Television series
The Overstory
- Drama
- Slow-burning
A Netflix series adapting Richard Powers' sweeping novel about ordinary people who discover the hidden complexity of forests and become activists fighting for their survival. It's intimate and sprawling at once—part environmental thriller, part spiritual awakening. For readers hungry for something that makes nature feel urgent and personal, not preachy.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you are drawn to fiction about the unseen machinery of nature, where ordinary people slowly learn to notice a living network most of us never think about.
Skip it if you need something to start tonight, since it is still in development and there is nothing to press play on yet.
What it asks of you: Its shape is still unset, but the material points toward a slow, patient drama that would reward long attention and a tolerance for quiet, rooted scenes.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Killers of the Flower Moon2023
Scorsese's meditation on environmental destruction and indigenous resistance, told through intimate human stories. Methodical, morally serious, and visually devastating. Same appetite for connecting personal tragedy to systemic harm.
But Runs nearly three and a half hours. The pacing is deliberate—this isn't a thriller, it's a reckoning, and some will find it slow.
My Octopus Teacher2020
A filmmaker bonds with an octopus over a year, learning to see an alien intelligence in our own world. Tender, philosophical, and thrumming with wonder. That same sense of discovering a hidden universe alongside our own.
But Documentary form and intimate rather than dramatic. If you want plot momentum and character conflict, this is contemplation instead.
The Last of Us2023
HBO's adaptation captures how environmental collapse and human connection intertwine. Each episode zooms into one relationship or community, building to something immense. The scale and intimacy work together exactly like the novel does.
But Post-apocalyptic setting might feel too bleak if you're looking for hope rather than reckoning. Very violent in moments.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Overstory
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Annihilation2018
Both treat nature as a protagonist with its own agency and agenda, not a backdrop for human stories. Both ask what happens when humans finally have to listen instead of take.
A woman enters a vast, beautiful, deadly zone where nature has begun to write itself differently. Visually hypnotic, morally ambiguous, absolutely refuses easy answers. Like The Overstory—it makes nature feel intelligent and unknowable rather than scenery.
But Science fiction with body horror elements and genuine dread. Not comforting or uplifting; it ends in strangeness rather than resolution. Some will find it alienating.
More like this (7)
The Crown2016
Probably seems like a non-match, but it's about people trying to protect something vast and interconnected while the world changes around them. Character-driven, morally complex, finding humanity in systems.
But Royal drama, not environmental. If you're after activism and nature, this is about institutions and power instead. Very long commitment.
Raised by Wolves2020
Ridley Scott's strange, ambitious series about survival on an alien planet. Builds a world from fragments, reveals hidden systems gradually, asks what we're really fighting to preserve.
But Sci-fi abstraction rather than rooted naturalism. Visually bleak and thematically heavy. Cancelled after two seasons, so unfinished.
Becoming Jane2007
A biography of someone learning to see injustice in the world around her and making art to resist it. Thoughtful period film about conscience and how convictions form. Quieter cousin to the activism you'll find here.
But Costume drama focused on romance and writing. The social stakes feel smaller than environmental apocalypse, which some will find genteel.
Dark2017
German series that's obsessed with how hidden systems connect—time, family, nature itself. Intricate, rewarding for patient viewers. That same sense of discovering invisible webs holding everything together.
But Deliberately obscure and complex. The narrative loops back on itself; if you need clarity and forward momentum, this will frustrate you.
Parable of the Sower
Octavia Butler adaptation about survival and community-building in a collapsing world. Focused on human resilience and how we might choose to live together. Speculative but deeply rooted in real social anxiety.
But Harder to find, limited series. Speculative fiction rather than contemporary realism, which shifts the emotional register for some viewers.
A Prophet2009
Both are stories of unlikely education—learning to read a system no one taught you about, then choosing what to do with that knowledge. Both refuse to make that choice easy or triumphant.
French-language prison drama where a young man is educated in an invisible system of power and learns to see and navigate it. Gripping and brilliant. It has the same structure as The Overstory—a protagonist's education into hidden architecture.
But Prison violence and moral ambiguity; the protagonist isn't sympathetic in traditional ways. Subtitled, and tonally stark and unsentimental throughout.
La Cérémonie1995
Both are about seeing what's been invisible—inheritance, connection, the weight of what we carry. Both find the sacred in attention itself, not in action.
Japanese film about a family ritually burning their possessions to cleanse the home, and the daughter learning her grandmother's life story through objects. Quiet, meditative, about continuity and what we carry forward. Vastly different tone but the same spiritual architecture.
But Extremely slow and deliberately minor in scale. No plot to speak of, no climax. If you need narrative momentum, this is a tone poem disguised as a film.
People
Production
- Richard PowersCo-Executive Producer
- Bernadette CaulfieldExecutive Producer
- Hugh JackmanExecutive Producer
- Richard E. RobbinsExecutive Producer