State of Play

Series Similar to State of Play

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

1. Press

   2018 · Drama · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, hidden gem, also on BBC One.

   Set in the fast-paced and challenging environment of the British newspaper industry, Press will immerse viewers in the personal lives and the constant professional dilemmas facing its characters.The series follows their lives as they attempt to balance work and play, ambition and integrity, amid the never-ending pressure of the 24-hour global news cycle and an industry in turmoil.

2. Jack & Bobby

   2004 · Drama · ended

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

   If "greatness is thrust upon us," as Winston Churchill once said, then it stands to reason that those who are destined for greatness are rarely aware of it. Take Jack and Bobby McCallister for example: two bright young brothers growing up under the watchful eye of their eccentric single mother Grace McCallister. Grace's personality is a force of nature destined to shape both of these young men's lives and secure one a place in the history books - as President of the United States.

3. Collision

   2009 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, hidden gem.

   Police drama series. Troubled detective John Tolin returns to work after an extended period of leave, and is handed a complicated case involving a shocking road traffic accident.

4. The Newsroom

   2012 · Drama · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.4).

   The Newsroom follows the members of a cable news team on their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of a fickle audience, corporate mandates and tangled personal relationships.

5. The West Wing

   1999 · Drama · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.6).

   The entire White House staff bristles with activity when it's learned that the President injured himself during a bicycle accident, and his absence becomes a factor as chief of staff Leo McGarry must juggle a host of impending crises, including a mass boatlift of Cuban refugees approaching the Florida coast and the reaction of conservative Christians to a controversial televised comment by deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman.

6. Olive Kitteridge

   2014 · Drama · ended

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

   Based on Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, Olive Kitteridge tells the poignantly sweet, acerbically funny and devastatingly tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of a woman whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and a staunch moral center.

7. Reckless

   2014 · Drama · ended

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

   Reckless is set in Charleston, S.C., where a gorgeous Yankee litigator and a charming southern attorney must hide their intense mutual attraction as a police sex scandal threatens to tear the city apart.

8. The Promise

   2011 · Drama · ended

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

   Claire Foy and Christian Cooke star in Peter Kosminsky's four-part drama serial. Eighteen-year-old Erin sets out on an emotional journey when she retraces her grandfather's footsteps.

9. Our Friends in the North

   1996 · Drama · ended

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

   A nine part series depicting the varying fortunes of four friends - Nicky, Geordie, Mary and Tosker - from the optimistic times of 1964 to the uncertainties of 1995. Taking nine pivotal years (1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1995) the personal lives of the characters become intertwined with the political struggles of their home town of Newcastle, and the capital, London. We also see the machinations behind the scenes that affect their lives, often for the worse: slum housing projects, police corruption, the rise of Thatcherism, political sleaze, and specific events like the 1984 Miners' Strike.

10. The Queen's Gambit

    2020 · Drama · ended

    Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.5).

    Chronicling the life of an orphan chess prodigy, the story - set during the Cold War era - follows Beth Harmon from the age of eight to twenty-two, as she struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world.