What To Watch
11 Dysfunctional Families That Will Make Your Own Seem Normal
We can’t choose our family, but we can choose what to watch.
By Ananda Dillon
June 26, 2026
11 Dysfunctional Families in Movies and Shows To Make You Feel Better About Your Own - Netflix Tudum
Those who know us best also know how best to push our buttons. For some, family is a blessing, and for others, more of a punishment. But one thing’s for sure, family drama makes for some of the best entertainment.
Whether it’s the inherent humor of sibling strife and parental bickering or the confirmation that life could be worse, watching dysfunctional families onscreen is an excellent escape from reality. These movies and shows feature clashing clans across the spectrum of comedy and drama.
So read on for some good old-fashioned fictional family friction and just be grateful these families are ones you get to walk away from when the credits roll.
Arrested Development
They are the poster family for toxic relations, but also one of TV’s funniest families: the Bluths. Led by their corrupt patriarch, George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), the affluent Orange County-based Bluth family is suddenly thrust into financial ruin when George is arrested for corrupt business practices. This leaves his only sensible son, Michael (Jason Bateman), in charge of keeping the family together while trying to instill in them a sense of the reality of their new circumstances. While raising his son George Michael (Michael Cera) on his own, he must also contend with his pampered, drunk mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), his socially stunted younger brother, Buster (Tony Hale), his competitive older brother, GOB (Will Arnett), and his attention-seeking twin sister, Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), along with her failed psychiatrist husband, Tobias (David Cross), and their cynical daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat). Chaos and hilarity ensue.
Gilmore Girls
The Gilmores are simultaneously heartwarming and frustrating, but it's because of this that Gilmore Girls reigns among TV’s most beloved series. Mother and daughter Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) are close in a way very similar to best friends, where they finish each other’s sentences and call each other out for bad behavior. All of which contrasts significantly with Lorelai’s rigid, wealthy parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann), whom she cut off when she ran away years earlier as a pregnant teen. Eager to send her gifted daughter to a good school, Lorelai agrees to let her parents get to know their granddaughter in exchange for tuition, kicking off weekly dinners full of squabbles, simmering resentments, passive-aggressive joke-cracking, and, eventually, genuine connection and forgiveness. Add to the mix that their charming small town, Stars Hollow, is a quirky family unto itself, and you have the perfect blend of family and found-family drama.
Ginny & Georgia
The mother-daughter dynamic can be an intense one, especially with a mother who lies as well as Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey). A young mother who had to grow up alongside her children, Georgia has dragged her teenage daughter, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), and adolescent son, Austin (Diesel La Torraca), around the country. Running away from her low-income upbringing, a long history of illegal pursuits, and the many people she used along the way, Georgia and the kids land in Wellsbury, Massachusetts. Georgia is far more brash than the people of Wellsbury are used to, but she makes a home for herself and the kids, while only occasionally utilizing her less ethical talents. Meanwhile, Ginny is still exploring where she fits as a mixed-race teen while trying to make friends, pursue romance, and keep an eye on her mother.
Like Father
Which is more dysfunctional? A father who ran out on his kid or his daughter who grew up to be a workaholic? Rachel (Kristen Bell) is wholly devoted to her job in advertising, even taking a work call up to the moment she’s supposed to be walking down the aisle to get married. Her fiancé calls the wedding off, realizing that if she can’t be present for their wedding, she’ll never be present in their relationship. It’s in this very low moment that Rachel sees her estranged father, Harry Hamilton (Kelsey Grammer), has shown up to her wedding. When Harry shows up later, offering Rachel a drink, she reluctantly agrees, leading to a drunken night that ends with her waking up on her honeymoon cruise, having somehow invited her father to join her. Stuck with each other, they have to navigate who they are to each other now and whether Rachel can forgive her father while acknowledging that she may be headed on a similarly unhealthy life path.
Little Brother
This raunchy comedy pushes the boundaries of who exactly constitutes family. New York City realtor Rudd (John Cena) is living a picture-perfect life with a beautiful home, a beautiful wife (Michelle Monaghan), and his own real estate reality TV series. Then he gets the kind of call everyone fears: his brother has been in a car accident. Except when he gets to the hospital, it isn’t his older brother, Josh (Christopher Meloni), he finds, but a relative stranger. Marcus (Eric André) was the “little brother” Rudd had through a volunteer program in high school, and clearly, he still considers Rudd “family.” With Marcus comes nothing but chaos, and Rudd’s well-orchestrated life is about to be completely upended.
May December
There are non-traditional relationship beginnings, and then there’s Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton). Twenty-three years into their relationship and married with three kids, any outsider might not believe the couple has a 23-year age gap and that Gracie went to prison when she was caught having sex with Joe when he was 13, and she was 36. An actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), comes to visit Gracie and Joe and observes their life together. She is set to play Gracie in an upcoming film and is fascinated by their dynamic and the inner workings of a woman who could fall in love with someone so young. A dark comedy, the film is a discomfiting look at a family built on a power imbalance and the stories each of them tells themselves to believe that the ends justify the means.
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Growing up and realizing just how flawed and human our parents are is an uncomfortable revelation. In this movie, three adult siblings, Danny (Adam Sandler), Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), and Matthew (Ben Stiller), are witnesses to their father’s waning notoriety as he ages. A once-revered sculptor, Harold (Dustin Hoffman), has put his work in front of his children for their entire lives, and now, in his old age, he is facing not only a decline in his own relevance but also a reliance on the children he didn’t prioritize. Meanwhile, they are grappling with the resentments they’ve harbored toward each other after a lifetime of their father pitting them against one another through his shifting preferential treatment. Throw in Emma Thompson as Maureen, Harold’s hippie fourth wife, and this is one tumultuous household.
Nobody Wants This
While the focus of this series is on the budding romance and relationship ups and downs of a sex podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), and a rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody), it’s the quirky families of both parties that elevate the show. Joanne hosts a podcast with her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), whom she’s both close to and yet competitive with, and both of them have to manage their divorced parents, one of whom came out as gay late in life. Meanwhile, Noah’s strict Jewish father and mother reject Joanne, as she’s outside their faith, but his brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) forms a friendship with Morgan, which upsets his wife Esther (Jackie Tohn). Navigating both family and faith presents any number of hilarious situations.
No Good Deed
Why settle for one dysfunctional family when you can have four, all revolving around a house for sale? In this dark comedy, Paul and Lydia Morgan (Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow) list their beautiful Los Feliz home for sale, hoping it will solve their financial problems and help them move past a major tragedy. Then there are their neighbors, the scheming Margo Starling (Linda Cardellini), who’s interested in their house for her own nefarious reasons, and her husband, JD Campbell (Luke Wilson), an out-of-work soap-opera actor. Then there is Carla (Teyonah Parris) and Dennis (O-T Fagbenle), an expecting couple who like the house but aren’t being fully honest with each other about what they need. Last is Leslie Fisher (Abbi Jacobson) and her spouse, Sarah (Poppy Liu), the former of whom is desperate to own the house, and the latter has a secret that will affect both their lives considerably. Nothing like the home-buying process to bring out the crazy in all of us.
Our Little Secret
It’s one thing to endure your own family at the holidays, and a whole other ball game to endure your significant other’s family. Especially when trying to make a good first impression. Avery (Lindsay Lohan) is meeting her boyfriend Cameron’s (Jon Rudnitsky) family for the first time. Eager to please, she’s immediately thrown off when she arrives to find her ex-boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding) is also there and is dating Cameron’s sister. Avery convinces Logan to keep their shared history a secret, but it’s hard to say which is harder, keeping the secret or making headway with Cameron’s controlling mother, Erica (Kristin Chenoweth). Forget presents, there are plenty of other surprises for the family to unpack this Christmas.
Parenthood
Depicting the realistic difficulties of being a parent and a partner, this 1989 comedy from Ron Howard features a large cast of stars playing an extended family grappling with various forms of parenting and marital trouble. Gil (Steve Martin) and Karen (Mary Steenburgen) grapple with raising children whose emotional imbalances require extra attention, plus they have a fourth child on the way. Gil’s sister Helen (Dianne Wiest) is divorced, worried about her teenage son’s mysterious behaviors, and trying to support her teenage daughter who is married and pregnant. Gil and Helen’s younger sister, Susan (Harley Jane Kozak), has one daughter and a husband obsessed with raising her to be a genius while oblivious to Susan’s desire for another child. The family navigates all their various life changes and insecurities, supporting each other along the way and showing that there’s no such thing as a “normal” family.
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