What TV Series Uses Who Runs The World As A Recurring Theme?

This question's right up my alley — I get a little giddy thinking about how TV loves to play with the idea of 'who runs the world.' If you mean the literal phrase, very few shows repeat the words themselves as a motif, but if you mean the larger theme of who holds power, who gets to call the shots, and how gender and authority dance around each other, then a whole shelf of series keep circling that idea episode after episode.

Take 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Xena: Warrior Princess' — they approach it through supernatural and mythic lenses, putting women at the center of literal world-saving action. Then there's 'Scandal' and 'Killing Eve', which are slick, modern takes where intelligence and manipulation become tools of influence. 'Orange Is the New Black' and 'Big Little Lies' prefer an ensemble, showing how communities and friendships can upend expected power dynamics. Even 'The Handmaid's Tale' examines the question from the other side: by showing what happens when control is seized and how resistance redefines who truly 'runs' anything.

I love how different shows answer the question in different registers. 'Gossip Girl' and 'Sex and the City' treat power as social capital — who runs the world of fashion, gossip, and networks — while 'The Crown' plays the long game, asking how institutions and personalities share authority across decades. Some series make the theme explicit through repeated beats: a character proving their competence, a scene of takeover, or a recurring piece of music or slogan that reappears in key moments. For me, the recurring thrill is watching the storytelling shift the balance: a clever line, a betrayal, a victory scene — and suddenly the map of who holds power looks different.

If I had to recommend an order to experience these variations, I'd say start with 'Buffy' for the joyful, literal take on female agency, then go to 'Scandal' or 'Killing Eve' for ruthless modern chess games, and slot in 'Orange Is the New Black' for the messy, human portrait of power within a closed system. Each of these shows keeps returning to that same itch — who runs the world? — and they answer it with wit, violence, tenderness, and sometimes a terrific soundtrack. I always walk away from those series feeling a little more fired up about how stories can flip the script.

I lean toward a tighter read: no single TV series constantly repeats the specific line 'who runs the world' as a running catchphrase, but many shows make that question their backbone. In lighter, pop-culture terms, 'Gossip Girl' and 'Sex and the City' riff on social power and influence among elites; in more action-driven styles, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Xena: Warrior Princess' put women in the heroic, world-defending role. Political and psychological dramas like 'Scandal', 'Killing Eve', and 'The Crown' explore power through manipulation, strategy, and legacy, while shows such as 'Orange Is the New Black' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' interrogate systemic control and resistance.

What I find compelling is how each series reframes the same basic question: is power individual, institutional, social, or emergent from community? That diversity of answers is what keeps the theme fresh across genres — and it’s exactly why I keep going back to these shows whenever I want to see different visions of who actually runs the world.

For a more speculative take, I often point to 'Westworld' when someone asks about the 'who runs the world' question. The series keeps circling control: humans think they run the park, corporations think they run the narrative, and the hosts slowly discover the capacity to run themselves. I particularly enjoy the layers of authorship—creators writing characters, corporations writing creators, and then characters rewriting themselves.

That recursive power dynamic fascinates me because it reframes the question from 'who rules' to 'who authors meaning.' You get moments where the answer shifts mid-episode, from corporate executives to rebel hosts, and it forces me to consider whether running the world is about force or about storytelling. The show’s blend of philosophy and spectacle made me sit up and reconsider agency in a tech-saturated world, and I love how it leaves that question humming in my head.

One series that nails this theme for me is 'The Handmaid's Tale'. I find it unsettling and fascinating how it interrogates who runs the world by flipping the expected answer: the official rulers are men in power, but the show constantly explores how control is enforced, resisted, and subverted. I get drawn into the mechanisms of power—religion, law, propaganda, and daily rituals—and how those structures claim authority over bodies and language.

What I like most is the way resistance shows up in small acts: coded conversations, stolen moments, memory-sharing. Those moments pose a quieter, insurgent answer to 'who runs the world'—not the regime, but people who refuse complete submission. It made me rethink power as something both obvious and diffuse, and I often catch myself replaying scenes where agency flickers back into the hands of women. Watching it is a wrenching reminder that control can be both overt and invisible, and it lingers with me long after a brutal episode ends.

Power struggles in 'Succession' are like a modern, corporate riff on 'who runs the world' and I can’t help grinning at how ruthlessly it explores ambition. I love the show’s setup: family, money, media, and ego all collide, and every episode asks who actually decides the narrative that shapes millions of viewers. I often find myself rooting for nobody and everyone at once because the characters are such gloriously flawed vessels of will.

The show repeats motifs—boardroom maneuvers, backstabbing dinner conversations, leaked op-eds—that hammer home power as performance and inheritance. What fascinates me is the mundane banality of some power grabs: a phone call, a clever leak, a well-timed compliment. Those tiny moves shift empires. Watching it, I think about how influence in our world is distributed through institutions rather than thrones, and how the media itself is both a tool and a prize. It’s ultimately a darkly funny meditation on who runs things when leadership becomes a commodity, and I get oddly gleeful watching the chaos unfold.

This question about power makes me think immediately of 'Game of Thrones' because that show beats the 'who runs the world' drum over and over in so many ways. I have no shortage of scenes in my head where characters posture, bargain, betray, and murder to answer that exact question. The Iron Throne is the literal symbol, but the recurring theme is far richer: lineage, marriage, faith, war, and dragons all become tools in the contest to control the realm.

I love how the series flips expectations — sometimes the people who look like rulers are puppets, and those who seem powerless pull strings. Characters like Cersei, Daenerys, Littlefinger, and even Sansa at times represent different takes on authority: inherited power, revolutionary power, political cunning, and survival-instinct power. Beyond the spectacle, there are quieter scenes that ask who benefits from rule, who gets silenced, and whether ruling is worth the cost. Watching it, I kept thinking about how the show mirrors real-world questions of legitimacy and violence, which is why it still sticks with me as a brilliant meditation on who actually runs the world. It left me both exhausted and oddly satisfied, like finishing a brutal, gorgeous book.