tv_talk | Rec Fest: Dramas

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Rec Fest: Dramas

Various color glass balloons captioned TV Talk Rec Fest

Welcome to day 3 of Rec Fest! Today please recommend shows which could be considered dramas. These may come in all sorts of formats but are likely centered on the lives of people or activities in their workplaces and may take place in the past.

Please include in your recs the following information:

Show Title:
Audience Rating: Young Children/All Ages/Teen and Up/Mature Content
Warnings: (Could include gory content, raunchy situations, explicit sex, offensive content, etc.)
Length of Episodes: (30 minutes/1 hour/Other)
Length of Series: (Number of seasons or number of episodes)
Why you recommend it: (What draws you to it? What niche does it fill/mood is it good for?)

You can copy and paste the following code into your comment.

Feel free to include any other information you’d like, such as what year(s) the show was originally broadcast, standout cast members, or what other shows it may connect to or be like. You can also include outside links to Wikipedia, Fanlore, IMDB, your favorite review etc. which contain more show information.

If someone else has already recced a show you were planning to rec, please include your own rec as well! People have different takes on shows and it can also help people if they see a number of people find a show to be a must-watch.

If you have questions about what to post or how the Rec Fest will run, please ask them at this link, not in comments below

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Show Title: Black Sails
Audience Rating: Mature
Warnings: Strong violence, nudity, scenes of rape
Length of Episodes: 1 hour
Length of Series: 4 seasons (38 episodes)
Why you recommend it: I remember blowing through this series during a free viewing period for Starz, as I was immediately hooked. If you enjoy historical action-adventure this definitely fits the bill. It's a story with multiple characters with complex motivations and shifting loyalties and alliances. Various historical pirates appear in the series.

The story takes place primarily in Nassau, Bahamas but events take place in various locations and the story evolves continuously. My biggest hook for the show was Captain Flint, who is one of those strategic planners always thinking several steps ahead. In many ways a tragedy, the show does well at being unpredictable.

I would just add to this that a lot of people find the first season a bit of a slog to get through. I know I certainly did -- took me 3-4 attempts at watching to get through it. It's very slow moving and make take a lot of patience to get through it (unless you're a HUGE fan of intensive character development at the expense of actual stuff happening). But stick with it because the rest of the series is great.

Edited 2025-01-14 20:26 (UTC)

Indeed! The first season isn't terrible, and it gets better in revisits because you can see some of the foundation that's being laid, but I also don't blame people for being like, "This is what people are raving about?" when they've only see the first season.

Show Title: Shrinking
Audience Rating: Mature Content, though some teens could definitely handle it
Warnings: Language, sexual situations, drug references, people dealing with physical and emotional trauma
Length of Episodes: Varies, but around 30 minutes
Length of Series: 10 episodes season 1, 12 episodes season 2. Season 3 greenlighted for 2026.
Why you recommend it:

I was going to rec this Apple TV+ series as a comedy, because it is a comedy. But it is also very much a drama that has made me cry multiple times.

Jason Segel stars as the father of a teenage girl, both of whom are still recovering from the death of his wife/her mother killed by a drunk driver. I tuned into the first episode when the series dropped because Harrison Ford is in it, but I was turned off by the opening minutes. I really think they made a mistake by opening with Segel's character at his lowest because I didn't have any goodwill built up for him.

I can't remember why I came back to it, but I am very glad I did because it has been a wonderful show. The main characters are therapists -- like most people, they also need therapy -- their friends, and some of their patients. The storylines aren't cliche comedy plots. These characters have highs and lows and live onscreen as real people rather than tropes. I had no idea Harrison Ford could do comedy. I had no idea how much I would love Jessica Williams' character or how happy I would be to see Christa Miller on my screen again. And I didn't think I would care about Segel's character the way I have. The acting is stellar, the writing has been perceptive and believable, and the "secondary" characters deserve their own shows.

Edited (misuse of html) 2025-01-14 18:11 (UTC)

Totally agree about the beginning of Shrinking. I did watch the whole first season because I like Jessica Williams and I thought the cast of characters was intriguing. But his storyline was my least favorite thing of the show and it just dragged down the whole season with it.

As such I wasn't sure I was even going to tune into S2 but what a pleasant surprise! I felt like the writing team realized they needed to spend more time with everyone else and did, so that Segel's character is just one part of it. I really like Ford's role in it and S2 just seemed so much funnier to me, as in we were regularly pausing because we were laughing and wanted to jump back to watch again.

Show Title: The Brothers (1972)
Audience Rating: General Audiences (G-rated)
Warnings: Overall, there are none, I would recommend going into it expecting the plotlines typically found in family soaps/dramas (although this show isn’t nearly as over the top in its plotlines). I will say, though, there is no strong language, sex, or violence involved.
Length of Episodes: Fifty minutes
Length of Series: Seven seasons totalling about 90-odd episodes
Why you recommend it: This is a UK boardroom drama revolving around the Hammond family. They own a trucking business of which the father was the head, but once he dies it’s up to his three sons and mistress to run the company. Of course, the matriarch of the family doesn’t like her husband’s lover being in that position one bit, but she’s dedicated to the company and wants to see it succeed regardless.

The show is excellent from start to end, but it didn’t start gaining widespread, fannish popularity until the end of season four. That’s when the company decides to go public and enlists a member of the bank to join the board—a young, shrewd upstart. As far as the Hammonds are concerned all goes downhill from there.

If you’re a fan of business dramas like Mad Men, The Power Game, Succession, Dallas, and Howards’ Way, I recommend The Brothers. Don’t go into it expecting the usual soap opera fare, however. While family is a large component of the show, the focus (and drama) is contained within the business and the world around it. You won’t find anything over the top, nor will you find the same storyline rehashed fifteen different ways.

This is a level-headed program, but it has no shortage of juiciness.

Edited 2025-01-14 19:53 (UTC)

This sounds intriguing! I do rather enjoy business dramas like Billions (have yet to see the final season of that) so I could see really taking to this.

If you’d like the link to watch it, let me know. It’s currently airing on one of the British vintage TV stations, but otherwise it’s only available at one (non-streaming)location online.

I'll take that link, yes!

The link is here! Hopefully I’ve got a convert on my hands ;)

Show Title: Skymed
Audience Rating: TV-14
Warnings: Medical drama so some medical issues, blood, strong sexual situations but no nudity
Length of Episodes: 45 minutes without commercials
Length of Series: 3 series so far, 9 episodes per series (season 3 currently airing with only 2 episodes aired so far).
Why you recommend it: This show, which is on the CBC in Canada, but can be watched on Paramount Plus in the US (not sure of the rest of the world) is kind of like a emergency airlift version of the popular 9-1-1 in the United States. It has intriguing characters that have depth and personality to them, and isn't something that's been made "vanilla" to appeal to a broader audience (and maybe that's why it's not as popular/as well known). The show has strong themes, and people have to deal with the consequences of their actions, good, bad, and otherwise. And, like most healthcare settings, it has a diverse group of people population-wise (white, First Nation, Black, Indian, etc.) as well as gender and sexuality-wise (LGBT+ people - not just heterosexuals).

I do have one caveat to the show, and that is in the first season, it was almost like the show was meant to be focused on a character called Bodie, a Black pilot who is the typical young straight male, sleeps around, doesn't take responsibility for his actions, etc.. In my personal opinion, Bodie is the least-likeable character, and attention came off of him late in season 1, and much less focus in season 2 - and he's not even in season 3. But the characters that are there remain strong and have amazing storylines.

Plus, I'm head over heels for these two.

Edited 2025-01-14 22:19 (UTC)

I've been meaning to check this out! It's been one of my New Year's resolutions to watch more CBC shows. Thanks for the rec.

Out of curiosity: Who are the characters in the picture, and why are you head over heels for them? :)

They are Milosc Nowack (left), a pilot for the medical airlift company, and Tristan Green, a nurse for the medical airlift company. Nowack (pronounced "no-vak") is a polish man who has a dark past with family issues that works multiple jobs to pay for everything, and is hard to trust people. Tristan is a man who has never really had a relationship, and has issues with his mother (brought up in season 2).

These two - to me - are the heart of the show, along with Lexi, a bisexual Black woman. They are the most real characters on the show.

Plus, it's kind of the whole "will they or won't they" that starts in season 1, and their relationship goes through many challenges.

Thank you for replying! I got the sense that these two might be romantically involved, and I'm glad to hear that something is going on between them. I also recently read an article about this show and its many queer characters and wondered why I'd never heard about this show before.

Show Title: Severance
Audience Rating: TV-MA
Warnings: Brief scenes of violence, surgery, and attempted self-harm
Length of Episodes: 40-60 minutes
Length of Series: 9 episodes in season 1, season 2 starting this week
Why you recommend it: This show has elements of science fiction and a thriller, but it's the dramatic elements—the character studies and relationships—that take it above and beyond for me. It takes place in the more-or-less present where technology has been developed that allows people to split their consciousness fully between their work life and their home life. For those involved in the first roll-out of this technology, this means they can show up at the office and in a blink be at the end of their work day, with no work stress to take home with them. Which leaves the other half of their conscious life a separate entity who knows only perpetual work, with only theoretical knowledge of the world outside the office. The exploration of what led people to accept this procedure, the connections they make on the inside, and their uncovering of dark secrets, have all made for a twisty, funny, heartstring-tugging, visually rich and overall satisfying drama so far.

Show Title: Hornblower
Audience Rating: Teen and up
Warnings: Flogging of a child, scenes of war
Length of Episodes: 2 hours
Length of Series: 8 episodes
Why you recommend it: Also a show of English navies and ships, but with a very different bent from Black Sails! Based on a series of books, the show only gets partway through them and alters or introduces various characters to provide for a more stable cast. This is an idealistic historical action-adventure with an upright hero who is beloved by almost everyone in the series except his antagonist of the episode.

Despite various period accurate circumstances from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, overall this is a warmhearted and appealing story with various noble characters.

Edited 2025-01-15 01:02 (UTC)

I didn't know anyone still remembered this show! It was definitely very heartwarming, and always amusing when someone calls out "it's the Indy!"

Yes! There is a community here for the show,

hmsloop_hotspur though I am afraid it has not been active in some time.

Show Title: Under the Skin
Audience Rating: Mature (for violence)
Warnings: typical police procedural type crimes like rape and suicides and gruesome deaths in general
Length of Episodes: 45min
Length of Series: 20 + 28 episodes (2 series)
Why you recommend it:

The best police cdrama imho. It's about an artist who feels guilty about his art having led to a murder, so to make up for it, he hires on as a sketch artist for the police. The camera work in season 1 reminded me a lot of Aaron Sorkin shows, the bromance between the two leads (played by Tan Jianci and Jin Shijia) is beautiful, and the overarcing story of the first season is gripping and satisfying. A lot of their cases are rape cases, but I felt that the show's writers (two women) did a good job with them.

I haven't seen the second season, it only just came out in December. It's very rare for a cdrama to get two (separately filmed) seasons, but this one did, and all the major actors reprised their roles.

The first season stands on its own, too, in case you want to try it out first. You can watch the first season engsubbed on youtube or on viki. The second season is also on youtube (beware, the order of eps in the playlist is wrong).

Show Title: Healer
Audience Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: Characters with PTSD, some violence
Length of Episodes: 60 minutes
Length of Series: 20
Why you recommend it: One of my all-time favorite dramas! It's essentially Superman and Lois but without the superpowers. Seo Jung-hoo is a "night courier" (basically, someone who can be hired to do dangerous tasks) with a secret identity. Chae Young-shin is a journalist who's been stuck covering celebrities. All she wants is to be taken seriously. A series of murders and connected corruption bring them together to investigate, and that investigation ends up uncovering a story that goes back 20 years.

Featuring: tragic backstories, one of the best romances I've ever seen, silly dancing, parkour, pirate radio stations, family secrets, workplace drama, political corruption, and possibly my favorite hacker character from anything ever (yes, possibly edging out Hardison from Leverage).

Show Title: Andor
Audience Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: Violence/non-graphically depicted torture
Length of Episodes: 38–57 minutes
Length of Series: 12 episodes so far with a new season allegedly to come
Why you recommend it: I really just want to give a shout-out to this one and encourage people who might never watch a Star Wars TV show to give it a chance. You really don't have to have seen any of the new Star Wars movies to enjoy this, though I would suggest at least a passing familiarity with the original trilogy. I haven't liked almost any filmed Star Wars content post-Return of the Jedi, but I love this show so so much. I think it's one of the best depictions of resistance to empire (any empire) ever put to screen. I don't understand how it's as good as it is.

Our main character is Cassian Andor from Rogue One, but this is a prequel, so you do not have to have seen that movie. Through his eyes, we see all different kinds of resistance movements--in small backwater communities of working-class people, in rich people living secret lives at the centers of power, in prisons, in heist teams. We also see the world through the eyes of lower- and mid-level imperial agents. Every character is wonderfully cast, ever episode is thrillingly written, and the overall spirit makes me want to cry.

If you want a kind of teaser that will give you the feel of the show, this fanvid is the place to look.

Show Title: Profiler
Audience Rating: Mature (for violence)
Warnings: It's an FBI procedural focusing on serial killers, so pretty much anything you can think of involving that (with the exception of rape/non-con as I don't think that features in any of the episodes).
Length of Episodes: 1 hour
Length of Series: 4 seasons of around 20-22 episodes each (though the last two seasons are by an entirely different production company and are far inferior to the first two; you can watch just the first two seasons and not miss much, in my opinion)
Why you recommend it: Features a strong female lead whose strength and skill is her intuition rather than toughness. Cast is overall somewhat diverse, especially given when it aired (1996-2000). Plus the relationship between the main two characters is very good friends with hidden love on one side and there's an awful lot of "platonic" touching.

Despite the warning above (which I added to be safe), I did not find it very violent or gory, and there are small bits of humor here and there that lighten things up a little. If you like procedurals at all, you definitely need to watch this one! It was groundbreaking for a few of the techniques later used on CSI and other shows.

Watch a brief promo clip from when it was airing.

Oh I remember this one! I'm not sure if I saw the whole thing but I definitely watched several seasons. It was definitely different from other shows at the time.

It is sooooooooooooooo good! (Well, at least S1 and S2 are. The less said about S3 and S4, the better.) The lead actress has to cry for quite a few of her scenes and she does so very realistically, like you authentically believe she's that distressed. Amazes me how people do that, lol. But anyway, I fell head over heels for it last spring and wrote a bunch of ficlets (plus made one fanvid) for a very dead fandom (like, we're talking *years* between new fics posted). Hopefully someday more fans will come along and go "ooh, new Profiler fic?" and eat it up, haha.

Another show I always think of in conjunction with Profiler is The Pretender. I haven't seen it since it aired but I remember quite enjoying it.

I also remember that one! Loved the Miss Parker/Jarod relationship.

Oh yeah, The Pretender is so good too! Jarod/Miss Parker are definitely my OTP there. :)

They did a few crossover eps between it and Profiler, and while they were all set during S3/S4 when the overall show quality wasn't as good, I do really enjoy the Pretender episode where Sam shows up (in S3 for both shows) because she and Jarod really click as friends. No romantic chemistry but like a deep meeting of souls who just understand each other, y'know? Found only one crossover fic for it but it was such a good one.

That probably explains why the two shows were linked in my head! I'm sure I saw the crossovers.

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Rec Fest: Dramas

Black Sails

Re: Black Sails

Re: Black Sails

Shrinking

Re: Shrinking

The Brothers (1972)

Re: The Brothers (1972)

Re: The Brothers (1972)

Re: The Brothers (1972)

Re: The Brothers (1972)

Skymed (CBC)

Re: Skymed (CBC)

Re: Skymed (CBC)

Re: Skymed (CBC)

Re: Skymed (CBC)

Severance (2022-present)

Hornblower

Re: Hornblower

Re: Hornblower

Under the Skin

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