Television series

A Million Little Things

Name: A Million Little Things
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2018
Cast: David Giuntoli, James Roday Rodriguez, Romany Malco, Christina Moses, Allison Miller

Drama

A Million Little Things follows a tight group of Boston friends navigating adulthood's accumulated weight—stalled dreams, family fractures, identity questions—until one death forces them to reckon with how they're actually living. It's warm and gossipy, built on ensemble chemistry and the kind of frank conversations people have at 2 a.m. Best for those who loved This Is Us but want something less orchestrated and more alive to mess and contradiction.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like ensemble friendship stories where the banter is sharp and the sentiment is earned, and you don't mind a soap-opera pull toward the next episode.

Skip it if you want a tight, self-contained season arc; at 87 episodes across five seasons and an hour each, it sprawls, and its sentiment can be laid on thick.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour per episode, and eighty-seven of them, so it wants a few evenings of steady commitment rather than casual dipping; it settles into its rhythm slowly.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

This Is Us2016

A spiritual predecessor that also mines profound emotion from ensemble casts, everyday crises, and the ways trauma echoes through friendships. Exceptional at finding the extraordinary inside ordinary lives.

But Can veer into manipulation through relentless emotional beats and orchestrated coincidence. Some find the constant poignancy exhausting rather than moving.

Scrubs2001

Balances comedy and heartbreak with the same ease and honesty. Built on the premise that work friendships become your true family, and that laughter matters as much as support.

But Tonally all over the place—lurches between silly slapstick and genuine grief. Later seasons lose the show's original equilibrium and become self-aware in a way that undermines emotion.

Grey's Anatomy2005

A hospital ensemble where the job is a pretext for watching adults figure out love, ambition, loss, and loyalty. Long enough that you watch characters truly change and break and rebuild.

But Has become increasingly melodramatic. The soap-opera element that drew people in now feels like the only element, and the medical side is almost forgotten.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Million Little Things

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Fleabag2016

Both are about people trapped by their own choices and choices made for them, watching others in the group begin to move, and finding out what movement actually costs. Both trust ensemble storytelling over a central plot.

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But The meta fourth-wall breaks feel gimmicky if you're not on the show's wavelength. Some find the protagonist insufferable rather than complex, and that colors everything.

Northern Exposure1990

An ensemble comedy-drama where small-town outsiders become a family. Funny, weird, genuinely moving, and interested in who people are under their armor.

But Of its era—pacing feels glacial by contemporary standards, and the whimsy can tip into precious. Harder to binge than you'd expect.

Parenthood2010

Follows multiple siblings and their partners across years of real problems: money, infidelity, illness, estrangement. Rooted in family love but never pretends family is uncomplicated.

But Sentimental to the point of ache. Some storylines resolve too neatly given how messy they felt, and the tonal consistency can feel like flattening.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel2017

A comedy that respects the work of actually becoming yourself. Snappy writing and ensemble cast where secondary characters have real depth and contradictions.

But The zippy style can feel exhausting over time. Some watch it for fun and never really know these people; that shallowness might catch up with you.

Superstore2015

An ensemble workplace comedy that finds genuine humanity in underpaid workers. Funny and warm without being precious; it trusts the audience to care about ordinary people.

But The workplace format means stories reset; you get the humor but fewer stakes. Later seasons address social issues in ways that can feel preachy.

Lovesick2014

British comedy about a friend group navigating their twenties and thirties. Affectionate, funny, and genuinely interested in how friendships actually work under pressure.

But British television pacing—only three seasons before it ends, so very brief. Some American viewers find the style too subtle and the humor too dry.

Dinner in America2020

A relationship film that captures the texture of how two people actually live together—the boredom, the inside jokes, the small negotiations. Funny and intimate without trying too hard.

But Almost no plot. If you need something to happen or a clear three-act structure, this will feel like watching someone else's home video. The charm is the entire point.

The Affair2014

Both examine how one event fractures a stable world and forces people to reckon with who they actually are versus who they thought they were. Both believe friendship is the primary relationship.

A drama about a friend group imploding after betrayal. Structured as overlapping perspectives so you experience the same events through different hearts—how memory rewrites truth. Tense and intricate.

But Relentlessly bleak and sexually explicit. The show assumes infidelity destroys everything, with little mercy or redemption. If you want hope alongside heartbreak, this isn't it.

Together2021

Both prioritize the work of keeping relationships alive over external drama. Both believe that what happens between people in a room matters more than what happens outside it.

A couple navigating lockdown—not a plot, but a film about staying present when all escape routes close. Quiet, British, about how love gets tested in small rooms. Features Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy at their most vulnerable.

But Deliberately static and confined. No external story, no event, just two people talking. If you need cinema to be cinematic, you'll find it claustrophobic and self-indulgent.