5 must-watch shows like Adolescence for your next binge

Adolescence has become a phenomenon since it first debuted on Netflix and with good reason. The series, which is told over four episodes, tells the story of a young man who is accused of killing a classmate, and how that crime ripples across his family, his school, and his own psyche.

Each episode of the series is filmed in a single extended take, and they all have a radically different focus. As the show unfolds, though, you realize that its core mystery is not whether this young man actually committed the crime, but what might motivate a young man to attack a classmate in the first place. It’s a riveting, brilliant series.

Because Adolescence feels so singular, though, it can be hard to imagine that there are many shows like it, and that’s true to a certain extent. Few shows are so formally daring or ambitious, and even fewer focus so squarely on what it’s like to be 13 in the modern age. Even so, we’ve pulled together five shows that have something in common with Adolescence in the hopes that you can find one you’ll love. They’re not all exact replicas, but they definitely share some DNA.

My So-Called Life (1994)

Play

tv-14

1 Season

Genre

Drama, Comedy

Stars

Claire Danes, Bess Armstrong, Tom Irwin

Created by

Winnie Holzman

Watch on Hulu

Few shows have ever managed to recapture the exact formula of My So-Called Life, which understands its characters in a rare, special way. The series tells the story of Angela, a high school girl in crisis who is trying to figure out who she is and how she relates to the world. Nothing is quite as heightened as it is in Adolescence, but My So-Called Life is a show that brilliantly captures how hard it is to be a teenager, desperate to have the responsibility of an adult without fully comprehending what they mean. It’s a show about the sheer drama inherent in teendom, even if your problems aren’t nearly as big as they might seem.

My So-Called Life: Complete Series - DVD Trailer

Veronica Mars (2004)

Play

tv-14

4 Seasons

Genre

Mystery, Drama, Comedy

Stars

Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring

Created by

Rob Thomas

Watch on Hulu

The idea of a teenage noir story seems like an almost impossible tonal balance to strike, but Veronica Mars does exactly that. The series tells the story of a young girl who was traumatized by her best friend’s murder. In the aftermath of that trauma, she begins working for her dad’s private detective agency, and takes on some of her own cases on the side. All along the way, though, she’s also trying to find her friend’s killer, and engaging in some fairly normal teenage activities along the way. The series has a lighter tone than Adolescence, but Veronica Mars isn’t afraid of getting dark, and it’s anchored by a remarkable performance from Kristen Bell.

Veronica Mars: Seasons 1-3 (Teaser) | Hulu

Yellowjackets (2021)

Play

tv-ma

3 Seasons

Genre

Drama, Mystery

Stars

Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nélisse

Created by

Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson

Watch on Paramount+

An intentionally savage show, Yellowjackets follows a group of teenage girls who are stranded in the wilderness together, and eventually resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive. The show’s premise, which imagines the savagery of teenagers heightened to the level of actually eating one another, is brilliant, and it’s also remarkably well cast. Although you may or may not be intrigued by the lore of the woods, the series has proven that it can wring plenty of drama out of its central premise, even if we basically know who’s going to make it out alive.

YELLOWJACKETS Trailer (2021) Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Series

Derry Girls (2018)

Play

tv-ma

3 Seasons

Genre

Comedy, Drama

Stars

Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan

Created by

Lisa McGee

Watch on Netflix

Derry Girls is set in Ireland, not the U.K. It’s also a comedy, and it’s not set in the modern day. Instead, the show follows a group of teenage friends who are just trying to lead normal lives against the backdrop of the troubles of the 1990s. The show is both smarter and more politically trenchant than you might expect, and it features a cast of young actors who all feel destined to be future stars. Adolescence is a pretty singular show, but Derry Girls gets at the way it can be uniquely disorienting to experience the world as a teenager when so much about your own life is also changing.

TRAILER | Derry Girls | Starts Thursday 4th January

Euphoria (2019)

Play

tv-ma

2 Seasons

Genre

Drama

Stars

Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Sydney Sweeney

Created by

Sam Levinson

Watch on max

One of the great teen dramas of the 2020s, Euphoria follows a 17-year-old girl who just got out of rehab but has no intention of staying clean. As we learn more about her and the various kids she goes to high school with, we come to understand that all of them are darker and more complicated than they may seem. A moving, experimental show that can be both frustrating and brilliant, Euphoria is notable both for the way its two seasons unfolded and for the star-power of its young cast, which includes Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and more.

EUPHORIA Official Trailer (NEW 2019) Zendaya New HBO Series HD