16 Best TV Shows Similar to Six Feet Under
School Spirits
Being a high schooler is hard. Being a ghostly high schooler is even harder. As with Season 1, that remains the central thesis of School Spirits Season 2, and its arguments are plenty convincing. At the conclusion of season 1 (all the way back in April of 2023!), Maddie (Peyton List) finally got some answers. After eight episodes of investigation, she finally knew who was responsible for her haunting the halls of her high school. Sadly, those answers made her “death” far less cut and dry. She was no murder victim, after all, but rather the victim of a supernatural eviction. Janet (Jess Gabor), the one teen ghost who supposedly achieved the transition from earth-bound spirit to heaven? Yeah, she did no such thing. Instead, she took control of Maddie’s body, forcing our protagonist’s soul out in the process. So, while Maddie paces, trapped on her high school campus, Janet is out wandering the world over 65 years after dying. School Spirits Season 2 picks up almost immediately after Season 1’s finale. Janet, in Peyton’s skin, is on the run after hitting Peyton’s lousy but redeemable ex, Xavier (Spencer Macpherson), with his own truck. The collision sends him to the hospital, unresponsive. Simon (Kristian Ventura), the one living person who can see Peyton, is ignoring her, afraid she might be a sign that he’s losing his mind. Peyton’s other best friends Nicole (Kiara Pichardo) and Claire (Rainbow Wedell), the popular girl Xavier cheated on Mattie with, witnessed the hit and run and are now split on whether they should turn in “Peyton.” Continue Reading →
Prime Target
Despite being someone who far prefers writing over math (maths for you nasty bois and grrls across the pond), even this reviewer has to admit that film and television have made the act of working equations far more visually compelling than crafting a killer persuasive essay. Something about those big whiteboards, furious scribbling, and the arcane look of empty set calculations sells drama far better. CBS’s show Numb3rs was a hit in the naughty aughties for a reason. So, despite an aversion to calculus, the Steve Thompson-created Prime Target seemed promising. Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall) is a math post-grad certain that prime numbers are the secret key to, well, everything. Maybe? His advisor, Professor Mallinder (David Morrissey), seemed to have similar thoughts once but refuses to engage. Instead, he urges Brooks to abandon that academic pursuit for something, anything, else. Others seem far more enthusiastic about Brooks’ pursuit. They include wealthy think tank entrepreneur (Jason Flemyng) and Professor James Alderman (Stephen Rea). Meanwhile, a tragic accident in Iraq reveals preserved ruins. They reignite the intellectual pursuits of Mallinder’s wife, Professor Andrea Lavin (Sidse Babett Knudsen). As it becomes clear Brooks’ and Lavin’s interests intersect, bodies start dropping, pulling the CIA into the situation, including surveillance agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell) and her mentor/boss (Martha Plimpton). It’s all pretty standard conspiracy thriller fare, complete with a sympathetic love interest who is still a stranger, bartender Adam (Fra Fee), and a shadowy Bogdan (Sergej Onopko) who could be friend or foe. There’s globetrotting, double-crosses, paranoia—justified and otherwise—and lots and lots of running. Sadly, not much of it gets the heart racing. Continue Reading →
No Good Deed
Selling a home is, at best, a time of sanitized chaos. As they say about ducks, above the surface, like during open house, everything is serene to the point of sterile. But beneath the surface, behind the scenes, it is a whirling dervish of activity and emotions. So it only makes sense No Good Deed, a series that revolves around a home for sale, would be an absolute mess. For better and worse. Ironically, the house part of the story is the easiest to grok. Lydia (Lisa Kudrow) and Paul (Ray Romano) Morgan are selling what was once their dream house. The reasons are unclear, but there are hints. Their two kids no longer live at home. Paul, a contractor, was responsible for the repairs and upgrades. Despite that, though, it still cost them a pretty penny. Lydia, a former concert pianist forced into early retirement when she developed a tremor, undoubtedly made those costs feel more dire. Regardless of the why, Paul’s anxious to unload as fast as possible. Lydia, on the other hand, feels a ton of ambivalence and will only accept the perfect new owners. Perhaps not even then. Denis Leary's energy has always screamed "friendly greeter." (Netflix) Nearly all the characters that matter show up at the Open House, the series’ first big set piece. Highly energized real estate agent Greg (Matt Rogers) oversees the whole thing, laying on the “a beautiful place to raise a family” hard. Then there’s former soap actor JD (Luke Wilson), a neighbor who covets the classic style of the Morgans’ home. The social climbing Margo (Linda Cardellini) makes an appearance, unaware that Lydia would rather burn the place down than let Margo take up her former home. Dennis (O-T Fagbenle) and Carla (Teyonah Parris) are recently married and with child. They’ve brought along Dennis’s mom, Denise (Anna Maria Horsford), for the tour, a choice the couple may not be on the same page about. Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson), on the other hand, have given up on children and filtered that money and effort into finding a new home. Continue Reading →
Based on a True Story
The suburbs may seem like bright, safe places, but there’s rot under those perfectly manicured lawns. I know, I know, this probably will come as a shock, but it’s true! And Based on a True Story Season 2 is daring to drag it all into the light. I am, of course, having a bit of fun here. Filmmakers, authors, poets, playwrights, and TV showrunners have been taking shots at the suburbs since the beginning. Maybe your first encounter was the worms in the soil shot in Blue Velvet. Perhaps it was the original Stepford Wives that clued you in. The when of it may be in question, but you’ve been treated to the thesis of darkness behind those bright white picket fences, guaranteed. So, Based on a True Story Season 2’s vision of the upper middle class American suburban life isn’t exactly groundbreaking. What’s to the series’ credit is that it knows that. Its heart doesn’t lie in pulling back the curtain on middle age (or just before) married with kids and a four-bedroom, two-bath life. Instead, it just uses that oft-played trope to have a blast. That’s not to say it is empty of message or meaning. It still has plenty to say about “life these days”. It just does it without the air of self-congratulatory “Can you believe how transgressive we are!” that one can often detect in similar tales of suburban decay. Continue Reading →
High Potential
Back in the aughts and early teens, television discovered a kind of alchemy. Take a murder. First, assign some good but overly serious cops to it. Then, team them up with an unusual consultant. Voila! TV magic. In no time, the subgenre spread like wildfire over network and basic cable. Anyone could be a quirky consultant, including a former cop overwhelmed by mental illness (Monk), a mystery writer (Castle), a fake psychic (The Mentalist, Psych), mathematicians (Numb3rs), and time-traveling revolutionary war soldiers (Sleepy Hollow). Sure, they weren’t high art, but they frequently provided a great time in front of your big screen. High Potential, the American remake of a French series, delightfully transports audiences back to that breezy era. Developed by Drew Goddard, the series revolves around Morgan (Kaitlin Olson). A single mom of three, she struggles with interpersonal and professional relationships. The cause, in part, is her off-the-charts IQ, which gives her insomnia, an intolerance for authority, and difficulty dealing with anything that isn’t “right.” Those same features lead her to rework an evidence board at the Los Angeles police precinct where she’s working her latest gig as a cleaning lady. When head detective Selena (Judy Reyes) traces the changes back to Morgan, she offers her a job, much to the frustration of Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Major Crime’s go-to investigator. Judy Reyes and Daniel Sunjata enjoy that classic morning pairing. Coffee and crime scene photos. (Disney/David Bukach) Javicia Leslie and Deniz Akdeniz, and Garret Dillahunt round the police side of the cast as two younger and more welcoming members of Major Crimes and a gambling-addicted head of Robbery/Homicide, respectively. At home, Taran Killam plays Ludo, Morgan’s most recent ex and father to her two youngest children including Matthew Lamb as Elliot, inheritor of Morgan’s IQ and love of random facts, but not yet her attitude. Her oldest daughter, Ava (Amirah J), seems more like her father, who disappeared when Ava was still in diapers. She believes he abandoned the family, while Morgan insists he’d never. Continue Reading →
The Smokey Bear Show
So it’s fairly obvious that the first two seasons of The Bear had a whole birth/death thing going on. The show opens in the aftermath of the shocking and abrupt suicide of Mikey Berzotto (John Bernthal), and the first season charts the slow, inevitable death of his restaurant, The Beef, under the stewardship of his little brother Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). The second follows the birth of The Bear, the new restaurant that rises from the ashes of The Beef, as well as the blossoming of many of its employees from a sloppy blue-collar crew to a careful, refined, highly efficient team. And Carmy flirted with birthing a life outside the kitchen through his relationship with old-flame-from-back-in-the-day Claire (Molly Gordon). But while the first season ended in pretty unambiguous triumph when Carmy, Richie, and the rest of the Beef staff were suddenly flush with cash and a plan for the future, season two ends on a significantly darker note. The Bear manages to open its doors on time and have a successful opening night, but Carmy’s relationships with Richie and Claire are in tatters—casualties of Carmy’s rage and anxiety. There was a kind of dry run for the catastrophe that closed the end of season two near the end of the first. Carmy loses his shit, breaks a bunch of stuff, yells, and alienates pretty much everyone. But the final episode brought them all back together, stronger than ever. Carmy is what George Costanza would describe as a “delicate genius,” ferociously gifted but intense and unpredictable. To work with him is to warm yourself by the raging fire of his mind while trying to avoid getting burned by the constant sparks and flares that burst from it. “THE BEAR” — “Tomorrow” — Season 3, Episode 1 (Airs Thursday, June 27th) — Pictured: Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto. CR: FX. The show did an elegant job pacing Carmy’s assholeishness with revelations about his past home and professional life. He grew up in a single-parent home with an alcoholic, mentally unwell mother, prone to fits of rage and depression. He worked under a monstrously critical chef while he was coming up, who criticized and undermined everything he did. These revelations are for the audience, not necessarily the other characters in the show. So when Carmy melts down in a fit of panic and self-loathing on opening night, we know it’s informed by his hyper-tense childhood and abusive mentor. But the people who work under him don’t. Some know parts, but no one knows everything. And it’s harder for them to understand.Now we come to season three, and the completely reasonable expectation is that it will open much like season one closed. Having learned a valuable lesson, Carmy will gather the crew back together, apologize, and things will return to normal in the kitchen. Oh, it might take a little longer for some of them to come around than others, but everything will work itself out. Except it doesn’t. Because while the first two seasons were concerned with birth and death, the third is a lot more about life. And the thing about life is that it’s its own thing, separate from birth and death. They’re related, obviously, but life is also a distinct thing in ways that birth and death are not. Continue Reading →
Sunny
About fifteen years ago, an era of “complicated” protagonists ruled the television landscape. These anti-heroes—Walter White, Don Draper—were the sort of people one wouldn’t associate in their day-to-day life. Safely sealed in a flat screen, though, and viewers couldn’t get enough of them. It was a glorious time to be unlikable on TV. Still, as Erik Kain pointed out, it was an honor almost entirely reserved for men. Sunny is a late-arriving corrective, centering a fully complex and often unlikable Rashida Jones. As Suzi, Jones ditches nearly everything that makes her an on-screen appealing presence in the likes of The Office and Parks and Recreation. She also flattens the traits that make her stand out as a character worthy of empathy in projects like Silo and On the Rocks. In place of those, she offers a dead-eyed stare that only sparks to life when castigating her mother-in-law Noriko (Judy Ongg), random bureaucrats, and, of course, the titular android Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura). Rashida Jones does not, and this can't be stressed enough, have time for this nonsense. (AppleTV+) It isn’t like she doesn’t have cause for anger and the thousand-mile gaze. As the opening minutes reveal, Suzi has justy lost her husband Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and son in a plane crash. However, as the series unfolds, it becomes clear Suzi can’t blame her unpleasantness entirely on grief. As revealed in flashbacks, she’s been hard-drinking and foul-mouthed for some time. Additionally, although partially owed to her dyslexia, she wields her failure to learn nearly any Japanese like a cudgel. It is yet another tool for holding the world at bay. That world includes, often, her spouse. Of course, his own drinking and pile of secrets hardly made him an ideal partner either. Continue Reading →
Orphan Black: Echoes
It is perhaps unfair to compare a single 10-episode season of Orphan Black Echoes against its predecessor’s 50 episodes over five seasons run. After all, that much more real estate allows a show so much more time to explore and resolve its mythos satisfactorily. But if one stacks up Echoes’ season against the original’s debut, the newest member of the franchise still suffers by comparison. Created by Anna Fishko and taking place about 40 years after the events of Orphan Black, Orphan Black Echoes opens with an immediate hook. A woman (Krysten Ritter)—who we’ll eventually know as Lucy—awakens in a well-appointed living room. She has no memory of who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Dr. Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes)—the adult daughter of Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany), who is sadly only glimpsed in a photo—attempts to calm and remind Lucy of her past. It fails and the amnesiac has to be chemically restrained. Later, she manages to escape the room, only to discover that it is little more than a set built inside a massive warehouse. In 2052, the cloning process at the center of the original series may be illegal, but science has found a workaround, creating a different kind of copy called, colloquially, “printouts.” From there, the series follows Lucy’s attempts to discover her past and protect those she cares about. The quest sweeps up several others in its quake, including a teen, Jules Lee (Amanda Fix), who’s deeply connected to Lucy and Kira. Others pulled into the situation include Kira’s wife (Rya Kihlstedt), a seemingly altruistic billionaire, Paul Darrios (James Hiroyuki Liao), a shoot-first-ask-questions-later enforcer Tom (Reed Diamond), and a single father (Avan Jogia) and his tween daughter (Zariella Langford). Continue Reading →
Fallout
Few titles in the world of video game RPGs are as stylistically significant and cherished by fans as Interplay Entertainment’s Fallout. First published in 1997, the post-apocalyptic RPG has spawned countless sequels (including the acclaimed Fallout: New Vegas) and garnered millions of devoted fans through meticulous worldbuilding and its (now signature) atomic age-inspired retrofuturist aesthetic. Thanks to shows like The Last of Us proving naysayers wrong and paving the way for high-budget, critically acclaimed video game adaptations, Prime Video has joined forces with Bethesda to bring the Fallout franchise to the small screen with an eight-episode series of the same name. Bolstered by source material with a baked-in sense of aesthetics and a pair of winning leads in Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins, Fallout is a clever, twisted apocalyptic odyssey that soars as both a video game adaptation and a standalone series. Starring Purnell, Goggins, and Aaron Clifton Moten, Fallout follows Lucy (Purnell), an idealistic, sheltered “Vault Dweller” who has spent her entire life in an idyllic vault built to keep wealthy Americans happy and healthy in the event of nuclear devastation. When surface raiders disrupt her vault’s peaceful existence and kidnap her father, Lucy is forced to leave the safety of Vault 33, encountering all manner of unlikely enemies and allies along the way. Continue Reading →
Sugar
Some shows are difficult to write about because they don’t excite one’s passions. They’re not terrible or great, so they offer little to dig into. Sugar is not that sort of show. Instead, its difficulty stems from a plot development that seems too large to go unremarked upon. And yet, it would be unfair to those who haven’t yet watched the show to spoil it. With all that in mind, I will delicately attempt to navigate a third path. This development is significant. It changes much of what you know about several of the characters. And yet, it largely doesn’t impact the show. I don’t mean it is a waste of time, only that the show’s positives and negatives remain largely unaffected by this development. Take it out, and the story’s heart will remain essentially the same. It’s the rare significant plot point that changes so much without fundamentally altering the series. So, while it would be interesting to write about and explore it, this review is still broadly comprehensive without touching it. Amy Ryan bellies up to the bar and reminds us all she's excellent in noir stories. (AppleTV+) John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is a private investigator specializing in finding missing people. Draped in bespoke suits, he insists he hates hurting people but does so with fluidity and ease. After completing a case in Japan, a message from legendary film producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) draws him back to LA. Jonathan’s granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler) is missing. Despite a history of substance abuse and frequent absences—as well as the lack of concern from her father Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), a producer of…less quality movies—Jonathan is convinced this time is different. A film obsessive, Sugar can’t resist taking the meeting despite reassuring his handler Ruby (Kirby) that he’d rest and recuperate. When Olivia reminds the PI of his missing sister, he must take the case, promise or not. Continue Reading →
Fargo
The crime drama returns to the Land of 10,000 Lakes and rediscovers its best storytelling self. Throughout the six episodes of Fargo Season 5 screened for critics, the series isn’t exactly subtle. From opening the season with an on-screen graphic defining “Minnesota Nice” as neighbor attacks neighbor during a school board meeting to Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) staring up at a campaign billboard of himself, the show loudly states its theses at the viewer over and over. However, it never feels like creator Noah Hawley has lost control of the storytelling. It’s methodically over-the-top. The audience is on a roller coaster, but they can feel the quality of the engineering keeping them on the tracks. In other hands, this approach can feel alienating or blunting. Fargo Season 5 benefits from meeting Hawley’s signature energy with a game cast and impressively insightful art direction. As a result, the series turns in its best offering since Season 2’s near-perfect effort. Continue Reading →
Sex Education
There’s a moment in Sex Education Season 4’s first episode where a dark thought crosses one mind. “Wait…was this always JUST a sitcom?” Continue Reading →
Class of '09
Welcome to the future. America is “the safest country on Earth,” as FBI Agent Tayo Michaels (Brian Tyree Henry) assures us. And it is all thanks to a program that is one part Minority Report, one part that computer Lucius Fox gets all bent out of shape about in The Dark Knight. It started as a sort of interrogation tool, but it has blossomed into a prediction machine that lets the FBI anticipate criminal activities. Comic book fans, think Force Works. Law enforcement has gotten “proactive.” Continue Reading →
Unstable
Unstable appears to be a deeply personal show for lead actor and co-creator Rob Lowe. After all, it revolves around a father/son duo played by Lowe and his real-life son, John Owen Lowe. Rob Lowe’s headlined worse stuff than this, for sure. Nonetheless, you’d think a series that seems rooted in something this personal would be more engaging to watch. At least, it might take some bold swings. Tragically, Unstable is a mostly just average comedy that leaves little in the way of an impression for good or ill. Continue Reading →
Monarch
Whether it’s the cutthroat business world of Succession to the fantasy universe of House of the Dragon, television audiences are here to see the chaos and drama of families living and working with each other. Looking to add to the mix is Fox’s newest drama Monarch, from writer Melissa Hilfers. Continue Reading →
American Gigolo
Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo is a 1980 neo-noir starring Richard Gere as a male escort caught up in a murder investigation. The film gave the world Gere as a leading man and the iconic Blondie song “Call Me.” In Showtime’s eight-episode reimagining, Jon Bernthal takes on the role of Julian Kaye (AKA John Henderson), the titular American Gigolo. He's living the high-paced high-society dream until the murder of one of his clients leads to his wrongful incarceration. Continue Reading →