Name: Related
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2005
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Kiele Sanchez, Jennifer Esposito, Laura Breckenridge, Callum Blue

Television series

Family drama

Four sisters in their twenties and thirties navigate New York City careers, relationships, and the particular friction of being bound to people who know exactly how to hurt you. Related is a warm, unsentimental look at female friendship and ambition, where the comedy lives in recognition rather than punchlines. It's for anyone who understands that your siblings can be your best friends and your worst enemies sometimes simultaneously.

TVMaze rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sibling ensembles where bickering and loyalty tangle together, with sharp, talky dialogue and characters who are maddening and lovable in the same scene.

Skip it if you want a tidy, self-contained episode each week, since this one runs on ongoing family friction and a hour-long format that leans on its cast's chemistry more than plot machinery.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a full hour per episode across a single short season of eighteen, paying attention to who is talking over whom, and let the mood swing between breezy and bruising.

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

If you liked this

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants2005

A genuine portrayal of how sisters and close friends sustain each other through different lives and cities. The film trusts female friendship as its own complete story, no romance required to validate it.

But The magical jeans premise feels thin and the movie occasionally veers into saccharine territory. Some of the early-2000s earnestness hasn't aged gracefully.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants poster

Fleabag2016

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's masterpiece about a flawed woman in her twenties navigating family, sex, and ambition in London. The writing is sharp and the central relationship with family—especially her sister—has real teeth.

But It's considerably darker and more sexually explicit than Related, and the tone is much more caustic. Some viewers find the fourth-wall breaking gimmicky after a while.

Broad City2014

Two women in New York City, best friends, finding their way through careers and life. It's chaotic, funny, and genuinely invested in female friendship as the emotional centre of the show.

But The humor is crude and absurdist in ways that won't land for everyone. It's also much messier and less grounded than Related's tone.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mulholland Drive2001

Both are about the gap between how sisters or close friends present themselves and who they actually are. Both understand that intimacy and resentment live in the same house.

David Lynch's fractured narrative about two women in Los Angeles—one trying to break into acting, the other a mysterious newcomer. It's obsessed with how women perform identity and how friendship can contain cruelty. Brilliant and devastating.

But It's abstract, deliberately difficult, and refuses to resolve cleanly. If you want straightforward storytelling you will find this maddening. The film is also two hours and fifty minutes of sustained unease.

Girls2012

Lena Dunham's portrait of four women in New York negotiating their twenties, careers, and each other. Like Related, it understands that female friendships are complicated and worth examining in depth.

But The characters are often unlikeable and self-absorbed. The show's approach to narrative can feel deliberately ungratifying if you want clear character arcs.

Sex and the City1998

The progenitor of the 'women's lives in the city' genre. Four women, different ages and temperaments, sustaining each other through careers, romance, and the specific loneliness of urban life.

But It's dated now—the consumption obsession and some of the attitudes feel very 1990s. And the romance plots eventually overwhelm everything else about the show.

Jane the Virgin2014

A multigenerational story centred on women and their relationships to each other, with genuine warmth and humour. The show respects its female characters' complexity and agency in ways that feel modern.

But The telenovela narration and frequent genre shifts aren't for everyone. It's also quite tonally different—much lighter and more whimsical than Related.

Parenthood2010

A sprawling family drama that actually gets sibling relationships right. The show is genuinely moving about how family bonds persist even through conflict and distance.

But It's significantly more sentimental than Related, and relies heavily on melodramatic plot turns. The runtime commitment is also substantial—five seasons of one-hour episodes.

Cougar Town2009

Courtney Cox's show about women in their forties and fifties being funny and complicated. It's lighter than Related but has the same basic belief that female friendship and solidarity matter.

But The title is terrible and the show never quite escapes the implication of that premise. Some seasons prioritise party atmosphere over actual emotional stakes.

Hart of Dixie2011

A woman inheriting a bar in the South and finding her people. It has genuine warmth and a core group of female characters who actually like and support each other, which is rarer than it should be.

But It's considerably more whimsical and less grounded in reality. The romance plots eventually take over and the show loses some of its original appeal.

Tiny Furniture2010

Both are about women who know each other too well, who live in the same city and can't quite get away from each other. Both mine comedy and pathos from that specific claustrophobia.

Lena Dunham's debut is a precise, unsentimental look at a woman in her twenties returning to her mother's Manhattan loft, surrounded by her family's expectations. It's quiet, mortifying, and true in ways that feel almost anthropological.

But Nothing happens in any conventional sense. It's slow, sometimes painfully awkward, and you have to be interested in watching someone fail to launch. Also shot on a tiny budget, which shows.

Please Give2010

Like Related, it believes that female relationships—across generations, across different life circumstances—are the real plot. Both resist easy sentiment in favor of something more true.

Nicole Holofcener's film about a woman, her daughter, and the complicated older women in their lives. It's about guilt, generosity, and how women judge each other. Warm without being saccharine, funny without winking at the audience.

But It's glacially paced and the emotional payoff is modest. If you need clear resolution or character growth, you'll feel like nothing happened. Some find Holofcener's style too dry.