Best Shonda Rhimes TV shows to watch after Bridgerton
More soapy, steamy shows to fill the void.
After what felt like an impossibly long wait, Bridgerton's third season finally arrived on Netflix this summer. The Shonda Rhimes-produced smash success delivered a fresh batch of frothy episodes – this time split into two parts – as Penelope and Colin at long last made it work and got married.
The season also delivered the show's biggest casting twist to date, with the introduction of Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) as Francesca Bridgerton's soon-to-be love interest, in place of Michael Stirling from the Julia Quinn books.
But before Bridgerton, Rhimes had a vast slate of hits already to her name. So if you're in the market for more of her signature blend of the steamy, the soapy and the doesn't take itself too seriously, then here are the best Shonda Rhimes shows you can binge while we endure the ever-so-long wait until season four of the Regency romp arrives. Two years, to be specific. Cry.
Related: Bridgerton season 4: Everything we know so far
But fear not, because elsewhere in Shonda's list of TV credits, ridiculous good fun awaits. Read on for not one, or two, but many options for a sweet TV balm to make the time pass quicker.
There's a bit of everything here, with more period dramas for those so inclined, as well as the big one: Grey's Anatomy. The show that made writer and producer Rhimes the darling of US network television aired its first episode in 2005 and, against all TV odds, is still going to this day.
Alongside her producing partner Betsy Beers, their production company Shondaland has now gone on to become the diamond of streaming, with a raft of Netflix shows tackling serious themes with plenty of swoon.
So dive into a buffet of tightly crafted TV with enough seasons to throw the sink at.
Still Star-Crossed
This is one of Shonda Rhimes's first stabs at a romantic period drama. With a title that references Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the drama picks up where that play leaves off: in the wake of tragedy, amid the ongoing beef between the Montagues and the Capulets.
While the show never quite received the rapturous reception Bridgerton has been treated to, there's a lot of the blueprints of the Netflix smash in this drama: multilayered storytelling, diverse casting and sumptuous visuals.
Still Star-Crossed probably walked so Bridgerton could run, so we're here for it.
Station 19
The second Grey's Anatomy spin-off Station 19 is far superior to the first, Private Practice. It still doesn't quite live up to the original product, but the firefighters of the Seattle station have enough overlap with the hospital drama for fans of the latter to get stuck in.
There's a top to bottom approach to the fire station, with chief Andy Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz) following in her father's footsteps and anchoring the drama.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a Shonda Rhimes workplace drama, there's a melting pot of the professional and the personal in Station 19, with sky-scraping stakes as they respond to intense call-ins.
The long-running drama aired its final season in May, touting seven innings to its name – a whopping accomplishment in the current TV landscape. So you can go ahead and devour the whole thing from start to finish right now.
Inventing Anna
By no means the best entry on this list, Inventing Anna is one for the scammer-obsessed among us. The show is another product of the powerhouse Shonda x Netflix deal, telling the true story of Anna Delvey, scammer to the upper crust.
Otherwise known as German heiress Anna Sorokin, Ozark's Julia Garner masters the non-specific European accent and ability to grift her way through wealthy marks who really should have known better. She is eventually charged with various crimes, but not before duping and deceiving many, in a tale unspooled over nine episodes.
The show is a bit meandering and probably has a couple more padded out episodes than necessary, but if you love this soapy scamming drama, you'll be happy you get to spend all that extra time in this world.
How to Get Away with Murder
This brilliantly titled show is what it says on the tin. High-flying defence professor Annalise Keating (Viola Davis – who won an Emmy for the role) enlists her Middleton University law students to help out at her law firm. But the gang of legal-minded hopefuls find something darker afoot and soon become embroiled in a murder plot.
While many shows can take some time to get going, How to Get Away with Murder – like most of Shonda's shows – cuts right to the chase and dives into its story in the very first episode. While the drama kicked things off with the cover-up of one murder, by the end of the show's six-season run, the body count is significantly higher.
What of the show's legacy? Creator Pete Nowalk thinks it is in the complicated character of Annalise and her representation of black women.
"I hear that Viola's representation of Annalise has changed the world in terms of showing an African-American woman who's not perfect, and is actually really f**ked up, and that's freedom," he told Entertainment Weekly.
"If there is a legacy, I hope there's one of people choosing to live a life that's not so normal – getting out of the prison of what the world tells you you should be."
Scandal
Another long-running drama for you to sink your time into, Scandal has seven seasons and a dynamite performance from Kerry Washington, which earned her two Emmy nominations. She plays former White House spin doctor Olivia Pope, who strikes out alone to start her own crisis management firm.
Despite a main character loosely based on George HW Bush's press aide Judy Smith, this very fun drama has a bonkers take on that nugget of truth, including a lightly corrosive will-they-won't-they romance our hotshot fixer has with the leader of the Free World, improbably played by Tony Goldwyn (real Presidents could never).
With a blend of steam, soap and suspense, Scandal is darker than your typical Shonda-fare. It shows a sceptical political elite peopled by officials too busy trying to protect themselves to accomplish anything. It is the anti-West Wing, laying the corruption of government bare.
Scandal was met with the warmest critical reception of any of Shonda's shows, with a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's more, it broke boundaries, with Washington staggeringly the first black woman to lead a network drama in nearly 40 years, paving the way for How to Get Away with Murder and greater diversity on TV screens as a whole.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
In the first of what we hope will be many Bridgerton spin-offs – give us Kate and Anthony on honeymoon, dammit! – Queen Charlotte emerged during the in-between Bridgerton season drought to quench our thirst.
Penned by Rhimes herself, the drama was brimming with her trademark quirks – including a garden meet-cute scene between a young King George (Corey Mylchreest) and Charlotte (India Amarteifio) that may be the best in the entire show's history. Go watch that alone. It's well worth it.
The prequel may indeed feel smaller and more intimate than Bridgerton proper – the ensemble cast is leaner, the episode-count lower. But it is in no way trifling, telling the story of how their love story opened up the alternate racially diverse Regency England of the main show.
"We are telling the story of how their love united the world in a very small way," Rhimes told the New York Times of the Netflix drama. Their whirlwind romance will break your heart and then put it back together again.
Grey's Anatomy
The one that did it. It being solidify Shonda Rhimes as the TV force she is. Grey's Anatomy gave her the power and industry influence to sign a nine-figure overall deal with Netflix – which resulted in blockbusting bonkbuster Bridgerton.
What started with a bar hook-up before Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) started her first day of work – with who turned out to be her boss – has turned into the longest-running drama on television, with a gargantuan 20 seasons to its name. It's hard to imagine a show will ever be able to rival that longevity.
The medical drama of Seattle Grace Hospital has launched countless careers – Sandra Oh, Patrick Dempsey, Jesse Williams, Katherine Heigl – and is still going, albeit not as strong as in its glorious, early heyday.
The iconic moments abound – 007, the plane crash, everything to do with McDreamy. There's a reason this show has been on the air so long: it found a winning formula, with high stakes medical drama, ill-thought-out workplace romances and improbably catastrophic events revolving around the hospital corridors.
Get your scrubs on and get watching.
Previously Deputy TV Editor at Digital Spy and, before that, a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. When she's not bingeing a boxset, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
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