Five Netflix shows to watch if you loved ‘North of North’
Everyone talks about starting over as though it’s some personal renaissance, but try doing it in a town where everyone around you knows your business before you’ve stepped out of the house. Sounds like a nightmare, right? Well, welcome to Netflix’s North of North.
Siaja (Anna Lambe) faces that predicament in Netflix’s comedy set in the fictional Nunavut community of Ice Cove, where the 26-year-old Inuk mum leaves her husband, Ting, and moves in with her mother, Neevee, alongside daughter Bun.
Season two has brought another helping of domestic pandemonium, with Siaja seeking greater responsibility at the community centre while trying to make sense of a half-sister she never knew existed.
For anyone who’s become invested in Siaja’s exasperating world, these five Netflix shows offer more characters discovering that independence is easier said than done.
Five Netflix shows to watch if you loved ‘North of North’
Workin’ Moms (2017-2023)
If you think Siaja has got her hands full in North of North, someone ought to introduce her to the women of Workin’ Moms, because these poor souls are trying to raise children while holding down careers and preserve whatever scraps of sanity motherhood hasn’t nicked off them yet. The Canadian comedy follows four Toronto mums, including PR executive Kate Foster (Catherine Reitman) and psychiatrist Anne Carlson (Dani Kind), who discover that returning to work after having kids is a whole different kettle of fish.
Created by Reitman, the seven-season sitcom makes an absolute meal of the chaos that comes with modern motherhood, with characters who make such questionable decisions that you might find them relatable and comforting. And that’s part of its charm, because much like North of North, it understands that women can be ambitious and selfish while being loving and an absolute shambles all at once. A fun yet very thoughtful take on motherhood.
Envious (2024-2026)
Vicky (Griselda Siciliani) has spent years watching her friends get hitched while her own boyfriend seems to have developed a severe allergy to marriage, and with her 40th birthday approaching, she’s had enough of this nonsense. In the Argentine comedy Envious, she gives him an ultimatum: put a ring on it or get lost. Well, that goes down like a lead balloon! With her relationship in tatters, Vicky launches herself into the dating scene, convinced that finding a husband will solve her problems. Just when we think an already deluded woman can’t get more.
If you loved North of North for Siaja’s drastic decision-making, meet Vicky, who jumps into it in pursuit of a better life, only to find herself in a right pickle. But unlike Siaja, Vicky’s biggest enemy is her own insecurity, and watching her make an absolute mess of her love life is comedy gold!
Leanne (2025-)
Thirty-three years of marriage, and one fine day your husband decides he’s had enough and runs off with another woman. What do you do? Before you get lost in the maze of thoughts, meet Leanne, who’s confronting the predicament of Netflix’s sitcom Leanne, where a Southern grandmother finds herself navigating singlehood at an age when she’d expected to have the whole marriage business sorted. And because no family crisis is complete without relatives sticking their oar in, her sister Carol becomes an indispensable part of the ensuing commotion.
Comedian Leanne Morgan drew inspiration from her stand-up for the series, which was co-created by sitcom veteran Chuck Lorre, and the result has that classic domestic humour that should appeal to North of North fans. Siaja might have walked out of her marriage by choice, while Leanne had hers fall apart without much say in the matter, but both soon discover that starting afresh is a right old headache, especially when you have a nosy family.
Kim’s Convenience (2016-2021)
Before Simu Liu was saving the world as Marvel’s Shang-Chi, he was getting an earful from his dad in Kim’s Convenience, and watching this beloved Netflix comedy will help you realise that fighting supervillains might have been the easier gig! Based on Ins Choi’s stage play, the Canadian sitcom follows a Korean immigrant family running a Toronto convenience store, where Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) has an opinion on just about everything, much to the frustration of his wife Umma (Jean Yoon) and their children Janet and Jung.
While North of North follows Siaja’s attempts to build a life beyond her marriage, Kim’s Convenience explores the headache of pursuing your own ambitions when your parents have other plans. There’s plenty of love beneath all the bickering, but you’d think asking for a bit of independence was a declaration of war!
Pernille (2021-2025)
If you enjoyed watching Siaja wrestle with motherhood and her own ambitions in North of North, you’ll have a soft spot for Pørni from Pernille, although her problems come with a bittersweet edge. But before that, someone needs to sit Pørni down and explain that she isn’t personally responsible for keeping the entire world from falling apart, because this poor woman hasn’t had a moment to herself in what feels like a lifetime!
In the Norwegian comedy-drama Pernille, creator Henriette Steenstrup plays a single mother raising two daughters and looking after her teenage nephew following her sister’s death, all while juggling a demanding job in child welfare. And as if her plate wasn’t full enough, her ageing father has decided to relive his teenage years. She has spent so much of her life putting everyone else first that wanting a bit of romance feels like asking for the moon.