Every year, staff and regular contributors at Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, nominate TV series for Greater Goodies, awards given to stories that exemplify or illustrate kindness, community, empathy, and more keys to well-being. Here’s what they came up with this year: Chef’s Table, Dying for Sex, Forever, The Great British Baking Show, Loot, A Man on the Inside, Nobody Wants This, The Pitt, The Residence, Stick, and Supacell.
The Food and Belonging Award: Chef’s Table (Netflix)
The docuseries Chef’s Table (and its spinoffs) offers a captivating look into the lives and culinary passions of renowned chefs from around the world.
Its latest Chef’s Table spinoff focuses on noodles. Through the stories of four chefs hailing from diverse backgrounds—Italy, the United States, Cambodia, and China—the series illuminates the profound connections between food, identity, and well-being. Far from just being high in carbs, noodles emerge as vessels for cultural expression, family traditions, material well-being, and personal fulfillment.
The profound connection between food and a sense of belonging is the series’s key theme. For many of the chefs, cooking allows them to maintain a deep connection to their roots, regardless of where life has taken them. Restaurants provide immigrants with a taste of home, satisfying a yearning for the familiar flavors and rituals.
For them (and for many of the people who eat what they make), food becomes a direct tie to one’s foundation, offering a pathway to authenticity. The true strength of Chef’s Table lies in its ability to transcend the mere mechanics of cooking. It invites viewers to reflect on their relationships with food, and how preparing a beloved dish can foster feelings of authenticity and creativity, along with familial and social bonds.
Whether you’re a seasoned foodie or a casual viewer, this series serves up a feast for the senses and the soul. — Michelle Beadle Holder
The Mindfulness Award: Dying for Sex (Hulu)
Dying for Sex is about a woman with terminal cancer who unapologetically pursues erotic pleasure. But it’s so much more than that. Molly (Michelle Williams) is also tentatively stepping toward a fuller attunement to self—to her physical desires, sensations, and emotions.
“I want to feel things,” she says. “I’m just trying to figure out who I am.”
As a victim of sexual assault at seven years old, she’s caged her feelings for years. Faced with the end, she approaches her own desires with non-judgmental curiosity and glee, leaning into what feels good and right for her, both physically and psychologically.
Yet her journey is shadowed with complications. Her body is breaking down. Her cancer treatments are enervating. And her assault flashbacks haunt her as she tiptoes toward a fully engaged intimacy with her neighbor. (“Breathe, just breathe,” she tells herself.)
Molly’s best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) cheerleads Molly’s journey with humor, vicarious joy, and selflessness. Yet Molly can be emotionally inaccessible, impulsive, and intensely (even desperately) focused on herself. Nikki’s capacity to graciously hold space for Molly’s evolving needs is both touching and painful to watch.
What does it mean to be a fully embodied presence within ourselves—but also relationally? How do we gently hold our own hearts while dancing lovingly with each other? Those are the tough questions this show tackles with a compassion we should all embrace. — Amy L. Eva
The Self-Discovery Award: Forever (Netflix)
Forever is a coming-of-age series reimagined and adapted from the 1975 Judy Blume novel by the same name. The main characters, Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), come from different socioeconomic environments, but they share a common reality as Black teens trying to navigate their identity in predominantly white spaces, with both attending private schools in Los Angeles.
Keisha is a stellar student and track star with her sights set on attending Howard University. She is raised by her supportive and fiercely protective mother, Shelly, who is determined to improve their financial situation. Justin is a basketball player who struggles academically because he has ADHD, raised in a supportive upper-middle-class family by his dad Eric and slightly overbearing mom, Dawn.
Keisha and Justin meet at a party and connect instantly. Throughout the series, they navigate the experience of a first love and all of the complexities that come with it. But the magic of this series isn’t just the tenderness of the love story, it’s how their relationship catalyzes their independent path of self-discovery. As they unpack who they are, Keisha tackles a past trauma of a leaked sex tape and Justin finds the courage to break away from his parents’ expectations and to pursue his passion for music.
They remind us that we are who we say we are, not who others say we are or what others want us to be. The second season will be released sometime in late 2026. — Shanna B. Tiayon
The Humility Award: The Great British Baking Show (Netflix, USA) aka The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4, U.K.)
The Great British Baking Show (GBBS) brings together 12 of the best home bakers from across the U.K. to compete in weekly challenges. It is not enough to make something delicious; cakes and biscuits (cookies!) must have original flavors, be works of art, and be prepared in a limited amount of time.
It’s a fierce competition, and the bakers want to win. They sweat and cry. They plead with their doughs to rise and curse when their soufflés fall. But more than anything, they laugh.
Unlike other high-pressure cooking shows à la Hell’s Kitchen or Iron Chef, each week GBBS welcomes us into a supportive and creative space where anyone can be a star baker. The charm and relatability of this show come from its humility. Contestants are hairdressers, engineers, and teachers who bake, not professionally, but in home kitchens. They have different backgrounds and all types of bodies, hearts, and minds. They make loads of mistakes and miss their loved ones back home. They are just like you and me—and just happen to be very good at baking.
In many ways, GBBS is more about listening to feedback, honoring growth, and making friends than it is about winning. Each week, some of the contestants excel and some of them fail. But no matter what, there is always an air of levity and joy in the tent. The contestants’ laughter, celebration, and care for each other reflect a group of people who don’t take themselves too seriously, and that kind of humility can be refreshing and inspiring.
Season 16 of The Great British Baking Show kicked off on September 2. On your marks, get set, bake! — Sarah Bracken
The Generosity Award: Loot (Apple TV)
We’ve all heard that money can’t buy happiness, but what if giving away money can?
In many ways, this is the idea that the show Loot seeks to test out. Molly Novak (played by Maya Rudolph) learns that her husband, a tech billionaire, is having an affair. After the divorce, she finds herself with $87 billion from her settlement, which she begins to spend on partying. Later, when she’s starting to feel a bit adrift and lost, she decides to get involved in the day-to-day running of the charitable foundation she founded, somewhat to the chagrin of the staff.
According to psychological research, Molly’s decision to get involved in charitable giving is a smart idea: People who spend money on others report greater happiness than those who spend money on themselves. In addition, research suggests that helping others is linked to feeling a greater sense of meaning in life. Findings from positive psychology also suggest that Molly probably benefitted more from getting directly involved in the foundation than she would have by simply handing over cash: Studies have found that we’re more likely to experience benefits from helping others when we feel connected with those we’re helping and when we see how our donations make an impact.
While her efforts aren’t without (often-hilarious) missteps, over the course of the show Molly begins to grapple with the ethics of being a billionaire—and how she can most effectively use her wealth to help others. If you want to catch up on Molly’s adventures, the first two seasons of Loot are streaming on Apple TV—and a third starts October 15. — Elizabeth Hopper
The Gentleness Award: A Man on the Inside (Netflix)
There’s a moment in A Man on the Inside that to me epitomizes the entire series.
Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson) is a retired engineering professor who lost his wife to Alzheimer’s. After he’s recruited by a private detective to infiltrate the Pacific View Retirement Community in order to find missing jewelry, he’s taken on a tour of the facility. There he’s shown the memory care unit and asked if he’d like to see inside.
“No, thank you,” says Charles, and turns away.
Why is this significant? Because you can see the unspeakable pain in Charles’s eyes and indeed his entire body (Danson hits this role out of the park), but he’s too gracious and contained to make a display of himself. That’s the method and magic of the series: to acknowledge the terrible realities of aging and illness without being dragged down by them.
A Man on the Inside was created by the same team that made The Good Place (which is pretty much the greatest Greater Good show of all time), and it shows. The two series share a tone, one that tackles human complexity with kindly humor and compassion. The characters, to be sure, aren’t always gentle with each other—but the writers, directors, and actors seem to look upon their flaws and foibles with understanding and tenderness.
For this series, that brand of gentleness goes hand in hand with community. People approaching the end of their lives need each other, and, ideally, they would treat each other with the same kindliness A Man on the Inside invites us to feel. While that might be especially true in communities like Pacific View, it perhaps should be a way of life for people of all ages to embrace. You can watch the second season starting on November 20! — Jeremy Adam Smith
The Romantic Bridging Differences Award: Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
What happens when a sex podcaster and a rabbi meet at a party?
The chemistry is palpable, but Joanne (Kristen Bell) is not merely a gentile and agnostic; in the words of her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), she is “sort of a bad person relative to a man of God.” The sisters host a fairly explicit podcast wherein they share personal details about their dating escapades. Meanwhile, Noah (Adam Brody) eagerly hopes to become head rabbi of his temple, which (he is told) means he can’t marry a non-Jew.
Although they both make some moves to hide their differences from each other, it’s striking—when compared to other drama-filled TV romances—how much they eventually do reveal and communicate. Joanne admits right away that she doesn’t believe in God, and she is unashamed about being so open on her podcast, or even in front of Noah’s conservative parents. For his part, Noah makes it clear how important his religion is to him and, after a bit of fumbling, how much of a predicament he faces in dating her.
They also show a good deal of respect and curiosity for each other: Noah listens to Joanne’s podcast and implements some of her vulnerability in his work with couples; Joanne is clearly moved by many of the Jewish traditions Noah shares.
The show highlights how we might be tempted to sweep our differences under the rug—to hide the parts of ourselves that could create tension and conflict in relationships. But that only makes us lose ourselves, as Joanne discovers. The way to truly connect is if we show up authentically, even if it means navigating uncomfortable conversations…even if it might mean the end of the relationship. The second season comes out on October 23. — Kira M. Newman
The Teamwork Award: The Pitt (HBO Max)
HBO’s emergency-room drama The Pitt is a harsh portrait of a society in crisis. Inequality, mental illness, political polarization, gun violence, medical disinformation—these issues (and many more) are the stuff of every blood-soaked episode.
I watched it with my partner Angela, who is an ER doctor. Her verdict? The Pitt is spot on (if exaggerated for the sake of drama). But when I asked her what human strength or virtue the show highlighted, her answer surprised me: teamwork.
“Everyone’s really different from each other, but they all have something to offer,” she told me. And it’s true, I realized: In The Pitt, each character has strengths and weaknesses, and part of every episode involves finding a way for their constellation of traits to fit together in order to save lives.
This teamwork usually involves interlocking skills and diverse backgrounds, but there’s an emotional component, as well. That’s difficult to discuss without spoilers, but I’ll risk one example: The arc of the entire first season involves the ER’s chief, Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), going from a middle-aged pillar of strength and wisdom to a wrecked mess, as he’s gradually overwhelmed by stress and trauma.
That’s the point at which 26-year-old medical student Whitaker (Gerran Howell) swoops in to offer unexpectedly kind, tough words. The young man paraphrases Dr. Robby’s speech to the med students from earlier that day: “A wise man once told me that you learn to live with it, learn to accept it, and find balance if you can.” The patients need you, Whitaker tells Dr. Robby, so get back to work.
The Pitt can be exhausting. There is no holding back, in both the realities of the medical procedures and of human behavior. But Angela’s right: I’ve rarely seen such a splendid depiction of how humans can save each other when we learn to cooperate across differences. The second season of The Pitt will premiere in January 2026. — Jeremy Adam Smith
The Patient Perseverance Award: The Residence (Netflix)
The Residence is a classic whodunit set against a global political background. The archetypical quirky, brilliant detective, Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), doesn’t just solve tough mysteries—she’s also an avid birder. The crime she’s tasked to investigate is a death at the White House.
She’s under unrelenting pressure to solve the case fast. First to release the attendees of a state dinner for the Australian Prime Minister, sequestered overnight for questioning, then by presidential staff who want to minimize the public scandal of the death.
The FBI wants to quickly rule it a suicide, but Cupp doesn’t rush, taking a deep dive (with the occasional break to birdwatch) into all aspects of the case over an extended period of time. Cupp has to navigate through a group of self-interested suspects to unpack the truth of what happened. The big break comes during a birding trip to the Amazon—and when Cupp returns, she overcomes mockery to make her case.
In the end, her wit, unique approach, and curiosity win out. Her belief in herself and her perseverance encourage us all to stay the course to navigating challenges, because not all solutions are fast and not everybody will understand the pathway to the solution. — Shanna B. Tiayon
The Friendship Award: Stick (Apple TV)
Hollywood sports narratives are often all about the big events: the training montage, the plot-twisting losses, the grand-finale victory. Stick, a comedy about golf, certainly has all of that. But the scenes that stay with you most are the quiet small moments that can create connection.
Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson) is a washed-up former golf pro, a man-child eking out a living selling golf equipment, until he happens upon Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager), a teen phenom with an awesome swing. Pryce convinces Santi to compete on the golf circuit. Soon, they’re traveling from tournament to tournament in an RV driven by Pryce’s longtime friend and former caddy, Mitts (Marc Maron). Also along for the ride are Santi’s mom (Mariana Trevino) and Zero (Lilli Kay), who eventually becomes Santi’s caddy and love interest.
It’s a motley crew of strangers learning to trust each other as they also struggle to become better humans. Missteps ensue. But eventually, trust grows in spite of those, thanks to the connections built on the ordinary interactions happening on any given day—whether it’s shopping for golf equipment, hanging in the locker room, or playing pickleball.
“The best part about the past eight weeks wasn’t the golf,” Pryce tells Santi, who at one point comes close to quitting the game forever. “It was the pickleball. And not just the pickleball…I mean, Mitt’s cooking, us all sitting around laughing and telling stories and throwing marshmallows at each other, and playing slapjack,” he says. “You are my friend and that’s got nothing to do with how well you swing a golf club. That’s just how we met.” — Joanne Chen
The Turning-Adversity-Into-a-Superpower Award: Supacell (Netflix)
The British series Supacell takes place in South London, featuring five characters who have one thing in common: They all carry a mutated sickle cell trait called the supacell. Sickle cell affects an estimated 90,000 African Americans and 15,000 Black Brits, but the series focuses less on the disease’s chronic pain and more on the fantastical superpowers their cells unleash.
Michael (Tosin Cole), for example, is a delivery driver and devoted boyfriend. When his life is threatened, he freezes time and teleports. Tazer (Josh Tedeku) is the leader of the Tower Boys gang by day and respectful grandson who lives with his grandmother by night who discovers that he can make himself invisible. In a rush to make a drug deal, Rodney (Calvin Demba) overshoots his destination and runs to Scotland in seconds, revealing his super speed. Andre (Eric Kofi Abrefa) is frustrated about his challenges in finding a job due to his criminal record. But when he punches an ATM machine, his super strength comes alive (along with an outpouring of money from the ATM). And when a nurse, Sabrina (Nadine Mills), finds out her boyfriend is cheating, she throws him to the ground with telekinetic power.
Each of the characters come into their power due to personal despair or a direct threat. While initially the characters attempt to use their powers to solve their individual problems, ultimately they decide to team up to fight the forces that aim to exploit their powers for evil. The series takes a medical condition that is disproportionate among Black people and turns it into something serendipitous and powerful—and through this metaphor, reminds us that sometimes we can turn adversity into power. While a second season of Supacell is happening, it’s doesn’t yet have a release date.— Shanna B. Tiayon
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