Television series
Wentworth
A brutal, blackly funny soap about the women who run — and are run by — a fictional Australian prison. It's got shifting alliances, prison-yard politics, and a villain (Joan Ferguson) so committed she becomes iconic. Violent, soapy, surprisingly moving, and addictive in the way only a show that kills off favourites without warning can be.
If you liked this
Orange Is the New Black2013
The obvious next stop — women's prison, sprawling ensemble, flashbacks that humanise everyone including the people you're rooting against. Funnier than Wentworth but just as willing to gut you.
But The comedy-drama tonal whiplash isn't for everyone, and later seasons sag under their own cast size.
Bad Girls1999no page yet
British prison drama that did the soapy, corrupt-officer, power-vacuum thing years before Wentworth, with a similarly beloved villain in Yvonne Atkins's orbit. Cheaper, pulpier, and unashamed of it.
But Early-2000s production values and pacing feel dated next to Wentworth's polish.
Oz1997
The men's-prison ancestor of this whole genre — HBO's original ensemble prison drama, unflinching about violence and politics inside. Wentworth's structural blueprint, just angrier and rawer.
But Aggressively brutal, dated effects, and a much colder emotional register than Wentworth's.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Caged1950no page yet
This is the direct ancestor of the women's-prison genre — the innocent-to-hardened arc, the tyrannical matron, the yard politics are all here first, decades before Bea Smith walked in.
The film that basically invented this genre — a naive young woman enters prison, is slowly hardened by a corrupt system, and a fearsome matron rules the yard. Every Wentworth beat, seventy years earlier.
But Black-and-white, melodramatic by modern standards, and the moral messaging is much blunter than anything Wentworth allows itself.
More like this (6)
Time2021
BBC miniseries, three tight episodes, following a man's first days inside. Stripped of soap opera, it's what Wentworth's premise looks like played completely straight and quiet.
But No sprawling cast, no long-game plotting — if you want season after season of intrigue, this ends too soon.
Prisoner1979no page yet
The original Australian series Wentworth reboots — same characters' ancestors, same prison, decades of cult status. Watching it is like meeting the source material's grandparents.
But Extremely long-running, extremely 1980s in pacing and production; a curiosity more than binge-television now.
Rectify2013
A man's release after decades on death row, and the slow, quiet damage prison leaves behind. The comedown to Wentworth's adrenaline — what happens after the fight for survival ends.
But Glacially paced and introspective; if you want plot momentum, this will frustrate you.
Prison Break2005
Pure pulp escape thriller if you want the prison setting without the psychological weight — hierarchy, tattooed conspiracies, and a plan instead of a slow burn.
But Genuinely silly by season two, and shares almost nothing of Wentworth's emotional seriousness.
Time: The Kalief Browder Story2017
Wentworth dramatises institutional cruelty for tension; this shows you the real, undramatised version, stripping away the soap opera to leave just the human cost the fiction is built on.
A documentary miniseries about a real teenager's years in solitary confinement awaiting trial, and what that isolation did to him. Sobering, devastating, and impossible to shake.
But There's no catharsis or villain to root against here, just grief — this will not entertain you, and isn't trying to.
The Handmaid's Tale2017
Swap the prison for a theocratic household and the moral engine is identical — women under total institutional control, forming alliances and betrayals to survive it, just reframed as speculative fiction instead of crime drama.
Women confined, surveilled, and pitted against each other by a controlling system, forced to choose between complicity and resistance daily. Same power calculus as Wentworth, dressed as dystopian fiction.
But Deliberately harrowing rather than pulpy, with none of Wentworth's dark humour to relieve the pressure.
People
Cast
Production
- Paula SaliniAssociate Producer
- Sue EdwardsLine Producer