Want to reconnect with your tweens and teens? Maybe, after any littles you may have are off to bed, it's time for parents and older kids to gather for some worthwhile dramas about history, fantasy, monsters, and crime.
Sure, spending time with parents can be “uncool” for middle-schoolers and up. But what if the drama is fast-moving and funny, with characters and plotlines that keep you guessing? Could good TV give parents some common ground with their teens during those “You don’t get me” years?
While the days of huddling up for Bluey may be long gone, here are four quality shows that even your age 12-and-up kids may consider appointment TV with their parents. Warning, these do feature occasional language, graphic violence, and mature situations. More on that below.
From the clash of swords to camaraderie of elite guardsmen dedicated to king and country, 17th-Century Paris comes to life in this action-packed update from writer-producer Adrian Hodges (Primeval) and BBC One.
In the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean, every episode draws viewers in with sharply produced fight scenes, layering in politics, romance, and military intrigue to heighten the stakes.
Over three seasons, Musketeers Athos (Tom Burke), Porthos (Howard Charles) and Aramis (Santiago Cabrera), plus adept newcomer D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), defeat cunning foes and defend the innocent. Curiously, the real-life D'Artagnan made headlines this week.
This being Renaissance France, intimate relations between unmarried partners are part of certain plots. A dialogue scene may occur after such encounters, in a bed with a woman under covers and her shirtless partner, avoiding any explicit depiction.
While not perfect, families will find these 30 swashbuckling episodes offer food for discussion on justice, government and truth.
But, while religious conflict is central to much of Alexandre Dumas' original novel, it's largely absent from this more action-oriented melodrama.
The series is available under the Wonder Project umbrella or for rental/purchase on Prime Video itself.
Marvel TV has been a hit-or-mostly-miss proposition, with only WandaVision, Loki and Ms. Marvel proving worth a rewatch. Meanwhile, Daredevil: Born Again has all the gory violence of Netflix’s earlier TV iteration while nixing previously-strong religious undertones.
This January, Wonder Man, a Marvel entry that’s equal parts buddy comedy, superhero mystery, and self-parody, offered TV viewers an unexpected story of friendship and purpose. It became such a hit that season two is moving ahead, extremely rare for Disney in recent years.
Co-created by Daniel Destin Cretton (Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye), Wonder Man is a meta-show that balances tongue-in-cheek sendup of Hollywood with grounded drama.
Down-on-his-luck actor Simon (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) befriends a veteran actor Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), who’s also secretly helping a shadowy agency.
Consistently comedic, it’s also edgier than necessary, with a smattering of four-letter words every episode and a couple bizarre scenes of violence.
It can feel confusing: a show about producing a superhero movie, in a fictional universe where superheroes are real. If you can stick with Wonder Man, themes of family bonds and finding purpose arrive amidst the vibes.
This one will be a stretch, with parental preview recommended and likely co-viewing of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, only with older teens.
Since 2014’s Godzilla, producers at Legendary have brought the famed Toho creature together with King Kong and other oversized “titans” in the MonsterVerse franchise, which now includes five films and two shows, with others in the works.
Somehow the kaiju genre serves to help process our fears and a world in chaos. In the ambitious Monarch series -– with visual effects at cinema quality –- a multi-generational story unfolds in two timelines.
Kurt Russell stars as Lee Shaw in events set shortly before the 2014 film ... and his real-life son Wyatt Russell portrays the same character in the mid-1950s.
Sci-fi nerds will geek out at how well this drama elucidates the film universe, revealing how a discovery-based agency turns sinister. But family trauma is at the show’s center, as two young adults realize they’re siblings.
In short, the son that young Lee abandoned grew up to have a secret marriage, which the program does not portray in a positive light.
“Be sure your sin will find you out” (Number 32:23) becomes a major takeaway, as characters defined by selfishness suddenly must learn self-sacrifice and work together when creatures attack.
The series also features a side plot involving a same-sex relationship, with lesbian characters sharing an on-screen kiss in both seasons. Coarse language and frightening scenes of creature attacks also occur.
Epic-scale action spectacle Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will not be for everyone but, similar to the horror genre, one can glean meaningful truths from it with some work.
For those concerned about content issues of other entries, consider police procedural Vindication –- a sanitized, more Christian version of Blue Bloods, set in the Dallas suburbs.
While independently produced on a small budget, Vindication consistently punches above its weight and gets better over each of its four seasons, with a next entry coming soon on the Angel app.
Gary Travis (Todd Terry), a 15-year veteran police detective, thought he’d seen it all. But an assault case forces the cop, along with his wife Becky (Peggy Schott), to reconsider what he believes about ultimate truth . . . especially when a related high-school sting operation is linked to their daughter Katie (Emma Elle Roberts).
The crime-fighting gets more difficult, personal stakes more messy, and the baddies higher-profile; by season four, Travis uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the U.S. Senate.
With action scenes of gunplay and some violence, balanced it seems by scenes of in-the-moment prayers, Vindication gives faith-driven families a cop show to enjoy together.
Image: AppleTV+
Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith and culture for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.
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