Television series

Any Day Now

Any Day Now weaves present-day friendship with 1960s origins, following two successful Black women in Birmingham—one a writer, one a civil rights attorney—as they navigate who they became. It's intimate, structurally bold, anchored by genuine affection. For viewers hungry for character depth and unflinching takes on race, class, and women's lives across decades.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you care more about two women's long friendship and the private choices behind public courage than about period spectacle, and you have patience for a show that unfolds across many hours.

Skip it if you want a tidy, self-contained story, since this is slow, talky and runs to eighty-eight hour-long episodes across four seasons.

What it asks of you: Settle in for hour-long episodes that linger in conversation and memory, moving back and forth in time with patience rather than urgency.

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Steel Magnolias1989

Female friendship across generations and class, Southern setting, genuine tenderness alongside sharp humor. Shows how women's lives contain multitudes and how bonds endure through everything.

But Heavily stylized melodrama with moments that veer toward sentimentality. The tragedy can feel orchestrated rather than lived.

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How to Get Away with Murder2014

Black female lawyer protagonist navigating race, gender, and morality. Complex, morally ambiguous characters making impossible choices. Addictive plotting with real stakes.

But Becomes increasingly convoluted as it progresses. The soap-opera elements can overwhelm the character work you came for.

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Fried Green Tomatoes1991

Female friendship across time, Deep South setting, women choosing each other over convention. Tender, funny, and quietly radical about what women owe themselves.

But The framing device feels dated. Some viewers find the coded elements too subtle; others find them heavy-handed.

Fried Green Tomatoes poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Any Day Now

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

MINDHUNTER2017

Both use institutional settings and professional ambition as lens for examining how women navigate systems built against them, with deep focus on interior change over plot momentum.

Female protagonist (Holden's colleague Debbie Mitford) navigating misogyny in an institution designed to exclude her, 1970s-80s, slow-burn character study about ambition and self-discovery.

But Methodical pacing and interpersonal focus mean crime procedural elements recede. Some find it glacially slow.

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Lovecraft Country2020

Black characters as protagonists in their own story, 1950s America, horror as vehicle for examining systemic violence. Strikingly visual, thematically ambitious.

But Tonal shifts between intimate family drama and cosmic horror can feel jarring. Heavy subject matter throughout.

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Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots2013

Black female characters with interior lives, moral complexity, and agency. Soap-opera pacing with real emotional investment in who these women are.

But Tyler Perry's theatrical style isn't for everyone. Plotting sometimes privileges spectacle over consistency.

Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots poster

A Different World1987

Black women at the center, navigating identity and ambition in the 1980s. Funny, warm, and genuinely interested in who these characters become.

But Network sitcom constraints limit how far it can push certain stories. Tonal shifts between comedy and serious issues can feel uneven.

A Different World poster

Hidden Figures2016

Black women overcoming institutional racism through brilliance and persistence. Based on real history, beautifully cast, deeply satisfying.

But Polishes its true story into something safer. Some complexity gets flattened in service of the narrative.

Hidden Figures poster

Insecure2016

Female friendship as the emotional core, adult Black women with full lives and contradictions. Funny, smart, genuinely moving.

But Heavily dependent on Issa Rae's comedic timing. Later seasons lose some of the show's original intimacy.

Insecure poster

The Wonder Years2021

Coming-of-age nostalgia through a Black family's eyes, 1960s backdrop, warmth and humor alongside real racial tensions of the era.

But Relies on audience familiarity with the original. Family sitcom format limits dramatic depth.

The Wonder Years poster

The Good Lord Bird2020

Both use historical 1960s backdrop to examine how ordinary people navigate extraordinary moral weight of their era; both balance intimate character moments with weighty social questions.

Prequel-adjacent thinking about American history through fresher eyes, 1850s-60s, race and faith and impossible choices. James McBride adaptation with warmth and moral clarity.

But Episodic historical drama can feel didactic. Some viewers find the tonal mix of humor and violence jarring.

The Good Lord Bird poster

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