Loneliness is one of the trickier moods to watch television in. The wrong choice amplifies it — shows about tight-knit friend groups, perfect relationships, people who always have somewhere to be. The right choice makes you feel less alone without rubbing the loneliness in.
Here's what works, and why.
What Loneliness Actually Needs
When you're lonely, your brain is craving connection. What you don't want: parasocial relationships that leave you feeling worse when the episode ends, or aspirational social lives that make your own feel emptier by comparison. What you do want: characters who are also figuring things out, stories about finding your people, and shows where the emotional texture is warm without being saccharine.
The Picks
Shows That Make You Feel Less Alone
Shrinking (Apple TV+)
A therapist processing his own grief starts ignoring professional ethics and just telling his patients what to do. Warm, funny, and about people building unexpected friendships in unexpected circumstances. Jason Segel and Harrison Ford are both extraordinary. This show is a hug.
Detectorists (Acorn TV / YouTube)
Two men who spend their weekends searching for buried treasure with metal detectors and finding mostly bottle caps. A small, slow, extraordinarily human British comedy about friendship and meaning and the things we do to feel connected to something. If you've never seen it, you have a gift ahead of you.
Schitt's Creek (Paramount+)
A family that had everything loses it and has to rebuild, together. What starts as a fish-out-of-water comedy becomes something much more moving about finding community in unexpected places. The later seasons especially are about belonging, and they're wonderful.
For When You Want to Feel Understood
BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
A depressed, self-destructive former TV star (who is a horse) tries to figure out how to be a better person. It sounds absurd. It's one of the most honest portrayals of loneliness and self-sabotage in any medium. The comedy is real but so is the pain. Watch it when you're ready for something that takes the feeling seriously.
What to Avoid
- Shows about large friend groups who are always together (Friends, How I Met Your Mother)
- Romantic comedies where everything works out perfectly
- Reality shows about parties and social events
- True crime (adds anxiety to the loneliness — not helpful)
You're not as alone as you feel right now. Let us find you the right thing →