33 Shows Like "Downton Abbey" to Watch When You Miss the Crawleys

The Crawley sisters may have gumption, but they've got nothing on Eliza Scarlet, the fearless detective who takes over her late father's private detective practice in Victorian London. Eliza's new business is met with dismay by many, including William Wellington, an acclaimed police detective who also happens to be Eliza's childhood friend. Eliza isn't above stealing cases right out from under William's nose, which only adds to the simmering tension between them. While the mystery style of the show makes it a little bit darker than "Downton," it's a wonderful choice for anyone looking for a period drama featuring a woman determined to make her own legacy.

"Reign" takes place centuries before "Downton Abbey," but many of the same dilemmas still face the characters in both shows. Loosely based on the real life of Mary, Queen of Scots, "Reign" features a determined young woman who, despite being her father's eldest living child, struggles to take the power that should come with it — sound familiar? Eldest daughters of both shows also find themselves pushed toward marriages with men who are heirs themselves as a means of consolidating their wealth, and both unexpectedly fall for their would-be husbands despite plenty of drama. While the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, may not have a happy ending in history, the glamorous series will suit "Downton" fans looking for more well-dressed politicking and romance.

"Downton Abbey" prides itself on its historical accuracy, but "The Great" prides itself on the exact opposite. The satirical comedy is (extremely) loosely based on the true story of Catherine the Great, a minor German princess who married into the Russian royal family and wound up ruling as one of the most famous and powerful monarchs in history. The show takes a hilarious, deliberately anachronistic tone as it traces Catherine's evolution from naive young princess to idealistic queen to the fiery, manipulative leader of a coup to depose her ridiculous and cruel husband. It has plenty of opulence like "Downton," but it also puts more of a satirical spin on the trappings of the historical drama.

For everyone looking for more outspoken but extremely well-dressed heroines in period pieces, look no further than "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Amazon's Emmy-winning comedy follows Midge Maisel, a well-to-do Jewish housewife in the late 1950s and early 1960s who starts a comedy career after her cheating husband leaves her. Much like "Downton," it touches on issues of gender biases and social expectations, albeit a few decades later, with characters who never fail to be fabulously dressed. Plus, for the folks who love "Downton" for its romance, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" takes its time acknowledging it but slowly builds up one of the most intense and satisfying slow-burns TV has seen in years.

While "Downton Abbey" tends to keep its "below-stairs" characters in supporting roles, "Call the Midwife" is all about the people living in and around a lower-income community in 1950s and 1960s London. Inspired by memoirs of a real midwife who worked in that time period, the show follows a group of nurses and midwives and the community they serve. It has plenty of interpersonal drama, too, but it spends a considerable amount of time touching on the major social buttons of their (and our) era, including race, gender, sexuality, poverty, socio-economic class, abortion, maternal care, healthcare problems, and so much more.

Just like "Downton Abbey," the movie "Belle" follows an aristocratic family, their daughters, and those girls' romantic complications. The catch? The daughters are adopted cousins, cared for by their aunt and uncle, and one of the sisters is a biracial aristocrat in the 1700s. Based loosely on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay, the movie explores a changing era with all the opulent production values and swoon-inducing romance you can ask for.

The later seasons of "Downton" briefly explored racial tensions and the advent of jazz music, mostly through the Crawleys' flapper cousin Rose. In "Dancing on the Edge," those black jazz musicians get to take center stage in their own story. The cast is pretty star-studded, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Angel Coulby, "Doctor Who" and "Victoria"'s Jenna Coleman, and a pre-"Downton" Matthew Goode.

For a slow-burn romance, love triangles a-plenty, and some presuffrage feminism, check out "The Paradise." Set in a 19th-century department store and loosely based on an Emile Zola novel, the show is about an ambitious young woman, Denise Lovett, who works alongside other women in the store owned by creative, risk-taking John Moray. The costumes and sets are every bit as gorgeous as "Downton"'s, and the inter-class drama is just as juicy.

Let's be honest: as much as we all love the Crawley sisters, Mary and Edith both definitely have their unlikable moments (or seasons). For another charismatic but sometimes unlikable heroine, try "Emma," an adaptation of one of Jane Austen's most popular novels. The 2009 BBC miniseries, starring Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller, gives the story room to breathe and expand into all the little backstories that get overlooked in two-hour movies.

"Poldark" is about as close to a direct successor to "Downton" as we'll ever get — it even got the show's Sunday time slot on PBS! There's the messy romances (between landowner Ross and maid Demelza and between heiress Caroline and military doctor Dwight), the love triangles (Ross still isn't over his ex Elizabeth, who's now married to his cousin), and plenty of social conflict between the ruling and lower classes. For all your longing-looks and British-accented soap opera needs, "Poldark" is your best bet.

Before there was "Downton Abbey" and its class conflicts and refined romance, there was "North and South," the 2004 miniseries adaptation of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel. Margaret Hale is the refined, if slightly snobbish, gentlewoman whose family circumstances require them to move to an industrial town in the north of England. Her sympathies soon lie with the working-class neighbors who are moving to unionize, but there's also a frustrating attraction between her and John Thornton, the stern but thoughtful owner of the mill. It's got elements that "Downton" fans will definitely love, from the relationship between John and Margaret to the growing frustrations of the working class and Margaret's attempts to be a businesswoman in her own right.

As "Downton Abbey" moved into the 1920s, it began dealing with issues of women's rights and the constant changes of the era. If 1920s glamour and drama are your thing, then you'll love "Cable Girls." Originally broadcast in Spanish, but available with English dubbing and/or subtitles, it's the story of four women who work at a Madrid phone company: Angeles, the gentle soul with an abusive husband, Marga, the sweet country girl, Carlota, a bisexual aristocrat, and Lidia, an ex-con trying to atone for her past. It's got plenty of aristocratic touches among the wealthy owners, plus the female empowerment that "Downton" just barely touched on.

The Crawleys would never be caught dead in a department store, but lots of women of their era appreciated the elegance and convenience of the newly invented stores. "Mr. Selfridge" is set right around the same era as the first few seasons of "Downton," covering the first 20-some years of the 20th century. It's based on the story of the founding of Selfridge & Co., a real department store in the UK.

If you thought the English aristocracy was extravagant, well, you clearly haven't seen the Russians. "War and Peace," adapted most recently in 2016 from the Tolstoy classic novel, is an epic spanning years in the lives of Russian aristocrats, focusing particularly on the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins, and the Rostovs. As the younger generations (including "Downton"'s Lily James) fight wars and fall in and out of love, the very bedrock of Russian society begins to be shaken to its core. Just as "Downton" depicted the rise and fall of the glittering English nobility, "War and Peace" covers their Russian counterparts with just as much glamour and drama.

Another intended successor to "Downton Abbey," "Victoria" goes back a couple of generations to the early reign of Queen Victoria. Throughout the first couple of seasons, she fights for respect, secures her throne, takes a political stand, and, of course, falls in love. Victoria herself will likely remind "Downton" fans of some combination of all the Crawley girls: Sybil's political interest and romanticism, Edith's take-charge professionalism, and Mary's occasional selfishness and knack for epic romance.

Set in 1800s Delhi, this period drama could be thought of as an India-based "Downton," but with significantly more attention paid to colonialism and the other unsavory elements of the British Empire. A wealthy British man settles in Delhi, bringing a mysterious past with him, only to find that the society he left behind has followed him, and the society he's fled to is just as prickly, intriguing, and dangerous. Just like "Downton," the working-class characters get plenty of time in the spotlight alongside the wealthy elites, but unlike "Downton," the stakes are a lot higher among the dangerous conspiracies and ambitions of the East India Company.

"Downton Abbey" is about the aristocrats, but "The Crown" goes even further up the social ladder, all the way to the very top of British society. In the 1950s, the young Princess Elizabeth assumes that her ascension to the throne is decades away and that she can enjoy her newlywed life with her charming navy officer husband. When her father dies only a few years later, she's thrust onto the throne and into a world of politics and empire that she must quickly learn to manage — even if it's at the expense of her personal relationships. With cast changes every two seasons, the show intends to cover from the beginning of the queen's reign up through the 1990s or 2000s.

Set in the waning days of British rule in India, this drama has all the romantic intrigue and class conversations that "Downton" fans will love, but with national and cultural conflicts at the heart of it all. Alice, a young British woman, flees a mysterious past to live with her brother in Simla, an Indian city known as a summer resort destination for British aristocrats. She crosses paths with Aafrin, a young Indian man with ambitions in the civil service, and they and their whole circle are plunged into a tangled web of assassination plots, Indian independence movements, forbidden romances, and drama at every turn.

Fans of "Downton"'s string of "will they or won't they?" romances are sure to love (and be frustrated by) "Sanditon," a loose adaptation of Jane Austen's final, unfinished novel. An unlikely series of events leads Charlotte Heywood to be the guest of the well-to-do Parker family one summer, where they are building their seaside town of Sanditon into a resort for the rich and titled. Charlotte clashes, of course, with Sidney, the more pragmatic and grumpy of the Parker brothers, but those clashing personalities soon turn into sparks of a different kind.

After being initially canceled, "Sanditon" was shockingly renewed for a second season, but with a catch that "Downton" fans will find very familiar: one of the main cast members chose not to return.

"Downton Abbey" is undoubtedly glamorous, but if you're looking for something downright decadent, "The Tudors" might be just your style. The series starts long before Henry VIII (he of the six wives) had become the huge, wife-beheading, religion-rejecting figure of historical legend. Instead, when we first meet him, he's a young, vibrant king trying to assert his country's place on the world stage. Frustrated with his lack of a male heir, Henry begins looking for a way out of his marriage to his queen Catherine, and there is no shortage of ambitious courtiers looking to curry favor with the king by getting him what he wants.

The classic British series really was "Downton" before "Downton." The series depicts the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family in London and their "downstairs" servants over the first few decades of the 20th century. The household consists of an earl's daughter who married "down" to a parson's son turned politician, their young adult children, and their servants. Much like "Downton," the show focuses on the decline of the British aristocracy set in the background of the everyday, personal dramas of the members of the household. The show was briefly revived in 2010 for a two-series continuation, following some members of the household in the late 1930s, working for new owners.

It doesn't get any more luxurious (or dangerous) than the French court of Versailles, where the "Sun King" Louis XIV reigns amid social turmoil, family drama, and a backstabbing court of ambitious aristocrats and royals. The show picks up while Louis is a young man trying to establish himself and break free of the old-fashioned ways of the old guard in the French court. His solution is to build himself an enormous, magnificent new palace, where he can escape the ghosts of the past and try to create a dynasty that will carry France into the new world.

The creative team behind "Downton Abbey" reunited for this historical drama, set a century before the Crawleys we know and love. At one fateful ball in 1815, a newly wealthy family and a family of old aristocrats are forever connected. Twenty-six years later, when the families both are settled in the elite neighborhood of Belgravia, the repercussions of that night lead them back into each other's lives. This time, there is a new generation of young heirs and heiresses, whose lives, loves, and inheritances crisscross in a tangled web of romances and enmities, with dangerous results.

HBO's lavish new historical drama also hails from the same team that brought us "Downton Abbey." This time, they're turning their attention to America in the 1880s, where old-money families clash with the new crop of super-wealthy industrialists. As families from both sides of the social divide strive for dominance in the New York City social scene, their dramas unfold alongside those of their loyal (and sometimes not so loyal) staff. It's all very "Downton"-esque, but without centuries-old titles to fall back on, all these people have are their reputations and their wealth — and they'll defend both to the death.

Take the fabulous glamour and style of "Downton Abbey" and throw in some murders, and you've got "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries." Set in 1920s Australia, the mystery series centers on Phryne Fisher, a wealthy aristocrat and private detective whose dedication to solving crimes is rooted in a tragic loss in her past. She's surrounded by a mismatched group of allies, from her uptight but well-meaning Aunt Prudence to her nervous assistant Dot to a pair of loyal cabbies. Of course, the local police aren't always thrilled with her interference, but when she's working with (or against) Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, their battles of wits slowly turn into much deeper feelings.

If you loved Edith's newspaper storyline, then might we suggest "The Hour," a drama set at the BBC in the 1950s? Ambitious producer Bel and idealistic reporter Freddie are BFFs (who also have some sizzling unresolved romantic tension) who get recruited to a new, in-depth news program that's supposed to dive deep into the most important issues of the week, every week. What starts out as a TV experiment soon leads the team to launch investigations around a murdered debutante, secret conspiracies, government cover-ups, the shady business underworld, and Cold War-era espionage that starts to hit very close to home.

"Bridgerton" is one of the few shows that not only reached "Downton" levels of hype but has far surpassed it. Based on a bestselling series of historical romance novels, the show centers on the large and wealthy Bridgerton family, consisting of a widowed mother and eight children, all of whom are expected to grow up and take their place in the upper echelons of British society. When eldest daughter Daphne gains a reputation as the "diamond" of the season, she teams up with Simon, a duke looking to avoid marriage, to fend off unwanted suitors for them both by faking a relationship. Romantic complications (and stunning set pieces and costumes!) abound.

The young people of New York's Upper East Side are the "Downton" families of their day. Rich beyond measure, powerful, and used to luxury, the teens at an elite prep school throw grand parties and get caught up in romantic intrigues at every turn. Their biggest problem is "Gossip Girl," an anonymous but frustratingly accurate gossip blogger who reveals everyone's secrets at every turn. As these friends (and frenemies) try to figure out who is spilling all their secrets — and why — they also deal with messy families, love triangles, college decisions, and more than a few shady business deals and criminal dealings.

Missing Matthew and Mary? Yeah, us too. But if you're longing for a really good hate-to-love romance, you can't do better than the ultimate love/hate love story: "Pride and Prejudice." The delicious back-and-forth between Darcy and Elizabeth will remind you of all your favorite "Downton" couples, and the wonderfully biting social commentary is worthy of the Dowager Countess. There have been several different adaptations of Jane Austen's most beloved novel over the years, but you can't go wrong with the 1995 miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Elizabeth and Darcy.

Take all the romance and drama of "Downton Abbey" and add a literal war for the English throne, and you've got at least some idea of what's going on in "The White Queen." In late medieval England, the Wars of the Roses pit different branches of the royal family against each other in a quest for the crown. The Yorkist faction manages to put their eldest brother, Edward, on the throne, but he throws everyone's plans into upheaval when he marries Elizabeth, a young widow from a minor family — who also might have a hint of witchcraft in her blood.

If it's the enemies-to-lovers stories you like, then "The White Princess" is a great choice. Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward and now the heiress of the deposed York line, is forced to marry Henry Tudor to secure his claim to the throne. Their mutual loathing leads both of them to plot against each other and their allies, but the necessity of their positions brings them closer together as well. When a man appears, claiming to be Lizzie's long-lost brother and the true king, she's forced to decide where her loyalties lie: to her husband and their children, or to the man who might be her brother.

"Downton Abbey"'s entire premise hinges on an unexpected inheritance, and that's what brings most of the drama in "The Spanish Princess." Catherine of Aragon, the titular princess from Spain, is probably best known to history as the first wife of Henry VIII. Here, she's just a young princess, brought to England to marry Arthur Tudor, first in line to the throne. When tragedy strikes soon after her arrival, she's left alone but determined to fend off the warring factions, both in England and in Spain, who would stand between her and her destiny as queen. Mary Crawley would be proud!

While "Downton" spends a lot of time on World War I and its fallout, "The Halcyon" takes place a few decades later, at the height of World War II. Set at a five-star London hotel, it has many of the same upstairs/downstairs tensions as "Downton," with the staff of the hotel and their wealthy guests both getting time in the spotlight. The hotel, owned by a rich family of aristocrats, is the site of forbidden romances, society scandals, family drama, and political conspiracies as the staff and guests struggle with the new reality of a Britain at war again.