What To Watch When Work Sucks

Andi Sachs (Anne Hathaway) has big dreams of being a big city journalist, but the only job she can get is being Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly’s (Meryl Streep) personal assistant. The Devil Wears Prada is one of the few films that accurately depicts the stress and grind of being a 20something in New York City. Sure, it’s a lifestyle that looks glamorous from the outside, but the reality is that you’re barely making ends meet pursuing a dream that might actually be a nightmare. 

Find out where you can stream The Devil Wears Prada here. 

It’s 1960 and you just made one of the most perfect screwball cross-dressing comedies of all time.* What do you do next? Well, if you’re Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder, you make one of the 20th century’s most darky funny and soul-affecting films about suicide, romance, and the trials of working life. You make The Apartment. 

Find out where you can stream The Apartment here.   

*Some Like It Hot

Office life can be unbearably boring. Day in and day out, you’ve got to politely deal with people whom you’d never speak to in real life. Somehow, the cast and writers of NBC’s The Office were able to squeeze hilarious and heartfelt comedy out of the awkward tension that permeates every office. The entire series is available to stream on Netflix, but we’d suggest jumping in at the start of the second season. That’s when the show finally stopped imitating its brilliant British predecessor and started finding its own voice. 

Find out more about The Office here.

Mary Tyler Moore first became a sitcom star when she co-starred in the 1960s as Dick Van Dyke’s adorable young wife, Laura, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. In the 1970s, Moore returned to television as a single career girl trying to get ahead in a Minneapolis newsroom. The Mary Tyler Moore Show is a landmark sitcom and almost every subsequent office comedy since then has cribbed a little from this trailblazing show. The classic series is now available to stream on Hulu, so you can revisit one of America’s most legendary sweethearts whenever you want.

Find out more about The Mary Tyler Moore Show here.

By the time 1980 rolled around, women had caught on to the sexual revolution and feminist theory. It was no longer okay to just suck up all the sexual harassment flung at you in the work place. Enter 9 to 5. This classic comedy might seem like oodles of fun now, but in 1980 it was tapping into a feminist revenge fantasies. Oh, and it boasts one of Dolly Parton’s catchiest hit songs. 

Find out where you can stream 9 to 5 here. 

Full disclosure: while Working Girl is undoubtedly a great movie, I’ve never been entirely convinced it sends a good message. Still, there is something absolutely delightful about seeing Melanie Griffith’s plucky working class secretary scheme and dream her way to the top of the heap. She finally gets the respect she deserves and she gets to hook up with Harrison Ford at his hottest. 

Find out where you can stream Working Girl here. 

Oh, Office Space. This quirky indie comedy stood as a sort of manifesto for bored office workers when it came out and remains a cult classic today. Ron Livingston plays a disaffected office drone who stops putting in the effort at work and suddenly becomes a corporate heavy-hitter. The film satirized the nonsensical world of cubicle life and gave us newfound respect for people’s attachments to their red staplers. 

Find out where you can stream Office Space here. 

There are a myriad of reasons to watch Mad Men when you’ve had a terrible day at work. On the one hand, you can fantasize about working in a time where everyone was dressed to the nines and you could openly drink during the day. On the other hand, Mad Men exposes the morally bankrupt underbelly of the 1960s ad world. It’s a bit ironic that one of the most important work place shows of the 21st century takes place in the 1960s, but Mad Men excels at showing us exactly how far we’ve come as a culture, and how much further we have yet to go. 

Find out where you can stream Mad Men here.  

Make no mistake: Jerry Maguire is a workplace fairy tale. After Jerry (Tom Cruise) quits his soul-sucking job in a spectacularly dramatic display, he finds the courage to strike out on his own, win over the girl (Renee Zellweger), and to slay his own internal dragons. Find escapism in Jerry Maguire and remember Tom Cruise before he was best-known for jumping on sofas. Find out where you can stream Jerry Maguire here. 

It’s no secret that we at Decider are massive fans of Broadcast News and we will take any opportunity to celebrate the underrated 1987 film and to implore you to watch it. This absolutely perfect movie tells the story of three workaholics torn up in a love triangle. The only problem? All three of them are more in love with their own ambition than they are with each other. 

Find out where you can stream Broadcast News here. 

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