Shows that feel likeThe Crown (2016–2023)
If you loved The Crown, the closest series we have are Reign (2013), Downton Abbey (2010) and Billions (2016). All three share The Crown's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Knick (2014).
If The Crown hit the spot, these will too
A young queen discovering the crown will eat her private life
The difference: Teen-soap heat and loose history — spectacle over restraint
English houses, ritual and class, with the century pressing at the windows
The difference: Warmer and cosier — servants' gossip rather than affairs of state
Rooms where power gets negotiated in careful, deniable language
The difference: Flash, swagger and wordplay — nobody here is holding anything in
People arguing out what duty means and how to do a job properly
The difference: Sorkin speed and speeches, set in a newsroom rather than a palace
Two things both keep coming back to: queen and royalty
Family loyalty and the quiet dirty work done to protect a name
The difference: Brutal LA crime with fists and fixers, no ceremony over the top of it
An institution protected at all costs while its people manage the image
The difference: Contemporary and satirical, with careers rather than crowns at stake
One thread runs through both: royal family
A real life dramatised, with fame arriving as a kind of trap
The difference: Colombian street tragedy, raw and unglamorous
Institutional politics and the people ground down inside them
The difference: A hospital drama, contemporary and much broader
In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative shows →The best-reviewed series that share The Crown’s defining feeling.
