Credit: Netflix

If you’re into high-end period dramas on Netflix, with ambitious figures driven by fierce determination to break free from social and historical stereotypes, who confront pressures and unconventional romance, you must have already caught up on The Doll.

Based on Polish author Bolesław Prus’s eponymous novel, the period drama follows self-made merchant Stanisław, determined to climb the social ladder by hook or crook, who also believes his obsessive infatuation with Izabela is an entry point into the world he wants to be the centre of. But whether Izabela is in the same boat as him is debatable.

While they develop a one-of-a-kind bond, supplemented by social divides and a desire for freedom that’s anything but the same, they are not the only period heroes to have confronted the harsh realities of time.

So, once you’re done with the Polish period drama, here are five Netflix shows to follow up with after The Doll.

Five Netflix shows to binge after The Doll

The Museum of Innocence (Zeynep Günay, 2025)

Despite the different cultures and eras – 19th-century Warsaw in The Doll versus 1970s Istanbul – the emotional and structural similarities between The Doll and The Museum of Innocence are unbelievably striking. In the period dramas, the male protagonists Stanisław Wokulski and Kemal descend a rabbit hole of obsession, falling into absolute, ruinous romantic fixations, and somehow both women remain partially out of reach.

Despite that conditioning, Stanisław and Kemal both construct idealistic projections of these women without ever considering who they are, who they want to be, and what they want from their respective lives. The Museum of Innocence, set against ‘70s Istanbul’s social upheaval and strict class divides, follows the wealthy bachelor whose forbidden affair with his distant teenage cousin spirals into obsession.

The Leopard (Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi, and Laura Luchetti, 2025)

Although Bolesław Prus’s The Doll and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard are set in different European demographies, they spotlight characters in a violently and rapidly changing society. Both stories centre on nobility: a vain Polish aristocracy and the fading Bourbon aristocracy, which has lost its economic roots and practical purpose, but not its pride, either on the brink of collapse or simply surviving on illusion, debt, and past status.

The six-episode historical drama, The Leopard, set in 1860 Italy, follows a Sicilian prince, Don Fabrizio Corbera, who must protect his family and prevent their legacy from going extinct by forming uneasy alliances and making difficult decisions, including the arrangement of a strategic marriage between his own ambitious nephew and the daughter of a rising local, wealthy mayor, knowing it would break the heart of someone close to home.

Bridgerton (Tom Verica, 2020-Present)

Another quintessential romantic period drama follow-up to The Doll, marked by high-society scandals, social hierarchies, slow-burn courtships, and forbidden romance, is undoubtedly the fan-favourite Bridgerton on Netflix. The Netflix Original series follows eight close-knit siblings of the noble Bridgerton family as they navigate love, life, and adventure in London high society during the 1800s.

Each season of Bridgerton shifts focus to a different sibling’s journey as they steer through the complex web of love, marriage, and happiness. But the most fun aspect? The period drama brings Lady Whistledown, a mysterious gossip columnist publishing the checkered scandal sheet of the Bridgerton family, from tracking to exposing secrets that not only go against the noble standards of the community but also the time they come from.

My Brilliant Career (Alyssa McClelland and Anne Renton, 2026)

Since we’re on a period-drama marathon after The Doll, My Brilliant Career becomes an organic must-watch on Netflix, serving as a powerful realist exploration of late-19th-century societal decay and personal frustration. The six-part Australian limited series follows a headstrong young woman, Sybylla Melvyn, as she fights for literary independence when her family pushes her to marry as she enters high society.

Coming from a struggling family, Sybylla is sent to live with her rich grandmother, not only to salvage their situation but to polish her for high society. Once there, instead of conforming to societal expectations and family pressure, Sybylla goes all out to fulfil her dream of becoming a writer while navigating complex choices between love, societal duty, and her creative freedom.

Lovesick (Catalina Aguilar Mastretta and Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz, 2026)

To wrap up the post-watch party for The Doll, we wholeheartedly recommend Lovesick, the newest Mexican period drama based on Angeles Mastretta’s novel. While both stories capture intense, emotionally consuming romantic entanglements, they each focus on how profoundly they alter the lives and decisions of the central characters. Set in Puebla around 1910, the Netflix series follows Emilia Sauri, who dreams of becoming a doctor.

Determined to pursue and practice medicine in a society that strictly discourages women from working, Lovesick centres on Emilia’s existential dilemma. Torn between two different men – Daniel, an adventurous, charismatic revolutionary and her childhood best friend, and Antonio, a steady, peace-seeking doctor who offers stability as opposed to the other’s untamed and impulsive nature.