Television series

Why Women Kill

Marc Cherry's follow-up to Desperate Housewives splits into three timelines — 1963, 1984, 2019 — set in the same Pasadena mansion, each centered on a wife discovering her husband's infidelity and responding in increasingly startling ways. It's soapy, stylish, and self-aware, blending genuine dread with camp comedy. Best for anyone who wants their murder mysteries served with martinis and mid-century wallpaper.

TVMaze rating7.3

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Desperate Housewives2004

Same creator, same appetite for suburban secrets and dark humor, stretched across eight seasons of gossip, murder, and impeccably dressed dysfunction on Wisteria Lane.

But It's soapier and lighter — less noir, more primetime melodrama, and the tone drifts as seasons wear on.

Desperate Housewives poster

Big Little Lies2017

Glossy, starry, and built around a death you don't see coming, with a trio of women hiding marriages that aren't what they seem.

But Far more prestige-drama than dramedy — the humor is dry, the stakes heavier, and it takes itself seriously throughout.

Big Little Lies poster

Dead to Me2019

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini turn grief and guilt into pitch-black comedy, with a plot that keeps twisting around who did what to whom.

But The comedy is broader and more manic — less mid-century elegance, more frantic present-day chaos.

Dead to Me poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Diabolique1955

Same premise as any single Why Women Kill timeline, a woman driven to murder by a husband's cruelty, but told straight decades before dramedy softened the edges.

The blueprint for 'wife plots against husband' cinema — a stark, suspenseful French thriller where a wife and mistress conspire against the man abusing them both.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, and a slow burn by modern pacing standards — no camp, all dread.

Diabolique poster
More like this (8)

Killing Eve2018

A cat-and-mouse thriller with real wit, glamour, and a fascination with what women are capable of when nobody's watching closely enough.

But Swaps marriage plots for espionage and assassins — the domestic angle disappears almost entirely.

Killing Eve poster

American Horror Story2011

Another anthology that reinvents itself each season with new casts, eras, and a taste for the theatrically macabre — if you liked jumping timelines, this multiplies it.

But Genuinely horror, not dramedy — gorier, weirder, and far less interested in grounded relationship drama.

American Horror Story poster

Feud2017

An anthology built on a real-life Hollywood rivalry, dripping with period detail and the simmering resentment between two extraordinary women.

But Based on true history rather than invented suburban intrigue, and considerably slower-paced overall.

Feud poster

The Affair2014

Told from dueling perspectives, it picks apart a marriage and its betrayals with a slow-burn intensity that rewards patience.

But No dark comedy here — it's somber, sometimes bleak, and stretches its central mystery over many seasons.

The Affair poster

Good Girls2018no page yet

Three suburban women turn to crime out of desperation, mixing comedy and consequence as their double lives spiral further out of control.

But Crime-caper energy replaces the murder-mystery slow burn, and the tone runs broader and punchier.

Little Fires Everywhere2020

Secrets simmering beneath a picture-perfect suburb, anchored by two magnetic performances and a mystery that unspools in flashback.

But Focused more on class and motherhood than marriage or murder, and lacks the show's dark comic edge.

Little Fires Everywhere poster

The Staircase2022

Swaps the show's playful murder-mystery structure for the real, unresolved mess a suspicious spousal death actually leaves behind.

A real marriage, a real death, a real trial — this documentary series follows a novelist accused of killing his wife, with the same suspicious-death intrigue and zero fiction.

But There's no wit or wink here — it's a genuine tragedy, and the ambiguity lingers uncomfortably rather than resolving neatly.

The Staircase poster

Serial Mom1994

Takes the same 'devoted wife turns killer' idea and strips away all restraint, showing how much trashier and funnier the premise gets without prestige polish.

John Waters' gleefully trashy satire about a seemingly perfect suburban mother who murders anyone who offends her manners — pure camp, pure blood, pure joy.

But Broader, cruder, and far less interested in genuine emotion — this is satire dialed to eleven, not drama.

Serial Mom poster

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