Grit & Glamour: TV for the Corporate Goth Unwind
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Dark Dramas for the Corporate Gothic Soul
Photo Credit: @benmyhre
After a long week of boardroom battles, what you need is a TV ritual that whispers of power and decay. These are the nights when corporate ladders don’t just rattle — they creak under the weight of intrigue and moral rot.
Each of these shows offers razor-sharp dialogue, luxury turned sinister, ambition pursued with velvet gloves — perfect for tuning out the daylight world and indulging in something beautifully dangerous.
Sirens
A dark comedy-limited series that dwells in social class and power dynamics as well as toxic employer-employee entanglements amidst extreme wealth.
Ballard
This procedural drama spins cold cases into uncoveries of corruption and institutional rot. It may not have mansions two-blocks long, but the corporate and policing entanglements, when exposed, are just as decadent and chilling.
The Studio
While more satirical, it captures the absurdity of commerce, prestige, image and compromise. When creative visions are crushed under profit motives, the glamour feels gritty — exactly the kind of tension a Corporate Goth lives for.
Succession
Corporate Gothic at its finest: razor-sharp dialogue, dynastic warfare, family dinners that feel like funerals. A cathedral of power plays and back-stabbing, where luxury becomes its own kind of coffin.
Mad Men
Set in the 1960s, archaic patriarchal office dynamics thrive with smoke curling around the corridors. Don Draper broods in shadows, while women like Joan and Peggy claw their way into power. A Corp Goth would sip a neat whiskey while taking notes.
Billions
Money, sex and manipulation clash in a high-stakes opera of finance. Every scene drips with power moves — perfect for a Corp Goth who wants their unwinding with a side of sadism and a well-tailored Tom Ford suit.
City on a Hill
Set in Boston’s corrupt justice system, the line between cop and criminal blurs into moral rot. Dark suits, darker souls — exactly the fuel a Corp Goth thrives on.
Ray Donovan
Hollywood’s fixer handles scandal and betrayal like he’s adjusting cufflinks. Brooding, brutal and quietly stylish, this one hums with the weight of sins swept under Persian rugs.
Better Call Saul
Law and manipulation with a slow-burn moral collapse. Jimmy McGill’s transformation into Saul Goodman is a Corp Goth’s meditation: ambition with no bottom, wit as sharp as a stiletto heel.
So tonight, dim the lights, crawl into something oversized — an enormous sweatshirt that swallows you in soft darkness, or those comfy PJs only reserved for moments when the outside world can’t peek in. Pull the hooded blanket up, clutch your skull-embossed crystal martini glass, vodka sharp or gin silken, and let those shows take over.
Because when power is glamorous and decay is beautiful, you deserve nothing less than immersive havoc from the comfort of your sanctuary.
Ready to surrender to the Corporate Goth unwind? Hit play, pour the drink, and let the darkness drape itself around you — you know you want to.
