she has a crush on jealous...you get the picture. Stream Off Campus on Prime Video.
Lots of romantic entanglements over the course of this show's eight seasons, but the heart of All American (for most of its run) is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player for his high school team in Crenshaw, he's recruited by the coach (Taye Diggs) of a team in Beverly Hills to come and play for them, forcing Spencer to navigate two very different worlds while trying to build a life and potential career. Stream All American on Netflix.
Not much of a sports angle here, but the premise and vibe are similar nonetheless. Nikki Rodriguez is Jackie Howard, a 15-year-old NYC kid whose parents and sister have recently died in a car accident. With nowhere else to go, she's invited to live with her mom's best friend and family on a ranch in Colorado—a very different world. Starting over almost from scratch at a young age, Jackie has to adapt to her new environment while grieving her loss; though, of course, there's some comfort to be found in hot brothers Alex and Cole, each of whom takes an interest in Jackie. Stream My Life with the Walter Boys on Netflix.
Who does teen coming-of-age drama better than Judy Blume? This adaptation of her widely censored 1975 novel updates the setting to current-day Los Angeles and expands the novel's exploration of the complexities of teen love and sex to include the challenges of being young, exceptional, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) attends a predominantly Black private school and is working toward a track scholarship at Howard, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) goes to school with white kids and is on his parents' track to go to Northeastern, ideally on a basketball scholarship. The smart show follows their budding romance in a way that feels real and compelling. Stream Forever on Netflix.
The setting is very different both in time and place, but all that only serves to remind us that some experiences are universal. Told in flashbacks via a rediscovered diary, we revisit 1998, when Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) was a champion fencer at her high school, until the IMF crisis that devastated the Southeast Asian economy forced the team to disband. Transferring to a new school, she meets Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk), heir to a chaebol family that went bankrupt during the crisis, who's readjusting to a life with no financial means to speak of. Career and romantic complications intersect with history over the following several years as we follow Hee-do's life into the (nearly) present day. Stream Twenty-Five Twenty-One on Netflix.
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Furious rocks. Well-written, packed with terrific performances (especially by leads Emmy Rossum, Lola Petticrew, Scoot McNairy, and breakout star Quincy Tyler Bernstine), and offering a nuanced, detailed look at the chain of violence caused by abuse, it landed on a lot of people’s “must-watch” lists this year. One reason it resonated so much is the visceral power of its core stories—the three primary women in Furious are righteously justified in their rage, depressingly limited in what they can do about it, and struggling to keep their heads above water in an unfair world where the smallest bit of respect can feel like the only reason to keep going. If you’re a Furious superfan looking for a movie to watch, there’s an obvious answer: The movie that inspired the show, 1987’s Black Widow.
It’s no secret that Black Widow inspired Elizabeth Meriwether to create Furious, and the connection between the films is pretty clear. The 1987 film stars Debra Winger as a U.S. Justice Department data analyst, Alexandra Barnes, who notices a pattern of suspicious deaths among wealthy men. She eventually realizes that the younger women these men had recently married are all the same person in different disguises—and that this woman (played by Theresa Russell) is seducing, marrying, and murdering these men in order to inherit their wealth.
Black Widow isn’t as complex as Furious. The story is more of a conventional thriller, with Russell’s character more conventionally evil and driven by greed rather than revenge. But the bones of the story offer the same kind of thrill; Alexandra and Russell’s character bond in a weird, subliminally queer way that faintly echoes the complex relationship between Rossum’s broken rookie FBI agent and Petticrew’s broken serial killer. And Alexandra has to battle a sexist, skeptical array of powerful men in order to track a killer and prove that she’s smarter than all of them.
Watching the film, you can see the precise bits of the story that inspired Meriwether to tackle the story from a more modern, more complex perspective. And it’s good to remember how remarkable it was in 1987 to release a major film that not only featured two female lead characters, but two female lead characters who didn’t rely on men to achieve their goals—with one actively treating men as disposable steps toward their own goals (and murdering them). The inversion of traditional sex roles was kind of thrilling forty years ago and still has juice today. If you want to be a Furious completist, check it out. Stream Black Widow on Hoopla or rent it on Prime Video.
Still feeling kind of angry? Don’t worry, there are plenty of other movies that explore the same dark impulses and justified rage against a culture of abuse against women. Here are some that will definitely give you vibes similar to Furious.
If Catherine’s terror campaign against the men who destroyed her before she even had a chance to live resonated with you, Promising Young Woman shares that dark vibe. Carey Mulligan plays Cassie, who dropped out of medical school after the death of her best friend Nina, who was sexually assaulted and eventually committed suicide after the men responsible received no punishment. Cassie now goes to bars at night, feigning intoxication so she can lure and confront men who would take advantage of her, and later embarks on a self-destructive, rage-fueled campaign to punish the people she deems responsible for Nina’s abuse and death. It’s visceral, darkly funny, and Mulligan’s performance will remind you of Catherine in powerful ways. Stream Promising Young Woman on Peacock or rent it on Prime Video.
Catherine is a victim who lets her justifiable rage consume her and drive her to seek violent revenge—and if you love the thrill of seeing a woman turning the tables on the men who seek to destroy her, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is your next stop. The novel the film is based on was originally titled “Men Who Hate Women” in the original Swedish, after all, and it introduces the character of Lisbeth Salander, who is Catherine with a little more self-control and tech-savvy. Lisbeth’s story of vengeance against a man who assaults her and tries to impose his power over her is a (thrilling) sub-plot in the book and film, but the investigation into a decades-old murder leads you directly into the same dark, violent places as Furious. Stream The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Netflix or rent it on Prime Video.
Furious was both compelling and unsettling because of its unflinching look at cycles of violence and the impact of violence against women. Monster, based on a true story, is a similar exploration. Aileen “Lee” Wuornos (Charlize Theron) is a prostitute who is on the verge of suicide when she meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci) and falls in love. Determined to make a life with Selby, Lee turns back to prostitution, and after a traumatic, violent encounter, begins murdering her clients and stealing their money and cars to survive. It’s a heartbreaking look at what a lifetime of abuse in a world where women are often valued solely for their bodies can do to a person, and what we do to survive. Rent Monster on Prime Video.
If you found Emmy Rossum’s performance as rookie FBI agent Alice Black the best part of Furious, this classic film from director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally (based on the book by Thomas Harris) is the right choice. Jodie Foster (who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance) plays Clarice Starling, who is plucked out of training at Quantico to interview the brilliant, insane serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, offering a performance so good he won a Best Actor Oscar with just 16 minutes of screen time) in the hopes that he’ll offer insight into Buffalo Bill, an active serial killer targeting women. It’s a taut, emotionally rich story anchored by Foster’s performance as a young woman in a male-dominated field forced to confront the violence aimed at women on a daily basis. Rent The Silence of the Lambs on Prime Video.
The character Nicole Kidman plays in Destroyer, Detective Erin Bell, is a kind of amalgamation of Catherine and Alice from Furious—a bent cop who did something horrible in the past and has been punishing herself for it ever since. It’s a searing look at the impact of trauma and guilt that parallels what Catherine and Alice are going through, as Bell initially struggles to cover up her sins and then seeks a kind of absolution, leaving a trail of bodies and bad decisions in her wake. Bell isn’t strictly a victim in the story—she’s the architect of her own misery—but her suffering and rage definitely echo the characters in Furious. Stream Destroyer on Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, or Tubi.
For Lioness, TV superproducer Taylor Sheridan teamed up Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña for an action spy thriller—and it's not at all surprising that the show's a hit. Saldaña stars as Joe McNamara, a CIA senior case officer in charge of a program that deals almost exclusively in recruiting women as undercover operatives. Having just completed season three, the show is on track for a renewal...if the producers can lock down Saldaña and company. While we eagerly await word, enjoy these other thrillers with distinctive takes on crime and spycraft. Some with men!
Keira Knightley stars as Helen Webb in this genre-bender, wife of the Secretary of State for Defense of the UK—and also a secret spy in the employ of the Black Doves mercenary spy organization of the title. She learns from her handler (Sarah Lancashire) that her lover has been killed, thus potentially blowing her cover, but luckily, she has a hitman bestie (Ben Whislaw) to help her out. It's all deliberately pulpy, with a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that lightens the tone. A second season is coming later in 2026. Stream Black Doves on Netflix.
With an entirely cinematic scope, this new adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel is buoyed by rather brilliant casting: Eddie Redmayne plays the Jackal, a cold and steely international assassin pursued by MI6 operative Bianca Pullman—she's played by Lashana Lynch, putting her experience as the new 007 in No Time to Die to good use. I'm not sure there's anything here we haven't seen in countless other spy thrillers (including, of course, the 1973 and 1997 film adaptations), but the performances and production values are top-notch, with each episode playing out like a tense mini-movie. It's been renewed for a second season. Stream The Day of the Jackal on Peacock.
Lioness is a rare Taylor Sheridan show that's not particularly related to Yellowstone, but fear not...Marshals takes us back out west and into the soothing arms of the Dutton family. Luke Grimes reprises his role as Kayce Dutton, former Livestock Agent turned...you guessed it...U.S. Marshal, protecting Montana from all manner of criminals and rustlers. The case-of-the-week format has more in common with police procedurals than with espionage drama, but the action-heavy vibe is similar. Stream Marshals on Paramount+.
The focus shifts a bit after Homeland's first few seasons, but the series begins with CIA case officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) coming to suspect that decorated Marine Corps scout sniper Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), recently rescued from an al-Qaeda compound, has been turned and is planning a terrorist attack on the United States. Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, her superiors don't give Mathison's suspicions much credence, kicking off a cat-and-mouse/is-he-or-isn't he? game between the two in the background of one of TV's most lauded spy dramas. Both leads won Emmys for their performances, and the series took the Outstanding Drama prize in its first year. Stream Homeland on Hulu and Netflix.
Priyanka Chopra stars as Alex Parrish, who graduates from the titular FBI Academy only to find herself the prime suspect in a terrorist attack on Grand Central Terminal in NYC. The show initially splits its time between Alex's quest to prove her innocence while on the run and her training days at the academy. The second season has her working for the FBI as an undercover CIA recruit (got that?) under mysterious circumstances, while the third finds her trying to bring down an international arms dealer and save a fellow agent. Stream Quantico on Hulu.
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave, No Other Choice) directs this series, based, like Night Manager, on a John le Carré novel, bringing an undeniably sexy period style into the mix. Florence Pugh is Charlie, a young actress recruited by Mossad spymaster Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) to infiltrate a group of Palestinian terrorists, even as she's being manipulated by an Israeli intelligence officer (Alexander Skarsgård). Crucially, like the book, the show offers nuanced characters on multiple sides of the conflict, dealing more with individuals as pawns of state politicians. Buy The Little Drummer Girl from Prime Video.
Another from John le Carré, the wellspring of many modern spy sagas, so it's probably no surprise that The Night Manager (from a 1993 novel) was successful—though it certainly doesn't hurt to have a cast led by Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman. Hiddleston is Jonathan Pine, working the night shift at a luxury hotel in Switzerland when he encounters an unexpected guest: arms dealer Richard Roper (Laurie). Former Army veteran Pine had previous dealings with Roper in Cairo, and the reluctant night manager is persuaded by Foreign Office head Angela Burr (Colman) to infiltrate the criminal's organization. The first season sees Pine as a regular guy who gets involved in espionage out of near-happenstance, while the second season finds him more seasoned. A third is on the way. Stream The Night Manager on Prime Video.
An action drama that plays a bit like a spy thriller, The Night Agent stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who works overnights in the basement of the White House watching a phone that never, ever rings. Until...it does. Peter gets a call from Rose Larkin, a cybersecurity expert whose aunt and uncle were just killed and, unbeknownst to her, were also government operatives. Rescuing Rose puts Peter deep inside a web of conspiracy and official corruption. (This is why I never answer the phone.) Stream The Night Agent on Netflix.
David Boreanaz is Master Chief Special Warfare Operator (a title, apparently) Jason Hayes, leader of a Navy SEAL team. There's plenty of military and undercover action of the type that you'd expect, but the show begins in the wake of the unexpected death of a team member, setting the stage for the show's unexpected emphasis on the aftermath of action, and the toll taken by service and loss on lives and families. Stream SEAL Team on Paramount+ and Netflix.
See, initially, during the 2016 Mosul Offensive, this strikingly realistic (at least, it feels that way) series drops us into the middle of an elite French special forces unit on the ground in Iraq, even though France has no official presence in the conflict. They're tasked with exfiltrating the child of a prominent IS leader, one who's offering assistance and cooperation only if the French are able to hold up their end of the bargain. For the women and men involved, it's an extremely complicated (downright messy, frankly) situation with impossible choices made by people who may or may not be making things worse. The vibe is very Hurt Locker. Stream Dark Hearts on The Roku Channel.
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American Horror Story is kind of an institution, at this point. Seasons may vary in impact and the precise tone of the horror may fluctuate, but we’ve come to count on its gonzo sensibility and commitment to the bit. With its anthology approach and rotating troupe of semi-permanent actors (including Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson), AHS has delivered plenty of twisted stories to keep you up at night. If you’ve watched them all (and the streamalike shows that offer similar chills), it’s time to dive into long-form horror on the same wavelength—starting with what might be the first (and still one of the best) horror anthologies ever made: Dead of Night.
Without Dead of Night, released in 1945, there might not be an American Horror Story. Hugely influential, the movie is regarded as one of (if not the) first horror anthology films widely released, and more than 80 years later it’s still considered one of the best. Watching it is an exercise in noting everything that the horror anthologies that followed—including AHS—have freely borrowed from it. If you love the anthology aspect of AHS, the way each season (or half-season) is a self-contained story with its own tone, visuals, and style of horror, this is the movie you should watch.
The frame story involves architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), who travels to a remote cottage for a potential renovation project. When he arrives, he finds himself one of several guests—all of whom have appeared in dreams experienced by their host, Elliot Foley (Roland Culver). Craig experiences what seem like psychic visions, which prompts the guests to tell tales of supernatural experiences they’ve had, all of which are presented as apparently standalone episodes. The most famous of these is the story of a ventriloquist whose dummy, Hugo, seems to have a will of its own, but all the stories are well-made and effectively scary.
What really sets Dead of Night apart—and makes it perfect for AHS fans—is the way the guests’ tales and the frame story merge into a truly unsettling whole. The film conveys both a sense of dream logic and visceral fright that’s surprisingly powerful and modern for a film of its vintage, and AHS fans will see the clear line of inspiration that starts here and ends with Jessica Lange leading an insane asylum in “The Name Game” (among many, many other insane moments from the show). If you’re looking for a feature film that will slot into the same pleasure centers in your brain as American Horror Story, this is the one to start with. Stream Dead of Night on Kanopy, Plex, or Fawesome, or rent it on Prime Video.
Horror is addictive, and the only cure for the end of a horror movie is ... more horror movies. Here are a few more that any fan of AHS will love.
One of the more obvious points of inspiration (especially for Season Five, “Hotel”), The Shining is one of the greatest modern horror films. The combination of Stanley Kubrick’s cold perfection, Jack Nicholson’s volatility (and Shelley Duvall’s criminally underrated desperation), and Stephen King’s wild imagination (despite his reservations about Kubrick’s interpretation) results in a slow burn of insanity as an unstable alcoholic (Nicholson’s Jack Torrance) unravels while working as a winter caretaker in an enormous, haunted mountain hotel. Every scene in this film ramps up the sense of unease and terror, leading to one of the most famous final shots in film history. Rent The Shining on Prime Video.
Season 12 of American Horror Story, “Delicate,” riffs enthusiastically off of Rosemary’s Baby, and the 1968 film could be an entire season of the show itself. The tone, visuals, and story are a perfect match—you can easily imagine most of the usual actors from the AHS troupe showing up as the creepy, devil-worshipping neighbors who manipulate a young woman (Mia Farrow) into conceiving a child under what could be called ominous circumstances. Aside from being an ideal companion film to the series, it’s also a classic that every horror fan should watch (despite some serious implications around marital sexual assault and director Roman Polansky’s gross legacy). Stream Rosemary’s Baby on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
If you recall the weird whistling theme song associated with serial killer Tate Langdon in Season One, “Murder House,” you’ve already heard the theme song to this movie (you also heard it in Kill Bill: Volume 1). While not overtly gory, Twisted Nerve is a great example of simmering tension as a disturbed man with a split personality, Martin (Hywel Bennett), stalks and ingratiates himself with a young woman named Susan (Haley Mills). The film is dated in many ways (especially its enraging attitude toward Down syndrome), but as a thriller it still works gangbusters. Stream Twisted Nerve on Plex.
The moment Bloody Face shows up in the second season of American Horror Story, the connection to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film is pretty clear—but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reverberates throughout American Horror Story (as it does through most of the horror movies that followed it). Ostensibly based on the true crimes of Ed Gein, it follows five teenagers on a road trip as they stumble into the house where a man wearing a skin mask—the legendary Leatherface—proceeds to savagely murder most of them using a hammer and, of course, a chainsaw. The film’s sweaty, gritty style is a long way from Ryan Murphy’s slicker and more composed approach, but it’s a visceral kick of pure horror fans of the show will love (if they don’t already). Stream The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Pluto or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
If “Coven” was your favorite season of American Horror Story, this is the film for you. Four outcast teen girls—played by Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True—discover that they can access supernatural forces, and seek to use this power to punish their enemies and improve their lives. Their spells have unintended consequences, however, and Balk’s character quickly goes power-mad as the girls turn on each other. It’s dark, but anyone who attended high school will 100% understand why things go pear-shaped so fast—and fans of AHS will find a lot to love in this story of teenage angst, rebellion, and occult horrors. Stream The Craft on Plex or rent it on Prime Video.
Netflix has a stacked lineup of both new and familiar content coming in October. Political thriller series The Diplomat (Oct. 15) and French mystery thriller Lupin (Oct. 23) both return for fourth seasons alongside season three of Nobody Wants This (Oct. 22), the Emmy-nominated rom-com starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody and season 11 of Love Is Blind (Oct. 14).
New next month is East of Eden (Oct. 1), a limited mini-series adapted from the John Steinbeck novel of the same name. Created by Zoe Kazan, the show stars Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames alongside Christopher Abbott. On the film side is Animals (Oct. 9), a crime thriller written and directed by, as well as starring, Ben Affleck. Affleck plays an LA mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped with only hours to pay a ransom. Gillian Anderson and Kerry Washington co-star.
Netflix has a handful of documentaries coming in October, including The One About Matthew Perry (Oct. 27), a series chronicling the actor's life, work, and death, as well as Tyson (Oct. 13), a four-episode series about Mike Tyson. Netflix will also host the second Six King Slam tennis tournament on Oct. 21, live at 9:30 a.m. PT.
Here's everything else coming to Netflix in October, and everything that's leaving.
The Gift of Deceit—Netflix Series
Crazy Rich, Incredibly Broke—Netflix Film
East of Eden—Netflix Series
The Ramparts of Ice: Season 2—Netflix Series
21 Jump Street
22 Jump Street
8 Mile
A Haunted House
A Haunted House 2
A Madea Family Funeral
Ad Astra
Angels & Demons
Are We There Yet?
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Legacy
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Bring It On
Call Me by Your Name
Cowboys & Aliens
Crimson Peak
Dallas Buyers Club
The Da Vinci Code
The Devil Wears Prada
Dracula
The Equalizer
Evil Dead
Friday the 13th
Happy Death Day 2U
Horton Hears a Who!
The Huntsman: Winter's War
Hush
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jason Bourne
Lake Placid
Love Actually
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
The Menu
Moonlight
NCIS: Seasons 20-22
Ouija
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Pearl Harbor
Point Break
The Prestige
Psycho
Psycho II
Psycho III
Red Dragon
Seven Years in Tibet
The Sixth Sense
Split
The Strangers
Top Chef VIP: Seasons 3-4
Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2
The Way Home: Season 4
Underworld: Blood Wars
#Love—Netflix Series
Schumacher ’94 — The Birth of a Legend—Netflix Documentary
Tyler Perry’s Doing Life—Netflix Film
Ranma1/2: Season 3—Netflix Series
Blue Box: Season 2—Netflix Series
The Boogeyman
Lorne
Mayor of Kingstown: Seasons 1-4
Super BOOMi: Season 1
All American: Season 8
Love Village: Season 3—Netflix Series
Mojo Brookzz: I Know You Lying—Netflix Comedy Special
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Inside The Circle—Netflix Series
Less of a Stranger—Netflix Film
Real Men: Season 2—Netflix Series
Who Is Martin Mull?—Netflix Documentary
Below—Netflix Series
Unicorn Academy: Secrets Revealed: Chapter 2—Netflix Family
Animals—Netflix Film
Haunted Hotel: Season 2—Netflix Series
Is It Cake? Halloween: Season 2—Netflix Series
Take Charge of My Heart—Netflix Series
100 Days of Deception—Netflix Series
The First Monday in May
Fire Spike: Season 1
Free Leonard Peltier—Netflix Documentary
Señora Acero: Seasons 1-5
Wayne: Season 1
Cocaine Bear
Love Is Blind: Season 11: Boston—Netflix Series
Hollywood Arts—Netflix Series
The Diplomat: Season 4—Netflix Series
The Storm—Netflix Film
The Disciple—Netflix Documentary
Heat
The Fate of the Furious
Money Trap: The Karun Treasure—Netflix Series
Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald—Netflix Documentary
Sacrifice—Netflix Film
SERIOUSLY SINGLE TOO—Netflix Film
Therapy Done Right—Netflix Film
Blindspotting: Seasons 1-2
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2—Netflix Series
Emily
Gladiator
Gladiator II
The Mothers of Penguins: Season 2—Netflix Series
The New Stanford Prison Experiment—Netflix Series
Six Kings Slam: Season 2—Netflix Live Event
Bottle Shock
Couldn't Agree Less with Allison & Isaac—Netflix Podcast
Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?—Netflix Series
Nobody Wants This: Season 3—Netflix Series
Fading Grandeur—Netflix Series
Lupin: Part 4—Netflix Series
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story—Netflix Documentary
Surviving Hurricane Otis—Netflix Film
Minimum Wage—Netflix Series
Dangerous Liaisons: Season 1
The One About Matthew Perry—Netflix Documentary
Zainab Johnson: Toxically Optimistic—Netflix Comedy Special
Champions
Balaraw: Blood Island—Netflix Series
You, Me, Us—Netflix Film
A Couple of Lies—Netflix Series
Akka—Netflix Series
Beat Luke Littler—Netflix Live Event
The Birthday Gift—Netflix Film
Collision Course—Netflix Film
How to Ruin Diwali: Meet the Parents—Netflix Series
SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of—Netflix Documentary
A Dog's Purpose
A League of Their Own
Aloha
Angel Eyes
Apollo 13
Baby Mama
Beginners
The Beguiled
The Boss Baby
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Cinderella Man
Clueless
Fargo
The Fifth Element
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call
Gone Girl
Halo: Seasons 1-2
High Fidelity
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
Identity Thief
Inside Man: Most Wanted
Krampus
The Lazarus Project
Nomadland
Out of Africa
Parenthood
The Parkers: Seasons 1-5
Queen & Slim
Savages
The Shack
U-571
The Vow
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
The Wandering Earth
Dawson's Creek: Seasons 1-6
Nurse Jackie: Seasons 1-7
Poldark: Seasons 1-5
Scream
After
A Quiet Place Part II
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Death Note
The Smurfs 2
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Deadwind: Seasons 1-3
What's not an American horror story these days, amirite? But I digress. The murder house that Ryan Murphy & co. built is back for another season—lucky number 13—and it's a frightfully impressive celebratory reunion, bringing back a huge list of actors and characters from previous seasons (including Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Mena Suvari, Jessica Lange, and more), with some of them playing multiple roles. If that's not enough spooky season entertainment for you, here are 10 more addictive horror shows to stream now.
A mind-bending and occasionally gruesome expansion of various online creepypastas, Nick Antosca's series takes the form of four season-long storylines. While the tone is far from juvenile, the vibe is "childhood nightmares come to life." The first season anticipates I Saw the TV Glow with a story about a half-remembered TV series linked to the disappearances of several children; the second sees a group of friends trapped in a tourist-attraction haunted house that exits into a disturbing alternate reality; another finds a couple of sisters dealing with cannibals and a mysterious staircase in the middle of the woods; while the last has a newlywed couple finding a mysterious door that unlocks childhood anxieties (and a killer clown). It's all smart and genuinely freaky—existential dread blending with memorable visuals such as a child made entirely of human teeth. There's even something of a stealth fifth season over on Netflix with Antosca's Brand New Cherry Flavor. Stream Channel Zero on Shudder and AMC+ or buy it from Prime Video.
Castle Rock was sold as the hub of some sort of a Stephen King omniverse, set in his fictional town and featuring characters and creatures from across his oeuvre. That confusing, could-be-anything premise probably hurt the show more than it helped. In reality, it’s an impressive anthology series that slays even if you’ve never read a page of King. The first season sees André Holland return to his old hometown at the behest of a death-row inmate, and features a powerhouse performance from Sissy Spacek as Ruth Deaver, whose struggles with dementia culminate in "The Queen," an all-time great, harrowing, hour of television. The second season resets to introduce a young Annie Wilkes (from Misery) and a disturbing cult, and finds Bill Skarsgård returning from season one (and his movie role as Pennywise). Stream Castle Rock on Hulu and Netflix.
There are good reasons for my love of TV anthology horror: If one story or episode isn’t great, there’s always the next one. This new Creepshow, though, is something surprising: It’s consistently good. Sometimes gross, sometimes funny, each episode has two stories that are very much in the style of the movies for which the show is named (or Tales from the Darkside—that kinda vibe). Producer/director/special effects guy Greg Nicotero, best known these days for his work on The Walking Dead, is running the series. He got his start on Creepshow 2, so there’s a real appreciation for old-school practical effects here too. Stream Creepshow on Shudder and AMC+ (or on Prime Video for season one).
The conventions of Japanese horror have made their way stateside, but often through remakes of popular J-horror movies with American directors and casts. This series serves as a tour of terror from six different Asian countries, each produced locally with different up-and-coming directors. For audiences mostly familiar with Western-style horror, it will be a small revelation: They’re modern spins on traditional folkloric tales (the South Korean episode, for instance, involves the mongdal gwisin, a bachelor spirit so desperate for a wife that he’ll kill until he finds the right special lady to be his ghost bride); while the characters are relatable, the takes on horror are unique. Each episode is like a mini-movie, so it's not a season-long anthology, but another one for horror fans in a hurry. Stream Folklore on HBO Max.
Each season of this series tells the story of a single serial killer and their would-be victims, stretching out a traditional slasher-movie story over several hours. With that time, the show manages to actually build lives and backstories for its characters, something that movies don’t always have time for, or can't be bothered with. It works, and each season has introduced some fairly compelling characters. It doesn’t hurt that the focus is largely on adults rather than more typical teenage victims. The Canadian production has moved around a bit since its beginning—the first three seasons are available on Netflix, but the last two (Flesh & Blood and Ripper) are exclusive to Shudder. To make it even more confusing, it series got a name change and spun-off into two seasons of Hell Motel. Each stands entirely on its own, though, so it's absolutely OK to pick it up anywhere you like. Stream Slasher on Netflix and Shudder.
Not an anthology but another bit of Ryan Murphy wackiness, this one is more of an overt satire—though, as with American Horror Story, the line between comedy and horror is always a little thin. Here we find the all-star line-up of Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Billie Lourd, and Abigail Breslin as sorority sisters facing down a threatening and downright vicious dean (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a serial killer who dresses up like their school's Red Devil mascot, all of it tying in to some wild stuff that went down back in 1995. Stream Scream Queens on Hulu.
This one's a bit more for the American Horror Story: Coven lovers, but the general tone fits well with the whole AHS oeuvre: silly and spooky until it hits you in the gut with legitimate horror and unexpected gore. In this dark take on the Archie character, spooky Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) is an old-school witch living in a household that’s not unlike that of the Addams family (and the Practical Magic family, for that matter): two witchy aunts (played by Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis) alongside her warlock cousin (Chance Perdomo) and her loyal familiar, Salem the cat, living their witchy lives out of view of the local normies. At the outset of the series, Sabrina's forced to choose between signing her name in Satan’s book and becoming a full-fledged witch, or staying in high school with her human friends. Instead, she refuses to choose. Cannibalism, human sacrifice, and blood rituals abound. Stream Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix.
Another not-an-anthology show that still works as a vibe match. Pushing Daisies' Bryan Fuller is the showrunner for this twisted take on the Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter novels. Fuller went back to the source material, once again adapting the first Lecter novel with a visual flair unmatched on network television—there's a Grand Guignol style here that resonates with that of AHS, as well as a pervasive, all-encompassing queerness that oozes from the show's every pore; the deeper, sexier relationship between the Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but it's such a cult classic that there are talks of a revival even more than a decade later. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video and Netflix.
One of the most eclectic series of the past decade wasn’t afraid to tell a wide variety of stories in multiple genres over its four seasons. In Room 104, comedy, drama, sci-fi, and horror stories all occur within its smart, budget-conscious setting—that of a single, boring-looking motel room that could be literally anywhere. The vibe ranges from sweet to disturbing to apocalyptic (literally, in at least a couple of episodes), with an impressive roster of guest stars: Tony Todd, Michael Shannon, Judy Greer, Brian Tyree Henry, Mahershala Ali, Cobie Smulders, Dave Bautista, and Harvey Guillén are just some of the names that have signed the guest register. This is an episode-by-episode anthology, though there are throughlines to remind us that we're literally in the same room each go-round. Pretty much any season of American Horror Story could have happened on this show, albeit in a tidy 30-ish minutes. Stream Room 104 on HBO Max.
Each season of The Terror is distinct, but all converge on the idea that real life is far, far more horrifying than the supernatural stuff going on in the background. Season one, adapted from the Dan Simmons novel, involves the true story of two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage before becoming trapped in a field of ice; starvation, madness, and possibly monsters ensue. The second takes us to California during World War II to follow the internment of innocent Japanese families—with a bakemono of folklore along for good measure. The most recent, based on a Victor LaValle novel, stars Dan Stevens as a man involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital on a 72-hour hold. Stream The Terror on AMC+ and Shudder.
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Prime Video's recent hit Sterling Point hits all the right buttons for a coming-of-age drama, with all of the romance and family drama you'd want. None of that is particularly groundbreaking, nor are the show's well-managed elements of mystery. Where the show stands out is in its tone and pacing: Sterling Point never feels like it's in a rush, and that sets it apart among its plot-heavy YA peers. For all the heightened romantic drama and family secrets, there's the sense, right from the beginning, that we're watching something that takes itself seriously, and the languid feeling of youthful summers comes through without ever being dull. While we wait for a promised second season, enjoy these other uncommonly smart YA dramas.
Adapted from the trilogy of YA bestsellers by Jenny Han, this series focuses on the coming-of-age of teenager Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), who is 16 as the series starts. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that's all well and good until she starts to develop a romantic attraction for first one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney), then the other (Gavin Casalegno), planting the seeds for a love triangle that unfolds over the course of several summers, and that sees Belly grow into young adulthood to a soundtrack made up largely of Taylor Swift tunes. The three-season run is over, but there's a continuation movie on the way. Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
Two households, both alike in dignity...more or less...are at the heart of this seasonal beach drama. The working-class "Pogues" (as they're called) live in coastal Kildare Island year-round, while the wealthy Kooks (also a nickname) show up just during the summer months. Quite naturally, the ringleader of the locals (Chase Stokes) takes an interest in the rebellious daughter (Madelyn Cline) of the seasonal residents. There's more going on here than just summer romance, as the series opener has the locals exploring a submerged ship and finding a large amount of cash, some significant documents, and a gun, which will come into play as the rival factions come to figurative and literal blows. Stream Outer Banks on Netflix.
Who does teen drama better than Judy Blume? This adaptation of her widely censored 1975 novel updates the setting to current-ish day Los Angeles and expands the novel's exploration of the complexities of teen love and sex to include the challenges of being young, exceptional, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) attends a predominantly Black private school and is working toward a track scholarship at Howard, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) goes to school with white kids and is on his parents' track to go to Northeastern, ideally on a basketball scholarship. The smart show follows their budding romance in a way that feels real and compelling—it's more focused on the central relationship than is Sterling Point, but it similarly feels more real than most teen-centered dramas. Stream Forever on Netflix.
When pretty, popular girl Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt) goes missing without a trace in 1993, awkward Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) steps in to fill the gap, modeling herself after Kate by working her way into the missing girl's social circle and getting close with her boyfriend. That's all going great until Kate reappears two years later, accusing Jeanette of having witnessed the events around her disappearance and keeping quiet. Whoops. There's even more going on, as the show shifts back and forth between 1993, 1994, and 1995 to slowly reveal the missing pieces. Season two takes on a different story set in 1999 and 2000, and the forthcoming third season will shake things up again. The emphasis here is on mystery, but it's a show about the aftereffects of trauma and of the dark secrets that can tear families and communities apart. Stream Cruel Summer on Hulu.
Brianne Howey plays Georgia, who became a mom at 15 and who's been fleeing for much of that time, escaping from more than one abusive relationship and going to whatever lengths have been necessary (including possibly murder) in order to protect her two kids. As Ginny (Antonia Gentry) comes of age, she's forced to come to terms with her mom's actions (Ginny generally gets bits of backstory alongside us, the audience) and to try to understand the reasons behind them. Their relationship is close, but also complicated and sometimes antagonistic. There's a moment in the first episode of this show when single mom Georgia describes herself and daughter Ginny as "...like the Gilmore Girls, but with bigger boobs!"—so the show has some of that close-but-complicated family vibe that's echoed by Sterling Point's sisters. Stream Ginny & Georgia on Netflix.
Author John Green is most famous for a particularly poignant brand of teen drama (his most successful work being the novel and subsequent film adaptation The Fault in Our Stars). This miniseries, from Green’s semi-autobiographical debut novel, features a death-obsessed kid who moves to Alabama to attend a boarding school, with enlightenment and tragedy following in equal measure. As with Green’s novels, the material transcends the obvious emo tropes, and the miniseries was received well by newcomers as well as fans of the book. It shares with Sterling Point not just its themes of moving beyond grief, but creatives Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, whose resumes also include YA TV classics The O.C. and Gossip Girl. Buy Looking for Alaska from Apple TV.
The emphasis here is on rich people, so your mileage may vary, but the vibe is very much White Lotus, which makes it all a bit more tolerable. We even open on a flash-forward involving lead Cola (Jessie Mei Li) floating unconscious, possibly dead, as a yacht burns and sinks behind her. Stepping back a few weeks, Cola is taking a summer job in Hong Kong with a wealth management company. It's the start of the summer social season, and Cola is expected to network among the wealthy and clique-y yachters in town for the summer. We quickly learn that our outsider isn't quite as naive as she's appeared, and that her motive in moving among the young elite of Hong Kong has to do with her own family secrets and a lust for revenge. It's all very pretty and polished, and equally juicy. Stream The Season on Hulu.
Rachel Bilson plays Zoe Hart, who moves from New York to the small town of Bluebell, Ala., to take over part of her father's medical practice—she didn't have much choice, given that her poor bedside manner made her virtually unemployable. So now she has to rebuild a life among three generations of family in a town full of eccentrics. It's a little lighter, perhaps, and maybe a bit more schmaltzy than Sterling Point, but the narratives start from similar places in that Zoe has to make a new life in a new town while discovering the family she barely knew. Stream Hart of Dixie on Prime Video.
Following a family tragedy, the already awkward 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) has a pretty terrible freshman year of high school, and decides that she’s going to turn things around the following year, hoping that a nearly academic study of sex will get her the boyfriend(s) her raging hormones have begun to demand. It works, to a point—but getting a surprise yes to sex from her crush leads her to question what she’s really ready for. More about burgeoning sexuality than sex specifically, this Mindy Kaling-produced series is both honest and charming. Stream Never Have I Ever on Netflix.
Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall) returns to the lakeside town of Barry's Bay after a decade away for the funeral of the mother of her old boyfriend Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) and his brother Charlie (Michael Bradway). As she reconnects with her family and old friends, we revisit the summers of years earlier to discover what exactly went down between Percy, Sam, and Charlie. There's nothing groundbreaking in the premise here, but it's still an impressively smart take on young love, loss, and betrayal. Stream Every Year After on Prime Video.
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Outlander filled a void no one suspected existed (probably). Based on the bestselling book series by Diana Gabaldon, this epic love story about a time-traveling woman who plunges into the messiest extramarital affair ever known was one of the most popular shows on TV screens, and inspired some intense fandom. If you were one of the show’s superfans and you’re not quite sure how to fill your time now that Claire and Jamie’s story is done, there’s some good news: The best movie for Outlander fans to watch was released decades ago, in 1980.
Based on the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, Somewhere in Time is one of those movies that people still talk about almost fifty years after its release—and it’s a spookily perfect companion to Outlander.
Christopher Reeve, fresh off his star turn in Superman, plays playwright Richard Collier. While on a road trip, he stops at the Grand Hotel and sees a photo of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), who was a famous actress in the early 20th century. He realizes that an elderly Elise had given him an antique pocket watch years earlier, and comes to believe that time travel is possible and begins planning for a trip back to 1912—succeeding after several tries.
In the past, he meets Elise, and they fall madly in love—but her manager sees Richard as a threat to her career, and does everything he can to thwart them. It’s a story that parallels Outlander’s in many ways, especially when Claire decides to return to the 18th century to seek Jamie after she learns that he’s still alive. Richard’s determination to stay with Elise no matter what ends up in tragedy (something else fans of Outlander are familiar with), but the story asks a simple question: Isn’t suffering worth it if it leads you to true love?
Somewhere in Time doesn’t get to dig as deeply into Richard and Elise’s love story as Outlander does with Jamie and Claire, of course—the series was able to linger on their story over more than 100 episodes. But the film captures the same powerful moment of connection as two people overcome the most fundamental obstacle in the universe—time—in order to be together. Fans of the show will love it. Stream Somewhere in Time on The Roku Channel, Tubi, or Plex, or rent it on Prime Video.
Iif you still need more timeless time-travel romance in your life, there are more movies to check out.
Frothier, funnier, and sillier than Outlander or Somewhere in Time, Kate & Leopold is the story of Leopold, the impoverished Duke of Albany (Hugh Jackman). Living in New York City in 1876, he is on the verge of inventing the Otis elevator when he chases a man through a time portal and finds himself in 2001. There’s a lot of plot about elevators and temporal paradoxes, but Outlander fans will come for the romance Leopold falls into with the man’s ex, Kate McKay (Meg Ryan). The thoroughly modern Kate is wooed by Leopold’s old-fashioned charm and intelligence, and it leads to one of those classic romcom moments where someone has to race to be with their soulmate, except instead of a plane they’re racing toward a time portal, as one does. Rent Kate & Leopold on Prime Video.
Another film adapted from a novel (Second Sight by David L. Williams), The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan stars Lindsay Wagner as Jennie, a woman who moves into an old Victorian house with her estranged husband, who has confessed to an affair. Legends about the house center on a previous owner, David (Marc Singer), who claimed to see the ghost of his dead wife and supposedly died in a duel. When Jennie finds an old dress hanging in a closet and tries it on, she finds herself transported to 1899 several times. When she finally meets David, she realizes she was the “ghost” he spoke of. They fall in love, but a jealous rival threatens everything in this surprisingly twisty movie that Outlander fans will appreciate. Stream The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan on The Roku Channel or YouTube.
One of the most effective aspects of Outlander is how it explores the necessity of leaving something behind in order to truly appreciate it. In Peggy Sue Got Married, Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is recently separated from her philandering husband, Charlie (Nicholas Cage). When she’s transported from 1986 back to her senior year of high school in 1960 and given a chance to change the entire course of her life, she has to wrestle with what could have been versus what she still might have in the “real” present. It’s got plenty of funny moments, but Peggy Sue Got Married is, at its core, a love story. Stream Peggy Sue Got Married on Tubi or rent it on Prime Video.
Whether there is any actual time travel or immortality in this complex, symbolically rich film is debatable—writer/director Darren Aronofsky left much of the story open to interpretation. But it’s 100% a love story that spans centuries in one sense or another, as Hugh Jackman plays three versions of a man named Tom (or Tomás, as he is called when he is a Spanish Conquistador in the 16th century). In the present day, Dr. Tom Creo searches for a cure for death as his beloved wife, Izzi, dies of a brain tumor. And in the far future, Tom travels through space with what may be the Tree of Life, seeking to be reunited with Izzi in some way. It’s lushly romantic whether you choose to believe that all the Toms are real or that some of them are imaginary, and a deeply affecting story fans of the show will love. Rent The Fountain on Prime Video.
Timeline, based on the book by Michael Crichton, isn’t a love story—but if your favorite part of Outlander is the fish-out-of-water aspect of a person from the future finding their way in the past, this is the perfect choice. When a group of archaeology grad students is sent back to 1357 to discover the fate of their professor, everything that can go wrong quickly does, stranding them in the midst of The Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French. The film presents the challenges of adapting to the past in a relatively realistic way, and the twists and turns of its fast-paced plot are a lot of fun. There’s a romance in there, too, though it’s far from the focus—but if you’re looking for more grand adventure via the magic of time travel, this movie is a treat. Rent Timeline on Prime Video.
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Friends wasn't just the quintessential '90s sitcom; it remains one of the most popular TV shows of all time, even as it has evolved into a hermetically sealed vision of the Before Times (before 9/11, before smartphones, before it was considered weird to just show up at your friend's house unannounced). Not every aspect of the show has aged well, but the sharp writing and stellar comic timing of its talented cast are what keep it at the top of people’s comfort-watch lists.
If you’re looking for a movie that also celebrates friendship, being young in a big city, and navigating the brackish waters of singlehood, forget the 1990s—look no further than 2024’s Players.
Led by an effervescent Gina Rodriguez, Players is a modern riff on a group of bright young things making their way in New York City. Rodriguez plays Mack, a sports writer who approaches hookups like a sweet science, developing “plays” for herself and her friends designed to break ice and engineer meet-cutes. Just like on Friends, Mack’s life is balanced and sustained by her support group—best friends Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), Brannagan (Augustus Prew), and Little (Joel Courtney). The four of them have the same sibling energy as the gang on Friends, especially in the early seasons, before the characters all began incestuously dating one another.
Naturally, romantic shenanigans ensue—Mack longs for a serious relationship, and when a new reporter, Nick (Tom Ellis), joins her paper, she targets him with the same laser focus that Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) used on Joshua (Tate Donovan) in season four. She recruits her buddies to help her run one of her plays on him, and things go hilariously awry. And yep, just like Ross and Rachel, there’s a slow-burn realization that maybe everything Mack is looking for was already right there in front of her.
Players offers a lot of the same pleasures as the show: A breezy storyline, sharp jokes, and well-sketched characters you can root for, with a Big City setting and a narrative that captures the particular energy of being young, single, and totally reliant on a small group of close friends who would walk through fire for you (or, in this case, Scooby Doo a romantic longing for you). If you’ve been looking for the one with a movie that feels like Friends, this is The One. You can stream Players on Netflix.
There were ten seasons of Friends, so maybe one movie isn’t enough to sate your craving for comedies featuring good-looking people hanging out. No worries—here are a few more movies fans of the show will love.
Why not go to the classic film about single people in New York? Written by the legendary Nora Ephron and directed by the late Rob Reiner, the story follows the cynical, sarcastic Harry (Billy Crystal) and the sweet, straight-laced Sally (Meg Ryan). They meet fresh out of college and drive cross-country together, and appear to have little in common. Sally is happy to say goodbye to Harry, but over the years, life keeps pulling them back together, and they eventually become best friends—which works just fine; until it doesn’t. It’s one of the funniest romcoms of all time; New York City is a main character, and the friend dynamics are spot on for fans of the show (as the famous four-way call scene proves). Rent When Harry Met Sally... on Apple TV.
Was your favorite part of Friends the epic will-they-won’t-they between Ross and Rachel? You’ll love Sleeping With Other People. Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) hook up in college—each other’s first time. Years later, they meet again when they each find themselves at self-help group meetings for their sexual and romantic hangups, and they decide to just be friends. As they support each other through relationships and life drama, they find they increasingly can’t deny how they really feel about one another. It’s funny but heartfelt, and zeroes in on the same friends-to-lovers vibe that gave Friends so much energy. Rent Sleeping with Other People on Prime Video.
If you loved the flashback episodes of Friends that showed how the group came together and what they were like before we met them, you’ll love The Wood. Just before Roland (Taye Diggs) is about to get married, he goes missing, so his lifelong best friends Mike (Omar Epps) and Slim (Richard T. Jones) go looking for him. The three reminisce about their teenage years in Inglewood, California, tracing their friendship and various other relationships along the way. It’s a sweet comedy about friends, and the flashbacks are reliably funny even as they flesh out the characters, making them into people you care about. Stream The Wood on Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
If you just want a romantic romp about young people making it in the Big City, Set It Up has charm for days. Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are assistants to high-powered bosses who leave them no time for relationships or anything else. They hatch a plan to get their bosses (Lucy Liu’s high-powered editor and Tay Diggs’ venture capitalist) dating in order to lessen their workload. It initially works, and then goes wrong in a lot of funny ways. If you suspect there’s a romantic subplot between Charlie and Harper, you may have seen a romcom before—but the story has the same “young folks figuring life out” vibe as the show, and Deutch and Powell are both powerfully charismatic in their roles. Stream Set It Up on Netflix.
Kind of a proto-Friends, Cameron Crowe’s love letter to 1990s Seattle grunge rock scene remains funny, relevant, and scarily accurate when it comes to the foibles of folks in their 20s and 30s trying to figure out love and everything else. The story follows a group of friends and neighbors renting “single” apartments in the same building as they navigate their messy love lives, frustrating careers, and clubs so loud they can barely hear each other after a night out. Along the way, they discuss everything with an easy shared affection—and a love of coffee—that will definitely remind you of the six kids at Central Perk. Stream Singles on The Roku Channel or Kanopy, or rent it on Prime Video.
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The Shards is a classic Bret Easton Ellis story, populated by sexy, empty monsters and punctuated by horrifying imagery. The man who gave us Less Than Zero and American Psycho knows how to deliver the icy, perverse thrills that only a show set in 1980s Los Angeles (and told from his distinct point-of-view) can give us. Whether it was the hot, dangerous characters, the neon-lit visuals, or the tense mystery and mounting sense of paranoia that you loved best, if you’re looking for more of it, there’s one movie that’s perfect for Shards fans: 2008’s The Informers.
The Informers is also adapted from the fiction of Bret Easton Ellis, it’s also set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and it’s got the same kind of sweat-slick, monied vibe as The Shards. Structured as separate narratives about characters who don’t always meet or realize how they’re connected, The Informers is centered on Graham (Jon Foster), a drifting, bisexual rich kid who deals drugs and hates his film producer father. When Graham’s friend Bruce is killed outside a party, Graham carries a trauma he can’t quite connect with, crossing paths in ways both direct and indirect with a zonked-out rock star (Mel Raido), a kid trying desperately to survive a soul-killing vacation with his father (Lou Taylor Pucci), and his girlfriend (Amber Heard) and boyfriend (Austin Nichols).
Unlike The Shards, there’s no central mystery or throughline like the Trawler. But the same sense of existential dread pervades the film—in fact, it’s easy to imagine that the Trawler is working in the background of the film’s stories, but these self-absorbed people don’t realize it because it doesn’t directly affect them. And the ending of the film is a gut punch—a horrifying moment of revelation that tells you that no matter how rich these folks are, or how attractive, or how privileged, they’re also all doomed.
So, yes, The Informers is bleaker than The Shards, following people who use drugs and bad behavior to avoid the emptiness that threatens to swallow them, but just as in the series, there’s something incredibly entertaining about watching these pretty, wealthy people make terrible decisions and do terrible things to each other and themselves. Add in a terrific cast that includes Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger, and Mickey Rourke, and you have the ideal movie for fans of the show. Rent The Informers on Prime Video.
If The Informers didn’t give you enough of that bleak vibe of ruined youth, don’t fret: Here are a few more movies that capture what The Shards is laying down.
A banger of a 1980s teen comedy, Heathers has the same black heart beating at its center as The Shards—just with a little more sarcasm and a lot more Ohio than California. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is part of a popular clique of girls known as The Heathers, led by the ultimate Mean Girl Heather Chandler (Kim Walker). Veronica’s already conflicted about how terrible her shallow, mean-spirited friends are when she meets Jason “J.D.” Dean (Christian Slater in his Imperial Era), who openly mocks the popular kids and makes rebellion look really, really cool. But in a parallel to Bret’s suspicions about Robert in the show, J.D. is slowly revealed to be a lot more disturbed than Veronica suspected, leading to some darkly funny violence. Stream Heathers on Pluto TV or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
If you really liked the serial killer angle in The Shards, check out Summer of 84. The vibe and atmosphere are very different, but it digs into that paranoid sense that someone in your circle might be a monster. In a small town in Oregon in 1984, 15-year-old Davey (Graham Verchere) comes to suspect his neighbor, a police officer named Mackey (Rich Sommer), is a serial killer responsible for the disappearance of more than a dozen kids over the previous decade. He convinces his friends to help him investigate, plunging them into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse where their main disadvantage is the fact that none of the adults around them believe a bunch of kids. If you’re looking for more stories of young people hunting serial killers, check it out. Rent Summer of 84 on Apple TV.
If your favorite aspect of The Shards is the reptilian coolness of its rich-kid characters, look no further—it doesn’t get more reptilian than Sebastian and Kathryn (Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar). Wealthy and popular Sebastian is an expert manipulator who finds it easy to sleep with his classmates at an elite high school, and accepts a challenge to seduce the chaste and naive new girl, Annette (Reese Witherspoon). A masterclass of manipulation, emotional abuse, and unintended consequences follows, mining the same vein of decadence and corruption that made The Shards so memorable. Stream Cruel Intentions on Netflix, The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
It’s a lot less glamorous than The Shards, but if you grooved on the show’s story of young people realizing they might have a monster in their midst, check out Super Dark Times. Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends in high school who share a crush on the same girl. When an accident leaves another kid dead, they panic and cover up the crime. When Josh begins behaving strangely and more kids go missing, Zach begins to suspect his friend has turned into a monster. The title of this movie pretty much sums up how the rest of the story goes. Stream Super Dark Times on The Roku Channel or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
On the surface, Saltburn is a different kind of story from The Shards—but it trades in the same slow burn of darkness and violence among the obscenely wealthy. Oliver (Barry Keoghan) attends Oxford on a scholarship, lonely and ostracized by his much wealthier peers. When a seemingly random moment brings him into the orbit of the handsome and popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), Oliver is introduced to Catton’s dysfunctionally wealthy family at their estate, Saltburn. Oliver proceeds to reveal himself as a sociopathic Tom Ripley type who slowly invades the Cattons’ world. Just like the show, it’s really a study in how people with money live in a very different—and sometimes much darker—world than the rest of us. Rent Saltburn on Prime Video.
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The twentysomething hangout comedy is a TV staple, but increasingly rare is a show that survives a low-rated first season. Critically well-received and appreciated by those who actually watched it, Adults survived obscurity to score a second-season renewal that saw it take off (helped along by the streamer's decision to film a new "pilot" episode after the first season had already been completed).
Though it has all the makings of the next breakout streaming hit, Adults has yet to be renewed for season three, but ratings and buzz are there. While you're waiting (and hoping), you can enjoy these other essential hangout shows involving characters on the cusp of adulthood.
Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bottoms) created, produces, writes, and stars in this take on twenty-something existence, part of a venerable TV comedic tradition shared with Adults. Sennott plays Maia, 27 and desperate for promotion in her job as an assistant talent manager. She's joined in town by Tallulah (Odessa A’zion), her one-time best friend and a New York City influencer fallen on messy times, as alternately fun and exhausting addition to a circle of friends that includes West Hollywood stylist Charlie (Jordan Firstman) and Maia's teacher boyfriend, Dylan (Josh Hutcherson). Like Gen Z's answer to Girls, it's smartly written and impressively acted, an essential when characters are charmingly, believably, insufferable. Stream I Love LA on HBO Max.
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naïve scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur) is an aspiring comedy writer on the make for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is an overachieving athlete and senator’s daughter; and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They're all randomly assigned to room together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, this comedy-drama isn't nearly as salacious as its title suggests—there's sex for sure, but like Sex and the City before it, it's a funny, queer-friendly show that's a little less about one overarching romance than it is about growing up, and discovering the value of female friendship. Stream The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.
Samantha Fink (Sofia Black-D’Elia) is a 28-year-old alcoholic who hits absolute rock bottom in the form of an embarrassing public meltdown. Committing to sobriety, she moves back to Boston with her strict and controlling mother (Ally Sheedy) and reconnects with her best friend Brit (Sasha Compère). Of course, for all of that sounding like a good idea, it also puts her right back in the environment that contributed to her drinking in the first place. Funny and humane, this is another show about messy, complicated young people trying to get a fresh start. Stream Single Drunk Female on Tubi.
Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, kinda, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college while desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's both a frequently raunchy college comedy and a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel), and there's a romantic component, even if the emphasis is more on what not to do when it comes to young love. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.
Margo's Got Money Troubles stars Elle Fanning as the title's Margo, a 20-year-old aspiring writer who becomes pregnant following a brief affair with her married English professor. Her mom, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), is supportive but negative about Margo's future prospects, while her estranged father, Jinx (Nick Offerman), is willing to pitch in and help out now that he's out of rehab. Still, she needs money if she's going to manage it all, and so takes to OnlyFans (and, at this point, who amongst us hasn't?). Though based on a standalone book, it has been renewed for a second season. Stream Margo's Got Money Troubles on Apple TV.
Let's take a moment to get situated, as the title might be a little confusing: Waikiki takes place in Seoul, the title referring to a Hawaiian-themed guest house run (rather poorly) by three twentysomething guys, all of whom dream of success in different aspects of the movie business. They're joined by a single mom with aspirations toward rap stardom, an aspiring journalist, and a model fallen on hard times. There are romantic complications between the six, a bit of drama, and then a lot of the weird, surreal, almost slapstick comedy of the sort that Adults manages to pull off so well. Stream Welcome to Waikiki on Tubi.
Going back to high school is taking us even further from the "independent twenty-something" of Adults, but the vibe is a pretty solid match, as is the absurdist sense of humor. It's a legitimate sitcom that just happens to be set in Northern Ireland during the violent Troubles of the 1990s, when clashes between nationalists and unionists were a common occurrence. The fascinating contrast has been brought to life by a writer and creator (Lisa McGee) who lived it. It’s also laugh-out-loud funny—though it doesn’t make any allowances for audiences unaccustomed to Irish accents, so don’t feel bad if you need subtitles until you get the hang of it. Erin, Orla, Clare, and Michelle are lifelong friends joined by James, the only male student at their Catholic girls' school, all of them dealing with growing independence in absurd times. Stream Derry Girls on Netflix.
If we can do older high schoolers, we can certainly go to the far end of the twenty-something range for a couple of women on the cusp of 30, as Issa Rae's Issa and Yvonne Orji's Molly are at the start of this comedy-drama that Rae also created and (often) writes. Issa is the only Black person at a non-profit supporting middle school students of color; her love life is a mess, and her best friend Molly is a successful lawyer who likewise can't make a relationship last for anything. The show is generally about two besties and their circle of friends discovering, as they approach true adulthood, that life isn't always going to deliver the things they'd planned or hoped for. Stream Insecure on HBO Max.
Inexplicably underrated, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a hybrid sitcom/drama that staged wildly ambitious, and consistently hilarious, musical numbers throughout its four-season run. The show stars Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a Yale- and Harvard-educated lawyer who works for a major NYC firm, who throws it all away to chase a crush from her teenage years to a small town in California where she (awkwardly) builds a new life with a new circle of friends. Most impressively, the show dives into real-life issues around mental illness and treatment with unexpected humor, but also genuine compassion and frankness. Buy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from Prime Video.
Let's go old school for one of the best and most underrated sitcoms of the 1990s. Living Single stars Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Kim Fields, and Erika Alexander as four young friends navigating the single life in New York City in a '90s kinda world. It plays off some of the same dynamics that worked for a show like The Golden Girls before it (i.e., four women with distinct personalities) and certainly served as inspiration for shows that came after (including Friends). Living Single adds to the comedy (and silliness) with some still relevant social issues, and serialized relationship drama that never brings things down, even as it makes for a solid binge-watch. Stream Living Single on Hulu.
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Outlander asks the all-important question: what if the Jacobite rising was very, very horny? The series proper, an adaptation of the enduring books by Diana Gabaldon, has ended after an impressive eight seasons, but the second season premiere of Blood of My Blood, the spin-off/prequel involving Claire's and Jamie's parents, is debuting right about now.
Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts has plans for at least three seasons, and Gabaldon is at work on at least one more novel, so there's plenty more Outlander action to come. In the meantime, here are 10 more sultry historical romances you can stream now—some of them even involve time travel!
A bit of bonus time travel back to 2008 for this breezy fantasy that's become a bit of a cult fave, initial ratings notwithstanding. Jemima Rooper is Amanda Price, a modern-day Austen fan navigating the fallout of a terrible wedding proposal from her drunk boyfriend when she hallucinates (she thinks) seeing Elizabeth Bennett in the bathroom. Before long, she finds herself swapping places with Lizzy, navigating the Regency era and the events of the novel, roleplaying as a hitherto unknown family friend who draws the eye of more than one marriage prospect. It's simultaneously a soapy romp and a meditation on the meaning of Austen to those of us living in the 21st century. Stream Lost in Austen on Peacock, Prime Video, and Tubi.
No time travel here, except in the magic of period drama, but we do land in 18th century Cornwall, which, OK, isn't Scotland—but the earthy vibe isn't entirely dissimilar to Outlander (bosoms will heave, regardless of gender). Aidan Turner is the title's Captain Ross Poldark, a British Army veteran returned home to find his land and inheritance in shambles and his longtime love engaged to another. Luckily, fiery, savvy runaway Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) turns up just in time to help him rebuild his life—a prelude to the hot and scandalous love affair that only adds to the windswept drama. Stream Poldark on Netflix.
Teresa Palmer is Diana Bishop, an American historian at Oxford whose studies lead her back to her own witchy lineage, setting her up for an alliance with Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), a biochemist, but also a vampire, and therefore Diana's natural enemy (obviously). Yet the two discover they're an effective pair in uncovering secrets while also fighting off magical threats. It's not as silly as it sounds, and the growing romantic chemistry between the leads is endlessly watchable. More to the point, they spend the entire second season in 1590 London, a less-than-ideal time for witches. Stream A Discovery of Witches on Netflix.
Lim Yoona plays Yeon Ji-yeong, a master of French cuisine with a promising career as a chef—at least until a rocky plane flight whisks her back to the Joseon dynasty at the tail end of the 15th century. Mistaken for a visiting noblewoman, she manages to impress young King Lee Heon with her cooking skills. Ji-yeong becomes entangled in court politics, and the two soon develop a romantic rapport, but there's a catch: the real-life king in question has an historical reputation as a monster, and Ji-yeong is forced to decide whether it's worth it to try to change history, even if it means she won't ever get home. Stream on Bon Appétit, Your Majesty on Netflix.
A surprisingly smart, still sweaty take on the sword-and-sandal genre, Spartacus dealt not just with the pressures of being a member of the oppressed class in an absolutist regime, but with all the things that chiseled, oiled, pansexual gladiators get up to when they're not fighting to the death. Played first by Andy Whitfield and later, Liam McIntyre, the show follows Spartacus from enslavement by the Roman army to the uprising that might have toppled the Empire. The sequel series, House of Ashur, has also just concluded. Stream Spartacus on Netflix.
A direct spin-off of Bridgerton that's entirely watchable on its own if, for some reason, you don't care to be bothered with the series proper. Maintaining much of the original's style but with a laser focus on the title character, Charlotte brilliantly crafts a passionate, tortured romance between the queen (played as a young woman by India Amarteifio, with Golda Rosheuvel reprising the role for the framing bits) and King George III (Corey Mylchreest). The pressures of royal life and the king's growing mental illness create a rocky road for the young couple, but their passion is moving and deeply horny. Stream Queen Charlotte on Netflix.
Yet again no time travel, but we do get heaping helpings of fantasy in this steamy period drama involving England's first (if only for nine days) queen, Jane Grey. Based on a book by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, the show stars Emily Bader as the titular queenly contender, who is dealing with a dying king cousin, a sketchy marriage, and competition from her sisters Elizabeth and Mary. Complicating the history in this telling is the existence of a class of oppressed humans who can turn into animals. The magic and shapeshifting make the whole thing sufficiently bonkers, kicking off with the invocation: "She could have been the leader England needed. Instead, history remembers her as the ultimate damsel in distress. Fuck that." Stream My Lady Jane on Prime Video.
Head over to Madrid, within just a few decades of Outlander, where Clara Belmonte (Michelle Jenner) has just taken a job in the kitchens of the Duke of Castamar (Roberto Enríquez). He's been a virtual recluse since the unexpected death of his wife, though now the king and various family members are pressuring him to get back on the horse, literally and figuratively, and fulfill his obligations as a noble. Clara, on the other hand, had developed a bit of agoraphobia following the execution of her father, and she's perfectly content to toil in the gloomy kitchens rather than go outside. Of course, the grieving Duke takes notice of her just as he's being plied with marriage prospects. Stream The Cook of Castamar on Netflix.
Everything is looking pretty great for 15-year-old Yuri Suzuki, particularly in the romance department: the guy she's had a crush on for forever just made it clear that the feelings are mutual, and a serious romance is in the offing. But something's always gonna mess these things up and, in this case, it's Queen Nakia of the ancient Hittite Empire. Nakia is a low-ranking consort who aspires to see her son on the throne one day, and, apparently, the best way she can think of to make that happen is to summon a modern teen back through time to serve as a blood sacrifice. There are plenty of nods toward historical accuracy in this manga adaptation, but I'm pretty sure that part never happened. Yuri's modern-day knowledge allows her to survive in the past, with some even believing her to be an avatar of the goddess Ishtar. She also gets help from Kail Mursili, the (real-life) prince who hopes to keep Yuri safe as their romantic attraction grows. Stream Red River on Crunchyroll or buy it from Prime Video.
Here more for the soapy, sexy drama than historical accuracy? Looking for love triangles, power struggles, and cousin-on-cousin action in Scotland of centuries past? You're in the right place, even if we're roughly 200 years before the time of Jamie Fraser. Adelaide Kane stars as Queen Mary Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots, beginning the series as a teenage girlboss coming of age and coming into her royal power. Stream Reign on Prime Video.
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The Paper isn’t exactly a sequel to The Office—despite existing in the same universe and sharing the character Oscar Nuñez (played by Office alum Oscar Martinez), the show is its own animal. Unlike Michael Scott, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) has a noble quest in saving the Toledo Truth Teller from the sad fate facing most local newspapers, and that shift in focus gives The Paper its own identity. And yet it’s as hilarious as The Office ever was, filled with the same mockumentary-inspired spit-takes and ridiculous capers (largely thanks to Esmeralda, played by Sabrina Impacciatore, who is kind of like Michael and Dwight rolled into one spectacular character).
If you’ve already torn through the show’s first two seasons and you’ve watched all the streamalike shows out there, then the next move is obvious: Watch the 1994 film The Paper.
Although they share a title, there’s no direct connection between the show and the movie—but they’re more similar than you might think. Both are focused on the slow, grinding decline of journalism in America; Ned wants to return the Truth Teller to something resembling a real newspaper, and metro editor Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) wants to save The New York Sun from (you guessed it) steep budget cuts and an ownership more interested in monetizing its assets than great journalism.
1994’s The Paper, directed by Ron Howard and co-written by David Koepp and his brother Stephen (then an editor at Time Magazine), has a very different style of comedy from The Paper’s mockumentary approach—it’s rougher, edgier, and comes from the fast-paced, motor-mouthed screwball comedy tradition. But it’s just as funny, from the swirl of overheard conversations in the busy newsroom (this is a film that rewards multiple viewings to catch all the little jokes) to the way Keaton’s performance edges closer and closer to Beetlejuice territory as the pressure on Henry mounts (seriously, by the end of the infamous phone-call scene, he’s basically channeling the undead bio-exorcist).
If you’re looking for a comedy like the Peacock show, one that celebrates both journalism and the human beings who think it matters, you’ll definitely love this movie. Plus, it’s got a stacked cast: Aside from Keaton operating at his absolute peak, you’ve got Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, and Marisa Tomei, and Jason Alexander and Catherine O’Hara in small but memorable roles. And if the sort of big tabloid newspaper like The New York Sun is almost extinct these days, that’s part of what makes the movie so effective—just like the series, it starts with the assumption that these papers and the people who work at them matter, and are worth celebrating. Rent The Paper on Prime Video.
Need more journalistic levity than The Paper (and The Paper) can provide? Read on for more movie suggestions that fans of the show will love.
A massive critical and box-office hit in 1987, James L. Brooks' Broadcast News is more of a dramedy than a straightforward comedy—though it has many hilarious moments, including the scene where aspiring news anchor Aaron (Albert Brooks) can’t stop sweating during his big chance on camera. Holly Hunter plays a sharp producer torn between her journalistic ethics and her attraction to a slick but not particularly bright (or ethical) new anchor, played by a hilariously befuddled William Hurt. Its journalistic setting and its concerns over an institution being destroyed by corporate interests and abandoned principles will resonate with fans of The Paper—and it’s a terrific movie in general. Rent Broadcast News on Prime Video.
Want another comedy set in the offices of a struggling newspaper? Check out this forgotten classic from director Joan Micklin Silver (Crossing Delancey). In the mid-1970s, The Back Bay Mainline is a local alternative newspaper struggling to transition from its activist origins to a more mature business. The offices are shabby, the staff underpaid (a truly funny Jeff Goldblum plays music critic Max Arloft, who notes at one point that he takes home $75 a week, which would be about $11k per year in 2026 money), and the question of whether their revolutionary days actually achieved anything hangs in the air as a corporate takeover looms on the horizon. The humor is more subtle and the gender politics are, well, what you might expect from 1976—but there’s charm to spare. Stream Between the Lines on Kanopy or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
If you want fast-paced, crackling humor with a newspaper backdrop, this all-timer is a must-watch. When newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant in Ultra Cary Grant Mode) discovers his best reporter (and ex-wife), Hildy (Rosalind Russell), is not only getting married but also leaving her career, he decides to win her back and keep her at the paper. He asks her to cover one last story while doing everything he can to ruin her new relationship and convince her that she’s meant to be a reporter—and with him. The dialogue is incredibly fast, very funny, and any fan of The Paper will love it. Stream His Gal Friday on The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Hoopla, or Fubo, or rent it on Prime Video.
This sweet, funny romantic comedy follows Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), who accepts a job as producer at struggling morning show DayBreak. Finding the production in chaos, she uses contractual magic to force veteran newscaster Mike Pomeroy (a crusty Harrison Ford) to become the show’s co-host alongside Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), to his horror. The battle of wills between Becky and Mike, the battle to save the show, and Becky’s struggle to be taken seriously by the men around her (including her love interest, fellow producer Adam (Patrick Wilson), are packed with sharp jokes and observations about the modern age of news and media—perfect for fans of The Paper. Stream Morning Glory on Kanopy or Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
Any time fans of a mockumentary-style comedy go looking for a movie, they will eventually find their way to one of Christopher Guest’s classic entries. For fans of The Paper, the best choice from that list is Best in Show. Co-written with Schitt’s Creek’s Eugene Levy, the setting (a national dog show) couldn’t be further from a tiny Midwest newspaper, but the vibe and joke structures are the same, with “talking head” interviews delivering plenty of belly laughs from folks who are so deep in the sauce of their subculture they don’t see how bizarre it looks to outsiders—but, just like Ned’s belief in the power of journalism, underneath all the jokes is a sweet sincerity. If your favorite part about The Paper is the documentary conceit, check this one out. Stream Best in Show on The Roku Channel, Plex, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
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Since ending its nine-season run in 2013, The Office has only grown more powerful. Thanks to endless re-runs and availability on streaming platforms, the series has evolved into the glue that holds society together—no matter who you are, you’ve watched The Office (probably more than once, with the exception of “Scott’s Tots,” which is simply too cringey (though hilarious!) for anyone to experience twice). If you just finished your sixth re-watch and you’ve watched all the recommended streamalike series, it’s time to watch David Brent: Life on the Road.
If you’re a huge fan of The Office, you’ve almost certainly watched the original UK version created by Rickey Gervais. The original series has a different vibe than the American version, of course, but all the pieces are there—especially Gervais’s performance as David Brent, who was a slightly meaner Michael Scott.
That’s what makes David Brent: Life on the Road a must-watch for Office fans. It picks up Brent’s story after the series’ end and digs deep into his character. No longer the boss, Brent is working as a sales rep—and finds himself in the same position his employees once did, miserable in his work and treated poorly by many of his co-workers. Instead of inspiring some self-reflection, however, Brent decides to make a desperate stab at music stardom, cleaning out his retirement funds to hire a band and go on a short tour during his vacation.
There’s very little office in David Brent: Life on the Road, but the film has the same cringe-comedy chops you love about the series. Brent is as bombastic, un-self-aware, and weirdly overconfident as ever when the story kicks off, but—just like Michael in the U.S. series—is slowly humanized over the course of the story, learning how to make real human connections. Along the way, there’s plenty of awkward comedy and hilarious moments, all done in the same mockumentary style of both the original show and the American adaptation. If you’re looking for something similar to bridge the gap to your next re-watch of the show, this is the perfect choice. Stream David Brent: Life on the Road on Netflix.
If that just made you want to watch more office-based comedies or mockumentaries that do cringe comedy well, never fear: Here are a few more movies fans of The Office will love.
No recent comedy captures the slow, grinding indignities of working life like Office Space. If you love how The Office riffs on the personalities and petty squabbles between co-workers that come to dominate our 9-to-5 existences, this story of a man who decides his job just doesn’t matter (and who gets swept up in a ludicrous crime scheme that’s ripped off of Superman 3, of all things) is an ideal choice. It digs into what we sell to our employers, the rage that working for a living can inspire (this scene connects with literally everyone who watches it), and the hilarious absurdity of office life. Rent Office Space on Prime Video.
Office culture and its warping effect on human nature has been a comedic subject for a long time, and this peak Billy Wilder film from 1960 is still relatable today. Jack Lemmon plays a put-upon, ambitious office clerk at an enormous insurance company that allows executives to use his bachelor pad as a trysting place for their office affairs, hoping to ingratiate himself. It’s as much a satire of corporate culture as it is a love story, and modern-day Office fans will find a lot of the jokes still land today. Stream The Apartment on Kanopy or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Clockwatchers offers a different kind of humor and explores a kind of working experience that doesn’t really exist anymore—that of long-term temp workers. But if your favorite part of The Office is the way it skewers work culture and office dynamics, this is your jam. Toni Colette plays Iris, a young woman who starts a temp gig at a mid-size financial company. She hooks up with the other temps (including a typically marvelous Parker Posey and Lisa Kudrow) and learns the ins and outs of this stressful, darkly funny office. Anyone trapped in a dead-end job will understand the peculiar madness that sets in—the same madness that drives the funny core of this movie. Stream Clockwatchers on Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Are your favorite episodes of The Office the ones where normal order breaks down and chaos invades, like the Christmas party episode, the fire drill cold open, or the office Olympics?. Check out Office Christmas Party. A struggling office is ordered to cancel bonuses and its holiday party, but the CTO and branch manager forge ahead with the party in an effort to land a big client. The phrase “chaos ensues” does not even begin to sum up the events that follow, including copious property damage, arrests, and several hospitalizations. If Dwight and Jim’s prank wars and Michael’s tendency to overdo everything were the best parts of the show for you, you’ll dig this. Stream Office Christmas Party on Paramount+ or rent it on Prime Video.
If you’re a sucker for the “mockumentary” format The Office perfected, Waiting for Guffman is the perfect choice. The story of a community theater group planning a show for the town’s 150th anniversary, led by intense director Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest). It captures Michael Scott’s oblivious approach to leading a team and his improvisational comedy skills as the weirdos who populate the community of Blaine, Missouri come together to put on a show that is a lot more memorable than it is good. Rent Waiting for Guffman on Prime Video.
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Are we in a golden age for TV historical dramas? Once mostly limited to Sunday-night BBC imports on PBS, streaming has opened the doors for these journeys into the past, recent or otherwise. They're not all particularly faithful to historical fact (not a requirement), but each has the virtue of offering a brief escape from an increasingly obnoxious present.
One of the most recent successes is Netflix's My Brilliant Career, an adaptation of the seminal 1901 coming-of-age novel by author Miles Franklin. And once you've visited early 19th-century Australia with Sybylla Melvyn, you may well enjoy these 10 other stories of young women who'd just as soon you didn't try to tell them how to live their lives.
A bit of a ratings blockbuster on the BBC, this miniseries revisits the events of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of Lizzy Bennet's bookish, altogether dorkier sister Mary. Her ruddy complexion, penchant for grammatical correctness, and (gasp!) spectacles seem to make Mary entirely unsuitable for marriage and unfit for much other than genteel spinsterhood. That begins to change when Mary sets off to become a governess for the Gardiner family in London and manages to forge a life and a future for herself away from the parents and siblings who see her as not much more than a piece of furniture. Though in a different time and on a different continent, Sybella and Mary are similarly clever and forthright young women doing their best to find their place, expectations be damned. Stream The Other Bennet Sister on Britbox.
Jo March is a young woman from a poor family who harbors both writerly ambitions and the talent to make her dreams come true—if only people can tolerate the independence of a young woman. She's also possessed of an elderly relative with the money to either help or hinder her. Any of this sounding familiar? Though overshadowed by the (excellent) Greta Gerwig film version's arrival two years later, this BBC adaptation is a bit more faithful to the text without ever feeling stuffy. Set in a Civil War-era New England in which women have largely been left behind by the men in their lives, the miniseries format does a fine job of capturing the passage of time that is so critical to the story. Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) is Jo, Emily Watson plays the stolid Marmee with an appropriate twinkle, and Angela Lansbury (in her final TV role) is perfect as the snide, snippy Aunt March. Stream Little Women on Peacock, Tubi, and Netflix.
Starting in 1915, this multigenerational saga follows one woman (played in different time periods by Youn Yuh-jung and Kim Min-ha) and her family, taking us from the Japanese occupation of Korea through the decades of the Korean diaspora. With her opportunities limited, Sunja leaves her home and family in Busan to pursue a life in Japan, even as racism and anti-immigrant sentiment are rampant amid the war. Like Sybella, she rejects the prospect of a practical marriage to a man of means in favor of independence, and refuses to let her circumstances limit her aspirations. In a parallel narrative that begins in 1989, we see what has and hasn't changed for Sunja and her family as part of a journey as personal as it is epic, with better location cinematography than most movies—and an all-time great opening credits sequence. Stream Pachinko on Apple TV.
A hyper-stylized period drama (Bridgerton was clearly an inspiration), this 1870s-set adaptation of an unfinished Edith Wharton novel takes liberties in terms of costuming and music while also upping the juicy drama. The buccaneers of the title are among the so-called dollar princesses of the era: Nan St. George (Kristine Froseth) and her friends are young women from upper-class American families on the make among the British aristocracy—the Americans get titles, and the English lords get to keep their frequently cash-poor estates running. Before long, true love complicates everything for the young women who aren't necessarily career-minded like Sybella, but who nonetheless have ambitions outside of their family and social obligations. Stream The Buccaneers on Apple TV.
The marriage-pressure angle is less prominent here, but we're nevertheless following a young woman starting a new chapter by leaving home...or, at least, going down the road apiece, which was a big deal in 19th century Oxfordshire (the story is drawn from a series of semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson). Country girl Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan) sets out to look for work in the wealthier, modestly more metropolitan neighboring town of Candleford. She finds a job at the post office and is befriended and mentored by her mother's cousin, Dorcas (Julia Sawalha). Not everyone in Candleford is so welcoming of the rube from the countryside, especially when Laura is forced to choose between the demands of her job and the needs of the family she left behind. Stream Lark Rise to Candleford on Peacock and Tubi.
Based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic historical novel Anne of Green Gables, Anne With an E follows the titular heroine, a precocious girl growing up in a rural 19th-century setting as she's forced to carve a new life in a new place. As the series begins in 1896, a couple of elderly and unmarried siblings on Prince Edward Island, Canada, have sent away for an orphan boy to help on the farm, but instead find themselves with a girl: chatty Anne Shirley (Amybeth McNulty), who has to fight to prove herself to her prospective parents, as well as to others in the town who judge her alternately for being a useless girl and for being a poor orphan. The reboot revisits the novel and mines its text (and subtext) for new ideas without betraying its spirit. Stream Anne With an E on Netflix.
The time, place, and context are different, but this historical drama shares with My Brilliant Career themes of young women leaving home in order to defy expectations of their birth, only to find new opportunities and new obstacles where they wind up. Set in the 1950s among what's often referred to as the Windrush generation (for the ship that brought several hundred West Indian passengers to the UK in 1948), the series finds Leah Whittaker (Rochelle Neil) traveling to England to escape an abusive husband, joined by her sister Chantrelle (Saffron Coomber), who dreams of movie stardom; also along for the journey is religious do-gooder Hosanna Drake (Yazmin Belo), with a prospective marriage in the works to a man she's never met. Upon arrival, the women find opportunities, but also challenges they hadn't quite accounted for, including the overt and violent racism of their new home. The script is from actor Lenny Henry, who based much of it on stories from his parents and grandparents. Stream Three Little Birds on Britbox.
Dickinson is so scrupulously weird that it gets points just for doing the unexpected. The most surprising thing about it, though, is that it's not merely idiosyncratic—it’s good. The show imagines the life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson (played by Hailee Steinfeld), with the true-feeling conceit that she didn’t fit especially well in her own time, a fact the show reflects through the casual use of anachronisms and more modern sensibilities. Think The Buccaneers or Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette for similar vibes—but neither of those is about a person nearly as haunting or mysterious as Dickinson, who is at war with her father throughout the series over her desire (need, really) to write. Bonus: It’s also beautifully filmed and acted. Stream Dickinson on Apple TV.
Sanditon is based on Jane Austen's final, incomplete work, a fact that allows for plenty of creative leeway—it doesn't have the stylistic whimsy of Bridgerton, but serves as a purer distillation of the Regency-drama thrills that Austen bequeathed to us. Here, the wildly independent Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) sets out to reinvent herself after moving to the title's growing seaside resort town (based, probably, on the real-life Worthing). She discovers that commercial prospects have drawn schemers and chancers to the area, creating a unique and vibrant social scene, with all of the balls and fancy costumes you'd expect. Naturally, romantic complications ensue when Charlotte gets judgy about the entrepreneurial Parker family and finds herself at odds with, and then getting close to, the wild youngest son, Sidney (Theo James). Stream Sanditon on PBS Passport or buy it from Prime Video.
Coming at Jane Austen a bit sideways, this rather masterful historical drama focuses on the famous writer's only sister, Cassandra, in the time shortly after Jane's death, and on the ways in which the lives of the two diverted from the romance-heavy plots of books like Pride and Prejudice. The author is on her way to the legendary status that she'd come to acquire, and the family is already battling over her legacy. Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) visits the home of dying family friend the Reverend Fowle with the intent of collecting and destroying personal letters between Jane and the Reverend's late wife, Eliza. Cassandra's unpleasant sister-in-law is also looking for the letters, planning to publish them for her own purposes. As Cassandra revisits her own past, the miniseries explores the separate paths she and Jane took toward independence (one through writing, the other through painting), while also placing Cassandra in the middle of Eliza's daughter's very Austen-esque quest to dodge a marriage she wants nothing to do with. Stream Sanditon on PBS Passport or buy it from Prime Video.
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Apple TV sure has the touch when it comes to high-concept sci-fi thrillers that get into your head and won't leave. Based on the book by Blake Crouch, Dark Matter is a near-perfect speculative thriller-mystery, packed with twists and turns and brought to life by an absolutely stacked cast.
This story of parallel universes and parallel selves who don’t always have their (or your—it’s confusing) best interests at heart is addictive. If the weekly release schedule is giving you the shakes and you’ve already burned through our list of the best streamalike series, then there’s one movie that’s a perfect match: 2014's Coherence.
If you love the sense of paranoid danger that suffuses Dark Matter, you’ll love Coherence, which explores similar themes. And if you thought the idea of a parallel version of yourself trying to steal your life was cool, imagine multiple parallel versions of yourself sowing chaos over the course of a few hours, until you have to take extreme measures to protect yourself in a world where you suddenly can’t be sure if your friends are really your friends.
The story is set on the night of an “astronomical anomaly” in the form of a comet passing very close to Earth. Eight friends with complex histories gather for a dinner party. Just as their personal dramas start to derail the evening, the comet comes to its closest point, the power goes out, and things get weird. One house in the distance still has power, but when two of the group walk there, they discover it’s the same house they just left—except not. And when they return, carrying a strange box filled with personal items and photographs of everyone with a number written on the back, everyone knows they’re in for a long night.
It slowly becomes clear that there are multiple realities overlapping, and the dinner guests from other universes have also gone out exploring—and now they may all be mixed up. And not all the parallel people are to be trusted. The tension keeps rising as mysterious blackmail notes, violent attacks, and impersonations abound, leading to a shocking ending composed of nested twists. Whether you love the way Dark Matter handles Jason’s desperate attempts to hang onto his real family, the idea that you can’t trust what you see, or the twisty sci-fi stuff at the show’s core, you’ll love Coherence for all the same reasons. Stream Coherence on Kanopy, Tubi, Hoopla, or Plex, or rent it on Prime Video.
Anyone who loves a show about multiple realities wants multiple movie options. If you need a few more recommendations for movies with Dark Matter’s atmosphere of dread and wild twists, here you go.
If it’s the exploration of the concept behind parallel universes and doppelgangers that excites you, this film’s more thoughtful, quieter mood is perfect. The same day that an Earth-like planet is discovered, 17-year-old Rhoda (Brit Marling) accidentally kills a young boy and his pregnant mother. Her life falls to pieces, and when she leaves prison, she seeks out the woman’s husband, but can’t bring herself to confess her identity. She enters a contest to be one of the first civilians to visit Earth 2, which is revealed to be a mirror world where everyone has led roughly—but not always exactly—the same lives. The revelation leads to an emotionally powerful ending that will resonate with fans of the show. Rent Another Earth on Prime Video.
Is it the way Dark Matter’s Jasons work against each other that you find so compelling? Check out The Double, based on a short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon James, a timid man who is ignored by almost everyone in his life. One day, a man named James Simon begins working in his office—a man who looks exactly like him, but who is confident, outgoing, and cruel. The twisting story of how James impacts Simon’s life is unexpected, thoroughly entertaining, and perfectly pitched for Dark Matter fans. Stream The Double on The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
The question of what you would do if you could access parallel dimensions is the engine that drives Dark Matter deep into your brain—and it’s the same one that powers Parallel. When a group of work friends discovers a mirror that gives them access a parallel world, each uses this resource for their own personal gain, until things take a deeply creepy and violent turn. It’s a fun thought experiment on the possibilities of a parallel world anchored by the same emotional gravitas as Dark Matter. Stream Parallel on The Roku Channel, Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Adapted from the classic sci-fi short story “ '—All You Zombies—'” by Robert A. Heinlein, it’s impossible to summarize this film in a single paragraph. The plot pivots on time travel instead of parallel universes, but it will feel very similar to Dark Matter in terms of tone and the twisting way characters shift identity and reality remakes itself after each new revelation. Just know that you won’t be able to predict how it all ends. Stream Predestination on The Roku Channel or rent it on Prime Video.
The One is a gonzo movie, really—but as long as you don’t think about it too hard, it’s terrific fun in the parallel universe-slash-antagonistic-doppelganger mold. A man named Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) works at a government agency that monitors the multiverse—or did, until he goes rogue, realizing that if he kills the other 124 versions of himself in existence, he can absorb their power and skills and become a god-like being. He’s already defeated 123 versions of himself, leaving just one to go—and that’s where the fun begins. Stream The One on Kanopy, Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
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I'm a little worried about Ryan Murphy. He hasn't debuted a new show in literal weeks, and Hulu's The Shards is only his third new series this year). On the plus side, it's as batshit (complimentary) as you might expect given the prolific producer has teamed with controversial author Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero, American Psycho) to adapt his 2023 book—part high school memoir and part serial-killer thriller. With the season (series?) finale dropping this week, here are 10 more series about rich kids behaving badly to stream next.
Four one-time best friends reunite in Rosewood High School a year after the disappearance of the leader of their little clique, all having received threatening messages from the mysterious "A," who knows everything they did last summer...and pretty much all the rest of the time. Shoplifting, parents having affairs, students hooking up with teachers—you name it, it's happening in town, and A knows it all. After the prime suspect turns up dead, the girls are caught in the killer's web while trying to keep their secrets hidden. If seven juicy seasons and three A's aren't enough for you, there are three spin-offs. Stream Pretty Little Liars on Hulu and HBO Max.
Murder and mystery among rather shockingly well-dressed high schoolers? Check. This one's based on a young adult novel from Karen M. McManus involving a group of five high schoolers who show up to detention, only to have one of them die of what at first appears to be an allergic reaction. But My Girl this is not: Seems Simon ran a blog that revealed everyone’s secrets, meaning that pretty much everyone had a motive for murder. It’s a solid, effectively twisty-turny mystery series that dovetails surprisingly well into its second season. Stream One of Us is Lying on Peacock.
This top-tier teen drama stars Ama Qamata as Puleng Khumalo, a teenage girl who’s lived her entire life in the shadow of a sister who was taken as a baby by human traffickers (Puleng’s parents still hold a birthday celebration for the sister each year). When invited to a party by popular Fikile Bhele (Khosi Ngema), a student at an elite school in Cape Town, Puleng can’t help noticing similarities to her missing sibling. Puleng transfers to the school to get to the bottom of things and uncovers plenty of juicy high school drama and family secrets along the way. The show is elevated by its unexpected dramatic heft and a multitude of queer characters and storylines. Stream Blood & Water on Netflix.
Just another drama about a seemingly dull teenage overachiever providing security for a criminal sex ring by night. OK, so this one’s pretty unique, blending dark comedy and action with hints of relationship drama and, you know, the Korean sex trade. Needing some extra money, Oh Ji-soo has this specific gig when he’s not in school, but is otherwise a typical teenage doofus. His friend Gyu-ri comes from a wealthy family, but still wants in when she learns about Ji-soo’s sideline. Before long, both competitors and the police begin to circle, and life for the teens gets considerably more complicated, violent, and dangerous. Stream Extracurricular on Netflix.
Juicy import Elite follows a group of working-class friends who earn scholarships to Las Encinas, a fictional private school that is, in the show’s universe, the most exclusive in Spain. What they find there is snobbery, mystery, murder, and lots and lots of sex (between and among characters of various sexual orientations and numerical groupings). The smart, wonderfully trashy show ran for a shocking (in our modern streaming era) eight seasons, with a couple of regional remakes. Stream Elite on Netflix.
When pretty, popular girl Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt) goes missing without a trace in 1993, awkward Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) steps in to fill the gap, modeling herself after Kate by working her way into the missing girl's social circle and getting close with her boyfriend. That's all going great until Kate reappears two years later, accusing Jeanette of having witnessed the events around her disappearance and keeping quiet. Whoops. There's even more going on, as the show shifts back and forth between 1993, 1994, and 1995 to slowly reveal the missing pieces. Season two takes on a different story set in 1999 and 2000, and the forthcoming third season will shake things up again. Stream Cruel Summer on Hulu.
Teen drama at its finest and most bitchy, Gossip Girl follows the many scandals of a group of young Upper East Side socialites and hangers-on. The tangled teenage lives of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), her best frenemy Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), scholarship kid Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), and more pretty young boys and girls are chronicled in meticulous detail by the title's mysterious, omnipresent blogger Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). It might seem slightly tame compared to The Shards, but the show carved a path nonetheless, scandalizing parents in the mid-aughts and hitting unhinged heights before its conclusion. (The two-season 2021 follow-up is also available on HBO Max.) Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max and Netflix.
The tone is more insular than the glossy high school drama of The Shards, dealing primarily with pop culture's most disturbing mother-son relationship, but there's something very Ryan Murphy in the heightened operatic ickiness of it all. Freddie Highmore stars as Norman Bates (original author Robert Bloch having based the character on serial killer Ed Gein), with Vera Farmiga as his mother Norma (in her pre-dessicated-corpse days). Like a lot of media spun off from Alfred Hitchcock's seminal Psycho, it's better than it has any right to be, with compelling character development and several surprises, even if we already know more or less where it's all heading. Stream Bates Motel on Prime Video.
As utterly batshit on its own terms as The Shards (and then some), Riverdale is a wild take on the once entirely wholesome Archie comics universe, veering wildly between genres. At its outset, it's a coming-of-age teen drama for the visible-abs set, with a murder mystery and a student-teacher sex thing going on. There's plenty of that kind of thing before the weirder stuff comes into play, from supernatural shenanigans to alternate universes. Luckily, it knows what kind of show it is, and taking itself seriously in the face of absolutely bonkers plot twists is very much part of the fun. Steam Riverdale on Netflix.
An earlier bit of Ryan Murphy wackiness, this one is more of an overt satire—though with the over-the-top selections of the producer's oeuvre, the line between comedy and drama is always a little thin. Here we find the all-star line-up of Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Billie Lourd, and Abigail Breslin as sorority sisters facing down a threatening and downright vicious dean (Jamie Lee Curtis, in a flawless bit of casting) alongside a serial killer who dresses up like their school's Red Devil mascot, all of it tying in to some wild stuff that went on way back in 1995. Stream Scream Queens on Hulu.
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After a handful of false starts involving planned spin-offs and/or reboots, The Office universe continues in The Paper, returning for its second season on Peacock. The show follows the same documentary crew that followed the staff of Dunder Mifflin for nearly a decade heading to Toledo in order to keep tabs on the staff of the Toledo Truth Teller, a legacy Midwestern newspaper that's doing about as well as any other American paper. (Poorly). Filled with cringe comedy and ripped-from-your-workplace personalities, it's the most recent entry in the storied tradition of TV series set in and around an American workplace. Once you've completed your season two binge, here are 10 other shows to get you through the workweek.
St. Denis Medical co-creator Justin Spitzer was a writer and producer on The Office back in the day, so it's not surprising that there are major vibe similarities between it and The Paper. The former takes place in the title's St. Denis Regional Medical Center, and follows the medical staff dealing with demanding patients on one side and an even more challenging medical system on the other. Allison Tolman leads an impressive cast that includes Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier, with the show blending the workplace-mockumentary comedy style with relatable themes about how much it stinks to be a practitioner or a patient stuck in the American medical system. Stream St. Denis Medical on Peacock.
Created by Aaron Sorkin in the wake of the early success of West Wing, Sports Night was just as acclaimed (and won a bunch of Emmys) though it didn't have nearly the longevity, only running for two seasons before becoming a cult favorite. Robert Guillaume plays the managing editor of a SportsCenter-esque show struggling to stay on the air. He's joined by a cast that includes Josh Charles, Perter Krause, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Joshua Malina, and Clark Gregg, in an ostensible sitcom that plays as much as a fast-moving, fast-talking comedy-drama with layered, complex characters. Buy Sports Night on Prime Video.
Quickly establishing itself as one of the great workplace mockumentaries, Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary portrays its cast of (mostly) well-meaning characters running up against an American educational system that doesn't always reward good intentions. It's a bit more sincere in places than The Paper, but it's at least as funny a portrait of an American workplace. Stream Abbott Elementary on Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max.
Another from Office writer/producer Justin Spitzer, this mockumentary sitcom follows the employees of Payne Motors in Detroit in the wake of the arrival of new CEO Katherine Hastings (Ana Gasteyer), who knows absolutely nothing about cars. Like The Paper, American Auto is about staff and managers doing their best (-ish) while navigating the absurdities of an industry on life support. Stream American Auto on Peacock.
NBC's first successful attempt at recreating the success of The Office. Amy Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, a can-do spirit in the sleepy town of Pawnee, Indiana. Irrepressibly perky, she's the deputy director of the local Parks and Rec Department, with ambitions that extend to the White House. Her dream is as inspiring as it is unhinged, but she's hard not to root for—at least a little. In the best workplace comedy tradition, her office is filled with lovable oddballs: gruff libertarian Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), cynical underachiever Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), and saucy Donna Meagle (Retta), whose mysterious but definitely wild personal life is only ever alluded to. Stream Parks and Recreation on Peacock.
The Staten Island vampire polycule at the heart of Shadows is made up entirely of ancient, immortal weirdos unfit for the present day, for whom every run-in with modernity is absurd. The similarities with The Paper are largely in tone and mockumentary format, but the central joke is the same one that powers the Peacock series: None of us is particularly good at the business of modern life, but we're all bad at it in different ways. Mark Proksch's "energy vampire" Colin Robinson, the only one to hold a regular office job, would fit right in at the Toledo Truth Teller (or Dunder Mifflin), while later seasons see Harvey Guillén's Guillermo de la Cruz strike out into the white-collar world himself, drawing even more Office/The Paper parallels. Stream What We Do in the Shadows on Disney+ and Hulu.
A bit of counterprogramming in terms of vibe, but if a newsroom/editorial setting is what you're looking for, this is a good way to mix things up. Inspired by the career of Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, this show follows three young besties—Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens), Kat Edison (Aisha Dee), and Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy)—working for the fictional women's magazine Scarlet in NYC; they're never without the firm guiding hand of editor-in-chief, Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin), as they navigate life and careers in their dramatically stylish world. Stream The Bold Type on Hulu and HBO Max.
Workplace comedies tend to revolve around white-collar office environments (The Paper being just one such example). Superstore follows the staff of Cloud 9, a big-box retailer that sits somewhere between Wal-Mart and Target in terms of reputation. The show’s deep bench and diverse cast are largely, and appropriately, focused on the jokes, but much of the comedy revolves around the relatable situation of working a job that demands both commitment and a smiley attitude in the face of both entitled customers and obnoxious bosses. Just like in white-collar shows, there's no bottom, as when greeter Myrtle is replaced with a hologram. Stream Superstore on Peacock and Hulu.
Back in the day, a car radio was one of the main ways of getting information (or so I've heard), and this newsroom comedy captures that era with a unique blend of smart writing and silly sight gags. Created by Paul Simms (contributor to shows as wide-ranging as The Larry Sanders Show, Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, and Atlanta), it's also got one of the wildest casts in sitcom history, with Dave Foley, Maura Tierney, and Stephen Root leading Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Andy Dick, and Joe Rogan (yeah, that Joe Rogan). It's simultaneously innovative and a time capsule of a very specific era. Stream NewsRadio on Prime Video and Tubi.
It wasn't the first workplace sitcom, but it did make that format really work, and it's almost certainly the first newsroom sitcom. MTM throws together a talented cast of awkward goofballs behind the scenes of a Minneapolis TV news broadcast—an environment that's simultaneously high-pressure and also, somehow, high-downtime. It's not that the stories write themselves, but throw enough weirdos together, give them a difficult enough job to do, and the possibilities are limitless. Buy The Mary Tyler Moore Show from Prime Video.
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Jack Reacher is one of the greatest characters ever created. For a long time it looked like bringing this mountain of a man to a screen would be impossible, until Tom Cruise broke through with a couple of movies. But we had to wait a few more years for the perfect adaptation—Prime Video’s Reacher, where the merely enormous Alan Ritchson has brought the smart, imposing champion of justice and the abused to thrilling life. If you’ve torn through Reacher and need more stories about badasses handing out free samples of justice, look no further than The Equalizer.
The Equalizer originated as a TV show in the 1980s, starring Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a retired spy who uses his particular set of skills to help innocent people gain some measure of justice. It ran from 1985 to 1989, and was a moderate hit at the time. Skip forward a few decades, and the concept was rebooted as a theatrical film starring Denzel Washington. Now, any film starring Denzel Washington is worth seeing, but he’s absolutely perfect for the tweaked version of the character. Washington brings an edgy darkness to his performance that matches Reacher for intensity—both characters really seem irritated that bad people think they can just do bad things without consequence.
Just like Jack Reacher, Robert McCall is a former military man who has walked away from that life to live a more humble existence. Reacher drifts, owning nothing and without roots; McCall works a humble job at a Home Depot-like store. Both men try to avoid action—they just want to be left alone. But neither can just ignore injustice. When they see something wrong, they look into it. When they see someone being abused, they try to protect them. And if they have to dismantle entire criminal organizations and kill a lot of people to do it? Well, that’s what they’re good at.
Washington, of course, brings plenty of charisma to the role, so if you enjoy Ritchson’s flashes of deadpan humor, you’ll definitely love his interpretation of McCall—especially those chilling moments when Washington snaps from jovial goofing into cold-as-ice mode. Washington doesn’t have Ritchson’s improbable physique, but he brings a sense of solidity to the fight scenes—he might be a little older and not quite as conditioned, but he understands violence in the same way Reacher does. Fans of the show can easily imagine McCall as an older version of Reacher, and the movie delivers the same thrilling ride. Rent The Equalizer on Prime Video.
If there’s one thing Reacher knows, it’s that there is no shortage of bad people in need of butt-kicking. If you want more movies about two-fisted dudes dealing justice, here you go.
Okay, Tom Cruise is totally, 100% physically wrong for the role of Jack Reacher, who is supposed to be an enormous mountain of muscle. But, he’s Tom Cruise, and Jack Reacher is actually a great action movie if you forget that he’s supposed to be Jack Reacher in it. As such, it’s a great choice to get more Reacher into your life. Based on Child’s novel One Shot, it’s one of Reacher’s best mysteries, and there are enough bloody fights to satisfy any fan of the show. Stream Jack Reacher on Kanopy or Paramount Plus, or rent it on Prime Video.
Denzel plays “smoldering, coiled instrument of justice” so well that he gets hired to depict it a lot. Man on Fire is one of his best moments playing the type. John Creasy (Washington) is a former Marine struggling with mental health issues when he takes a job as bodyguard for a young girl named Lupita "Pita" Ramos (Dakota Fanning) in Mexico. He quickly bonds with Pita, finding a new purpose in life—and when she’s kidnapped and held for ransom, he embarks on a single-minded mission of epic violence to save her and take revenge on those who hurt her. Although pitched a bit darker than the show, Creasy is also a man whose sole mission is to protect someone and punish the bad guys. Stream Man on Fire on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video.
No one does “unassuming dude capable of dismantling an army” better than Jason Statham. In A Working Man, he scratches that Reacher itch as former Royal Marine Commando Levon Cade, now working quietly as a construction foreman in Chicago as he battles his PTSD and fights for custody of his daughter. When the daughter of a dear friend is trafficked by Russian mobsters, he reluctantly enters the fray—and serves up a series of Reacher-class beat-downs in his own unique style. It’s the perfect choice for anyone experiencing Reacher withdrawal. Stream A Working Man on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video.
Jack Reacher doesn’t seek out trouble. He just wants to live his life, moving from place to place and existing—but the bad guys always suck him in. Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) also just wants to be left alone. He’s a former professional assassin now living a quiet, suburban life—until his home is robbed, setting off a chain reaction that pushes Hutch to carve out a glorious trail of destruction as this seemingly harmless middle-aged man reveals skills few people could ever master. If you’re thrilled by Reacher’s ability to take a beating and keep on coming, you’ll love this. Rent Nobody on Prime Video.
Finally, this South Korean classic is a must-see for anyone who loves Reacher. Cha Tae-sik (Won Bin) runs a humble pawn shop; he has no friends or family, and lives a lonely existence. His only affection is directed at So-mi (Kim Sae-ron), the young daughter of his neighbor Hyo-jeong, a woman struggling with drug addiction. When Hyo-jeong attempts an ill-advised drug theft, she brings the fury of a criminal gang down on herself, So-mi, and Tae-sik—who is revealed to be a former agent in South Korean Army Intelligence. Tae-sik’s determination to protect the only thing he cares about leads to a high body count in a movie that influenced John Wick and will absolutely entertain Reacher fans. Stream The Man from Nowhere on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video.
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Though it was hardly the first show to attempt kitchen-based drama, The Bear’s recipe was pretty unique: With a focus on characters, a willingness to experiment with narrative style, and an intimate knowledge of a world most people don't know much about, it was an ambitious and ultimately successful series.
Carmy, Richie, and Sydney’s stories may have ended with Season 5, but that doesn’t mean you can’t devour more slow-burn kitchen tension set in or around a fine dining establishment. If you’ve watched (and rewatched) The Bear and all the other series that offer similar pleasures, there’s one movie you should check out right away: 2021’s Boiling Point.
Before Carmy unlocked the doors to Chicago's The Original Beef in the first episode of The Bear, Chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) stepped into Jones & Sons in London—and if you loved The Bear best when chaos reigned and the chefs were shouting at each other, strap in for a similar ride. Boiling Point (which was extended into a sequel TV series a few years later) is filmed in one take: a single 90-minute scene of escalating tension, as everything that could possibly go wrong for an alcoholic, emotionally volatile chef and his stressed-out staff does, indeed, go wrong.
Boiling Point is rooted in the same professional kitchen culture as The Bear, and offers a similar dynamic to the early seasons of the show. Andy is a disaster—he secretly drinks on the job, his personal life is a mess, and he’s deeply in debt. The staff at Jones & Sons is top-notch, but they’re all suffering from Andy’s unpredictable moods and their inevitable effects. The restaurant has just been knocked down a health rating, the evening is overbooked, and personalities can’t stop clashing. It all leads to a dynamite climax with real emotional punch.
Another reason fans of The Bear will love Boiling Point is the care the film takes to center food culture. A lot of kitchen dramas treat the cooking and service as set dressing, but this film, like The Bear, knows that what goes into the food and the service is just as important to the story as anything else. Bottom line: You won’t find a closer match to the tone and impact of the celebrated Hulu series in another movie. Bonus: Stephen Graham—now best-known for his incredible performance in Adolescence—is one of the best under-the-radar actors working today, and he brings his A-game to the lead role. Stream Boiling Point on The Roku Channel, Kanopy, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Still hungry for kitchen drama? The good news is that restaurants offer infinite material for conflict, and there are plenty of movies to choose from if you want to keep The Bear vibe going.
The Bear really captured the hard work, stress, and constant chaos of trying to make a restaurant into a success. Big Night is all about that. Set in the 1950s, it details the efforts of two Italian immigrants (played by Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub) seeking a miracle to save their struggling Jersey Shore restaurant from failure. This was a time when true ethnic cooking was often rejected by American diners, which adds a twist of tension to the chaos as they try to organize one “big night” to pay off their debts and put their restaurant on the map. Stream Big Night on Paramount Plus or rent it on Prime Video.
Do you think The Bear is all about Carmen Berzatto’s dreamy mix of tortured artistry and hot failure? Then you’ll like Burnt. Like Carmy, Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) was once a hotshot chef, but his addictions and poor mental health have cost him everything (though he still looks hella good in chef whites). He returns to London with a new sobriety and sense of humility, determined to salvage his career and make amends. There’s a chase for a Michelin Star, and Jones is an appealingly broken genius in the same mold as our beloved Carmy. Stream Burnt on Kanopy, Plex, or Prime Video, or rent it on Fandango.
Few will ever know what it’s like to be one of the best in the world at something, which is one reason why Carmy, Sydney, and Marcus were such compelling characters. If that’s your jam, check out Hunger. This Thai film follows Aoy (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) as she cooks at her family’s struggling restaurant. Aoy is way better than her current circumstances, and she’s soon recruited to train under the legendary chef at an exclusive restaurant called Hunger. It’s the chance of a lifetime, but unfortunately it comes with a side order of a wildly toxic workplace. Stream Hunger on Netflix.
If The Bear’s high point for you was Season 2’s Fishes, detailing a particularly chaotic Christmas dinner at the Berzatto house, you’ll love Shiva Baby. While food plays a role in the story, it’s not set at a restaurant and no one is a chef—but it rocks similarly “crazy relatives” vibes, as college senior Danielle (Rachel Sennott) returns home to sit shiva with her family. In the mix are her ex-lover, a sugar daddy, and an extended family with no sense of boundaries. It’s a hilarious film with a dark, emotional core that keeps everything grounded, just like the best episodes of The Bear. Stream Shiva Baby on Kanopy or Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
One reason The Bear stood out is the way it simultaneously acknowledges how weirdly intense and cult-like fine dining can be, while also celebrating the crazy geniuses and unstable personalities that make those dinners so memorable. The Menu is also about this dichotomy, though in a much more horrific way: At a restaurant on a private island run by famous chef Julian Slowik, a group of foodie influencers and celebrities gather for a meal that becomes increasingly horrifying with each course, slowly digging into the madness that drives perfection in the kitchen. Stream The Menu on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video.
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Not without competition, Apple TV has made itself the streaming home for some of the best science fiction on television, including high-concept gems like Severance, For All Mankind, Foundation, Pluribus, and Dark Matter, based on the Blake Crouch bestseller and just back for a second season.
Starring Joel Edgerton, the show finds a college physics professor abducted from his own timeline by a masked man who is quickly revealed to be...himself—a version of him from another, grimmer universe. This multiversal doppelgänger knows which life he'd prefer, and wants his other self out of the way so that he can take over. It's a real trip, and if you're looking for more of the same, here are 10 other series offering similar heady thrills to stream next.
For high-concept sci-fi with very personal stakes, you can't do much better than Russian Doll. Natasha Lyonne plays software engineer Nadia Vulvokov, who, getting ready to celebrate her 36th birthday, finds herself stuck in a time loop in which she dies over and over on the same night, never able to move forward despite all of her best (and worst) intentions. Nadia's endless deaths allow her to explore different paths and choices, all on a road to a life lived with greater authenticity. The second season finds Nadia exploring the lives of her mother and grandmother as she becomes, once again, unstuck in time. Funny, cerebral, and genuinely existential, it's one of my favorite bits of science fiction storytelling of the past decade or so. Stream Russian Doll on Netflix.
Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) is an astronaut aboard the International Space Station who's left behind by several of her crewmates following a collision and an emergency evacuation. Fortunately, she's able to repair a Soyuz capsule and return to Earth along with the body of a dead astronaut; less fortunately, her life story and memories don't really mesh with that of those around her. It's almost like she came back to a different Earth than the one she left—though, of course, everyone thinks she's either lying to cover something up, or hit her head a few too many times on reentry. Stream Constellation on Apple TV.
The multiverse was still a mind-blowing concept (at least on network TV) back in the aughts, long before Marvel movies went wild with it, and still, no show has ever done it quite as well as Fringe. A smart sci-fi/crime procedural that plays as both a successor to The X-Files and a precursor to Dark Matter, itstars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, and Lance Reddick as a mismatched team involved within a sub-sub-sub-division of the FBI that starts out investigating cases that just don't make a whole heckuva lot of sense. Before long, it becomes clear that the odd occurrencesare all linked to potentially universe-ending incursions across time and space (not to mention family drama that's been too long ignored). Stream Fringe on Hulu.
Another procedural-ish show with a cool premise, this British import stars Paapa Essiedu as George, who wakes up on July 1 with the certain knowledge that it's already been that particular July 1, and that he's the only one who can remember the previous six months. He learns that he hasn't entirely lost his mind when he's contacted by Archie (Anjli Mohindra), an agent of the title's Lazarus Project, who shares the truth: Time did reset, and the shadowy group was responsible. In extreme circumstances, and following a catastrophe, they'll wind back the clock (always to July 1) to get more time to fix the problem. An infinitesimally small portion of the population can sense the change, and for George, that results in an unusual job offer. Buy The Lazarus Project from Prime Video.
A simple-seeming, if disturbing, case of missing children in a German town quickly grows into a conspiracy involving four families over multiple generations. There’s a mystery in the cave system that runs beneath the local nuclear power plant that ties into dark secrets that each family (and the town as a whole) has concelaed for decades. Without spoiling too much, the characters don’t just visit the past metaphorically, but literally, a time-travel element that only adds to the show’s twisting and creepy delights. It was Netflix’s first German import, but don’t let the subtitles steer you away. Stream Dark on Netflix.
Blending police procedural, mystery, and science fiction, this K-drama remains one of the most-watched in South Korean TV history—enough so that a second season is coming after a wait of nearly 10 years. Police profiler Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) finds a discarded walkie-talkie that connects him with Detective Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong), who disappeared in 2000 but is able to communicate from an earlier time. The two detectives work together across time to solve a cold case—but soon discover that there are disturbing consequences in the present when they fiddle with time. Stream Signal on Netflix.
From the novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle is a political thriller set (mostly) in an alternate 1960s in which the Axis powers have won World War II, and the United States has been split down the middle, with Japan governing the west and Germany overseeing the east. The title’s "man in the high castle" offers up a propaganda film (or is it?) that presents an alternate view that looks more like the one in our history books. As the show progresses through its four seasons, the parallels to our increasingly fascist-friendly world only grow. Stream The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video and Netflix.
If the theme here is shows with big concepts that still feel grounded and personal, Sense8 fits the bill perfectly. Here, eight strangers from around the world (including Jamie Clayton, Bae Doona, and Tuppence Middleton, with Daryl Hannah, Naveen Andrews, and Freema Agyeman) awaken to discover they have a deep, inexplicable connection. On one level, it means they can share their special abilities when needed. On another, it’s an uplifting call for connection, a recognition of our mutual interconnectedness, and a celebration of difference. Bonus: The show is super queer (and horny)—unsurprising, given it sprung from the minds of the Wachowskis (who co-wrote the episodes with Babylon 5's Michael J. Straczynski). Stream Sense8 on Netflix.
The tone here is quite different, but it would be an unforgivable slight to leave out the show that was doing the multiverse way before it was cool. There's an appealing goofiness to this quintessentially '90s bit of sci-fi, with Jerry O'Connell as Quinn Mallory, who accidentally opens a portal that sends him and a rotating group of companions (including, initially, Jonathan Rhys-Davies) through the multiverse. The device that he invents to get them all home is, inconveniently, an unreliable timer that keeps them stuck wherever they land for...well, however much time the story demands. Over the course of their adventures, they visit worlds where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, where antibiotics were never invented, and where Hillary Clinton is president (I swear!). Increasing serialization involving a whole species of mostly evil Sliders doesn't really improve things as the show goes on, but it's still a pretty good time. Stream Sliders on Peacock and Tubi.
Though rather different in story and execution, I'm here for the creepy high-concept sci-fi as well as the Blake Crouch of it all, as this one is based on a trilogy of novels from the writer of Dark Matter. Matt Dillon plays a Secret Service agent investigating the disappearances of two fellow agents in the Idaho town of Wayward Pines. Things go awry pretty much immediately, and he wakes up from a car accident to find one of the agents (Carla Gugino), who's also his ex, having settled down in the seemingly idyllic community—and 12 years older than when he last saw her a few weeks earlier. Even more dramatically, the local sheriff (Terrence Howard) enforces a strict "no one ever leaves" policy, on pain of death. The mysteries pile up from there. Stream Wayward Pines on Hulu.
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After a couple of middling movies, Reacher, the series based on a series of more than 30 novels by Lee Childs, has been a breakout hit for Prime Video. It has been renewed through at least a fifth season, and there's a spin-off on the way—Neagley, starring Maria Sten. It's not hard to understand why audiences have connected to the story of an alarmingly large man who travels from town to town getting himself into trouble while helping others out of scrapes: The plotting is fun, the show doesn't take itself too seriously, and Alan Ritchson is a great physical match for the character while also selling the drifter-with-a-heart-of-gold vibe.
If you've finished your season four binge and need something new to watch, try one of the series below. Not all of them focus on outright loners like Reacher, and none of them are quite so large, but they all are more than capable of getting the job done solo.
An action drama that plays a bit like a spy thriller, The Night Agent stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who works overnights in the basement of the White House watching a phone that never, ever rings. Until...it does. Peter gets a call from Rose Larkin, a cybersecurity expert whose aunt and uncle were just killed and, unbeknownst to her, were also government operatives. Rescuing Rose puts Peter deep inside a web of conspiracy and official corruption. (This is why I never answer the phone.) Stream The Night Agent on Netflix.
There are like three dozen Alex Cross books (and counting), so there's plenty of material for this ongoing series (previously adapted into a series of films back in the '90s starring Morgan Freeman). Here, the D.C.-based homicide detective and forensic psychologist is played by Aldis Hodge as a guy every bit as committed to justice as Reacher. What sets Cross apart is the fact that he's also deeply committed to his family, which, rather than adding a charming bit of domesticity to the show, only ups the stakes as Cross's investigations frequently threaten to involve his kids. Stream Cross on Prime Video and Paramount+.
Tom Clancy's signature hero has been the star of books and films (starting with The Hunt for Red October) and has, at this point, outlived his creator by over a decade—despite the fact that he is never not in mortal danger. The latest incarnation, Prime Video's streaming series, stars John Krasinski as America's favorite CIA analyst, pulled from his desk job into the field after he discovers a pattern of suspicious bank transfers involving Islamic extremists. The show has ended, but the rather awkwardly titled Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War movie continues the series. Stream Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Prime Video.
The Queen Latifah-led Equalizer reboots the 1980s series (and sidesteps the Denzel Washington movies) by spinning the premise in a slightly different direction: Latifah plays single mom Robyn McCall, an impossibly skilled former CIA operative who puts her talents to work for those in need. It splits the difference between crime and spy drama, with some episodes involving close-to-home cases and others dealing with international espionage. While the original's vibe was more about the cops being handcuffed by things like "rules" and "giving perps their basic human dignity," this one is more about those who've been failed by systems that don't care about them—and who might benefit from the help of a woman who can beat just about anyone's ass. Stream The Equalizer on Paramount+ and Tubi.
Based on a popular novel series from Joe R. Lansdale, perhaps best known for his horror and western (and horror western) books, the show rather deftly blends genres—it's a heist show, a crime drama, and a buddy comedy set in the swamps around Baton Rouge in the 1980s. James Purefoy is Hap, a blue-collar ex-con (for avoiding the Vietnam draft) trying to live a quiet life, while the late Michael Kenneth Williams is Leonard, an openly gay vet with major anger management problems. One day, Hap's ex-wife shows up with an offer: the proceeds of a bank heist were lost, and if the two help her retrieve it, they'll get a cut, while she'll use the rest of money to fund her underground leftist group. Naturally, things get complicated rather quickly. Stream Hap and Leonard on AMC+.
Coming, as it does, from John le Carré, the wellspring of many modern spy sagas, it's probably no surprise that The Night Manager (from a 1993 novel, and not to be confused with The Night Agent up above) was successful—though it certainly doesn't hurt to have a cast led by Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman. Hiddleston is Jonathan Pine, working the night shift at a luxury hotel in Switzerland when he encounters an unexpected guest: arms dealer Richard Roper (Laurie). Former Army veteran Pine had previous dealings with Roper in Cairo, and the reluctant night manager is persuaded by Foreign Office head Angela Burr (Colman) to infiltrate the criminal's organization. Though he's been recruited by British intelligence, he remains an outsider, and perpetually on his own. The second season took about ten years to come about, but a third (and final?) should arrive a bit sooner. Stream The Night Manager on Prime Video.
Bosch is a more traditional crime drama, though one that wears its neo-noir aspirations on its sleeve. Titus Welliver is in the title role as LAPD detective Harry Bosch (star of the Michael Connelly novels), kicking off the series on trial for shooting a suspect in self-defense while investigating the murder of a 12-year-old. Like Reacher, Bosch draws on skills honed in the military and pursues criminals well beyond the limits, which is not always a great thing. Stream Bosch on Prime Video.
A usually engaging combination of smart plotting and lurid sex and violence, Banshee stars Antony Starr as Sheriff Lucas Hood...kinda. A man recently released from prison takes over that identity when the new sheriff in the small town of Banshee is killed. It's all part of a complicated plan to get back the $15 million in diamonds he lost when he went to jail. The new sheriff dispenses brutal justice without ever giving up his criminal ways, making him one of the greyest of TV's morally grey law-types. Stream Banshee on HBO Max.
Where Reacher is a loner from the jump, Luther's arc is one of one of increasing isolation, even as he cultivates an unsavory but steadfast ally. Idris Elba is DCI John Luther—a crime-solving genius whose preexisting inner demons are enabled by his work in investigating some of the darkest and most brutal crimes. Early on, he's unable to bring murderer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) to justice, and the two become entangled in ways that benefit Luther's investigations while also threatening to bring him down entirely. The series proper is concluded, but there's a second spin-off film on the way, following The Fallen Sun. Stream Luther on Hulu.
Another hero of a long-running book series (this one from Jeffery Deaver), the tracker in question is Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley), a survivalist who travels the country (in his RV, naturally) selling his skills in finding missing persons. He's joined, remotely, by a team that includes a lawyer, handler, and the requisite computer guy—but they're all just the support team. At the end of the day, Shaw's the one who's gonna find your lost uncle. Stream Tracker on Paramount+.
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From its debut in 2009 to its series finale in 2020, Modern Family delivered something remarkable: A consistently funny comedy with a subtle-but-deep emotional core. Its “mockumentary” structure was the perfect choice, because it allowed us to watch the extended Pritchett Family as both a fly on the wall and via direct interviews—and as any fan of The Office knows, that structure allows for some very specific joke-telling you can’t manage in a more traditional format. If you’ve watched all 11 seasons (and checked out all the similar series out there), then it’s time to branch out to movies with the same comedic sensibility. That movie definitely should be Real Life, which was co-written and directed by Albert Brooks.
Real Life, released in 1979, isn’t as well-known as it should be. The film basically invented the mockumentary—we probably wouldn’t have The Office or Modern Family without it. At the time, it was satirizing a television series called An American Family that aired on PBS (itself regarded as the first example of what would come to be known as reality TV). An American Family followed the lives of a real family in California, and was a cultural sensation in the early 1970s. Albert Brooks saw an opportunity to have some fun with the concept—but Real Life is a lot more than just a satire of a TV show.
Brooks plays a version of himself in Real Life: a young comedian who aspires to make documentary films (and who could have been a “scientist or a doctor of some kind” if he’d been “graded more fairly” in school). He presents the project as a chance to not only document and observe a real American family, but also the filmmakers and crew.
What follows is a hilarious send-up of everyone involved. The family being documented begins to crumble under the pressure almost immediately, quickly descending into chaos and nervous breakdowns. The production team begins to fracture as Brooks engages in a series of ethically murky moves to try to goose up drama and keep the family involved despite their spiraling psyches. And Brooks repeatedly reveals himself to be an insincere and slimly talented man with an ego the size of a planet. At one point he shows up dressed as a clown to try to cheer up the kids, not realizing they’re not home, and winds up forced to have a deeply serious interview with the parents ... while dressed as a clown.
Real Life is certainly less sweet than Modern Family, but it basically invented the genre, and is deeply, deeply funny. Rent Real Life on Prime Video.
Need more funny family films? No problem—here are a few more hilarious family-focused comedies that fans of Modern Family will love.
Parenthood is funny because, like Modern Family, it’s grounded in reality. Director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel all had kids at various stages of life, and they based much of the film on their own experiences raising families in the modern era, translating it into a story about the sprawling, chaotic Buckman family. It follows a huge number of storylines as it gives each family member some attention, with Steve Martin on hand to provide plenty of belly laughs along the way. Stream Parenthood on Netflix or rent it on Prime Video.
Every comedy lives and dies by its characters—you have to care about them in order to laugh at (or with) them. Little Miss Sunshine offers up the Hoovers, a perfectly imperfect family. When the youngest daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), qualifies for a beauty pageant located nearly 1,000 miles away, the Hoovers pile into their van. Crammed in together, the family's dysfunction, insecurity, rage, and love come pouring out, usually in pretty funny ways. It all leads to one of the most heartwarming (and famous) climaxes in modern cinema, capping off a film that will delight anyone looking for the sort of warm comedy Modern Family specializes in. Rent Little Miss Sunshine on Prime Video.
The engine that drives family comedies is the tension everyone feels with their relatives. We love and hate them in equal measure, sometimes, and quirks that might seem delightful to others become excruciating to us. That’s where The Family Stone lives, telling the story of high-strung, nervous Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) meeting her boyfriend’s super-cool, tight-knit family for the first time—and on Christmas, no less. Awkward hilarity ensues as Meredith’s increasingly sweaty efforts to win over the family just make things worse, pushing everyone to a series of emotional revelations and confessions. Rent The Family Stone on Prime Video.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (who grew up with 10 siblings), Cheaper by the Dozen is gently hilarious. When his wife embarks on a book tour, Tom Baker (Steve Martin) insists he can handle a household filled with raucous, chaotic children—but, of course, he’s hilariously outmatched. Like Modern Family, Cheaper by the Dozen finds plenty of real emotion as it ruminates on the bonds formed between siblings and parents, and how we all come to miss the chaos when we leave our families behind. Stream Cheaper by the Dozen on Hulu or rent it on Prime Video.
What Modern Family understands is that family is complicated. Our families can be funny, loving, exasperating, and sustaining all at once. Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster and starring Holly Hunter at the peak of her powers, knows this perfectly well. When Claudia (Hunter) returns home for Thanksgiving, she’s at her lowest point in life. At first, the squabbling chaos and ominous signs of incipient tragedy are alarming and triggering—but, ultimately, she finds that there’s no place else she’d rather be. Stream Home for the Holidays on Kanopy, YouTube, or Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
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Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham make for an unbeatable pairing in the Prime Video series Ride or Die, which sees Spencer as Debbie, the American wife of a British MP and Waddingham as Judith, her bestie who, it turns out, is also an elite and highly trained assassin. Good thing, too, as Debbie's marriage puts her in mortal danger pretty much from the outset. It's a rather impressively funny action thriller, and, though not all of these shows hit the same comedic beats, they all involve women who find themselves in way over their heads.
Beth, Ruby, and Annie (Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman, respectively) are three moms in suburban Michigan, and they are all having serious money troubles. They're not exactly criminal masterminds, so they concoct a scheme to rob the local grocery store to solve them—a store that just happens to serve as a front for a money-laundering operation. They make off with $500,000—but the gang leader whose money they unknowingly stole wants it back. Oh, and the store manager spotted one of their distinctive tattoos and is threatening blackmail. It's definitely not a sitcom, but it's a solid comedy-drama with a talented cast of characters who keep finding themselves in deeper and deeper trouble over the course of four seasons. Stream Good Girls on Netflix.
How to Get to Heaven From Belfast comes from Irish playwright and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, though that earlier and justifiably beloved show will only moderately prepare you for the latest. Three high school friends from Belfast reunite after learning that their fourth bestie has died unexpectedly—except that maybe she didn't, a mixed blessing given that they all have life-ruining secrets that they were hoping to bury. Now they're off to investigate the mystery of the maybe-murder, and find themselves in way over their heads and in a complex web of secrets and old vendettas, with murder and some impressive amounts of mayhem going on. The tone is all over the place in a way that somehow works, and the show has a beating heart beneath the absolute chaos. Stream How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on Netflix.
This crime thriller is based on the 1987 Debra Winger/Theresa Russell movie Black Widow; where that film was a stylish but fairly by-the-numbers neo-noir, the show adds depth and layers to both women at the its core: Emmy Rossum is FBI Agent Alice Black and Lola Pettigrew is foil and serial killer Catherine Grace. In this version, Catherine is sicker, more sly, and also more interesting, especially once her motivations are made known. The two leads have earned some rave reviews, and, while far less comedic than Ride or Die, it offers up some similar thriller beats, albeit from a darker place. Stream Furious on Hulu.
If it's a lady assassin you're in the market for, Nikita is one of pop culture's finest: This is just the most recent riff on Luc Besson's 1990 film La Femme Nikita, having inspired three movies and two TV shows (the earlier Canadian series is also pretty good). This one stars Maggie Q as the title's Nikita—she was brought up, Black Widow-style, to be a perfect killing machine working on behalf of a mysterious U.S. government black ops "Division"—but she fell in love with a guy who the Division then executed, and now she's out for revenge. She's going to bring down her former masters, and she's got some help from an agent of her own: Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca), a young woman who Nikita rescued and who now serves as a very handy mole. Stream Nikita on Tubi.
Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer star as the two halves of television's great cat-and-mouse narratives with Oh as Eve Polastri, a bored MI5 analyst who becomes obsessed with hunting down the brutal, notorious assassin known only as Villanelle. It starts as a professional compulsion before it gets personal, and it soon becomes clear that the fascination goes both ways. This is a spy thriller more than an action comedy, but there's a light touch when it comes to the central, and completely entrancing, relationship. Stream Killing Eve on Paramount+.
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini make for another all-time great TV pairing in this dark comedy about a couple of women who become united in tragedy and lies. Applegate is Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run incident; she's not dealing very well, and takes a bit of inspiration from Cardellini's Judy, who has maintained a cheery disposition following her fiancé Steve's death from a heart attack—easier to do given that Steve's actually alive. And then we discover that Judy has a storage unit with a car that looks suspiciously like the one that killed Jen's husband. That's all part of the first episode, and the show only gets wilder from there. Stream Dead to Me on Netflix.
With this German import, we have a Cold War-era spy thriller punctuated by moments of very dark (but very funny) comedy. Jella Haase stars as Kleo Straub, a ruthless East German Stasi assassin who was framed for treason a couple of years before the series kicks off in 1989, and who's now free to pursue brutal revenge. Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad), meanwhile, is the hapless police officer who's linked Kleo to a murder he'd been investigating, and pursues her before discovering that he's in way over his head. Stream Kleo on Netflix.
This genre-bender has been something of a hit for Netflix—enough to have earned a second-season renewal. Keira Knightley stars as Helen Webb, wife of the Secretary of State for Defence of the UK, and a secret spy in the employ of the mercenary spy organization of the title. She learns from her handler (Sarah Lancashire) that her lover has been killed, thus potentially blowing her cover, but luckily, she has a hitman bestie (Ben Whislaw) to help her out. It's all deliberately pulpy, with a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that lightens the tone. Stream Black Doves on Netflix.
This one is more spy-adjacent, starring Emma Thompson as hard-living, hard-drinking private investigator Zoë Boehm. She's hired by Ruth Wilson's Sarah Trafford, a married art restorer who nobody takes very seriously (including and especially her husband), even when she becomes invested in the fate of a young girl whose family is killed in a gas explosion (allegedly) down the street. The girl, whose parents were killed, disappears into the system, and no one really seems to care until Sarah hires Zoë and her husband to look into it. Turns out both women are in way over their heads, as the missing girl points to a much broader conspiracy. The show's villains are a bit cartoonishly distracting, but Thompson and Wilson are brilliantly paired, and their performances are more than worth the price of admission. Stream Down Cemetery Road on Apple TV.
Messy flight attendant Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) drinks too much, and isn't terribly particular about the men she sleeps with—both of which come to bite her when she wakes up in a Bangkok hotel room with a dead body, the guy's neck having been slashed. Clumsily attempting to conceal her part in whatever happened (she can't quite remember), she's quickly drawn into a larger conspiracy that goes well beyond just the one dead man. Her best friend Annie (Zosia Mamet) is a lawyer doing her best to help, but Cassie doesn't make it easy. Stream The Flight Attendant on HBO Max.
Netflix's September slate is heavy on documentaries. The newest installments of sports doc series Untold tell the story of Australian Olympic breakdancer Raygun (Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly, Sept. 1) and pro wrestler—and 80s icon—Mr. T (Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool, Sept. 8). The Turning Point series, which has covered geopolitical conflicts like the War on Terror, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War, returns with Turning Point: Generation 9/11 (Sept. 2), examining the impact of 9/11 on children who lost parents, journalists, and those who experienced the Afghanistan War. On the docudrama side, UNABOMBER (Sept. 25), inspired by the true story of Ted Kaczynski, stars Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, and Shailene Woodley.
The second installment of Hot Ones: Extra Heat—which first premiered in July—drops on Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. ET. Host Sean Evans will be bringing spicy wings to WWE Raw. Netflix will also be hosting a live NFL matchup, played in Melbourne, Australia, between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams. The game kicks off at 8:35 p.m. ET on Sept. 10.
New reality TV options include Earle Meets World (Sept. 4), an unscripted series following TikTok star Alix Earle, and Wonka's The Golden Ticket (Sept. 23), a competition set in a recreation of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Finally, there are new comedy specials from Jared Freid (The Family Plan, Sept. 1), Stavros Halkias (Uncle Stav, Sept. 8), and Jo Koy (Blue in the Face, Sept. 15).
Here's everything else coming to Netflix in September, and everything that's leaving.
The Great British Baking Show: Collection 14—Netflix Series
Medusa: Season 2—Netflix Series
Jared Freid: The Family Plan—Netflix Comedy Special
Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly—Netflix Film
17 Again
About Time
Alien
Aliens
Antz
Battleship
Big Daddy
The Blues Brothers
The Boy Next Door
Conan the Barbarian
Cruel Intentions
Dragnet
The Flintstones
Gothika
Greta
Heartland: Season 19
Jarhead
Jaws
Jaws 2
Jaws 3
Jaws: The Revenge
Kick-Ass 2
Knocked Up
Liar Liar
Neighbors
Phantom Thread
Ready or Not
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Retribution
The Rite
Scarface
Shark Tale
Sleepless in Seattle
Straight Outta Compton
T2 Trainspotting
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Uncle Buck
Unfriended
Driven: Seasons 1-3
Lovesick—Netflix Series
Resident Evil: Damnation
Resident Evil: Death Island
Resident Evil: Vendetta
Turning Point: Generation 9/11—Netflix Documentary
Fito Páez: The World Within a Song—Netflix Documentary
Folktales
The Gentlemen: Season 2—Netflix Series
Major Crimes: Seasons 1-6
Smile 2
Earle Meets World—Netflix Series
Teenage Wasteland—Netflix Documentary
Emeril Tailgates: Season 1
DANG!—Netflix Series
Fauda: Season 5—Netflix Series
Stavros Halkias: Uncle Stav—Netflix Comedy Special
Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool—Netflix Film
Prom Night
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Again?—Netflix Film
Call My Agent! The Movie—Netflix Film
Crew Girl—Netflix Series
NFL Melbourne Game—Netflix Live Event
The Perfect Lie—Netflix Series
We Don't Live Here Anymore
Go Team!—Netflix Film
Physical 100: Italy: Season 1: Batch 1—Netflix Series
Stolen Heartbeats—Netflix Series
Tribeca 25
Dog Man
Gabby's Dollhouse: Season 14—Netflix Family
Hot Ones: Extra Heat: Episode 2—Netflix Special
When Hope Calls: Seasons 1-2
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
I Survived a Serial Killer: Season 1
Jo Koy: Blue in the Face—Netflix Comedy Special
The Doll—Netflix Series
The Fixers—Netflix Series
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story—Netflix Series
Not a Stranger—Netflix Series
Plastic Beauty—Netflix Series
Stranger Things: Tales From '85: Season 2—Netflix Series
Best of the Best—Netflix Film
Pokémon Horizons: Season 3—Rising Hope Part 4—Netflix Family
Stop! That! Train!
Doc: Season 2
Minerva Academy—Netflix Series
Party Down: Seasons 1-3
Party Down: Seasons 1-3
Habeas Corpus—Netflix Series
Lifehack
Wonka's The Golden Ticket—Netflix Series
A Different World—Netflix Series
Delusion—Netflix Series
House at the End of the Street
My Sad Dead—Netflix Series
Oculus
The Final Problem—Netflix Series
Law & Order: Season 25
STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: 2nd-3rd STAGE—Netflix Series
UNABOMBER—Netflix Film
Mononoke The Movie: Chapter Ⅲ - The Curse of the Serpent—Netflix Film
Murder in a Small Town: Seasons 1-2
Ancient Aliens: Season 13
The Arena—Netflix Series
Hoarders: Season 16
What's Your Number?
The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part—Netflix Documentary
Black Lightning: Seasons 1-4
Creed
Creed II
Creed III
Desperado
The Fault in Our Stars
The Girl on the Train
Goosebumps
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Hotel Mumbai
Legion
Matilda
Miracle
Muriel's Wedding
Orphan Black: Seasons 1-5
Passengers
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Rocky
Rocky Balboa
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Rocky V
Rookie of the Year
Rudy
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Zombieland
Poor Things
Redeeming Love
Bombshell
Girlfriends: Seasons 1-8
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Nashville: Seasons 1-6
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Spartacus: Vengeance
Spartacus: War of the Damned
Lopez vs. Lopez: Seasons 1-2
Anatomy of a Fall
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There are so few people on whom we can all agree, and that list has gotten smaller with the passing of Dolly Parton. While she'd suggested health struggles for some time, the death of Dolly always seemed impossible—or maybe just too cruel an outcome in a world with enough heartbreak already. But here we are, and even though there are going to be a lot of tears, there's a lot to celebrate.
It's her music, of course, that will live on, but her persona wasn't entirely built on songs. A larger-than-life personality with an outsized look (very much by design), her film presence is indelible, in spite of a relatively brief filmography. Her roles in two of the best films of the 1980s are so important to our cultural memories of that decade—and are so darn good—that it's hard to remember that she made that impact in just a handful of films (and a few more cameos) over the course of her career. Dolly may well have thrived in character parts and cameos, but she won and broke our hearts in movies like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. It's easy to wish she'd acted more, but instead, we'll just be grateful for the absolute gems she left us.
The title song nearly overtakes the film in cultural currency, but the film itself opened the 1980s on a high note, ultimately promising a better decade than we actually got. The generational team-up of Dolly, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin—three women with wildly different screen personas who played off of each other marvelously—grounds the uneven silliness of the movie with real heart and soul. The three office workers inadvertently poison their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss (a very game Dabney Coleman) and, in the process, bring down the office patriarchy and usher in a female-driven workers' paradise. Dolly as sexy secretary Doralee Rhodes is seen by the other women, initially, as a bimbo sleeping with the boss to get her way before they discover that she's just as smart, capable, and pissed off as they are, boobs and big hair notwithstanding. The related album is just as interesting, a rare case of Dolly tipping her political hand and offering up songs about workers' rights and immigration. This is where Dolly's film career began, and it's a doozy. Stream 9 to 5 on Prime Video.
This doesn't sound like a movie to win awards, and it didn't, but Dolly did pick up her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. The movie, a musical with Dolly as the proprietor of a Texas brothel, finds her in a relationship with the local Sheriff (Burt Reynolds, who else?) while a local news personality (played by Dom DeLuise) plans an expose that will bring the Miss Mona's Chicken Ranch down. Dolly largely plays to type here, but it's all in good fun and not entirely devoid of substance: The hypocritical and puritanical reporter presages the increasingly loud and puritanical style of reporting that was soon to take over the news. Rent The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas from Prime Video.
Nearly a decade after 9 to 5, Dolly joined another all-time great ensemble of women, this time with Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts. Hannah's mousy Annelle Dupuy, new in town, introduces us to Chinquapin Parish in Louisiana, and the daily lives of some of its residents. Dolly plays hairdresser (sorry: glamour technician) Truvy Jones, and there's a rather brilliant contrast between her physical performance (this is very much the extravagantly big-haired Dolly we know and love) and her character, who's very much the calm center of the film's various storms. She's the exuberant town gossip, but she's also everyone's rock during hard times. Stream Steel Magnolias on Paramount+.
As a rom-com, Straight Talk is...perfectly fine, though the pairing of Dolly and James Woods is hardly one for the ages. But the movie shines when we're not dealing with any of that and are focusing on Dolly as a plain-spoken radio host who is, as one of the songs on the memorable soundtrack reminds us, Livin' a Lie. She's dance instructor Shirlee Kenyon, divorced and fired from her job for running her mouth when she ought to be teaching. On her first day at her new job as a receptionist, she wanders into the studio and is mistaken for the clinical doctor who's meant to be giving advice—which she winds up doing on an increasingly popular talk show, even though her credentials are entirely fake (Woods is the reporter trying to expose her who later becomes a love interest). Dolly offering up plainspoken advice is such an appealing proposition that it's hard to fault the movie even where it doesn't work. Rent Straight Talk from Prime Video.
Two women battle, and ultimately join together, to save a small-town church choir in Pacashau, Ga. Dolly plays G. G. Sparrow, widow of longtime choir director Bernard (Kris Kristofferson), who believes herself to be his natural successor—at least until she's pushed aside by Vi Rose Hill (Queen Latifah). But, when the choir is pushed out of the annual "Joyful Noise" competition, funding begins to dry up, and the two have to put aside their differences and blend their styles to save the day. The movie rides almost entirely on its music and the chemistry of its central pairing—but, when we're talking about Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah (alongside Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan), that's very nearly enough. Rent Joyful Noise from Prime Video.
Dolly has a key, if entirely supporting, role in this Christmas confection. It’s the holidays, and Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski) is on her way home to evict a bunch of people so she can sell the land they live on to a mall developer. Naturally, she’s got some seasonal learning to do, with help from erstwhile bestie Margeline (Jenifer Lewis) and Dolly herself, playing to type as an all-singing angel. Dolly wrote all the musical numbers, Debbie Allen did the choreography, and the results are pretty darn delightful, especially during the chilly holiday months. Stream Christmas on the Square.
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The family sitcom, once a staple, has become a bit more rare over the past decade or so—but when one hits, as Modern Family did over the course of its eleven seasons, it hits big. Gone but not forgotten, the show continues to remind us that, hey—families DO come in all shapes and sizes, and that's not just fine—it's great actually. In that spirit, here are some other shows that invite us into the lives of big ol' families living the American and/or Canadian dream.
Like Modern Family, Life in Pieces follows a large extended family (in California, no less) through trials both relatable and zany. Joan (Dianne Wiest) and John (James Brolin) head a family that includes Colin Hanks, Betsy Brandt, and Thomas Sadoski, with the clever conceit that each episode includes four distinct stories looking in on different members of the family; the stories often (but don't always) dovetail, but the format allows us to follow a huge cast of characters without a need for people to constantly be showing up at each other's houses. Clever. Stream Life in Pieces on Hulu.
One of our most recent great family sitcoms, focuses on a slightly smaller ensemble than that of Modern Family while still dealing with the challenges of a large intergenerational family—it also follows a similar format in that dad Dre (Anthony Anderson) narrates episodes in not-quite mockumentary style. Anderson is joined by Tracee Ellis Ross, playing a pair of successful Black parents at the head of a family dealing with typical stuff while also trying to reconcile staying true to cultural identities while living in the rich white suburbs. Kids Yara Shahidi and Marcus Scribner later split the spin-off Mixed-ish, while Dre's outspoken mother Ruby (the brilliant Jenifer Lewis) steals every scene. Stream Black-ish on Hulu and Netflix.
This comedy, inspired by Norman Lear’s beloved 1975 sitcom of the same name, quickly became one of the streamer’s most critically acclaimed shows, telling the story of a Latinx family lead by Justina Machado as Lupe Alvarez, an Army Nurse Corps veteran struggling with her return to civilian life and single motherhood (she’s joined by the scene-stealing Rita Moreno as her delightfully plainspoken mother). Aside from that solid Latinx representation, the funny and big-hearted show spotlighted Justina’s lesbian daughter, Elena, and her non-binary love interest, Syd—making for a wonderfully and appropriately modern family. Stream One Day at a Time on Netflix.
Quickly establishing itself as one of the great workplace mockumentaries, and ABC's immediate successor to Modern Family in ratings success, Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary portrays its cast of (mostly) well-meaning characters running up against an American educational system that doesn't always reward good intentions. Set at work rather than home, the themes are different but the tone is similar, with the staff at Abbott functioning as a goofy tight-knit family, sharing their dreams, frustrations, and sassy commentary with the camera. The 2022 Emmy win for the great Sheryl Lee Ralph became a viral moment, if only because it was so well-deserved for an actress representing an incredibly talented, brilliantly funny cast. Stream Abbott Elementary on Hulu and HBO Max.
A bit of a spiritual successor to Roseanne as one of our great working-class sitcoms, Malcolm in the Middle represented the economic reality that had firmly taken hold in the real world—the fact that an office job, once seen as a big a step up, is no longer a symbol of prosperity. It's also a show about how a thoroughly zany and dysfunctional family can love with the same excess that they approach everything else with. The recent follow-up miniseries, Life's Still Unfair, is the rare revival that hits the mark. Stream Malcolm in the Middle on Hulu.
The Kims are a Korean-Canadian family running the title convenience store in Toronto, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon leading the cast as the traditionally minded parents, along with a pre-Marvel Simu Liu as son Jung and Andrea Bang as daughter Janet. The show walks a deft line, bitingly dealing with issues facing immigrant families, in particular, but rarely if ever never at the expense of the comedy—mining plenty of laughs from the generation gap between Umma and Appa and the kids. Stream Kim's Convenience on Peacock.
Though never exactly buzzy, The Middle ran for an impressive (and remarkably consistent) nine seasons without relying on any particular storytelling gimmick or high concept: just the story of the Heck family, living in the fictional Orson, Indiana. Frankie (Patricia Heaton) begins the show as a salesperson at a used-car dealership before becoming a dental assistant, while husband Mike (Neil Flynn) manages a quarry. The show blends a bit of Malcolm in the Middle-style portrait of a sometimes chaotic family (barely) balancing work and kids with Modern Family's more sentimental leanings. Stream The Middle on Peacock and Prime Video.
Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls) plays single mother Sarah, at the head of a large ensemble cast playing members of the extended Braverman family in Berkeley, California. Not a comedy, but not (usually) a heavy-heavy drama, either, involving typical family trials across six seasons. Craig T. Nelson plays the family patriarch with Graham, Peter Krause, Dax Shepard, and Erika Christensen as the four kids, each with families of their own—providing story opportunities that the show mines ably. Stream Parenthood on Paramount+.
Where Parenthood is more of a comedy-drama, this is very much a drama-drama, and legendarily one of the most tear-jerking shows of the last decade or so—do not, I beg you, go into this expecting a lot of chuckles. Dan Fogelman's primetime drama was one of the buzziest shows of the late aughts, following the lives of the Pearson family over several decades. Introducing us to siblings Randall, Kate, and Kevin (Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley) in the present, episodes then takes us back to their early lives and those of their parents, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore). Though it's not a match in tone, it's thematically surprisingly similar to Modern Family in that it's a big-hearted family show at its core, with lots of hugging and crying, and one that follows a large intergenerational family through good times and bad. Stream This is Us on Hulu and Tubi.
With a cast this impressive—the late, great Catherine O'Hara; Eugene and Daniel Levy; Annie Murphy; Emily Hampshire; etc. etc.—the story here could be entirely incidental but, of course, this who's who of Canadian comedy talent is given plenty to work with. Having been defrauded by a business manager, the once-wealthy Rose family is forced to relocate to the title town and trying to rebuild their lives, living and working in a run-down hotel. Though the Rose family no longer has any reason for snobbery, old habits die hard, and there's comedy gold to be mined from their efforts to fit in. Stream Schitt's Creek on Hulu and HBO Max.
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Lost featured complex, intertwined narratives; more characters than one can reasonably expected to keep up with; and boxes full of secrets. The show, which kicked off with flashbacks that peeled back the layers of the various crash survivors before diving headfirst into surrealism, was an uncommonly smart network offering that rewarded careful viewing. Whether it all wound up being deeply profound or a load of nonsense was always in the eye of the beholder—but it remains one of the most discussed and debated shows in modern TV history.
We don't talk nearly enough about Fringe, a smart sci-fi/crime procedural that served as a true successor to the X-Files (and that wrapped more satisfyingly than that show ever did, even given multiple tries), as well as to the weirder aspects of Lost, all while anticipating multiversal storytelling before it got annoying. Starting out as a kind of weird-mystery-of-the-week thing, it soon becomes clear that the odd occurrences the characters have been investigating are all linked to potentially universe-ending incursions across time and space. Stream Fringe on Hulu.
The premise of The Leftovers is brilliantly subdued: Around two percent of the world's population disappears without explanation, and it's enough to upend just about everything. Politics have adapted to the new normal, religions have collapsed and reformed, and families have had to make peace with the inexplicable loss of loved ones. The first season revolves around the Garvey family, led by Kevin (Justin Theroux), a sheriff whose wife (Amy Brenneman) left him to join a cult, while subsequent seasons broaden the scope to bring in other characters in other locations. Showrunner Damon Lindelof also co-created Lost, and the two series share some similarities (including a relatively grim tone), but where Lost (arguably) spun out of control, The Leftovers recognized that complex plotting and the search for answers is the point. Stream The Leftovers on HBO Max.
This time-hopping survival drama is about a group of teenage girls who are stranded in the wilderness in 1996 and do terrible things to survive—the extent of which we only learn about via flashbacks from the present day, where the events of 19 months spent in the wild continue to resonate. There are ambiguous teases of the supernatural here, but there's plenty of human-level horror as well. The show plays in some of the same territory as Lost in its explorations of the morally ambiguous choices we make when in survival mode, while also cynically (but accurately) positing that there's a huge difference between the version of the past we talk about and the one that really happened. Stream Yellowjackets on Paramount+.
Dark began as a mystery involving a missing child and evolved, over its three seasons, into a wildly complex narrative: a time travel-driven story that explores dark family secrets over the course of several generations. The German import has a striking look and atmospheric feel, with an ensemble cast of teens and adults whose narratives are deftly intertwined. You'd be right to assume that the tone here is darker even than that of Lost, but the shows share loves of complex mysteries, time shifts, and strange holes. Stream Dark on Netflix.
Travel to The Town, a place from which no one can ever leave. The residents and visitors are trapped as surely as if they were stranded on an island—and are beset by creatures that come from the woods that kill anyone found outside after dark. The Matthews family learn all about this firsthand when they roll into the place in their RV and soon find themselves trapped alongside the local sheriff (Lost alum Harold Perrineau) just as it's getting dark. The monsters here aren't just mindlessly hungry—they're cunning and sadistic, and more than capable of killing residents in gory ways. It's a supernatural spin on the "small towns ain't what they seem" vibe. Stream From on MGM+.
For the plane-crash survivors of Lost, the island serves as a purgatory, a world that might be alternately paradise and hell for the largely middle-aged castaways. An analog for modern teenagers might look something like Alice in Borderland, where kids find themselves in a world of mysteries—one that feels like an escape until it doesn't. Videogame-obsessed Arisu gets his wish, after a fashion, when he finds himself, along with a couple of friends, transported to an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly brought to life via some clever green screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given the instructions for the game, which they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. The first competition involves a locked-room-style puzzle; if they fail, the room goes up in flames with them in it—think Ready Player One, with deadlier stakes. There are games each night, though the rules allow for winners to get time off. There are a lot of rules, actually, but the games are cleverly and sadistically constructed. Stream Alice in Borderland on Netflix.
While the original Battlestar Galactica was a fun, middling blend of sci-fi and dated kitsch, the aughts reboot from (Star Trek vet and For All Mankind head) Ronald D. Moore and company brought science fiction fully into the prestige TV era. Created to be humanity's robot slaves, the Cylons rebel and launch a sneak attack on the human colonies, leading to an exodus into space. The only hope for humanity is to reach the mythical world of Earth. The monotheistic Cylons see their crusade as a nearly holy one, while the more rationalistic human refugees struggle to survive and find common purpose in an order that's crumbling day by day. Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell lead an impressive cast. Stream Battlestar Galactica on Paramount+.
The 100 tells the story of the descendants of refugees of nuclear devastation who return to Earth from their habitat in space to encounter the remnants of humanity who have survived on Earth. Naturally, the first people sent to scope things out are the juvenile delinquents (better them than me), and they discover that three civilizations have risen up in the aftermath of the apocalypse, and they are all pretty scary (including one populated by cannibals, naturally). More humane, perhaps, than Lord of the Flies, even as it explores similar themes, this show builds an impressive mythology over the course of its run, leading to a conclusion that’s borderline metaphysical. Buy The 100 from Prime Video.
About as close an analog as you're likely to find to Lost is this bonkers South Korean drama. A plane crash leaves a bunch of celebrities (mostly) stranded on a mysterious island—initially, we're getting much of the story via flashbacks from an amnesiac stylist. Things get complicated as the stories of other survivors come to light, and no two people's versions of events quite match. The fame angle adds an extra layer of mystery, as the government investigators are willing to do a little obfuscating to minimize public outcry. We come to learn that five people who never made it off the island had survived the crash, and at least one of the others knows why. Stream Missing 9 on Kocowa via Prime Video.
The characters in this show all live in the 144-story silo of the title, a sealed environment sustaining (or imprisoning) the last vestiges of humanity on a ravaged Earth. Societal politics blend with civilization-threatening secrets in an impressively conceived dystopia—less mythological than Lost, perhaps, but every bit as mysterious. Based on Hugh Howey’s book trilogy, the show has at least one other thing going for it in addition to its killer cast (including Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Common, and Tim Robbins): Unlike so many prematurely canceled streaming series, it will reach a planned conclusion after having been renewed for two more seasons. Stream Silo on Apple TV.
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The latest from Reese Witherspoon's production powerhouse Hello Sunshine is another buzzy hit: the crime thriller Lucky, based on Marissa Stapley's bestselling novel, has been solidly within Apple TV's top ten since its release. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Luciana "Lucky" Armstrong, con-artist forced to go on the run when a heist goes sideways. And we do love a caper—especially when it goes off the rails. When you're done watching that and are craving more, here's what the stream next.
Beth, Ruby, and Annie (Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman, respectively) are three moms in suburban Michigan, and they are all having serious money troubles. They're not exactly criminal masterminds, so they concoct a scheme to rob the local grocery store to solve them—a store that just happens to serve as a front for a money-laundering operation. They make off with $500,000, but the gang leader whose money they unknowingly stole wants it back, and the store manager who spotted one of their tattoos is threatening blackmail. It's definitely not a sitcom, but it's a solid comedy-drama with a talented cast of characters who keep finding themselves in deeper and deeper over the course of four seasons. Stream Good Girls on Netflix.
Poker Face, created by Knives Out writer/director Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne, pays tribute to Columbo in its mystery-anthology format: One-time cocktail waitress Charlie Cale, on the run from a ruthless casino magnate, travels the backroads of North America and encounters murder pretty much everywhere she goes. Fortunately, Charlie has an uncanny ability to tell when people are lying, as well as a very handy penchant for finding under-the-table work. Like Columbo, the audience is given all the details of the murder up front, and so the mystery isn’t whodunnit so much as how is Charlie going to solve it? Lyonne’s self-effacing, no-bullshit persona is perfect here, and she’s well-matched with a top-tier array of guest stars. She's not a con artist so much, but, like Lucky, she's on the run from criminals and the law at the same time. Stream Poker Face on Peacock.
She's a con artist with a heart of gold (more or less), so it's easy to sit back and have some fun with this South Korean import. Yoon Yi-rang (Park Min-young) leads a three-person team of confident tricksters who prey exclusively on other criminals and crooked business-types. As the series starts, things are starting to come apart: Yi-rang's childhood friend Gu-ho wants out, no longer sure that he's cut out for a life of crime. When the team breaks up, the more experienced James sets out on his own—only to turn up later, beaten nearly to death at the hands of a famous corporate CEO, known publicly for his philanthropy but is secretly a vicious loan shark. And so, Yi-rang's schemes are no longer just a lark: she's out for justice, pursued with a great deal of style. Stream Confidence Queen on Prime Video.
Rob from the rich and give to the...rich? Is the gist of this Swedish import, as we follow four mostly wealthy, privileged, and largely unsympathetic young women who wake up after a night of partying to discover that they've run up rather massive bills that their parents aren't going to be responsible for. Coming up with a plan to steal from the home of another very rich family in the neighborhood, they're very nearly caught before circumstances lead them into stealing not just to cover up their own indiscretions, but to get back at some assholes who've wronged them. There are some clever choices here that set the show apart from other heist dramas: It's unclear whether we should actually be rooting for these women, even if their targets are deserving, and, similarly, they're not particularly good at what they do. These aren't master criminals, so the likelihood that they're going to mess up and get caught is pretty much 100%. Stream Barracuda Queens on Netflix.
Sophie Turner stars here as Zara Dunne, a trade processor (which is a job, apparently) at a major London pension management company. Which all sounds terribly boring, but not for long: A group of well-trained and armed individuals take the office staff hostage and arrange for trades to the tune of around £4 billion—nearly every penny to the firm's name. During the heist, Zara interacts with the firm's bank in order to confirm the transactions or, at least, so it seems. When co-workers discuss the possibility of an inside job at the end of the first episode, Zara's rather cheeky smile might well suggest to you that she knows quite a bit more than she's letting on. Stream Steal on Prime Video.
Very loosely based on true events, Queen stars Alice Braga as Teresa Mendoza, who we meet as the head of a vast drug empire, before we flash back to witness her rise (think Narcos). A poor girl in Sinaloa, Mexico, she becomes the girlfriend of a drug dealer who ends up on the wrong side of his bosses. Teresa flees the country, setting out on an action-fueled journey to the top of her own criminal empire. The show is based on a telenovela (which was, itself, based on a non-fiction work), so the tone here is rather impressively unique: Teresa is as clever as she is good in a fight, the show highlighting the character's charisma and brains alongside her facility with getting herself out of scrapes. Initially, the high-octane action feels a little silly, but once the show finds a balance, it's pretty addictive. Buy Queen of the South from Prime Video.
TV’s reigning monarch Shonda Rhimes brought us this true-crime drama about Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey, a Russian émigré who posed as a wealthy German heiress and eventually scammed New York City’s wealthy elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars (because rich people are, after all, at least as stupid as the rest of us). Julia Garner plays the con-artist with a brilliantly whackadoo accent and an appropriately high level of commitment. The show's non-linear narrative reveals the elements of the scam in such a way as to emphasize the ways in which people were very keen to believe her even when doing so began to seem very dumb. Stream Inventing Anna on Netflix.
These rich ladies are going through it, and just because they've got beautiful homes and nice clothes doesn't mean they're not getting the full treatment. As the series opens, five women (played by Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz) become involved in a murder investigation connected to a school fundraiser that threatens to bring all of their private dirt out into the open—and there are secrets aplenty to uncover. Toxic relationships come into the light, and others become toxic under pressure. In their social strata, any threat to the status quo can lead to big drama. This one is part crime drama, part dark comedy, part psychological thriller, and, where Lucky is the most recent hit from Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company, this was the first. Stream Big Little Lies on HBO Max.
Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer star as the two halves of television's great cat-and-mouse, will-they-won't-they narratives, with Oh as Eve Polastri, a bored MI5 analyst who becomes obsessed with hunting down the brutal, notorious assassin known only as Villanelle. It starts as a professional compulsion before it gets personal, and it soon becomes clear that the fascination goes both ways. This is a spy drama more than a crime thriller, but the complex relationship between two women on opposite (but shifting) sides of the law is enthralling. Stream Killing Eve on Prime Video, Paramount+, Britbox, and Netflix.
A fun crime comedy, The Brothers Sun stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Eileen Sun, the exiled head of a family of Taiwanese gangsters. She'd come to Los Angeles years before, taking one son, Bruce (Sam Song Li), who grew up knowing little of his origins and who has few ambitions beyond being really great at improv comedy—which his mom isn't thrilled about, but she's happy to have her criminal past behind her. An assassination attempt sends the older brother, still in the family business, to L.A., drawing Eileen and Bruce back into the fold—and into plenty of danger. Stream The Brothers Sun on Netflix.
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At seven seasons, The CW’s YA The 100 became our most deeply explored TV apocalypse, telling the story of the descendants of refugees of nuclear devastation who return to Earth from their habitat in space to encounter the remnants of humanity that has survived. Naturally, the first people sent to scope things out are the juvenile delinquents, and they discover that three civilizations have risen up in the aftermath of the apocalypse—all pretty darned scary (including one populated by cannibals, naturally). After a rocky first few episodes, it evolved into something impressively smart and complex, a reminder that YA doesn't need to lack depth. In its absence, enjoy these other shows that explore dystopias near and distant, particularly when they involve throwing teenagers at apocalyptic problems.
This futuristic neo-noir (kicking off, as it does, with a murder mystery) inverts, to a point, the premise of The 100: While that show finds people from a space station visiting a blasted Earth, Silo finds the remnants of humanity trapped underground. Rebecca Ferguson stars as Juliette Nichols, an engineer who gets wrapped up in an investigation involving the local sheriff (played by David Oyelowo). The usual stuff—except that the characters all inhabit a massive silo, 144 levels deep, protecting the remaining 10,000 humans from the allegedly poisoned world above. Those running the silo have managed to convince everyone left that only strict adherence to rules and procedures will keep them safe from the dangers outside. The tones are very different, but both 100 and Silo turn on the significance of manipulations and lies that keep the lead characters from ever understanding the full picture. Stream Silo on Apple TV.
Though initially feeling like an unnecessary extension of Bong Joon Ho's allegorical post-apocalyptic film, Snowpiercer (the show) ultimately takes on a life of its own, a clever sci-fi melodrama that realizes there are no heroes and few true villains at the end of the world, but mostly just people doing whatever they can to survive. In a frozen future (2026, to be precise), humanity survives on an extremely long train that circumnavigates the globe. If it stops, the power will go out and everyone (literally everyone) will die. Those who came aboard with wealth live near the front in relative luxury, while the poor live on scraps (or worse) in the tail. Daveed Diggs stars as former detective Andre Layton, a "Tailie" deputized by Jennifer Connelly's Melanie Cavill (engineer and the train's head of hospitality) to solve a series of murders. The inevitable uprising that follows sets the two of them on different sides of a violent conflict, as each comes to realize they're just pawns of the elites—same as it ever was. Stream Snowpiercer on Peacock, Hulu, and Prime Video.
Situated between flashbacks and flash-forwards, mystery/thriller The Wilds sees an airplane full of teenage girls crash on the way to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It quickly becomes clear that the accident was engineered and that the whole thing is some sort of social experiment, and the survivors are forced to compete against each other if they want to live—it's reminiscent of the manipulations at the heart of The 100, even if the setting is less overtly sci-fi. The show understands the ways in which young women are exploited and expected to compete against each other in the real world, making clear that a Lord of the Flies-esque scenario with women at its center isn't going to go any better, even if it would play out differently. Stream The Wilds on Prime Video.
We've got just a few short years before the global technological collapse, posits Tribes of Europa, and I for one am here for it—it's set in 2074, and it's been 45 years since we all lost access to Insta. Except that the shows sees it as a bad thing, with a complete societal breakdown and the dissolution of governments into a bunch of warring micro-states. Three groups are important here: the aggressive Crows; the militaristic and politically minded Crimsons; and the peaceful Origines, three of whom happen upon advanced technology that makes the teenagers targets for just about everyone. Stream Tribes of Europa on Netflix.
A lot of streaming dystopias are more adult-oriented (which isn't necessarily to say smarter or more mature), so this urban fantasy is a match largely by demographic, being, like 100, adapted from a popular YA novel series. Both series likewise put young women as reluctant warriors at the front, fighting for their families and friends in the face of world-ending consequences. From the long-running Cassandra Clare-written Mortal Instruments series, Shadowhunters finds Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara) discovering that her mom's been lying to her for her whole life: She's the daughter of a rogue Shadowhunter who split off to form his own group of, like, magical bigots, going extreme in his mission to defend people from demons and supernatural beings, not all of who are bad. Though cancelled after three seasons, the show adapts the initial run of books and comes to a perfectly satisfying conclusion. Stream Shadowhunters on Hulu.
Another future dystopia involving the aftermath of global catastrophe—only here we're counting on time travel to save us. James Cole, a scavenger from 2043, travels back in time to 2015 to stop a deadly plague. Though the series at first felt like a retread of the Terry Gilliam film (and of La Jetée, on which that was based), it eventually began to luxuriate in its extended timeline and use it to ruminate on ideas of free will versus predetermination, even while throwing in plenty of action and mystery; extended plot-lines, complex character dynamics, and impossible choices are points of convergence. It’s sort of a pre-apocalypse story, dealing with a bleak past and an even darker future. Stream 12 Monkeys on Prime Video.
We follow two parallel narratives in this (deeply weird) post-apocalyptic anime: In one, a group of children live in a confined, sterile, closely monitored school environment called "Heaven" and are protected from what we quickly learn is the monster-filled devastation outside; in the other, bodyguard Kiruko and their companion Maru travel across a devastated Japan. Those relatively straightforward dystopian strands soon give way to some wild twists and turns as the plot lines dovetail into a story involving gender and sexual politics, as well as a whole lot of dark secrets. Think of it as the psychedelic anime take on the kids' apocalypse, in which some people have seeming safety while others have to face brutal reality. Stream Heavenly Delusion on Hulu.
It would be tempting to see this as a metaphor for the American dream, but, of course, it’s a Brazilian show, and it’s not as though inequality was invented in the United States—we’re just particularly good at it. In 3%, the impoverished young Inlanders have one shot at success: completing “The Process,” a series of interviews, puzzles, and escape rooms designed to test their worthiness to join a futuristic offshore utopia. Most fail, and many don’t survive, leaving a success rate of...3%. This is very much Hunger Games territory, but there's also a very 100%-esque sense of young people being seen as expendable, particularly when they don't occupy the right spot in the social order. Stream 3% on Netflix.
Welcome to the apocalypse, but, you know...wetter. In this three-season Danish import, a virus spread by rainfall wipes out most of the population of Scandinavia. Siblings Simone and Rasmus emerge from their bunker six years later, setting off across the countryside with the hope of finding a safe haven, and maybe tracking down their father. It turns out that one of them holds the key to wiping out the virus and saving the world. It’s not the most original premise (The Last of Us game came out five years earlier), but the setting gives it a unique feel, and the series comes to a decisive ending. Stream The Rain on Netflix.
In All of Us Are Dead, high school becomes hell, almost literally, when a viral outbreak causes a Hyosan school to become ground zero for a strange plague. The teenage students soon realize they've been quarantined from the rest of the city, and help isn't coming (adults can't be trusted in the apocalypse, is what I'm getting from these shows). Nihilism isn't uncommon in zombie narratives, nor are themes involving the breakdown of social structures. But All of Us Are Dead explores the world of a cloistered high school under constant threat as a parallel to our own: Class and background continue to be potent forces, even (or especially) amid the trauma of the attacks, and arbitrary social hierarchies solidify under the constant trauma. In contrast to the wide-open world of The 100 (at least when we're on the ground and outside), the closed school location is brilliantly utilized, and there's some appropriately soapy drama, too. Stream All of Us Are Dead on Netflix.
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Under James Gunn's tenure, the DC Universe has promised us variety, and in that spirit, we're soon getting Lanterns, a show that stars Kyle Chandler as veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as new recruit John Stewart fighting evil...in Nebraska. The two superheroes find themselves investigating a murder in a tiny town, a far cry from the typical intergalactic adventures of the Green Lantern Corps, space cops who can create just about anything with their fancy-schmancy rings. (Though it's not without precedent, as the 1970s comics saw Hal team up with Green Arrow to travel the country and see how we live here on the ground.)
It's obviously early days for the new HBO Max series, and it is as yet unclear whether it will be viewed as a clever genre twist or a too-constrained waste of potential. Either way, Lanterns won't be the first show to push the boundaries of the sci-fi and superhero genres. Here are 10 others that have arguably pulled it off.
A standalone sequel to the groundbreaking Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins graphic novel from the '80s, this series plays in the sandbox of that book (arguably the wellspring of all modern superhero deconstruction), with a little help from Lanterns co-creator Damon Lindelof. In an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a world where super-powered vigilantes exist and have been outlawed, the series starts with a depiction of the real-life massacre and destruction of Tulsa's Black Wall Street by white residents in 1921. Regina King plays Angela Abar, a modern cop whose grandparents were killed during those attacks, events that echo throughout the series, which focuses on the fallout from the plot of the original comic and the conspiracies that grew out of it. Like Lanterns, this show's focus is on life on the ground in a world where gods fly above. Stream Watchmen on HBO Max or buy episodes from Prime Video.
Almost certainly the best adaptation of Green Lantern to date, this show, from some of the people behind Batman: The Animated Series, doesn't take a grounded approach in the least, instead going in quite the opposite direction. Instead, it mines decades of comics' lore to send GL and company into deep space for some of the biggest adventures imaginable. Hal Jordan (Josh Keaton) is one of the finest Lanterns in the Corps, but his reputation for recklessness has led his superiors to distrust him. When he learns that rage-fueled Red Lanterns are murdering his compatriots in deep space, he defies orders and steals a prototype ship to help. Things get complicated on the frontier, as the show balances individual adventures with a longer storyline about the nature of the Red Lanterns, and whether their green counterparts are entirely the good guys. Buy Green Lantern: The Animated Series from Prime Video.
There's nothing new about going grim-and-gritty with stories set in Gotham City, so this is perhaps slightly less of a departure than Lanterns—still, a prestige crime drama in a superhero world was new-ish territory way back in 2024. A spin-off of the latest Batman movie (the Robert Pattinson one), the show stars Colin Farrell as the up-and-coming mobster of the title. In the wake of the killing of boss Carmine Falcone. the Penguin and the absolutely unhinged Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti, who won an Emmy for the role) are vying for control of the underworld. After decades of live-action Batman tales, it's kind of refreshing to see what's going on in Gotham City when the Caped Crusader has his back turned. Stream The Penguin on HBO Max.
It's saying quite a bit to suggest that Elizabeth Tulloch and Tyler Hoechlin are among the finest live-action Lois and Clark pairings ever, but here we are. Skipping over the will-they/won't-they of earlier takes, the show jumps ahead to find the two married and with two teenage children, Jonathan and Jordan. The couple has just moved back to Smallville to give the kids a semblance of a normal life. Good luck with that! The show balances small-town drama with big superhero stakes, never more so than in the later seasons, when community-minded crime boss Bruno Mannheim (Chad L. Coleman) uses a Bizarro-style clone to put Superman out of his way while their wives both battle cancer. Stream Superman & Lois on HBO Max.
Here's an uncharacteristically bold and indescribably freaky entry in the superhero canon, including characters like the non-binary Danny the Street (a literal street), paranormal investigators the Sex Men, Imaginary Jesus, and orgasm-generating bodybuilder Flex Mentallo. All the weirdness is grounded in excellent, frequently emotional character work from the entire cast, including Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, Michelle Gomez, and Timothy Dalton. It’s queer and sex-positive, making it a standout among the usually chaste, straight world of superheroes on TV. Stream Doom Patrol on HBO Max.
There's a lot of Batman out there, but this one's got real style, harkening back to Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s (no surprise, given that Bruce Timm developed this one too). With a 1940s-esque setting, the show dodges some of the more outlandish superhero tropes to focus on a Gotham City rife with crime, corrupt cops, and gang warfare. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, exactly, but it's a strong enough reimagining that it feels fresh, particularly given that every other superhero show seems to require a deep investment in crossovers and spin-offs. Stream Batman: Caped Crusader Prime Video.
This animated show sees Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, reprising the role from the live-action DC movies) assembling a black-ops team to protect a foreign nation from the Amazonian sorceress Circe. Waller can't be trusted with actual humans, so her team is made up entirely of literal monsters: The Bride (Indira Varma), Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), and aquatic mutant Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), alongside Nazi-obsessed G.I. Robot and the rodent-like Weasel (both Sean Gunn). Extremely violent and with a dark sense of humor, this show from James Gunn and company also brings an impressive amount of heart to the mix. Plus, it's set in the same relatively young universe as Lanterns, so you won't be behind on your homework. Stream Creature Commandos on HBO Max.
Alaqua Cox returns to her Hawkeye role of Maya Lopez, a deaf assassin who once worked for Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk. She's now on the run from the mob boss, returning to her hometown in Oklahoma to come to terms with her past and to reconnect with her family and roots in the Choctaw Nation. The personal stakes mark a welcome shift toward the personal and away from the multiversal scale of the most recent Marvel—even as the show's scope encompasses centuries of Choctaw history. Stream Echo on Disney+.
They might be galaxies apart, but if you're looking for a grounded show born from a sci-fi premise, look no further than Andor. Just when I felt like I was done with Star Wars, along came this prequel series, the morally complex story of thief-turned-rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) being radicalized and setting out on the road to becoming the heart and soul of the Rebellion. We witness the slow march of the Empire, as citizens of the galaxy become acclimated to rising fascism, and delve into the conflicts between various rebel factions: Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma fights from within the Galactic Senate, while Stellan Skarsgård's Luthen Rael, Andor's handler, favors dark deeds done under cover of darkness. Forest Whitaker's Saw Gerrera is content to burn the Galaxy down rather than allow it to become what he hates. The scope is grand, but the focus is very much on the people at the bottom of the ladder, and what they do or don't do in the face of tyranny. There's also a lot of dust. Stream Andor on Disney+.
There's been a lot of talk about Lanterns being the DC universe's explicit answer to True Detective, so here we are. This crime anthology started out by taking us to Oklahoma, with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson investigating a murder that led to a broader mystery that bordered on the cosmic. The most recent season similarly sees veteran Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) face their complicated pasts while searching for missing scientists at a research station in a remote Alaskan town. Stream True Detective on HBO Max.
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Black Mirror debuted in 2011, and in the 15 years since, the real world has been racing to outpace its unsettling vision of our technological future. Certainly in the AI era, when language models can passably recreate humans (if not human empathy), "that sounds like an episode of Black Mirror" has become an increasingly common refrain.
That's been unfortunate for the show itself, which has had to reinvent itself in later seasons, focusing as much on genre experimentation as on inventing new science-fictional ways for technology to kill us. But if you want more stories about the dark side of tech, you needn't confine yourself to Black Mirror's seven seasons (so far, as the eighth is currently in the works). Here are 10 more shows—some of them also anthologies—that share a similar sense of ambivalence about modern life and technology, and where it's taking us.
Created by Tim Miller and counting director David Fincher as an executive producer, this animated anthology series is a grab bag of wildly diverse offerings: Each episode is produced by a different international studio, with the only link between them being one of the three words in the show's title. One episode deals with robotic gladiator fights in dystopian London, another finds us under the threat of sentient yogurt, yet another finds an ambitious cat learning to make use of a family's robot helper. The stories are frequently less philosophically ambitious than those of Black Mirror, but often rather more fun—its four seasons offering up a mix of tech, sex, and violence with gorgeous animation. Stream Love, Death & Robots on Netflix.
Having trouble finding “work-life balance”? In Severance, biotechnology giant Lumon Industries has a solution: It will split your consciousness between your life at work and your life outside, so one has no memory or experience of the other. As the series progresses, the work- and home-based consciousnesses continue to grow apart, and it becomes clear that they are essentially entirely different people—which raises a lot of questions about the ethics of essentially trapping someone in the hell of perpetual work. Inspired by office-based dark comedies as much as movies like Brazil and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the show’s take on nebulously futuristic tech, alongside its dive into the dangers of modern American-style totalitarian capitalism, makes it a serialized answer to Black Mirror’s episode-by-episode anthology format. Stream Severance on Apple TV.
Doctor Who's Russell T. Davies crafted this miniseries following a family over the course of 15 tumultuous years, which doesn't sound terribly like Black Mirror—except that it starts in the present (well, the present as of 2019, when the show came out) and heads into the near future. The show posits the wildly improbable scenario of Donald Trump winning a second term (ahem), propelling Emma Thompson's populist Vivienne Rook into office in the U.K. on a platform of tariffs and kicking out all the immigrants (ahem). As all this is going on, the Lyons family (played by Rory Kinnear, Russell Tovey, Ruth Madeley, and T'Nia Miller, among others) are dealing with a pace of technological change so rapid that the upheaval is constant (ahem). It's a bit too prescient for comfort—a bit like every episode of Black Mirror is happening to a single family. Stream Years and Years on HBO Max.
What the heck is Ultra Q, you ask? Don’t look for clues in the title, which mostly has to do with the ubiquity of the word “ultra” in Japan at the time it was made. The original title, Unbalance, conveys more of a sense of the show’s ideological underpinnings. Episodes frequently deal with the idea that modern civilization has created a schism between humanity and the natural world—a disordered state that will, naturally, give rise to destructive (or misunderstood) kaiju. Pilot and amateur writer Jun (Kenji Sahara) teams up with a young newspaper reporter to investigate mysterious happenings often involving giant monsters. But the show uses kaiju in a variety of contexts, including in stories of haunted houses, possessed children, and time travel. Shortly after its end, the series would give birth to the better remembered Ultraman, which ditched the proto-X-Files vibe but kept many of the same monsters. Stream Ultra Q on Tubi.
One of the most eclectic series of the past decade wasn’t afraid to tell a wide variety of stories over its four seasons. In Room 104, comedy, drama, sci-fi, and horror stories all occur within its smart, budget-conscious setting—that of a single, boring-looking motel room that could be literally anywhere. The vibe ranges from sweet, to disturbing to apocalyptic (literally, in at least a couple of episodes), with an impressive roster of guest stars: Tony Todd, Michael Shannon, Judy Greer, Brian Tyree Henry, Mahershala Ali, Cobie Smulders, Dave Bautista, and Harvey Guillén are just some of the names that have signed the guest register. What it shares with Black Mirror is a cynicism about modern American life, and a disorienting sense that you never know what’s going to happen next. Stream Room 104 on HBO Max.
I’m talking about the original series here, not the ‘90s reboot—that one's fine, but lacks the distinct perspective of the OG. This one often gets compared to The Twilight Zone (though with more and wilder monsters), but where that Rod Serling classic excelled in its morality plays, The Outer Limits more often dealt with flawed, complicated, human characters facing existential, often technological threats. Just as dark, but less cynical in its way, its shortsighted characters are capable of growth amid technological upheaval, even if the cost is never cheap. Stream The Outer Limits on Prime Video and Tubi.
Black Mirror has dealt with augmented reality in a few episodes, most prominently in season 3's “Playtest” (the one with Wyatt Russell trapped in a not-entirely-real mansion). The Japanese series Alice in Borderland isn’t quite so philosophically ambitious, but hits some of the same notes with its story of video-game-obsessed Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), who winds up stuck in an augmented-reality game with his friends in an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly brought to life via some clever green screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given the instructions for the game, which they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. Stream Alice in Borderland on Netflix.
If Black Mirror often feels inspired by Philip K. Dick (the author whose works inspired Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall), Electric Dreams goes right to the source, adapting ten of his stories. “Safe and Sound” deals with the encroaching convenience of the surveillance state, “Real Life” explores augmented reality as a means of handling survivor’s guilt, and several episodes consider the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and synthetic consciousness...themes and ideas that will more than resonate with Black Mirror fans. Stream Electric Dreams on Prime Video.
Thematically, Humans deals with the ways in which humans always seem to find excuses to dehumanize beings with thoughts and feelings just like ours (usually, other humans). But in this near-future world, highly advanced “synths” are commonplace, doing the work that regular humans can’t be bothered with. Of course, these beings are treated as entirely disposable sources of cheap labor, despite their apparent and burgeoning humanity. That’s the type of sci-fi analogy that the best of Black Mirror is adept at exploring. Stream Humans on Peacock, Prime Video, and Tubi.
A gorgeous-looking anthology (sort of), Tales from the Loop takes place in the small town of Mercer, Ohio that happens to sit upon the titular Loop, a physics lab exploring mysteries for which science has no answers. Each episode offers the story of a person or family in the town impacted by the work of the Loop—slow-burning fables set at the intersection of technology and human existence. It’s based on a conceptual art book by artist Simon Stålenhag, and successfully ports over the book’s striking look and feel. Stream Tales from the Loop on Prime Video.
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Sugar, having just completed its second season, doesn't try to obscure or downplay its reliance on old-school Hollywood noir tropes: Its characters are driven to emulate the style of antiheroes of old, and clips from old movies even play alongside the action as a means of driving the point home. The central mystery, at the outset of the series, sees detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) summoned to the mansion of a rich movie producer (James Cromwell), whose granddaughter has gone missing. It all plays in a very new-noir sandbox until an absolutely wild, love-it-or-hate it plot twist that drives the rest of the series.
I'm not looking to give anything away here, but Sugar's pivot makes it tough to talk about—some of these shows might represent mild spoilers, but only in the sense that they reveal that there's a bit more going on in the show than in a more traditional detective drama.
Moving from modern-day Los Angeles to 1960s Baltimore doesn't take us as far afield as you might expect given that, after all, noir is timeless. Natalie Portman plays Jewish housewife Maddie Schwartz, who, bored with her life, locates the body of a missing child and uses the experience to get a job at the Baltimore Star. Meanwhile, Black mother Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) is working to protect her family and community, running up against gunrunners and racketeers in the process—the two women's lives, before long, colliding. Stream Lady in the Lake on Apple TV.
This addictive odd duck of a show places the Perry Mason of print, film, and television into a dark and gritty Depression-era prequel. (I'm not excessively familiar with the Erle Stanley Gardner source novels, but I gather they don't go nearly as hard into noir as this show.) Matthew Rhys is perfectly cast as the brilliant but hard-living defense lawyer, going through a divorce while still facing trauma from the his experiences during Great War. In the show's opening, he's hired to investigate the case of a kidnapped and mutilated child, one which ends up having ties to crooked cops, local business leaders, and politicians in 1932 LA. Juliet Rylance co-stars as no-nonsense legal secretary Della Street, with Tatiana Maslany as a creepy evangelist. Stream Perry Mason on HBO Max.
An original drama from Scott Frank (The Queen's Gambit) and Tom Fontana (Homicide, Oz), Monsieur Spade finds Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, of The Maltese Falcon fame, living a quiet life in retirement in the South of France. It's all going very well for the rumpled former detective—until six nuns are brutally murdered at a nearby convent, the same convent that's been home to Sam's ward for some time. Naturally, he finds his past has caught up with him, and is forced to surrender his idyllic life in order to help uncover the complex mystery that endangers his (very few) loved ones. Clive Owen is great as the rumpled, emphysemic detective, and the story feels like a fitting sequel to Hammett's defining noir detective novel. Stream Monsieur Spade on Prime Video and AMC+.
Many of these shows offer up twists on the noir formula, but Bosch is a more traditional crime drama, one that wears its new-noir aspirations on its sleeve—and no less effective for any of that. Titus Welliver is in the title role as LAPD detective Harry Bosch (star of the Michael Connelly novels), kicking off the series on trial for shooting a suspect in self-defense while investigating the murder of a 12-year-old. The second season even sees him investigating the murder of a film producer à la Sugar's first-season case. Stream Bosch on Prime Video.
This may seem like an odd fit here, but this iconic genre classic wears its noir influences on its sleeve, and given Sugar's now-infamous plot twist, a little sci-fi is perhaps not out of the question. Cowboy Bebop is one of the undisputed GOATs in the anime sphere, blending western, comedy, and crime genres and setting the resultant mashup to a killer soundtrack. The title's "cowboys" are bounty hunters in a near-future in which humans have been forced to colonize the solar system after Earth became uninhabitable. Former hitman Spike Spiegel leads his crew on one nearly disastrous mission after another, their standalone adventures all building to a thoroughly memorable climax. Stream Cowboy Bebop on Crunchyroll or buy it from Prime Video.
Given that the franchise includes live-action takes on Morbius and Madame Web, I'm not sure this qualifies as the most unexpected Spider spin-off—but it's weird, no question. Nicolas Cage reprises, in live-action, the role he voiced in the Spider-Verse movies: that of Ben Reilly, a rumpled private investigator in the 1940s coming to terms with his past as superhero the Spider while being nudged into putting the suit back on. Cage is as deliciously unhinged as you'd expect, and he's clearly having fun with the classic noir-movie tropes, but there's also enough violence, mystery, and style here that it plays more as homage than parody. Stream Spider-Noir on Prime Video.
The title doesn't refer to a nickname or a euphemism: we're dealing with the literal Lucifer. Tom Ellis plays the fallen angel who, having grown bored with ruling over hell, decides to open a Los Angeles nightclub because hey, why not? When that's not quite enough entertainment, he teams up with homicide detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) to use his special skills and knowledge to help out, especially on cases involving the supernatural. As wacky as that sounds, the show deals somewhat poignantly with Lucifer's trauma, while also exploring our world as an outsider, not at all unlike John Sugar. Stream Lucifer on Netflix.
You want neo-noir that subverts the tropes? I'm not sure that any show does it better than this groundbreaking bit of weirdness from David Lynch and Mark Frost, in which teens and adults in the deceptively quiet Twin Peaks face tragedy accompanied by supernatural threats from outside of our normal space and time. (I think?) Kyle MacLachlan plays FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, who arrives in the title town to investigate the murder of teenager homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), precipitating a (very) long night of the soul as Cooper uncovers secrets and mysteries among the town's delightfully, and often disturbingly, weird residents. Stream Twin Peaks on Paramount+.
Set in a somewhat near-ish future, The Expanse (based on the book series by James S.A. Corey) imagines a colonized solar system into which we’ve carried all of our old familiar problems, and then some: Earth sits at the historical and cultural center of things, while Mars colonists, by virtue of having to survive in a challenging environment, have developed technological and military superiority, and folks living in "the Belt" have had to scrabble to survive. Greed, fear, and shortsightedness make conflict nearly inevitable, even if the series isn’t quite as cynical as it at first appears. Despite its space-opera trappings, The Expanse wears its noir influences very much on its sleeves; never moreso than when Thomas Jane's rumpled, hard-living (and hard-dying), detective Joe Miller is about. Stream The Expanse on Prime Video.
Blending police procedural, mystery, and science fiction, this K-drama remains one of the most-watched dramas in South Korean TV history—enough that a second season is coming after a wait of nearly 10 years. Police profiler Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) finds a discarded walkie-talkie that connects him with Detective Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong), who disappeared in 2000 but who is able to communicate from an earlier time. The two detectives are able to work together, across time, to solve a very cold case—but soon discover that there are disturbing consequences in the present when they fiddle with time. Stream Signal on Netflix.
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Emmy Rossum and Lola Pettigrew are earning rave reviews for the twisty new serial killer drama Furious, now streaming on Hulu. It's based on the 1987 Debra Winger/Theresa Russell movie Black Widow, but where that film was a stylish but fairly by-the-numbers net-noir, the show adds depth and layers to both women at the its core: Rossum is FBI Agent Alice Black and Pettigrew is foil and serial killer Catherine Grace—in this version, she's sicker, more sly, and also more interesting, especially once her motivations are made known. If you're looking for more shows that deliver similarly delicious cat-and-mouse suspense vibes, here are 10 to add to your queue.
Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer star as the two halves of television's great cat-and-mouse narratives (a style at which Furious likewise excels), with Oh as Eve Polastri, a bored MI5 analyst who becomes obsessed with hunting down the brutal, notorious assassin known only as Villanelle. It starts as a professional compulsion before it gets personal, and it soon becomes clear that the fascination goes both ways. This is a spy drama more than a crime thriller, but the complex relationship between two women on opposite sides of the law is similarly entrancing. Stream Killing Eve on Prime Video, Paramount+, Britbox, Tubi, and Netflix.
The deeply messy (in all respects) Koo Kyung-yi (Lee Young-ae) is working as an insurance investigator, as being a cop didn't entirely pan out. She's got a brilliant mind for patterns and games, though, and she finds herself drawn in when she starts looking more deeply into a series of seemingly accidental deaths. It seems a young college student known as K (Kim Hye-jun) is killing creeps, making the murders look like accidents, and arranging to make off with some of the insurance money—kicking off an increasingly dangerous game between the two well-matched opponents. Stream Inspector Koo on Netflix.
Jamie Dornan's attractive young serial killer Paul Spector is, outwardly, a normal guy and a family man, no one you'd suspect of being a stalker and a serial killer of professional women in Belfast. Metro Police Superintendent Stella Gibson (the never-not-brilliant Gillian Anderson) is sent from London to help with a stalled investigation that leads her on a hunt for the clever Spector through physical dangers, mind-fuckery, and bureaucratic complications. It's good stuff. Stream The Fall on Peacock and Prime Video.
Booker-winning novelist Marlon James created and co-wrote this wildly acclaimed miniseries, touching on bias, discrimination, and colonialism in the context of a cracking missing-person drama. Having been "encouraged" to leave Scotland Yard following the death of a missing child she'd been searching for, Detective Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance) opts to return home to Jamaica and join the police force there. She reunites with her sibling, Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen, who received a BAFTA nomination for this, her first screen role), before being drawn into the case of a Black teenager who seems to have been groomed by a rich white family before disappearing—a case that forces her to work with a condescending colleague sent over from London. It was constructed as a miniseries, but there's talk of a revival somewhere down the line. Stream Get Millie Black on HBO Max.
Head on over to sunny Copenhagen, where Naia Thulin (Danica Curcic) is assigned to investigate the murder and dismemberment of a young woman in a playground, the best clue being a small figurine made of chestnuts found nearby. When a politician's daughter goes missing, that wee chestnut man is enough to tie the case back to the murder of an entire family on a farm nearly four decades ago. You'll find the long-awaited second season under the title The Chestnut Man: Hide and Seek. Stream The Chestnut Man on Netflix.
Kate Winslet picked up an Emmy for her performance as the thoroughly troubled Mare Sheehan, a local hero in her days as a high school basketball champ whose adult reputation as a police detective is rapidly losing its luster. She's been unable to solve the case of a missing girl even as she's confronted with a recently murdered teenage mother—and you probably won't be surprised to find that the cases are linked. Word on the street is that a second season might be in the works. Stream Mare of Easttown on HBO Max.
This British crime drama is as dark as they come (ironic title alert!). Sarah Lancashire is Sgt. Catherine Cawood, a police officer whose daughter died by suicide eight years before the series starts, following her rape by Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton); she's also raising a grandchild who is also Tommy's son. Royce is the villain, no question, but the narrative is complicated by Catherine's long-game quest for vengeance, complicated by her target's criminal connections and his relationship to her grandson. The series, and particularly lead Sarah Lancashire, won a number of BAFTA awards and nominations over its three seasons. Stream Happy Valley on Prime Video and Britbox.
The mystery here is a bit more esoteric, if not entirely supernatural, but it's still appropriately twisty—and the real cat-and-mouse game is between two quite different women drawn into the same case. It's also one of the better creepy-stuff-in-an-isolated location narratives of recent years, moving away from the sweaty bro energy of earlier seasons in favor of a frostier mystery involving missing scientists at a research station near a tiny and necessarily remote Alaskan town, where the dark and the cold are practically characters themselves. The resulting case ties together veteran Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), each with a complicated past and a screwed-up present family life. Stream True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max.
Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman play homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, initially investigating the murder of a teenager complicated by familial grief and an ongoing political campaign. Later, though, the show becomes a cat-and-mouse game involving Linden and a killer with more personal motives and ties to her past, who winds up being much closer than anyone could suspect. Stream The Killing on Hulu.
The best of two worlds, in that it's a British crime drama created by the master of Nordic Noir, Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge). Marcella offers up brilliantly twisty detecting alongside some complex (just this side of dour) characters. Former London police detective Marcella Backland (Anna Friel) decides to go back to work after her husband abruptly leaves her (he's been having an affair) while threatening to use her history of mental health treatment against her in gaining custody of her children. Luckily(?), there's a distraction: A serial killer she'd chased 11 years earlier appears to be back at it, and her insights might prove invaluable. If anyone will listen to her. Stream Marcella on Netflix.
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We thought we said goodbye to lovable goof Ted Lasso back in 2023, but he's returned for a surprise fourth season on Apple TV. Jason Sudeikis is, of course, back as the title character, an American college football coach hired by Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) to coach her Richmond football club, despite his lack of experience with the sport. Having won the team in a messy divorce, she figured Ted was destined to ruin the franchise her ex-husband loved so much. Of course, we all know how that went: Ted (and the team) persevered, mostly thanks to his unrelenting good nature and belief in others.
If you are looking for more streaming shows with the same can-do spirit, here are 10 to consider—not all of them having anything to do with sports, because in 2026, we need to take joy and inspiration wherever we can find it.
One minute, Russ Holliday (series star and co-creator Glen Powell) is the biggest name in collegiate football, with a future that couldn't be brighter. The next, he's fumbled a touchdown and shoved a fan into a wheelchair-bound cancer patient. Not great! Eight years later, he's looking for a comeback and, with shades of Mrs. Doubtfire, he reinvents himself via prosthetics and a wig as the title's Chad Powers, a charmingly naive athlete who signs on to the football team at a tiny Georgia college. It's a goofy premise, but Powell's performance sells it, and the show becomes more engaging as Russ/Chad is forced to ask himself whether this new persona is a total con, or the person he'd actually like to be. Stream Chad Powers on Hulu.
Amy Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, a can-do go-getter in the sleepy town of Pawnee, Indiana. Irrepressibly perky, she's the deputy director of the local Parks and Rec Department, with ambitions that extend to the White House. Her dream is as inspiring as it is unhinged, but she's hard not to root for—at least a little. In the best workplace comedy tradition, her office is filled with lovable oddballs: gruff libertarian Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman); cynical underachiever Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari); and saucy Donna Meagle (Retta), whose mysterious but definitely wild personal life is only ever alluded to. It's all amiably silly, and full of characters determined to do their best, albeit with mixed results. Stream Parks and Recreation on Peacock.
Another well-loved TV celebrity stars in a lightly satirical comedy that's a bit more plot-oriented than a typical sitcom. Ted Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a hapless retired professor and recent widower who listens to his daughter's plea that he find something to keep him occupied. He answers an ad from a private investigator seeking someone to go undercover by moving into a retirement community in San Francisco in hopes of discovering who's been stealing the residents' jewelry. As he comes to care about the people he's investigating (and lying to), Charlie's job only gets harder. The second season moves to a small liberal arts college, and co-stars Danson's real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen. Stream A Man on the Inside on Netflix.
Bridget Everett plays Sam Miller, a woman struggling to find her new direction after moving back to her hometown to care for her dying sister (don't worry: there's plenty of comedy in the drama, and it's not as heavy as it sounds). She's solidly middle-aged and starting over, kinda—making new friends in a familiar environment where she has to confront the past and the future alike. Luckily, her love of singing, and a community of goofy oddballs, are there to help. It's another story of a person of a certain age trying to rebuild their life following an upheaval. Stream Somebody Somewhere on HBO Max.
One of the best and most beloved anime series of the past decade-and-change happens to be a reasonably good match for Ted Lasso, even while it concerns a high school volleyball team in Japan. Shoyo Hinata is athletic, though short, and determined to play volleyball professionally—whatever his stature. He signs on to his high school club, only to learn that he's the only member of the once-mighty team. Hinata eventually recruits enough scrappy underdogs to make a go of it...but they're overwhelmingly defeated their first time out, in large part due to Tobio Kageyama, a brutal and brilliant opposing player. Hinata vows revenge, but soon finds himself and his rival on the same team. Now they all have to work together if they're to have a shot at the championship. Stream Haikyu!! on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
A fun, funny, occasionally serious dramedy (vibe-match here, even if the setting is very different), Shrinking stars Jason Segal as cognitive behavioral therapist Jimmy Laird, who's been in a depression spiral since the death of his wife a year before the show opens. When he tries to get through a workday following a night of partying, he chews out a whiny patient—which is not exactly standard procedure. But Jimmy finds himself invigorated, nonetheless, and telling people what he really thinks becomes his new thing, with mixed results. Jessica Williams plays fellow therapist Gaby Evans, perpetually upbeat despite her recent divorce, while Harrison Ford is clearly having a great time playing Jimmy's crusty boss and mentor. Michael J. Fox joined the cast for the third season, and it's been renewed for a fourth. Stream Shrinking on Apple TV.
Almost certainly inspired by Ted Lasso, this (mostly) lighthearted docu-series follows the fortunes of Wrexham A.F.C., a Welsh professional association football club that has seen better days, despite being one of the oldest clubs in the world. In 2020, it was bought by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, who, despite having no particular experience with the sport (sound familiar?), were determined to revive its fortunes. The show has won eight Emmys so far, and won over audiences and critics with its inspiring tone and willingness to make fun of the occasional cluelessness of its leads. Stream Welcome to Wrexham on Hulu.
Quickly establishing itself as one of the great workplace mockumentaries, Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary portrays its cast of (mostly) well-meaning characters running up against an American educational system that doesn't always reward good intentions. It's another vibe match—a show about a group of goofballs doing their best in the face of overwhelming odds, and sometimes even succeeding. The 2022 Emmy win for the great Sheryl Lee Ralph became a viral moment, if only because it was so well-deserved for an actress representing an incredibly talented, brilliantly funny cast. Stream Abbott Elementary on Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max.
The world of Rooster is a bit darker than that of Ted Lasso (this is more of a comedy-drama), but we're still playing in a similar sandbox. Greg Russo (Steve Carell) is the author of a series of popular, but critically dismissed, detective novels. Despite that, his world is falling apart around him rather precipitously in the opening episodes: He's started dating a grad student, and his already complicated relationship with his daughter grows even more so when she accidentally (kinda) burns down a house. It's a show about a likable, well-meaning character who struggles to maintain his principles and outlook when faced with a world that's more than happy to throw mud in his face. Stream Rooster on HBO Max.
A show that survived on viewer affection and critical acclaim more than ratings (at a time when such a thing was still possible), Friday Night Lights ran for five seasons without ever being a particularly big hit—but it's had an impressive afterlife. A drama about small-town high school football rather than a comedy, the show nonetheless stays positive and inspirational, even as it captures the highs and (often heartbreaking) lows of life for the kids, coaches, and families around tiny Dillon, Texas. A reboot is in the works. Stream Friday Night Lights on Prime Video and Paramount+.
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After two cancellations and four so-called series finales and counting, Futurama might be the most resilient show ever. Another new season is on the way from Hulu, plus a series of (just announced) specials. If it doesn't have the consistent staying power of something like The Simpsons (with which it shares a creator in Matt Groening), Family Guy, or Bob's Burgers, it's got a pluckiness that makes it all the more charming. Plus, those shows have never made me ugly cry like that one episode about Fry's dog.
If you're looking for other shows that deliver similar sci-fi silliness, or you just want to get set with a backup in case Futurama gets cancelled again, these 10 genre comedies will be just the thing.
More cynical than Futurama (which is saying a fair bit), Rick & Morty nonetheless plays in the same high-concept sci-fi sandbox; both shows excel at a stupid/smart blend of comedy. Rick Sanchez is an old-school mad scientist (think Doc Brown, but drunker) dragging his well-meaning but hapless grandson on adventures in time and space, as well as across dimensions—Back to the Future meets Doctor Who, but crasser and far weirder. It's clever, gross, frequently disturbing, and occasionally a bit emotional—but mostly it's a wild good time exploring the multiverse. Stream Rick and Morty on Hulu and HBO Max.
Instead of focusing on the upper ranks of any given Federation starship, Star Trek: Lower Decks deals with the, well, lower decks—the crew behind the scenes that keeps everything going on a second-rate ship specializing in "Second Contact"—i.e. arriving after the main event to make sure all the paperwork is signed. It's a sitcom in space that still manages to feel like real Star Trek by balancing cartoon wackiness with convincing character arcs. By the end of Lower Decks' five seasons, the two-dimensional crew of the Cerritos feels as real as that of any other show in the franchise. Stream Star Trek: Lower Decks on Paramount+.
One of the closest analogues to Futurama is set in Japan's past—we're in late Edo-period Japan (roughly the early/mid-1800s) but, in this version of history, aliens have invaded, the shogun has surrendered, and samurai are outlawed. The eccentric Gintoki Sakata takes on a teenage apprentice in his business making deliveries and doing odd jobs, later joined by a teenage alien. There are long-running plot threads and weighty character arcs, but that's all balanced by often over-the-top, and just as often very funny, comedy that's variously smart, raunchy, and goofy. Characters break the fourth wall to crack jokes, and the show mercilessly parodies pop culture, including other popular anime. Stream Gintama on Hulu and Netflix.
Sharing a Hulu home with Futurama and coming from the Rick & Morty creators, Solar Opposites follows Korvo (Dan Stevens), Terry (Thomas Middleditch), Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), and Jesse (Mary Mack), aliens from a once-advanced planet destroyed by an asteroid. The humor is very R&M-esque, including running side stories about shrunken humans and alien cops, but there's a bit more sincerity here; the show satirizes human culture while making clear that it's not always fun to be a refugee. Stream Solar Opposites on Hulu and Netflix.
This much-loved, if relatively short-lived, animated series follows twin siblings Mabel and Dipper Pines (Kristen Schaal and Jason Ritter) as they are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle (aka "Grunkle") Stan (voiced by show creator Alex Hirsch). While helping Stan run his mystery-themed tourist shack, the kids tackle a series of supernatural mysteries, many related to the show's ultimate antagonist, dream demon Bill Cipher. If it's not exactly Futurama-style sci-fi, the X-Files inspiration is certainly prominent. Stream Gravity Falls on Disney+.
Seth MacFarlane's The Orville began life as a slightly scatological Star Trek parody—a show with a reverence for The Next Generation but also jizz jokes. It quickly grew into something more interesting, as MacFarlane's obvious affection for the franchise sent the show off in a more serious direction. Certainly by the Hulu-produced third season, it had become one of the most ambitious (still a bit silly) sci-fi shows on the air. A fourth season is allegedly on the way, though I'll believe it when I see it. Stream The Orville on Hulu.
The Planet Express isn't exactly a luxury liner, but Avenue 5 most certainly is. It's an interplanetary cruise ship headed by its popular captain, Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie), and owned by obnoxious, eccentric billionaire Herman Judd (Josh Gadd). A minuscule shift sends the ship off course, such that the planned months-long jaunt will take three years, even though supplies won't last. It doesn't take long before the ship's pocket of civilization breaks down, with crew and passengers alike jockeying for power, or just food. Veep's Armando Iannucci is the creator and showrunner, and if you're familiar with that show, you'll recognize the general tone: dark comedy and a dim view of people under pressure, particularly the rich and powerful. Stream Avenue 5 on HBO Max.
What if the Futurama characters were all sort of effortlessly cool? OK, that's a big "if," but if this isn't quite a vibe match, there are some similarities, in the sense that we're dealing with a ragtag crew of odd jobbers—among them a woman out of time, awakened from a long cryogenic suspension she'd never agreed to. An iconic genre classic, Cowboy Bebop is one of the undisputed GOATs of anime, blending western, noir, comedy, and crime genres and setting the resultant mash to a killer soundtrack. The title's "cowboys" are bounty hunters in a near-future in which humans have been forced to colonize the solar system after Earth became uninhabitable. Former hitman Spike Spiegel leads his crew on one nearly disastrous mission after another, their standalone adventures all building to a thoroughly memorable climax. Stream Cowboy Bebop on Crunchyroll or buy it from Prime Video.
Not science fiction, but this fantasy riff also comes from Matt Groening and company; the art style and sense of humor are very similar, as are the voice actors, many of whom (including John DiMaggio and Lauren Tom) are direct transplants from Futurama. Oh, and there's also a brief appearance from the crew via crystal ball, so the shows would appear to be set in the same universe. Abbi Jacobson is Bean, the hard-drinking, hard-living princess of Dreamland, who joins up with Elfo the half-elf and Luci, her personal demon, for a series of increasingly strange adventures. It starts out amiably enough, but the serialization and contained story set it apart from other Matt Groening shows. Stream Disenchantment on Netflix.
Another scrappy sci-fi comedy that's returned from the dead multiple times—and may yet again. Craig Charles is Dave Lister, amiable loser and well-meaning slob who holds the lowest job possible on the enormous mining ship Red Dwarf (if Fry's your guy, you'll love Lister). When he sneaks a pregnant cat aboard, he's punished by being placed in suspended animation (without pay) for the rest of the trip. Which is a lot longer than anyone anticipated: When Dave wakes up, three million years have passed, and humanity is entirely extinct. The kittens survived and sired an inbred cat empire that's since risen and all but fallen, while the senile main computer has recreated Dave's hated roommate (Chris Barrie) as a hologram to keep him company. Soon joined by a prissy android, they spend the next 30+ years bumming about in space and stumbling into adventures—some of them involving cross-time and/or universe encounters with Kristine Kochanski, the Leela-esque object of Dave's (mostly) unrequited affection. Stream Red Dwarf on Britbox.
August is a lighter month for Netflix, with a few familiar favorites and a handful of new series and films. Comedy show Tires (Aug. 13) returns for a third season along with Outer Banks (season 5 on Aug. 20). For reality TV lovers, there's a new season of Love Is Blind: UK (Aug. 19) and Let's Marry Harry (Aug. 5), a Bachelor-like competition show featuring Australian actor and reality star Harry Jowsey.
Robert DeNiro, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Keaton, and Adam Scott star in a new original crime thriller, The Whisper Man (Aug. 28), which is based on Alex North's novel of the same name. Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing (Aug. 19) is a documentary film investigating whistleblowing at Boeing. Netflix will also host Phillies vs. Twins in MLB Field of Dreams on Aug. 13. Here's everything else coming to Netflix in August, and everything that's leaving.
Mousetrap—Netflix Series
3 Ninjas: Kick Back
About Last Night...
Anaconda
Annie
Are We Done Yet?
Bride of Chucky
Child's Play 2
Child's Play 3
Clueless
Cult of Chucky
Curse of Chucky
Daddy Day Camp
Daddy Day Care
Elysium
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Fast Five
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
Field of Dreams
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
Holmes & Watson
Marie Antoinette
Mile 22
Minions
National Security
Nightcrawler
Party Girl
Seed of Chucky
Selma
Something's Gotta Give
Speed
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Tears of the Sun
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Zero Dark Thirty
Ingrid Goes West
Eighth Grade
Five Nights at Freddy's 2
Sing
Spoiler Alert
Badly in Love: Season 2—Netflix Series
Best Medicine: Season 1
Beyond the Lights
The Cocktail Lab: Season 1
1670: Season 3—Netflix Series
Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy—Netflix Documentary
Inside The Trustor Scandal—Netflix Documentary
Let's Marry Harry—Netflix Series
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 2—Netflix Series
Soul Surfer
My Life With the Walter Boys: Season 3—Netflix Series
Tortilla Soup
Death Inc.: Season 4—Netflix Series
Operation Safed Sagar—Netflix Series
Our Sticky Love—Netflix Series
Ricky Gervais Alley Cats—Netflix Series
THE RIBBON HERO—Netflix Film
Lazareth
Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish: Season 3—Netflix Family
Midwinter Break
MOURINHO—Netflix Documentary
Rory Scovel: Show Must Go On—Netflix Comedy Special
What's Eating Dan?: Season 1
Nando Between Two Worlds - A Sintonia Film—Netflix Film
A Child of My Own—Netflix Film
Immaculate
MLB Field of Dreams: Phillies vs. Twins—Netflix Live Event
My Brilliant Career—Netflix Series
This, That and Everything in Between—Netflix Film
Tires: Season 3—Netflix Series
Don't Say Good Luck—Netflix Film
Moria—Netflix Series
My Best Friend, His Girlfriend and Me—Netflix Film
To the Max—Netflix Film
Umthetho—Netflix Series
Firehouse Dog
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Shallows
Smurfs: The Lost Village
Kelsey Cook: Happy Hour—Netflix Comedy Special
On the Road: Season 1
Seal Team: Seasons 1-7
Take a Hike!—Netflix Series
Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing—Netflix Documentary
Here the Whole Time—Netflix Film
Love Is Blind: UK: Season 3—Netflix Series
Swiss Army Man
Blood Sacrifice—Netflix Series
Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten—Netflix Documentary
Outer Banks: Season 5—Netflix Series
S&X—Netflix Series
Facing El Chapo—Netflix Film
Talamasca: The Secret Order: Season 1
Danny Go!: Season 2
M3GAN
Revival: Season 1
Martha Cooks: Season 1
Stamptown—Netflix Comedy Special
Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young—Netflix Sports Series
Mom Knows Best?—Netflix Series
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 2: Grand Finale—Netflix Series
Leanne: Season 2—Netflix Series
All the Truth in My Lies—Netflix Series
Graveyard: Season 3—Netflix Series
The Secret Woman—Netflix Film
The Whisper Man—Netflix Film
Four Hands, Two Sonatas—Netflix Series
Sex Lives of College Girls: Seasons 1-3
Sheriff Labrador: Season 2
27 Dresses
A Million Ways to Die in the West
The Age of Adaline
Atonement
Borat
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Chef
Click
Enough
Everest
Ex Machina
Father of the Bride
Father of the Bride: Part II
Fletch
The Five-Year Engagement
The Glass House
Hacksaw Ridge
Home Improvement: Seasons 1-8
Hunter X Hunter (2011): Seasons 1-6
I Feel Pretty
Kindergarten Cop
Midnight Diner: Seasons 1-3
Mississippi Grind
Pixels
Pretty Woman
The Proposal
R.I.P.D.
Single White Female
Splash
There's Something About Mary
Tootsie
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Labyrinth
Copshop
Marry Me
The Game: Seasons 1-33
Fall
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A wildly toxic eight-year relationship doesn't sound like much fun—but better a fictional couple than me. The juicy, addictive Tell Me Lies (streaming on Hulu and Disney+) ended this year after three seasons, finally revealing the full story that unfolded behind the wedding that kicked off the very first episode. If you're seeking more salacious drama, here are 10 other shows that dig into similarly, uhm, complicated, messy relationships.
You want a toxic relationship? How about a string of them involving a hot serial killer? Penn Badgley plays Joe Goldberg, who, in the first season, develops an extreme romantic obsession with Elizabeth Lail's struggling MFA student Guinevere Beck. He'll do whatever it takes to clear a path to lasting love—like, literally anything. The show concluded after five seasons of toxic, obsessive relationships that were just about as addictive for audiences as they were for Joe. Stream You on Netflix.
These rich ladies are going through it, and just because they've got beautiful homes and nice clothes doesn't mean they're not getting the full treatment. As the series opens, five women (played by Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz) become involved in a murder investigation connected to a school fundraiser that threatens to bring all of their private dirt out into the open—and there are secrets aplenty to uncover. Toxic relationships come into the light, and others become toxic under pressure. In their social strata, any threat to the status quo can lead to big drama. Stream Big Little Lies on HBO Max.
Less overtly toxic than Tell Me Lies, this is nonetheless a show about a thoroughly complicated relationship over time, and no less compelling. This one comes from Sally Rooney's smart, bestselling novel about the steamy coming-of-age romance between Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), characters and actors with impressive chemistry. She's rich but lonely; he's popular but the son of a housekeeper. As time goes on and their roles start to shift, life and love only grow more complicated. The plot isn't groundbreaking, but its uncommon intelligence and a frankness about sex and sexual violence set it apart. Stream Normal People on Hulu.
A pitch-perfect (and pitch-dark) comedy, the Irish import Bad Sisters picked up several well-deserved Emmy nominations in its first year. Writer and co-creator Sharon Horgan leads the cast as Eva Garvey, oldest of five sisters, including Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), who's married to John Paul, an abusive and isolating husband. When the dude winds up dead under rather suspicious circumstances, down-on-his-luck insurance investigator Tom (Brian Gleeson) starts poking his nose into things. We know the sisters definitely wanted John Paul dead, but did they actually do the deed? Tom's family business will go under if he has to pay out on the life insurance policy, so he's motivated to pin the (potential) crime on at least one of the women. This isn't so much about a toxic romance as it is about toxic...well, everything. Stream Bad Sisters on Apple TV.
The title's affair impressively spins out over the course of five seasons via a clever, Rashōmon-like structure that has us constantly questioning our perspective as viewers. Starring Dominic West, Ruth Wilson, Maura Tierney, and Joshua Jackson, the show explores the extramarital relationship between West's Noah Solloway and Wilson's Alison Bailey, rotating between the points-of-view of the four leads to constantly put new light on events, while also suggesting that memories are ever-shifting and often self-aggrandizing. Stream The Affair on Paramount+ and Prime Video.
A messy relationship sits at the center of this addictive, if also slightly messy, South Korean miniseries. Art student Na-bi (Han So-hee) is coming off a borderline abusive relationship and no longer believes in love, which is not to say that she's entirely lost interest in sex. Convenient, then, that she meets flirty fellow student Jae-eon (Song Kang), similarly disinterested in anything long-term—at least initially. With impressive chemistry between the leads and a strong supporting cast of characters with their own issues, the show solidly depicts a modern situationship that slowly turns romantic despite its leads' best intentions. Stream Nevertheless on Netflix.
Sarah Shahi is Billie Connelly, a married mother of two in a quiet, wealthy suburb—and a woman with a rather wild past she's keen to reexamine. She starts daydreaming about her hot and horny relationship with an ex-boyfriend, Brad, writing down the sexy details, which her husband soon finds. And then it turns out that her bestie is sleeping with Brad, which puts her back in touch with the object of her fantasies. It's a show that asks: Do you stick with your safe, happy family or opt for the very extra good sex? Stream Sex/Life on Netflix.
Good luck finding a twisty relationship drama that goes harder than Behind Her Eyes, a show that builds to a climax so cuckoo bananas that you'll either applaud its audacity or cackle at its outrageousness. Louise (Simona Brown) is a single mother who starts an affair with her boss—and his wife—and then gets involved with his former mistress in the wake of a mysterious death. And then it gets really wild. Stream Behind Her Eyes on Netflix.
Based on your affection for Tell Me Lies, I'm guessing you're here for the drama—the truly fucked up relationships best enjoyed from the comfort of your living room (hey, no judgements!). In case you're looking for something a little less twisty and a little more sincere (and just as addictive), you might turn to Judy Blume. This adaptation of her widely banned 1975 novel updates the setting to current-ish day Los Angeles, and expands its exploration of the complexities of teen love and sex to include the challenges of being young, exceptional, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) attends a predominantly Black private school and is working toward a track scholarship at Howard, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) goes to school with white kids and is on his parents' track to go to Northeastern, ideally on a basketball scholarship. Forever follows their budding romance in a way that feels real and compelling—it's one of the best young relationship dramas streaming. Stream Forever on Netflix.
A rom-com so dark and messy that it very nearly misses the cut-off for the genre, functioning simultaneously as a satire and a very believable relationship drama. Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Greer) is an entirely self-absorbed writer; Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash) is a publicist/cynical chaos goblin. They have what feels like a one-night stand after a wedding, but find themselves drawn to each other, in large part because they're similarly self-sabotaging. Rather than a long will-they/won't-they build up, the two immediately dive into a wildly dysfunctional relationship; the question isn't "will they get together?" so much as "how can they possibly make this work?" Stream You're the Worst on Hulu.
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Not since Happy Days spun off into Mork and Mindy has there been a weirder TV franchise expansion than Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, which takes the relatively straightforward sitcom antics of The Big Bang Theory and expands them into the multiverse. It seems that, at some point after the conclusion of their show, Howard, Sheldon, and Leonard built a quantum something-or-other machine that went haywire and triggered a multiversal apocalypse that only comic book guy Stuart (Kevin Sussman) can stop.
It's early days yet, but the HBO series is pretty fun, making the most of the parent show's geeky bona fides and affection for genre tropes. If you're looking for more entertainment in the same nerdy vein, here are other shows that inject varying degrees of comedy into serious sci-fi scenarios.
Though less overtly comedic, there's an appealing goofiness to this quintessentially '90s bit of sci-fi, a show that anticipates the multiversal mayhem of the modern Marvel era. Jerry O'Connell is Quinn Mallory, who accidentally opens a portal that sends him and a rotating group of companions (including, initially, John Rhys-Davies as Quinn's mentor) through the multiverse. The device that he invents to get them all home is, inconveniently, an unreliable timer that keeps them stuck wherever they land for...well, however much time the story demands. Over the course of their adventures, they visit worlds where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, where antibiotics were never invented, and where Hillary Clinton is president (I swear!). Increasing serialization involving a whole species of mostly evil sliders doesn't really improve things as the show goes on, but it's still a pretty good time. Stream Sliders on Peacock and Tubi.
Josh Hutcherson plays Josh Futturman, a twenty-something janitor who lives with his parents and isn't good at much aside from video games. Though that's enough, as it turns out: He's the only person ever to finish the game Biotic Wars, a success that triggers the arrival of time-traveling soldiers from the future who recruit Josh for their war (yes, that's basically the plot of The Last Starfighter). The show succeeds by wearing its sci-fi influences on its sleeve, taking its world and backstory seriously before populating it with goofy, raunchy, and believably out-of-their-depth characters. Buy Future Man from Prime Video.
The subject here is outer-space sci-fi in the Star Trek mold, but it's still a beautifully irreverent sendup of the genre, with an amiable loser at its center. Craig Charles is Dave Lister, a well-meaning slob who holds the lowest job possible on the enormous mining ship Red Dwarf. When he sneaks a pregnant cat aboard, he's punished by being placed in suspension (without pay) for the rest of the trip. Which is a lot longer than anyone anticipated: When Dave wakes up, three million years have passed, and humanity is entirely extinct. The kittens survived and sired an inbred cat empire that's since risen and all but fallen, while the senile main computer has recreated Dave's hated roommate (Chris Barrie) as a hologram to keep him company. Soon joined by a prissy android, they spend the next 30+ years bumming about in space and stumbling into adventures. Stream Red Dwarf on Britbox.
In a depressingly straight and self-serious superhero-media landscape, Legends of Tomorrow soared past its rocky origins as a dumping ground for supporting characters from other DC shows to become something altogether weirder (and queerer). Initially recruited by a time traveller for a mission specifically because of their insignificance (their absences from the timeline won't affect a thing), the Legends go from screwups to reluctant heroes under the leadership of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), putting things right in time and space. Blending solid character work with brilliant goofiness, the show saw plotlines involving a giant animatronic bear threatening the Old West, a season-ending fight scene set to "The Thong Song," and a character's nipple getting bitten off by a unicorn. Stream Legends of Tomorrow on Netflix.
I feel like Resident Alien flew a bit under the radar during its run, though it still managed a solid four-season run. Alan Tudyk (Serenity, Rogue One, Superman) stars as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, sort of: He's actually an alien with an unpronounceable name who crashed on Earth before killing the real Harry and assuming his identity. He's meant to scout the planet for a planned destruction, but, by assuming human form and integrating with the community in the tiny town of Patience, Colorado, he slowly begins to have second thoughts, even as he continues to be entirely repulsed by human culture. Tudyk is genuinely funny while managing to hit some moving emotional beats along his journey to not-wanting-to-kill-us-all-quite-as-much, and the supporting cast is similarly game. The fictional setting is set near the real Southern Ute Reservation, and offers up some impressive Indigenous representation, including Sara Tomko as Harry's bestie and occasional foil, Asta Twelvetrees. Stream Resident Alien on Peacock and Netflix.
The Librarians began life as a charming, Indiana Jones-light TV movie led by Noah Wylie way back in 2004, which spawned two sequels, the series in question, as well as a sequel show now entering its second season. While largely a standalone take on the mildly comedic premise (a secret annex of the New York Public Library that catalogs magical and occult objects), The Librarians finds Rebecca Romjin, John Larroquette, and Christian Kane leading a group of action-scholars who use their brains to save the world. They're not lovable losers in the Stuart mode, but are, nonetheless, a bunch of true nerds who become reluctant heroes. Stream The Librarians on Prime Video.
Creator Will Forte stars as Phil Miller, a former banker who believes, for about a year, that he’s the only survivor of a plague that wiped out humanity...until he meets Kristen Schaal, a notary from Delaware. The two don’t have much in common, but decide they’re responsible for repopulating the earth. Frequently genuinely funny, the show winds up striving for a larger purpose than parodying end-of-the-world narratives, exploring our obsession with the end times and what it means to live in a world where apocalyptic thinking winds up becoming self-fulfilling. Stream The Last Man on Earth on Hulu.
The tone of this sensational series is wildly different than that of Stuart, and yet it would feel like a disservice to not mention this weird sci-fi apocalypse from Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan, which displays a very dark, very dry sense of humor. Rhea Seehorn plays Carol Sturka, a fantasy romance author and general grouch who becomes one of only 13 people on the planet immune to the "Joining"—the result of an alien virus that transforms the rest of humanity into a peaceful, perky, and perpetually content hive mind. Carol refuses to surrender her miserableness in the face of a loss of identity, fighting instead to restore humanity to its admittedly cruddy ways. Saving the world means saving the world for snobby misanthropes like herself. Thrilling, heartbreaking, and genuinely funny, the show manages to address some big questions about what it means to be human, and what we'd be willing to give up to change. Stream Pluribus on Apple TV.
Based on the ‘90s-era vehicular combat games that your parents probably hated (involving, as they do, a lot of wild, demolition-derby style action in which you smash and/or blow up your opponents), Twisted Metal stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, a driver tasked with carrying a package across the entirely lawless Wasteland while dodging challenges that include a murderous clown in an ice cream truck. Alternately brutal and goofy, the show mostly does what it says on the tin, providing plenty of frenetic car-on-car action (and car-on-semi, car-on-hearse, -ice cream truck, etc.). If the over-the-top comedic violence of Stuart is your bag, you'll get plenty of that here. Stream Twisted Metal on Peacock.
New Queer Cinema pioneer Greg Araki followed up his neon-tinged cinematic apocalypse in Kaboom with Now Apocalypse, a successor in spirit. Avan Jogia plays Ulysses Zane, living in sun-soaked California with his best friend Carly (Kelli Berglund), a struggling actress and sex worker. He keeps having bizarre dreams about an alien invasion that feel increasingly like they might be premonitions, or possibly just anxiety delusions brought on by too much weed. The show only lasted one season and never quite made it to its own prophesied apocalypse, but it was definitely fun while it lasted, and definitely offers something a bit to the left of the typical dreary end-of-the-world. It's a comedy dystopia, just sweatier and hornier than usual. Stream Now Apocalypse on Tubi.
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A cozy, nearly idyllic small town full of an ensemble of quirky characters, grounded in the loving but frequently spiky relationship between single mom Lorelei (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel). I doubt that Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino was trying to create a formula, but there are elements here that other creators have tried to recapture for a couple of decades now, to greater and lesser effect. The sharp, fast-paced dialogue, chemistry, and complex relationship between mother and daughter balance the charming, cutesy appeal of the Stars Hollow setting. At its best, the show balances its coziness with a sharp wit that keeps it from ever feeling cloying—as is the case with all of these shows that put complicated women in the lead.
Wild setup here in this telenovela-inspired romcom, but that's part of the fun. Gina Rodriguez is the title's Jane Gloriana Villanueva, a religious-ish waitress with dreams of becoming a romance novelist. She'd promised her grandmother that she'd maintain her virginity until marriage, a vow thoroughly complicated when she's artificially inseminated by mistake. The show has fun blending wild, telenovela-inspired, plot twists with more grounded character relationships, including among the three generations of women at the show's heart. Creator Jennie Snyder Urman was a co-producer on Gilmore Girls, and much of that influence is felt here, including in the ways that the show makes Miami feel like a small town. Buy Jane the Virgin from Prime Video.
A legitimate sitcom that just happens to be set in Northern Ireland during the violent Troubles of the 1990s, when clashes between nationalists and unionists frequently resulted in violence. It’s a fascinating contrast, brought to life by a writer and creator (Lisa McGee) who lived it. It’s also laugh-out-loud funny—though doesn’t make any allowances for audiences unaccustomed to Irish accents, so don’t feel bad if you need subtitles until you get the hang of it. Erin, Orla, Clare, and Michelle are joined by James, the only male student at their Catholic girls' school, dealing with normal growing-up stuff in absurd times. This world is a far cry from that of Stars Hollow, but there's the feel of a tight-knit community of quick-talking, quick-witted women (and one boy!) that strongly connects both shows. Stream Derry Girls on Netflix.
Amy Sherman-Palladino followed up Gilmore Girls in a big way with Mrs. Maisel, one of Prime’s first and buzziest original series. It's a comedy-drama about the title’s Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a New York housewife of the late 1950s who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Inspired by the real-life careers of comedians like Totie Fields and Joan Rivers, the show is both warm and funny, with great performances and dialogue; it also achieves something rare in being a show about comedy that’s actually funny. Mrs. Maisel and her '50s New York milieu are far from Stars Hollow, but there's a similar wit and quippiness to the dialogue, albeit with references that are more appropriately tailored to the era. And, as with Lorelei, our lead is a funny, complicated woman who's not afraid to dream (and mess up) big. Stream The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video.
There's a moment in the first episode of this show when single mom Georgia describes herself and daughter Ginny as "...like the Gilmore Girls, but with bigger boobs!" So there you have it. Brianne Howey plays Georgia, who became a mom at 15 and who's been fleeing for much of that time, escaping from more than one abusive relationship and going to whatever lengths have been necessary (including possibly murder) in order to protect her two kids. As Ginny (Antonia Gentry) comes of age, she's forced to come to terms with her mom's actions (Ginny generally gets bits of backstory alongside us, the audience) and to try to understand the reasons behind them. Their relationship is close, but also complicated and sometimes antagonistic. Stream Ginny & Georgia on Netflix.
Inexplicably underrated, the sitcom Crazy Ex-Girlfriend staged wildly ambitious, and consistently hilarious, musical numbers throughout its four season run. The show stars Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a a Yale- and Harvard-educated lawyer who works for a major NYC firm, and who throws it all away to chase a crush from her teenage years to a small town in California. Most impressively, the show dives into real-life issues around mental illness and treatment with humor, but also genuine compassion and frankness, doing a way better job than most other shows. The connective thread here is a lead, like Lorelei, who gets to be a believable, fully realized character while making some very, very questionable decisions on her way toward a more authentic life. Buy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Prime Video.
Amy Sherman-Palladino and David Palladino returned to TV, and to the ballet world (following Bunheads), for this series about two world-renowned ballet companies (one in NYC and one in Paris) that decide to spice things up by swapping their most talented dancers. Each company is on the brink of financial disaster, and so Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), director of the Metropolitan Ballet, and Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), director of of Le Ballet National, come up with the plan, and recruit an eccentric billionaire (Simon Callow) to pay for it. Much of the comedy comes from the mismatched natures of their swapped dancers, and there's a tangible love of ballet that keeps things light, despite the fancy title. Stream Étoile on Prime Video.
A little more schmaltzy than Gilmore Girls, perhaps, but if you're in the market for some more Gilmore-esque cutesy/quirky/townie vibes, then this one will fit the bill, all the more so because it's kinda the same town. Rachel Bilson plays Zoe Hart, who moves from New York to the small town of Bluebell, Alabama, to take over part of her father's medical practice—she didn't have much choice, given that her poor bedside manner made her virtually unemployable. So now she has to rebuild a life among three generations of family in a town full of eccentrics who love to hold festivals and hang out at the gazebo—the exit same gazebo from Stars Hollow, it happens, as both shows were filmed on the same Warner Bros. lot, making Bluebell a very good vibe match. Stream Hart of Dixie on Prime Video.
Following Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham traded in her role as single mother Lorelei for the role of single mother Sarah, at the head of a large intergenerational ensemble. Craig T. Nelson plays the Braverman family patriarch with Graham, Peter Krause, Dax Shepard, and Erika Christensen as the four kids with families of their own. As with Gilmore, the comedy-drama revels in its distinctive characters and (relatively) low stakes. Stream Parenthood on Paramount+.
The emphasis here is less on a mother-daughter relationship than in most of these other shows, but Summer still feels like a bit of a match for Gilmore Girls in its universe of flawed and quirky characters. Adapted from the trilogy of YA bestsellers by Jenny Han, this series focuses on the coming-of-age of teenager Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), who is 16 as the series starts. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that's all well and good until she starts to develop a romantic attraction for first one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney), then the other (Gavin Casalegno), planting the seeds for a love triangle that unfolds over the course of several summers, and that sees Belly grow into young adulthood to a soundtrack made up largely of Taylor Swift tunes. They're not identical, but Belly feels a bit like an updated take on Rory, and Cousins Beach has cozy Stars Hollow vibes. The three-season run is over, but there's a continuation movie on the way. Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
An intergenerational trio of women with quippy, fast-paced dialogue in a sleepy community full of quirky characters? Let's head off to the town of to the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England, where Londoner Sara (Michelle Terry) has returned home following job and romantic disappointments. She helps her mom, Carol (Ellie Haddington), to run the little café that she owns, while mom's just hoping to get her married off and grandma Mary (June Ellis) is full of stories that people only occasionally want to hear. It's dry in that British way and as cozy as they come, as long as you don't mind a more leisurely pace. While only running for two seasons, the show wraps up nicely. Stream The Café on Peacock and Britbox.
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The many (many, many) revivals and reboots released over the past decade is a trend that suggests we've run out of new ideas, but a small handful of these projects truly do make the case that a trip to the past doesn't need to feel like retreading old ground.
Over on Disney+, X-Men '97 has succeeded by grabbing hold of everything kids loved about the '90s cartoon and dragging it into the present, carrying on as though no time had passed but not ignoring the ways the world has changed for oppressed minorities living in the 2020s. It's also (and this is no small thing) completely unashamed of its roots, making the most of its outsized villains and colorful world. If you're looking for more comic book shows that deliver the same depth and fidelity to their source material, here are 10 to watch next.
There've been a lot of He-man riffs over the last couple of years, to greater and lesser degrees of success (the memory-holing of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power by Netflix is a crime for which someone should go to jail). Kevin Smith's trip to the world of Eternia plays in the X-Men '97 sandbox by offering up a strict continuation of the original animated series, broadening and deepening the older show's themes while staying true to Masters mythology—of which there's plenty. The first season, Revelation, follows up on the seemingly final battle between He-Man (Chris Wood) and Skeletor (Mark Hamill) by sending Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar) on a quest to restore magic and discover her own origins, following up on some hints dropped back in the 1980s. You'll find the series on Netflix split into Revelation and Revolution, but it's all the same show. Stream Masters of the Universe on Netflix.
The gorgeously animated series largely adapts the third Castlevania game from way back in 1989—a prequel, and so not an unreasonable starting place for the sprawling franchise (material from other games does come into play later in the series). Here, the vampire Dracula (aka Vlad Țepeș) sees his wife burned at the stake and vows vengeance on all of Wallachia, with monster hunter Trevor Belmont, magician Sypha, and Dracula’s own son Alucard opposing him. It’s a surprisingly serious and thoughtful take on a video game property about vampires, and only gets better as it progresses—even into its own sequel series, Nocturne. Stream Castlevania on Netflix.
Not a revival of anything in particular, but still a show that captures some of the depth of its comic book source material, this was the little cartoon that could—it was canceled after two seasons way back in 2013, picked up by the long-defunct DC Universe streamer for season 3, and then got a final season as an HBO Max original. There’s a reason it hung in there, even without the name recognition of some of DC’s other stuff: It’s an impressively animated series that draws from any number of comic sources while scrupulously developing its characters, blending action and soap-opera drama in the best tradition. Stream Young Justice on HBO Max.
The vibes here are wildly different, but kids of the 1980s and '90s aren't likely to care: Prior to X-Men '97, this was the show that best pulled off the impressive trick of reinvigorating a long-buried franchise without totally rebooting it (well, this and Twin Peaks: The Return). Shifting the focus from Ralph Macchio's Daniel to William Zabka's peaked-in-high-school former villain was a stroke of genius, as was introducing a new generation of karate kids, all of them way, way too obsessed with dojo drama. Technically not a superhero show, it definitely feels like a martial-arts Avengers by the end. Stream Cobra Kai on Netflix.
There's a lot of Spider-content out there, so let's get situated: The original X-Men animated series had a cousin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, a show done in a similar style and with a shared continuity. This isn't that, but rather an even better adaptation that remains a cult classic after a short, two-season run—so beloved that this particular version of the character (voiced by Josh Keaton) shows up in Across the Spider-Verse. In a sense, this is a back-to-basics Spidey, with Peter Parker attending high school and maturing as a teenager and student while facing the added complication of his great powers/great responsibility. Buy The Spectacular Spider-Man from Prime Video.
This animated show sees Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, reprising the role from the live-action DC movies) assembling a black-ops team to protect a foreign nation from the Amazonian sorceress Circe. Waller can't be trusted with actual humans, so her team is made up entirely of literal monsters: The Bride (Indira Varma), Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), and aquatic mutant Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), alongside Nazi-obsessed G.I. Robot and the rodent-like Weasel (both Sean Gunn). So, ya know, a team of societal misfits headed by a leader with shifting motives. The cartoon is extremely violent with a dark sense of humor (more so than X-Men), but Gunn and company also bring an impressive amount of heart to the mix. Stream Creature Commandos on HBO Max.
Within a couple of months of each other in 1963, "The World's Strangest Heroes" went up against "The Strangest Super-Heroes of All," one team battling the Brotherhood of Evil, the other facing off against the Brotherhood of Evil...Mutants. Both the X-Men and the Doom Patrol were led by a wheelchair-using genius, and both involved teams of outcasts who saw their abilities as curses as much as gifts. And both books fizzled out after a few years, only to return with renewed purpose later on. Coincidence? Probably! But the similarities remain striking, even if X-Men persisted by establishing itself as a soap opera on a galactic scale, while Doom Patrol doubled down on being weird. So here we get characters like the non-binary Danny the Street (a literal street), paranormal investigators the Sex Men, Imaginary Jesus, and orgasm-generating bodybuilder Flex Mentallo. But all the weirdness is grounded in excellent, frequently emotional character work from the entire cast, including Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, Michelle Gomez, and Timothy Dalton, all playing characters processing copious amounts of trauma and guilt while becoming something like superheroes despite themselves. Stream Doom Patrol on HBO Max.
OK, back to the cartoons, and one of the other triumphs of '90s TV animation, with an appropriately weird premise: The title gargoyles, once living beings, were trapped in stone for over a thousand years before being brought to New York City from Scotland, reawakening, and becoming protectors of the city by night. Like X-Men, the show went hard on its complex mythology, deep plotting, and character work, doing X-Men a bit better on the latter by virtue of having a slightly smaller main cast. It's a show that's frequently mooted for a continuation along the lines of X-Men '97, but recent rumors suggest a live-action reboot is more likely. Stream Gargoyles on Disney+.
The premise of this acclaimed anime (based on a similarly popular manga) turns that of X-Men on its head: Here, people without special powers and abilities ("quirks") are in the minority, as is the case of Izuku Midoriya—he's even bullied over something akin to disability in the world of the show, getting the nickname Deku (meaning, more or less, "useless"). He aspires all the same to become a hero, and gets his shot when he impresses All Might, the greatest hero of all, who knows a way to pass along some of his power. So it's off to super-school for Izuku, a big-hearted underdog among his classmates. Coming-of-age revelations amid outsized battles with supervillains ensue. Stream My Hero Academia on Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll.
Several of these shows skew a little older than X-Men '97, so we'll end with one that aims a bit younger while developing into something no less epic. Steven Universe begins as a series of seemingly standalone adventures before developing into an impressively rich and complex narrative over the course of five seasons and a movie. The title's Steven (Zach Callison) lives in Beach City with magical, mineral-based alien "Gems" named Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. Steven is half-Gem himself, and the series follows him as he grows into his powers and into himself, along the way discovering that his diverse group of companions are fugitives from an interstellar empire, and that perceived enemies might actually be allies in the making. Early producer Chuck Austen was a writer on the X-Men comics, and the show occasionally riffs on classic-era comics. Stream Steven Universe on Disney+ and Hulu.
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It's been a while since our last visit with the Ingalls family, though perhaps not as long as you might think: while the Melissa Gilbert/Michael Landon series ended in 1984 after a series of TV movies, there have been a couple of live-action adaptations, a stage musical, and an anime series in the years since. Still, none have been as high profile as Netflix's new take on the classic Laura Ingalls Wilder books. It has quickly become one of the biggest shows on streaming despite some controversy over certain plot elements.
Uncharacteristically for Netflix, Little House's second season is already in production, but if you've already binged the entire thing and are eager for more downhome historical drama, consider these 10 streamalikes.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic historical novel Anne of Green Gables kicked off a long series of similarly family-friendly works, eventually leading to a beloved 1970s television series. Sound familiar? This particular story is entirely fictional, but hits similar notes in its exploration of the childhood of a precocious girl growing up in a rural 19th-century setting. As the series begins in 1896, a couple of elderly and unmarried siblings on Prince Edward Island, Canada, have sent away for an orphan boy to help on the farm, but instead find themselves with a girl: chatty Anne Shirley (Amybeth McNulty), who has to fight to prove herself to her prospective parents, as well as to others in the town who judge her alternately for being a useless girl or for being a poor orphan. The reboot revisits the novel and mines its text (and subtext) for new ideas without betraying the spirit of the work. Stream Anne With an E on Netflix.
At approximately the same time that Laura Ingalls Wilder and family were leaving Wisconsin for the broader Midwest of the author's recollections, Louisa May Alcott was writing and publishing her groundbreaking first novel, set in a Civil War-era New England in which women have largely been left behind by the men in their lives. Though overshadowed by the (excellent) Greta Gerwig film version's arrival two years later, this BBC adaptation is a bit more faithful to the text without ever feeling stuffy. The book takes place over a period of years, and the miniseries format does a better job of capturing the passage of time, which is so critical to the story. Emily Watson plays the stolid Marmee with an appropriate twinkle, and Angela Lansbury (in her final TV role) is perfect as the snide, snippy Aunt March. Stream Little Women on Peacock, Tubi, and Netflix.
A bit of a ratings blockbuster on the BBC, this miniseries revisits the events of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of Lizzy Bennet's bookish, altogether dorkier sister. Her ruddy complexion, penchant for grammatical correctness, and (dear lord) spectacles make Mary entirely unsuitable for marriage and unfit for much other than genteel spinsterhood. That all begins to change when Mary sets off on her own to become a governess for the Gardiner family in London, and manages to forge a life and a future for herself away from the parents and siblings who see her as not much more than a piece of furniture. Pemberley and its environs are a world (an ocean, at least) away from the rural world of Little House, but both shows offer clever and forthright young women doing their best to find their place. Stream The Other Bennet Sister on Britbox.
An update of a venerable British franchise based on a series of autobiographical novels from writer James Alfred Wight (aka James Herriot), All Creatures takes us back to the rural Yorkshire Dales of the 1930s, with a Scottish vet moving to the small farming town of Darrowby to take up a job as a veterinary assistant. First among the local eccentrics is Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), a practical and hard-working farmer faced with some big choices in life. Though you need to be willing to witness animals in jeopardy, the big-hearted show only rarely goes for a gut punch. Mostly, it's charming domestic drama amid a bucolic landscape, with frequent guest appearances by baby cows. Stream All Creatures Great and Small on PBS or buy it from Prime Video.
Returning for a moment to the world of Anne of Green Gables—though Little House is about an American family and Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels are about a Canadian orphan (who finds a family), they're both about smart, adventurous young women growing up in a challenging, rural frontier. This beautifully animated anime adaptation (not the first Japanese take on the Anne stories) is faithful to the source material while adding some stylistic flourishes (a schoolhouse fight over a chalkboard is drawn, briefly, as a battle sequence). Stream Anne Shirley on Crunchyroll.
Based on a popular book series from Linda Chapman and Beth Chambers (who write under the pseudonym Lauren Brooke), this series follows the lives of a family of horse ranchers in western Canada led by sisters Amy and Lou (Amber Marshall and Michelle Morgan). Though it's set in modern-day western Alberta, the frontier feel and family drama don't feel far removed from the lives of the Ingalls. If you're new to the show, there's a lot to catch up on: It's coming up on its 20th season. Stream Heartland on Netflix.
The first of the Yellowstone spin-offs, 1883 gives us a bit of Dutton family prehistory. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill play the first generation of the family to make the trip from Texas to Montana on a dangerous wagon train led by Sam Elliott. This is a grittier take on westward expansion that doesn't have nearly the same family-friendly Little House vibes—but it does place Isabel May's 17-year-old Elsa Dutton at the heart of the story; she starts as an adventurous young woman before becoming hardened by her experiences. Stream 1883 on Paramount+.
Once again we're a world away from the American frontier of the Ingalls family, but nevertheless following a young woman's coming of age in the 19th century in a story drawn from a series of semi-autobiographical novels (by Flora Thompson). Country girl Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan) sets out looking for work in the wealthier, modestly more metropolitan neighboring town of Candleford. She manages to find a job at the post office, befriended and mentored by her mother's cousin, Dorcas (Julia Sawalha). Not everyone in Candleford is so welcoming of the rube from the countryside, especially when Laura is forced to choose between the demands of her job and the needs of the family she left behind. Stream Lark Rise to Candleford on Peacock.
This (very) Hallmark-y series, based on a Janette Oke novels, begins in 1910 and follows young teacher Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow) as she leaves her relatively wealthy family to take a job in a rural Canadian mining town. Luckily, there's hot mountie Constable Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing) to help her make the adjustment. There's romance, drama, and triumph among the woman-led cast, with the gentle tone and big heart that you might expect, given the title. The show has lasted 13 seasons and counting, and, Yellowstone-like, has already generated two spin-offs, When Hope Calls and Hope Valley: 1874. Stream When Calls the Heart on Hallmark+ via Prime Video.
This almost certainly goes without saying, but there are nine seasons of classic Little House and three follow-up movies to plow through (pun intended). The show quickly outgrew its early reputation as a Waltons clone to become a fan and critical favorite with an expansive cast of characters and a strong social conscience, in large part due to the influence of executive producer and star Michael Landon. Melissa Gilbert plays Laura, while Alison Arngrim (who has a cameo in the new series) frequently steals the show as nasty neighbor Nellie Oleson. It's weirder, more dramatic, and a bit less interested in staying true to the books than is the current series, but arguably it's the reason Little House remains in the zeitgeist—even more so than the novels. Stream Little House on the Prairie on Peacock and Prime Video.
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