We discuss 5 TV Shows like Dear Edward you must watch. Add these well-recommended TV series to your watch list.
Right from its opening moments, you can tell that we’re in the world of Jason Katims with Dear Edward. Driven by themes of family and grief amongst its expansive cast of characters, the series is both slickly produced and wears its heart on its sleeve.
Its central theme of connectivity amongst those grieving due to a plane crash recalls similar iconic shows but is filtered through Katims’ primary concerns of heartfelt emotion and trying to have you cry every five minutes.
If it’s a series you like, or if you’re curious about other shows of a similar nature, some even developed by Katims, Ready Steady Cut has five recommendations for you that are worth checking out.
5 TV Shows like Dear Edward you must watch
Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)
The combination of creator/executive producer Jason Katims and star Connie Britton amongst one of the great television ensemble casts helped to make Friday Night Lights one of the best series on the air during its run, but also one of the most underrated, constantly facing cancellation despite critical acclaim and having a small but devoted audience.
There is a subtle naturalism to the writing, acting, and direction here that almost feels the complete opposite of the heightened dramas of Dear Edward, but it’s also infused with a delicate sweetness and an ability to either break your heart or make it soar like nothing else ever put to screen and is perhaps the perfect encapsulation of Katims and his approach to storytelling.
Parenthood (2010 – 2015)
A second attempt at bringing Ron Howard’s 1989 film to the small screen, Parenthood was characteristic of Katim’s ability to bring together a well-chosen ensemble cast and to have them play out scenes that could run a range of emotions that could go from gently humorous to emotionally devastating.
While smaller in scope compared to his latest series or even Friday Night Lights, it was also a series that found many of its strengths and best moments in some magnificently played character dramas amongst its perfectly chosen lead cast that included Mae Whitman and Lauren Graham.
Lost (2004 – 2010)
Any television series that deals with the impact of an airline disaster has the specter of J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof’s iconic sci-fi drama hanging over it.
While a very heightened series, not to mention set on a desert island, Lost does share Dear Edward’s ability to command a large ensemble cast and storytelling that is sometimes deceptively complex in its portrayal of the human connection.
Manifest (2018 – Present)
Like Lost, Manifest is more of a sci-fi series. Still, similar to Dear Edward, it deals with the ramifications of an airline disaster through the prism of central characters trying to pick up the pieces after the event.
The difference here is that it deals with characters who disappeared mid-flight and subsequently reappeared years later in a rather novel sci-fi plot. Occasionally daft, it’s also very engaging. Like Lost and Dear Edward, it finds a lot to mine from not only the intricacies of its storytelling and themes of connectivity but also in the performances of its leads.
This Is Us (2016 – 2022)
Perhaps the biggest example in recent years of a star-led weepy on the small screen, while Katims was not involved in This is Us, it feels like something within his wheelhouse of portraying big emotional beats to audience-pleasing effect amongst a brilliant ensemble cast and finding a way to have it endure as a long-running television series.
One of the biggest series to air in the US in recent years; some might scoff at it for being sentimental and manipulative, but there’s no denying that it’s very effective in what it does, and its twist reveal in the very first episode was a genuine surprise.
Do you have any other recommendations for TV Shows like Dear Edward? Let us know in the comments below.
