The 20 best shows about celebrity culture

Girls5Eva is a series that simultaneously manages to be uproariously funny and marvelously insightful. It focuses on the titular girl group who reunite in the present after a decades-long hiatus. Of course, they have to contend with no small number of challenges, particularly given the pressures of being a celebrity and the entrenched sexism and misogyny of the music industry.  Aside from its critical commentary on the nature of musical celebrity in the 21st century, it also features a cast that manages to be talented both separately and as a group, and it has managed to produce more than a few earworms.

30 Rock shows all of the signs of being the brainchild of Tina Fey, who brings her unique sense of humor to her character of Liz Lemon and the show. The series repeatedly highlights the absurdities associated with celebrities and stars, and the antics of both Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney comprise much of the humor. However, it also ruthlessly skewers many other aspects of the entertainment industry and celebrity culture, even though it is clear how much Fey loves the world of show business, no matter how bonkers it might sometimes be. 

Though he might be most famous for playing Joey on Friends, Matt LeBlanc also earned praise for his role in the series Episodes. It’s an undeniably funny show, following a pair of British writers who come to the US to try to adapt their series for a new audience. As tends to happen, however, things go quickly awry once Hollywood executives get their hands on the material. LeBlanc is perfectly cast as a fictional version of himself, someone who is so swallowed up by his ego that he doesn’t always see how woefully miscast he is (even if he is enduringly charismatic). 

Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Hollywood blends fact and fiction. Though it takes place in post-war Hollywood — with all of its prejudices and shortcomings — it posits a different history, in which it threw its doors open to the marginalized. The series focuses on several Hollywood actors, including closeted Rock Hudson, who have to change their lives to accord with the criticisms associated with the industry at the time. For stars like Hudson, celebrity ends up being a double-edged sword, providing him wealth and status but at the cost of his authenticity. Fortunately, Murphy’s film posits a brighter and more utopian future than the one which actually occurred. 

Masculine energy permeates the eight seasons of the hit HBO series Entourage, which focuses on a group of young men trying to get ahead in the cutthroat world of Hollywood. Even though the bonds between the men are key to the emotional appeal of the show, it is also a series very much about what it means to attain the lifestyle of the rich and famous, as well as the challenges and trials this sometimes creates. Jeremy Piven and Kevin Connolly have been rightly praised for their portrayals of the characters of Ari Gold and Eric Murphy.

The Crown is about many things, but one of its key messages revolves around the nature of the monarch as a celebrity. Elizabeth comes to feel this particularly heavily as the latter 20th century wears on, and she and her children come increasingly under public scrutiny. Though she sees herself as above the fray, the media and the population come to see the Royal Family — particularly Charles and Diana — as their form of celebrity. The series demonstrates how difficult it can be to live as a public spectacle, even for those who seem to have all of the wealth and privilege in the world. 

Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain make for a dynamite duo in the miniseries George & Tammy, which focuses on the careers and personal lives of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. There’s a potent sincerity to this series, thanks in no small part to its two leads' rich and textured performances. Moreover, it shows just how perilous the music industry can be and how attaining the height of fame isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. It also doesn’t shy away from showing how women in the country music industry are far too often viewed as something to be controlled rather than appreciated. 

Ryan Murphy turned his attention to classical Hollywood with the first season of his series Feud,  which focuses on the fraught and often vicious relationship between Hollywood greats Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (played by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, respectively). Though it is about their well-publicized feud on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, it’s also about how Hollywood, both at the time and since, had little space for women of their age and even less interest in giving them meaningful roles. As such, it is a powerful warning about the power of celebrity culture to curdle the friendships that might otherwise emerge between powerful women. 

Equal parts funny and poignant, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel  follows the title character as she makes a remarkable journey from being a housewife to being a successful stand-up comedian. Rachel Brosnahan is superbly cast as Midge Maisel, as is Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson. As a whole, the series is a fascinating look at the world of Jewish comedy in the middle of the 20th century, and it’s both fun and emotionally moving to watch Midge slowly lean into her undeniable talent and, just as importantly, be rewarded for doing so. Like other series, such as Hacks, it also shows the pernicious sexism many women face in standup comedy.

Starting on Comedy Central but later moving to HBO Max, The Other Two focuses on siblings Brooke and Cary Dubek, who both encounter unexpected fame when their younger brother becomes an overnight music sensation. The show relentlessly satirizes the foibles of the famous, and with each season, the antics of its central protagonists and the other characters become increasingly outlandish. However, the series always keeps one foot in the real world, which is precisely what gives its satire its extraordinary bite, and it’s impossible not to laugh at just how believable even the most outlandish scenarios come to seem. 

Like so many of the other series created by Danny McBride, The Righteous Gemstones manages to put its toe right on the line of acceptability and sometimes over it. Focusing on the Gemstone family of powerful and successful televangelists, it follows their various misadventures as they deal with everything from interfamily strife to paramilitary groups. More than anything else, it’s about the extent to which the family’s fame and celebrity have proved to be a double-edged sword, frequently causing them far more troubles than it ever resolves. Through it all, they often find that family loyalty is its unique source of strength. 

Netflix’s BoJack Horseman deserves to be seen as one of the best animated series ever. Focusing on the title character — a horse actor who attained significant fame due to his starring role in a ‘90s sitcom — it follows him as he struggles with deep mental health issues and several existential crises. Most of the latter revolves around BoJack’s fame and celebrity status and whether any of these will ever be able to give him the sense of satisfaction that he so dearly desires. BoJack explores the darker side of what it means to be famous and how vacuous and self-serving Hollywood can often be, even to those who manage to achieve the holy grail of success.  

Apple TV’s The Morning Show  is, in many ways, the very definition of a melodrama, with its often excessive emotions and sometimes bizarre narrative twists and turns, but this is precisely what makes it so much fun to watch. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon star as Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson, a pair of morning show hosts who grapple with the import of the #MeToo movement and the various other challenges of being part of one of the nation’s biggest television programs. It shines a not entirely flattering light on the different challenges that women in the spotlight often face in the cutthroat world of entertainment journalism. 

Claire Foy and Paul Bettany are truly electrifying in A Very British Scandal, which dramatizes the real-life divorce of Margaret and Ian Campbell, the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. Their acrimonious parting occurred very much in the public eye, and the series shows how much this aspect exacerbated their toxic dynamic. It dives deeper into the characters, giving them more depth than the original tabloid coverage. At the same time, it also shows how both parties were bad for one another, with their flaws and foibles. 

Both Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw are perfectly cast in A Very English Scandal, which focuses on Grant’s Jeremy Thorpe, an MP who begins an affair with Whishaw’s Norman Josiffe, only to try to kill him once the truth of their affair threatens to become public. A masterful blend of dramatic and darkly comic elements, it shines a not-very-flattering light on the nature of British society in the middle of the 20th century, as well as the power of scandal and celebrity to drive people to do things that they would otherwise consider to be beyond the pale. 

In the early days of the pandemic, Americans were captivated by the spectacle of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness,  a chronicling of the life and antics of Joe Exotic, the owner of a small zoo in Oklahoma and his feud with Carole Baskin, a rival cat sanctuary owner. In 2022, Joe vs. Carole  offered a fictionalized version of their feud, with John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon playing Joe and Carole. The series succeeds in giving a more in-depth look at the psychologies and inner lives of these characters, giving audiences a remarkably empathetic look behind the overblown screen of celebrity. 

Elizabeth Holmes is one of the most infamous fraudsters in modern American history, but before her misdeeds came to light, she was a true celebrity, celebrated and feted for her ability to become a billionaire, seemingly due to her brilliance. In The Dropout,  she is portrayed by Amanda Seyfried, who gives audiences a look into the inner workings of this fascinating woman. Ultimately, the series shows her to be someone who was so caught up in her image as a celebrity that she couldn’t see the extent to which her business was built on a house of cards that would inevitably come crashing down.

Inventing Anna is one of the most remarkable series to have emerged from Netflix in recent years, focusing on the strange phenomenon that is and was Anna Delvey (born Anna Sorokin), who managed to dupe many of the wealthiest people in New York. Anna Chlumsky and Julia Garner deliver remarkable performances as Vivian Kent (the journalist who uncovered the truth about Anna) and Anna, respectively. The series is very much a testament to the enduring power of celebrity culture and how a particularly determined person can fashion an entire identity around themselves by giving the people what they want to see. 

Few celebrity chefs have been as famous or beloved as Julia Child, who entranced generations with her love of cooking and her desire to make fine cuisine accessible to the masses. In the HBO Max series Julia, she is played to perfection by Sarah Lancashire, who endows her with all of the warmth and charm of the woman herself. As much as it is about Julia Child and her career, it is also about the deep sexism that many women face as they try to forge their careers in the entertainment industry, as well as the weight of celebrity on those who attain it later in life. 

Few sex scandals were as far-reaching as the sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and the series Pam & Tommy  dramatizes the events leading up to the tape’s release and its impact on their careers. Lily James and Sebastian Stan are well-cast, as is Seth Rogen, who plays the man who steals and sells the tape. Though the series is sometimes close to being exploitative and sensationalist, it is nevertheless an insightful look at celebrity culture's toxic (and deeply misogynist) nature in the 1990s, and it does a fine job of showing how much the incident damaged Anderson’s subsequent career.