Looking for clean show ideas for adults? Be sure to check out my VOLUME 2 UPDATED POST with 25+ more suggestions!
——-> VOLUME 2 UPDATED LIST HERE
When I was dating my husband, one of the marriage books we read said this:
“Never, ever, ever have a TV in your bedroom. There is no good reason for couples to have a TV in the bedroom. Get rid of it. Now.”
Or something to that effect.
I must say, nearly a decade and three kids later into marriage…that I respectfully disagree with this nameless, vague marriage expert.
Let me tell you what happens at the Smartt household. Every night. At the end of the (very long) day, when the kids are tucked (at least temporarily) in their cozy little beds, my husband and I look at each other, and we smile giddy, exhausted smiles, we take a united deep, relieved breath, and we do absolutely nothing besides watch a show.
It is a special, sacred, wonderful time in our marriage. Dare I admit we unanimously voted it the best part of our wonderfully-busy days?
I know some of you are with me, because I can’t count the number of times on Facebook someone asks: “We’re done with _______ show. What should we watch next?”
Here is my answer.
*disclaimer: I’ve used the words “non-trashy” in my intro, and that makes me a tad nervous. No doubt some of these shows have a scene or two in one of the seven seasons that someone, somewhere might think is trashy.
But overall, these are shows we have watched start to finish and felt good about watching. There are a few shows we couldn’t in good conscience continue, and we stopped. Unfortunately today even the best shows have something somewhere we’d prefer they do without. But the ones below, overall, passed our test.
P.S. If you have others to add, PLEASE DO in the comments!
Recommended:
Have you read my books?
ps. If you haven’t read my parenting books, check them out. I think they’re funny and great but don’t take my word for it; read the reviews. Memory-Making Mom: Building Traditions That Breathe Life Into Your Home and Let Them Be Kids: Adventure, Innocence, Boredom, and Other Gifts Kids Need.
Recommended with reservations:
- Friday Night Lights – There are definitely a few scenes that I wish weren’t in here. But overall, good show with positive characters. I was hesitant to watch it because I didn’t think I’d enjoy a show about football. But it was great!
- Burn Notice – This show is filmed in Miami, so they make a point of letting you know it’s at a beach where people wear bathing suits, if you know what I mean. But the characters are positive and likable, and what I did like is there is a definite good vs. bad theme. Right is right and wrong is wrong. I was sad to see Michael Westin go. 🙁
- Prison Break – I loved some things about this show, but some of the characters gave me the creeps. Pretty enjoyable to watch, though! It was a little “dark” maybe at points? But overall, good.
And a few other suggestions that I have not personally watched, but have been recommended by people :
- The Blacklist – *update: We watched it and it was too dark for my tastes, especially towards the end. Loved the concept though.
- Downton Abbey
So, what are your thoughts? Do you agree with this list? Any I missed? Any you don’t think should be on here?
ps. Want more ideas? Check out my NEWLY UPDATED 2021 Guide for Clean Shows for Parents with 25+ ideas!
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Person of Interest is GREAT! It’s one of our favorites and clean.
AGREE!! One of our favirite shows
Andy Griffith, The Dick Van Dyke show, and Alfred Hitchcock if you’re feeling brave. 🙂 I know we’ve got old fashioned taste, but at least we don’t have to worry about the trash factor. I think I made it to the 2nd episode of Downton Abbey before I was done.
Thank you. I was stunned at this list. My unbelieving sister won’t watch several of these shows because of graphic violence and sexual perversions. Ditto on Downtown Abbey.
Ya need a lesson on being tactful sweety?
Downton Abbey was a great show, but it can’t be classified as “clean” in my book. You either justify/rationalize what you let yourself watch or you dont. Everyone has a choice. Ive realized lately that I’m in control of what I watch and I’m accountable for it.
These old fashioned ones aren’t trashy, I agree. But the ones listed on this blog are. I was shocked as well.
Most nights we do the same thing. As often as we say that we should read together or do something else, most of the time we don’t feel up to much more than hanging out together and watching something. At least at the start of the evening to recover from the day 😉
I always appreciate new recommendations– especially ones that are clean and worth watching. I’m going to pin this list for future reference.
As far as some shows that we have really enjoyed, here is our list:
-Foyles War. This always tops the list for me. We’ve watched all 7 seasons 2 or 3 times! It’s about a chief superintendent in England during WWII. It’s clean, really well written, and has a lot of historical interest to it as well.
-MasterChef. Every.Single.Summer.
-Death Comes to Pemberly. This just aired this Fall but we really enjoyed this mini-series.
-Cranford, North & South. Two multi-episode BBC period pieces by Elizabeth Gaskell.
-Longmire. Series about a sheriff in a small town in Montana (I think).
good post! we also rewatch older shoes we never saw much of growing up – like Frasier, Friends, Seinfeld, etc. and we liked royal pains & justified
I’d also recommend:
the 100
heroes
how i met your mother
revenge
once upon a time
revolution
kyle xy
stargate
the guild
surface
the IT crowd
Psych (love it! Has a lot of sexual references, but loved the plot and the humor)
Monk (cleaner than Psych, but equally as funny)
Jericho (but sadly, it was just 1 1/2 seasons long)
My teen girls also like Once Upon a Time.
I’ve heard Revolution was also good. I want to see that next.
I like Lost, and our whole family lives Duck Dynasty! Just saw that 2 weeks ago.
Blue Bloods is my new favorite.
Blue Bloods is the best show on TV.
First time reader here — just spend the last half hour reading a bunch of posts. I hate that my first comment is this, but here goes: Downtown Abbey fits my personal definition of trash. It’s a soap opera dressed up with lovely costumes, British accents and nostalgia. My husband and I enjoyed watching it at first, but it got more and more ridiculous and unbelievable (deaths! drama! scandal!) and we decided to discontinue our viewing — it’s just not edifying at all.
We do, however, LOVE Parenthood. Thanks for the list — I’ll give some of those a try!
you are correct. Downton is not edifying. It’s an awesome show but when people defend it as “clean” I can’t agree.
We love “Person of Interest” and “Blue Bloods.”
There is an occasional show with opinions we disagree with, and an occasional immodestly dressed woman/night spent with a non-spouse (Blue Bloods). And we were disappointed with the episode in the most recent season of Person of Interest (same-sex attraction)… But up until that – very interesting and non-trashy shows!
I second the miniseries made from Elizabeth Gaskell’s books: Cranford, Return to Cranford, and North and South. My husband isn’t into chick flicks but he loves to watch them with me. 🙂
LOVE Parenthood!!! It was one of those shows I heard about in passing but never gave it another thought. But then I heard all the buzz when the finale was airing. I decided to give it a look. I was hooked by the 1st show!
Disclaimer……there is s*x in it…..seems like everyone on the show is having it.
Add SCORPION to that list. Interesting show based upon a real man who is a genius and forms a crew to help the government protect our country et al. I am hyper sensitive on “adult” language and this show, so far, is decent!
I LOVE scorpion!! Great show, no trash (the most sex was a whole season of suspense building up to one kiss! But… My husband the engineer doesn’t think it’s reliable lol. It’s not, but very good!
We love Stargate SG1 but just know season one was on HBO so it has a nude clip. We also watch Dr. Who, Sherlock, The Flash, and Once Upon a Time. I personally love Downton Abby but my hubby never really watch it.
No clue WHY Stargate SG1 had that clip. If you want to watch the pilot, find the director’s edit. Just as great, but they don’t have the full frontal nude shot. And the first episode is the only one with that kind of shot.
I LOVE SG1 and would watch it all the time if it was on Netflix again or I had all the DVD’s 🙂
It’s on Hulu and the first episode is the one without the full frontal!
Also a good clean show is Merlin! Tons of laughs!
If you liked Burn Notice and White Collar, then you should try Leverage. Non-trashy with a fun heist/con vibe!
If you haven’t already, watch Breakout Kings. Unfortunately, it was only on for two seasons.
We love Leverage! It is one of the cleanest shows out there.
I have to agree with Lacey about Downtown Abbey, it does get kind of rough and it is a lot like a soap opera with costumes. I do however love Duck Dynasty and when Alias was on it was one of my favorites. Now my husband and I are in love with the new Hawaii Five-O. It is SO good and hilarious! We have sat and watched all the seasons on Netflix and we are actually watching them again because they are that funny and actually pretty clean for a TV show. There are girls in bikinis, it’s Hawaii, but not a lot of hooking up or in-depth explanation of the crime. That’s one reason we gave up Criminal Minds, it’s intriguing but so dark. I also recommend NCIS, funny, clean and interesting. 😉
We’ve seen a lot of the ones your recommend– Lost and White Collar are near the top of our favorites on your list. (Blacklist was WAY to dark for us, just FYI. We only made it about 3 episodes). But one we think ranks up there in the best of the best is Blue Bloods. Excellent.
Yes! We are watching Blue Bloods now! It’s the best!!
We love watching Blue Bloods, Madam Secretary and The Last Ship.
Heartland
Time Team
Murduch Mysteries
Midsommer Murders
Men Who Built America
anything by Ken Burns
House Hunters International
A few that no one has mentioned, that I have watched from beginning to end and enjoyed are Army Wives and Heartland. Army Wives gives you a new appreciation for what our military families go through. The characters are great, and the marriages go through struggles, but in the end the husbands and wives are each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Heartland is great for amyone who loves horses. It features a teenager, but there are enough adults involved that I wouldn’t consider it a teeny bopper show.
Totally agree with the others who have mentioned Parenthood and Blue Bloods. Love them both.
I can’t believe I bothered reading this. I would never watch any of these shows with intention. Anything that fosters pride, greed, money, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, profanity, etc is trash in my book. Especially if the protagonist is a portrait of these
Have you ever read the Bible!?
Are you implying that the Bible fosters those traits? And that the protagonist is a portrait of them. Hmmm…
If alicia doesn’t want to watch those shows, that’s fine. Just because she has more criteria for what she won’t watch than you might doesn’t mean you should ridicule her for it. Also, while many of the Biblical heroes are very human none of their evil deeds was ever glorified as is often the case in secular TV. What to watch is a matter of conscience for many people.
So what do YOU watch?
Have you tried The Middle or Last Man Standing? Funny shows!
Blue Bloods!! One of the cleanest “cop” shows out there. We love it and can’t wait for season 6 this fall! We also enjoy Once Upon a Time (me more than my hubby but he still likes it). We like Criminal Minds, but some episodes are realllyyyy dark so we skip over those. We’ve watched 24 (still hoping for more!), Prison Break (definitely has its creepy moments), Psych, Monk, and part of Lie To Me. I love watching Heartland, but he could care less about it 🙂 I can’t watch Downton Abbey. After the first season having a gay make out scene, I turned it off. Thank you for the list as my hubby and I were just discussing we needed to find a new show!
I love Downton Abbey…BECAUSE it is soap-opera-ish, but not squeamishly so. I read comments like these and sometimes I just wonder: Do you ever have a doughnut? Do you ever show your elbows in public? I mean, honestly – I definitely understand not filling your mind with garbage and being intentional about your life…but I also believe you can be INTENTIONAL about letting go sometimes and having a moment where you can literally sit in front of the tv and not think for a half hour. Parenting is hard. Life is hard. Enjoying an easy hour before bedtime shouldn’t be frought with worry about whether you are going to hell after seeing a woman in a bikini. It’s a time-waster. Wasting an hour on un-edifying tv a day adds up to like 1% of your day. Waste intentionally. 😉
I really enjoyed McCleods Daughters. There is like 7 seasons! It is alot like Heartland.
My husband and I are watching Quantum Leap and Murder She Wrote. We also really liked Eureka. Once Upon a Time is REALLY good, but sadly they are planning to add a homosexual romance to it this season so we probably won’t be watching any more.
Fringe is amazing! Merlin is very very good and funny too.
I promise you will love Psych and Monk. My husband and I do the same thing at night and try about every show, but it’s a short list of ones that don’t make us uncomfortable! The Middle is a must for comedies. And Castle! My favorite crime drama because it’s pretty light and funny. I could go on… Parenthood is awesome, a little more uncomfortable moments, but if you like Friday Night Lights you’ll love it. Also Amazing Race is the best reality show😉 And Blacklist was really icky and dark when I tried it.
We have really enjoyed warehouse 13 and we have almost watched 8 seasons of Little House on the Prairie. We are surprised by how much we enjoy it after all these years!
Oh, I love Little House and we watch that with the kids along with Dr. Quinn.
We really like the plot line in Blacklist, but I agree with others…it can be VERY dark and a little trashy.
I second what others have said about Parenthood – we also liked that. 🙂 Also, Call the Midwife is good and I think someone else mentioned Eureka which we also liked.
For shorter shows, we like The Goldbergs, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Middle.
I would agree with others on The Middle, Once Upon a Time (although boo! on the rumor Rachel heard about this season), When Calls the Heart, Murder She Wrote, Downton Abbey, and Blue Bloods. I would love to see Lost and Patenthood for the first time. Sounds like I’ve missed out!
Great discussion here:)
I would also add Leverage. It’s extremely clean and fun to watch for parents, and even one I would feel comfortable putting my children in front of. There are a couple of episodes that I wouldn’t show my 8-year old until she’s older, but the majority of them I would even feel comfortable putting a 6-year old in front of as part of a family movie night.
Yes! I like it a lot, and my 10 yr old son will ask me to turn it on so we can watch together. 🙂
I enjoyed reading this article 🙂 I just wanted to pipe up about The Blacklist recommendation (because you said you hadn’t personally watched it)…
Honestly, the story line is fantastic. It’s really well produced with truly intriguing episodes.
But after getting all excited about finally having found a new crime drama that we liked, my husband and I had to stop watching it.
I think it was only the fourth or fifth episode in, and it was just so dark that we couldn’t bare it anymore! The captivating story line simply was not worth meditating on such evil.
With that said, our favourite crime drama is New Tricks. It’s a BBC show. It’s really light hearted, a bunch of old guys solving cold cases. And because it’s old cases, they never focus on gruesome scenes, you just see references to crime scene photos.
I agree…we had to stop watching Blacklist as well for the very reason. It was very, very dark.
Blue Bloods is our current favorite!
We love The Good Life aka Good Neighbors. Its a British show about a couple who decides to become self sufficient in an upscale neighborhood. Very funny and clean. My kids can even watch it.
The Office
In Plain Sight
Everyone talks about Downton Abbey, but I just couldn’t get into it.
We recently switched to Amazon Prime and canceled our Netflix membership, but I know that some of these are available on Prime and we will have to check them out. I loved Prison Break even though it was a little intense at times. Thanks for the recommendations!
Leverage, Burn Notice
My teenage daughter and I love Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Super cute, very clean. Edgiest episode involved a woman getting “attacked.” All you see is her excusing herself to the restroom, the man getting up to follow her and then you see her crying in the restroom mirror. All else was implied. Most episodes are much more on the G-rated side.
Madam Secretary! Intelligent plots and good acting, suspense and mystery solving, political drama…this has it. Like in White Collar, principal characters have a good marriage, giving each other mutual respect–love that and rarely see it. I appreciate the lack of violence in this series too.
Lie to Me
My hubby and I like Criminal Minds, Bones, Hawaii Five-O (new version), Lie To Me and Once Upon A Time. Oh we have also watched Numbers. My personal favorite for watching in “me time” is Gilmore Girls.
When Calls The Heart has become a new favorite for us, very clean and light hearted !
We’ve enjoyed a lot of the shows you you all have mentioned. I loved Parenthood but felt a little guilty sometimes about loving it because of some of the sexual topics in the show.
LOVE me some Blue Bloods. My daughter and I watch that one together.
Psych, White Collar, Burn Notice. …all really good.
One of my favorites was Lie To Me! Lived Royal Pains!
This list is great! I’m going to try a new series this week!
My husband and I are very selective about what we watch because so many movies and TV shows are inappropriate and objectify women, which is not something we want in our marriage. We love The Office, When Calls the Heart and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt!
I’ve only seen it mentioned twice, but Madam Secretary is a wonderful show. I think one of my favorite things is it shows a married couple who love each other through the struggles and have a great relationship.
When Calls the Heart!!! (First 2 seasons on Netflix and about to start filming season 4!) One of the best shows out there!
We love fixer upper! The husband and wife treat eachother very nicely and family is their priority.
Also like blue bloods.
The London was excellent as is Call the Midwife.
Thanks for the recommendations!
Chuck!!!! Chuck is the perfect blend of comedy and action and it’s mostly clean and so fun ! It’s one of our favorites .
Psych is a very funny show.
If you can find Monk or Psych they are a must watch!
Hi there, I whole heartedly agree about Blue Bloods! It is a terrific show!
I want to add Madam Secretary, Heartland, Cedar Cove, Anne with an E, and When Calls the Heart to the list. We are pretty particular about the content of the shows we watch, and these serieses knock it out of the park!
I have to say that we were pretty disappointed with 24. Two sex scenes in the first hour. We were done. I know everybody has their tolerances, but I consider that trashy. 🙁
This is an excellent list! Do you have updates? I’m out.
I was starting to get into Grimm but then season 4 got so trashy with soap opera like plotlines involving sleeping with other people. On the other hand I don’t like shows that get sappy and preachy. I just want modern show recommendations that are a happy medium. Can someone offer more ideas?
hi, jessica! you and your hubby sound like me and mine! We are watching The Closer right now and have Major Crimes saved in our que. The characters play off each other really well and with a great sense of humor. Night Shift was good too–it is an ER drama / comedy.
I watched some of those mentioned shows, really liked them.
I’d like to recommend Jericho. Only two seasons, but it’s worth every minute.
It’s clean, extramarital relationships are not tolerated. Instead of revenge, or excessive violence, there is forgiveness, loyalty, family values. That’s why it was prematurely cancelled. It has excellent story, it’s really entertaining.
Another good show is Human Target. Also clean, decent, with good action.
You are a gem. I laughed out loud when I read that you respectfully disagree with the marriage expert. My hubby and I are also a decade and three kids into our marriage and we absolutely agree that a tv in the bedroom is our much needed escape together.