Top 250 Tv Shows Like Backwater

A list of the best tv shows similar to Backwater. If you liked Backwater then you may also like: House of the Dragon, Euphoria, Shameless, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Affair and many more great tv shows featured on this list.

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Toma lives in a small riverside town with his brutish father and his father's girlfriend. Witnessing his father's predilections for abuse, Toma becomes anxious that he will have inherited those urges.

House of the Dragon

The Targaryen dynasty is at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins when King Viserys breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.

Euphoria

A group of high school students navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.

Shameless

Chicagoan Frank Gallagher is the proud single dad of six smart, industrious, independent kids, who without him would be... perhaps better off. When Frank's not at the bar spending what little money they have, he's passed out on the floor. But the kids have found ways to grow up in spite of him. They may not be like any family you know, but they make no apologies for being exactly who they are.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

The Affair

The Affair explores the emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah Solloway and Alison Lockhart after the two meet in the resort town of Montauk in Long Island. Noah is a New York City schoolteacher with one novel published (book entitled A Person who Visits a Place) and he is struggling to write a second book. He is happily married with four children, but resents his dependence on his wealthy father-in-law. Alison is a young waitress trying to piece her life and marriage back together in the wake of the tragic death of her child. The story of the affair is told separately, complete with distinct memory biases, from the male and female perspectives.

Bates Motel

A "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film Psycho, depicting the life of Norman Bates and his mother Norma prior to the events portrayed in Hitchcock's film, albeit in a different fictional town and in a modern setting. The series begins after the death of Norma's husband, when she purchases a motel located in a coastal Oregon town so she and Norman can start a new life.

Big Little Lies

The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.

Bloodline

A dramatic thriller that explores the demons lurking beneath the surface of a contemporary American family. The Rayburns are hard-working pillars of their Florida Keys community. But when the black sheep son comes home for the 45th anniversary of his parents' hotel, he threatens to expose the Rayburns' dark secrets and shameful past, pushing his siblings to the limits of family loyalty.

The Bold and the Beautiful

Continuing drama combining romance and intrigue set against the glittering backdrop of Beverly Hills and the American fashion industry.

Californication

A self-loathing, alcoholic writer attempts to repair his damaged relationships with his daughter and her mother while combating sex addiction, a budding drug problem, and the seeming inability to avoid making bad decisions.

Carnivàle

Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes Christian theology with gnosticism and Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar.

The Chi

A relevant, timely and distinctive coming-of-age story following a half dozen interrelated characters in the South Side of Chicago. The story centers on Brandon, an ambitious and confident young man who dreams about opening a restaurant of his own someday, but is conflicted between the promise of a new life and his responsibility to his mother and teenage brother back in the South Side.

Dawson's Creek

Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama that portrays the fictional lives of a close-knit group of teenagers through high school and college.

Deadwood

The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.

Dexter

Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police also leads a secret life as a serial killer, hunting down criminals who have slipped through the cracks of justice.

Fleabag

Meet Fleabag. She's not talking to all of us; she's talking to YOU. So why don't you pop your top off and come right in? A window into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, porn-watching, grief-riddled woman, trying to make sense of the world.

Girls

The assorted humiliations, disasters and rare triumphs of four very different twenty-something girls: Hannah, an aspiring writer; Marnie, an art gallery assistant and cousins Jessa and Shoshanna.

Heartland

Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?

Home and Away

Home and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family. During the early 2000s, the central storylines focused on the Sutherlands and later, the Hunters. Home and Away had proved popular when it premiered in 1988 and had risen to become a hit in Australia, and after only a few weeks, the show tackled its first major and disturbing storyline, the rape of Carly Morris; it was one of the first shows to feature such storylines during the early timeslot. H&A has tackled many adult-themed and controversial storylines; something rarely found in its restricted timeslot.

Kill la Kill

Honnouji Academy is forcefully ruled by the iron-fisted control of its student council and its president, Satsuki Kiryuuin. Transfer student, Ryuuko Matoi, arrives on campus carrying a giant sword, that is actually half of a scissor. She is looking for the woman who holds the other half of her sword who killed her father. It is said that Satsuki Kiryuuin knows the identity of the killer but when Ryuuko confronts her she is beaten by the student council and their powerful "goku uniforms" whom she cannot match in strength. However, once Ryuuko receives her own "Kamui" by the name of Senketsu , the odds are lifted in her favor.

Life Unexpected

16-year-old Lux was given up for adoption at birth but never adopted. When she is put back into the custody of her estranged-since-high-school birth parents, Cate and Baze, the three form an unlikely family.

The Middle

The daily mishaps of a married woman and her semi-dysfunctional family and their attempts to survive life in general in the city of Orson, Indiana.

The Mist

A small town family is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other.

Riverdale

Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.

Roseanne

A working-class family struggles to get by on a limited income in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois.

The Sinner

In a small New York town, a haunted detective hunts for answers about perplexing crimes while wrestling with his own demons.

Six Feet Under

A darkly comic look at members of a dysfunctional L.A. family that run a funeral business.  When death is your business, what is your life? For the Fisher family, the world outside of their family-owned funeral home continues to be at least as challenging as--and far less predictable than--the one inside.

Taboo

Adventurer James Keziah Delaney returns to London from Africa in 1814 along with fourteen stolen diamonds to seek vengeance after the death of his father.

Tell Me You Love Me

This riveting and provocative drama series explores issues of intimacy within the lives of three couples and the therapist they share.

The Leftovers

When 2% of the world's population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to understand just what they're supposed to do about it. The drama series 'The Leftovers' is the story of the people who didn't make the cut.

Twin Peaks

The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.

Tyler Perry's Ruthless

A spinoff of "The Oval," follows Ruth Truesdale as she's forced to play nice with a scandalous religious cult of powerful sex crazed fanatics in the hopes of freeing herself and her daughter.

Monarch of the Glen

Archie MacDonald, a young restaurateur is called back to his childhood home of Glenbogle where he is told he is the new Laird of Glenbogle.

Oz

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 terrorize their mutual enemies.

Bliss

Bliss is a Canadian produced, half hour dramatic television series, produced by Montreal-based Galafilm and Toronto-based Back Alley Films, an anthology of women's erotica. The series ran from 2002 to 2004. The format of the show—short, sensual vignettes adapted for television—aired on Oxygen in the United States and Showcase, TMN and Movie Central in Canada. The series is distributed by Oasis International in Toronto.

Marine Boy

Marine Boy was one of the first color anime cartoons to be shown in a dubbed form in the U.S., and later in Australia and the United Kingdom. It was originally produced in Japan as Undersea Boy Marine by Minoru Adachi and animation company Japan Tele-Cartoons. It was sold outside of Japan via K. Fujita Associates Inc., with Warner Bros / Seven Arts Television handling worldwide distribution of the English-language version.

Paranoia Agent

Musashino, Tokyo. An elementary schooler repeatedly attacks people in the streets. Known only to the public as "Lil Slugger", none of the victims can recall the young boy's face and only three distinct details are left in their memories: golden inline skates, a baseball cap, and the weapon: a bent golden baseball bat. Detectives Ikari and Maniwa set out to track down the perpetrator and put an end to his crimes.

Tempo final

One real hour. An hour of suspense. An hour of life and death. After 60 minutes, nothing will be the same as before.

Erotic Confessions

Anthology series wherein each episode, Jacqueline Stone reads a letter sent in from women recounting their erotic experiences.

Working with Voice!

Koe de Oshigoto!, also known by the short title KoeGoto, is a 2008–2013 manga series by Azure Konno, about a girl working as a voice actress for an eroge development company. It was serialized in Wani Books' monthly Comic Gum magazine. A two-episode anime adptation was produced by Studio Gokumi and released in 2010 and 2011.

Gigolos

Make a date with the Gigolos. An extremely rare and uncensored look into the personal and professional lives of five hot guys in Vegas who like to hang out, have fun and get girls, but in their case they get paid for it. They find themselves in some unexpected positions as they balance relationships, friends and family with the demands of their female clientele. A reality series like no other, Gigolos is not only provocative but also surprisingly heartfelt. It's a wild ride for these real-life escorts who never miss a trick.

Magic City

Set in 1959 Miami, Florida shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans, the owner of Miami's most glamorous hotel, the Miramar Playa. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.

Lingerie

Lingerie is an erotic drama about a struggling New York City lingerie company, its owner Lacey Summers, and her friends and associates.

Penance

The murder of a young girl shocks a small Japanese village, and the victim's mother is distraught when the classmates her daughter was playing with all claim not to remember the identity of the killer. In her anger, she puts a curse on them.

Hemlock Grove

One cannot quench his all-consuming thirst. The other cannot tame the beast clawing its way out. In the sleepy Pennsylvania village of Hemlock Grove, two young men struggle to accept painful truths: about family, themselves, the mystery of the White Tower - and a terrifying new threat so powerful it will turn them from predators into prey.

Btooom!

Sakamoto, an unemployed young man, is one of the world's top players of an online fighting game called Btooom! One day, he wakes up on what appears to be a tropical island, although he doesn't remember how or why he got there.

Top of the Lake

A woman haunted by her past, Detective Robin Griffin, investigates complex and unsettling cases.

Pupa

Growing up with an abusive father, Utsutsu is highly protective of his younger sister Yume. One day, she contracts the strange Pupa virus and begins to sprout grotesque wings and attack both animals and humans.

Dragonar Academy

In a land of dragons, where citizens called breeders tame their dragon pals, races of dragons are born from breeders who are given a Seikoku: a dragon star-shape brand. Learning to ride and tame dragons comes easy to most students at Ansarivan Dragonar Academy — except for first-year student Ash Blake, who is known by his fellow classmates as the "number one problem child".

Sex & Violence

Follows the lives of a social worker, a victims' advocate and four others who provide support to victims of violence.

Violence Jack

After a devastating natural disaster, the Kanto region in Japan is now a wasteland of lawlessness, where the weak are playthings of the strong. Ruled with an iron fist by the Slum King, the people of Kanto have no hope left to them, living at the whims of raiders and bandits. In this hellish world, there is only one man with the power to stand up for the powerless, and his name alone strikes terror into evil hearts -- Violence Jack! Whether he’s saving women from sex camps, protecting the models of Zone C from those who covet their beauty, or exterminating a biker gang bent on destruction; if you oppress the weak, the only thing you can look forward to is a swift death from Jack’s knife!

Immoral Sisters

Rumi, Tamoko and their mother are being blackmailed by Mr. Nogawa and his son. They must learn to fight back just enough to be able to take revenge when the time is right.

Animal Kingdom

17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Headed by boot-tough matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody and her right-hand Baz, who runs the business and calls the shots, the clan also consists of Pope, the oldest and most dangerous of the Cody boys; Craig, the tough and fearless middle son; and Deran, the troubled, suspicious "baby" of the family.

Submission

Beautiful but unfulfilled Ashley has her eyes opened to the tantalizing possibilities of BDSM when she discovers the popular erotic novel SLAVE by Nolan Keats. But her fascination with the mysterious Mr. Keats leads her into a sexy but dangerous love triangle, and tests the boundaries of her own sexual limitations.

Act of Will

Act of Will is a 1989 mini-series directed by Don Sharp. It the third mini series based on a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel he had directed and was an early lead role for Elizabeth Hurley.

Easy

This eclectic, star-studded anthology follows diverse Chicagoans fumbling through the modern maze of love, sex, technology and culture. First dates, friends with benefits, couples with kids. Whatever your relationship status is, it's always complicated.

Case

A dramatic thriller about a broken lawyer who seeks redemption through his investigation into the suspicious suicide of a teenage ballet prodigy.

Workin' Moms

Four women juggle love, careers, and parenthood. They support, challenge, and try not to judge each other as life throws them curveballs. Whether it is an identity crisis, a huge job opportunity, postpartum depression, or an unplanned pregnancy – they face both the good and bad with grace and humour.

Apple Tree Yard

What starts out as a simple, reckless mid-life affair between a genetic scientist named Yvonne and a Westminster paper pusher takes an intriguing turn when she realizes he’s a spook – then suddenly gets very dark indeed. A provocative study of obsession, longing and just how far down a criminal path desire can take you.

Patrick Melrose

A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.

Vida

Two Mexican-American sisters from the Eastside of Los Angeles who couldn't be more different or distanced from each other are forced to return to their old neighborhood, where they are confronted by the past and surprising truth about their mother’s identity.

The Young Offenders

Coming-of-age drama about lovable rogues Conor and Jock as they navigate their awkward teenage years, hatching plans and adventures to help distract from their tough home lives and their inability to stay out of trouble at school.

Swell

The everyday lives of five men living together on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Unbeknownst to one another, each of them is living some aspect of his life on the DL.

The Naked Director

Pinku (the Japanese softcore film sub-genre) has a long and historied part in Japanese cinema. The genre has existed for over forty years and seen many ebbs and flows. One of the directors during the heyday of the movement was the prolific Muranishi Toru. Adapted from a novel about the man, this series depicts the character, his art, vision and his interactions with the approving and disapproving folk around him.

Mrs. Fletcher

A dual coming-of-age comedy exploring the impact of internet porn and social media, Mrs. Fletcher follows empty nest divorcée Eve Fletcher — as she reinvents her life to find the happiness and sexual fulfillment that’s eluded her, and her college freshman son Brendan.

The Undoing

Grace and Jonathan Fraser are living the only lives they ever wanted. Overnight a chasm opens in their lives: a violent death and a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and her family.

Obliterated

A special forces team thwarts a deadly plot in Sin City and parties accordingly. But when the real threat emerges, they must sober up to save Las Vegas.

Brand New Cherry Flavor

A filmmaker heads to Hollywood in the early ’90s to make her movie but tumbles down a hallucinatory rabbit hole of sex, magic, revenge — and kittens.

I Know This Much Is True

The parallel lives of identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness set against the backdrop of 20th century America.

When the Streetlights Go On

A double-homicide in a small midwestern suburb rattles the lives of a group of teenagers and sends investigators searching for answers in the fall of 1995. A meditation on growing up, the passing of time, and the insidious violence that lurks in the suburbs.

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

Stories from survivors fuel this docuseries examining how convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and power to carry out his abuses.

The Titan's Bride

Koichi, a student about to graduate, is summoned to a world of Titans. It's the land of Tildant, where the prince, Caius, appears in front of Koichi and says, "I want you to be my bride and give birth to my baby!"

PIECES OF HER

A woman pieces together her mother's dark past after a violent attack in their small town brings hidden threats and deadly secrets to light.

Redo of Healer

In a world of monsters, adventurers and magic, some of the most gifted healers are subjugated to brute force. Keyaru gains the ability to rewind time and turns the tables on those who’ve exploited him in this dark fantasy tale of vengeance and fury.

Wonder Egg Priority

Ai, a young girl with shut-in tendencies, who tries not to interact with others. She keeps one of her eyes hidden behind her hair. One day, she happens to stop by a deserted arcade, where she meets "Aka." Spinning the gacha at their urging, she acquires a "Wonder Egg," and from that moment, her fate begins to change...

High-Rise Invasion

High-school girl Yuri suddenly finds herself on the rooftop of a high-rise building. She's trapped in a bizarre world surrounded by skyscrapers, where a masked man cracked open a man's head with an axe before her eyes. Finding a way to survive this bizarre world, find her beloved brother, and escape becomes her top priority, but she is beset by danger not just from the mysterious Masks, which possess both inhuman strength and cruelty, but other survivors turned cruel or desparate by the insanity of the high-rise world.

Tell Me Lies

When Lucy Albright arrives on the campus of her small college, away from her mother whom she's never forgiven for an act of betrayal in her early teen years, Lucy embraces college life and all it has to offer. But everything changes when she meets Stephen DeMarco, who has a mysterious past of his own. Their addicting entanglement will have consequences they never could have imagined.

Ginny & Georgia

Angsty and awkward fifteen year old Ginny Miller often feels more mature than her thirty year old mother, the irresistible and dynamic Georgia Miller. After years on the run, Georgia desperately wants to put down roots in picturesque New England and give her family something they've never had... a normal life. But it's not all carpool and Kombucha as Georgia's past threatens her and her family's new way of life... and Georgia will do anything to protect her family.

Pam & Tommy

This comedic series takes on the true story behind the release of the first ever viral video in history — the sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Fatal Attraction

An affair threatens the lives of Dan Gallagher and his wife, Beth, in this deep-dive reimagining of the classic psychosexual thriller which explores fatal attraction and the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control.

The Time Traveler's Wife

The intricate and magical love story of Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem… time travel.

Clark

This is the incredible story behind Sweden's most notorious gangster, Clark Olofsson, whose infamous crimes gave rise to the term "Stockholm Syndrome".

American Gigolo

Julian Kaye has always been an object of desire, so much so that people are willing to destroy him in order to have him. Exonerated, after 15 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, he now faces the challenge of picking up the pieces as the detective who put him behind bars tries to unravel the mystery that led to his wrongful incarceration.

Brazzers House

Co-hosted by Nikki Benz and Keiran Lee, Brazzers House is home to 10 sexy pornstar contestants, all living under the same roof. The competition heats up when the house guests are divided into two teams and face elimination with a series of mental and physical challenges. Brazzers members have a chance to vote for their favorite team at the end of each episode and when all the votes are counted, one team will be evicted and the other will be crowned the winner of the house challenges. That lucky team of 5 contestants gets to participate in the final live challenge, where each house guest will compete against each other in the hopes of taking home the Grand Prize!

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

After losing her parents to a mysterious fire, nine-year-old Alice Hart is raised by her grandmother June on a flower farm where she learns there are secrets within secrets. But years on, an unearthed betrayal sees Alice forced to face her past.

Buried

The gripping story of Eileen Franklin who, while playing with her young daughter, suddenly had a memory of witnessing the rape and murder of her childhood best friend, 8-year-old Susan Nason, which led to a re-opening of a case that had gone unsolved for nearly 20 years.

Dexter: New Blood

10 years after Dexter went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura, we find him living under an assumed name in the small town of Iron Lake, New York. Dexter may be embracing his new life, but in the wake of unexpected events in this close-knit community, his Dark Passenger beckons.

Kotaro Lives Alone

A lonely little boy moves into a ramshackle apartment building all on his own and makes friends with the broke manga artist who lives next door.

The Patient

A psychotherapist finds himself held prisoner by a serial killer with an unusual request: curb his homicidal urges.

The Idol

After a nervous breakdown derailed Jocelyn's last tour, she’s determined to claim her rightful status as the greatest and sexiest pop star in America. Her passions are reignited by Tedros, a nightclub impresario with a sordid past. Will her romantic awakening take her to glorious new heights or the deepest and darkest depths of her soul?

Keep This Between Us

The series exposes an epidemic of widespread grooming – manipulative and coercive behavior by abusers to gain access to potential victims – in U.S. high schools. The series follows one woman’s journey as she reexamines her past relationship with a trusted teacher.

Dead Ringers

Elliot and Beverly Mantle are twins who share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes — including pushing the boundaries on medical ethics — in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s healthcare to the forefront.

Somewhere Boy

Danny was a baby when his mother was killed in a car crash. Overcome with grief, his father locked him away in a house, telling him the outside world is full of monsters that will spirit him away like his mother.

Killer Sally

Interviews with friends, family and Sally McNeil herself chart a bodybuilding couple’s rocky marriage — and its shocking end in a Valentine's Day murder.

Obsession

A respected London surgeon's affair with his son's fiancée turns into an erotic infatuation that threatens to change their lives forever.

The Secrets of Hillsong

With fresh reporting and analysis from journalists, historians and policymakers, go beyond the sensational headlines and behind the velvet rope to examine the church's long pattern of covering up misconduct to protect itself.

Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home

Two pairs of complete strangers are stripped bare of all clothes and possessions to race across the English countryside in a bid to be the first to reach a cash prize for charity and their clothes.

Burn the House Down

After her mother took the blame for a tragic fire 13 years ago, Anzu plots revenge by working as a housekeeper under a pseudonym for her icy stepmother.

Young American Bodies

Young American Bodies is an American web series, which originally premiered on Nerve.com and currently airs on IFC and at IFC.com in the United States. Each short episode looks into the intersecting love lives of six twenty-somethings in Chicago. The series is produced and directed by Joe Swanberg, the director of Hannah Takes The Stairs and Nights and Weekends.

La reine rouge

La reine rouge is the direct sequel to the novel 5150, rue des Ormes by Patrick Senécal, telling the story of Michelle Beaulieu, who has become a merciless killer, fleeing to start a new life following the terrible events of the kidnapping of the young Yannick Bérubé and the murders perpetrated by his father Jacques Beaulieu.

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