Television series

Greenleaf

Name: Greenleaf
Genre: Drama
Released: 2016
Cast: Deborah Joy Winans, Keith David, Lamman Rucker, Lynn Whitfield, Merle Dandridge

Family drama

Greenleaf is a pulpit-side melodrama about the wealthy, powerful Greenleaf family and their sprawling Memphis megachurch, where faith and hypocrisy wage constant war. It's a show that takes its scandals seriously—affairs, embezzlement, spiritual compromise—and watches carefully as people fail each other behind closed doors. For anyone who loves soap-opera plotting grafted onto genuine moral inquiry, or who wants to see excellent actors navigate murky family secrets.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like soapy family melodrama where faith and money pull against each other, and you enjoy watching a large cast of strong performers play hypocrisy and devotion with real conviction.

Skip it if you want restraint or quiet, since it runs on heightened emotion, open confessions and church-pulpit theatrics, and its sudsy plotting can feel repetitive across sixty hour-long episodes.

What it asks of you: Five seasons and sixty hour-long episodes of overlapping storylines, played at full volume, with patience rewarded more than quick payoffs.

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

If you liked this

Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots2013

Tyler Perry's earlier prestige-soap formula: wealthy families with dark secrets, house staff who see everything, questions about faith and authenticity woven through every scene. If you loved Greenleaf, this is the spiritual predecessor that proved the territory was rich.

But Shifts between multiple households can feel scattered, and some plots resolve with Perry's particular brand of swift, tidy justice rather than genuine complexity.

Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots poster

Scandal2012

Fast-paced, gorgeously shot political intrigue with an ensemble of fascinating people keeping secrets that could topple empires. Kerry Washington carries it with a coolness that makes moral compromise look seductive, then sickening. Utterly gripping.

But Moves so fast that character motivation sometimes gets lost, and the final seasons strain credibility under the weight of accumulated plot twists.

Flesh and Bone2015

A ballet company's beautiful surface conceals trauma, abuse, and the kinds of secrets people keep to survive. It's Greenleaf's intensity applied to an entirely different world—similarly claustrophobic, similarly unafraid of darkness.

But Only one season and it ends abruptly. Very bleak, very sexual—this is not escapist drama.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Affair2014

Both shows are structured around the question of whether people can ever really know each other, and whether forgiveness is possible after fundamental betrayal. Both make infidelity the visible symptom of a much deeper spiritual rupture.

Each episode replays the same moment from multiple perspectives, showing how people lie to themselves about their own culpability. Infidelity and faith-broken-and-remade is the engine, and watching characters discover they were wrong about their own lives is devastating.

But Repetition can feel gimmicky. Some viewers find the constant perspective-shifting exhausting rather than revelatory.

Amen1986

A sitcom that actually loves its church community while never pretending the pastor (Sherman Hemsley) isn't vain, ambitious, and prone to scheming. Proof that you can be funny about faith without dismissing it.

But It's a 1980s sitcom: broad, episodic, entirely cheerful. The tonal whiplash from Greenleaf's darkness is severe.

Empire2015

Lee Daniels' operatic saga of a family music empire, built on ambition and held together by threads of love and resentment. Lucious and Cookie Lyon are unforgettable, and the plotting is ruthless.

But The early seasons are magnificent; later ones lose focus and credibility as the story spirals into increasingly implausible territory.

Underground2016

A historical drama about enslaved people plotting escape on the Underground Railroad, with moral seriousness and intelligence. Examines faith, family, and what people owe each other under impossible conditions.

But The weight of its subject matter is unrelenting. It's not always easy to watch, and some viewers found pacing issues in later seasons.

Penny Dreadful2014

A Victorian horror ensemble where beautiful, broken people with deep secrets try to save each other from darkness. Gothic, literary, darkly funny. The ensemble acting is extraordinary.

But Moves slowly by design. Atmosphere matters more than plot momentum, which frustrates viewers who want their story to move faster.

All Rise2019

A legal drama that centers a Black female judge and actually examines how power, faith, and institutional failure intersect in a working court system. Smart, ensemble-driven, interested in people's interior lives.

But Network television constrains it; the storytelling is competent rather than daring, and cancelled after two seasons before it fully found its feet.

I May Destroy You2020

Both examine what gets inherited—secrets, trauma, expectations, faith—and how families (biological and chosen) either help you break those cycles or trap you in them. Both are unafraid of comedy even in devastating moments.

Issa Rae's semi-autobiographical series about trauma, faith, friendship, and rebuilding yourself after something breaks. Hilarious, furious, tender—it moves between comedy and genuine pain without losing either. A masterpiece about legacy and inheritance.

But Assumes familiarity with London and Black British culture. The tonal shifts can be jarring if you prefer your drama consistent in mood.

Olive Kitteridge2014

Both examine how the people closest to us contain multitudes we never see, and how one family's secrets shape an entire community's moral landscape. Both are interested in aging, in the faith that holds through crisis, and in the people we forgive despite everything.

A four-part miniseries where a retired Maine schoolteacher's small kindnesses and large unkindnesses ripple through a community's lives in ways no one predicted. Frances McDormand is magnificent. Quietly devastating about human interdependence.

But Nothing happens in the plot sense. It's entirely about mood, memory, and accumulated regret. Some viewers find this too quiet, too sad.