Summary
- TV shows based on real life stories have a greater impact and can make events seem more unbelievable.
- While it's rarer to see real-life stories turned into TV shows, they can offer more time to tell a story in greater depth.
- Some of these awesome shows are Narcos, Chernobyl, Inventing Anna, and more.
TV shows based on real life stories can have an even greater impact than pure fiction. Even if a story is relatively well-known, watching how events really unfolded can make them seem more unbelievable. In other cases, TV shows can explore a relatively obscure historical event and bring it into focus for a wider audience. True-crime often dramatizes real cases to see events from a fresh viewpoint, but there are plenty of other genres which have had success in taking inspiration from real life. Historical epics and intimate memoirs can also make great source material for a TV show.
While plenty of real life stories are made into movies, it's rarer to see them turned into TV shows. Unless it's a miniseries, the finality of a real life story might not suit the TV format, which prefers plots which can keep running for as many seasons as possible. Despite this, there are a few gems out there. The major advantage that a TV show has over a movie is that there is more time over multiple episodes to tell a story, or explore real people, in greater depth. TV shows based on real life are often short-lived, but they can be some of the most affecting and memorable series of all.
10 Inventing Anna
Netflix
Netflix's Inventing Anna begins each episode with the same disclaimer: "This whole story is completely true. Except for all the parts that are totally made up." This may seem like an admission of lazy research, but making any kind of story about the enigmatic fake heiress Anna Delvey requires a healthy imagination. Delvey, born Anna Sorokin, played the role of a New York City socialite with confidence and charm, but everything about her supposed backstory was a scam. It's hard to tell which of the characters from Inventing Anna are accurate representations of real people, but the confusion is part of the fun in this glamorous tale of deceit.
9 Narcos
Netflix
Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook star as DEA agents sent to Colombia to topple Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, but Narcos tells its story from both sides of the law. Wagner Moura is outstanding as Don Pablo, and the show manages to have a lot of 1980s synth-pop fun amid the casual bloodshed. Escobar can sentence someone to death with the wave of his hand, but Narcos doesn't always show the resulting murder on screen. Each hit becomes as commonplace as it was in the mind of Pablo Escobar -- he's just taking care of business. Narcos takes some historical liberties, but the truth of the Medellín cartel is just as violent.
The companion series Narcos: Mexico stars Andor's Diego Luna as a drug kingpin in Guadalajara.
8 When They See Us
Netflix
Creator and director Ava DuVernay tells the harrowing story of the Central Park Five, a group of young boys arrested and convicted for a crime they didn't commit. It's one of the most publicized miscarriages of justice in American history, and DuVernay holds an unflinching gaze on the actions of prosecutors and the media. However, the show's focus remains on the impact the case had on the Central Park Five. It goes beyond the courtroom and details their struggles trying to re-enter society as convicted sex offenders. When They See Us isn't a comfortable watch, but it's a vital true story about racial prejudice.
7 Unorthodox
Netflix
There are only four episodes of Unorthodox, but the series lives long in the memory. Esty is a young Hasidic Jewish woman raised in New York who tries to escape her arranged marriage and find freedom in Berlin. Unorthodox starts out as a celebration of individuality and personal freedom, with Esty enjoying the coffee shops and nightclubs of the German capital, but it turns into a thriller when her husband tracks her down and attempts to put an end to her newfound liberation. The show alone is worth watching for lead actor Shira Haas, whose raw emotion lends authenticity to the story.
6 The Dropout
Hulu
Holmes is extremely intelligent and driven, but she discovers that she can only get ahead in the system by cheating.
Amanda Seyfried plays Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who built a multi-billion dollar medical technology company on lies. Seyfried excels as a sociopathic huckster, perfectly suited to the world of venture capitalists around her who judge swagger over substance. The Dropout is another chapter in the incredible history of American con artists. It manages to simultaneously deconstruct Holmes' character, and the conditions which allowed her to thrive in the first place. Holmes is extremely intelligent and driven, but she discovers that she can only get ahead in the system by cheating, never mind how shaky those foundations may end up being.
5 The Crown
Netflix
The history of the British royal family is glamorous and decadent, but mired in controversy, and The Crown offers an inside look at how the institution has sought to protect itself over the years. Its first season started out with a young Queen Elizabeth II in the 1950s, but season six of The Crown is set to bring the story right up to the Princess Diana years, with Elizabeth Debicki as the people's princess. Even for those without an interest in royalty, The Crown is an intimate portrait of a family told through many generations, and a meditation on duty and power.
An upcoming Netflix series on JFK and the Kennedy family will attempt to transplant The Crown's success into an American setting.
4 Band Of Brothers
HBO
Only a few years after their success with Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks teamed up as co-creators on Band of Brothers, a show chronicling the exploits of a company of soldiers during World War II. The show's fantastic ensemble cast each get their moment to shine, as each episode focuses on a different character at a pivotal stage of the war. While the battle scenes are just as thrilling as one can expect from Spielberg, the detailed characterization adds an incredible depth and drama to the action. Band of Brothers was prestige television before the term even existed, and it still holds up over 20 years later.
The creative team behind Band of Brothers are reuniting for another World War II epic, Masters of the Air, releasing on Apple TV+ in January 2024. The second series, The Pacific, was released on HBO in 2010.
3 Mindhunter
Netflix
Mindhunter details the founding of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in the golden age of American serial killers. David Fincher brings his intensely immersive camerawork to the show as it delves deeper and deeper into the psyche of criminal pathology, and the most memorable scenes take place when Mindhunter portrays real-life serial killers in an intimate setting. True-crime shows have a tendency to romanticize violent acts, but Mindhunter steers clear of this pitfall, constantly returning focus to the mission at hand and the damaging effects of the work on the FBI's profilers. It's equal parts unsettling and absorbing, with the real-life context adding weight to the show's crimes.
2 Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty
HBO
Winning Time delivers on all the retro style and punchy dialogue that audiences want to keep watching.
When Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, he set out to put on a show, and Winning Time lives up to that legacy effortlessly. John C. Reilly brings a bucket load of charm to the role of Buss, and he fits neatly into the show's relentlessly entertaining cast. Just like the Lakers were set up to play the kind of basketball that everyone wanted to see, Winning Time delivers on all the retro style and punchy dialogue that audiences want to keep watching. It may not be completely true to life, but Winning Time's philosophy seems to be that facts aren't as important as fun.