Top 250 Tv Shows Like Sankofa

A list of the best tv shows similar to Sankofa. If you liked Sankofa then you may also like: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Alex Haley's Queen, Altered Carbon, America's Next Top Model, Any Day Now and many more great tv shows featured on this list.

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On a photo shoot in Ghana, an American model slips back in time, becomes enslaved on a plantation and bears witness to the agony of her ancestral past.

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.

Alex Haley's Queen

Queen is the story about Easter, the illegitimate daughter of James Jackson, III and her lifelong affair with plantation owner Tim Daly, which would result in the birth of Queen. Queen's story revolves around her early years as a slave who yearns to know who her father is, and her condition as a fair skin mixed race woman who spends her life trying to figure out where exactly she fits in.

Altered Carbon

After 250 years on ice, a prisoner returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: by solving a mind-bending murder.

America's Next Top Model

Aspiring models compete for a chance to break into the business with a panel of judges critiquing their progress throughout the competition.

Any Day Now

Any Day Now is an American drama series that aired on the Lifetime network from 1998 to 2002. The show stars Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint as best friends of different races who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. In every episode, contemporary storylines are interwoven with a storyline from their shared past.

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.

Father Brown

Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

Hell on Wheels

The epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on Cullen Bohannon, a Confederate soldier who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time.

Just Shoot Me!

Just Shoot Me! is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from March 4, 1997, to August 16, 2003, with 148 episodes produced. The show was created by Steven Levitan, the show's executive producer.

The Keepers

This docuseries examines the decades-old murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik and its suspected link to a priest accused of abuse.

Kendra on Top

Kendra on Top is an American reality television series on WE tv that debuted June 5, 2012. The series follows the day-to-day life of former Playboy model and The Girls Next Door reality television personality Kendra Wilkinson as she balances being a mother and her business ventures. Season 2 chronicles Kendra as she prepares and participates as a celebrity contestant on Splash and stars on Celebrity Wife Swap. Hank is working on his transition from working in the NFL into the business world. Kendra's car accident that occurred in April 2013 is also included.

Making a Murderer

Filmed over 10 years, this real-life thriller follows a DNA exoneree who, while exposing police corruption, becomes a suspect in a grisly new crime.

Mannix

Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.

North and South

The story of the enduring friendship between Orry Main of South Carolina (Patrick Swayze) and George Hazard of Pennsylvania (James Read), who become best friends while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point but later find themselves and their families on opposite sides of the American Civil War.

Orange Is the New Black

A crime she committed in her youthful past sends Piper Chapman to a women's prison, where she trades her comfortable New York life for one of unexpected camaraderie and conflict in an eccentric group of fellow inmates.

Roots: The Next Generations

Roots: The Next Generations is a television miniseries, introduced in 1979, continuing, from 1882 to the 1960s, the fictionalized story of the family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, USA. This sequel to the 1977 miniseries is based on the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family plus additional material by Haley. Roots: The Next Generations was produced with a budget of $16.6 million, nearly three times as large as that of the original.

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.

Sleeper Cell

A chilling and unflinching look at all sides of a complicated issue, focusing on an African-American Muslim who joins an Islamic sleeper terrorist cell in the United States while working undercover for the FBI.

Tour of Duty

The trials of a U.S. Army platoon serving in the field during the Vietnam War.

Underground

A group of slaves plan a daring 600-mile escape from a Georgia plantation. Along the way, they are aided by a secret abolitionist couple running a station on the Underground Railroad as they attempt to evade the people charged with bringing them back, dead or alive.

When They See Us

Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls is an American prime time soap opera which aired for 14 episodes on ABC from September 23, 1984 to December 25, 1984. Set in New York's fashion industry, the show centered around top modeling agency owner Racine, her conflicts with the family of cosmetics tycoon Grant Harper, and the careers of two teenage models. The series was based on a 1982 TV movie of the same name.

Silent Witness

Silent Witness is a British crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes.

The L Word

A group of lesbian friends struggle with romance and careers in Los Angeles.

Germany's Next Topmodel

Germany's Next Topmodel is a German reality television show, based on a concept that was introduced by Tyra Banks with America's Next Top Model. The competition is hosted by Heidi Klum. She also serves as the lead judge and executive producer of the show.

Love Thy Neighbour

Love Thy Neighbour is a British sitcom, which was transmitted from 13 April 1972 until 22 January 1976, spanning seven series. The sitcom was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. The principal cast included Jack Smethurst, Rudolph Walker, Nina Baden-Semper and Kate Williams. In 1973, the series was adapted into a film of the same name, and a later sequel series was set in Australia.

Eyes on the Prize

The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberation continue to be felt today.

Human Trafficking

The story of an American Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent going undercover to stop an organization from trafficking people, and the struggles of three trafficked women.

Mistral's Daughter

Beautiful and naïve Maggy Lunel arrives in Paris completely broke. She becomes an artist's model and the toast of Paris, attracting the attention of Picasso-like painter Julien Mistral, an arrogant and selfish man who places his work above everything. Their paths diverge as Mistral's art catches the eye of a rich American woman who becomes his patroness and eventually his wife. During the war years in France, Mistral collaborates with the Nazis in order to continue with his work, a decision that will come back to haunt him years later. In the meantime, Maggy has a daughter named Teddy who grows up and falls in love with Mistral with whom she has a child named Fauve. As Mistral ages, he comes to terms with his selfish past and wartime betrayal through his art, leaving a beautiful legacy for his daughter, Fauve.

The Confession

On Christmas Eve, a hit-man enters a church to confess his sins to a priest. While at first the Confessor seems to be an evil, cold-blooded killing machine and the Priest the ultimate arbiter of good, as the Confessor’s journey is revealed, it becomes clear that both men are much more complicated than either could have suspected.

Up All Night

An irreverent look at parenthood through the point of view of an acerbic working mother, along with her stay-at-home husband and opinionated parents.

Finding Your Roots

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

Spartacus

Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.

Rectify

After 19 years on Death Row for the rape and murder of his teenage girlfriend, Daniel Holden is going home. His conviction has been vacated due to new DNA evidence. Now he has to return to a world he no longer knows and his reentry into the outside world may be as unforgiving as prison. Daniel is haunted by the past, dogged by the present, and uncertain of the future. As he struggles to adapt to his new life, his homecoming reignites the fears of a small town and threatens to shatter his family’s fragile peace. Daniel’s alleged crime divided a community. Will his freedom tear it in half?

Top of the Lake

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

Black Sails

The pirate adventures of Captain Flint and his men twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.

Grantchester

In 1953 at the hamlet of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers—a charismatic, charming clergyman—turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.

Rome: Power & Glory

Travel back in time to one of the most glorious empires in history. For over 1,000 years, Rome was the center of the known world, bringing to her subjects a common language, shared culture and wealth beyond imagination. But war, barbarian attacks and moral decay eventually took their toll, and the empire slowly began to crumble. Experience ancient history come to life, from Rome's primitive beginnings to the height of its glory – and its eventual downfall. Filmed in 10 countries, this documentary combines location footage of ancient monuments, detailed reenactments, period art and writings, and fascinating insights from scholars and public figures. Witness the ancient world come to life – and see history in all its drama.

Sex Traffic

The wrenching plight of two Bosnian sisters and their descent into the dark world of enforced prostitution. Their journey is intersected by a British journalist struggling to uncover a conspiracy by American peacekeepers and the machinations of an international charity organization.

The Face UK

Naomi Campbell and two other supermodel mentors will choose four hopeful models to mentor and guide as members of their exclusive team. Over eight weeks the three teams will have to compete in a series of real life fashion industry challenges. In the end only one supermodel mentor will triumph and see one of their handpicked girls become The Face.

The Book of Negroes

Kidnapped in Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate a revolution in New York, isolation in Nova Scotia and treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, in an attempt to secure her freedom in the 19th century.

Lawmen Of The Old West

Gallop through history with the bullets and badges that attempted to bring order to the Wild West. See how men like Daniel Boon, Wyatt Earp and 'Doc' Holiday became frontier legends in their quest to keep the peace and stay alive. Witness some of the most infamous events in American history through authentic re- enactments, historical accounts and archived photos. A unique six part documentary series examines the personalities, weapons, tactics and corruption that made outlaws, lawmen, scouts, gunslingers and professional gamblers became American folk heroes. Take aim and hold steady as you discover the true story behind the men who swore to uphold the law during a lawless time.

Into the Badlands

In a land controlled by feudal barons, a great warrior and a young boy embark on a journey across a dangerous land to find enlightenment. A genre-bending martial arts series very loosely based on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West.

Shades of Guilt

In the final analysis, it all comes down to guilt, different shades of guilt that one assumes in a single moment of thoughtlessness or in months of premeditated planning. Defence Attorney Friedrich Knonberg knows he must tip legal scales of justice in favour of his client for crimes that are never black and white and what they may seem. In German with subtitles.

Roots

An adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots", chronicling the history of an African slave, Kunta Kinte sold to America and his descendants.

Barbarians Rising

Told from the perspective of the rebel leaders, the series chronicles a wave of rebellions against absolute power by those the Roman Empire called “barbarians” – tribes they viewed as beyond the fringe of civilization that lived a brutish and violent existence. But these also were men and women who launched epic struggles that shaped the world to come with a centuries-long fight to defeat the sprawling empire.

Motherland

Sitcom about navigating the trials and traumas of middle-class motherhood, looking at the competitive and unromantic side of parenting.

Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise

A look at the last five decades of African American history since the major civil rights victories through the eyes of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., exploring the tremendous gains and persistent challenges of these years.

Africa's Predator Zones

Enter the battlefields of Africa, arenas bathed in a history of savagery and blood, where big cats and big crocs have reigned supreme for centuries. Here in the open plains, muddy swamps, and deep rivers, these super predators don't simply survive in hostile and unforgiving conditions, they thrive because of them. See how these four-legged assassins adapt to their surroundings and use the terrain to unlock new hunting techniques, seek out new prey, and amplify their age-old skills by using the lay of the land.

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.

The Handmaid's Tale

Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. A TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel.

The Terror

A chilling anthology series featuring stories of people in terrifying situations inspired by true historical events.

Guerrilla

Set against the backdrop of one of the most explosive times in U.K. history, Guerrilla tells the story of a politically active couple whose relationship and values are tested when they liberate a political prisoner and form a radical underground cell in 1970s London.

Dear White People

At a predominantly white Ivy League college, a diverse group of students navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination.

American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story

A fascinating docuseries chronicling Playboy magazine’s charismatic founder, Hugh Hefner, and his impact on global culture. Told from his unique perspective with never-before-seen footage from his private archive, discover the captivating story about the man behind the bunny.

SMILF

A raw and honest comedic look at a single, 20-something from Southie whose desires for relationships, sex, and a career collide with the realities of young, single motherhood.

Emancipation Road

From The Creators Of The Best-Selling Documentary Series "Up From Slavery"... A 7-Part Compelling Journey Through America's Greatest Saga. In 1860, the nation founded upon an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had as many as four hundred thousand slave-owners and almost four million slaves. By denying these rights to more than twelve percent of its population, America would soon pay with the blood of a generation. The story of African Slavery in America started with the first permanent English Colony in the 17th century... and ended with the Civil War. But those two hundred and fifty years of struggle were just the beginning. The beginning of a journey down the long Emancipation Road...

Runaway

The tragic yet hopeful story of Fanny, a young teen from a good suburban home whose life spirals out of control when she falls for a manipulative and abusive man.

Dietland

Plum Kettle, ghost-writer for the editor of one of New York’s hottest fashion magazines, struggles with self-image and sets out on a wildly complicated road to self-acceptance. At the same time, everyone is buzzing over news reports about men, accused of sexual abuse and assault, who are disappearing and meeting untimely, violent deaths.

Playmate Playback

Magazine covers, parties, exclusive photo-shoots, behind-the-scenes confessions and more. Meet the latest Playmates of Playboy like never before.

People Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion

Investigation Discovery joins forces with reporters from People magazine to tell stories of high-end fashion icons and their couture crimes that captured headlines. The adage"if looks could kill" takes on entirely unique meaning in the series, which grants People's journalists exclusive access beyond the catwalk to reveal that fashion can sometimes be fatal. The hourlong tales of depravity, obsession, and family betrayal in the fashion world all have a common thread -- cold-blooded murder.

I Am the Night

Fauna Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother, begins to investigate the secrets to her past, following a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist connected to the legendary Black Dahlia murder.

Homecoming

Heidi Bergman is a caseworker at Homecoming, a Geist Group facility helping soldiers transition to civilian life. Years later she has started a new life, living with her mother and working as a waitress, when a Department of Defense auditor questions why she left the Homecoming facility. Heidi quickly realizes that there's a whole other story behind the story she's been telling herself.

Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers

A deep dive into the horrific December 2014 murder of Jessica Chambers, the Mississippi teen who was doused with gasoline and set on fire. The five-part series explores the murder of 19-year-old Chambers and takes an inside look into the trial of Quinton Tellis, a local black man accused of the crime. With tensions high, a small Mississippi town seeks the truth while facing a growing racial divide over guilt or innocence. Is the right man on trial - or is a murderer on the loose?

Reformation

500 years ago, a revolutionary priest named Martin Luther changed the face of Christendom and the path of European civilization forever.

The Long Song

Set during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica, we follow the trials, tribulations and survival of plantation slave July and her odious mistress Caroline.

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

A unique look inside the mind of an infamous serial killer with this cinematic self-portrait crafted from statements made by Ted Bundy, including present-day interviews, archival footage and audio recordings from death row.

Jett

Fresh out of prison, world-class thief Daisy ”Jett” Kowalski is forced back into doing what she does best by dangerous and eccentric criminals determined to exploit her skills for their own ends.

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

Explore the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy.

America Beyond the Color Line

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard's chair of Afro-American Studies, travels the length and breadth of the United States to take the temperature of black America at the start of the new century. He explores this rich and diverse landscape, social as well as geographic, and meets the people who are defining black America, from the most famous and influential to those at the grassroots.

The Underground Railroad

Follow young Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

Via interviews with friends, players and insiders, this docuseries examines how Aaron Hernandez went from an NFL star to a convicted killer.

The Stranger

A web of secrets sends family man Adam Price on a desperate quest to uncover the truth about the people closest to him.

Two Weeks to Live

When strange young misfit Kim Noakes was just a little girl, her father died in murky circumstances and her mother Tina whisked her away to a remote rural life of seclusion and bizarre survival techniques. Now all grown up, Kim sets out into the real world for the first time to begin a secret mission of honouring her father’s memory.

Exposed: The Church's Darkest Secret

The story of the individuals who brought Bishop Peter Ball to justice and the cover-up that went to the highest levels of the Church of England.

Little Fires Everywhere

The intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Explore the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

A boy’s brutal murder and the public trials of his guardians and social workers prompt questions about the system’s protection of vulnerable children.

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.

A Woman Called Moses

A television miniseries based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped African American slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the Southern United States to freedom in the Northern states and Canada.

Enslaved

A look at 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World with each episode following three separate story lines: the quest for a sunken slave ship, a personal journey by Samuel L. Jackson and a historical investigation led by investigative journalists Simcha Jacobovici and Afua Hirsch.

Me & My Sugar Daddy

A look at women in their 20s who make money from having relationships with men over 50. This work earns these women over thousands of pounds.

The Super Models

In the '80s, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington became fashion icons—then transcended their industry by uniting. This is the story of how they claimed their power and shaped the world that followed.

Daughter from Another Mother

After realizing their babies were exchanged at birth, two women develop a plan to adjust to their new lives: creating a single —and peculiar— family.

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.

Lessons in Chemistry

In the 1950s, Elizabeth Zott's dream of being a scientist is challenged by a society that says women belong in the domestic sphere. She accepts a job on a TV cooking show and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives way more than recipes.

The Allegation

25 defendants, 300 trial days and a legal scandal that has gone down in the history of jurisprudence: In this thrilling legal drama, bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach transports the so-called "Worms Trials", a German legal scandal from the nineties into the present. The result is a gripping, current legal drama about hysteria in social media, collective anger and how the hunger for revenge can overlook the victims.

The Killer Nanny: Did She Do It?

Series re-examining the evidence from British au pair Louise Woodward's murder trial 25 years ago. Includes unprecedented access to witnesses, the defence team, the prosecution and members of the jury who decided her fate.

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

In interviews and rare home video footage, ex-FLDS members share the truth about their isolated community — and the events that pushed them to leave.

Hungry For Answers

Caroline Randall Williams, an award-winning writer, cookbook author and restaurateur, travels the United States uncovering the fascinating, essential and often untold black stories behind American food.

Gutsy

Take an unforgettable journey with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton as they go on adventures with some of the world’s boldest and bravest women—from household names to unsung heroes—who make us laugh and inspire us to be more gutsy.

Sins of Our Mother

When Lori Vallow's kids vanished, the search for them unearthed a trail of suspicious deaths, a new husband who shared her doomsday views — and murder.

The Woman in the Wall

When Lorna Brady, a survivor of one of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, wakes to find a corpse in her house, she has no idea who the dead woman is or if she's responsible for the apparent murder, because she has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking.

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.

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.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

Actor, model, and global superstar Brooke Shields’ journey from a sexualized young girl to a woman who embraces her identity and voice.

Robyn Hood

Follows Robyn Loxley and anti-authoritarian masked hip-hop band, The Hood, as they call out injustices and fight for freedom and equality in the city of New Nottingham.

Redemption Song

Jamaican-born Stuart Hall looks at the history of the Caribbean islands through interviews with modern inhabitants.

La Storia

Ida, a single mother of two sons, hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution during the end of World War II and post-war Rome.

Cybergirl of the Year

Meet the Playboy models who have risen during the last decade with interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and glamour videos.

Murder Detective With Graham Hill

Murder Detective with Graham Hill introduces former Surrey Police senior detective and criminologist Graham Hill to Crime + Investigation's true crime-loving audience as the Murder Detective. In each episode, Graham Hill pairs his detective methodology with forensic science and insider knowledge to provide audiences with his expert understanding of how the cases were finally cracked. The episodes will also include key witness testimonies, new interviews, forensic and psychological experts, and archive footage, taking viewers into the investigation to see the modern crime-solving techniques.

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