Television series

Some Girls

Some Girls is a sharp, character-driven comedy about five teenage girls navigating school, boys, friendship and survival on a South London estate. It's genuinely funny without being mean, warm without being sentimental. A show that treats its characters—and by extension, teenagers full stop—with real respect.

TVMaze rating3.9

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Fresh Meat2011

Four university students figure out sex, friendship and identity across one transformative year. It's witty, raunchy, tender and built on character work as strong as Some Girls itself.

But It can be bleak in stretches, and the humour is sometimes uncomfortable. Some storylines linger in ways that feel punishing rather than cathartic.

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Skins2007

The gold standard for teenage ensemble comedy-drama. Each episode focuses on a different character, so you get real depth. Funny, brutal, alive in a way most teen shows aren't.

But The early seasons (especially Series 2) can feel more style than substance. It also gets significantly darker, which won't suit everyone.

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Chewing Gum2015

Michaela Coel's breakthrough is a rapid-fire comedy about a young woman finding her voice in North London. The writing is inventive and the emotional stakes are genuine beneath the chaos.

But It's relentlessly frenetic. The pacing can exhaust rather than entertain if you're not tuned to its frequency.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pin Cushion2018

Both understand that friendships between girls can be as complicated and all-consuming as any romantic relationship, and both refuse to make that cute.

Two friendless girls—one new to their school—bond intensely and then spiral. It's shot like a fever dream in muted colours, uncomfortable and visceral in ways mainstream teen comedy never is. A portrait of female friendship turned sinister.

But It's bleak and the atmosphere is deliberately oppressive. There's no redemption arc, and the ending doesn't offer catharsis or resolution.

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More like this (8)

Derry Girls2018

Five teenage girls in 1990s Northern Ireland. It's fundamentally a show about friendship and loyalty, shot through with genuine laughs and a real sense of place and time.

But If you don't care about the period detail or the Irish setting, the nostalgia might feel exclusionary. Some viewers find it overly sentimental.

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The End of the F***ing World2017

Two misfits—a teenage psychopath and an angry girl—meet and become partners. It's darkly comic, visually inventive, and surprisingly moving about loneliness and connection.

But The darkness is substantial and real. It's not always a comfortable watch, and some violence is genuinely disturbing rather than played for laughs.

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Fleabag2016

A woman in her twenties breaks the fourth wall, sleeps around and slowly reveals the chaos underneath. It's funny, smart, and finds genuine emotion without sentimentality.

But The main character is deeply self-centred and sometimes unlikeable by design. The sexual content is explicit and matter-of-fact.

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Broad City2014

Two women in New York cause chaos, sleep around and make terrible decisions. It's absurdist, generous-hearted and the friendship at its centre feels completely real.

But The humour is often juvenile and the plots sometimes feel like sketch material stretched to half an hour. American humour rhythms differ from British ones.

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Sex Education2019

A teenage boy runs an underground sex clinic while working through his own complicated feelings. It's earnest without being preachy, funny without being cruel, and genuinely wise about growing up.

But Its sincerity can feel like it's constantly reaching for a learning moment. Some viewers find the tone saccharine or the messaging heavy-handed.

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Godless2017

A Western miniseries set in a town run entirely by women, where a wanted outlaw arrives and everything destabilizes. Handsome, tense, and structured around real moral complexity.

But It's a Western that doesn't always behave like one, which might disappoint fans of the genre. The pacing is deliberate and some found it slow.

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Eighth Grade2018

Both are interested in what it actually feels like to be a girl that age—the texture of it, not the plot of it—and both trust their audience to sit with discomfort.

Bo Burnham's film follows a thirteen-year-old girl through her last week of middle school. It's painfully accurate about modern adolescence, funny and heartbreaking in equal measure, and treats its protagonist with absolute seriousness.

But It's claustrophobic and sometimes difficult to watch. The realism can feel like documentation rather than entertainment. The film understands social media anxiety in a way that might stress you out.

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Heartstopper2022

Like Some Girls, it's a British ensemble comedy about teenagers that treats their emotional lives as completely legitimate, and it believes in the power of friendship and community without irony.

A British miniseries about two teenage boys falling in love, based on the webcomic. It's colourful, joyful, romantically earnest and genuinely funny. The ensemble of friends around them is as fully realized as the romance.

But Its wholesomeness can read as saccharine. If you're allergic to sincerity and visual brightness, the aesthetic will feel suffocating rather than charming.

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