Television series

Dietland

Name: Dietland
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2018
Cast: Joy Nash, Adam Rothenberg, Julianna Margulies, Robin Weigert, Tamara Tunie

Social drama

Dietland is a darkly comic drama about a ghostwriter for a fashion magazine reclaiming her life and voice while a vigilante force systematically eliminates sexual predators. It's sharp, strange, and unapologetically angry—a show that treats female rage as justified and explores how women weaponize visibility. For anyone hungry for feminist rage served with style and genuine laughs.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a sharp, furious satire of beauty culture that swerves between caustic office comedy and something much darker, and you don't mind a show that refuses to sit still.

Skip it if you need a tidy, consistent tone, because it lurches between satire, melodrama and violent thriller, and its single season of ten hour-long episodes can feel scattered.

What it asks of you: Ten hour-long episodes need steady attention, and its tone keeps shifting, so you have to follow its register rather than settle into one.

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

If you liked this

Fleabag2016

A woman rebuilds her life with wit, shame, and brutal self-awareness while navigating family chaos and moral ambiguity. Like Dietland, it finds comedy in female damage without excusing bad behaviour or softening the edges.

But The fourth-wall breaks can feel gimmicky if you're not in the mood. Some find the protagonist exhausting rather than endearing.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend2015

Musical comedy-drama about a woman unpacking her own complicity in her dysfunction while dismantling the stories we tell about ourselves. Tonally bold and willing to make its heroine deeply flawed and genuinely pathetic.

But The musical numbers won't work for everyone. By the final season, the tonal whiplash between comedy and serious trauma gets harder to navigate.

Transparent2014

A family implodes when its patriarch transitions, forcing everyone to confront their own identity and complicity. Like Dietland, it's messy, angry, and refuses easy answers or redemption arcs for people who don't deserve them.

But It's deliberately uncomfortable and won't let you off the hook. Some storylines feel exploitative in hindsight, and the final film left many viewers frustrated.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dietland

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Heathers1989

Both ask: what if the victim turned executioner, and what if we found her funny? Both locate female violence in justified rage at systems that destroy them.

A teenage girl and her boyfriend murder the popular kids running their school, justifying mass homicide as a public service. It's the dark-comedy ancestor of Dietland's moral ambiguity—violence as righteous response to systemic cruelty, played for laughs and horror equally.

But It's gratuitously dark and cynical in ways that feel dated and occasionally cruel to its targets. The misogyny is embedded, not critiqued.

Killing Eve2018

A detective obsesses over a brilliant female assassin in a cat-and-mouse game that's addictive, funny, and genuinely strange. Both shows weaponize female intelligence and rage against systems designed to contain them.

But The show deteriorates significantly in later seasons. By season 4, the tension collapses into romantic melodrama that betrays what made it work.

I May Destroy You2020

A comedy about a young Black woman processing sexual assault by reclaiming her story, her body, and her rage through friendship and art. Like Dietland, it's furious and hilarious and refuses to perform trauma for comfort.

But The tonal shifts can be jarring—from laugh-out-loud comedy to devastating trauma within minutes. Some viewers find the structure scattered.

Insecure2016

A woman navigates adulthood, messy friendships, and Black life in LA with intelligence and humour. It shares Dietland's refusal to make women likeable or simple, and its willingness to show complicity without erasing culpability.

But The early seasons are stronger than the later ones. Some viewers find the characters frustratingly static in their patterns.

MINDHUNTER2017

FBI agents pioneer criminal profiling while wrestling with institutional sexism and the seductive appeal of understanding evil. Both shows are deeply interested in how systems protect predators and who benefits from that protection.

But It's procedurally slow and cerebrally heavy. Cancelled on a cliffhanger, so you're left hanging with no resolution.

Bodyguard2018

A bodyguard's obsession with protecting a politician spirals into paranoia and moral corruption across six relentless episodes. It shares Dietland's interest in how power corrupts and how trauma rewires the people we become.

But The political thriller plotting can feel contrived in the final act. The reveal of the central mystery disappoints some viewers who wanted something darker.

Halt and Catch Fire2014

Four people build a tech empire across the '80s and '90s while their ambitions clash and their personal lives splinter. It's about women fighting for ownership and voice in male-dominated spaces, with genuine warmth beneath the conflict.

But The first season is notably weaker than the rest. If you need immediate payoff, the slow-burn relationship dynamics may frustrate you early on.

American Crime Story2016

Both centre the rage and humanity of those deemed disposable by society, and both ask uncomfortable questions about whether we understand the violence we enable.

A true-crime story told from the killer's perspective, examining homophobia, desire, and how society creates its own monsters. Like Dietland, it refuses to centre the victim's narrative and investigates how power and shame birth violence.

But It's relentlessly grim and offers no catharsis. The focus on the killer's perspective may feel exploitative or unearned to viewers looking for justice.

Annihilation2018

Both reject traditional narrative catharsis in favour of ambiguity and dread. Both ask what transformation costs and refuse to make that beautiful. Both trust the viewer to sit in discomfort.

A physicist enters a mysterious, expanding zone where reality bends, leading a team of women deeper into incomprehensible danger. It's surreal, philosophical sci-fi that refuses to explain itself—gorgeous and unsettling in ways that prioritize mood and abstraction over plot.

But It's deliberately obscure and anti-narrative. If you need clear answers or straightforward plotting, you'll hate it. Many found it pretentious and frustrating.