Shows Like
Shows Like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Mrs. Maisel is three things at once, and most shows recommended after it only have one of them. There is the dialogue, written at a speed that assumes you are keeping up. There is the period production design, obsessive to the point of absurdity. And underneath both, there is a woman who is enormously talented and fairly unpleasant, and the show never asks you to excuse the second thing.
So this list is sorted by which of those three you are actually missing. Five seasons ran on Prime Video from 2017 to 2023 and the show is finished, so you are not waiting on anything. Where these picks stream shifts around, and the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
If you are missing the dialogue speed
Gilmore Girls is by the same writer. Amy Sherman-Palladino ran seven seasons on The WB and then The CW between 2000 and 2007, and the script pages were famously twice normal length because of how fast everyone talks. It shares the rhythm exactly. The difference is register: small-town warmth instead of stand-up ambition, and a mother and daughter who mostly like each other. Choose it if the dialogue was the drug.
Hacks ran five seasons on HBO Max from 2021 to May 2026 and is finished. Jean Smart plays a Las Vegas comedian; Hannah Einbinder plays the young writer who despises her. It shares the stand-up world and the willingness to make its lead genuinely difficult. It is meaner than Maisel and better on the business of comedy. If you only watch one thing on this list, watch this.
Fleabag is two seasons and twelve episodes, made for BBC Three between 2016 and 2019. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes at the same clip but aims it inward. It shares the sense of a woman performing constantly. It is modern, much shorter, and the second season is one of the best things television has done.
If you are missing the period detail
Mad Men ran seven seasons on AMC from 2007 to 2015, and it is the show Maisel's art department is arguing with. Same decade, same city, opposite point of view: the men in the room rather than the woman trying to get on a stage. It shares the fanatical period accuracy. It is far slower and far sadder. Choose it if the 1950s New York surface was the appeal.
Julia ran two seasons on HBO Max in 2022 and 2023 and covers Julia Child getting a cooking show on public television in the early 1960s. It shares the exact plot shape of Maisel: a woman in a period setting talks her way into a medium that was not expecting her. Warmer, gentler, and canceled early, which is a shame.
Good Girls Revolt is a single ten-episode season made for Prime Video in 2016, about the women researchers who sued a newsweekly in 1969. It shares the era, the workplace and the anger. It was canceled after one season and it is worth the ten hours anyway.
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries ran three seasons on ABC in Australia between 2012 and 2015. A 1920s Melbourne detective with an extraordinary wardrobe and no interest in being told what to do. It shares the costume pleasure and the unapologetic lead. It is a case-of-the-week show, which makes it much easier to dip in and out of.
If you are missing the difficult, ambitious woman
Better Things ran five seasons on FX from 2016 to 2022. Pamela Adlon plays a working actor raising three daughters, and she is short-tempered, self-absorbed and completely convincing. It shares the refusal to soften its lead. It has almost no plot, which is either the appeal or the dealbreaker.
GLOW ran three seasons on Netflix from 2017 to 2019, about a 1980s women's wrestling show. It shares the ensemble of performers who are all slightly desperate, and Alison Brie's character has the same unearned confidence Midge starts with. It was canceled before a planned final season, so know that going in.
Physical ran three seasons on Apple TV between 2021 and 2023. Rose Byrne builds an aerobics empire in 1980s San Diego while her internal monologue tears her apart. It shares the ambition and the period, and it is considerably darker than anything Maisel attempts.
The Queen's Gambit is a single limited season on Netflix from 2020, seven episodes. Beth Harmon is a period-set prodigy who is difficult, addicted and brilliant. It shares the mid-century design and the woman-wins-in-a-men's-room structure. There is no comedy in it at all.
A League of Their Own is one eight-episode season made for Prime Video in 2022, adapting the 1992 film into a 1940s baseball ensemble with a much wider cast of stories. It was canceled after a shortened renewal was reversed, so it ends unresolved. Still worth watching for the ensemble.
Where to start
If you want the closest thing to Maisel that is also better than Maisel, watch Hacks. If you loved the dresses and the diners more than the jokes, watch Julia, then Mad Men when you want the serious version. If you want fast talk and a soft landing, Gilmore Girls. If you want to be knocked sideways in six hours, Fleabag.
If you would rather not pick from a list at all, BingeNext for TV works the other way around. Enter Mrs. Maisel and one or two other shows you loved, and it returns a ranked shortlist, each pick with a one-line reason and where it streams. A run takes about a minute, and you get one free pick a day without an account or three a day with a free one.
Topics covered: comedy, period-piece, witty, female-lead, dramedy, prime-video
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.