65 Best TV Shows Similar to The Umbrella Academy (Page 3)
Doom Patrol
NetworkHBO Max, Max,
SimilarBatman Beyond, Birds of Prey, HAPPY!,
Justice League Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Static Shock,
Writing about Doom Patrol Season 3 is a surprisingly tricky task. After all, how many times can one stress that its budget aesthetics are a distinct part of its charm? How many times can you praise its willful strangeness, its willingness to embrace the bizarre without ignoring the need for characterization? How many times can a critic declare, “yes, still very good.”? Continue Reading →
Sex Education
SimilarBates Motel,
HIStory Komi Can't Communicate,
The third season of Laurie Nunn’s raunchy, teen dramedy Sex Education kicks off with a montage of the characters engaging in all sorts of sexual activities—some with their partners, some with their secret lovers, and some with themselves. For a show that’s always had a positive attitude when it comes to sex, it’s a fitting choice. However, Sex Education has never been just about hormones and horniness. Since its first season, the show has also proven to be a charming, often heartfelt look at adolescence. In season three, it remains committed to that approach. Continue Reading →
愛のむきだし 最長版 THE TV-SHOW
Created bySion Sono,
StarringAtsuro Watabe, Hikari Mitsushima, Makiko Watanabe, Sakura Ando, Takahiro Nishijima,
Directed bySion Sono,
StudioOmega Project,
Why are some stories animated instead of live-action? There are a variety of good reasons: introducing fantastic or surreal elements, making characters more expressive, or experimenting with genre. Netflix’s new adult animated comedy Chicago Party Aunt, however, doesn’t seem to have any reasons at all for being a cartoon instead of a more traditional sitcom. And even more disappointingly, with laugh-out-loud jokes and memorable characters few and far between across all eight episodes made available to critics, it’s hard to think of a good reason why it was made in the first place. Continue Reading →
What We Do in the Shadows
NetworkFX,
SimilarArrested Development,
StudioFX Productions,
It’s been said (okay, only I’ve said it) that sitcoms shouldn’t run more than three or four seasons. Any longer than that, and they run the risk of getting stale, resorting to tired tactics like flashback episodes, forced romantic relationships, and adding cute wisecracking kids. So it’s a wondrous thing that, in its third season, What We Do in the Shadows, shows no signs of flagging, of having to fall back on retreads, or even having a musical episode. Despite what feels like a limiting premise, it’s as fresh and funny as ever before, somehow managing to maintain a remarkable balance between raunch and sweetness. Continue Reading →
Q-Force
As a queer child of the early Internet, I've seen my fair share of gay erotic animation. Netflix's new adult animation series, Q-Force, might be one of the best. 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 →
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 →
Tuca & Bertie
SimilarBlack Books Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Catterick,
Lisa Hanawalt’s beloved animated show Tuca & Bertie was prematurely canceled by Netflix back in July 2019. But less than a year later, Adult Swim took a risk by giving the show another life. If the first four episodes of the new season are anything to go on, the show only gets stronger, funnier, and more mature in its sophomore outing. 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 →
Love, Victor
SimilarNoah's Arc, Raven's Home,
Roswell Stand Up!!,
Studio20th Television,
When Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon arrived three years ago, it was hailed as groundbreaking — mostly because it was the first major studio rom-com centering on a gay character. But valid criticisms soon came from the queer community, saying that the movie is too white and its depiction of coming-out is a tad too tidy and sanitized. 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 →
Rutherford Falls
NetworkPeacock,
SimilarEcho, Son of the Morning Star,
Michael Schur’s no stranger to centering television sitcoms around complex topics. There’s the inner workings of local government in Parks and Recreation, the chaos and philosophy of the afterlife in The Good Place, and now America’s problematic past in the Peacock original Rutherford Falls. Co-created by Schur, Ed Helms, and Sierra Teller Ornelas, Rutherford Falls is the funny wake-up call we need. Continue Reading →
YASUKE -ヤスケ-
SimilarHina Logic: From Luck & Logic, Out of This World,
Japan. 1582. The samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed his liege lord Oda Nobunaga and sets his castle alight. Trapped by the blaze, Nobunaga elected to die by seppuku - ritual suicide. His friend and retainer Yasuke - a Black man and the first foreigner ever granted the rank of samurai - acted as his second. Not long after Nobunaga's death, Yasuke vanished from the historical record. Continue Reading →
Hemingway
There isn’t a lot of revelation to be found in Ken Burns & Lynn Novick’s extensive 3-part documentary on Ernest Hemingway. Those dads and grandpas tuning in will already be well-versed in his adventurous life, his tumultuous relationships, his legacy of violence, and self-aggrandizement. But Burns & Novick manage to put together a narrative that suits the author’s legendary machismo. If there’s one person who’d love Hemingway, it’s Hemingway. Continue Reading →
Worn Stories
SimilarPope John Paul II,
After eight years of itchy, bland Catholic School uniforms, I was ready for a change. When I entered high school, I switched to one of the only public schools in the state of Louisiana that didn’t require a uniform. Now that I could dress how I wanted, I needed to make a splash. I wanted to show everyone exactly who I was and what I brought to the table. My 13 year old brain decided the best way to do that was wearing this t-shirt featuring the logo of Mr. Sparkle, the Japanese laundry detergent that uses Homer’s head as inspiration in the Season 8 episode of The Simpsons, “In Marge We Trust." Continue Reading →
Firefly Lane
SimilarFate/Apocrypha,
Pride and Prejudice Tales from the Neverending Story, The Family Game, The Far Pavilions, The Strain,
Netflix’s new romantic drama Firefly Lane, based on the 2008 novel by Kristin Hannah, follows the multi-decade friendship of brash and bold Tully (Katherine Heigl) and smart and nerdy Kate (Sarah Chalke). They meet at age fourteen living on Firefly Lane. From there they spend years cultivating their journeys: Tully is a journalist with a wildly popular daytime talk show, and Kate took a break in her career to marry fellow journalist Ryan (a stilted Ben Lawson) and raise a daughter. Continue Reading →
Тайны следствия
The death of the brilliant, award-winning Swedish journalist Kim Wall made a worldwide headline in 2017, mostly because the details of her murder were so gruesome that it almost felt like a work of fiction. But in Tobias Lindholm’s The Investigation — a grim six-part miniseries based on the killing of Kim Wall — the brutality of that crime is never the main focus. Instead of trying to exploit the drama behind this tragedy, Lindholm chooses to focus on the other side of the story: the hard work and determination shown by the team of police who worked together to seek the justice that Kim Wall and her family deserved to have. Continue Reading →
Tiger
It’s one of the most well-documented sports stories of all time: widely regarded as one of the greatest to ever pick up a golf club, Tiger Woods has spent much of the last three decades under the intense media spotlight, where everything from his meteoric professional rise to his disturbing downfall has been chronicled—and scrutinized—in painstaking detail. With the help of investigative interviews with people from Woods’ past, directors Matthew Heineken and Matthew Hamachek attempt to pull back the curtain on the golfing great’s extraordinary journey in their new HBO docuseries, Tiger. Continue Reading →
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
NetworkNBC,
SimilarFurther Tales of the City, The Singing Detective,
Six weeks after her father Mitch’s (Peter Gallagher) death and funeral, Zoey (Jane Levy) emerges from her self-imposed exile, spurred on by Mo (Alex Newell). In her disconnect from the world, things have changed. Joan (Lauren Graham) is on her way to greener pastures. Leif (Michael Thomas Grant) has done his best to run the fourth floor in her absence, resulting in a fraternity-like atmosphere with Tobin (Kapil Talwalkar) as the unofficial lead “brogrammer.” Her dueling love interests Simon (John Clarence Stewart) and Max (Skylar Astin) have become friends. Life moved on while she sat out and recovered. Or tried to recover, anyway. Continue Reading →
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
SimilarItaewon Class, The Summer I Turned Pretty,
With its magic, monsters, and ridiculously attractive cast, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina makes no attempt at relatability. However, while its fourth and final season is filled with situations that no person will ever find themselves in, its premise of a world being assaulted with unimaginable terrors before finally succumbing to a soulless void is a #2020mood. Continue Reading →