This article breaks down a curated list of TV shows that portray mental health with care, complexity, and emotional depth. From animated comedies to raw dramas, these series explore themes of depression, grief, anxiety, addiction, and self-awareness—without falling into stereotypes. Whether you're seeking validation, perspective, or just a good cry, these shows offer stories that resonate with the reality of healing and being human.
Shows That Get Mental Health Right
A breakdown of TV series that represent emotional depth, healing, or inner dialogue with nuance.
In a media world full of plot twists, CGI explosions, and bingeable chaos, some shows dare to slow down. To breathe. To speak the quiet parts out loud. They open the door to the messiness of the human mind—without sensationalizing it. These are the shows that get mental health right. Not perfect. But right in the way they hold space for emotion, contradiction, and healing.
Here’s a breakdown of TV series that don’t just entertain—they validate. They make you feel seen.
1. BoJack Horseman – The Tragic Comedy of Self-Awareness
Streaming on: Netflix
At first glance, it’s a cartoon about a talking horse who used to be famous. But BoJack Horseman is arguably one of the most honest portrayals of depression, addiction, and existential angst on television. It doesn’t romanticize struggle—it lets it sit in the room with you.
BoJack spirals, self-sabotages, tries to change, fails, and tries again. The show doesn’t offer easy redemption arcs, but it does show the hard, nonlinear road of healing. It captures how trauma doesn’t vanish when you name it—but naming it is still a start.
Watch if: You want a raw, animated take on internal battles—with dark humor and gut-punching monologues.
2. This Is Us – Intergenerational Grief and Healing
Streaming on: Hulu, Prime Video
This is not just a family drama. It’s an emotional excavation. This Is Us explores how mental health, grief, and generational trauma ripple through time. Every character has their own complex inner world, from Randall’s anxiety to Kevin’s battle with addiction.
The show highlights the importance of therapy, of conversations that are long overdue, and of learning to carry your past instead of being crushed by it. The writing is tender and layered, without reducing characters to their wounds.
Watch if: You’re ready to cry, reflect, and call your therapist (or your siblings).
3. Euphoria – The Rawness of Addiction and Identity
Streaming on: Max (HBO)
Euphoria is intense. Visually, emotionally, thematically. It doesn’t hold back, especially when following Rue’s journey through addiction, relapse, and grief. While it’s stylized, the internal monologue (and narration by Rue herself) offers rare insight into the chaos of surviving your own mind.
The series also touches on the identity struggles of other characters—gender, sexuality, trauma—without tying them into neat little bows. Not every choice is perfect, but it forces necessary conversations.
Watch if: You want an unfiltered, Gen Z lens on emotional pain, connection, and survival.
4. Ted Lasso – Optimism Meets Internal Struggle
Streaming on: Apple TV+
Don’t let the feel-good vibe fool you—Ted Lasso is about what happens when the happiest person in the room is hurting the most. It explores anxiety, fatherhood, therapy, and the cost of always being “okay.”
Ted’s panic attacks, Jamie’s parental trauma, and Dr. Sharon’s guarded vulnerability all challenge the stigma around mental health in sports, masculinity, and leadership. There’s humor, sure—but it’s the healing arcs that hit hardest.
Watch if: You need a hopeful, heartwarming reminder that strength doesn’t mean silence.
5. Undone – Time Travel and Mental Illness
Streaming on: Prime Video
This rotoscope-animated series is a mind-bending meditation on grief, schizophrenia, and identity. Alma, the protagonist, begins to unravel time after a traumatic accident—and as viewers, we’re left questioning what’s real and what’s symptomatic.
It doesn’t aim to “solve” mental illness but instead explores how perception and pain often intertwine. It’s weird, poetic, and deeply human.
Watch if: You like your inner dialogue with a side of sci-fi and existential crisis.
6. The Bear – Pressure Cooked Anxiety in Real Time
Streaming on: Hulu
At its core, The Bear is about grief, chaos, and the unrelenting noise inside the head of someone trying to hold it all together. The kitchen is a metaphor. The clanging, shouting, urgency—it's what anxiety feels like.
Carmy’s trauma from fine dining and his brother’s death bleeds into every frame. Sydney’s quiet perseverance and Marcus’s quiet grief add texture. It’s a show about survival, connection, and how healing often begins in the thick of the mess.
Watch if: You’ve ever drowned in high expectations—or wanted to find purpose in pain.
7. Fleabag – Messy, Meta, and Moving
Streaming on: Prime Video
Fleabag looks you in the eye—literally. Through fourth-wall breaks and razor-sharp wit, we witness a woman grappling with loss, guilt, sex, and shame. The mental health conversation is subtextual at first, but it blooms slowly, beautifully.
By the second season, we see growth. Not in a "she’s fixed" kind of way, but in the subtle shift from surviving to feeling again.
Watch if: You like your healing with a heavy dose of sarcasm and vulnerability.
Final Thoughts
These shows don’t pretend to have all the answers. But they ask better questions. They linger in the in-between. They show how mental health isn’t just a plot device—it’s woven into everything we are.
If you’ve ever seen yourself in one of these characters, you’re not alone. And if you haven’t yet, there’s always one more episode. One more story to hold a mirror to your own.
