The 11 Most Addictive TV Shows About High Society Scandal
Glamorous settings, deeply flawed people – these are the juiciest shows about socialites behaving very, very badly.
If box offices and streaming services have revealed anything recently, it’s that we can’t get enough of watching the ridiculous antics of the super rich. Being a fly on the wall as cutthroat business deals are made, fortunes are flaunted to excess and people scheme their way through marriages, friendships, and PR disasters is utterly gripping – not to mention the schadenfreude of watching them fall from grace.
A few class satires have made waves in cinemas in the past few years, like The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, Parasite and Saltburn. But the small screen is just as savage, with TV shows that expose (and exaggerate) the glamour, greed, and dysfunction of life at the top.
1. Succession
Where Can I Watch It? HBO Max
We’re starting the list with arguably the crown jewel of all series about high society scandal. Nothing says drama like billionaire siblings backstabbing each other in $10,000 suits, and Succession delivers it in spades. A Shakespearean power struggle that follows the ultra-wealthy Roy family as their three heirs – Kendall, Shiv, and Roman – do whatever it takes to win their father’s favour and climb the corporate ranks. It's hard to decide which morally bankrupt decision was the worst in the show’s four season run – but one thing’s for sure: they’re all painfully watchable. If there was ever a testament to the cliché ‘money can’t buy happiness’ – it’s Succession.
2. The White Lotus
Where Can I Watch It? Apple TV+ and HBO Max
Some people go on holiday to unwind. Others go to completely unravel. Across three addictive seasons – one set in Hawaii, one in Sicily, and one in Thailand – The White Lotus dissects the lives of the ultra-privileged and lays bare their insecurities, delusions, and resentments. It’s a murder mystery, sure, but the real carnage comes from the passive-aggressive dialogue swapped over Aperol spritzes and poolside power plays. It’s a clever satire that comments on the lies and tension that so often plagues the lives of the uber-wealthy, keeping you guessing – and cringing – until the very last episode.
3. Gossip Girl
Where Can I Watch It? 9Now, Netflix, HBO Max and Stan (original series); HBO Max (reboot)
Before Instagram stories and TikTok exposés, there was Gossip Girl – the OG digital menace whispering secrets about Manhattan’s most elite and poorly parented prep schoolers. The clothes were outrageous, the betrayals constant, and the emotional intelligence at sub-zero. Whether you're watching the beloved original series or the glossy Gen Z reboot, the formula remains the same: rich kids behaving horribly in very expensive clothes.
4. Revenge
Where Can I Watch It? Disney+
With a title like Revenge, subtlety isn’t really the point. This soapy thriller drops a mysterious blonde into the Hamptons with one goal: burn the place down (metaphorically, but also sometimes literally). What follows is a delicious cycle of blackmail, manipulation, and couture gowns fluttering in the coastal breeze – think The Count of Monte Cristo by way of Vogue. It’s outrageously over-the-top, and just when you think it can’t get more dramatic – it always does.
5. Empire
Where Can I Watch It? Disney+
Empire doesn’t just bring the drama, it belts it out in full voice. Another Shakespearean family epic à la Succession, public feuds and family betrayals play out like a hip-hop King Lear – only with more fur coats and diamonds and fewer scruples. Lucious and Cookie Lyon built an empire, but it’s their children’s battle to inherit it that brings the real heat. The only thing more extra than the plot twists is the high-glam fashion. It’s wild, messy, and impossible to look away, just like the family at its centre.
6. Industry
Where Can I Watch It? HBO Max
There are office dramas, and then there’s Industry — a visceral plunge into London’s finance world, where 22-year-olds go from hungover interns to emotionally hollowed-out investment sharks in record time. Money talks, but so does class, race, and privilege, all baked into a world where one wrong move means being iced out before your lunch break. Watch this if you don't mind feeling deeply stressed (but completely hooked) while watching TV.
7. The Righteous Gemstones
Where Can I Watch It? HBO Max
Imagine if Succession's Roy family ran a megachurch and were even less subtle about their vices. That’s The Righteous Gemstones – a wildly unhinged comedy about a family of televangelists who preach purity while behaving like mafia-lite grifters behind the scenes. It’s a show where blackmail and betrayal are served alongside Sunday service, and somehow, it only gets more unholy by the episode.
8. Billions
Where Can I Watch It? Stan
Billions is the kind of show where people sip $300 scotch while plotting career assassinations, and that’s before the opening credits. What starts as a cat-and-mouse chase between a hedge fund king and a U.S. Attorney spirals into a dense web of shifting allegiances, ego duels, and obscene displays of wealth. It's not satire exactly so don't expect the same level of nuanced social commentary as other titles on this list, but it's self-aware enough to know how absurd these people are – and leans into it hard.
9. WeCrashed
Where Can I Watch It? Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+
Before “tech bro” became shorthand for millennial megalomania, there was Adam Neumann. WeCrashed charts his rise and spectacular fall as WeWork’s co-founder, alongside his wellness-obsessed wife Rebekah, played with chilling self-belief by Anne Hathaway. It’s less of a cautionary tale and more a slow-motion car crash you can’t look away from – ambition, delusion, and avocado toast all included.
10. Riches
Where Can I Watch It? Amazon Prime Video
For such an expertly-acted and well-written TV show, this one is still woefully underrated. When the head of a British beauty empire dies unexpectedly, his family (both legitimate and secret) descend into chaos. Riches delivers sleek boardrooms, generational grudges, and brand warfare with the energy of a high-fashion soap opera. It’s a sharp, fast-paced series that doesn’t just look good – it knows exactly what it’s doing.
11. Call My Agent!
Where Can I Watch It? Netflix
In Call My Agent!, the most ruthless players in Paris aren’t politicians or financiers – they’re talent agents. This behind-the-scenes dramedy at a boutique agency pulls back the curtain on celebrity ego, and the kind of office politics that could only fly in an industry fuelled by cosmetic charm and crisis management. Despite its high-strung setting, it remains witty, warm, and never too self-serious – even when the stars represented by the agency absolutely are.
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