For a long time, Gilmore Girls was the gold standard of cozy, character-driven drama on television. The story of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), dealing with life in the charming small town of Stars Hollow, built a dedicated fanbase that still holds the show close to heart decades after it first aired. Several shows have tried to replicate what Gilmore Girls was able to achieve, but most attempts do not come close.
However, one series that has been quietly growing on Netflix for a few years now might actually be the closest thing audiences have found to scratching that itch. This show has been growing its audience season by season since it first launched on Netflix back in 2020. And it has now officially crossed into its fifth season, which premiered on June 11.
That show is Sweet Magnolias — and according to FlixPatrol, it is currently sitting in the Netflix Top 10 in 30+ countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, and more. For a comfort drama, cracking the Top 10 on launch day is not unusual since the built-in fanbase tends to show up immediately. However, holding those positions consistently for an entire week and across 30+ countries simultaneously is much harder to pull off.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
What Is ‘Sweet Magnolias’ About?
At its core, Sweet Magnolias is a wholesome romantic drama centered around three lifelong best friends named Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott), and Helen (Heather Headley). The show follows them as they deal with the familiar ups and downs of life, including career ambitions, family dynamics, messy romances, and the kind of gossip that only comes with living in a small, tight-knit Southern community. That community is Serenity, South Carolina, and it functions much like Stars Hollow does in Gilmore Girls, where everyone knows everyone and every personal win or stumble becomes a town-wide event.
What separates Sweet Magnolias from many shows in its lane is that critics have actually gotten behind it. Comfort romance dramas tend to be really popular with audiences, but are often dismissed by reviewers. That is not the case here. The series holds an overall critics’ score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes alongside a 66% audience score, and Season 4 even received a perfect 100% critic rating.
Sweet Magnolias is available to stream on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
