Life Unexpected

Series Similar to Life Unexpected

If you enjoyed Life Unexpected, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Joan of Arcadia

   2003 · Drama, Family, Supernatural · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, hidden gem.

   Joan Girardi is an average teenager living in the town of Arcadia. However, she soon discovers that she's much more when another teenager comes up to her and says that he's God. God continues to appear to Joan, each time wearing a different body, and has different missions for Joan to undertake.

2. Once and Again

   1999 · Drama, Family, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile.

   Once and Again explored brave new territory with the compelling story of two families blending at the seams. The second marriage of Lily Manning to Rick Sammler pushes both to the limit as they try for domestic normalcy while navigating divorce, parenting, financial hardship and many other life lessons.

3. Party of Five

   1994 · Drama, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile.

   In Party of Five, five children orphaned by their parent's fatal auto accident seek to make their way in San Francisco.

4. Recovery Road

   2016 · Drama, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, hidden gem.

   Maddie is a high school party girl who doesn't think she has a problem until she's confronted one day by her guidance counselor and is forced to choose between expulsion and a recovering facility. Maddie makes the difficult decision to live with other recovering addicts at Recovery Road, while facing the daily pressures of her teenage life.

5. Being Mary Jane

   2013 · Drama, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, hidden gem.

   Mary Jane Paul is a one-woman show: a successful TV news anchor, entirely self-sufficient – an all-around powerhouse who remains devoted to a family that doesn't share her motivation. As Mary Jane juggles her life, her work and her commitment to her family, we find out how far she's willing to go to find the puzzle pieces that she, and society, insist are missing from her life as a single Black female.

6. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

   2023 · Drama, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, highly rated (8).

   The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart tells the compelling story of a young girl, Alice Hart, whose violent childhood casts a dark shadow over her adult life. After a family tragedy in which she loses both her abusive father and beloved mother in a mysterious fire, 9-year-old Alice is taken to live with her grandmother June on a flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family's past. Set against Australia's breathtaking, natural landscape, and with native wildflowers and plants providing a way to express the inexpressible, this enthralling family drama spans decades, as Alice grows from a child into a woman. Her journey is epic and visceral, building to an emotional climax as Alice finds herself fighting for her life against a man she loves.

7. Highway to Heaven

   1984 · Drama, Family, Supernatural · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile.

   Jonathan Smith is an angel sent down to earth "on probation". Jonathan and friend Mark Gordon are given "assignments" by "The Boss" (God) where they are required to use their humanity (and sometimes a little bit of "The Stuff") in order to help various troubled souls to overcome their problems. Examples of these problems include families dealing with sick loved ones; wealthy and greedy businessmen being encouraged to use their wealth for good; and discouraging prejudice in regards to people of different ethnicitys, appearances, or socioeconomic backgrounds or who have disabilities. While dealing with these situations with sensitivity, Highway to Heaven also used humor – particularly between Jonathan and Mark.

8. Army Wives

   2007 · Drama, Family, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Army Wives follows the struggles, dreams and friendships of a diverse group of women—and one man—living with their spouses and families on an active Army post.

9. Downton Abbey

   2010 · Drama, Family, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, highly rated (8.7).

   The Downton Abbey estate stands a splendid example of confidence and mettle, its family enduring for generations and its staff a well-oiled machine of propriety. But change is afoot at Downton--change far surpassing the new electric lights and telephone. A crisis of inheritance threatens to displace the resident Crawley family, in spite of the best efforts of the noble and compassionate Earl, Robert Crawley; his American heiress wife, Cora his comically implacable, opinionated mother, Violet and his beautiful, eldest daughter, Mary, intent on charting her own course. Reluctantly, the family is forced to welcome its heir apparent, the self-made and proudly modern Matthew Crawley himself none too happy about the new arrangements. As Matthew's bristly relationship with Mary begins to crackle with electricity, hope for the future of Downton's dynasty takes shape. But when petty jealousies and ambitions grow among the family and the staff, scheming and secrets--both delicious and dangerous--threaten to derail the scramble to preserve Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey offers a spot-on portrait of a vanishing way of life.

10. Move to Heaven

    2021 · Drama, Family · ended

    Recommended for similar Family profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

    Finding life in all that's left behind, a trauma cleaner with Asperger's and his ex-con uncle deliver the untold stories of the departed to loved ones.