Shows to Watch While Navigating the Holidays

"It's impossible not to think about family as we head into the holiday season. This is the time of year when we're faced with the joys and the obligations of kinship. It's also, perhaps, a period when it helps to be mired in other people's troubles. Television is a particularly fruitful medium through which to pore over family dynamics-often layered and multigenerational. If you're already familiar with the dysfunctions on "The Sopranos," "The Americans," "The Righteous Gemstones," and "Succession," here are some lesser-known family portraits that are no less compelling."

"The comedian Jerrod Carmichael came out at the age of thirty-four, in his 2022 standup special, revealing not only his sexuality but also the profound strain that it caused in his relationship with his religious mother. He aims for even greater self-disclosure in this follow-up, in which he examines his shortcomings as a friend, a partner, and a son, particularly after Hollywood success. Though wide-ranging, the series has at its poignant core Carmichael's attempts to introduce his mother to his boyfriend-and to reconcile with the fact that he feels impelled to repeat family dynamics he'd prefer to put in the past."

Television provides intimate, layered portrayals of family life that resonate strongly during the holiday season, when kinship joys and obligations come into focus. Recommended programs probe multigenerational tensions, identity, secrecy, reconciliation, and the ways familial patterns repeat. Featured examples range from recent reality and documentary work to scripted series that explore coming out, religious conflict, fame's effects on relationships, and parenting in nontraditional families. These shows use candid self-disclosure and nuanced character work to reveal how families cope with change, conflict, and the desire for understanding across generations.

Read at The New Yorker