Television series
Adultery
A drama about desire and consequence when two middle-aged parents—brought together by their teenagers' relationship—begin an affair that mirrors and complicates their children's young love. It's a serious exploration of passion, class, grief, and how quickly lives can unravel, with sharp questions about what we owe to those we love.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like a tangled romance that treats desire as messy and morally knotted, set inside ordinary family life with teenage love running alongside it.
Skip it if you find a teenager's romance mirroring her father's affair too soapy to take seriously, or you want something less talky and more restrained.
What it asks of you: Six episodes of high emotional temperature, quick to heat up and slow to cool, with two households' worth of characters to keep track of.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Fleabag2016
A brilliantly written comedy-drama about messy adults making terrible decisions, narrated by a protagonist who talks directly to you. It captures the gap between how we want to behave and how we actually do with devastating wit and warmth.
But Lighter in tone than Adultery—it's funny first, serious second. If you want unrelenting intensity about infidelity's damage, this trades some gravity for charm.
Normal People2020
Two people's relationship across years, told with extraordinary intimacy and intelligence. Sally Rooney's writing finds the psychology beneath desire, and the chemistry between leads feels genuinely dangerous. Adult passion that matters.
But Deliberately paced and introspective; long sequences of quiet intensity rather than plot mechanics. Some find it slow.
The Affair2014
A show entirely about infidelity's ripples. Each episode retells the same event from different perspectives, revealing how adultery warps memory and truth. The structure mirrors how we all lie to ourselves about what we've done.
But It can feel relentlessly bleak. Six seasons of marriage collapse and moral wreckage—no redemption waiting at the end for anyone.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Adultery
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Phantom Thread2017
Like Adultery, it watches two people for whom desire is inseparable from damage. But this one treats the destruction as elegant, almost inevitable—not something that happens to them, but something they enact together.
Paul Thomas Anderson's film about a fastidious dress designer and the woman he marries, told as a power struggle disguised as romance. It's about how couples can be locked in mutually destructive patterns that they choose, again and again.
But Claustrophobic and controlled; some read it as misogynistic rather than critical of its characters. Deliberately unsexy despite being about obsession.
More like this (7)
Happy Valley2014
Sally Wainwright writes ordinary people in extraordinary moral situations. The lead is a police sergeant investigating crimes that connect to her own family's trauma. It's about what we do for love and what it costs us.
But More crime drama than relationship study. The plot machinery sometimes overshadows the emotional reckoning you might crave.
This Is Us2016
A multi-generational story about how marriages actually work—the small surrenders, the cumulative resentments, the reasons we stay. It finds the humanity in people behaving badly toward each other.
But Consciously emotional and designed to make you cry. Can feel manipulative if you're resistant to its earnestness.
Godless2017
A western miniseries about a man arriving in a town run entirely by women, and the tension between his past and their present. Beautifully shot, morally complex, with Jeff Daniels doing career-best work as someone trying to outrun himself.
But Western genre conventions may feel dated. It's thoughtful rather than visceral, which some mistake for slow.
The Girlfriend Experience2016
Soderbergh's series about a law student doubling as a high-end escort, navigating intimacy, power, and what we sell. Formally inventive and genuinely unsettling in the best way—about transaction and desire.
But Deliberately artificial, sometimes hermetic. The stylization keeps you at a distance; it's not meant to feel warm or inviting.
Killing Eve2018
A cat-and-mouse between a detective and a charming psychopath that's actually a love story. The obsession is mutual, morally compromising, and completely absorbing. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes desire as dangerous.
But Violence and dark humour are structural, not decorative. If you want moral clarity or likeable characters, look elsewhere.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels2020
John Logan's supernatural drama set in 1930s LA, woven through with class anxiety and forbidden desire. Richly written, visually sumptuous, with Natalie Dormer giving a performance of unsettling magnetism.
But Gothic and ornate; the plot can feel baroque and difficult to follow. Some cancelled it for being too strange and not strange enough simultaneously.
Landscape with Invisible Hand2023
The mirrored teenage and adult relationships are central to both. Here, though, the young lovers' passion is weaponised and observed—it's about what happens when desire becomes a commodity rather than a secret.
Cory Finley's debut about teenagers in a post-alien-invasion economic collapse, falling into a relationship as a performance for alien observers. Strange premise, but it's really about class anxiety, desire as marketplace transaction, and young people adapting to survival.
But Formally odd and metaphor-heavy. The sci-fi wrapping can obscure the emotional story for those wanting kitchen-sink realism.
People
Cast
Production
- Ben StephensonExecutive Producer
- Danny BrocklehurstExecutive Producer
- Luke WoellhafExecutive Producer
- Preethi MavahalliExecutive Producer