Saving the world with the power of friendship! What to watch next?

April 27, 2022 7:14 AM

Just finished watching She-Ra. Things I loved: it deals with intense and scary emotions without being grimdark and full of tedious psychopaths, it's got a rich and creative setting, problems have character-driven solutions, Friendship Saves the Day, lots of people are deeply fucked up but nobody is irredeemable. The thing where everyone's just casually kind of gay and genderweird didn't hurt. What next? It doesn't have to be soothing or cute, adult TV or movies are also fine, but I don't find a lot of adult media that scratches this itch.

Other recent stuff that gives me a similar vibe: the first season of Stranger Things, Into the Spider-Verse, Encanto, mayyyyybe Steven Universe though that ended up being a bit young for me.

Things I hate: "adult" superhero movies and "adult" epic fantasy (too formulaically grim, too many psychopaths), gross-out humor, relentless "you had to be there" pop culture references (that's what where later Stranger Things lost me), tragic dead queers, heavy-handed metaphors.

posted by nebulawindphone to Media & Arts (52 answers total)

Response by poster: ...Oh, the 90s Addams Family movies are also a great example of what I'm going for.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:16 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Welp, She-Ra is on my list now.

I’m sure you’ve read the hype about Ted Lasso. First season (maybe not 2nd) lives up to those words.

Severance… strangely fits the bill. Stick with it for a few episodes, it absolutely gets there in beautiful ways.

Our Flag Means Death surprised the popsicles outta me by how much I enjoyed it, for the reasons you mentioned.

If you decide to watch any of them, let me know. I’d love to hear what you think.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:26 AM on April 27, 2022 [6 favorites]

my very tumblr recs -
for cartoons: the owl house for sure!! and star vs the forces of evil, the voltron reboot
tv shows: our flag means death, anne with an e, the magicians (edges in and out of grimdark but doesnt stay there)
posted by gaybobbie at 7:30 AM on April 27, 2022 [4 favorites]

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Netflix) is short (30 eps) but it packs a lot into that, and comes to a satisfying-enough conclusion. Like many new shows, it takes a couple episodes to find its footing and really take off. It's worth it.

The Dragon Prince (Netflix) is also rather short (3 seasons x 9 eps) but it has been renewed for four more seasons. Couple characters have a good redemption arc.

The Owl House (Disney) has 3 seasons, is in much the same vibe with its LGBTQIA+ representation, and has a same-sex couple in primary roles.

I haven't started watching it yet (waiting for date night tomorrow!), but for live action, Heartstopper just hit Netflix. The comic that it's based on is amazing, and friends who did binge through the show heartily endorsed it.
posted by xedrik at 7:31 AM on April 27, 2022 [7 favorites]

Maybe Glow? I really loved the friendship themes.
posted by stellaluna at 7:35 AM on April 27, 2022 [4 favorites]

Does it count if it is toddlers having intense and scary emotions?? Old Enough! is a delightful show on Nnetflix where children, aged 2-4(!!), in Japan are tasked with running errands for their family... by themselves! Or sometimes with a friend/sibling. And yes, sometimes friendship saves the day! Episodes are 10-20mins long, so pretty low barrier to entry if you just want to check it out.
posted by Grither at 7:46 AM on April 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

Tuca & Bertie season 1 was a lot of fun, but I didn't get to see season 2.

I watched Kipo along with my kid (referenced above) and there was a lot to like.

I'm generally terrible at watching TV so have no further recent watches to recommend. I do like the vibe of "everyone is pretty fucked up but not irredeemable" so thank you for helping me identify that.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:55 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think you should reach back to the original Batman: the Animated Series (the Dini/Timm version; I think some of the others are good, but this is the one that comes closest to fitting your bill). If you like it, you can go on to the Superman and especially Justice League of the same era, but emotionally I think BTAS is it for you. It is not grimdark, though it does feature a lot of messed-up people.
posted by praemunire at 7:57 AM on April 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

Gravity Falls has some of this, I think? Lots of good emotional beats, gets genuinely unsettling at times, and has a pretty positive-toward-humanity worldview.
posted by sagc at 7:59 AM on April 27, 2022 [8 favorites]

I don't have anything that I can recommend now which hasn't already been said, but in the not-too-distant-future there will be an animated Lumberjanes series on HBO Max and a movie version of Nimona on Netflix.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:00 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

How much Studio Ghibli have you seen? It's less queer than She-Ra, but has similar themes of character-driven storylines, nuanced characterization, and care in dealing with big, scary emotional things.

I'm particularly thinking about Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, but the adventure arcs/it-isn't-irredeemable-villainy threads of Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke may also appeal if you like She-Ra.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:03 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

+1 Tuca and Bertie

it deals with intense and scary emotions without being grimdark and full of tedious psychopaths, it's got a rich...setting, problems have character-driven solutions, Friendship Saves the Day

My Brilliant Friend fits that description.
posted by coffeecat at 8:05 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Centaurworld (Netflix) may be your jam. It's a profoundly, unrepentantly surreal show, but it tells you exactly what kind of weird it is in the first episode, so you'll know right away if this is your thing. This has a hell of an overall story arc, with a beginning, middle and end. It also deals with a lot of heavy topics, without either veering into grimdark or trivializing things.

Also, the first couple seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are worth some hours of your precious, non-renewable leisure time.
posted by sourcequench at 8:07 AM on April 27, 2022 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh yeah, Tuca and Bertie is absolutely on this list for me. And a lot of Ghibli stuff too.

I noped out of the books The Magicians is based on due to its unrelenting "Women suffering terrible irreversible loss so that a man can experience vague regret or moral edification" situation. Is the show any better on that front?
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:15 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Good Place! The Good Place!!!!! Friendship literally saves ***everything***! Characters are hilariously fucked up but nobody is irredeemable. I mean, no spoilers but whether or not anyone is irredeemable is basically the entire point of the show.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:19 AM on April 27, 2022 [12 favorites]

Response by poster: OH YEAH ALSO THE GOOD PLACE I LOVED THAT SHIT
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:25 AM on April 27, 2022 [9 favorites]

I noped out of the books The Magicians is based on due to its unrelenting "Women suffering terrible irreversible loss so that a man can experience vague regret or moral edification" situation. Is the show any better on that front?

Yes! The show is a very different experience, much sillier (in a good and welcome way) and much MUCH more aware that its sad white-boy protagonist is not actually the most important person in the story, by a mile. It does for sure dip into the truly grim, but there's also a musical episode every season.

I would also very much +1 Our Flag Means Death for this.
posted by babelfish at 8:39 AM on April 27, 2022

In kids' media, Hilda is good for this. It's not as... rock n roll as Kipo is? Has a more rounded aesthetic and doesn't have explicitly queer leads (as far as I remember). But has some serious "oh shit, I was truly a jerk to my friend, and we are genuinely in trouble, what do i do now" kind of moments.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:40 AM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

You mention Encanto, but Turning Red and Luca are both worth the couple of hours. Luca, in particular, if you haven't seen it yet, is worth seeking out. The two old "friends" are one of my favourite elements. Both are on Disney+

The The Mitchells vs the Machines doesn't touch on queerness directly, but, like Turning Red, deals with intergenerational acceptance in a really nice way. A real stand out in the usual Netflix ho-hum.
posted by bonehead at 8:44 AM on April 27, 2022 [6 favorites]

The Repair Shop - BBC show where people bring in battered treasures they can’t bear to throw away and genial experts fix them gratis. For example. - to me, the show is a sort of real life, adult version of Bagpuss. Bagpuss I would recommend too.
posted by rongorongo at 8:45 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
posted by ChristineSings at 8:53 AM on April 27, 2022

American Gods? Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency? (Both do involve psychopaths and dark stuff, but in a light-hearted way; or so it seems to me.)
posted by eotvos at 8:54 AM on April 27, 2022

Sense8?
posted by omnie at 8:55 AM on April 27, 2022 [4 favorites]

i seriously love Barbie: Life in the Dream House. it's halfway between parody (they are plastic and lots of things are hilariously oversized) and kid-show serious. Barbie has a frenemy Raquelle and they battle, lightheartedly. They solve all the problems through sister-hood. If you like My Little Pony, you will probably like Barbie.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:08 AM on April 27, 2022

If you are up for an anime and miraculously haven’t seen it yet, watch Yuri!!! on Ice. Actually, a lot of sports animes also might work for you, but another standout would be Chihayafuru. The genre is really good at having antagonists that are just kind of fucked up but still worthy of respect and kindness, and often the thing being overcome is an individual’s fear of loneliness or letting down their friends.
posted by Mizu at 9:11 AM on April 27, 2022 [4 favorites]

Friday Night Lights and Sex Education did that for me.
posted by metasarah at 9:21 AM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you can handle pandemic-related subject matter (though it was written before covid) Station Eleven is fantastic, and despite the inevitable deaths at the beginning I wouldn't call it at all grimdark.
posted by Mchelly at 9:31 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

I really really enjoyed Dickinson on AppleTV and think it fits your criteria (She-Ra is a fave of mine too).
posted by soy bean at 10:04 AM on April 27, 2022

I'm going to Nth The Owl House (and Gravity Falls) and mention Steven Universe (has no one mentioned SU yet?)
The Owl House ticks more of the boxes that She-Ra ticks, and I really enjoy it (as it is ongoing, for now), but the other two are a bit more....substantial? The creative teams on all of these have some crossover. SU has more (great!) music, and quite a few story arcs, and GF has few, if any LGTBQ+ elements, but beyond that it's everything you want!
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:18 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

You might also enjoy The Great - friendship isn't center-stage, but there is an enduring friendship throughout. And it's definitely dark, with some delightfully fucked up characters. Also not 100% straight (though mostly). Definitely some intense emotions.
posted by coffeecat at 10:32 AM on April 27, 2022

Inside Out, maybe.
posted by paduasoy at 10:36 AM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Kipo! Just want to reinforce that recommendation.
posted by chuke at 11:07 AM on April 27, 2022

I think Raya and the Last Dragon might fit the bill!
posted by space snail at 11:48 AM on April 27, 2022

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?
posted by bq at 12:13 PM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

The premise of Q Force is a group of queer friends saving the world. Made me laugh out loud a couple of times too.
posted by rip at 12:19 PM on April 27, 2022

Oh, I loved The Magicians show! It got under my skin. The show is really different from (and imo miles better than) the books, especially when it comes to women suffering for the sake of one whiny man's character development. That said, there is a lot of suffering, including the awful events you may remember from the books. It also has a pretty dark sense of humor. Because I'm a wimp, I skimmed the FanFare threads before every episode in the first couple of seasons to get a sense of when I might want to look away and/or fast-forward. (I did skip an entire episode.)

It's very much an ensemble show, and a large part of the ensemble are ambitious, competent women. They go all in for what they want, and make both good and terrible decisions. Everyone is fucked up and there is high interpersonal drama, but love does tend to prevail. At least based on what they say in interviews, the actors really loved and respected each other, and that came through on screen.
posted by esker at 12:25 PM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Star vs the Forces of Evil is awesome. Also Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. Both have that "I'm not sure why I'm watching this TV-Y7 show" but they're better than you think they would be. The Complete Star vs the Forces of Evil Timeline | Channel Frederator - YouTube. OMG. Ladybug is French/Canadian so weird in that non-US way and totally those two girls and those two boys are totally gay. Enjoyably different.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:53 PM on April 27, 2022

Lucifer may seem like a weird choice for this but I think you should give it a try. You may need to stick with it for a bit but I suggest that you do.

It can be dark but I wouldn't call it grimdark. It's often extremely sweet and extremely funny.

(I haven't finished the last season because I don't want it to end!)
posted by edencosmic at 1:47 PM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

Call the Midwife (on Netflix) has a lot of great female friendships and deals with important issues like birth control access, disabilities, race, poverty, etc. but is definitely comforting, not dark. Occasional queer storylines.
posted by carolr at 1:47 PM on April 27, 2022

Seconding Dickinson. I was all set for it to end badly for everyone but it did not. Gentleman Jack just started its second season and fits the bill, too, I think. Both very queer, both emphasize bad behavior over "bad people."
posted by rikschell at 2:33 PM on April 27, 2022

Wolfwalkers is streaming on Apple TV+ and is by the same folks who made The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea.
posted by panther of the pyrenees at 3:22 PM on April 27, 2022

Summer Camp Island! It's gay as hell and the creator, Julia Pott, was part of the Adventure Time crew. The first season may be too "young" for you, feel free to skip it, but it gets more complex as it goes on— especially diving into Susie's backstory.

Maybe Disenchantment or Midnight Gospel?
posted by lloquat at 3:38 PM on April 27, 2022

Russian Doll
posted by lunasol at 4:15 PM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show, not the movie) and Legend of Korra
posted by sigmagalator at 5:14 PM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Schitt's Creek
posted by polecat at 6:27 PM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

If you ever are in a point in future where you’re up for dark and wild and very painful but not-ultimately-only-grim reality, the friendships in I May Destroy You helped make it one of the best things I’ve seen in years.

If you do reality, Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Girls! is THE BEST THE BEST and the ~problem they are solving is HOW TO BE FUCKING BOSSES ON STAGE WITH LIZZO and there’s queerness and body-love and amazing dancing.

Hooray! Thank you for this thread! Going to go watch She-Ra now!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:04 PM on April 27, 2022

Good Omens might scratch this itch. Friendship and love absolutely do save the day, and Michael Sheen dancing the gavotte is not to be missed.
posted by humbug at 7:09 PM on April 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I cannot do the grimdark, no redeemable characters thing either.

+1 to Sense8 for sure, and I'll add Orphan Black, since I haven't seen it come up yet. Both are shows that deal with some dark and heavy stuff but also have a lot of love and light and joy to them, and they're both very much about found family. Both also pretty queer, though Sense8 significantly moreso.

(Content note: Both shows include fighting against lack of bodily autonomy as a central theme, so there are some tough moments if that's a hard thing for you to watch--but ultimately there is triumph.)

Also +1 to Severance, but takes about 3 episodes to get there. And if you don't have patience for drawn-out mysteries it might not be for you after all, though I argue it's a pretty entertaining journey anyway.

And unqualified +1 to Gravity Falls.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:27 PM on April 27, 2022

Have you watched either of the current Star Trek serieses? Discovery especially, but Picard too. They've been leaning pretty heavily on "we will solve everything by talking about our feelings and trying to take care of each other" and there's been a lot of focus on the importance of friendships among the crew.
posted by sibilatorix at 10:14 PM on April 27, 2022

I think your description fits Adventure Time pretty well. Every story embeds some complex examination of relationships and emotions. Some characters like the Ice King and Finn's dad seem irredeemable at first, yet the show gradually shifts sympathetic light onto them. It's got a lot more of a for stoners vibe than Steven Universe.

With a similar vibe to Schitt's Creek is Jane the Virgin. It's an interesting translation of the form of a Latin American telenovela into English. As such, it has a few characters who are relentlessly evil. However, those are mostly played for cartoonish effect, and mostly it looks for the good in everyone, and love and understanding win the day.
posted by polecat at 9:00 AM on April 28, 2022

Nthing: Kipo, Centaurworld, Gravity Falls, Sense8, Owl House. All of those scratch my similar itches in deeply satisfying ways.

The show I'm surprised hasn't come up yet is Young Justice. It's ticks off all your boxes, although it doesn't get queer until the third season, which came out seven years after the second and on DC Universe instead of Cartoon Network, although it's just a little bit of queer, as a treat. But then it got picked up by HBO Max for season four and boy howdy.
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:14 AM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Somebody Somewhere.
It’s on HBOMax, a comedy series featuring a Kansas woman as an outsider, trying to find some joy. Pretty great.
posted by artdrectr at 9:27 PM on June 3, 2022