01 Rarely mentioned in 'best of' lists, but 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 a whole series around the mechanics of a well-timed cry and mostly earns it, while Six Feet Under and The Leftovers treat grief as the actual subject, which is why both hold up on rewatch. Parenthood rarely turns up on best-of lists but may be the most reliably devastating family drama, Brothers & Sisters is an ensemble built on loss, and The Fosters sits with hardship instead of resolving it neatly. Manifest wraps a genre mystery around real family stakes. Rectify, This Close, A Million Little Things and Grey’s Anatomy round out the list.
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 about loss and how a group of friends carries 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 A group of surgical interns whose personal lives tangle with the chaos of the hospital around them.
10 One of the most 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.
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