Television series

Modern Love

An anthology of stand-alone half-hours, each dramatising a real personal essay from the New York Times column of the same name. Different directors, different casts, different tones from episode to episode — one week a wry meet-cute, the next a quiet grief. It's comfort viewing with just enough sting to feel earned, best watched a story at a time rather than binged.

TVMaze rating6.8

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Easy2016

Joe Swanberg's Chicago anthology does the same thing Modern Love does — loosely linked stories about love and sex — but rougher, more improvised, and willing to sit in discomfort a beat longer.

But Looser and less polished; some episodes feel like sketches rather than finished stories.

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Love Life2020no page yet

An anthology built around one romantic history at a time, tracing a person's loves from first heartbreak to the one that sticks. Same warmth, same NYC energy, same appetite for the messy middle of relationships.

But Follows a single protagonist per season rather than jumping between strangers each week, so it's less varied episode to episode.

This Is Us2016

If you want the tear-jerking structural trick — the reveal that reframes everything you just watched — this ensemble family drama does it every single episode, and does it shamelessly well.

But It's a long-haul serialized commitment, not bite-sized stories, and the sentimentality is dialled up considerably higher.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Black Mirror2011

Structurally identical — standalone episodic stories about human connection — but built to unsettle rather than comfort, proving the anthology format works just as well for dread as for warmth.

Same anthology skeleton — a new cast, a new story, a new moral every episode — but pointed at technology and dread instead of tenderness. Several episodes are, underneath the sci-fi, just brutal love stories.

But Bleak where Modern Love is hopeful; several episodes will genuinely ruin your night.

Black Mirror poster
More like this (8)

Master of None2015

Aziz Ansari's series wanders from strict sitcom into standalone, essay-like episodes about love, faith and identity — the same instinct to let one story breathe outside a season's plot.

But Less consistently anthological; some seasons follow through-lines rather than jumping between fresh stories.

Master of None poster

Fleabag2016

Sharper, funnier, and sadder than almost anything else on this list, it captures the same collision of comedy and heartbreak Modern Love reaches for, just concentrated into one voice.

But Far more acidic and confessional; the warmth here is harder-won and comes wrapped in real cruelty.

Fleabag poster

Insecure2016

A friendship-and-romance comedy-drama with the same generous, specific eye for how modern relationships actually work, texted arguments and all.

But Serialized rather than episodic, and its social texture is distinctly Los Angeles rather than New York.

Insecure poster

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend2015

If Modern Love's earnestness appeals but you want it turned up to eleven with musical numbers, this show's take on romantic delusion and self-discovery is smarter than its title suggests.

But The musical format is a real barrier for some, and its tone is considerably broader and more manic.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend poster

High Fidelity2020no page yet

A single narrator picking through past loves to understand a present one, told with the same conversational, essay-ish intimacy — funny, a little self-lacerating, very New York.

But Cancelled after one season, so it ends on more of a cliffhanger than a satisfying close.

Love2016

A messier, more Apatow-ish look at how two mismatched people fall into each other, useful if you want the same subject with the sentiment stripped out and the awkwardness left in.

But Considerably less polished emotionally, and its central couple is often frustrating by design.

Love poster

Love, American Style1969no page yet

A direct ancestor: the same premise of episodic, title-card-cued vignettes about love, decades before Modern Love, done as fizzy variety-show comedy instead of prestige drama.

A campy, sketch-driven anthology sitcom from the tail end of the 60s, each episode a set of short comic vignettes about dating, marriage and flirtation among ordinary Americans.

But Dated in every sense — broad studio-audience comedy, hokey effects, gender politics of its era — a real artifact rather than a polished watch.

Paris Je T'aime2006

Same format bent into a different shape: instead of a TV season of standalone romances, it's a single feature stitched from short standalone romances, each with its own director and voice.

Eighteen short films by eighteen different directors, each set in a different Paris arrondissement, each a tiny complete love story — the anthology idea compressed into two hours instead of stretched across a season.

But Wildly uneven by nature of the format — some segments are gorgeous, others forgettable, and there's no time to warm to any of them.

Paris Je T'aime poster

People

Production

Recommended by

Inside No. 9, Love Actually, Sleepless in Seattle, Couples Therapy, Lust Stories 3