Television series

Dynasty

This is Dynasty rebuilt for the Instagram age: shoulder pads swapped for shoulder-baring gowns, but the same feuding oil dynasty, scheming stepmothers and boardroom coups. It's gorgeous, ridiculous and entirely unbothered by subtlety — plot twists arrive like weather, betrayals compound weekly. Not smart television, and it knows it. Perfect for anyone who wants pure, high-gloss trash with excellent lighting.

TVMaze rating6.5

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Revenge2011

Emily Thorne infiltrates the Hamptons elite to systematically destroy her father's enemies — same gorgeous interiors and scheming rich families, but with a heroine playing a long, delicious game of vengeance.

But The mythology gets increasingly baroque as it goes; the early seasons are the peak and the later ones test patience.

Revenge poster

Empire2015

A hip-hop dynasty instead of an oil one, but the formula is identical — dying patriarch, warring heirs, betrayal on tap. Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson chew every inch of scenery available.

But Off-screen controversy shadows later seasons, and the tone lurches unpredictably between prestige drama and pure pulp.

Empire poster

Gossip Girl2007

Swap oil money for old Manhattan money and you get the same scheming, romance and outrageous fashion, narrated by a gossip blogger who somehow knows everything. Pure soap sugar, unapologetically.

But The central mystery is more gimmick than payoff, and the actors' ages versus their characters' becomes distracting fast.

Gossip Girl poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Succession2018

Same structural engine as Dynasty — one empire, warring heirs, a father who plays them against each other — but drained of camp and refilled with tragedy, so you can see exactly what the soap version leaves out.

The same premise — a media empire, an aging patriarch, children circling like sharks — but stripped of camp and drenched in Shakespearean dread. This is what happens when you take the family-feud soap dead seriously.

But No gloss, no wink, no romance subplot to enjoy — it's cold, cynical, and occasionally exhausting instead of fun.

Succession poster
More like this (8)

Dallas1978

The original prime-time family-feud soap that invented the whole playbook — oil barons, backstabbing siblings, a cliffhanger that stopped the nation. This is the blueprint Dynasty is still photocopying.

But Slower pacing and pure late-70s production values — expect zoom-lens drama, not CW gloss.

Dallas poster

Melrose Place1992no page yet

Trade the mansion for an apartment complex but keep the affairs, murders and shoulder-padded scheming — soap opera as pure, unashamed id, gleefully ridiculous at every turn.

But It's dated hard, and the plots occasionally topple into self-parody even by soap standards.

Ugly Betty2006

Set in a fashion dynasty instead of an oil one, with the same boardroom coups and family betrayals, but filtered through warmth, comedy and an actually likeable lead.

But It's gentler and funnier than Dynasty — if you want pure venom and glamour, this might feel too soft-hearted.

Ugly Betty poster

Nashville2012no page yet

Swap oil money for country music royalty and you still get generational rivalry, family empires under threat and larger-than-life divas fighting for the throne — set to genuinely great original songs.

But It's a slower burn, more melodrama than camp, and the setting won't land if country music isn't your thing.

The O.C.2003

Newport Beach wealth, family scheming and gorgeous people making terrible decisions in enormous houses — a younger, sunnier cousin to Carrington chaos.

But More teen drama than boardroom warfare, and considerably warmer and less venomous than Dynasty ever bothers to be.

The O.C. poster

Falcon Crest1981no page yet

A California wine dynasty tears itself apart across decades in this 80s soap classic — same primal ingredients of family, money and betrayal, just with vineyards instead of derricks.

But An old-fashioned soap rhythm and visibly aged production values; patience required for the slow burn.

Written on the Wind1956

This is the genre's ancestor: oil money, a spoiled heir, a family self-destructing inside beautiful interiors. Watching it shows exactly where Dynasty's aesthetic and moral universe actually came from.

Douglas Sirk's technicolor melodrama about a doomed Texas oil dynasty basically invented the visual and emotional grammar Dynasty is still borrowing — lush color, ruinous love, a family rotting from wealth.

But It's a two-hour classic Hollywood film, not a binge — studio-era acting and slower rhythms, with no ongoing plot to sink into.

Written on the Wind poster

Generation Wealth2018

Dynasty is fantasy wealth-porn; this is its nonfiction shadow, following real people who built identities around the same excess the Carringtons perform — a look at what the fantasy costs when someone actually lives it.

Photographer Lauren Greenfield spent twenty-five years documenting real people chasing the fantasy Dynasty sells — mansions, plastic surgery, status at any cost — and the results are fascinating and genuinely unsettling.

But It's a sobering, sometimes bleak documentary essay, not entertainment — the opposite mood of the show's glossy escapism.

Generation Wealth poster

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