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Shows Like A Fortunate Life

If you were moved by A Fortunate Life, should consider this hand-picked list which questions the purpose and weight of our choices while grounding the story in targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this definitely worth a watch.

Mood Breakdown
Runtime Cluster

Standard feature-length experiences.

Viewer Fit

Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.

Top Picks

Gallipoli
6.7

Gallipoli

2015

As dawn breaks on April 25, 1915, ANZAC troops go into battle on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. Landing in the dark chaos, Tolly, Bevan and their mates struggle to establish a tenuous foothold on the treacherous slopes and deep ravines. They endure the next eight months on the peninsula learning lessons of survival. By the time of the final evacuation they have also learned the skills of combat and what it means to be a young man in war.

Lady Chatterley
6.2

Lady Chatterley

1993

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Banished
7.1

Banished

2015

Banished is a British period drama television serial created by Jimmy McGovern. The seven-part serial first aired on BBC Two from 5 March to 16 April 2015. It received mixed reviews, with most of the criticism for its perceived inaccuracies to the depicted events. Though set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.

The Crimson Field
7.5

The Crimson Field

2014

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.

To the Ends of the Earth
6.0

To the Ends of the Earth

2005

From Nobel Laureate William Golding's (Lord of the Flies) epic sea-voyage trilogy comes the story of an ambitious British aristocrat, humbled by the lives of his fellow passengers, as he embarks on an ocean voyage for Australia where he is to be an official in the colonial government.

Our World War
7.6

Our World War

2014

Our World War is a gripping factual drama series offering viewers first-hand experience of the extraordinary bravery of young soldiers fighting 100 years ago. Drawing on real stories of World War One soldiers it uses the visual techniques and imagery familiar from modern warfare – POV helmet camera footage, surveillance images and night vision – to immerse the BBC Three audience in life on the Western Front. Each episode is closely based on first-hand testimony, interviews and memoirs that reveal often hidden and sometimes disturbing aspects of the combat experience.

Band of Brothers
8.6

Band of Brothers

2001

Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.

Roots
7.4

Roots

1977

The epic tale of celebrated Pulitzer-prize winning author Alex Haley's ancestors as portrayed in the acclaimed twelve hour mini-series Roots, was first told in his 1976 bestseller Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The docu-drama covers a period of history that begins in mid-1700s Gambia, West Africa and concludes during post-Civil War United States, over 100 years later. This 1977 miniseries eventually won 9 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe award, and a Peabody award, and still stands as the most watched miniseries in U.S. history.

More Shows Like A Fortunate Life

Shackleton
7.1

Shackleton

2002

The true story of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Endurance expedition to the the South Pole and his epic struggle to lead his crew to safety after his ship was crushed in the pack ice.

New Worlds
6.1

New Worlds

2014

New Worlds is a four-part 2014 British television drama serial created by Peter Flannery and Martine Brant, a follow-up to their 2008 series The Devil's Whore, produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4. During the turbulent Restoration period of the 1600s, young, idealistic renegade Abe Goffe is determined to fight for England to become a true republic. A romantic at heart, he falls for privileged Beth—daughter of Countess of Abingdon Angelica Fanshawe—and brings her into his quest for a new future, transforming her from the innocent young woman she starts out as.

Fosse/Verdon
7.0

Fosse/Verdon

2019

The story of the romantic and creative partnership between Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. He was a filmmaker and one of theater's most influential choreographers and directors; she was the greatest Broadway dancer of all time. Together, they changed the face of American entertainment — at a perilous cost.

Poldark
7.7

Poldark

2015

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

The Pacific
7.8

The Pacific

2010

Track the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers.

Sons of Liberty
6.8

Sons of Liberty

2015

A radical group of young men band together in secrecy to change the course of history and make America a nation.

The Devil's Whore
6.8

The Devil's Whore

2008

The Devil's Whore is a four-part television drama serial produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, broadcast from 19 November to 10 December 2008. As the English Civil War rages, when both politics and religion divide the nation, spirited aristocrat Angelica Fanshawe is drawn to the anti-monarchist cause. She tells the story as England dares to execute its king and search for an alternative means of government.

Rebellion
7.0

Rebellion

2016

A group of young men and women in Dublin in 1916 are embroiled in a fight for independence during the Easter Rising. The story begins with the outbreak of World War I. As expectations of a short and glorious campaign are dashed, social stability is eroded and Irish nationalism comes to the fore. The tumultuous events that follow are seen through the eyes of a group of friends from Dublin, Belfast and London as they play vital and conflicting roles in the narrative of Ireland's independence.

Emma
7.6

Emma

2009

Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.

Alex Haley's Queen
7.0

Alex Haley's Queen

1993

Queen is the story about Easter, the illegitimate daughter of James Jackson, III and her lifelong affair with plantation owner Tim Daly, which would result in the birth of Queen. Queen's story revolves around her early years as a slave who yearns to know who her father is, and her condition as a fair skin mixed race woman who spends her life trying to figure out where exactly she fits in.

Hornblower
7.8

Hornblower

1998

Set during the 18th century Napoleonic Wars, Horatio Hornblower, a young and shy midshipman, rises through the ranks to become an admiral.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood
8.5

Outlander: Blood of My Blood

2025

From the battlefields of World War I to the rugged Highlands of 18th century Scotland, two fated couples must defy the forces that seek to tear them apart, unfolding in surprising and unforeseen ways in this romantic saga that unfolds across time.

Why These Shows Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with A Fortunate Life (1986): 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 A Fortunate Life.

See full details for A Fortunate Life (1986)

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