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| Best Movies Like Doing Life. |
Movies Like Doing Life
1. For Life (2020)
For Life is one of the closest matches because incarceration sits at the heart of its story. The series follows Aaron Wallace, a man serving a life sentence for a crime he did not commit, who becomes a lawyer and starts fighting for himself and other prisoners. Like Doing Life, it explores what happens when a person tries to rebuild a life while the prison system continues to define how others see them. The legal angle is much stronger here, but the emotional focus on family, freedom and second chances makes it an obvious next stop.
2. UnPrisoned (2023)
UnPrisoned takes the idea of returning to ordinary life after incarceration and turns it into a family drama with plenty of warmth and humour. Kerry Washington plays a relationship therapist whose father is released from prison and moves in with her and her son. The resulting household is complicated, awkward and occasionally chaotic, because apparently freedom comes with a rather large adjustment period. Like Doing Life, it looks at how incarceration affects relationships long after someone walks out of prison.
3. Time (2021)
Time takes a much more intense look at prison life, following inmates and staff inside a British prison while examining guilt, responsibility and the possibility of redemption. Its focus is less romantic than Doing Life, but the central question is remarkably similar: can somebody genuinely change while carrying the weight of their past? The series also looks at how incarceration affects families outside the prison walls, making it a strong choice if the correctional-facility side of Doing Life caught your attention.
4. Orange Is the New Black (2013)
Orange Is the New Black is considerably more sprawling, but it remains one of television's most recognisable prison dramas. Piper Chapman's incarceration introduces a world where friendships, relationships, family ties and personal identities are constantly tested. The show moves between drama, romance and comedy while exploring how prison changes the people inside it. Doing Life is much more focused on one central relationship, but viewers interested in the institutional setting and complicated emotional connections will find plenty to explore here.
5. Wentworth (2013)
Wentworth brings a tougher prison drama approach, centred on Bea Smith after she is incarcerated and sent to the Wentworth Correctional Centre. The series digs into power struggles, loyalty, fear, friendship and survival behind bars. Romance is not its main engine, but its interest in how people adapt to an unforgiving institution makes it a natural companion to Doing Life. It is also proof that prison television apparently has an endless supply of people making terrible decisions under extremely stressful circumstances.
6. Queen Sugar (2016)
Queen Sugar moves away from prison drama but shares Doing Life's interest in family, hardship, relationships and personal reinvention. Ava DuVernay's series follows the Bordelon siblings as they navigate family responsibilities and a difficult inheritance in Louisiana. Its characters are constantly dealing with the consequences of earlier choices while trying to build something better. That emotional balance between personal struggle and family loyalty makes it particularly suitable for viewers who enjoyed the human side of Doing Life more than the prison setting itself.
7. Greenleaf (2016)
Greenleaf centres on a powerful family running a Memphis megachurch, but underneath the polished public image are complicated relationships, old wounds and plenty of secrets. The series shares Doing Life's fascination with family expectations and the pressure of making personal choices when everybody around you believes they know what is best. Romance is woven through the larger family drama, while redemption becomes a recurring concern. It is essentially a reminder that escaping prison might not be the only difficult thing; sometimes escaping your family's expectations is harder.
8. The Chi (2018)
The Chi follows interconnected characters living on Chicago's South Side, with stories covering friendship, family, love, ambition and survival. Like Doing Life, it is rooted in an urban environment where personal decisions can have consequences far beyond the individual. Several characters deal with crime, incarceration and attempts to move beyond difficult circumstances. The show is broader and more ensemble-driven, but its interest in relationships shaped by environment and opportunity makes it a worthwhile follow-up.
9. All American (2018)
All American begins with a talented young football player moving between two very different worlds in Los Angeles. What follows is a mixture of family drama, romance, ambition, social pressure and personal reinvention. It does not revolve around prison, but it shares Doing Life's interest in people trying to escape circumstances that threaten to define them. Relationships are constantly tested by family history and social expectations, making this a particularly accessible choice if the emotional drama was your favourite part of Perry's film.
10. Sistas (2019)
Sistas focuses on a group of women navigating love, friendship, careers and the spectacularly complicated business of dating. Tyler Perry's fingerprints are all over its combination of relationship drama, humour and personal conflict, so viewers coming from Doing Life should feel fairly comfortable here. The stories are less concerned with incarceration and more interested in romantic choices and family pressures. In other words, the prison bars are gone, but somebody is still making questionable relationship decisions.
11. Reasonable Doubt (2022)
Reasonable Doubt follows Los Angeles defence attorney Jax Stewart as she balances high-profile legal cases with an increasingly complicated personal life. The series combines courtroom drama, romance, family issues and moral dilemmas. Like Doing Life, it asks viewers to consider how someone's past affects the way other people see them. The legal setting gives it a sharper thriller edge, while the relationship story keeps it grounded in character drama.
12. The Haves and the Have Nots (2013)
The Haves and the Have Nots explores the tangled relationships between wealthy and working-class families, with secrets and personal conflicts driving much of the story. The series shares Doing Life's interest in class, family pressure and characters attempting to control how others perceive them. It is much more melodramatic, but if you enjoy relationship problems arriving one after another with almost suspicious efficiency, this one has you covered.
13. Being Mary Jane (2013)
Being Mary Jane follows a successful television journalist whose professional life looks considerably more organised than her personal world. Relationships, family obligations and questions about what she really wants become central to the story. Like Doing Life, it places emotional choices alongside wider social and family pressures. The prison setting disappears completely, but the character-driven approach remains.
14. The Family Business (2018)
The Family Business follows the Duncan family, whose luxury car dealership sits on top of a much more complicated criminal operation. Family loyalty, secrets, romance and dangerous choices drive the series. Doing Life is much more intimate, but both stories explore how difficult it can be for characters to leave their past behind. The Duncan family also has a particular talent for turning an ordinary family problem into something considerably more dramatic.
15. Saints & Sinners (2016)
Saints & Sinners revolves around the members of a wealthy church community in Georgia, where personal ambitions and private secrets collide. The series deals with relationships, betrayal, family conflict and redemption, giving it some of the same emotional ingredients found in Doing Life. The stories are more ensemble-based, while the drama leans heavily into secrets and power. If complicated relationships are your main attraction, there is plenty here.
16. The Oval (2019)
The Oval follows a fictional family occupying the White House, combining political surroundings with domestic drama, secrets and relationship problems. Its setting could hardly be further removed from Doing Life's correctional facility, but the emotional machinery is familiar: family members making difficult choices, people hiding parts of their lives and relationships becoming increasingly complicated. It is a much bigger melodrama, but it scratches the same itch for high-stakes personal conflict.
17. Harlem (2021)
Harlem follows four close friends navigating careers, friendships and romantic relationships in New York City. The tone is considerably lighter than Doing Life, but the series shares its interest in love, personal growth and the complications that appear when people's private lives collide with their responsibilities. It is a good option for anyone who wants the relationship-driven side of Doing Life without quite as much emotional devastation.
18. Insecure (2016)
Insecure centres on Issa Dee and her friends as they navigate relationships, careers, friendships and adulthood in Los Angeles. It is sharper and funnier than Doing Life, but both stories care about emotionally complicated characters trying to work out what they actually want. The romance is messy, the family and friendship dynamics matter, and personal growth rarely happens without at least a few spectacular mistakes along the way.
19. Twenties (2020)
Twenties follows a young Black woman trying to figure out adulthood, work and relationships in Los Angeles. The series has a much lighter tone than Doing Life, yet its focus on relationships, ambition and finding stability makes it an appealing companion. It is less concerned with redemption after incarceration and more interested in the everyday version of starting over, which can be just as chaotic without anyone needing a prison uniform.
20. The Porter (2022)
The Porter is a period drama about Black railway workers in the 1920s who organise against dangerous working conditions while navigating personal and political pressures. It is not a direct plot match for Doing Life, but its themes of survival, dignity, community and fighting against restrictive systems make the connection worthwhile. Relationships and family responsibilities also sit alongside the broader social story.
21. Your Honor (2020)
Your Honor follows a judge whose attempt to protect his son after a fatal accident pulls him into an escalating chain of legal and criminal consequences. The series is far darker and more thriller-focused than Doing Life, but it shares the idea that one event can completely reshape a family's future. Its characters are repeatedly forced to confront the consequences of their choices, while the legal system becomes impossible to ignore.
22. The Red Road (2014)
The Red Road is a crime drama centred on a sheriff and a Native American community whose lives become intertwined after a tragic incident. The series explores family, crime, community tensions and the consequences of difficult decisions. Like Doing Life, it is interested in characters who are not easily divided into heroes and villains. Everyone has history, everyone carries something, and nobody gets a conveniently clean slate.
23. Maid (2021)
Maid follows a young mother who leaves an abusive relationship and works as a cleaner while trying to build a safer future for herself and her daughter. The prison story is absent, but the connection to Doing Life is strong through its focus on single motherhood, survival, financial pressure, family responsibility and rebuilding a life from almost nothing. Like Anika, the central character is motivated by protecting her child while trying to create a future that looks different from the past.
Doing Life works because its biggest story is not simply whether two people fall in love. It is about what happens when love meets history, family expectations and the uncomfortable reality that people do not always get judged for who they are today. That is why this list can stretch from prison dramas such as For Life and Time to relationship-heavy series such as Sistas and Insecure.
Some are serious, some are funny, and some seem determined to make every family dinner dramatically worse than the last one. For me, UnPrisoned, For Life, Queen Sugar and Reasonable Doubt are particularly interesting follow-ups because they capture different pieces of what makes Doing Life work without simply copying its premise. The common thread is people trying to move forward when their past refuses to stay politely in the past. And honestly, that is where the best drama usually lives. If Doing Life was your kind of watch, which of these shows would you put on next?