Santa Barbara

Series Similar to Santa Barbara

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

1. Knots Landing

   1979 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   Knots Landing follows the lives and loves of four married couples who live in the fictional but always interesting upper-middle class southern California cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle.

2. Hotel

   1982 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   Hotel is an American prime time drama based on Arthur Hailey's 1965 novel of the same name (which had also inspired a 1967 feature film). The series was set in the elegant and fictitious St. Gregory Hotel in San Francisco. Episodes follow both the activities of passing guests as well as the personal and professional lives of the permanent hotel staff.

3. Falcon Crest

   1981 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest after the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley (modeled after the Napa Valley) northeast of San Francisco.

4. Dynasty

   1981 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   The saga of a wealthy Denver family in the oil business: Blake Carrington, the patriarch; Krystle, his former secretary and wife; his children: Adam, lost in childhood after a kidnapping; Fallon, pampered and spoiled; Steven, openly gay; and Amanda, hidden from him by his ex-wife, the conniving Alexis. Most of the show features the conflict between 2 large corporations, Blake's Denver Carrington and Alexis' Colby Co. Passion, glamour, catfights, and the biggest shoulder pads in Denver. Dynasty was the primetime soap fueled by an all-star cast and "sexsational" storylines. Relive the wrestling matches between Alexis and Krystle, Steven's scandalous romances, Fallon's affairs with practically everybody, and of course, the power struggles at Denver-Carrington, led by the magnetic Blake Carrington.

5. Pride and Prejudice

   1995 · Drama, Romance · ended

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

   Re-live the romance and drama of Andrew Davies' lavish adaptation, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

6. Indian Summers

   2015 · Drama, Romance · ended

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

   Set against the sweeping grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. But at the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything.

7. North & South

   2004 · Drama, Romance · ended

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

   Set against the backdrop of Victorian England's industrial north, it follows the fortunes of Margaret Hale, one of 19th century literature's most original heroines.

8. Looking for Alaska

   2019 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, hidden gem.

   Looking for Alaska thrusts us into the perspective of Miles "Pudge" Halter who is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave "the Great Perhaps" even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

9. Sense and Sensibility

   2008 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, hidden gem.

   Widow Dashwood and her three unmarried daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a tiny allowance. So they move out of their grand Sussex home to a more modest cottage in Devonshire. There, the prevailing ambition is to find suitable husbands for the girls. With help from wealthy neighbor Sir John Middleton, suitors for Elinor and Marianne are soon found, but not landed. They include dashing Willoughby, future vicar Edward Ferrars and retired colonial gentleman Colonel Brandon.

10. Single Father

    2010 · Drama, Romance · ended

    Recommended for similar Romance profile, hidden gem.

    When Dave's wife dies unexpectedly, he is forced to try to raise his four children on his own. He begins to question his own judgment when he begins to fall in love with his wife's best friend, Sarah.