The Best Shows to Watch for Mental Health When You're Barely Holding It Together

Start with Somebody Somewhere on HBO Max. Three short seasons, 30 minutes each, about a woman in Kansas who lost her sister and doesn't know what to do with her life yet — and it will crack you open in the exact gentle way you need. If you're too raw for that, scroll down to Ted Lasso or the Great British Bake Off. Everything below is picked for actual mood repair, not for looking smart on Letterboxd.

A note before we start. Nobody streaming this stuff cares about your mental health. Netflix's algorithm wants you to watch a Turkish thriller at 2 a.m. so their engagement metrics look good on the earnings call. What follows is the opposite of that — shows that leave you feeling like a person again. Some funny. Some sad in a way that actually helps. One or two that just let your brain rest.

Must-watch tier

Somebody Somewhere (2022, 3 seasons, HBO Max)

Bridget Everett plays Sam, a middle-aged woman back in her Kansas hometown after her sister died, working a soul-vacuum job at a testing center and slowly, weirdly, finding her people. Start with S1E1 — it's 28 minutes, and if you don't feel something by the choir scene, this show isn't for you and that's fine. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Reservation Dogs or Fleabag, yes. If you need plot mechanics and stakes, no — this is a show where the stakes are whether a middle-aged woman lets herself have friends. Time commitment: 21 episodes, half-hour each. A long weekend. Status: ended after season 3, on the show's own terms, which almost never happens anymore. Why it works right now: it's about grief and being 40 and lonely and finding that other people are also grieving and lonely and it turns out that's most of adulthood. Watch it when you feel invisible. It'll make you feel seen without pulling the string.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Reservation Dogs (2021, 3 seasons, Hulu)

Four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma trying to leave for California after their friend died. Sterlin Harjo made it, Taika Waititi produced it, and it's the best show about grief anyone has made in ten years. Start with S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Atlanta or Fleabag, yes. If you need constant momentum, know that this show wanders on purpose — that's the point. Time commitment: 28 episodes, 30 min. Two weekends. Status: ended after season 3, planned finale, complete arc. Why it works right now: it treats sadness as one thing that happens in a life, not the whole life. The show breathes. Elders show up. Ghosts show up. People forgive each other. If you're stuck in your own head, watching a story where a whole community carries somebody through their worst year is a lot of medicine in a small package.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Ted Lasso (2020, 3 seasons, Apple TV+)

Yes, the one everybody told you about in 2021. It holds up. Jason Sudeikis plays a college football coach hired to manage a Premier League soccer team he knows nothing about, and the show is fundamentally about a man who has decided kindness is a strategy. Start with S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Parks and Rec or Schitt's Creek, yes. If you refuse to watch anything with sincerity in it, no, and also I'm sorry for you. Time commitment: 34 episodes, roughly 45 min. Two to three weeks at a reasonable pace. Status: ended after 3, though a spinoff is coming. Why it works right now: the show takes anxiety and panic attacks seriously, gives them to a professional athlete, and makes therapy a character. Season 2 in particular is a show about a man learning that being nice to everyone can be its own way of hiding. If you're avoiding your own feelings by being helpful to other people, this one has your number.

✅ WORTH IT

BoJack Horseman (2014, 6 seasons, Netflix)

A cartoon about a talking horse who used to be on a 90s sitcom, which sounds like the dumbest show ever made and is actually the best show ever made about depression. Start with S1E1, but the show doesn't fully click until S1E7. If you bail before that you'll think it's just a silly Hollywood satire, which is what it's designed to look like. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Fleabag or Mad Men, yes. If you can't handle a show that stares directly at addiction and self-destruction, save this for a stronger week. Time commitment: 77 episodes, 25 min. A month. Status: ended cleanly after season 6, one of the best finales in TV. Why it works right now: the show is honest in a way almost nothing on television is honest. It lets characters not get better. It lets them get better and then relapse. It lets the horse be an asshole. If you're at a point where fake uplift makes you angrier, BoJack will treat you like an adult.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Worth your time

Fleabag (2016, 2 seasons, Prime Video)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, breaking the fourth wall, playing a woman who's a mess in the specific London way. Season 2 is one of the best six hours of TV ever produced. Start with S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you like being uncomfortable in a productive way, yes. If you want a warm hug, this is not it — it's a cold shower that eventually turns warm. Time commitment: 12 episodes, 25 min. One night, if you're feral about it. Status: ended after 2, by choice, and she was right. Watch Fleabag on Prime Video (originally a one-woman stage play — the script is on Amazon if you want the writing straight). Why it works right now: the show is about a woman who cannot stop sabotaging herself and doesn't know why, and then slowly finds out why. If you've been the funny friend at the party who goes home and doesn't sleep, this one's going to hit.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Schitt's Creek (2015, 6 seasons, Hulu / Netflix)

Rich family loses everything, moves to a town they bought as a joke, learns to be people again. It sounds like a sitcom setup because it is one, but the show gets radically warmer as it goes and by season 4 you're just watching a family love each other. Start with S1E1, and if you're bored, jump to S2 — the first half of season 1 is throat-clearing. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Parks and Rec, yes. If you want tension or plot, no. Time commitment: 80 episodes, 22 min. A month of comfort. Status: ended by choice after 6. Why it works right now: almost nothing bad happens. That's the point. If you've been reading the news and cannot take one more piece of information about the world, Schitt's Creek is a small Canadian town where the biggest problem is a barn that needs painting.

✅ WORTH IT

Shrinking (2023, 2 seasons, Apple TV+)

Jason Segel plays a therapist whose wife died, and he starts telling his patients what he actually thinks, which goes about how you'd expect. Harrison Ford is in it doing his best comedic work in decades. Start with S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Ted Lasso, yes — it's from Bill Lawrence, same DNA. If a show about therapy sounds annoying, this one earns it. Time commitment: 22 episodes, 35 min. Two weeks. Status: ongoing, renewed for season 3. Why it works right now: it's a show about people trying to be less alone and failing at it in funny, specific ways. Harrison Ford has Parkinson's on the show and plays it with real dignity. If your problem is that you can't tell anyone what's actually going on, this one will nudge you.

✅ WORTH IT

Derry Girls (2018, 3 seasons, Netflix)

Four teenage girls and one English boy in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, which sounds heavy and is actually the funniest show on Netflix. Start with S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Fleabag but wanted less pain and more screaming, yes. Subtitles help — the accents are real. Time commitment: 19 episodes, 25 min. A weekend, easy. Status: ended after 3, on purpose. Why it works right now: pure serotonin. It's teenage girls being idiots about small stuff while the news does horrible stuff in the background — a very specific texture that maps onto being alive in 2026. Nothing here will demand anything of you.

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Only for fans of a specific vibe

Detectorists (2014, 3 seasons, Prime Video / various)

Mackenzie Crook made a show about two guys in a rural English club who look for old coins with metal detectors, and there is nothing else like it on television. Start with S1E1, watch two, decide. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked The Office UK's quieter moments or anything by Richard Ayoade, yes. If you need a plot engine, this show does not have one — the plot is that they are looking for coins and it's a nice afternoon. Time commitment: 19 episodes, 30 min. A weekend. Status: ended after 3 plus a 2022 special. Why it works right now: anxiety cannot survive in the field where these guys are detecting. The show has fields. Sun. Two guys being decent to each other. If your nervous system is fried, this is antidote television. You can find Detectorists on Prime Video. Start a Prime Video free trial if you don't have it.

✅ WORTH IT

The Great British Bake Off (2010, ongoing, Netflix)

British people bake cakes under a tent. That's it. That's the show. Start with the Mary Berry / Mel and Sue era, roughly Collection 3 on Netflix (aka series 4-7). Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you have ever put a show on to fold laundry, yes. If you need character depth, this show has none, and it's a feature. Time commitment: literal hundreds of episodes at 60 min. Infinite. Status: ongoing forever, God willing. Why it works right now: the highest stakes are a soggy bottom. Somebody's grandma cries when her sponge doesn't rise. Nobody gets betrayed. Nobody dies. Sue Perkins makes an innuendo. Repeat until you feel human.

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Skip

13 Reasons Why (2017, 4 seasons, Netflix)

Every mental health professional in America begged Netflix not to make season 2. They made four. If you are in a bad place, this show is designed by an algorithm to keep you in it — a teen suicide drama that dramatizes exactly the things researchers have shown make things worse for vulnerable viewers. There are better shows about being a hurting teenager (My Mad Fat Diary, Skins UK, even Euphoria if you want a workout). Do not start this one when you're already struggling.

☠️ WAR CRIME

FAQ

What's the single best show for depression?

BoJack Horseman, if you can handle it — it's honest about depression in a way almost nothing else is, and the ending gives you something to hold. If BoJack sounds too dark, Somebody Somewhere does the same emotional work with more gentleness and a shorter runtime.

What should I watch when I'm anxious and can't focus?

The Great British Bake Off or Detectorists. Both are low-stimulation, plot-light, and won't spike your heart rate. Bake Off wins if you want something you can put on and half-watch; Detectorists wins if you can commit 30 minutes.

Are there shows that actually get therapy right?

Shrinking and Ted Lasso are the two current ones that treat therapy as a real thing that helps real people, without making it a punchline or a magical fix. Sopranos also gets it right, but that's not a mental health watch — that's a graduate program in dread.

What should I avoid when I'm in a bad place?

13 Reasons Why, anything true-crime, the news, and Black Mirror. All of them are engineered to keep you scrolling through your own worst thoughts. Save them for a week when you're already fine and want to be less fine on purpose.

What to watch tonight

One show, one episode, right now. Put on Somebody Somewhere season 1, episode 1 on HBO Max. It's 28 minutes. If it clicks, you have three seasons of the best gentle show on television waiting. If it doesn't, put on Ted Lasso season 1, episode 1 on Apple TV+ and don't get up until you've laughed once. Either way, get off the algorithm's rotation for one night. That's the whole prescription.

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