Edutainment means shows that blend an entertaining story with educational material. For example, The Magic School Bus tells stories while also teaching about science.

There are educational shows for adults, they’re usually called documentaries. But any that blend educational material with fiction? I guess an argument can be made that biographical films fall into this category but they usually take creative liberties and aren’t fully historically accurate. An argument can also be made for medical dramas and legal dramas, but I’m not sure how accurate the medical and legal information in them is. Of course, The Magic School Bus also takes creative liberties and has inaccurate science, but there’s always a segment at the end explaining where they took creative liberties.

How I Met Your Mother kind of had the vibe of a kids show that teaches moral lessons, but for adults. Edit for clarity: the reason I bring this up is I consider “moral of the week” a genre closely related to edutainment but not quite the same thing

Edit: now that I’m thinking about it, I guess Jeopardy and other trivia based game shows could qualify as edutainment. They’re not fictional, but they do blend entertainment and education

  • paper_moon@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I feel like travel and food shows fit this nicely. Very entertaining, bit also very educational about other areas, cultures, histories, foods, traditions, etc.

    I haven’t watched too much content like this, but “Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown” really got me hooked for a while, he did a great job with that show. And I feel like we need more knowledge and understanding about other cultures, now more than ever.

    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2845786

    –Edit–

    Actually, I don’t remember which one I watched No Reservations, or Parts Unknown, both seem good though.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475900/