Movies like Second Show
The best movies like Second Show are Hounddog (2008), Helen (2009) and I Believe in Unicorns (2015). If Second Show hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSynecdoche, New York (2008)7.5/10 from 1,711 votes
- NewestMAUDE (2026)Released 2026
Hounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSynecdoche, New York (2008)
A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Human Voice (2020)
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Taste of Honey (1961)
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beaver (2011)
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter pushes for his parents to get a divorce.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWasp (2003)
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller's Kiss (1955)
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntitled Muhammad Abed Baryal film (TBA)
Muhammad Abed Baryal has long been fascinated by the idea of creating a film inspired by the life, journeys, and inner world of Whitney Wright - not focusing on her work in the adult industry, but on her unexpected travels through regions such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Client (1994)
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMAUDE (2026)
Maude is a horror, drama short set in the present day, unfolding within the suffocating confines of a small, cluttered flat belonging to an elderly woman who is slowly disappearing from the world. Misunderstood and painfully lonely, Maude’s yearning to remain youthful masks a deeper grief she is struggling to confront. When she kidnaps a young boy, she follows an ancient ritual; one that will expose his spirit, restore her fading body, and release her husband she has kept bound to this world though love and denial.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tenure (2025)
When a dedicated college professor is denied tenure, he turns to black magic in a moment of desperation but finds himself trapped in a private hell of his own making.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wantugo (TBA)
Zak and ‘The Clique’ arrive at an abandoned theme park and are met by the ‘Game Master’ who explains to them about 3 rounds of a deadly game. Zak and his friends realize that the game reminds them of a past incident involving their college friend Luqman. Things become tense between ‘The Clique’ as they blame each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Asphyxia (TBA)
At an isolated writers' retreat, a troubled novelist is drawn into a seductive and dangerous game of desire, where the line between fiction and reality begins to blur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Don't Call It Mystery: The Movie (2023)
Kuno Totono, a curly-haired college student, visits Hiroshima and becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding the inheritance of the Kariatsumari family's assets, using his intelligence and loquaciousness to unravel the case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Phantom (2006)
2006 Takarazuka Revue Flower Troupe production of Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's "Phantom."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Knock'em Dead (2026)
When a struggling actor, estranged for years from his family, Travis Hoffman, comes back home, he finds he's going to have to deal with more than, merely, a little familial drama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Iranian Nights (1989)
A Channel Four special presentation of the Royal Court Theatre 1989 production, London. with Paul Bhattacharjee, Nabil Shaban and Fiona Victory. "Iranian Nights" was a play written and produced as a direct response by writers and artists to the notorious Feb 14 1989 Fatwa (a sentence of death) from Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, placed on Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses", regarded by fundamentalist Muslims as blasphemous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Second Show and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Second Show?
The closest matches to Second Show are Hounddog (2008), Helen (2009) and I Believe in Unicorns (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Second Show?
Start with Hounddog (2008), the closest match to Second Show.
What is the highest-rated movie like Second Show?
Synecdoche, New York (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 1,711 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Second Show?
MAUDE (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Telugu movies like Second Show?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Second Show chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Second Show, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.