Loved This Show? Try That One! Find a New Series to Watch This Weekend
Shake up your streaming queue based on things you loved way back!
There is undoubtedly so much to watch, but nevertheless we get stuck in our content-viewing ruts when we sit down in front of our televisions and think, “what do I even feel like delving into?” The bad news is, there’s so much to watch. The good news is: there’s so much to watch! But how do you find what you might like? We’re here to help you discover something new! We’ve put together a list of comparable shows that you might like if you were a fan of something that came out a while back. Let us know in the comments which shows you have discovered because you initially liked something else!
Love: Lost, Try: Severance
Season 2 of Severance is upon us, which makes it a great time to get into this mind-bending show. If you loved the drama Lost, with its mysterious “what-the-heck-is-actually-is-going-on-here?!” confusion combined with fragmented flashbacks and deep character development, Severance might be the show for you. In the world of this series, the Lumon company has introduced a new technology that allows workers to achieve an epitome of work/life balance: by undergoing a procedure that severs their work brain from the rest of their personality. Like Lost, the show delves into philosophical and existential questions about life and work, foreboding corporations and the secrets that lie within them, and physical world-building that has the viewer wondering about the limits of the spaces in which the characters operate.
Love: The Comeback, Try: Hacks
Who doesn’t love a story about second chances and reinvention, especially in the entertainment business? For anyone who loved Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback, you’ll be absolutely thrilled to see Jean Smart in Hacks. The Comeback is a hilarious series about a sitcom star breaking back into show business via a reality show despite being older and out of touch, and its mockumentary style paired with satire delighted fans. Hacks is a dramedy in which Smart’s Deborah Vance, a legendary comedian who is losing her edge–and her Vegas stage–is strong-armed into letting a young comedy writer, Ava, help her revamp her act and her career. Vance, like Valerie Cherish, is getting older and is somewhat out of touch, but both shows provide sharp critiques on how the entertainment industry treats its aging stars. It’s hard not to root for Deborah Vance as she reinvents herself, but perhaps what is most interesting is the juxtaposition of her fame and experience alongside the talented younger Ava, whose career might lack longevity but her youthful perspective is so influential. Both shows explore the price of ambition at any age, especially for women–whether they’re just starting out or looking to find new success after decades of doing the same thing.
Love: Love, Try: Nobody Wants This
Judd Apatow’s Love starring Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust is a romantic comedy series that takes an honest look at what it takes to build a real, imperfect, fulfilling relationship–with a lot of humor and heart thrown in. If you loved that series, you’ll go nuts for Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. This series based on a true story similarly follows two individuals who struggle to figure out if their relationship can work despite a pretty large obstacle: she is agnostic, and he is a Jewish rabbi and community leader. Full of humor and a healthy dose of swoon-worthy romance, the story of these two–as well as their siblings and families getting in the way–is endlessly relatable. At its heart is a story about how real relationships and romance are complicated in the real world, even when it feels perfect.
Love: Ted Lasso, Try: Shrinking
Ted Lasso, starring Jason Sudeikis, is a fan favorite for many reasons, but mostly because it’s a series that blends biting humor with so much heart it’s hard not to get completely emotionally invested–even if you don’t care at all about sports. If you’re looking for something new, try Shrinking, a darker dramedy starring another funny Jason: Jason Segel. Both shows deal with the ramifications of grief, in different ways. While Ted Lasso’s title character opts for a sunny outlook on life and doing his job well instead of dwelling on his own deep feelings of sadness, Shrinking follows a therapist who is overwhelmed by grief, leading to breaking professional protocols. Both series feature mental health as a main theme, with protagonists that struggle with how to achieve a healthy balance.
Love: Girls, Try: Laid
Girls was definitely a phenomenon of its time, and remains endlessly rewatchable. Focused on a group of four friends led by Lena Dunham, who also created the show, the series follows the characters in and out of messy relationships and sexual encounters, hilarious mistakes, and generally stumbling through their mid-twenties. The characters are relatable if unlikeable, which is something it has in common with the new series Laid (based on the Australian series of the same name). Like Girls, Laid– starring Stephanie Hsu and Girls alumn Zosia Mamet–features a main character struggling with her own self-centeredness and questions of whether or not she might be a bad person. But the plot of this series centers on a mysterious set of events: all of the romantic partners that main character Ruby has slept with are dying, in order of the timeline in which she was involved with them. The adventure is excavating her own romantic past and cringing through memories and apologies to those she’s treated badly, while trying to figure out exactly what is going on. At their heart, both series are about flawed characters who make mistakes but somehow make it through and learn about themselves in the process.
Love: Sons of Anarchy, Try: Yellowstone
The long-running series Sons of Anarchy was a fan favorite series about an outlaw motorcycle club that struggles to find a balance between protecting its community and lawless behavior. If you were invested in this show’s themes of kinship and survival, you’ll love Yellowstone. Both shows are gritty, character-driven dramas about family, loyalty, and power struggles while maintaining a sense of legacy. Yellowstone follows the Dutton family, led by John Dutton–played by Kevin Costner–as they fight to protect their Montana ranch from encroaching developers and political forces. Like Sons of Anarchy, characters in Yellowstone often turn to violence and crime in their pursuit. Both shows lean heavily on strong storytelling tropes, like rugged individualism, protecting tradition, and deep questions of morality.
Love: All of Us Are Dead, Try: Squid Game
Both All of Us Are Dead and Squid Game are wildly popular South Korean Netflix series. With Squid Game’s second season out now, it’s a perfect time to get into it if you somehow are one of the last people who haven’t already. All of Us Are Dead is about a group of high school students who must fight to survive during a sudden zombie outbreak in their school and city. The series explores human resilience, friendships, and survival in the face of a relentless apocalypse, with themes of horror and coming of age. Similarly, Squid Game is about survival, but in a different way: Hundreds of financially desperate individuals compete in deadly versions of childhood games for a massive cash prize, overseen by mysterious, masked organizers. The series critiques societal inequality, and explores themes of trust, economic disparity, and human nature under pressure. Fans of both love the high-stakes nature of these stories, intense emotional arcs and moral dilemmas, and the exciting visual production styles.
Love: Dark, Try: Silo
Fans of the German series Dark love it for its richly crafted world of a small town where the disappearance of children unveils a mind-bending web of time travel, family secrets, and a predestined cycle spanning generations. This psychological thriller blends sci-fi and mystery and explores the complexity of time travel and its paradoxes, fate versus free will, and intergenerational connections. Similarly, Silo is a sci-fi show based on the Wool book series by Hugh Howey, and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the remnants of humanity live in a massive underground silo. The inhabitants follow strict rules to maintain order, with questions about the silo’s purpose and the truth of the outside world that sparks a rebellion. Like Dark, layers of mystery unfold through complex storytelling, and the series has a heavy focus on uncovering hidden truths. Themes of control, fate, and human perseverance link these viewing experiences together.
Love: Only Murders in the Building, Try: A Man on the Inside
If you love a good mystery combined with humor, you’re probably a fan of Only Murders in the Building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. This unlikely trio is on an amateur mission to solve a murder within the confines of their Manhattan apartment complex in each season of the show, and many hilarious hijinks ensue. In A Man on the Inside, Ted Danson plays an aging widower who is feeling lonely and disconnected, and takes a job going undercover to help a private investigator who has been hired to find out more about some burglaries at a senior living facility. His presence as a senior himself is needed to gain access to the home, without anyone knowing why he’s there. Like Only Murders in the Building, A Man on the Inside features a main character who, in his golden years, has never been faced with solving a crime–but is all too eager to get involved. Like the characters in Only Murders who get excited about starting a podcast to help the case, Danson’s Charles implements his own detective-work ideas mostly to humorous–but often helpful–effect. Both shows infuse humor with mystery, and focus on intergenerational camaraderie, examining friendships and relationships at any age.
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