I am sick of seeing the rich and powerful on my screen. Where are all the TV shows about normal people?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/i-am-sick-of-seeing-the-rich-and-powerful-on-my-screen-where-are-all-the-tv-shows-about-normal-peopleOpen linkView original on lemm.ee379
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im currently watching the orville, its perfect to just forget everything and be entertained in on a silly level
can recommend
I'm sooo hyped that it's coming back with another season! Just the show we need these days.
Nice! All hope was lost. That last season was some good stuff.
even more?! NIIIICE
my families dog is also getting old.. idk this might hit me the hardest, I cant imagine how you feel rn - my condolences.
Arrakis.. yeah, I gotta watch Dune too :D Haven't yet. The name is originating from the kyrillic translation since peanut is such widespread nickname, I adapted it like that :D "Arachis hypogaea" is also the bontanic term for example
I've been rewatching The Expanse. God it's good.
Both books and TV series are worth it. There's enough difference to make both interesting and the authors were involved enough in the TV series that it is still good.
Bonus: The book series is complete and, while there is another book and some short stories of narrative content, the show ends without a "we got cancelled" cliffhanger and the final book is a bit of an extended epilogue with a significant time gap, so, maybe we'll get a production of another season in another decade.
Double bonus: The authors' new book series, which just has its first book released last year, has already had a TV series deal signed.
And medical dramas ignoring the INSANE cost of medicine in the US
I remember one line in the good doctor that went something along the lines of
"We treat the super wealthy with whatever they want so we can treat the poor with what they need"
I don't live in the US and even I knew that line was complete BS
Atlanta, Black Mirror, Severance, Silo, The Terror: Infamy, Slow Horses, The Bear, Black Bird, Baby Reindeer, Station Eleven, Russian Doll. Most of what I've seen recently that was produced in the last few years has been primarily about people who are not wealthy or privileged.
Great list! Add in the show ‘Maid’ starring Margaret Qualley.
I read some article the other day, how they had noticed a heavy attempt, by Hollywood, to glamorise and humanise ultra rich, like Yellowstone. Is that so we just sit back and shut up and let the billionaires be. Fk that.
Same way that tv shows glorify cops who break the rules and disregard suspects rights. It’s so that we cheer for cops who break the rules and excuse them for “doing what you need to do to catch the bad guy”.
They did it for cops so why not billionaires next!
Bob's burgers.
Bob's Burgers breathes class consciousness. There's an episode where the kids are forced to volunteer through school, and the rich landlord makes no secret that he's exploiting their free child labor to clean up his beach. The concept of collective bargaining is played with when the kids decide they don't want to do that work for free. That episode also includes the lesson that the rich will absolutely use you and screw you over to further their own desires.
The rich landlord is frequently shown dicking around as if the people around him are playthings. In another episode, his tenants decide to hold a rent strike. The landlord uses classic divide and conquer strategy to turn the other tenants against Bob, the leader of the strike, via a water balloon contest (it makes sense in context.)
That's not even touching the realistic struggles that Bob, Linda, and their family have to live with day-to-day. Despite characters sometimes being, well, completely wackadoo, it's probably the most relatable animated show I know of.
Well put and I agree, for that same reason I really didn’t like the movie though. Its message is basically summed up as “you can commit murder but only if you’re rich enough.”
The brothers should have drowned in that submarine is all I’m sayin
The message should be a wake up call then. It’s saying “Look at the reality we live in - this shit actually happens”.
I don't keep up with current shows but here are my favorites from the last 20 years or so, not exactly about "normal" people but they aren't rich:
Raising Hope
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica
Trailer Park Boys
Malcolm in the Middle
The Middle
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The New Girl
Tbh there really are a shit ton more TV shows about normal people than about rich people. Not sure how you are even having trouble finding them. And of course there are always game shows.
Raising Hope was great, especially the first couple seasons.
The wonder years?
2021 reboot
Buffy was 27 years ago...
I know, and thanks to the marvels of the Internet, I watched an episode last night - isn't that awesome?
Normal people are boring. I want to watch TV shows about wizards.
But not the kkk wizards. And if so, be Rick and Morty chopping them into little pieces like the trash they are.
I'd be down to watch a dark comedy about kkk wizards.
New Taskmaster series just dropped with Jason Mantzoukas for us plebs.
Maximum Derek!
Game changer new season first 2 episodes just droped and its 1000% better than task master. Thats how a game show for us normal people looks like.
"How long can you keep a cat on your lap?" 0.02s
Ooh that’s another good show! They’re both good in their own rights.
Speaking of, Plebs was a great comedy series
Are we due for a new fat man, hot wife sitcom?
Roseanne reboot?
Do you think Roseanne was a fat man hot wife sitcom?
Yeah dude, you don't think Dan was fat?
Grooossss
😂
Right. Like, first of all, stop watching tv.
Second of all, there is tons of TV about normal people. Like, most of it.
Third, yes, the rich and powerful are overrepresented on tv. Why? Because people like to watch that shit. They know what their own lives are like, and they are boring - people want to watch a show that is interesting. Being rich and/or powerful is an easy way to make a story compelling, and gives writers an obvious way to make up ludicrous plot points.
The article then goes on to ignore The Connors which aired from October 2018 to April 2025.
Yes, if you ignore all of the shows about "normal people", you'll suddenly find no shows about "normal people".
The Connors went on that long? I'll have to check it out. I figured with Roseanne having gone off the deep end it wouldn't hold up much longer.
Nope, they killed her off with fent, made suing the drug company a storyline, and then did like 5 more seasons.
Also Young Sheldon and the spin-off that’s still going on
Skills issue.
The biggest reason I dropped Succession during first season. I have no interest in watching some rich fucks and on top of that there is not one likable character in that show.
You missed the point of the show, they are all unlikable for a reason, and contrary to what you might think, none of them come out on top the way they wanted to. It's a great show that highlights their petty, callous, empty little lives
I know they are unlikable for a reason. I just don't feel a need to watch a show about petty, callous empty little lives of rich idiots.
Fair enough
Japan has an incredible wealth of entertainment in their TV shows. I highly reccomend KASSO! Its ninja warrior but with skating they have English guests and translations on their YT channel.
Usually non US shows and Movies are alot better imho. Another something you should not sleep on are UK TV shows. Like: The Responder a show about a first responder who is struggling with mental illness and the pressure of his work.
So broaden your horizon, The industry is not as bad as you think
That is a wild way to write “a few very bright spots in a vast sea of absolute garbage”
Am I honest opinion most things that come out of the United States are shit, so if you exclude the United States from your entertainment library you get left with some pretty good stuff. Just stop watching from sources that reliably produce bad content
I thought we were talking about Japanese entertainment
When it comes to Japanese entertainment the majority of "Foreigner friendly" shows are Anime. But if that is not your cup of tea you have a few good game shows:
If you are into overly absurt gore(Non Anime):
Good movies that arent gore(Non Anime):
Must watch TV shows:
I could give you so many more good examples but i think such a wall of text would bore you and im not sure if this kind of stuff is your cup of tea 😅 But i hope this gives you some interesting material to look at c:
I’ve lived here for 20 years, bilingual, it isn’t a language thing. Am aware. But most of it is total trash. I mean- even your must-watch TV examples aren’t produced in Japan.
I used to enjoy watching Gaki no Tsukai with my father in law every new years- I decided to bow out when they decided to start doing blackface for chuckles.
However, you are correct about Survive Style 5. That movie rules. All-time top 10 for me.
I also appreciate that all of your examples are labeled “non-anime” 🤣 Obviously, on some level, you feel me.
[email protected]
TV Broadcasters: "oh, so you want more shitty 'reality TV' then?"
Yeah I wanna see 2 roommates working 2 jobs and still can't afford to pay the rent for their shithole apartment
I haven't seen it but I've heard good things about Adolescence?
I was gonna say that British TV has more realistic or normal people. However I haven't seen much of that recently. It's mainly Taskmaster and Black Mirror.
Shameless: "am I a fucking joke to you?"
Since the wealthy fund the shit, anything to do with the commoner is portrayed as trashy, just above literal refuse with regard to usefulness, while the wealthy are portrayed as the righteous and just, with money to fix all the problems they face and any moral failings related to them is the result of something outside their wealth.
MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
(Also please Disney don't fuck up the sequel)
Sequel? Modern Disney? Oh fuck...
Judge Judy, Hoarders, and Cops
I dunno if you’re being sarcastic here but wow, what a low opinion of normal people!
I cast no judgment but these shows are where you can find regular people and not professional actors.
Yes, it’s just that you’re often seeing a regular person on one of the worst days of their life, not a normal day. It gives a rather unkind impression to the viewer!
I adored superstore. I love how I think back of the show and nothing comes to mind because everything was painfully ordinary.
Yeah. That was a surprising gem to stumble upon
Check out the cartoon Aggretsuko. Not from this year but from this decade.
Yeah, it's a cartoon about anthropomorphic animals, but the characters are all very normal people, personality-wise. So normal, I got sick of watching how normal they were.
I think they portrait (Japanese) work Culture quite well. It seems over the top cause it is an animation but you are right. They have the most normal drama I have seen on TV in quite a while.
I love Aggretsuko! Good recommendation
Here it is:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287254/
That was a joke due to the English name, but Brazil is actually pretty good at making shows and movies about normal, ordinary people.
Check out.
Depends on how you define white then, is it just skin color? Maybe you're right, but I know plenty of Brazilians that are indistinguishable from white people. We can't call them less Brazilian because they're fairer than the averagei guess real crime is choosing entire cast that is fairer than average and the show being promoted about average people.
I am sick of "history" shows and movies that are completely inaccurate. There are so many unbelievable stories that fiction always takes a backseat for me if I were to choose between a history or sci-fi book for example. Shogun is extremely guilty of this, it had great production but the details were sickeningly incorrect, in Japan people were pissed because it's an opportunity to teach about culture and every Japanese knows the real story and details of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Americans have already been propagandizing and manipulating history in many ways since decades past, there is much change to be done.
I tried to watch Shogun, but couldn't really get into it. I was really hoping I'd like it. Instead I just be watching The Seven Samurai on repeat
To be fair, I don't know that Shogun ever purported to 100% totally accurate. It is a fictionalisation of events.
Shogun was adapted from a book by the same name written by James Clavell who wrote a series of historical fiction books that took place in different times in history.
The series stayed pretty faithful to the novel from what I remember, so the person your replying to’s complaint doesn’t really make much sense in that context.
Oh I'm well aware that it was "adapted" from a novel which was quite terribly written, they essentially tried to take from the novel which bastardized history while staying true to the real story which obviously makes no sense. Shogun is an awful fantasization of the story of Tokugawa Ieyasu, James Clavell is an idiot whose books should have stayed dead. It was a great opportunity to right wrongs and portray history correctly, yikes. Rome is another terrible TV example of fictionalizing history when there is plenty of real content to take from.
I only ever read Shogun but I remember enjoying it.
Of course, what you call “bastardized history” everyone else calls historical fiction and I thought it seemed to do a good job of mixing history and fiction.
Such content already exists.
There's a Streisand Effect that occurs when writing about what you don't want instead of lifting up what you do want.
The cool irony of this thread complaining about it is that it’s promoting tons of great shows many of us would have not known.
Detectorists
Northern Exposure
Abbott Elementary
All Creatures Great and Small
Black Books
Bored to Death
Bridget & Eamon
The Cafe
Cheers
The Cleaner
The IT Crowd
King of the Hill
Letterkenny
Peep Show
Shameless
Spaced
Tacoma FD
Taxi
If we redistributed all excess wealth perpetually they wouldn't exist anymore and we would stop treating them like kings and gods.
Then we'd find another way to identify the top of the social heirarchy and watch shows about them
It would be about the smart people who forward the human race and they would get credit for it.
Lol. That would be such a boring TV show.
Not necessarily. Smart people have interesting lives too.
You don't lose a character arc just because you have more than two brain cells
"Good people get along and do good things and get credit for it" is not how you make a thrilling drama, lol. I would much rather watch an actor who is a sociopath play a character who is also a sociopath in House of Cards.
No one is saying don't make thrilling drama. But there's a wildly successful British baking show that proves wholesome works too.
Instead of defaulting to cynicism and worshipping money/power, let's make some thrilling drama that don't involve shitty rich people.
I bet you watching rich fuckers eat shit would sell very well given the current climate of neo-feudalism
Watch Andor, if you wanna see ordinary people fight the power
I get it, but look at it this way, most of those shows do not show the rich and powerful in a flattering light E.g. Succession. So you could interpret it as Hollywood trying to shatter the glitz and glamor persona that the rich have always enjoyed.
Bob <3 (hearts) Abishola
Do yourself a favour and watch Son of a Critch..
There's so much low-hanging fruit regarding topics and themes TV could be written about, but those are all "mundane" and not glamorous. The Pitt might be the closest thing to seeing normal people in a prestige show (not sure if it's considered prestige but at least it's getting a lot of attention).
For example, you could write a great drama or comedy about people moving away from a big city to work remotely from home in a small town.
YouTube
Why do you need a show about normal people?
You're surrounded by normal people
We want to see a show about normal people that just happen to be more interesting than the normal person you are.
Money doesn't make people more interesting, it usually makes them far less interesting.
The life stories of the people around you are likely more interesting than anything a Hollywood screenwriter can come up with
Yeah. Enough of celebrities going on and on about their introspections, how this experience will grow their personality. Show the guy that spend years building a model train track in his garage.
Exactly... Fuck that lifestyle.
Reattach to reality.
Married with Children was super fun and about normal people.
Reality TV