Television series
Indian Summers
Indian Summers follows British colonials and Indian characters in 1930s North India as the empire crumbles around them. It's a sweeping period drama that balances political upheaval with intimate human conflict—affairs, class anxiety, ideological rifts—all gorgeously shot against Himalayan landscapes. For viewers who want their history personal, their romance complicated, and their tea plantations fraught.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love big, slow-building colonial sagas where personal rivalries and secret loyalties play out against the crumbling of an empire, and you don't mind a show that trusts you to keep track of a crowded cast.
Skip it if you want a tight, fast plot; this one spreads its attention across many households and many months, so the early episodes can feel leisurely before the threads start knotting together.
What it asks of you: Twenty hour-long episodes over two seasons, so it's a real commitment, with a measured pace and a steady, serious tone rather than quick jolts.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Crown2016
Epic period drama about power, duty, and the private lives behind public institutions. If you loved seeing how personal relationships fracture under historical pressure, this explores similar territory with meticulous detail and stellar performances.
But It's deliberately paced and asks patience with characters who rarely say what they mean. Some find it slow; others find that deliberation essential.
Downton Abbey2010
Another ensemble period piece where class, romance, and social change collide under one roof. Same bittersweet tone—watching a world transform while people cling to old certainties and new desires.
But The focus is English country-house drama rather than colonial complexity. It's cozier, which some viewers find less urgent.
A Passage to India1984
David Lean's film adaptation of Forster's novel covers similar emotional and political ground: British-Indian relationships strained by colonialism, prejudice, and misunderstanding. Gorgeously photographed, deeply human.
But At nearly three hours, it's measured and meditative. If you want plot momentum, you might drift in the quieter sequences.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Indian Summers
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Heat and Dust1983
Both explore how personal passion and empire collide—how individuals caught in colonial hierarchies love across the very boundaries that system enforces.
A dual-timeline film that parallels a 1920s love affair between a British woman and an Indian prince with a modern woman retracing her steps in India. It's a meditation on desire, cultural difference, and how colonialism shaped intimate life—exactly Indian Summers' heartbeat, but strange and elliptical where that show is direct.
But Its narrative structure is fractured and dreamlike; it doesn't explain itself. Some find it poetic; others find it opaque.
More like this (6)
The Remains of the Day1993
Anthony Hopkins as a butler wrestling with duty, class, and suppressed feeling in a grand house. Same tension between personal longing and institutional loyalty that animates Indian Summers.
But It's introspective to the point of restraint. The drama is all internal; nothing explodes outward until very late.
Bend It Like Beckham2002
A film about cultural collision and generational conflict set between Britain and India, with warmth and humour. Lighter than Indian Summers but addressing similar questions about where you belong.
But It's a sports-romance-comedy, not a sweeping epic. Much smaller in scale and ambition, which some will find refreshing and others disappointing.
Far from the Madding Crowd2015
Another 2015 period drama with gorgeous cinematography and complicated romance between people of unequal power. Thomas Vinterberg's direction finds quiet intensity in landscape and glance.
But It's a single love story, not an ensemble or political canvas. If you want the larger historical stakes, this is more intimate than that.
Death Comes to Pemberley2013
A mystery set within the world of Pride and Prejudice that uses the period setting to explore class anxiety and hidden violence. Darker and more twisted than you'd expect from Austen adaptation.
But It leans into gothic thriller elements that some find jarring against the costume-drama tone. The mystery plot can feel grafted on.
Poldark2015
A sweeping historical drama with romance, political intrigue, and a man caught between loyalty to an old order and sympathy with the new. Aidan Turner is magnetic, and the landscape matters as much as the plot.
But It's sprawling and sometimes sacrifices character depth for plot incident. The romance can overshadow the historical substance some viewers came for.
A Suitable Boy2020
Both are period dramas about love and family set in India during transformation, but this one centers Indian agency and joy rather than colonial anxiety and loss.
Mira Nair's adaptation of Rushdie's vast novel set in post-independence India, following interwoven families across the new nation. It has Indian Summers' scope and romance, but from the Indian perspective and in the moment of freedom rather than subjection. Sumptuous and alive.
But It's a 1920-minute series with dozens of characters. The scale can overwhelm; you must track competing storylines across episodes.
