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Good Girls
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If you’re anything like us, Good Girls is one of the shows that has carried you through quarantine. It checks all the “dramedy” boxes and rich mom fantasies that make for perfect escapist television. If you are unfamiliar, the show follows three Michigan moms who are strapped for cash and set out to rob a grocery store to alleviate their financial woes. Once they venture into criminal territory, there’s no turning back. The juxtaposition of moms gone bad, suburban glory, and absurdist comedy is hardly a new category, but Good Girls does an already good thing very well.
If you already know all this and have blown through all four seasons on Netflix, now may be the perfect time to dive into the shows that made Good Girls possible. The competition in the “fancy garbage” meets criminal master-moms subcategory is fierce, so here are the standout shows from the indulgently extensive lexicon.
'Orange is the New Black'
Orange is the New Black is a great place to start if you want more comedy-drama, strong female leads, and criminal activity. The series follows a thirty-something New Yorker, Piper Chapman, whose life is turned upside down when her drug-transporting past catches up with her. She finds herself in Litchfield Penitentiary, a minimum-security women’s prison upstate, with a cast of fascinating characters, including her former girlfriend. The show deals with themes of sexuality, femininity, and identity and is critically acclaimed for a reason, so if you missed the boat on Orange is the New Black back in 2013, now is the time to fix that.
'Desperate Housewives'
If you’re looking for another subversion of the “rich moms are good moms” trope, you have to watch the show that pioneered this beloved concept. Before Big Little Lies or Good Girls, there was Desperate Housewives. The eight-season epic follows the lives of a group of suburban housewives in the years following the suicide of their friend and neighbor. The cultural impact of Desperate Housewives is much too extensive to attempt to distill here, but if you love a show that dives behind the facade of manicured lawns, nails, and suburban bliss, Desperate Housewives is a logical starting point. The early 2000s fashion and dark glamour alone are enough to warrant an escapist binge.
'Dead to Me'
Dead to Me is the latest and greatest in the accidentally murderous mother category. When a Laguna Beach woman’s (Christina Applegate) husband is killed in a hit-and-run, she is unable to process the grief and resentment. Jen attends a support group where she meets Judy, who is allegedly grieving her fiancé’s sudden death from a heart attack. The kicker: Judy’s fiancé didn’t die, he merely broke up with her after they caused the fatal accident that… you guessed it, killed Jen’s husband. Not a spoiler, don’t worry. This show is jam packed with irony and a delicious sense of impending doom. It’s worth watching for the plot twist in the Season 1 finale alone. Just be grateful there’s a second season on Netflix now, because some of us had to wait months for another episode after that cliffhanger.
'The Good Place'
This one might seem a little bit less obvious, but The Good Place, despite its dearth of hot, rich moms, is similar to Good Girls in many ways. Primarily, they are both brilliantly crafted absurdist comedies with plain old good vibes. In The Good Place, Kristen Bell’s character believes she has ended up in the Good Place (a.k.a. Heaven), by mistake. The show is somehow about moral philosophy and is also ridiculously entertaining. If you’ve been meaning to brush up on your Plato while simultaneously getting your fix of the exact brand of comedy that made you laugh/cry in Good Girls, this critical darling should be at the top of your list. Besides, Kristen Bell is a hot, rich mom IRL, so we’ll let this one slide. Also they both have the word “good” in the title.
'Sweet Magnolias'
Sweet Magnolias is a lighter, southern version of the other shows on this list. It follows three female best friends who have been inseparable for life. Set in South Carolina, the trio supports one another through failed marriages, new romance, and parenting woes. If you want to take the camaraderie and leave the crime after bingeing Good Girls, Sweet Magnolias should be on your Netflix watchlist. It has the depth of a true drama, while retaining the aspects of escapism that you won’t necessarily get from an intense series like Orange is the New Black. Unless prison is a nice change of pace for you after living through a pandemic; then by all means, carry on with that.
'Weeds'
Weeds is another oldie but goodie that still holds up in the category it helped pioneer. The satirical drama follows a suburban mom who turns to selling marijuana after the death of her husband and financial security. It’s another indulgent and hilarious glance behind the curtain of white suburbia, where dealing may be frowned upon, but there is no shortage of interested customers. Weeds was one of the shows to catalyze the rise of streaming (as well as Netflix’s early monopoly) and remains an ideal binge despite the surplus of content we face today.
'Big Little Lies'
Finally, a show like Big Little Lies cannot be left off any list about the secret lives of wealthy mothers. I think it’s safe to assume that the people who love Good Girls, but have yet to see Big Little Lies are few and far between. However, if you do fall in that demographic, what have you been up to? Get to it! Not only does Big Little Lies have a star-studded, miracle cast (literally what did we do to deserve Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman on our screens simultaneously?) its virtues go way beyond quality acting. The plot of this series is expertly crafted and will have you swinging wildly back and forth between two strong emotions: envy and eventually, gratitude for your simple, humble life. Everything is not what it seems in Monterey and you will only want to be Laura Dern’s character for a brief moment, despite the insane view from her infinity pool.
