10 shows to watch while still waiting for The Cleaning Lady season 3

Fans are excited to hear The Cleaning Lady is coming back for season 3 in 2024! Unfortunately, it won't be for a couple of more months. While we wait, there are several shows to enjoy that may appeal to fans!

The Cleaning Lady has been one of Fox’s surprise hits of recent years. Elodie Yung is Thony, an immigrant doctor who has to work as a cleaning woman to provide for her ailing son. She witnesses a mob murder and manages to plead for her life by cleaning up the crime scene. Before she knows it, Thony is the go-to “cleaner” for the mob, pulling her deeper into a criminal world. 

The show has been successful, with Season 3 coming in March of 2024. Before that, there are other shows that can appeal to its fans. Many revolve around someone thrust into a criminal world they never expected, running the gamut from pure drama to more humor-filled. Yet these ten shows are great for fans of The Cleaning Lady as they wait for Season 3 to premiere.

10 shows to watch if you miss The Cleaning Lady

Good Girls (Netflix)

This NBC series can appeal to Cleaning Lady fans by showing how some simple ladies fall into crime. Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman and Retta are three struggling suburban mothers who, desperate for money, rob a grocery store. Too late, they discover they’ve also ripped off a local drug lord and are soon forced into a criminal lifestyle to survive.

The show rested on the great chemistry of the three leads with some wild twists and turns and yet also a fine dark comedy to go with the hijinks. It sadly was axed after four seasons but can still be a fun show for Cleaning Lady fans to watch. 

Devious Maids (Hulu)

From the mind of Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) comes this delightfully wicked series that ran on Lifetime in 2013-2016. As the title implies, it focuses on the maids of a rich Los Angeles neighborhood with their ups and downs handling their eccentric owners. 

Season 1 concentrates on a dark mystery, with each season piling on even more insane drama but also some fun comedy mixed in. The cast of Ana Ortiz, Roselyn Sanchez, Dania Ramirez, Judy Reyes, Susan Lucci and others make this a wonderful guilty pleasure show to enjoy. 

Fatma (Netflix)

This Turkish drama series has a plot that mixes The Cleaning Lady with a darker action film. The main character is a cleaning woman who goes on a search for her missing husband. That leads to an accidental murder, and a darker quest for answers.

A genius touch is that the woman realizes that since no one pays any attention to the cleaning woman, she can get closer to her targets. The six-episode series packs in more thrills than longer shows and is right up the alley of any Cleaning Lady fans. 

Cleaning Up (AMC+)

This UK drama takes a bit of a different spin as rather than drug dealing, it focuses on the world of banking and stock markets. Sam (Sheridan Smith) is drowning in debt thanks to her gambling habit and fighting for custody of her children. While working as the cleaning lady at a bank, she turns to insider trading. 

The series does a fun job showing Sam realizing there’s not much difference between gambling and the stock market and using her wits to stay a step ahead of the authorities. It only aired one season, but it was still fun for another story of a cleaning woman thrust into a criminal life. 

Queen of the South (Netflix)

This USA Network hit has a fantastic opening. Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), one of the most powerful and ruthless drug cartel operators in Mexico, is shot at an airport. As she lies dying, Teresa’s life flashes before her eyes to show how she started as an honest, poor woman before things took a turn.

The series builds up, exploring how Teresa claws her way up the ladder of the drug world, going from wide-eyed innocent to a cold, conniving killer. Braga is sensational, pulling it off, and the finale wraps up the five-season run well to show how one woman went from innocent to a nightmare. 

Fakes (Netflix)

This underrated Canadian comedy has a fun vibe to it. Emilija Baranac and Jennifer Tong play Zoe and Rebecca, two teens in British Columbia who plan to make some fake IDs to sell to classmates. Before they knew it, the pair had created the biggest fake ID empire in North America, which caused a lot of chaos. 

The show’s unique concept is that each episode is told from one girl’s perspective, where each blames the other for this whole thing. That adds to the humor while also a layer of mystery to figure out what the truth really is. That, mixed with the story of two teens getting in totally over their heads, makes this one-season show a must-watch.

Ozark (Netflix)

One of Netflix’s most acclaimed hits, this great drama stars Jason Bateman as an accountant who runs afoul of his drug dealer boss. He hatches a scheme to relocate his family to the Ozarks and create a mini-criminal empire, only to clash with the other crooks already established there.

Bateman is matched by Laura Linney as his wife, but the true scene-stealer is Julia Garner, who won three Emmy awards for her work as the young woman who blossoms into a criminal mastermind. Its four-season run boasts one of the best Netflix original series, and the mix of regular folks put into a criminal world aids its great cast in putting on a fine series.

Good Behavior (TNT and Max)

Michelle Dockery leaves Downton Abbey behind big time in this 2016-17 TNT series. She plays Letty, a con artist fresh out of jail and hoping to reunite with her son. When she overhears a hitman planning a murder, she tries to stop it, only for the pair to embark on a twisted partnership/romance. 

Dockery showcases Letty trying to change her life but keeps being pulled back into con games and some dark turns. It only lasted two seasons, which is too bad as it had a fun vibe and deserved a longer good life. 

Claws (Hulu)

This TNT series plays like a dark comedy but also packs in some sharp crime drama as well. On the face of it, it can be a female Breaking Bad as a group of nail salon workers launder money for a drug lord so they can buy a bigger salon. They realize the hard way that it’s not so easy to just treat this like a side job rather than a lifestyle that plays havoc with them.

The cast is great, with Nicey Nash, Carrie Preston, Judy Reyes, Dean Norris, and more. It can make you laugh out loud one minute, then shock you with a brutal death the next, and the four seasons show another series of normal women in a criminal lifestyle that can more than appeal to Cleaning Lady fans.

Harlots (Hulu)

Here’s a unique series: a period-piece crime dramedy. Samantha Morton and Jessica Brown Findlay are a mother and daughter running a high-class brothel in 1760s London. Their business is threatened first by a rival (Lesley Manville) and then by the rising “morals police” of the time.

The three seasons craft a campy show that has some steamy scenes along with the humor, some tough crime and putting the ladies first. Liv Tyler comes along in the second season for more fun, as this show is an underrated gem to enjoy.

The Cleaning Lady season 3 premieres March 5, 2024 on Fox. What will you be watching while you wait for its arrival?