Instead of braving the crowds for mimosas and brunch specials this Mother’s Day, maybe ask your mom over to watch some great mom-centric shows streaming now on Netflix and Disney+ where the matriarchs handle — with grace and often humor — extraordinary circumstances.
Nicole Warren, ‘Raising Dion’
It’s tough to be a single mom, especially when your son has superpowers.
Nicole Warren (Alisha Wainwright) is jobless when her husband dies, leaving her to raise their son Dion (Ja’Siah Young) alone. When Dion begins manifesting magical abilities, exploitative forces swoop in to try to use him. Wainwright is marvelous as Nicole, always mixing an understandable degree of maternal anxiety with strength and tenderness.
By the end of the first season, Nicole is almost as much of a superhero as her son, a role she grows into even more in the second season. Few superhero stories truly show the support necessary for the people who love them to exist in their world, but “Raising Dion” manages it with love and care.
Watch it:Streaming onNetflix.
Camila Noceda, ‘The Owl House’
If you have LGBT children, odds are they are stomping around the house mad that “The Owl House” got canceled. It’s a shame because the series was truly great about both LGBT representation and its depiction of loving parents.
卡米拉Noceda(伊丽莎白古隆)的母亲protagonist Luz (Sarah-Nicole Robles), a hyperactive teenager who trains to be a witch after stumbling into a realm full of magic. Camila is loving and fiercely protective, and she backs up the latter trait with a baseball bat. More than anything, she strives to understand her quirky daughter, changing course the second she realizes staying in the human world could do damage to Luz.
Watch it:Streaming onDisney+.
Muneeba Khan, ‘Ms. Marvel’
Over on the Marvel side of the superhero world, we get Muneeba Khan (Zenobia Shroff). After her Avengers-obsessed daughter Kamala (Iman Vellani) finds a family heirloom that gives her powers, Muneeba is initially hesitant to support her. The family already faces discrimination for being Pakistani Muslims in New Jersey, and she worries that Kamala will be in danger as the government begins cracking down on meta-human activities.
But as stern as she might be, she treats Kamala with love and respect. Once she finally accepts that the new Ms. Marvel is here to stay, she whips up one of the best superhero costumes in the entire MCU.
寻找妈妈汗重新出现in the upcoming film “The Marvels” this summer.
Watch it:Streaming onDisney+.
Hilda Spellman, ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’
Not all moms are birth mothers, and no one proves that more than Hilda Spellman (Lucy Davis). She and her sister Zelda (Miranda Otto) take in their niece Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) after she loses her parents. While definitely a witch, Hilda leans toward the cottagecore side of the dark arts, and can usually be found in her garden or kitchen.
That doesn’t mean she’s someone to be trifled with. There’s a chilling scene in which she blatantly poisons someone who threatens Sabrina, an act the antagonist doesn’t see coming because of Hilda’s soft, shy personality. She is always on hand to comfort her niece through the strange things that happen over the course of the show, and a perfect example that anyone who properly cares for a child can stand in as a mom.
Watch it:Streaming onNetflix.
Joyce Byers, ‘Stranger Things’
There are good moms. There are great moms. And then there is Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder).
Over four seasons, Joyce has braved everything from other dimensions to Soviet Russia to help her family. This responsibility involves a surprising amount of kooky craft projects. While not the easiest mom to live with, thanks to a somewhat intense personality, there’s no doubt that she has her kids’ backs. Even when things are darkest (and things do get very dark in Hawkins, Ind.), Joyce has the hope and strength to keep things going.
Watch it:Streaming onNetflix.
Jef Rouner is a freelance writer.