Best tv shows like Bad Girls
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 to 20 December 2006 and starred Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Linda Henry, Jack Ellis and many more throughout the eight-year run. The series was broadcast in 17 countries and was produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road. It is set in the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, and features a mixture of serious and light storylines focusing on the prisoners and staff of G Wing. From 2010, the UK broadcast rights were bought by CBS Drama, and is repeated regularly – as of September 2012, the channel is re-running the series again in a late-night time slot.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Bad Girls (1999):
Similar in 78%
EastEnders (1985)
Plot Summary:
The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: soap opera, captivating, serious, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
House of Women (1962)
Plot Summary:
An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 346
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Public Enemies (2012)
Plot Summary:
Drama exploring the relationship between a convicted murderer and his probation officer.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 757
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, detective, gloomy, masterpiece
Similar in 80%
Blue Murder (1995)
Plot Summary:
Detective Sergeant Roger "The Dodger" Rogerson got fame because he knew how to take care of most dangerous and violent criminals. His success was, however, also due to the sinister alliance with violent underworld figures like Neddy Smith who got police protection in exchange for tips and money.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 198 min
Plot tags: slasher, detective, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
The Bill (1984)
Plot Summary:
The Bill is a police procedural television series that was broadcast on the ITV network from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, entitled Woodentop, which was broadcast in August 1983. In its final year on air, The Bill was broadcast once a week, usually on Tuesdays or Thursdays, in a one-hour format. The programme focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work. At the time of the series' conclusion, The Bill was the longest-running police procedural television series in the United Kingdom, and was among the longest-running of any British television series. The series was produced by Thames Television. The series name originated from "Old Bill", a slang term for the police. This was also Geoff McQueen's original title idea for the series, before he eventually decided on "The Bill". Although highly acclaimed amongst fans and critics alike, the series attracted controversy on several occasions. An episode broadcast in 2008 was criticised for featuring fictional treatment for multiple sclerosis, and another episode in the same year resulted in litigation, submitted by MP George Galloway for defamation. The series has also faced more general criticism, concerning the levels of violence it portrays, particularly prior to 2009, when it occupied a pre-watershed slot. During its time on air, The Bill won several awards, including BAFTAs, a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award and the title of "best drama" at the Inside Soap Awards in 2009, the latter being the series' fourth consecutive win. Throughout its twenty-seven-year run, the programme was always broadcast on the main ITV network. In later years, episodes of the show were repeated on ITV3 on their week of broadcast. The series has also been repeated on other digital stations, including UKTV Gold, Alibi, Watch and UKTV G2. In March 2010, executives at ITV announced that the network did not intend to recommission The Bill, and that filming on the series would cease on 14 June 2010. The last ever episode of the series was aired on 31 August 2010.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, sincere, detective, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 90%
Criminal Justice (2008)
Plot Summary:
The worst thing Ben has ever done is, tonight, he takes his Dad's black cab out without his permission. But that's not why Ben ends the evening in a police cell. What looked to be a spontaneous evening of fun with a sexy stranger, Melanie, has culminated in a dead girl and Ben covered in her blood, holding the murder weapon. All the evidence points to Ben. There are no other leads. But he didn t do it. He can t remember all the events of the night, but he s sure he didn t. Ben is about to see what the criminal justice system does to someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 584 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, suspense, atmospheric, crime drama, rough, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Hinter Gittern - Der Frauenknast (1997)
Plot Summary:
Drama set in a women's prison in Germany.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 336
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Chained Heat II (1993)
Plot Summary:
An American tourist lands in a Slavic prison run by a twisted woman and the U.S. ambassador.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, Czech Republic
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, grindhouse, sensual, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, sexual, psychotronic
Similar in 77%
Reform School Girls (1986)
Plot Summary:
Jenny is sent to a women's reform school. It is run by evil warden Sutter and her henchwoman Edna. Jenny will stop at nothing to escape but she also has to deal with Charlie the bully.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, entertaining, cult classic, grindhouse, sexual
Similar in 75%
Prisoner: Cell Block H (1979)
Plot Summary:
Prisoner is an Australian soap opera that is set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. In the United States and United Kingdom it was billed as Prisoner: Cell Block H, and in Canada as Caged Women. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation in Australia, and aired on Network Ten, running 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986, after originally only devised as a 16 part mini-series. The series was inspired by British television drama Within These Walls, which had achieved moderate success in Australia. Prisoner producers even approached Googie Withers of Within These Walls to play the role of Prisoner's governor, an offer that she declined. Because of an injunction brought by UK-based ATV, which considered the title too similar to their own series, The Prisoner, it was originally not possible for overseas broadcasters to screen the show under the Prisoner title, which necessitated a name change. In March 2012, it was announced that the series would be "reimagined" on Foxtel in a new version entitled Wentworth.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, soap opera
Similar in 85%
The Yard (2018)
Plot Summary:
After a fateful domestic clash, a devoted mother finds herself in prison and fighting to survive in hopes of reuniting with her daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, tense, suspense, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
Capadocia (2008)
Plot Summary:
Capadocia is a Mexican HBO Latin America television series. It started on March 2, 2008 and its second season was planned for 2010.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 706
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
School for Unclaimed Girls (1969)
Plot Summary:
A gold digging man seduces a widow for her money, and also makes a pass at her teenage Daughter, the Daughter plans a terrible revenge.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 212
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 83%
Buried (2003)
Plot Summary:
Buried is a British television drama series, produced by World Productions for Channel 4 and originally screened in 2003. The programme starred Lennie James as Lee Kingley, who is serving a long prison sentence in order to protect a member of his family from a violent criminal. Critically well-received, the programme won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards in 2004.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, thought provoking, bleak, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
Girls in Prison (1994)
Plot Summary:
Framed for the murder of a record company president in 1952 Hollywood, young, aspiring singer Aggie O'Hanlon is sentenced to life in prison and tries to adjust to her life life behind bars in a hellish womens prison where she is befriended by other "lifer" inmates who help her out when Aggie finds herself marked for murder by an unknown source who thinks she knows more about the murder than she does.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, psychotronic, erotic, campy
Similar in 87%
Women's Prison (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young woman about to get married discovers all too late that her spouse has mafia connections, when violence breaks out during her wedding. Caught up in the crossfire Lynn gets arrested and thrown into a women's prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 98
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Sex Traffic (2004)
Plot Summary:
Boston based Kernwell Industries is an American defense contractor. One of those contracts is to deploy 3,000 peacekeepers to the International Peacekeeping Coalition's work in the Balkans. Because of the near epidemic problem of sex trafficking of young Balkan women, Kernwell has decided to support the charity, Worldwide Federation Against Forced Migration. Kernwell's head of charities is Madeleine Harlsburg, the wife of the company's CEO, Tom Harlsburg. Although it does not have a pristine reputation as a good social corporate citizen, Kernwell hits a bigger public relations problem when it is learned that one of those 3,000 peacekeepers was caught trying to buy the services of a teen-aged prostitute in Sarajevo. Although not named to the media, that person is Sergeant Callum Tate, who swears he was trying to save that woman. In reality, Tate has evidence of a larger conspiracy of sex trafficking.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: bleak, thought provoking, realistic, disturbing, rough, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Stranger Inside (2001)
Plot Summary:
A mother daughter reunion set in the harsh reality of a women's correctional facility.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 592
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, crime drama, independent film, bleak, serious, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 90%
Carandiru (2003)
Plot Summary:
Carandiru, a story based on real facts and on the book written by the doctor Drauzio Varella, starts when he decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, Carandiru, the victim of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History, when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil, Argentina, Italy
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: bleak, compassionate, rough, touching, captivating, realistic, sincere, disturbing, controversial, perverse
Similar in 86%
Sugar Boxx (2009)
Plot Summary:
Sugar State Women’s Prison. An Everglades hellhole where innocent girls are forced to slave in the swamps by day then turn tricks for the warden by night. A prison camp where corruption, brutality, and sexual abuse are all part of the daily routine. But when reporter Valerie March goes undercover inside Sugar State, that’s when the powder keg really explodes! Follow Valerie through prison life - catfights, knife fights, rape, whippings, prostitution, and the “hot box” - before she and her fellow inmates take bloody, unforgettable revenge on their captors. Inspired by the great women-in-prison films of the past, SUGAR BOXX takes everything one step further. SUGAR BOXX has it all.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 358
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, psychological, captivating, retro, independent film, rough, suspenseful, semi serious, campy
Similar in 87%
Banana (2015)
Plot Summary:
Witty, heartfelt and unique interlinked stories covering different aspects of LGBT life, featuring the most exciting emerging talent.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, erotic, controversial, sensual, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 86%
Five Daughters (2010)
Plot Summary:
Factually-based drama telling the stories of five young women who were tragically murdered in Ipswich in 2006.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 593
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, bleak, captivating, realistic
Similar in 81%
Between the Lines (1992)
Plot Summary:
Between the Lines was a television police drama series created by J. C. Wilsher and produced by World Productions for the BBC. It was first shown on BBC1 between 1992 and 1994, running for three series. The show centred on the eventful life of Detective Superintendent Tony Clark, played by Neil Pearson. Clark was an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark had to overcome strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean. Throughout the series Clark was assisted by sidekicks Harry Naylor and Mo Connell. Clark's work as a lead officer in CIB was the focus of the first two series. In the first series his boss was Deakin, a tough Irish policeman. At the end of the first series Deakin was revealed to be a corrupt officer himself. He left the force but remained a recurring character working freelance for the security services and others, sometimes in conflict with Clark and sometimes assisting him. At the start of the third series Clark, Naylor and Connell leave the police force and work in the murky world of private security, far right politics and espionage. The third series ends with the betrayal of Clark and Naylor who had been masquerading as mercenaries. The betrayal is made by Connell in league with Deakin, their former boss and nemesis. It is unclear whether Clark and Naylor have died as the show ended on a cliffhanger. Rumours of a remake did circulate for some years, but Pearson confirmed in 'Watching the Detectives' that he had wanted a 'final' ending at the time and would never return to the role.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 611
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Life of Crime (2013)
Plot Summary:
A female cop becomes obsessed with tracking down the killer of a 15-year-old girl, and hunts him over the course of her 28 year career in the force.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 730
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, detective, period piece, rough, serious
Similar in 78%
Traffik (1989)
Plot Summary:
Traffik is a 1989 British television serial about the illegal drugs trade. Its three stories are interwoven, with arcs told from the perspectives of Afghan and Pakistani growers and manufacturers, German dealers, and British users. It was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, winning three. It also won an International Emmy Award for best drama. The 2000 crime drama film Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was based on this television serial. In turn, the 2004 American television miniseries Traffic was based on both versions.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 315 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, thought provoking, disturbing, rough, bleak, political, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Fingersmith (2005)
Plot Summary:
The lives of two young women collide in Victorian England when a trio of 'fingersmiths' (pick-pockets) concoct an elaborate scam to defraud a young heiress of her inheritance. The story alternates between the twisting back alleyways of Dickensian London and the cloistered gloom of a Gothic mansion in 1862. The story is an adaptation of Sarah Waters' Man Booker Prize nominated novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, costume drama, captivating, disturbing, erotic, psychological thriller, romantic, gothic, period piece
Similar in 86%
Locked Up (2015)
Plot Summary:
Set up to take the blame for corporate fraud, young Macarena Ferreiro is locked up in a high-security women's prison surrounded by tough, ruthless criminals in this tense, provocative Spanish thriller.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 53 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, rough, disturbing, clever, suspenseful, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Oz (1997)
Plot Summary:
The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorizes their mutual enemies.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 105000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, serious, talky, dramatic, controversial
Similar in 75%
Wentworth (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, suspenseful, rough, bleak, erotic, sexy, dark, dramatic, thrilling
Similar in 88%
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Plot Summary:
A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 621000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 2109 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, tense, stylized, captivating, clever, suspenseful, rough, historical drama, realistic