Best tv shows like Windfall and Misfortunes
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
On April 1st, 1986, Jean-Guy Lavigueur, an unemployed blue-collar worker and his family won 7.6 million dollars. At the time, it was the largest amount ever won at Loto-Quebec's 6/49 weekly draws. What should have been the beginning of a fairytale for the family turned rapidly into a nightmare.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, fairy tale, offbeat
Best tv shows and movies like Windfall and Misfortunes (2008):
Similar in 85%
Let Go (2017)
Plot Summary:
Everyone can have a bad day now and then, but we meet Valerie on a morning that divides her life neatly into before and after. It took one inconsequential setback – a silly thing, really – to cause a slight delay in Valerie’s schedule, resulting in a regrettable distraction, causing an unfortunate incident, which leads her to the police station….. making her miss the single most important event she had on her agenda: The Meeting! That’s when the dam breaks. All that control to build the fragile framework of her life collapses instantly. Valerie gets fired, is obliged to restrain her lifestyle, and now with the shared custody of her son in question, Valerie has to review her priorities and reorganize her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, humorous, captivating
Similar in 83%
MVP (2008)
Plot Summary:
MVP is a 2008 Canadian television series that debuted January 11, 2008 on CBC Television. The program was cancelled by the CBC on March 7, 2008. Poor ratings and high production costs were cited as reasons for the cancellation.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 78%
Forgive Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
A series that breaks the seal of the Catholic confessional booth. A young insomniac priest gets caught up in the sins of his congregants while a secret from his own past threatens his calling.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 33
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, touching, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The Measure of a Man (2015)
Plot Summary:
At the age of 51 and after 20 months on unemployment, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma. How much is he willing to accept to keep his job?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, serious, captivating, political, social
Similar in 80%
Brezhnev (2005)
Plot Summary:
About the last days of Leonid Brezhnev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He is sick and depressed, but he is still trying to enjoy some pleasures of life. He is hunting, eating, and sleeping a lot. While awake, he is recalling his life and his career. Most depressing are his painful thoughts about his treason against Khrushchev, who promoted Brezhnev to the top. Other senile members of the Politbureau, are nervous about the choice of a successor. Andropov anxiously interrogates the doctor about Brezhnev's imminent death. He asks, "How soon?".
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 208 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspense, political thriller, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Northeast (2005)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 414
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Spain, Belgium
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Little Girl Lost (1988)
Plot Summary:
This heart-wrenching story inspired by real events depicts the trials of the Brady family, who are trying desperately to adopt a helpless little girl they took in when she was in a foster care program. Clara and Tim Brady are in for the fight of their lives as they find that adopting Tella will not be so easy -- especially when social services puts her back into the care of her abusive father.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 251
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Terminal City (2005)
Plot Summary:
Terminal City was a Canadian mini-series about a woman diagnosed with breast cancer while running a failing reality tv show turning it into a hit as her life and body begin to change.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, realistic, psychological, captivating, serious
Similar in 85%
The Ice Cream Girls (2013)
Plot Summary:
The Ice Creams is based on the bestselling book by Dorothy Koomson about two girls who, one brief summer, find themselves involved with an abusive, controlling man. The situation spirals out of control and they are trial for his murder; ultimately Poppy gets sent to prison. Flash forward 17 years; Serena is married with a daughter in a seemingly comfortable life, returns to Brighton to take care of her dying mother. Poppy has been released and she wants answers. She claims not to have killed Marcus, but if she didn't and Serena didn't....then who did?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 699
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 90%
Granite Flats (2013)
Plot Summary:
It's the 1960s. The height of the Cold War. The rural town of Granite Flats, Colorado, suddenly becomes a hotbed for mystery and intrigue. Almost a year after Hershel Jenkins was released from jail, mystery is still a permanent resident in Granite Flats, Colorado. From small concerns plaguing the citizens of the small town to ongoing FBI investigations, Arthur, Timmy, and Madeline are eager to put their developing detective skills to the test. Their sleuthing goes further than ever before, and they may be biting off more than they can chew. And as it turns out, sleuthing is a family affair. The parents of all three miniature detectives have dipped their toes in the water. Chief Sanders works side by side with the FBI to find a citizen who is disloyal to the country, Beth is embroiled in the center of experimental work at the hospital, and the Doctors Andrews are the masterminds behind the shady experiments. This season, everyone has got a secret and nobody is ready to admit it.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, stylized, captivating, detective
Similar in 89%
Laurel Avenue (1993)
Plot Summary:
Laurel Avenue is an American three-hour television miniseries which aired on HBO on July 10 and 11, 1993. It is the story of an eventful weekend in the lives of an extended African American family living in St. Paul, Minnesota. Paul Aaron and actor Charles S. Dutton served as executive producers. The teleplay was written by Michael Henry Brown, based upon a story by Aaron and Brown. The miniseries was directed by Carl Franklin.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 149
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: crime drama, tense, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, saga, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Lilies (2007)
Plot Summary:
Lilies is a British period-drama television series, written by Heidi Thomas, which ran for one eight-episode series in early 2007 on BBC One. The show's tagline was "Liverpool, 1920. Three girls on the edge of womanhood, a world on the brink of change." Due to lower than expected ratings, the BBC did not commission a second series.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 801
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, retro, period piece, historical drama, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 88%
The Porter (2022)
Plot Summary:
In 1921, friends and train porters Junior and Zeke find their unbreakable bond stretched to its limits when tragedy inspires them to take conflicting paths to a better life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 510
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, realistic, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 84%
White Heat (2012)
Plot Summary:
A story about a group of seven London-based students from 1965 to the present day.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 709
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, family saga, saga
Similar in 89%
House of Hancock (2015)
Plot Summary:
House of Hancock tells the epic true story of the Hancock dynasty and the bizarre love triangle that emerged between Lang, his daughter Gina, and his beautiful Filipina housekeeper Rose.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, epic, saga
Similar in 83%
The Mill (2013)
Plot Summary:
Powerful historical drama series, based on the lives of real people, telling the story of young 19th-century apprentices taking their lives into their own hands for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, stylized, psychological, rough, period piece, costume drama, grim, historical drama
Similar in 85%
Mad Ship (2013)
Plot Summary:
A Scandinavian immigrant, driven to madness by ruined dreams and the tragic death of his wife, embarks on a quixotic mission to build a homemade ship and sail out of the prairie dust bowl at the height of the Great Depression.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, period piece
Similar in 77%
About Sunny (2011)
Plot Summary:
As things unravel for a struggling single mother in Las Vegas, she must decide what she's willing to give up to get by.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 380
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, emotional, psychological, independent film, sincere, touching, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 85%
32 Brinkburn Street (2011)
Plot Summary:
Drama moving between the lives, loves and lies of two generations of the same family who live at 32 Brinkburn Street in 1931 and 2011.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, serious, sentimental, suspense, period drama
Similar in 89%
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 81%
3:13 (2014)
Plot Summary:
From living a normal life to surviving homelessness in the city of Miami, Peter is a victim of the turbulent U.S. recession during late 2000's. A drama based on true events.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 84%
From There to Here (2014)
Plot Summary:
Created by Peter Bowker, From There To Here is set in the aftermath of the 1996 Arndale bombing and follows Daniel Cotton, a Manchester family man who is torn between the life he wants and the life he could have. The story spans the four years that changed Manchester and the country forever; from Footballs Coming Home in 1996, to New Labour sweeping to power in 1997, and finally to the hangover after the Millennium celebrations of 2000. Against the feel-good backdrop of Euro 96, it maps the emotional shockwaves generated by that bomb in the lives of two parallel families from different sides of the tracks.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 575
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, touching, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
Blame It on Mum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mady Celliers, an attractive housewife of 60, he spends his life speaking ill of her two daughters and her husband, a man who shows a strange behavior since has retired. Antoine, the eldest son, company director, is unable to make a success of a business: out of a bankruptcy to get into another, her sister Alice madonnas obsessively paints sad. Annabelle, a nurse in an intensive care unit, tries desperately to save his family pronosticándole the future. When Alice meets by chance Jacques, a lonely police pessimistic explode all family neurosis.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 80%
Nobody Owns Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden. A unique and moving story freely based on Åsa Linderborg's best-selling novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, social
Similar in 85%
Arctic Air (2012)
Plot Summary:
Arctic Air is about a Yellowknife-based maverick airline and the unconventional family who runs it. The owners are Mel Ivarson, an old school bush pilot; Krista Ivarson, Mel's daughter; and Bobby Martin, the son of Ivarson's deceased partner. Episodes focus on interpersonal conflicts between the characters as well as dramatic flying missions with their aging fleet of Douglas DC-3s, de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters and other aircraft. Each episode has one or more flying missions. The series was canceled on March 17, 2014, due to government budgetary cuts.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Home Again (2012)
Plot Summary:
Returning to a "home" they hardly know after being deported from their adopted countries for minor criminal offenses, three people from very different backgrounds try to make a new life for themselves, in Jamaica in this gutsy drama from writer-director Sudz Sutherland. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 85%
Lucky 7 (2013)
Plot Summary:
What would you do if you won the lottery? How would it change your life? Follow a group of seven gas station employees in Queens, New York, who have been chipping into a lottery pool for years, never thinking they'd actually win. They need to be careful what they wish for, because while the money could solve problems for each of them, it will forever change the close-knit bonds these friends have formed.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 669
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 89%
The Village (2013)
Plot Summary:
The Village is a BBC TV series written by Peter Moffat. The drama is set in a Derbyshire village in the 20th century. The first series of what Moffat hopes will become a 42-hour TV drama was broadcast in spring 2013 and covered the years 1914 to 1920. A second series has been confirmed for 2014 which will continue the story into the 1920s. Future series would be set in the Second World War, post-war Austerity Britain, and so on. The Village tells the story of life in a Derbyshire village through the eyes of a central character, Bert Middleton. Bert has been portrayed as a boy by Bill Jones, as a teen by Alfie Stewart, and as an old man by David Ryall. John Simm plays Bert's father John Middleton, an alcoholic Peak District farmer, and Maxine Peake plays Bert's mother, Grace. Peake is a preferred actress of the writer, who has called her "the best actress of her generation", and she has featured in two previous Moffat series, Criminal Justice and Silk. Writer Peter Moffat has spoken of wanting to create 'a British Heimat', alluding to Edgar Reitz's epic German saga Heimat, which followed one extended family in a region of Rhineland from 1919 to 1982. Unlike Downton Abbey, this version of history is a working-class history—"domestics are expected to face the walls when the master walks by".
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, rough, costume drama, dark, grim, historical drama, stylized, epic
Similar in 76%
Human Cargo (2004)
Plot Summary:
Human Cargo is a 2004 Canadian television miniseries. The series won seven Gemini Awards and two Directors Guild of Canada Awards. It premiered on CBC Television on January 4, 2004 and starred Kate Nelligan, Cara Pifko, and Nicholas Campbell. The series was written by Linda Svendsen and Brian McKeown.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 116
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, epic, bleak
Similar in 81%
Rosary Scissors (2010)
Plot Summary:
Rosario is a teenage schoolgirl who lives in a tough Latin neighborhood filled with challenges. Having poverty all around, she faces difficult situations from family, school, rich friends vs. poor friends, and the element of drug cartel activity while she is forming her beliefs, goals and life. Her special skill of being "street-smart" allows her to outwit and shine in situations of danger, and is an epic strength that attracts people in her life, as well as helping her and her friends get ahead and what they want out of life. Her reputation becomes larger than real-life, and causes trouble and changes in the Barrio.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 432
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration:
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, suspenseful, tense, psychological, captivating, serious, telenovela