A Viewer's Companion
Eighty-five great shows.
Eighty-five confusing casts.
All untangled.
If you get as confused as I do about who's related to whom and what characters' names and roles are, then this site is for you.
Pick a show. Fair warning: each chart contains spoilers through the seasons it covers.
HBO
House of the Dragon
One family, two crowns — and everyone is named Aegon.
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HBO
Game of Thrones
Five kings, two secrets, one throne.
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HBO
Succession
Four heirs, three wives, and a cousin nobody can place.
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Netflix
The Crown
Same family, new faces every two seasons.
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Paramount
Yellowstone
One ranch, six Duttons — half of them not blood at all.
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ITV · PBS
Downton Abbey
Three daughters, no male heir — enter a distant cousin.
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BBC · Netflix
Peaky Blinders
Five siblings, and the aunt everyone mistakes for their mother.
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Starz
Outlander
Two husbands, two centuries, one face shared by hero and villain.
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Netflix
Bridgerton
Eight siblings named A to H — and a gossip queen in plain sight.
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HBO
The Sopranos
Two families — only one of them related by blood.
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NBC
This Is Us
One family, three timelines, three faces per person.
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ABC
Modern Family
One patriarch, three front doors, and a stepmother younger than his daughter.
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Fox · Netflix
Arrested Development
Three Georges, two Lucilles, one banana stand.
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Netflix
The Umbrella Academy
Seven adopted siblings, numbered instead of named.
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History
Vikings
Two wives, five sons, one monk — and every throne in sight.
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Netflix
Dark
The show fans watched with a family tree open in another tab.
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HBO
The Righteous Gemstones
A megachurch dynasty — and yes, Baby Billy really is their uncle.
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FX · Hulu
Shōgun
Five regents, one heir, and the lady with a dangerous name.
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Netflix
Ozark
The launderers, the Langmores, and the Snells.
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FX · Hulu
The Bear
Cousin Richie is not a cousin. Uncle Jimmy is not an uncle.
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CBS
Blue Bloods
Four generations of cops, one dinner table, one secret grandson.
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NBC
Parenthood
Four households, one Berkeley backyard, two people named Zeek.
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HBO
The Gilded Age
Old money, new money, and the street between them.
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Showtime
The Tudors
Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.
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Netflix
The Last Kingdom
Saxon by blood, Dane by upbringing — one man, two families.
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Paramount+
1923
The missing link in the Dutton family line.
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Netflix
Wednesday
The Addams family, plus everyone at Nevermore.
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FX
Sons of Anarchy
Hamlet on Harleys — one dead father, two families.
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ABC
Grey's Anatomy
Two half-sisters, one from each parent. It gets worse from there.
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Netflix
Stranger Things
Hawkins' families — and the numbered kids from the lab.
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Netflix
The Witcher
A child of destiny and the bloodline everyone wants.
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Apple TV+
Severance
Sixteen faces, twenty-two people — every innie and outie, straight.
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Netflix
The Fall of the House of Usher
Six heirs, five mothers, one raven at the door.
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Fox
Empire
Seventeen years, three sons, one company.
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Showtime
Yellowjackets
Every survivor is two actors, twenty-five years apart.
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The CW · Netflix
Dynasty
Two Cristals, two Adams, and a mother with three faces.
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ABC
Lost
Half the "strangers" on Flight 815 were secretly family.
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The CW
Gossip Girl
Step-siblings dating, secret sons, and one anonymous blogger.
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Freeform
Pretty Little Liars
Twin mothers, secret Drakes, and an evil British double.
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ABC
Desperate Housewives
Five perfect lawns, five buried secrets.
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HBO
Big Little Lies
Monterey's first-grade class, and what the parents did.
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HBO
The White Lotus
Three resorts, three bodies — and one man checked into all of them.
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NBC · Netflix
Manifest
Flight 828 landed 5½ years late — the twins aren't twins anymore.
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Netflix
Outer Banks
Pogues, Kooks, and the treasure that keeps making orphans.
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Showtime
The Borgias
The Holy Father's family tree.
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Peacock
Love Island USA
Five couples on night one, six recouplings, one Casa Amor.
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ITV2 · Hulu
Love Island UK
Forty-eight days, eight recouplings, one Casa Amor.
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Netflix
Love Is Blind
Five engagements made through a wall — and what each person said on the wedding day.
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ABC
The Bachelor
Not a family tree — a bracket: twenty-five women, one rose at a time.
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ABC
The Bachelorette
Twenty-five men, nine weeks, one rose at the end.
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ABC
Bachelor in Paradise
The franchise's messiest beach: who paired with whom, and who swapped.
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ABC
The Golden Bachelor
Twenty-three women, eight weeks — who was still standing when.
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Netflix
The Ultimatum
Six couples arrive. Everyone moves in with somebody else’s partner.
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Netflix
Perfect Match
Twenty reality-show alumni in one villa, coupling and re-coupling.
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Lifetime
Married at First Sight
Matched by experts, married at first sight, judged on Decision Day.
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Paramount+
1883
Where the Dutton wagon train began.
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Paramount+
MobLand
The Harrigans, the Stevensons, and the fixer between them.
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Netflix
House of Guinness
Four heirs to the brewery, one will.
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HBO
Six Feet Under
The family business is death — the family tree is the hard part.
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AMC
Mad Men
Two names, three families, and the dead man whose life he's living.
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CBS
Dallas
Barnes v. Ewing: one ranch, four sons, one famous gunshot.
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AMC
Breaking Bad
One family cooks, the in-laws investigate.
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AMC
Better Call Saul
One man, three names — and every last Salamanca.
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Showtime
Shameless
Six kids, one Frank, and half the South Side in the kitchen.
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The WB
Gilmore Girls
Two Lorelais, one small town, and every boy in between.
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The WB
One Tree Hill
One father, two sons, three months apart.
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Fox
The O.C.
One kid from Chino, two feuding families, one patriarch.
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The WB
7th Heaven
Seven kids, one parsonage — every Camden, in order.
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ABC
Brothers & Sisters
Dad died in the pilot — his secret family didn't.
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The CW
Riverdale
Two feuding families, one bloodline, a town full of secrets.
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The CW
The Vampire Diaries
Salvatores, Gilberts, and doppelgängers all the way down.
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The CW
The Originals
Seven siblings, one stolen city, a thousand years of grudges.
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The CW
Supernatural
Two brothers, one Impala, and the family business.
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The WB
Charmed
Three sisters, one Book of Shadows, a tree full of secrets.
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Netflix
Cobra Kai
LaRussos, Lawrences, and whose kid trains where.
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Prime Video
The Summer I Turned Pretty
One beach house, two families, a girl between two brothers.
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FX
The Americans
Two travel agents, four families, and the FBI man across the street.
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FX
Snowfall
One family is blood, one is a crew, and the third is a government.
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Netflix
Ginny & Georgia
Two kids, two fathers, three husbands — and a mother who's been someone else.
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Netflix
Firefly Lane
Two houses on one street, thirty years, four actors playing two women.
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Starz
Power
A kingpin, his wife, the brother who isn't one, and the prosecutor.
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Prime Video
The Rings of Power
Two brothers, one immortal and one not — and every king who came after.
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Netflix
Virgin River
A town of six hundred where every baby's paternity is a plot twist.
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Netflix
The Haunting of Hill House
Five children, two timelines, one house that keeps what it takes.
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Netflix
Queen Charlotte
Two timelines, one court — and half the cast is played twice.
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