01 Rarely gets mentioned in "best of" lists, but it may be the most reliably devastating family drama of its era.
12 Best Sad TV Series That Are Worth the Cry
By Vlad Zakh · August 25, 2026
This Is Us built an entire series around the mechanics of a well-timed cry, and it mostly earns it. Six Feet Under and The Leftovers use grief as the actual subject rather than just an emotional beat, which is why both hold up so well on rewatch.
01 
02 An ensemble family drama built on loss that holds up better than its reputation suggests.
03 A family drama willing to sit with real hardship rather than resolving everything neatly.
04 Genre mystery wrapped around some genuinely devastating family stakes.
05 A quieter Canadian drama about regret that never got the audience it deserved.
06 An ensemble drama built almost entirely on loss and how friends carry each other through it.
07 Slow, patient, and one of the more underrated meditations on grief and time in recent TV.
08 A quieter, more personal drama about friendship and loss that deserves a wider audience.
09 Two decades in, and it still knows exactly how to land a devastating character exit.
10 One of the most genuinely devastating shows about grief ever made for television.
11 Built an entire series around a family funeral home, and never once treated death as background noise.
12 Structured almost entirely around the emotional gut-punch reveal, and it rarely misses.