Shows Like The Lake
If you were moved by The Lake, are likely to find resonance in stories that questions the purpose and weight of our choices while ensuring targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this a deeper look into what makes these stories stick.
Standard feature-length experiences.
Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.
★ Top Picks
Grace and Frankie
Elegant, proper Grace and freewheeling, eccentric Frankie are a pair of frenemies whose lives are turned upside down - and permanently intertwined - when their husbands leave them for each other. Together, they must face starting over in their 70s in a 21st century world.
The Fosters
Stef Foster, a dedicated police officer, and her partner Lena Adams, a school vice principal, have built a close-knit, loving family with Stef's biological son from a previous marriage, Brandon, and their adopted twins, Mariana and Jesus. Their lives are disrupted in unexpected ways when Lena meets Callie, a hardened teen with an abusive past who has spent her life in and out of foster homes. Lena and Stef welcome Callie and her brother, Jude, into their home thinking it's just for a few weeks, until a more permanent placement can be found. But life has something else in store for the Fosters.
Shameless
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.
The New Normal
Los Angeles couple Bryan and David have successful careers and a loving relationship and are ready for a baby. Just as they start to worry that they will never be blessed with parenthood, they meet Goldie, a waitress who has just moved to California with her precocious eight-year-old daughter to escape from her closed-minded grandmother and a life without a future. The guys quickly work out a deal with Goldie to become their surrogate, and in the process, the little group forms a unique family unit of its own.
8 Simple Rules
Paul and Cate are raising their three children -- Bridget, Kerry and Rory -- which is no easy task. Oldest daughter Bridget is traversing the dating scene. Kerry is cute and smart, but she has a hard time getting in touch with her true feelings because of her lack of self-confidence. The youngest of the three children, and only boy, Rory is beginning to discover one of life's greatest mysteries -- girls.
Bates Motel
A "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film Psycho, depicting the life of Norman Bates and his mother Norma prior to the events portrayed in Hitchcock's film, albeit in a different fictional town and in a modern setting. The series begins after the death of Norma's husband, when she purchases a motel located in a coastal Oregon town so she and Norman can start a new life.
My Three Sons
A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.
Tyler Perry's House of Payne
The show revolved around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta led by patriarch Curtis Payne and his wife Ella.
More Shows Like The Lake
Transparent
An LA family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.
Us
The poignant and hilarious story of the Petersens during their vacation across Europe where the father Douglas tries to win back the love of his wife Connie and become reconciled with their son Albie.
Everything Sucks!
It's 1996 in a town called Boring, Oregon, where high school misfits in the AV and drama clubs brave the ups and downs of teenage emotions in the VHS era.
Life Unexpected
16-year-old Lux was given up for adoption at birth but never adopted. When she is put back into the custody of her estranged-since-high-school birth parents, Cate and Baze, the three form an unlikely family.
Republic of Doyle
Jake Doyle and his ex-cop father, Malachy, run a Newfoundland detective agency. Their rugged seaside town never lacks for intriguing cases, and the Doyles don't always land on the right side of the law.
Mid-Century Modern
Three best friends — gay gentlemen of a certain age – decide after an unexpected death to spend their golden years living together in Palm Springs where the wealthiest one lives with his mother. As a chosen family, they prove that no matter how hard things get, there’s always someone around to remind you it would be better if you got your neck done.
Moonshine
The Finley-Cullens are a dysfunctional family of adult half-siblings battling to take control over the family business - a ramshackle summer resort on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, one septic tank away from bankruptcy and with a dark family secret at its core.
United States of Tara
Tara's multiple personalities include "T" the wild-child teenager, "Buck" the rough and tumble biker dude, and "Alice" the type-A homemaker. But with a family that loves her just the way she is, Tara never gives up hope that someday she can just be herself.
Life in Pieces
Comedy about one big happy family and their sometimes awkward, often hilarious and ultimately beautiful milestone moments as told by its various members. Of the three siblings, middle child Matt may have just found his true love, his co-worker, Colleen; his coddled youngest brother, Greg, and his wife, Jen, are overwhelmed by the birth of their first child; and the eldest, Heather, and her husband, Tim, are dreading their impending empty nest so much, they're considering having another baby. Their parents are Joan the family's adoring matriarch who would do anything for her kids - as long as she agrees with it - and John, the gregarious patriarch who's searching for ways to soften the blow of turning 70. As the family's lives unfold in four short stories each week, they try to savor these little pieces of time that flash by but stay with you forever, because these moments add up to what life's all about.
The Real O'Neals
A contemporary take on a seemingly perfect Catholic family, whose lives take an unexpected turn when surprising truths are revealed. Instead of ruining their family, the honesty triggers a new, messier chapter where everyone stops pretending to be perfect and actually starts being real.
Casual
A dysfunctional family tries to help each other navigate the modern dating scene. Recent divorcee Tara and her bachelor brother coach each other through the crazy world of dating (on-line and off), while living under the same roof again for the second time and raising her teenage daughter.
McLeod's Daughters
When Jack McLeod passes away, his two daughters inherit Drovers Run, a vast cattle ranch in the Australian outback. Ultimately, Tess and Claire decide to run the ranch together, with their housekeeper, Meg, her teenage daughter, Jodi, and a local girl, Becky. Their lives are hard and the obstacles many, but the rewards are every bit as grand as the wild open land they've inherited.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Lake (2022): Comedy and Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of The Lake.
See full details for The Lake (2022)
