20 best shows like A Prayer for Rain (2014)

Powerful historical drama series, based on the lives of real people, telling the story of young 19th-century apprentices taking their lives into their own hands for the first time.

Fauna Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother, begins to investigate the secrets to her past, following a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist connected to the legendary Black Dahlia murder.

The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.

Jodha Akbar is an epic drama about a sixteenth century story of the political marriage of convenience between a Mughal emperor Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar and a Rajput princess Jodha Bai. The show focuses on how their political marriage brings love between them to an extent that it changed the fate of India. This period drama also portrays the wars of that time along with the relations between the Mughals and the Rajputs. The drama also focuses on the functioning of the queens, the courts, courtesans, the ministers and their influence on the love story of Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar and Jodha Bai. The show also highlights on how Mughal emperor Jalal ud-din Muhammad acquires the title of Akbar from the people.

Mayor Nick Wasicsko took office in 1987 during Yonkers' worst crisis when federal courts ordered public housing to be built in the white, middle class side of town, dividing the city in a bitter battle fueled by fear, racism, murder and politics.

The first 40 days of the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of an elite group of U.S. Marines who spearheaded the invasion along with an embedded Rolling Stone reporter. A vivid account of the soldiers and of the forces that guided them in an often-improvised initiative.

A contemporary and culturally resonant drama about a young programmer, Elliot, who suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot will find himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.

The lives and loves of a 1930s Yorkshire town explored in a passionate tale of politics in small places. South Riding charts the story of Sarah Burton's homecoming to Yorkshire in 1934 after twenty years teaching in London and the Empire. After a fiery interview with a conservative interview panel, outspoken Sarah takes up her first headmistress-ship at Kiplington High School for Girls, determined to demonstrate to her new pupils that the future is theirs for the taking.

On the cusp of 19th century in Delhi, we following the fortunes of the residents of the titular mansion. The story begins as handsome and soulful former English soldier, John Beecham, has acquired the house to start a new life for his family and a business as a trader.

Mr. Selfridge recounts the real life story of the flamboyant and visionary American founder of Selfridge's, London's lavish department store. Set in 1909 London, when women were reveling in a new sense of freedom and modernity, it follows Harry Gordon Selfridge ('Mile a Minute Harry'), a man with a mission to make shopping as thrilling as sex. Pioneering and reckless, with an almost manic energy, Harry created a theater of retail where any topic or trend that was new, exciting, entertaining - or just eccentric - was showcased.

Follow Sugar into the underbelly of Victorian London seething with vitality, sexuality, ambition and emotion.

Our World War is a gripping factual drama series offering viewers first-hand experience of the extraordinary bravery of young soldiers fighting 100 years ago. Drawing on real stories of World War One soldiers it uses the visual techniques and imagery familiar from modern warfare – POV helmet camera footage, surveillance images and night vision – to immerse the BBC Three audience in life on the Western Front. Each episode is closely based on first-hand testimony, interviews and memoirs that reveal often hidden and sometimes disturbing aspects of the combat experience.

The trials and triumphs of one of America’s wealthiest and unhappiest families, the Gettys. Told over multiple seasons and spanning the twentieth century, the series begins in 1973 with the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, an heir to the Getty oil fortune, by the Italian mafia in Rome.

Police detective Peter Wendel leads a cold case group. Based on an original idea by Leif GW Persson, one of Sweden’s most recognized criminologists.

Secret State explores the relationship between a democratically elected government, big business and the banks.

A Welsh community devastated by tragedy is forced to confront difficult truths amid the search for justice.

A complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance. Shrewd, savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king Bobby "Axe" Axelrod are on an explosive collision course, with each using all of his considerable smarts, power and influence to outmaneuver the other. The stakes are in the billions in this timely, provocative series.

The social and class divisions in early 20th century England through the intersection of three families - the wealthy Wilcoxes, the gentle and idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts.

Following a raft of shootings in an English market town, the crimes are retold in a nonlinear narrative structure through the eyes of a journalist and the tragedies' victims.

When day becomes night, a strict curfew forces ordinary people to go pedal to the metal in a deadly race for freedom. During this contest, alliances and friendships are both made and lost.

Set during the turbulent time of the fall of Goryeo and the founding of Joseon, two former friends face-off against one another over a woman and the future shape of the nation.

A dynastic struggle occurs for the throne of Hastinapur, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan, between the Kauravas and Pandavas, collateral branches of the clan, which causes the Kurukshetra War.

The Tudors is a history-based drama series following the young, vibrant King Henry VIII, a competitive and lustful monarch who navigates the intrigues of the English court and the human heart with equal vigor and justifiable suspicion.

Brothel owner, Margaret Wells, struggles to raise her daughters in London during the 18th century.

The Martian Chronicles deals with the exploration of Mars and the inhabitants there.

The story of George, who being frustrated by memories of fighting in the great war and living with his extended family, wants to bring more beauty into the world. When he comes across a camel and monkey that are about to be abandoned, he embarks on a plan to set up a zoo.

Follow three women as they each make life-changing mistakes regarding their children and husbands, which lead to unpredictable criminal consequences. Based on Paula Daly's best selling novel, Windermere.

The lives of the editors and journalists working at a left-leaning broadsheet and a populist tabloid.

Set in downtown New York in 1900, 'The Knick' is centered on the Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff who work there, pushing the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics. John Thackery is a brilliant surgeon pioneering new methods in the field, despite his secret addiction to cocaine. He leads a team of doctors including his protégé Dr. Everett Gallinger; the young Dr. Bertie Chickering Jr. and Dr. Algernon Edwards, a promising surgeon who's been recently thrust upon him. The lively cast of characters at the hospital also includes Cornelia Robertson, the daughter of its benefactor, Captain August Robertson; surly ambulance driver Tom Cleary; Lucy Elkins; a fresh-faced nurse from the country; the crooked hospital administrator Herman Barrow; and Sister Harriet, a nun who isn't afraid to speak her mind.

An anthology series of five stories looking at the lives of a group of friends and their families in London’s West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early 80s.

In a tented field hospital on the coast of France, a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers work together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches.

Drama series set in 1943 following the Coyne family and their neighbours as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a US Army Air Force base is set up in the middle of their rural parish.

The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother dies.

Set during the 1950s, the six-part series tells the story of a young woman’s search for love and identity in a newly independent, post-Partition India defining its own future.

Revolution focuses on the struggle to survive 15 years after a global blackout.

As Delhi reels in the aftermath of a gang rape, DCP Vartika Chaturvedi leads a painstaking search for the culprits. Based on the 2012 Nirbhaya case.

The story of three of the children who were victims in the 2012 grooming and sex trafficking case in Rochdale, for which nine men were convicted and sentenced. The drama explores how these girls were groomed, how they were ignored by the authorities directly responsible for protecting them, and how they eventually made themselves heard.

The true story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, aka “the sweetheart of the silent majority.”

The story of a young woman who goes to present-day Israel/Palestine determined to find out about her soldier grandfather's involvement in the final years of Palestine under the British mandate.

The lives, loves and highs and lows of four members of the Women's Land Army working at the Hoxley Estate during World War II.

Robyn, the sharp and witty publicity maven, is an expert at her craft but a complete self-saboteur when it comes to her personal life. Robyn’s work as a crisis PR strategist is fast-paced and unpredictable, as she counsels high-profile personalities in entertainment, fashion and sports.

The story of a world-famous televangelist family with a history of deviance, greed and, yes, charitable work, all in the name of Jesus.

The early 17th Century story of three courageous, dynamic women who leave their dark pasts behind in England, and make the journey of a lifetime across the ocean for a new life in America.

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

Quirke is the chief pathologist in the Dublin city morgue – a charismatic loner whose job takes him into fascinating places as he investigates sudden deaths in 1950s Dublin. His pleasures in life are raw and deep, a drink, a smoke, good food, a woman: With one woman in particular – his adoptive brother's wife Sarah and the forbidden love that has shaped and dominated Quirke's life.

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

Undercover agents infiltrate a drug kingpin's operation by posing as a couple at the campground where he spends his weekends. Inspired by real events.

A radical group of young men band together in secrecy to change the course of history and make America a nation.

A woman haunted by her past, Detective Robin Griffin, investigates complex and unsettling cases.

The Defoes, a family of female divorce lawyers, are forced to face their past following the return of their estranged father after a 30 year absence.