5 Best Tv Shows Like The Good Daughter

NBC Universal

This article contains discussions of addiction, domestic violence, mental health, and sexual assault.

There's a new dark crime thriller on Peacock, and if you haven't watched "The Good Daughter" yet, prepare yourself — this show is unrelentingly distressing, but it'll keep you captivated from beginning to end.

Two of film and television's most talented actresses, Meghann Fahy and Rose Byrne, lead this series — based on a book by thriller writer Karin Slaughter, who also created the show — about sisters Charlotte and Samantha Quinn, respectively. As teenagers, Charlotte and Samantha endure a horrifying tragedy when their mother is shot and killed in front of them in their home by masked intruders, after which both girls are also attacked. Years later, Charlotte is working in their hometown of Pikeville, Georgia, with their father Rusty (Brendan Gleeson), a defense attorney whose work may or may not have caused the home invasion that killed his wife and the mother of his children, and Sam lives in New York City as a patent attorney who's trying to escape her past. When a new tragedy strikes in Pikeville and Charlotte gets a front-row seat to the carnage, the sisters reunite under difficult circumstances, unpack their family trauma, and ultimately work together to prove that a teenage girl is innocent.

If you finish binge-watching "The Good Daughter" and want to keep the crime drama streak going, I've got some follow-up suggestions for you. You may notice that "Pieces of Her" and "Will Trent," two other high-profile Slaughter adaptations, don't appear here; the former just barely missed the cut in favor of some other picks, and the latter is very tonally different (largely because it's a network drama). Check your trigger warnings and then try out these five shows you'll like if you loved "The Good Daughter."

HBO

Gillian Flynn's most famous novel might be "Gone Girl," which got an incredible film adaptation, but don't sleep on her debut novel and its small-screen adaptation. "Sharp Objects," which dropped on HBO in 2018 and was helmed by the late, great Jean-Marc Vallée and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum Marti Noxon.

After a girl goes missing in her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, in the aftermath of a different young woman's murder, journalist Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) — who struggles with serious trauma, her mental health, compulsive self-harm, and an alcohol addiction — reluctantly goes back to Wind Gap and reunites with her controlling Southern belle mother Adora Crellin (an imperious, perfect Patricia Clarkson). When the missing girl's body is discovered shortly thereafter, Camille attempts to solve the murder, tangling with big city detective Richard Willis (Chris Messina, reuniting with Adams after their much less intense film "Julie & Julia") as well as her impulsive and rebellious younger half-sister Amma Crellin (Eliza Scanlon).

Vallée and Noxon create an airless, claustrophobic environment in Wind Gap as Camille tries to face her demons head-on and figure out who's responsible for the deaths of multiple girls ... whose bodies are often missing teeth when they're found. With an ending that'll leave your jaw on the floor and a performance from Adams that should have, by all rights, handed her an Emmy — to say nothing of the magnificent turn from Clarkson — "Sharp Objects" is a must-watch no matter what. Its themes of family trauma pair perfectly with "The Good Daughter."

Michele K. Short/HBO

Philadelphia local Brad Inglesby, who's also the mind behind "Task," created and wrote "Mare of Easttown," which is set in a fictional suburb of Philly called Easttown and hit HBO in 2021. (Confusingly, there is a Philadelphia suburb called Easttown, but it's not the one depicted in the show. Try to keep up!) Kate Winslet stacks accent upon accent as the titular Marianne "Mare" Sheehan, a local detective tasked with investigating the murder of a young single mother, as she continues to try and track down a different missing girl whose case has gone mostly cold. On top of all of that, Mare tragically lost her son years prior, and she lives with her own guilt and grief every day as she also tries to deal with her surviving family, especially her difficult mother, Helen Fahey (Jean Smart), and provides support for her best friend, Lori Ross (Julianne Nicholson).

As Mare teams up with county detective Colin Zabel (a phenomenal Evan Peters, who really nails this tricky accent), struggles to parent her rebellious daughter Siobhán (Angourie Rice) with her ex-husband Frank (David Denman), and tries to solve the murder of said single mother Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), she also has to deal with her own trauma. Like in "The Good Daughter," Mare's past frequently gets in her way as she attempts to deal with her present, and like "The Good Daughter," the ending of "Mare of Easttown" is as satisfying as it is devastating and sobering. Speaking of "Task," by the way, the shows are set in the same universe ... and Nicholson actually reprised her role as Lori on Inglesby's other series in 2026.

HBO

Liane Moriarty has been writing exceptionally sharp and deceptively dark thriller novels for decades now, but thanks to a high-profile adaptation of her 2014 novel "Big Little Lies" in 2017, that book is arguably her most popular by a mile. Jean-Marc Vallée also worked on this series (which was created by David E. Kelley), which moves the novel's story from a ritzy neighborhood in Australia to an exclusive and wealthy community in Monterey, California, populated by mothers like Madeline Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), and Renata Klein (Laura Dern). When newcomer Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) moves to town with her precocious son Ziggy (Iain Armitage), Madeline and Celeste welcome her into the fold with open arms, and as the women bond, it's revealed that they're all struggling in various ways.

Madeline is remarried to Ed (Adam Scott) but shares a daughter, Abigail (Kathryn Newton), with her ex-husband Nathan (James Tupper) ... whose new wife, Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), irks Madeline to no end. Renata's daughter has been hurt by someone at school, and she blames Ziggy, but the culprit remains at large. Celeste's handsome husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) seems perfect, but he's physically abusive behind closed doors; as for Jane, she suffered a devastating sexual assault that resulted in Ziggy but still haunts her years later. As the women's stories converge in entirely unexpected ways, all their problems hit a crisis point ... but they stick together under duress. Yes, the second season of "Big Little Lies" was terrible, and I'm extremely apprehensive about the third season that's in the works — but as far as that first season that was intended as a miniseries, it's unimpeachable and completely complementary to "The Good Daughter."

Sarah Enticknap/Peacock

Another deliciously dark drama that's exclusively available on Peacock, "All Her Fault," adapted from a novel by Andrea Mara, opens as working mother Marissa Irvine ("Succession" veteran and Emmy winner Sarah Snook) goes to pick her young son Milo (Duke McCloud) up from a playdate with a new friend at school. When she gets to the house, she's met by an older woman who's never heard of Marissa or Milo, and before long, Marissa discovers that Milo is missing. After frantically calling her husband Peter (Jake Lacy), the search for Milo begins, and even with her best friend and business partner Colin Dobbs (Jay Ellis) and Peter's troubled but well-meaning sister Lia (Abby Elliott) by her side, Marissa feels adrift and understandably terrified. That's when she turns to her fellow working mother Jenny Kaminsky (Dakota Fanning), who not only understands what Marissa goes through every day as a woman attempting to juggle work and motherhood, but is an invaluable source of support during the most frightening time of Marissa's life.

It's a credit to the bones of Mara's story that, even in its most heightened moments, "All Her Fault" manages to avoid melodrama or absurdity; in fact, it's really grounded by Snook's emotional but intense performance, and Lacy, Fanning, Elliott, Ellis, and supporting players Michael Peña and Sophia Lillis also turn in absolutely incredible performances as a detective and Jenny's nanny, respectively. "All Her Fault" shares a lot more with "The Good Daughter" than a streaming platform — long-held family secrets play enormous roles in both shows — and it's a perfect follow-up.

Amazon Prime Video

"The Better Sister," which has a home on Amazon Prime Video, is adapted from a novel by Alafair Burke and premiered in 2025 with showrunner Olivia Milch at the helm. The premise is simple but deeply unsettling: Magazine editor Chloe Taylor (Jessica Biel) is happily married to Adam Macintosh (Corey Stoll), but when he's murdered, she's forced to reunite with her troubled sister and Adam's ex-wife Nicky Macintosh (Elizabeth Banks) as the two try to figure out what happened.

The two lead stars are pretty perfect together as two polar-opposite sisters. As Nicky struggles with an alcohol addiction and tries to get her life together, Chloe's quest for perfection drives a wedge between them. Banks and Biel are joined by performers like Kim Dickens, Matthew Modine, Gloria Reuben, Lorraine Toussaint, and Janel Moloney. Their names are sort of similar, but ultimately, both "The Good Daughter" and "The Better Sister" center on sisterhood ... and all its ups and downs.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).