For the past 21 months, Taylor Swift has been shifting pop music and culture with The Eras Tour – a concert tour she concluded on December 8 in Vancouver, Canada. As someone who was lucky enough to attend one of her Wembley Stadium dates in London, I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m going to miss opening TikTok and seeing which songs she chooses for the surprise acoustic set, but thanks to the best streaming services the Taylor Swift fever doesn’t have to end.
In the wake of the final Eras Tour date, I’ve swept all the major platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Prime Video to combine a list of movies and shows that appreciate Taylor just like you do. Each of my seven picks shed light on some of the singer’s most popular songs, as well as bringing attention to her deeper cuts that reflect different stages of love, heartbreak, and self-growth.
With my list, you can ease your way out of your post-Eras Tour depression with small doses of Swift from the best Netflix shows, best Prime Video shows, and more. Just don’t fall into the trap of ‘accidentally’ watching Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie for the one hundredth time – I’ll plead guilty to that.
The Bear
Where to stream: Hulu (US); Disney Plus (UK and AU)
Easily one of the best Hulu shows, The Bear has risen to the top as a popular favorite among viewers for a multitude of reasons. Maybe you enjoy it for the depth of its writing or powerful acting performances, but one of my favorite aspects of the show is the up-and-down relationship between Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Richie (Ebon Moss- Bachrach) – and who would’ve thought that Richie would be a secret Swiftie.
Taylor Swift gets not one, but two mentions across the show’s three seasons, the first one being in the ‘Forks’ episode in season two. Sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, Richie belts the lyrics to ‘Love Story’ from her album Fearless after completing a period of training at a fine dining restaurant – an experience that marks a personal transformation and maturation of his character.
But it doesn’t end there. In the season three episode ‘Violet’, Swift’s song ‘Long Live’ from the Speak Now album plays in the background of a conversation between Richie and his ex-wife’s new partner, to whom he shows great respect as he prepares to accept him as stepfather to his daughter.
Heartstopper
Where to stream: Netflix (US, UK and AU)
It was only a matter of time before Heartstopper included a Taylor Swift ballad in with its soundtrack, which isn’t a bad collection of songs I will say. In the season two finale after a cliché, yet still romantic school trip to Paris, the young couples are in that stage of romance where feelings are growing stronger and a certain three-word phrase is spoken for the first time.
While the show’s leading couple, Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor), are still coming to terms with their feelings Darcy and Tara finally reach the ‘I love you’ stage which sets the queue for Swift’s song ‘Seven’ from Folklore. A song that’s rooted in reminiscing in childhood memories and innocence, it’s the perfect song to not only bring the second season to a close but marks the beginning of the next chapter for the young romance.
Bridgerton
Where to stream: Netflix (US, UK and AU)
Of all the best Netflix shows, Bridgerton (executive produced by Shonda Rimes) is no stranger to a carefully curated soundtrack, but what sets it apart from other shows is its classical and orchestral renditions of modern pop songs. It’s covered Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Madonna and of course, Taylor Swift.
In Bridgerton, Taylor Swift enters her Regency era (I had to) on three separate occasions. The first being in the very first season, where steamy romance and honeymoon scenes between the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) are set to a string ensemble of ‘Wildest Dreams’ from 1989. However the most recent season features two covers of Swift; ‘You Belong With Me’ from Fearless, and ‘Snow On The Beach’ from Midnights.
Grey’s Anatomy
Where to stream: Hulu, Netflix (US); Disney Plus (UK and AU)
That’s right, the longest-running scripted primetime series has two different connections to Taylor Swift, but only one of them is music related. Not only is Grey’s Anatomy Taylor Swift’s favorite TV show of all time to the extent where it has inspired the names of her cats, but a two-part premiere special features another song from Fearless.
Season five’s two-part premiere episodes, Swift’s guitar and piano ballad ‘White Horse’ plays as the show’s characters Cristina and Owen share a first kiss. For a song that Swift herself has stated recalls ‘falling in love and the fairy tales that you are going to have with this person’, it sets the tone excellently.
It Ends With Us (2024)
Where to stream: Netflix (US)
A recent addition to Netflix’s library, It Ends With Us had a theatrical release earlier this year so its cinema-to-streaming transition has happened rather smoothly. I admit that the trailer for this movie didn’t do enough to entice me – that’s until ‘My Tears Ricochet’ from Folklore made an appearance, and I immediately bought my ticket.
While I found the movie’s depiction of domestic abuse was executed rather poorly, that’s not to say that the movie’s music cues were off. Swift’s song about an “embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of obsession” plays as protagonist Lily (Blake Lively) deals with the aftermath of separating from her abusive husband while heavily pregnant.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Where to stream: Prime Video (US, UK and AU)
Prime Video’s romance drama The Summer I Turned Pretty wins the Swiftie competition by a landslide, featuring a whopping 14 songs across its two seasons as well as bonus songs ‘August’ and ‘Back to December’ featured in its teasers and trailers. I guess you could call it Taylor Swift: The Unauthorized Musical.
The best part about the show’s appreciation for Swift is that it doesn’t resort to one or two different albums, but includes songs from seven different albums, thus highlighting the different stages of love and heartbreak. For a coming-of-age romance set in the present day, can you blame the show’s creator Jenny Han for tapping into Swift’s discography?
Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020)
Where to stream: Disney Plus (US, UK and AU)
At least one of the entries in my list had to feature Taylor herself, and while I could’ve easily chosen her 2019 Netflix documentary Miss Americana or the more obvious Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) movie. But her live concert and documentary hybrid movie from 2020 sits on top for me – and I even gave it a mention in my list of favorite music movies.
When Swift surprise-released Folklore in the summer of 2020, it saw a shift in the way she approached her song writing and how she collaborated with fellow producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner to create a new sound for her. In Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift, along with Antonoff and Dessner, talk us through each song’s meaning and song writing process followed by a live acoustic performance.
Read the full article here
