540 Best TV-MA Movies to Watch

Wild Wild Country follows the relocation of a hippie cult from India to Oregon in 1981. You haven't heard of Wasco Country? Nor had anybody else back then. This ghost town with a handful of god-fearing inhabitants, soon became Rajneeshpuram, the cult's new homestead, home to a thousand disciples, and the subject of nationwide media attention. Spoiler: the town's old residents did not think much of it.

Will there be debaucherous orgies, long-haired drop-outs, preaching and chanting? Yes. But, through historical footage and interviews with contemporaries, including Ma Anand Sheela, the power-hungry secretary of the orange-clad guru, you will also be absorbed by chemical weapons and attempted murder, one of the biggest immigration fraud case in US history, and, of course, the mysterious and not-so-mysterious ways that a charismatic cult attracts and manipulates its followers. Across six one-hour episodes, this Netflix miniseries by brothers Maclain and Chapman Way gives a captivating, exhaustive, and powerful account of one of the stranger moments in American media history.

Genre: Crime, Documentary

Actor: George Meredith, Ma Anand Sheela, Osho, Philip Toelkes

Director: Chapman Way, Maclain Way

Rating: Not Rated, TV-MA

The eponymous catastrophe follows a brief affair between Rob, a New York executive, and Sharon, an Irish teacher, during his business trip to London. She discovers her pregnancy after he returns to the US and decides to keep the baby. He eventually returns to London and hilarity ensues, while he navigates his new life in Britain, and she struggles to adapt hers to an uninvited and hopeless American.

Honest and spit-take funny, the show was a big hit on British TV and now made its transition to American and worldwide audiences. “Forty-nine percent autobiographical”, it was created, written, and produced by Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, who met on Twitter in real life, as well as starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney as, you guessed it, Sharon and Rob, the show's main protagonists. A product of the love of two very funny people, Catastrophe is the quintessential 21st century rom com.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Ashley Jensen, Carrie Fisher, Daniel Lapaine, Mark Bonnar, Rob Delaney, Sharon Horgan

Director: Ben Taylor, Jim O'Hanlon

Rating: TV-MA

You're the Worst is the story of the relationship between Jimmy and Gretchen, or lack thereof. Jimmy (Chris Geere) is a smart but insensitive British novelist, a lone wolf with an excess of confidence. Equally smart and self-involved, Gretchen has clinical depression and a distinctive self-destructive streak. They meet, they have sex, she steals his car. As you do.

What ensues is, to some extent, a classic will-they-won't-they comedy between two very cynical but often likeable people with a lot of humor drizzled on top. The electric chemistry between the two leads is topped off by their two weirdo sidekicks: Edgar, a war-veteran who suffers from PTSD, and Lindsay, a self-proclaimed “hot awesome sex fox” who married a nerd for money.

Written and created by Stephen Falk, one of the writers and producers for Orange Is the New Black and Weeds, You're the Worst acts as if it cares about the standards of the genre, but, especially in season two, it also deals fearlessly with the subject of Gretchen's mental health, which some have called the best explanation of clinical depression on television ever. Thanks to its witty writing, You're the Worst will likely start off as the perfect watch-two-episodes-over-dinner-every-night series, until the plot sucks you in and you find yourself so hooked that you can't watch anything else.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Andrew Daly, Aya Cash, Chris Geere, Desmin Borges

Rating: TV-MA

Stath Lets Flats is so incredibly quotable that watching just its first crop of episodes will likely give you a whole new vocabulary. Even after spending three full seasons with the titular Greek Cypriot real estate agent (played, as no one else could, by series creator Jamie Demetriou) and his sister Sophie (Natasia Demetriou), it still feels like the show is inventing new ways to nonsensically butcher the English language. Maintaining total unpredictability and never letting the gags get stale is no easy feat, but Stath Lets Flats never even gets close to that, remaining utterly original — and, more importantly, hilarious — from its slapstick-heavy opener all the way through the emotional rollercoaster that is the show’s three-season-strong run. Though its existence feels criminally short, the blessing of this being unlike any other sitcom (old and new) means it has infinite rewatch potential — putting it up there with the very best of TV comedy, period. Sold!

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Al Roberts, Christos Stergioglou, Jamie Demetriou, Katy Wix, Natasia Demetriou

Director: Andrew Gaynord

Rating: TV-MA

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Caitlin Stasey, David Roberts, Debra Lawrance, Emily Barclay, Greg Kinnear, Hannah Gadsby, John, Josh Thomas, Judi Farr, Julianne Moore, Keegan Joyce, Lily Collins, Michael Angarano, Renee Lim, Thomas Ward

Director: Craig Zisk

Rating: TV-MA

The story is so jaw-dropping that it almost had to be put to film: steadily sawing through pipes and cutting through walls, two convicted murderers managed to break out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in 2015. The elegant and realistic dramatization was released by Showtime in 2018 and directed by none other than Ben Stiller in what marks his TV directorial debut.

The protagonists of this unlikely feat included the shrewd, boss-type felon Richard Matt (Benicio del Toro) and the much younger, excitable David Sweat (Paul Dano). You will hardly recognize Patricia Arquette in her role as Joyce 'Tilly' Mitchell, a married prison employee overseeing the sewing workshop, who supported and had sexual relations with both men. She rightly received a slew of awards, including a Golden Globe in 2019, for her stunning transformation and brilliant performance.

While the pacing of this somber thriller might be a bit too slow for some, the stellar performances of the main cast are enough to keep you on the edge of your chair. It's a cinematic TV rendition of an unbelievable story and an engrossing view inside the life and minds of disenfranchised Americans.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Benicio Del Toro, Bonnie Hunt, Calvin Dutton, David Morse, Dominic Colón, Eric Lange, Gregory Dann, Jeremy Bobb, Michael Beasley, Mike Spears, Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano

Director: Ben Stiller

Rating: TV-MA

Viewers of American Gangster might have wondered about the fate of heroine kingpin Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, who dies in the movie's opening scene (of natural causes, mind you). On par with Al Capone or Billy the Kid, Bumpy Johnson was, in fact, a cult criminal and an underworld legend, but known almost exclusively to the people of Harlem, where he ran the drug trade for thirty odd years until the 1960s.

After receiving many nods in films like Hoodlum, Escape from Alcatraz, and Shaft, the story of Bumpy Johnson (played by Forest Whitaker, who also acts as producer) takes center stage in Godfather of Harlem. Co-created by the people behind Narcos, the series opens when Johnson is released from Alcatraz after a long sentence in 1963, when he returns to Harlem to find that much has changed. With the aid of civil-rights activist Malcom X (played, of course, by Nigél Thatch), an out-of-touch Johnson strives to reclaim his old neighborhood from the Italians in an all-out war.

Part deep-diving gangster epic, part 60s period piece with a modern sensibility, Godfather of Harlem has it all: gritty drama, great writing, swanky 60s style, and an awesome soundtrack.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

Actor: Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito, Ilfenesh Hadera, Lucy Fry, Nigel Thatch, Paul Sorvino, Vincent D'Onofrio

Rating: TV-MA

Set in 1980s Hollywood, Winning Time doesn’t just borrow from the decade, it imbibes it in its very fiber. It’s dizzyingly fast-paced and dazzlingly glamorous, pulling out all the stops from the cinematography, which employs a hybrid of film and tube camera, to the all-star cast, which includes Sally Field, Adrien Brody, and Jason Segel. It’s a technical feat, but amazingly, it also excels as a character study for Lakers legends Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes), as well as the team’s charismatic owner, Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly). The writers go in-depth into their histories and weave a story so gripping, you can’t help but binge all 10 episodes in one go (and research the truth right after). If you’re an NBA fan, you might be disappointed to know that a big chunk of the script doesn’t adhere to real events, but you will no doubt be delighted to watch basketball in the way it was intended to be watched: riveting and nail-biting, with a lot of drama and glamor to match. 

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Rating: TV-MA

This excellent legal drama starts with a successful partner losing her retirement savings to a Ponzi scheme. The person accused of running the scheme is the father of her newest junior associate. They both find themselves out of options and join a black-run firm that specializes in police brutality cases. 

From legal questions that start on Reddit and 4Chan to trying to find a Trump supporter in the firm, The Good Fight is relatable without being cringy. Everything is believable, including the characters and the arcs.  The Good Fight feels like Suits or The Good Wife, but it also feels much better. It's sharper.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Delroy Lindo

Rating: TV-MA