15 Period Dramas Worth Watching After Bridgerton
Finished Bridgerton and now regular TV feels embarrassingly underdressed? Same.
Once you’ve gotten hooked on scandalous ballrooms and sharp-tongued gossip, romance intense enough to deserve its own fainting couch, it’s hard to move on.
If you want more swoons, secrets, and addictive period drama that grabs you fast and refuses to let go, these shows bring the same delicious, can’t-stop-watching energy.
1. Downton Abbey
Life inside a sprawling English estate unfolds as aristocrats sip tea upstairs while servants rush below to keep every detail running smoothly.
From 1912 onward, Downton Abbey explores the tension between fading traditions and rapid social change, with family secrets surfacing as quickly as tea at a garden party. Characters feel instantly familiar, from the sharp-tongued Dowager Countess to a kind-hearted housemaid hoping for something more.
Comfort television meets carefully measured drama, creating a story that feels soothing while still keeping the heart racing.
2. The Crown
Queen Elizabeth’s reign unfolds with all the weight of a crown that never comes off. The series peels back palace walls to reveal the woman behind the monarchy, juggling duty, family heartbreak, and political storms that could sink a nation.
Each season switches actors as decades pass, yet the emotional punch never fades.
Plenty of viewers end up rooting for a queen who can’t show weakness, even when her world crumbles in private.
3. Gentleman Jack
Across 1830s Yorkshire, Anne Lister moves with bold confidence in black attire that defies every rule polite society tries to enforce. She manages her family estate, courts women openly, and records her desires in coded diaries later deciphered by historians.
History comes alive through a real figure who refused to live in hiding.
Sharp wit meets fearless determination, making every moment of her claiming space feel like a small victory.
4. The Gilded Age
Old money scowls at new money across glittering New York ballrooms in the 1880s.
From the creator of Downton Abbey comes a tale of robber barons, social climbers, and women wielding influence through whispered words and strategic dinner invitations.
The costumes alone could fill a museum, but the real treasure is watching characters scheme their way up or cling desperately to their perch at the top. Every episode drips with ambition and bubbly celebration energy.
5. Victoria
At eighteen, Queen Victoria steps onto the throne as the most powerful woman in the world while still discovering her own identity. Early reign struggles reveal uncertainty behind royal authority.
Warmth replaces the usual stern image as Jenna Coleman portrays the passionate young monarch before history turned her into legend.
Romance with Prince Albert unfolds as a partnership shaped by affection and shared purpose. Palace intrigue lingers around every corner, adding tension to the personal story.
6. Outlander
Claire touches an ancient stone and tumbles from 1945 straight into 1743 Scotland, landing in the arms of a Highland warrior who changes everything.
Time travel becomes the vehicle for an epic love story that spans centuries, battlefields, and oceans.
The Scottish landscapes steal your breath between moments of heart-pounding romance and harsh historical reality. One minute you’re swooning, the next you’re on the edge of your seat as history threatens to tear lovers apart.
7. Poldark
War’s end brings Ross Poldark home to a ruined Cornwall estate and a first love now married to another man.
Brooding stares stretch across windswept cliffs as mining disasters and a slow-burning romance with his former servant reshape his future. The Cornish coast feels like a character itself, wild, beautiful, and unforgiving.
Passion and determination drive every episode, giving the story both grit and heart.
8. Call The Midwife
Bicycles carry midwives through 1950s East End London as they deliver babies and moments of hope to families struggling to get by.
Real social issues unfold with warmth and humor, showing how small acts of kindness can ripple through an entire community. Nuns and nurses grow into a chosen family, their bonds tested by difficult births and changing times.
Laughter and tears arrive together, leaving a renewed appreciation for modern medicine.
9. North & South
Margaret Hale moves from genteel southern England to the smoky industrial north, where she clashes spectacularly with mill owner John Thornton. Their pride and prejudice echo Austen, but the setting shifts to factories and labor strikes that make every interaction crackle with tension.
Class warfare meets undeniable attraction.
The final scene alone has launched a thousand rewatches, a moment so perfectly executed it lives rent-free in fans’ minds forever.
10. Emma (2009)
Convinced she understands romance better than anyone else, Emma Woodhouse plays matchmaker across her village while staying charmingly unaware of her own feelings.
Jane Austen’s comedy of manners shines in an adaptation that keeps its meddling heroine likable despite constant interference. Romola Garai brings brightness to Emma as humility arrives through one failed matchmaking attempt after another.
Rolling hills and elegant garden parties make the English countryside feel like a watercolor brought to life, where reputations balance on the lightest whisper of gossip.
11. The Great
Catherine arrives in Russia as a naive bride and schemes her way to becoming Catherine the Great, one power play at a time.
Historical accuracy takes a back seat to sharp satire.
The show tosses accuracy out the window in favor of sharp satire, modern music, and dialogue that crackles with wit. Palace intrigue becomes darkly funny as Catherine navigates a court full of schemers, fools, and a husband who’s equal parts dangerous and ridiculous.
12. Belgravia
Secrets buried after the Duchess of Richmond’s ball before Waterloo resurface decades later in 1840s London, threatening to destroy two families.
Julian Fellowes crafts another tale of upstairs-downstairs intrigue, this time condensed into one season of perfectly paced drama. Class divisions feel hard to escape as characters struggle against society’s rigid rules.
Every glance across a drawing room carries weight, every whispered conversation could spark scandal.
13. Versailles
Versailles rises as more than a palace, becoming Louis XIV’s gilded strategy to keep ambitious nobles close and carefully controlled. Corridors shimmer with gold as fashion turns into armor and every meal doubles as political theater.
Darker realities of absolute monarchy remain fully visible throughout the series.
Intrigue, betrayal, and ambition drive each episode while the Sun King tightens his grip on power and courtiers scheme in the shadows.
14. Pride And Prejudice (1995)
Television history changes the moment Mr. Darcy steps from the lake in a soaking wet shirt. Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle bring Austen’s iconic couple to life with chemistry that still sparks decades later.
Wit and pride collide as Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy circle each other through misunderstandings and a slow-building romance.
Lasting appeal comes from quiet moments as much as grand declarations, making this adaptation the standard others continue to chase.
15. Sanditon
Jane Austen’s unfinished final novel gets a lush adaptation in a seaside town where fortunes rise and fall with the tide.
Charlotte Heywood arrives wide-eyed and quickly discovers that Sanditon harbors secrets beneath its sparkling surface.
Romance blooms against a backdrop of business schemes and social climbing, with enough twists to keep you guessing. The coastal setting offers something fresh for Austen adaptations, trading country estates for ocean breezes and the promise of reinvention.
Note: This article offers general entertainment commentary on period drama series and reflects broad, widely reported premise and setting details that may vary slightly by adaptation, season, or episode focus. Descriptions of tone, chemistry, and “must-watch” appeal are subjective and intended to help readers explore viewing options.
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