20 best shows like Modern Times (1936)

France, 1815. Jean Valjean, a common thief, is released from prison after having lived a hell in life for 19 years, but a small mistake puts the law again on his trail. Ruthless Inspector Javert pursues him thorough years, driven by a twisted sense of justice, while Valjean reforms himself, thrives and dedicates his life to good deeds. In 1832, while the revolution ravages the streets of Paris, Valjean and Javert cross their paths for the last time.

Tremé takes its name from a neighborhood of New Orleans and portrays life in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. Beginning three months after Hurricane Katrina, the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians, and other New Orleanians struggle to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture.

Chicagoan Frank Gallagher is the proud single dad of six smart, industrious, independent kids, who without him would be... perhaps better off. When Frank's not at the bar spending what little money they have, he's passed out on the floor. But the kids have found ways to grow up in spite of him. They may not be like any family you know, but they make no apologies for being exactly who they are.

In a future where the elite inhabit an island paradise far from the crowded slums, you get one chance to join the 3% saved from squalor.

Lights Out is an American television boxing drama series from the FX network in the United States. It stars Holt McCallany as Patrick "Lights" Leary, a New Jersey native, and former heavyweight champion boxer who is considering a comeback. The series premiered on January 11, 2011 at 10 pm ET/PT. On March 24, 2011, FX announced the cancellation of the show. The final episode aired on April 5.

A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist’s harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.

Chise Hatori, 15 years old. Lost, without hope, and without family, she is bought for money – not by another person, but by a non-human sorcerer named Elias. Though she hesitates, she begins life anew as his apprentice and future wife.

With better luck, better choices, better posture...Josh Corman could’ve been a rock star. Now he teaches fifth grade, and though he loves his students, he still struggles to find happiness and meaning in a world that sometimes feels short on both.

Two 19th-century footballers on opposite sides of a class divide navigate professional and personal turmoil to change the game — and England — forever.

The story of Tess Durbeyfield, a low-born country girl whose family find they have noble connections.

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

The Crains, a fractured family, confront haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.

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.

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.

The provocative story of Cole, a time traveler from a decimated future in a high-stakes race against the clock. Utilizing a dangerous and untested method of time travel, he journeys from 2043 to the present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will all but annihilate the human race.

The parallel lives of identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness set against the backdrop of 20th century America.

When three working class kids enroll in the most exclusive school in Spain, the clash between the wealthy and the poor students leads to tragedy.

When the most important friend in her life seems to have disappeared without a trace, Elena Greco, a now-elderly woman immersed in a house full of books, turns on her computer and starts writing the story of their friendship.

Years after he turned his back on his hometown, a burned-out major league ballplayer returns to teach phys ed at his old middle school.

George Lopez is an American sitcom starring comedian George Lopez. The show originally aired on ABC from March 27, 2002, to May 8, 2007.

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

This semi-autobiographical dark comedy starring Tig Notaro follows her as she returns to her hometown after the sudden death of her mother. Still reeling from her own declining health problems, Tig struggles to find her footing with the loss of the one person in her life who understood her. All while dealing with her clingy girlfriend and her dysfunctional family.

A dysfunctional family of superheroes comes together to solve the mystery of their father's death, the threat of the apocalypse and more.

Plum Kettle, ghost-writer for the editor of one of New York’s hottest fashion magazines, struggles with self-image and sets out on a wildly complicated road to self-acceptance. At the same time, everyone is buzzing over news reports about men, accused of sexual abuse and assault, who are disappearing and meeting untimely, violent deaths.

Letterkenny follows Wayne, a good-ol’ country boy in Letterkenny, Ontario trying to protect his homegrown way of life on the farm, against a world that is constantly evolving around him. The residents of Letterkenny belong to one of three groups: Hicks, Skids, and Hockey Players. The three groups are constantly feuding with each other over seemingly trivial matters; often ending with someone getting their ass kicked.

Down deep in the Mississippi Delta, Trap music meets film noir in this kaleidoscopic story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the big characters who come through its doors—the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned.

A famed major league baseball announcer who suffers an embarrassing and very public meltdown live on the air after discovering his beloved wife's serial infidelity decides to reclaim his career and love life in a small town a decade later.

Burned out on life, Miles undergoes a strange procedure at a strip mall spa -- and wakes to find he's been replaced by a better version of himself.

After a teenage girl's perplexing suicide, a classmate receives a series of tapes that unravel the mystery of her tragic choice.

1985 serves as the backdrop to the final showdown of the Cold War when Sandy and her partner Jeanne Vertefeuille vowed to find the mole that would turn out to be the most notorious traitor in US History, Aldrich Ames. Sandy is in a race against time to save the Soviet intelligence officers from being caught and killed. Living her own double life at home, this beautiful wife and mother vowed to stop at nothing until she uncovered the truth.

Comedy about the unlikely friendship that develops between two very different young women who meet waitressing at a diner in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and form a bond over one day owning their own successful cupcake business. Only one thing stands in their way – they’re broke.

Determined to escape a dead-end life, a gifted high school student turns to a world of serious crime to ensure he can pay for college.

The story centers around two fiercely fighting schoolgirls, Ryuuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuuin. On a campus ruled by force, a transfer student wielding a Basami sword brings about upheaval.

Nearly 20 years ago, Owen Strand was the lone survivor of his Manhattan firehouse on 9/11. In the wake of the attack, Owen had the unenviable task of rebuilding his station. After a similar tragedy happens to a firehouse in Austin, Owen, along with his troubled firefighter son, T.K., takes his progressive philosophies of life and firefighting down to Texas, where he helps them start anew. On the surface, Owen is all about big-city style and swagger, but underneath he struggles with a secret he hides from the world - one that could very well end his life.

Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.

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.

After a traumatic year, all an Indian-American teen wants is to go from pariah to popular -- but friends, family and feeling won't make it easy on her.

Nakano is an employee of an exploitative "black" company, who meets a divine fox spirit named Senko. While she looks like a young girl, Senko is in fact 800 years old. She offers to spoil Nakano as much as possible, and begins looking after him.

A coming-of-age story about an outsider who, against all odds and numerous challenges, fights for love and acceptance and for her place in the world. The series centers on a young orphaned girl in the late 1890’s, who, after an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly woman and her aging brother. Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives and eventually the small town in which they live with her unique spirit, fierce intellect and brilliant imagination.

After college, Rikuo Uozumi, a boy without much ambition in life, takes on a job at a convenience store. The days pass by uneventfully for Rikuo until he meets his former girlfriend and classmate, but especially thanks to the unusual Haru Nonaka, and her pet raven...

Three paranormal roommates, a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf, struggle to keep their dark secrets from the world, while helping each other navigate the complexities of living double lives.

When an attack brings down the star student at an elite ballet school, her replacement enters a world of lies, betrayal -- and cutthroat competition.

In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution.

Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a gigantic, perpetually-moving train that circles the globe as class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.

A raw and honest comedic look at a single, 20-something from Southie whose desires for relationships, sex, and a career collide with the realities of young, single motherhood.

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

This characterful drama focuses on an ordinary working class woman, Sam, who is caught between two worlds - the everyday life of a devoted and loving Mum and the darker, dangerous world of insider trading. While struggling with an online gambling addiction, Sassy office cleaner Sam realises she has access to lucrative Stock Market information which if used correctly could be the answer to all her prayers.

The daily troubles of the people who work in a busy West Midlands Job Centre, and the people who don’t work there, or anywhere else for that matter.

When the Weavers move to a gated community in New Jersey, they discover that the entire neighborhood is comprised of aliens from the planet Zabvron. But as the Weavers and the aliens face the struggles of everyday life together, they discover that some things -- the ups and downs of marriage, the desire to be a good parent and raise a happy family -- are universal. Intergalactic, even.

The town is shocked with a brutal double murder. The "Courier" hands the case to an experienced journalist - Witold Wanycz. At the same time, he learns about the mysterious suicide of two teenagers. Together with Piotr, a young journalist, they start their own investigation.