Television series

Forever

Name: Forever
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2018
Cast: Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen

Other titles called Forever: the 2014 series (ABC).

Romantic comedy

A darkly comic drama about a long married couple whose quiet suburban existence fractures after a single decision. Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen play June and Oscar with painful tenderness and sharp wit, finding both the absurdity and genuine ache in a relationship that has calcified into routine. It's intimate, strange, and unafraid to sit with uncomfortable silences.

TVMaze rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy quiet, observational comedy about long marriages, where the funniest moments come from small habits and the awkward truths couples never say out loud.

Skip it if you want plot momentum or a show that rushes to its point, since this one lingers on ordinary moments and its rating and audience score suggest a mixed reception.

What it asks of you: Eight short episodes of roughly half an hour each, unhurried and gentle, asking you to sit with two people's routines and notice what changes slightly within them.

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

If you liked this

Schitt's Creek2015

A family stripped of everything discovers who they are without wealth or status. Like Forever, it finds profound humanity in small moments and mines comedy from genuine emotional vulnerability without ever losing sight of real pain.

But It takes a few episodes to find its rhythm, and the early humor can feel broader than where the show eventually goes.

Fleabag2016

Phoebe Waller-Bridge creates a character so alive with contradiction—funny and self-destructive, loving and cruel—that you feel the weight of her choices. Both shows understand that relationships are where we become most ourselves, and most trapped.

But The narrative voice and fourth-wall breaks won't appeal to everyone, and the protagonist's behavior can be genuinely difficult to watch.

Better Call Saul2015

A meditation on how small compromises accumulate into who we become. Jimmy and Kim's relationship carries the emotional core, and the show is patient enough to let you see every incremental choice that leads to tragedy.

But It's slow and deliberately unglamorous. Some find the pacing frustrating, and it demands your full attention across many seasons.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Farewell2019

Both are about the performance of family—the roles we've agreed to play and the ways our closest relationships can feel like elegant traps we've built together.

Lulu Wang's film about a Chinese family deciding to hide a grandmother's terminal diagnosis explores what love means across generational and cultural divides. It has Forever's emotional patience and its ability to find absurdity in grief, but through a completely different lens.

But A significant portion is in Mandarin without constant translation, and the film's approach to death may feel unconventional if you're expecting western narrative closure.

Russian Doll2019

Natasha Lyonne plays a woman trapped in a time loop, but the real subject is how we hurt the people closest to us and whether we can break those patterns. It has Forever's willingness to be surreal in service of emotional truth.

But The time-loop premise can feel gimmicky, and the second season loses some of the first's focused intensity.

Undone2019

Rotoscoped animation and magical realism serve a story about mental illness, family obligation, and growing up. It's visually stunning and emotionally raw, finding strangeness in the everyday like Forever does.

But The animation style is polarizing. Some find it beautiful; others find it distracting or uncomfortable to watch for extended periods.

Transparent2014

A family remake themselves around a parent's transition. It finds comedy in dysfunction without diminishing pain, and it's genuinely interested in how people disappoint each other while still deserving love and attention.

But Extremely heavy subject matter. It doesn't look for escape routes from difficult emotions, and creator Jeffrey Tambor's later conduct colors the viewing experience for many.

Master of None2015

Aziz Ansari's show about creativity, romance, and identity has a lightness that Forever lacks, but both understand that comedy lives in the gap between how we see ourselves and how we actually behave in relationships.

But The early seasons are stronger than later ones, and some find Ansari's persona too present in the work.

Insecure2016

Issa Rae captures the contradictions of being human—ambitious and petty, loyal and selfish—with such specificity that even small arguments feel consequential. The show trusts its characters' complexity.

But Some storylines don't land evenly across seasons, and the show's focus shifts as characters evolve, which not everyone finds satisfying.

Godless2017

A western where a town is run by women and a man with a complicated past arrives to disrupt it. Like Forever, it's interested in how people perform their assigned roles and what happens when they refuse to anymore.

But The premise is more interesting than some of the execution, and it tries to juggle too many character arcs in limited time.

Minari2021

Both examine how relationships endure not through passion but through accumulated choice—the decision, each day, to stay and try.

A Korean-American family moves to Arkansas to farm. It's quiet, patient, and understands that small moments—cooking, arguing, small sacrifices—constitute a life. The marriage at its center is unglamorous and real.

But Almost nothing dramatic happens in the conventional sense. If you need clear plot momentum or resolution, you'll find it frustratingly understated.

Climax2018

Both use genre and formal games—Forever's dark comedy, Climax's body-horror descent—to make abstract emotional states concrete. Both show relationships as fragile systems that can collapse in an instant.

Gaspar Noé's film about dancers whose sangria is poisoned starts as celebration and becomes nightmare. It's visually hypnotic and structurally playful, using dance and music to explore desire, jealousy, and how quickly intimacy curdles.

But Extremely graphic—sexual violence, body horror, and disturbing imagery. The experimental structure may feel deliberately opaque, and it's not interested in providing comfort or resolution.