Recovery is a beautiful thing, but it can leave you with a lot of free time that used to be filled with pre-recovery activities. If you or a loved one are finding it tricky to fill in the new free time you have with things that you find enjoyable, there are all kinds of hobbies and other activities you can engage in. A simple solution is some of the wonderful recovery entertainment and informational content available on TV.
While Hollywood has a complicated relationship with addiction and recovery, entertainment media is one area that you no longer have to shy away from. Today, there are plenty of addiction recovery-related TV shows that you can watch with friends, family, and others in recovery. We think you’ll find a few options to not only entertain you but also inspire you and help you throughout your recovery journey.
To help, we’ve created a list of TV shows about addiction worth watching.
Fictional TV About Addiction and Recovery
Sometimes, the fantasy of a fictional TV show can be more relatable than gritty reality or biographical TV. Fictional TV about addiction can also be comforting because you can grow with the characters, become attached to them as they struggle, and even mourn them should the worst happen – and then you can rest easy knowing that these characters aren’t real. They’re just fictional TV characters, and that alone can be comforting.
Some of these are long-running favorites, and some are not, but each of them is hard-hitting and portrays the varied and complex aspects of addiction.
The Queen’s Gambit
On the surface, this show is about a girl who learns the game of chess and grows up to become an incredible chess champion – but it’s about much more than that. The Queen’s Gambit hits deeper than just a surface-level show about a board game. This is certainly a coming-of-age story, more than anything, and it features some devastating scenes of the main character, Beth Harmon, struggling with addiction.
Her struggle with substances starts when Beth is a child; after becoming an orphan, she ends up in state care, where they dole out tranquilizers like candy. To cope with her life, she starts to hoard them until, eventually, she experiences a serious breakdown. Eventually, she’s adopted and encounters the same tranquilizers in her new home. Beth continues to struggle with drugs and alcohol until, eventually, she must confront her trauma. This show reminds us that people have been struggling with substance use and addiction for much longer than we realize.
Mom
People with alcohol use disorder often ask, “What is a TV show about recovering alcoholics?” and this show is a frequent answer. Mom takes a more comedic approach to this difficult subject. It tracks the main character, Christy, as she raises her children through her new sobriety journey. Her own mother, a recovering alcoholic herself, re-enters her life and starts to criticize multiple aspects of her life and her choices. The characters face struggles that challenge their sobriety, and together, they work through each of the challenges that they encounter.
The focus on the struggles of daily life and the ways having a strong community can help you through the toughest times is a prime reason we suggest giving Mom a watch.
Euphoria
Euphoria is a gritty series that centers on teenage struggle with addiction. Our main character, Rue, has recently left rehab and isn’t planning on remaining sober. Her friends struggle with their own issues and insecurities over their sexuality, body image, and more. This group of friends navigates life and the real trials of adolescence with loss, grief, love, drug and alcohol use, and abuse.
These struggles all take place through a modern lens, and the audience gets to see teens navigate social media, relationships, and the modern world in a way that no other TV show has shown before.
Shameless
Running for 11 seasons, this TV show is notable for many reasons. It follows a family of 7, including the father, Frank, as he struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol. This single father navigates the struggles of fatherhood and sobriety while his oldest daughter does most of the child-rearing.
Most impactfully, Shameless shows how addiction affects more than just the individual and instead touches the lives of everyone involved. Notably, each of the children has their own trauma, struggles, and even addictions that they, too, have to overcome. Through struggles to keep the dysfunctional family together while they’re deeply affected by their father’s choices and their own mistakes, the show makes no attempt to hide the danger of addiction.
This Is Us
This TV show is praised for its honesty in the face of all kinds of struggles. It centers around the Pearsons, their children, and their families as they each work through addiction, love, loss, eating disorders, mental health, trauma, and much more. The struggles are the same that regular people face every day, and it shows us what real life looks like instead of the fantasy and romanticized version of life that some TV shows portray. Many episodes may leave you in a tearful puddle on the floor, but they can show that even through hardship, you can find community and support.
Degrassi
This show is the first of the classics on this list. It’s centered on those living on a street named Degrassi. Another coming-of-age series, the show focuses on kids growing up and their struggles with relationships, addiction, sexuality, and more. It is notable for being a relatable TV show about what life in high school is like.
Degrassi ran for many years, from 2001 until 2015, and had a few of its own spin-offs. One thing about Degrassi that was different from other shows at the time was that it showed people from various backgrounds, both ethnic and economic. It tackled incredibly difficult subjects in a way other shows had not.
Skins
Another TV show about teenagers, Skins, centers on teens in England and follows them through their various struggles with pregnancy, addiction, mental illness, and more. The cast was constantly rotating and never stocked with big names, something viewers stated made them feel more in touch with the characters, as they seemed to be just regular teens. This was an incredibly controversial series, and it was groundbreaking in its time.
BoJack Horseman
Hear us out; we know that this is an animated TV show, but at its heart, it’s much more than a cartoon. When you think of animated shows, you’re probably picturing something goofy, but BoJack Horseman is a surprisingly hard-hitting TV show about addiction and trying to get your life together. It centers on BoJack, a humanoid horse who is trying to break back into showbiz while being surrounded by the influences of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. Just take note: while some of these shows can be appropriate for the whole family to watch, just because this one is animated doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for younger audiences.
Flaked
If you’ve found yourself asking, “What is the Netflix series on AA meetings?” look no further than Flaked with Will Arnett. Using influences from his own life, Arnett depicts a main character who struggles with alcoholism, keeping his past a mystery that keeps audiences returning for more. The show features regular attendance at AA meetings.
Nonfiction and Biographical TV About Addiction and Recovery
If fictional TV isn’t your thing, there are plenty of options for those who are more interested in a real-life approach to the struggles of addiction. Plenty of TV shows have captivated audiences while also portraying addiction and sobriety in relatable ways. The following are some of our favorites.
Intervention
We’ll start this part of the list with a classic. Intervention was one of the original shows about addiction that took audiences right to the heart of the struggle. With a style that’s reality-TV adjacent, Intervention focuses on families and their loved ones who are in the throes of the struggle with addiction as the families plan an intervention to get the individual into lifesaving care. The show also brings to light the ways in which people struggling with addiction are depicted in the media and how their choices affect the lives of everyone around them. The show also typically follows up with the subject and their progress.
Addicted
Similar to Intervention, Addicted also follows the lives of those struggling with drugs and alcohol. The host, Kristen Wandzilak, works with families and their loved ones with SUD. She helps these people and their families get the help that they need during the hardest time in their lives. Wandzilak’s own past experiences with substance use help her relate to the people she works with and creates a compassionate, honest look at addiction.
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
While, at times, the lives of celebrities may seem completely unrelatable and out of touch, Celebrity Rehab shows the audience that addiction can happen to anyone. This reality TV style show follows the journey of several celebrities, such as Gary Busey, Dennis Rodman, Janice Dickinson, and Bai Ling, as they work through their addictions to attain sobriety. In some seasons, past celebrities returned after relapsing, showcasing the fact that relapse doesn’t need to be the end of the recovery journey. In the final season, the TV show was retitled Rehab with Dr. Drew, and the people appearing weren’t celebrities.
Drinking to Oblivion
As a hard-hitting interview TV show, Drinking to Oblivion follows Louis Theroux as he travels to a liver transplant center in Europe. He sees the effects of alcoholism close up and asks difficult questions of the subjects and their families as they come to terms with their situation. The show depicts people who were at one point considered typical drinkers, but in one way or another, their lives have spiraled out of control, leading them down a very different path. In this way, Theroux demonstrates that alcoholism can happen to anyone – for many, one drink is too many and a thousand never seems to be enough.
Drinkers Like Me-Adrian Chiles
It isn’t often that an audience is exposed to this side of someone’s struggle with addiction. The titular Adrian Chiles is at a difficult stage of questioning where he’s not sure if he really needs to quit drinking, although he knows he’s consuming far too much. Although he visits the doctor, promising to cut back, the societal pressure to consume is often too much for him to handle. Chiles’ active conflict and honest, open approach make this show incredibly relatable as he finds his way into a sober curious lifestyle.
Amy: The Amy Winehouse Story
In depicting one of the most visible and tragic losses of our time, Amy shows the life of Amy Winehouse as she very publicly breaks down and succumbs to her substance use disorder. This one may be a difficult watch for anyone who has ever considered themselves a fan of her work, but it’s a raw look at what years of SUD and enabling can do. Through never-before-seen performances and footage, as well as interviews with loved ones, Amy gives the viewer the inside story of one woman’s life and her battle with addiction.
All This Mayhem
All This Mayhem follows the lives of two incredibly talented skateboarding brothers as they achieve fame for their skills but ultimately come face to face with the world of addiction. The show takes a unique approach to highlighting how young celebrities aren’t given the support they need when their lives change so dramatically. They make massive amounts of money for corporations but aren’t treated with the care and respect they desperately need at a young age. Though this one is tonally dissimilar to Amy, both shows tackle the realities of young people as they deal with fame, fortune, and substance use.
Recovery is Within Reach
While many of these shows are fictional, the sheer variety of characters and people involved demonstrates how substance use disorder can touch the lives of anyone, no matter their background. Each of these shows depicts a person or people with varying struggles, backgrounds, and histories as they work through the same battle. You can find hope, comfort, relatability, and stark reminders of the pitfalls of substance use.
Connect with us and follow us on your favorite social media to join our recovery community. We’re here for you.
