The Pioneer Woman

The Pioneer Woman is impossible to stop watching once you start. It's currently available in Australia on HBO Max, and in the US on HBO Max Amazon Channel and Discovery+ Amazon Channel, so there's no reason to keep putting it off. A 4/10 rating means the audience agrees.

What separates The Pioneer Woman from the rest of its genre is a genuine understanding of what its audience actually wants to watch. Ree Drummond, a city gal-turned-rancher's wife, creates down-home dishes on her picturesque Oklahoma ranch. Take one sassy former city girl, her hunky rancher husband and a band of adorable kids, an extended family, cowboys, 3000 wild mustangs, a herd of cattle, and one placid basset hound and you have The Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman is an open invitation into Ree Drummond's life: The award-winning blogger and best-selling cookbook author comes to Food Network and shares her special brand of home cooking, from throw-together suppers to elegant celebrations. Ree Drummond leads a cast that brings real weight to the material. The series ran for 33 seasons (2011–2022), building a story that gave its audience time to invest properly.

Best watched with company — the kind of show that generates strong takes from everyone in the room. Fans of Selena + Chef will already have a sense of whether this is their thing.