7 Shows Like ‘The Hunting Wives’ If You’re In The Mood For More Well-To-Do Women Scandalizing The Suburbs
Since Netflix released The Hunting Wives, a new drama steeped in Southern charm, viewers have become ravenous for more small town murder mysteries with dark scandals that slowly consume the lives of their upper class characters. If you’ve finished the new show and are desperately searching for your next watch, we here at Decider got you covered.
Based on the bestselling novel by Mary Cobb, The Hunting Wives follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a Boston native who moves her entire family to a small town in Texas. After meeting Margot (Malin Akerman), a rich socialite and member of the titular elite group of Hunting Wives, Sophie becomes drawn to Margot’s world of secrets, crime, and wild desires. As Sophie gets wrapped up in this new world, a shocking murder puts a spiraling Sophie and the rest of the Hunting Wives at the center of the investigation.
If you loved The Hunting Wives, there are a lot more shows out there for you. Primarily, you might want to watch other crime dramas centering on some picture-perfect uppercrust women with something to hide. You also might be looking for soapy shows with a distinct Southern or small town flair with the elite, well-mannered women getting hot and heavy in secret. Lucky for you, we went to the trouble of compiling a list of seven shows with these exact characteristics. You’re welcome.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Those who love seeing perfect lives burn to the ground.
RATING: TV-MA
YEAR: 2017-2019
CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Meryl Streep
DESCRIPTION: For every perfect picture, there are always a few cracks in the frame. Set in Monterey, California — not exactly the deep South, but stick with us — this dark crime drama follows three women, Madeline (Witherspoon), Celeste (Kidman), and Jane (Woodley)who seem to have it all: wealth, social prestige, thriving families. But when a murder at a school fundraiser shakes the neighborhood, the women get wrapped up in the investigation and struggle to keep their dark secrets hidden amidst the chaos. Featuring a star-studded cast and jaw-dropping plot twists related to the central murder and the characters’ interior lives, this is a show to be binged relentlessly.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Viewers who just want to see someone kill something
RATING: TV-14
YEAR: 2025
CAST: Aja Naomi King, Ben Rappaport, AnnaSophia Robb, Melissa Fumero
DESCRIPTION: Dead bodies make great fertilizer. This show is set in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where a core group of four garden club members bury a body in the town’s public garden plot. Alice (Robb), Catherine (King), Brett (Rappaport), and Birdie (Fumero), are all involved in the murder somehow, and must keep up their perfect suburban facade as they grapple with the aftermath of the event. Flipping back and forth between the events of the present and six months into the future, the show allows viewers to figure out the truth on their own by connecting the dots between the murder, the events leading to it, and its consequences. If you wish The Hunting Wives were a bit bloodier, this show is for you.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Lovers of family drama and family secrets.
RATING: TV-14
YEAR: 2025
CAST: Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks, Lorraine Toussaint, Kim Dickens
DESCRIPTION: In this family drama/psychological thriller crossbreed, two estranged sisters, Nicky (Banks) and Chloe (Biel), are brought back together under the worst possible circumstances: the untimely murder of Chloe’s husband Adam, who also happened to be Nicky’s ex-husband. As the murder investigation begins to uncover some deep family secrets, the two sisters must survive their own grief and each other after mutual resentment brought their relationship to ruin years ago. Gutting, impactful, and filled with suspense, this is not a show you’ll want to miss.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Fans who picked Sophie as their favorite character.
RATING: TV-PG
YEAR: 2011-2015
CAST: Rachel Bilson, Jaime King, Cress Williams, Wilson Bethel
DESCRIPTION: Much like in The Hunting Wives, this quirky dramedy follows a native New York woman as she moves to the South and adjusts to live within the small town community around her. This particular woman, Zoe (Bilson), is a doctor who inherits half of a local medical practice in Bluebell, Alabama. As she grows accustomed to her new surroundings and deals with a wonderfully soapy love triangle, Zoe’s small town life prompts a new journey of romance and self-discovery. Watch this one if you’re looking for something a bit less intense — and if The Hunting Wives made you want to move to the South.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Viewers who loved the Southern setting who also want to become better haters.
RATING: TV-14
YEAR: The original show ran from 1978-1991, and the revival aired in 2012.
CAST: Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Barbara Bel Geddes
DESCRIPTION: If you watched The Hunting Wives and somehow wished it was more Southern, let this classic Texan drama be your next watch. The original series that ran from the late 70s into the early 90s follows the intense family drama of the elite Ewing clan. Owners of Ewing Oil and the Southfork Ranch, polar opposite brothers J.R. (Hagman) and Bobby (Duffy) are constantly at each other’s throats in a constant pursuit of money, power, and revenge. These two were haters before the term was even coined. Their 40 year feud was so intense that it continues in the 2012 revival with each of their sons preserving the family legacy and engaging in a level of pettiness that spans generations.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Those looking for a classic soapy drama that turns up the heat.
RATING: TV-14
YEAR: 2004-2012
CAST: Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria
DESCRIPTION: Desperate Housewives is a staple of American prime time television, and it’s not hard to see why. After Mary, a beloved housewife living on the fictional street of Wisteria Lane, commits suicide, she narrates the show post-mortem as we follow the lives of her wealthy suburban friends through her eyes. Covering 15 years of the women’s lives, the show delves into the usual woes related to marriage and family life while also diving headfirst into all the scandals the housewives get tangled up in, from steamy sex to betrayal with deadly consequences. Queue this one up if you like seeing housewives go wild.
WHO’S THIS FOR: Viewers who enjoy solving a mystery right along with the characters.
RATING: TV-14
YEAR: 2025
CAST: Emily Alyn Lind, Shubham Maheshwari, Candace King, Joseph Zada
DESCRIPTION: Nothing makes a mystery juicier than a core player in the events having no memory of what happened. This psychological drama follows Candace Sinclair (Lind), who returns to her wealthy family’s private island in search of answers for what really happened last summer, when a strange accident gave her amnesia. Her family attempts to cover up the accident, as wealthy families often do, and not even her first love or her group of friends known as “The Liars” will tell her the truth. Candace must seek out the truth herself by slowly uncovering shocking secrets and piecing together broken memories.
Watch The Hunting Wives now on Netflix.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
