Best Fraught Movies & TV Shows

Every year, two million zebras and wildebeest thunder along the Serengeti plains on a pilgrimage to the grassy highlands. Witness the largest mass migration on the planet, a high-stakes journey fraught with danger and drama.

In the spring of 1913, Parisian businessman Gabriel Astruc opens a new theater on the Champs Elysées. The first performance is the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', danced by the Ballet Russes. The rehearsal process is extremely fraught: the orchestra dislike Stravinsky's harsh, atonal music; the dancers dislike the 'ugly' choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky. The volatile, bisexual Nijinsky is in a strained relationship with the much older Sergei Diaghilev, the Ballet Russes' charismatic but manipulative impresario. Public expectation is extremely high after Nijinsky's success in 'L'apres-midi d'un faune'. Finally, 'The Rite of Spring' premieres to a gossip-loving, febrile, fashion-conscious Parisian audience sharply divided as to its merits.

Dive into the cutthroat world of competitive high school cheerleading, following the fraught relationship between two best friends after a new coach arrives to bring their team to prominence.

When his unmarried mother dies, custody of 13-year-old Job is assumed by his alleged father, Chris, whom he has never seen. Job is an enthusiastic cadet at a military academy, and Chris turns out to be a top-grossing rock star who removes Job from his beloved school to keep him company on tour. Getting acquainted is fraught with culture shock for both father and son. Written by Paul Emmons

Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to his home land of Thessaly after a long voyage to claim his rightful throne. He learns, however, that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. To do so, he must embark on an epic quest fraught with fantastic monsters and terrible perils.

A what-in-the-living-hell-is-wrong-with-this-family comedy created by comic super-couple Jason Jones & Samantha Bee and inspired by their own experiences with family trips. Unfiltered dad Nate hits the road with wife Robin and kids Delilah and Jared. Every leg of their trip is fraught with disaster as they encounter one hellish turn after another. If there's trouble on the road, this family will find it and plow into it.

An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.

With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, The Queen of Versailles follows billionaires Jackie and David’s rags-to-riches story to uncover the innate virtues and flaws of their American dream. We open on the triumphant construction of the biggest house in America, a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles. Since a booming time-share business built on the real-estate bubble is financing it, the economic crisis brings progress to a halt and seals the fate of its owners. We witness the impact of this turn of fortune over the next two years in a riveting film fraught with delusion, denial, and self-effacing humor.

Vegucated is a guerrilla-style documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks and learn what it's all about. They have no idea that so much more than steak is at stake and that the planet's fate may fall on their plates. Lured by tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover hidden sides of animal agriculture that make them wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough. Before long, they find themselves risking everything to expose an industry they supported just weeks before. But can their convictions carry them through when times get tough? What about on family vacations fraught with skeptical step-dads, carnivorous cousins, and breakfast buffets? Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, Vegucated showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who are trying their darnedest to change in a culture that seems dead set against it.

In Korea, on 6 September 1950, Lieutenant Benson's platoon finds itself isolated in enemy-held territory after a retreat. Soon they are joined by Sergeant Montana, whose overriding concern is caring for his catatonic colonel. Benson and Montana can't stand each other, but together they must get the survivors to Hill 465, where they hope the division is waiting. It's a long, harrowing march, fraught with all the dangers the elusive enemy can summon.

This True Life Fantasy follows and shows how the life of a female squirrel, Perri, in the forest is filled with danger and fraught with peril. When not fleeing her natural enemy, the Marten, Perri finds time to fall in love with her prince-charming male squirrel.

While listening to a recording of Penny Serenade, Julie Gardiner Adams begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams, which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. Other songs remind her of their courtship, their marriage, their desire for a child, and the joys and sorrows they have shared. A flood of memories come back to her as she ponders on their present problems and how they arose.

In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

When Anne Shirley turns 13, she faces complex issues with her friends, inspirational adults and Marilla and Matthew. At the same time, she begins a friendship with Gilbert Blythe that emotionally escalates to disrupt the status quo of her peaceful world. Her free-spirited nature is challenged by her perceived need to become sensible, and her journey toward this goal is fraught with confusion and more than a few unfortunate – albeit, amusing - mishaps.

Set in 1952 Grey Rocks – a centuries old town that was famous 250 years ago as a favored port of pirates – Pirate’s Passage follows the story of 12-year-old Jim. Fraught by the death of his father and forced to endure schoolyard bullying each day, Jim manages to carry on, buoyed by his optimistic imagination and fueled by his sense of adventure. The sudden arrival of Captain Johnson, whose small sailboat has been thrown off course by a storm, changes Jim’s life. The Captain quickly becomes a mentor and friend to Jim, giving him extraordinary lessons in self-reliance and determination. Soon, Jim develops a liberating self-assurance that so deeply touches the Captain that he allows Jim to see evidence that the Captain may be more than meets the eye. Is Captain Johnson the same Charles Johnson who was a pirate there two hundred years ago? The lad goes with him on a literal journey into the past to find out and emerges able to navigate the course of his life.

A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

The trilogy presents a comically fraught weekend from three different perspectives, as family and in laws gather at the decaying country home of their bedridden mother; the drink flows, and hidden enmities, intimate secrets and uncomfortable truths emerge through the veneer of jollity and civility.

With sharp humor and a critical sense of curiosity, comedian CJ Hunt documents the fraught removal of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans. As the scope of his film expands, Hunt investigates the origins of a romanticized Confederacy and confronts hard truths much of America has yet to face.

When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West. They enlist Sam "Bulldog" Burnett in their efforts to transport their lone bull, a Hereford named Vindicator, to a breeder in Texas, but the trail is fraught with danger and even Burnett doubts the survival potential of this "rare breed" of cattle.

In 1999, teenage sisters Celeste and Eleanor survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of a catastrophe - while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, Celeste is a mother to a teenage daughter of her own and is struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.

Set against the glamorous backdrop of Britain's roaring '20s, The Laureate tells the story of young British War Poet Robert Graves, who is married with four children when he meets and becomes romantically involved with Laura Riding, a writer from America. Defying the conventions of polite society, Riding moves in with Graves and his wife living as a menage a tois. Then with the arrival of strappingly handsome Irish poet Geoffrey Phibbs, the arrangement becomes a menage a quatre. But soon tensions and rivalries become so fraught that Graves is a suspect for attempted murder.

When an emotionally-fragile young woman takes a job as nanny to two troubled children at a remote summer cottage, she falls in love with the children's father, while becoming enmeshed in the mystery of their estranged mother - with whom, it turns out, the young woman has her own fraught history. As the summer progresses, she begins to suspect that the family has a dark history that they are desperate to keep secret.

Hard-boiled archeologist Mark Brandon is searching for ancient tombs in Egypt when he is approached by beautiful Ann Mercedes, who convinces him to help her fulfill her deceased father's life's ambition - to provide solid proof of the biblical Joseph's travels in ancient Egypt. As an ex-pupil of Ann's father, Mark accepts and the two embark on a search for the tomb of the Pharoah Ra Hotep, said to have had some connection with Joseph. The trail to the tomb is fraught with intrigue, betrayal, murder, and the possibility that the tomb itself has been emptied of all its artifacts by ancient looters.

A modern day sci-fi about Palmer Marshall, a struggling engineering student that’s flailing through his personal life, classes, and career. Palmer is on the cusp of a potentially huge discovery and he devotes every waking moment to the challenging, and often fruitless, pursuit of creating something that might change the world. But Palmer soon learns that the road to success is long and fraught with failure. Despite crippling anxiety and personality disorders, Palmer perseveres and creates the one – the dream machine that he’ll be remembered for.

A chance meeting between British nobleman and lovely young Mistral foils a plot by her manipulating Aunt Emilie to avenge the death of her sister, Mistral's mother, who died in childbirth. But when an unscrupulous blackmailer and a rapacious Rajah enter the plot, the growing attraction between Lord and convent girl becomes yet more fraught with Danger.

In the vein of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" and fraught with mystery and edge-of-your seat suspense, Kari Wuhrer Poison tells the darkly insidious story of the Garrett household and their descent into a hellish world of sexual malice and physical terror! Seeking revenge for her husband's death, Ann ingratiates herself with the Garretts under the guise of a caring housekeeper. Once she gains their trust, Ann begins to wreak havoc upon them. Seduction and malice are her weapons as she attempts to eliminate everyone she believes is responsible.

When 30 something Sean meets Eastern European immigrant Wolf, sparks fly. They return to Sean’s apartment and begin a high energy and hugely sexual affair. What starts as a mere chance meeting slowly evolves into something more. Wolf is easy going, turning tricks to supplement his living, while Sean is needy, talkative and neurotic. Creating a stable relationship is fraught with problems. With Wolf disappearing for hours at a time and Sean doing drugs the two of them seem to be headed down a path of destruction.

Promoters set up a radio contest to find the average American and use him to sell food, apparel and notions. All goes well until he falls in love with a girl who upsets things.

Meek farmhand Sasha and policeman Dima have a fraught relationship. They’re brothers-in-law, travel companions, and⁠—secretly⁠—lovers. Over the course of their journey to visit Sasha’s grandmother, unspoken truths are uttered, intimacy is built, and authenticity is challenged. Although they may be far from the peering eyes of their oppressive society, their relationship teeters on a dangerous precipice.

Papa and Boy is an animated comedy about the fraught relationship between a father and his always questioning son. They live in a world inhabited only by fathers and sons and despite caring deeply for each other, they are locked in a world historical conflict that precedes their own lives. The world of Papa and Boy is built upon The Fatherson System, a socio-economic system that allows fathers to command and control boys under the threat of punishment. The show is an absurd comedy about the cruel and terrible systems of power we inherit from our parents. Through Papa and Boy, we can see how absurd and morally bankrupt capitalism is and the way it deprives everyone involved of their humanity. Ultimately, the satirical core of Papa and Boy is making fun of the assumption that human hierarchies and capitalism are natural, justified, and immovable.

Maude, Jennifer, Melanie, Vincent, and Sami navigate adolescence and the ups and downs of high school in a changing digital world amid the emergence of social media. The group gathers their talents and passions around the common project of revitalizing the student newspaper, with a goal toward changing the world. Brimming with optimism and fraught with anxiety, with a lot of laughs along the way the teens learn a lot about themselves as they explore relationships, commitment, and what it's like to be a teenager in the 21st century.

A backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved.

Two young scientists work around the clock gathering data on large predators, a dangerous activity that puts their lives at risk. Meanwhile, an elephant orphanage is giving new hope to baby calves rescued from poachers. Enter into a brave new world of conservation, one that's fraught with peril and hope.

An inside look at the changing role of athletes in our fraught cultural and political environment, through the lens of the NBA.

He was a handsome gambler, living by his wits; yet when he played for the biggest stake of his life he threw away the winning hand; She was the beautiful daughter of a Southern gentleman; yet she fell in love with the gambler. How? Why? See the answer in this utterly charming, smashingly dramatic and colorful romance of river days fraught with adventure.

21 monologues written by American playwrights form a sort of fractured portrait of the American collective psyche. Ranging from the sad to the hilarious, from the angry to the tentatively celebratory, many of the major and recurrent issues associated with our fraught but beloved union are reconsidered with elegance, wit, brutal honesty, and a little outright insanity.

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the second of the six films, "From Behind Closed Doors," filmmaker Robert Townsend delves into America's fraught relationship with sex and sexuality, using New York's Times Square as the focal point as he traces 100 years of sexual mores and practices.

Britain is in crisis. An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgment is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and in an act of impulsive jealousy begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a long-lost heir and reconcile the young lovers.

From the minds of Kate Berlant, John Early and Andrew DeYoung, 555 is an anthology miniseries of five short films that unfold in a stark, humid, surreality of Hollywood. These short, cinematic fairy tales are set in tinsel town, where status is everything and the stakes are high. The backdrop is big dreams, and in the foreground, the humiliations of clawing one’s way toward them. Each episode focuses on a fraught relationship between two characters, where ambition prevails over empathy. Among the wildly varied characters: a young Mama Rose type and her mute child, two sensual but ignorant acting students, an agent turned artist by tragedy and his partner who must watch his grotesque fall. Each episode zooms in on characters toiling in different corners of a Hollywood hellscape. Will greed, egotism, ignorance and desire consume them? Or can they escape dark fates by clinging to rare moments of tenderness?