78 Best TV Shows Similar to The Simpsons (Page 3)
Angelyne
NetworkPeacock,
SimilarBates Motel, Unforgettable,
Angelyne, the enigmatic blonde bombshell whose likeness once dominated over 200 billboards all across Los Angeles in the 1980s, has only ever been promoting one thing: herself. With a mountain of platinum locks atop her head and a chest of truly unearthly proportions, she had the entire city asking who is Angelyne? But creator Nancy Oliver (True Blood, Six Feet Under) and showrunner Allison Miller's (Brave New World) new miniseries argues that that’s the wrong question entirely. Instead, the real question is, what is Angelyne? What does she represent to herself, the city, and celebrity culture in general? Continue Reading →
真ゲッターロボ~世界最後の日
Armageddon was never just a movie. Beginning with its much-coveted Fourth of July Weekend opening, to its (now typically) Bayhem-infused Super Bowl commercial, through its screening of fifty minutes at Cannes and bizarre feud with Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (literalized in the film) over which movie would be the biggest of summer 1998, Armageddon positioned itself as nothing less than a pop-cultural event. It was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced, starred Bruce Willis in his prime, backed him with a suddenly white-hot Ben Affleck, and was directed by blockbuster wunderkind Michael Bay. Add to all that the escalating success of 1997’s Lost World, Men in Black, and Titanic, and there was the sense that this would be a movie for the ages. Which it was. Kind of. Continue Reading →
社畜さんは幼女幽霊に癒されたい。
SimilarFate/Apocrypha, Komi Can't Communicate,
StarringHisako Kanemoto, Marina Inoue,
Motherhood, particularly new motherhood, is a lonely time. No matter how much help you have, there are still long, hard hours where you’re left with a tiny life, one for which you are wholly responsible, often after putting your body through a massive ordeal. Throw in a lack of sleep, a lack of meals, then add society’s pressures (are you feeding the baby properly?), familial pressures (your cousin never did things that way), and the all-too pressing personal pressures (is this it? Is this the thing that will mess up my child for life?) and it’s a miracle the human race has ever chosen to propagate. As I wrote this review, a banner ad invited me to buy (in my child’s stead) a personalized book called The World’s Bestest Mommy, because there’s nothing like the pressure of a gift to remind you what you have to live up to. Now, imagine that on top of all of this, your child has the supernatural ability to kill those around him and you have The Baby. Continue Reading →
Roar
SimilarNightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King,
StudioEndeavor Content,
Things aren’t looking good for us right now, am I right, ladies? States are passing a historic number of anti-abortion laws, and the needle has barely moved in reaching income equality with men, particularly for Black and Latinx women. The time may not be right for a whimsical take on what it’s like to be a woman in the 21st century, but Apple TV+’s anthology Roar has enough of an edge on it to make it entertaining without being condescending or out of touch. Though it suffers from the typical unevenness of an anthology series, even its weaker entries are still solid, and their blessedly short half-hour runtime makes it all go down smooth. Continue Reading →
The Thing About Pam
NetworkNBC,
SimilarStar-Crossed Lovers,
The thing about The Thing About Pam is that there’s no thing there. Tonally run amuck, the limited series is a whimsical take on a deadly serious story that can’t come to grips with its darkness. There are moments to enjoy, but overall the series does little to prove itself necessary. There’s a lot of play happening, but little of it is constructive. Continue Reading →
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
Did you know that the earliest hair extensions on record are over five thousand years old? Doesn’t that just snatch your wig? That’s just one of the many facts you’ll learn by tuning into the latest arm of the Jonathan Van Ness empire, their new Netflix series Getting Curious. And it’s produced by World of Wonder – aka the company that makes the juggernaut that is RuPaul’s Drag Race. Continue Reading →
Astrid & Lilly Save the World
Into every generation, a teen horror drama is born: one series in all the media landscape; a chosen show. It alone will wield the quips and metaphors needed to fight the supernatural villains, social pressures, and other various youthful troubles. To stop the spread of standard high school melodramas and the swell of their number. It is...the newest supernatural young adult T.V. series. Continue Reading →
As We See It
While there are a lot of autistic characters in pop culture, there’s very little variety to be found. The eclectic personalities, genders, ambitions, and every other trait imaginable that exists in actual clusters of autistic individuals is absent in general pop culture. Instead, we’re either super-geniuses who function more like X-Men or childlike figures who need a neurotypical person to rescue them. If you were to go by mainstream media, autistic people were like M&Ms circa 1964: we only come in two flavors. Continue Reading →
Servant
Say what you will about Apple TV’s Servant, but give it credit for its audacity. We’re three seasons in, and the series, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, remains as clear as mud as to both what’s happening, and to where it’s all going to lead. Not since Twin Peaks has a TV show been so dedicated to being completely incomprehensible. Watching it is like being led down one path, only to be violently jerked toward another. “No, it’s not about that, you silly goose,” it says. “It’s about this.” Until it becomes about something else. Season 3 throws less things at the wall to see what sticks, but things remain frustratingly opaque. Continue Reading →
Harriet the Spy
It’s baffling to me that Apple TV+ is still making kids-centered programming. In the streamer’s two years of existence, none of their family-friendly shows, whether they be Helpsters or Doug Unplugged, have left any kind of footprint. You’d think they’d realize Disney+ and Netflix have got this market cornered and would instead pursue programming the bigger streamers aren’t making by the truckload. Instead, Apple TV+ keeps on raging, raging against the dying interest in their kid’s programming, with shows like the new animated take on Harriet the Spy. Continue Reading →
Star Trek: Prodigy
SimilarStar Trek Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,
StarringDee Bradley Baker,
When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine debuted in 1993, it was different. No longer were our heroes aboard Starfleet’s flagship. No longer did they hail exclusively from the Federation. No longer would they harmoniously explore the galaxy with a different destination every week. Instead, they were stationed on a backwater alien refinery. The show’s major players were a mix of Starfleet officers, local veterans, and civilian operators. The station was the destination, and the stories came from the various visitors passing through. Continue Reading →
Kin
Kin, AMC+’s new crime drama, follows in the footsteps of those underworld sagas that came before it. Set in Dublin, mostly in the homes of members of the Kinsella family, Kin focuses on warring Irish families deep in the drug trade. While its story rarely exceeds expectations for subject matter, brutality, or surprise, its performances are excellent, thanks to a team of veteran actors who have numerous scenes full of ample, chewy dialogue to showcase their talents. Continue Reading →
Dr. Death
NetworkPeacock,
SimilarAre You Afraid of the Dark?, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King,
Dr. Death borrows its tantalizing title from the Wondery podcast, which similarly breaks down a harrowing true story about a neurosurgeon who — for whatever reason — keeps killing or permanently harming his patients on the operating table. Continue Reading →
Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes
StudioHBO Documentary Films, World of Wonder,
HBO’s six-part docuseries Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes doesn’t have any shocking new revelations or unheard evidence. Some might ask what was the point of rehashing a story that broke in The New Yorker, which then became a book, which then became a podcast. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s take on Ronan Farrow’s already well-trod ground is clearly just for those folks who prefer visual media over books and podcasts (hey, no judgments) or for those obsessed with the investigation into Hollywood monster Harvey Weinstein. Continue Reading →
The White Lotus
SimilarBroadchurch, Family Guy, Quark,
Within the opening scene of The White Lotus, it’s revealed that someone will die at some point during the show. But the question of who that someone is and how will they die isn’t really the central plot, as the six-part miniseries is much more interested in the characters and their fascinating dynamics than the mysteries and all the events leading up to the impending death. Continue Reading →
McCartney 3, 2, 1
Not all entertainment is for everyone. Continue Reading →
Lucan
Disney/Pixar's latest, Luca, is a deeply charming fish-monster-out-of-water story about two buddies, a Vespa, and the freedom to follow your path. It's a low-stakes tale about embracing your individual identity and the differences of the collective, with more than a few cute moments to sell its engaging atmosphere. It also suffers from a lack of clarity, which frustratingly keeps Luca from staying fully buoyant. Continue Reading →
Betty
Season one of HBO’s skateboard ensemble comedy/drama Betty was a sparkling slice of life, a rare female-led show where the main characters were flawed and brilliant and terrible in turns. The series (created and directed by Crystal Moselle, based on her movie Skate Kitchen) falters a bit in its sophomore season as it pulls the core girl gang apart into individual stories, to the detriment of the whole. Continue Reading →
Penguin Town
The Patton Oswalt-narrated Netflix docuseries tells a compelling story about the endangered birds' life during their molting and mating season.
“Six hot months! One wild colony! No rules!” With this reality show-esque tagline, Netflix’s Penguin Town appears to be a quirky, comical twist on nature docuseries. They even pulled in comedian Patton Oswalt to narrate. Penguin Town follows the adventures of a wild cast of African penguins. As the series progresses however, dramatic events unfold, pulling the audience in for an emotional trip alongside the endangered birds.
The series follows the journey of African penguins as they hit land on the shores of Simon’s Town, South Africa. Here the birds live it up amongst the “giants” (aka humans) of the town, molting their feathers, hooking up with their mates, and hopefully raising some hatchlings before they depart. This may sound like spring break for penguins, but their time at the beach is anything but a vacation. These penguins fight off predators on land and in the sea, attempt to survive catastrophic weather events, all in the hope their species will survive and thrive. Continue Reading →
Marvel's M.O.D.O.K.
SimilarBatman, Birds of Prey, Family Guy, Marvel's Spider-Man, Power Rangers, Static Shock, Ultraman Tiga,
StarringSam Richardson,
M.O.D.O.K. isn’t set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but it is firmly set in the newest trend in adult-sewing American animation. Popularized by Rick & Morty and BoJack Horseman, these cartoons put on an exterior dick jokes and fart gags but are actually about deeper explorations of weighty turmoil’s. Considering this phenomenon has produced shows like Horseman and Harley Quinn, it’s one of the better TV trends out there. The best parts of M.O.D.O.K. exemplify why. There’s something enduringly impressive about balancing out raunchiness with genuinely insightful drama. Continue Reading →
Death and Nightingales
SimilarFate/Apocrypha, Jack the Ripper, Jewels, Monarch of the Glen,
Pride and Prejudice Tales from the Neverending Story, The Family Game, The Far Pavilions, The Strain,
On the heels of The Luminaries, Starz brings us another dramatic import, this time the Irish 3-episode miniseries Death and Nightingales, based on Edmund McCabe’s book of the same title and adapted/directed by Allan Cubitt. Set and filmed in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, Death and Nightingales is one of those rare sunny day thrillers, a gorgeously filmed but raw story of a young woman trying to save herself amidst family secrets, Irish Nationalism, and an increasingly untenable homelife. Continue Reading →