Best tv shows like A Life
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When Okita Kazuaki was starting out as a doctor, he was forced to resign from the hospital. He left his girlfriend Danjo Mifuyu behind and went to the US alone. 10 years go by and he comes back as a surgeon with outstanding skills to save his former teacher from illness. His teacher is none other than his ex-girlfriend’s father. In the time that Okita was away, Mifuyu had married his own good friend Masao, who is now the deputy director and the heir of the hospital. To make matters worse, this friend was the one who plotted to drive him out form the hospital 10 years ago. Okita has to face all sorts of ordeals to save his teacher. But he never gives up amid the swirl of love, desire, friendship, jealousy and pride. Okita may be awkward but deals with patients with all his heart. His way of life gets the people working at the hospital to start asking themselves what real healthcare is.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, medical drama
Best tv shows and movies like A Life (2017):
Similar in 75%
The Clinic (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Clinic is a multi award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The drama ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November 2007. The last ever episode aired on RTÉ One on Sunday 15 November 2009 and on YLE1 in Finland on Wednesday 25 November 2009. The complete series of The Clinic was released on DVD in November 2010 by RTÉ.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 88%
Bodies (2004)
Plot Summary:
Bodies is an award-winning British television medical drama produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. Created by Jed Mercurio, the series began in 2004 and is based on his book Bodies. In December 2009, The Times ranked Bodies in 9th place in its list of "Shows of the Decade". The Guardian has ranked the series among "The Greatest Television Dramas of All-Time".
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: medical drama, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 84%
TOKYO MER: Mobile Emergency Room (2021)
Plot Summary:
TOKYO MER is formed by order from the Governor of Tokyo. The name of the group stands for TOKYO Mobile Emergency Room. The members are emergency care professionals and they are to go to sites of dangerous accidents and disasters by ER car. Their ER car is a large vehicle equipped with the latest medical devices and an operating area. There, TOKYO MER saves lives of the injured. Kōta Kitami is a doctor for TOKYO MER and its leader. He holds a strong conviction that, regardless of the dangers, he will go to accident sites to save lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Iryu: Team Medical Dragon (2006)
Plot Summary:
Ryutaro Asada was the chief surgeon of Team Medical Dragon, a globally active emergency medical care team that worked in refugee camps. After his return to Japan, this amazingly talented surgeon starts work at a university hospital, where he uncovers one case of corruption after another and takes on a lot of powerful contenders in this heroic drama. The struggles between the hospital and the patients, the infighting among the hospital staff, and the patients who get involved in those struggles are all depicted in a realistic manner in a drama that has an overwhelming feeling of speed. Here’s a human drama depicting a thrilling battle between life and death, a totally new, outstanding form of entertainment.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 77%
Dr. STORKS (2015)
Plot Summary:
The drama revolves around Kounotori Sakura, an Ob-Gyn doctor working at the Persona General Medical Centre who is also a gifted jazz pianist. His mother had died in childbirth and he was brought up in an orphanage, which is what fueled his ambition to be an ob-gyn. He hopes to be able to deliver every baby to this world, congratulating them on the gift of life given to their little bodies. (Source: TBS).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 167
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: medical drama, tense, sincere, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Surgeon (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Surgeon was an Australian primetime television Medical drama. It screened at 9:30pm on Thursdays on Network Ten and in Ireland early morning on RTÉ One. The show was based at a fictional hospital named Sydney General Hospital. The first season consisted of 8 half-hour episodes. The show was not renewed for a second season due to a number of poor reviews and lack of sufficient ratings.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 77%
Grey's Anatomy: B-Team (2009)
Plot Summary:
New interns' tackle their first day as surgeons at Grey Sloan Memorial under the watchful and stern eye of Chief Bailey.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 20 min
Plot tags: suspense, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 76%
SkyMed (2022)
Plot Summary:
Life, death and drama at 20,000 feet. The series weaves together intense character journeys and high-stakes medical rescues, as we follow the triumphs, heartbreaks and tribulations of budding nurses and pilots flying air ambulances in remote Northern Canada. They’re all in over their heads, and on their own, with no one to rely on but each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, medical drama, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Black Pean (2018)
Plot Summary:
Seishiro Tokai (Kazunari Ninomiya) works as a surgeon at a university hospital. He possesses excellent technique with suture and carries a surgery success rate of 100%. Due to his arrogant attitude and personality, he comes into conflict with those around him. A new doctor tries to introduce the latest medical device for surgery, which doesn't need a surgeon's hand. Seishiro Tokai is skeptical of the device. He faces the university hospital administration and reveals corruption and hidden past behind the medical device.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 84%
The Doctors (2010)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 28
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Sklifosovsky (2012)
Plot Summary:
A series centered around a fictional hospital staff, and inspired by the name of a Moldovan surgeon - Nikolay Sklifosovsky.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Russia
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, sincere, touching, romantic, realistic, medical drama
Similar in 80%
Nurses (2014)
Plot Summary:
Like good soldiers in a war-zone, hospital staff are expected to respect the chain of command when dealing with life and death situations. But what happens when smug doctors, arrogant surgeons, and out-of-touch administrators make that easier said than done? Nurses deals with the professional and personal lives of four female colleagues who cope in different ways with the challenges of life on the trauma ward. With determination, strength, and a dark sense of humor, they achieve the demanding and inspiring task of saving lives in a system that sometimes seems designed to do the opposite.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 589
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 20 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Blue Code (2017)
Plot Summary:
A Czech medical television series that focuses on an emergency department. Each episode follows cases inspired by real-life stories and the cases of patients and healthcare professionals.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration:
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Nurses (2020)
Plot Summary:
Follow five young nurses working on the frontlines of a busy hospital in downtown Toronto, dedicating their lives to helping others, while struggling to help themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: medical drama, realistic, intellectual, serious, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Radiation House (2019)
Plot Summary:
Iori Igarashi is a talented radiographer who believes the “truth” is definitely captured in CT and MRI images. He and radiologist An Amakasu work at a hospital’s radiology department where they determine the causes of patients’ illnesses and injuries.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
The Great White Tower (2003)
Plot Summary:
A striking drama of the amazingly gifted surgeon Zaizen Goro, caught up by his desire for power and fame, and his contemporary physician Satomi Shuji, who selflessly continues a quest to save human lives. The Great White Tower is the title of a representative novel by Toyoko Yamazaki that depicts the hidden side of the medical world and the dignity of human life, thus shocking and moving many readers, marking a milestone in medical dramas. A dense human drama develops starting with the first half, which depicts the tragicomic circumstances arising from human ambition in the selection of professors, and proceeding to the second half, which inquires into the dignity of human life through a medical court case involving a malpractice suit.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 81%
Medical Top Team (2013)
Plot Summary:
The medical drama focuses on the lives of doctors and nurses who are members of an elite medical team from the fictional Gwang Hae University Hospital.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration:
Plot tags: medical drama, sincere, captivating, political
Similar in 89%
Unsung Cinderella (2020)
Plot Summary:
Aoi Midori is a pharmacist and in the 8-year span of her career, she has worked according to her strong belief that "One must know the patient well in order to prescribe the correct medication as medicine is the bond that connects the patient's today to his/her daily life henceforth". Due to that, Aoi usually takes a long time in her consultations with the patients, and this causes her to be complained by her colleagues for being too inefficient in her work. Aoi shrugs off the complaints as her goal is to help the patients regain the daily life that they once took for granted.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, dorama, medical drama
Similar in 78%
Pulse (2017)
Plot Summary:
When successful high-flier Frankie Bell is brought crashing to earth by chronic kidney failure she targets an alternate future. Eight years on she is in her second year as a practicing doctor starting her first day in a Renal rotation. Driven to use her second chance to save others, Frankie must confront an ailing health system, and face her toughest challenge - learning to let go.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 346
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 81%
Medics (2012)
Plot Summary:
Medics, also known under the original title Lekarze, is a Polish medical drama which premiered on 3 September 2012 on TVN.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 90%
MDs (2002)
Plot Summary:
Medicine could be a lucrative business if it weren't for all those sick people. So goes the motto of the mega-sized, mega-frugal HMO that runs Mission General Hospital in San Francisco, where two renegade doctors bend the rules and find the loopholes in a constant quest to treat their patients. Together, they practice medicine with a take-no-prisoners attitude and don't-take-no-for-an-answer tactics.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: humorous, serious, realistic, medical drama
Similar in 88%
The Hippocratic Crush (2012)
Plot Summary:
They experience life and death as they race against time to save patients. In their quest to become physicians, have they ever stopped to think about what their mission and limitations are? Neurosurgery trainee Cheung Yat-kin does not have time for love – he has to work hard to support his younger brother, who is paralyzed from the waist down, to study overseas. His life is his work, until he meets Fan Tze-yu, who is also a reputable doctor and whose father is a well-known physician. Deeply attracted to Yat-kin’s talent and personality, Tze-yu is not hesitant to express her love for him from the start. But before Yat-kin can make up his mind on whether to accept her, the news of his younger brother’s death comes, causing him to become a totally different person.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 19
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, medical drama
Similar in 81%
Miracle Doctor (2019)
Plot Summary:
Ali was born in a provincial town and was rejected by his father for adoption. Ali with savant syndrome, who grew up in orphanages, graduated from the faculty of medicine with a first degree.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, serious, captivating, talky, medical drama, clever
Similar in 86%
Good Doctor (2013)
Plot Summary:
As a child, Park Shi On was sent to a specialized care center, where he discovered genius capacities for his autism. Coupled with an exceptional memory and keen spatial skills, the young savant eventually entered pediatric residency, where he developed into a promising surgeon. However, his mental and emotional development seems to have stopped at 10-years-old, which makes for incredible conflicts in and out of the O.R., especially with the hotheaded surgeon Kim Do Han. Despite warm hearted and fair colleagues like Cha Yoon Seo and Han Jin Wook , it’s a fierce and competitive adult world. One cannot simply tell Shi On to “grow up.”.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: dorama, medical drama, romantic drama
Similar in 84%
Trapper John, M.D. (1979)
Plot Summary:
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable doctor who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: medical drama, retro, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 78%
New Amsterdam (2018)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Max Goodwin, the hospital's newest medical director, sets out to tear up the bureaucracy and provide exceptional care.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: medical drama, captivating, sincere, inspirational, disturbing, emotional
Similar in 76%
Code Black (2015)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by the award-winning documentary, this medical drama is set in the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation where the extraordinary staff confront a challenged system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: medical drama, suspense, touching, emotional, captivating, sentimental
Similar in 88%
Chicago Med (2015)
Plot Summary:
An emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city's most explosive hospital and the courageous team of doctors who hold it together. They will tackle unique new cases inspired by topical events, forging fiery relationships in the pulse-pounding pandemonium of the emergency room.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: medical drama, exciting, sincere, captivating, tense, serious, realistic, sentimental
Similar in 78%
The Resident (2018)
Plot Summary:
A tough, brilliant senior resident guides an idealistic young doctor through his first day, pulling back the curtain on what really happens, both good and bad, in modern-day medicine.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: medical drama, exciting, realistic, serious, captivating, compassionate, tense, thought provoking
Similar in 76%
The Good Doctor (2017)
Plot Summary:
A young surgeon with Savant syndrome is recruited into the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. The question will arise: can a person who doesn't have the ability to relate to people actually save their lives?.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 109000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 41 min
Plot tags: medical drama, serious, clever, emotional, captivating, psychological, talky, inspirational, thought provoking, sad