Heartland is a Canadian family drama series based on the Heartland book series by Lauren Brooke.
The show follows sisters Amy and Lou Fleming as they recount the ups and downs of life on a horse ranch that specialises in curing horses with dressage problems.
With 16 seasons, it is the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in Canadian television history. So if you love the show and fancy watching more family dramas in the genre, you've come to the right place!
Movies and Shows Like Heartland
If you like moving, family-friendly series full of strength and resilience, you will want to take advantage of the list of the shows like Heartland we've put together, especially for you.
Meet a nurse who moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Northern California in search of a fresh start. But her new life will be very different from what she imagines, and the new beginning will be full of personal challenges and struggles in Virgin River.
Join three friends as they deal with love, family and professional issues in a small, quiet town in Sweet Magnolias.
Or meet a successful woman who moves from bustling New York City to quiet Chesapeake Shores. There, she is forced to face people from her past and begins to see life with new eyes.
Check out our list of shows like Heartland and be carried away by hours of entertainment.
And as always, let us know in the comments if you think we've missed anything out!
OUR LIST OF SHOWS LIKE HEARTLAND
Sweet Magnolias
Three friends from South Carolina, known as the Sweet Magnolias since childhood, embark on a new project amid turmoil in their professional and personal lives. A nice show based solidly in the friendship and family drama category.
Virgin River
When nurse Mel ups and moves to a remote town called Virgin River what she doesn't expect is a run-down cabin and a doctor who doesn't want her around - but that's exactly what she gets in this sweet drama.
Chesapeake Shores
Follow the O'Briens of Chesapeake Shores as they navigate the trials and tribulations of life, relationships and fractured family dynamics. Jesse Metcalfe and Meghan Ory star in this perfectly sweet Hallmark tv show that now has five seasons streamin...[Read More]
Good Witch
If you're a fan of Hallmark movies then Good Witch is definitely for you. Follow Cassie Nightingale and her family as they enchant the residents of Middleton and its visitors in this perfectly sweet, very family friendly tv show.
Gilmore Girls
It's a tv classic drama about a mother and daughter but the Gilmore Girls is so much more with its quick banter, fun storylines, and enduring popularity.
Good Sam
A wholesome movie about the kindness of people in a cynical world, Good Sam is a bit cliched and predictable but overall it's quite a nice film and perfect for fans who like shows similar to Good Witch and Chesapeake Shores.
Jane The Virgin
Jane the Virgin follows an ordinary young woman called Jane who gets pregnant after being accidentally artificially inseminated and then her meticulously planned life gets very complicated and more like the telenovelas she loves.
Offspring
A fun family drama, Offspring is centred on obstetrician Nina Proudman and her family and friends, as they navigate the chaos of modern life. With great storylines, cast, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and seven seasons available on Netflix, this i...[Read More]
Sisters
An absolute gem of a tv series, Sisters is now streaming on Netflix. Follow Julia who navigates the chaos her father created when he used his own donations to fertilise hundreds of women throughout his career as a Noble Prize winning geneticist. It's...[Read More]
The Durrells
It's 1935 in Bournemouth and Louisa Durrell is a young widow with four children. Hoping for a better life, she packs up the family and moves them all to Corfu. The Durrells is funny, witty and at times quite poignant. A brilliantly sharp adaptation o...[Read More]
What Is Heartland About?
Amy Fleming was 15 when her mother died in an accident. Alongside her older sister Louise, a successful New York executive, she decides to move to the ranch her mother used to run in the mountains of Alberta, Canada.
Known as Heartland, the place is the home of her grandfather Jack Bartlett, her father, Tim Fleming and rancher Ty Borden, a troubled young man who was hired by Marion before her death.
Borden, abused by his stepfather as a child, tried to get revenge and was arrested and sent to juvenile detention. In order to get his conditional release, he got sent to work at Heartland Ranch.
However, Ty and Amy create a bond as he helps Amy deal with her mother's death, and she helps him learn to trust people again, resulting in a close friendship and future love.
As Amy struggles to deal with her loss, she discovers that she has inherited her late mother's gift for healing abused and neglected horses, including Spartan, the horse her mother lost her life trying to save.
But the new routine won't be as simple as she imagined, and to make the farm run smoothly, Amy and her grandfather will need to spend lots of funds, further increasing the family's debts.
Now, pressured by the bank, they all unite around a single cause, saving Heartland Ranch. As they work together to rebuild their family and lives, Amy learns that healing horses will help her mend her heart.
Where Is Heartland Filmed?
Heartland premiered in October 2007 and continues to run in it's sixteenth season.
Much of the series is filmed in High River, a Canadian municipality located south of the province of Alberta. Additional filming takes place in the studio and on location in nearby Calgary.
In 2013 a flood occurred in High River, inundating several real sets and locations in the village. Although the main Heartland sets escaped damage, the scripts for season seven were rewritten to move the filming of the fictional town of Hudson to Inglewood, a historic neighbourhood in downtown Calgary.
A month after the flood, the Calgary studios offered to pay backstage tours for fans in a one-day “Heartlanders for High River” fundraiser, providing the funds to help the city recover.
Some of Heartland's interior scenes were also filmed at an abandoned former Canadian Forces Military Base, Currie Barracks, which is planned to be rehabilitated.
What Is The Appropriate Age To Watch Heartland?
Heartland is a Canadian family soap opera that focuses on the life of a young female rider and her family.
The show's central theme is family and hard work, but there are also stories about tougher subjects such as death, abuse and divorce.
There is little explicit violence, with stronger scenes of car accidents, scarred horses and punches. It has some romance, with a few kisses and insinuations, but nothing too overt.
On the other hand, there are several positive messages throughout the series, where the importance of family, friendship and love are reinforced and where togetherness is strength.
Although it is entirely up to parents to decide what content they allow their children to view, we recommend Heartland for teenagers over the age of 12.
