Shows that feel likeThe Act (2019)
If you loved The Act, the closest series we have are Unbelievable (2019), American Crime Story (2016) and When They See Us (2019). All three share The Act's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Godfather of Harlem (2019).
If The Act hit the spot, these will too
Real crime told patiently, from inside the harm done to a young woman
The difference: Police procedure and quiet decency instead of a house closing in
Notorious headlines restaged as performance, the people made human again
The difference: A new case each season, played out in courtrooms and press rooms
The same two preoccupations: a true story, and true crime
Watching a real life march step by step toward its documented ruin
The difference: Sprawling cartel history over three seasons, not one household slowly rotting
Unhurried attention to how ordinary people become capable of killing
The difference: Cool and clinical — interviews and theory, not a life lived in close-up
A tight limited run where one manipulative relationship carries the dread
The difference: Set in a prison, and it moves like a thriller with a ticking clock
You already know how it ends, and the dread comes from the waiting
The difference: Cartels, borders and DEA politics — scale instead of one small house
The same preoccupation in both: anthology
Real people out of the record books, dramatised with the mess left in
The difference: A broad 1960s gangland saga across four seasons, not one confined story
Someone formed by the thing that trapped them, fighting to get out alive
The difference: Cartel violence and prison hierarchy, paced like a long telenovela
Parental love used as the excuse for something monstrous
The difference: A legal thriller with a city crime machine pressing in from outside
Somebody trapped by a family that will not let them leave
The difference: Outlaw crime drama, violent and invented
In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative shows →The best-reviewed series that share The Act’s defining feeling.
