Shows Inspired by Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl Song Lyrics Like Opalite, Father Figure - Netflix Tudum

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    Shows and Movies Inspired by Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl Song Lyrics

    Are the eldest daughter and a father figure in these shows and movies actually romantic?

    By Caitlin Busch
    Oct. 3, 2025

The life of a showgirl isn’t easy — but it sure is capital-R romantic, and just a bit tragic. That is, if you’re Miss Americana, aka Taylor Swift. The superstar just released her latest studio album just months after the end of her record-breaking Eras Tour and the recent announcement of her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. With The Life of a Showgirl Swift broke another record on the release’s first day, racking up the most single-day Spotify streams for an album in 2025.

The 12-track album — which features a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, a nod to Shakespearean tragedy, and references to Kelce — is Swift’s 12th. So while that means there are plenty of other Swift releases to go back and replay, you might be looking to exist in this particular era a little longer. Here are five movies and TV shows currently available to stream on Netflix that will give you that same The Life of a Showgirl feeling.

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Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama
1h 48m   PG-13   2002

Gilmore Girls

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

In “Eldest Daughter,” Swift writes that she’s “not a bad bitch … I’m never gonna let you down.” She’s “afflicted by a terminal uniqueness … dying just from trying to seem cool.”

Peak eldest daughter Lara Jean Song-Covey (Lana Condor), star of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (as well as its two sequels), is unique, kind, and tired of playing it cool. She’s a lover girl, a loyal daughter, and a good friend, but when her younger sister, Kitty (Anna Cathcart), sends some old love letters to Lara Jean’s crushes, she finds herself at the center of an epic rom-com.

In a world of people who are “so punk on the internet,” as Swift sings, the Lara Jeans of the world find wonder in “a beautiful, beautiful time-lapse / Ferris wheels, kisses, and lilacs.” So when one of those crushes, the mega-popular Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), suggests a fake dating scheme to benefit them both in this adaptation of author Jenny Han's 2014 novel of the same name, Lara Jean tries to play it cool. 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
1h 40m   TV-14   2018
Watch

One Day

As we said, Swift’s album is romantic, but also a bit tragic. Sort of like the series One Day. In “Ruin the Friendship,” Swift sings about two people who “should've kissed” while in school together but never did, singing: “Don’t make it awkward in second period / Might piss your ex off, lately we’ve been good / Staying friends is safe, doesn’t mean you should.” The lyrics also reference a tragedy, and missing out on a kiss. 

And that, friends, brings us to One Day, which tells the story of Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall), who carry on a 14-year will they, won’t they relationship that puts their friendship to the test. While they love each other in every way, they just can’t seem to get the timing right. Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by David Nicholls,  which inspired the 2011 film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway, One Day shows the ups and downs of an epic romance (emphasis on the downs — keep your tissues close).

Never Have I Ever

Swift described “Actually Romantic,” the seventh track on her album,  as “a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about. And all of a sudden, they start doing too much, and they start letting you know that, actually, you’ve been living in their head rent-free, and you had no idea.” 

Never Have I Ever star Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) knows a thing or two about someone living in your head rent-free. Created by Mindy Kaling (The Sex Lives of College Girls) and Lang Fisher (The Four Seasons), the series follows Devi’s journey through the final three years of high school after the sudden death of her father. Devi’s passion — for school; for her crush, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet); for her rival, Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison); and for her family and friends — gets her into a world of trouble time and again.

In her song, Swift writes, “'Cause it’s actually sweet / All the time you’ve spent on me … It’s actually romantic / You’ve just given me so much attention.” Is Devi driven by obsession? Passion? Love? A mixture of all of the above? You’ll just have to watch to find out.

 

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