SHOWS LIKE “SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST” TO HELP YOU SURVIVE YOUR SURVIVAL WITHDRAWAL

Survival of the Thickest is the Netflix comedy that made a plus-size Black woman the main character of her own love story, and made it look effortless. Comedian and author Michelle Buteau (yes, the funniest woman at any function) adapted her own 2020 essay collection into the show and cast herself as the lead. This July, Netflix dropped the final eight episodes after three seasons, and honestly? I'm going to need a minute.

Buteau plays Mavis Beaumont, a Brooklyn stylist whose life blows up after she catches her supposedly-forvever-man cheating. What follows is the rebuild. Mavis starts over on her own terms, leans on a chosen family that shows up harder than blood (Tasha Smith's Marley, a queer finance exec with the sharpest mouth on TV, and Tone Bell's Khalil, the artsy commitment-phobe), and slowly figures out who she is while living fully for herself.

It's a rom-com. It's a hangout show. It's a story about starting over in despite nearing forty and refusing to apologize for it. Pack in the cameos, the drag-club nights, and enough grown-woman fun to earn that TV-MA, and you've got a full mood.

And the mood is joy.

Which is why saying goodbye stings a little. The good news is that the final season sticks the landing, sending Mavis off exactly the way she deserves and letting her walk out the door glowing.

So dry your eyes, because Mavis walked so a whole watchlist could run. If you're craving that same chosen-family warmth, that same take-up-space energy, that same "she's the moment" glow, i got you. Here's where to point the remote next.

Bigger (2019-2021)

Stream on: Paramount+

When a college acquaintance dies out of nowhere and her safe-but-boring boyfriend proposes, Layne decides she wants something bigger. Set in Atlanta around a scrappy vintage shop and a tight crew, it follows a thirty-something Black woman finally betting on her own desire. And the fun part: watching her figure out what bigger and better actually looks like.

Everything's Trash (2022)

Stream on: Tubi

Phoebe Robinson plays a Brooklyn podcaster who's in her thirties and still unapologetically a hot-mess. That is until her brother's political campaign forces her to sort of grow up. It's self-deprecating, big-hearted, and very comfortable letting a Black woman be an absolute disaster. And Robinson's charm holds the whole thing together.

First Wives Club (2019)

Stream on: Paramount+

Michelle Buteau plays Bree alongside Jill Scott and Ryan Michelle Bathe as three friends rebuilding after their marriages blow up in NYC. It's petty exes, ride-or-die sisterhood, and reinvention with all the receipts. Few shows make divorce look this fun.

Harlem (2021-2025)

Stream on: Prime Video

Tracy Oliver (the mind behind Girls Trip and The Blackening) hands four ambitious best friends—: Camille, Quinn, Tye, and Angie—the run of the neighborhood. Careers, situationships, and a friend group that doubles as a life-support system power the whole thing. And Harlem itself gets shot like the fifth main character.

How to Die Alone (2024)

Stream on: Hulu

Natasha Rothwell created and stars as Mel, a broke JFK airport worker who's forgotten how to want things, until a brush with death flips the switch and she decides to actually live. It's plus-size Black joy at its most awkward, tender, and funny. At its core, this is a story about a woman finally choosing herself.

Insecure (2016-2021)

Stream on: HBO Max

Issa Rae's modern classic follows Issa and Molly through the beautiful chaos of your late twenties in LA: dead-end jobs, situationships, and a best-friendship tested like scripture. It's funny, painfully real, and quietly revolutionary in how ordinary and full it lets Black women simply be. If you somehow skipped it, cancel your plans this weekend.

Rap Sh!t (2022-2023)

Stream on: HBO Max

Another Issa Rae creation, following Shawna and Mia, two estranged high school friends from Miami who reunite to start a rap group. It's ambition, hustle, and gloriously messy female friendship set to a filthy-good bass soundtrack. You'll be rooting for these women to make it the whole way.

Run the World (2021-2023)

Stream on: Starz

Four Black women in their thirties, thriving and occasionally spiraling in Harlem. Whitney, Ella, Sondi, and Renee chase big careers and bigger love lives while keeping each other upright. It leans a touch more glam than its peers, all ambition, girl talk, and looks.

Twenties (2020-2021)

Stream on: BET+

Lena Waithe's semi-autobiographical comedy centers Hattie, a masculine-presenting queer Black woman with Hollywood dreams, plus her two straight best friends, Nia and Marie, sorting out love and careers in LA. It puts a queer Black woman at the dead center of both the friend group and the story. The result is witty, warm, and hella refreshing.

None of them are Survival of the Thickest. But all of them understand exactly why you loved it. Happy bingeing, and pour one out for Mavis.