Shows like Stranger Things
The Umbrella Academy
Crew of misfits? Check. Supernatural powers? Check. Dysfunctional families? Check. Sure, there’s a lot in common between The Umbrella Academy and Stranger Things, but there’s a gothic tone to this show that’s less horror and more suspense. Fans of Marvel will enjoy the action sequences, intricate plot and occasional absurdity, including the premise of 43 women giving birth simultaneously, seven of whom are adopted by the show’s patriarch and his android wife. Together these feuding siblings, led by Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Vanya Hargreeves (Elliot Page), must work together to stop–what else?– the world’s end.
WandaVision
You’ve never seen anything like Marvel’s self-referential trip through the decades of classic television. Elizabeth Olsenstars as Wanda Maximoff, the classic suburban housewife who handles comedic pratfalls and her husband Vision’s (Paul Bettany) bumbling mistakes with gracious aplomb. But like The Stepford Wives, there’s something crooked about this family portrait. The neighbors aren’t quite what they seem, and neither is Wanda. When outside forces threaten Wanda’s perfect domesticity, she’ll go to any lengths to protect her family.
Cloak & Dagger
Another addition to the Marvel television boom, this young adult pair debuted in 1982 in a Spider-Man comic book and made it to the small screen in 2018. Two runaways who gained their superpowers after being exposed to energy released at the collapse of the Roxxon Gulf Platform, Tyrone, a.k.a. Cloak (Aubrey Joseph) and Tandy, a.k.a. Dagger (Olivia Holt) are determined to use their new strengths for good. In addition to saving kidnapped women and grappling with vigilantes like Mayhem, Cloak and Dagger also must face their burgeoning love–and their differences.
The OA
A young woman of mysterious origins is recorded jumping off a bridge, but survives. When she’s reunited with her family in the hospital, she recognizes them by touch, not by sight. That’s because Prairie a.k.a. The OA (Brit Marlin) was blind before she disappeared seven years ago, but now can see. She desperately seeks a comrade from her time away named Homer (Emory Cohen), determined to rescue him with the help of an unlikely group of locals in her suburban Michigan neighborhood to help her. Like Stranger Things, there’s a portal to another universe that The OA must enter to achieve her objective, and there’s no telling what will happen when she enters it.
Locke & Key
After their father is murdered, Tyler (ConnorJessup), Kinsey (EmiliaJones) and Bode (JacksonRobertScott) move with their mother Nina (DarbyStanchfield) to their father’s estate, a foreboding Massachusetts mansion called Keyhouse. Like the house in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this one holds many mysteries. There are keys hidden throughout the house, each of which serves a different fantastical purpose. But someone else is also looking for those keys for his own purposes–a very demonic someone else.
Greenhouse Academy
Based on an Israeli teen drama, this series about conspiracies beneath the surface of a seemingly mundane private high school will appeal to Stranger Things fans who loved Season 3’s discoveries of bureaucratic machinations. Alex Woods (Finn Roberts) and Hayley Woods (Ariel Mortman) matriculate at a boarding school for gifted students shortly after the death of their astronaut mother, but find themselves rivals. After discovering a devious plot to use earthquakes to get wealthy, they pursue a deception that goes all the way to the dean of the boarding school and the FBI.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka stars as the titular Sabrina in this more serious remake of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the story of a half-human, half-witch teen who lives in Greendale and attends Baxter High. Sabrina must discover the full extent of her powers to protect her town and the people in it, including her family, while maintaining her surface life as a normal teen. Lovers of the hit series Riverdale will enjoy the dark cinematography, complex plotlines, and steamy scenes, plus the internal conflict that Sabrina struggles with.
The X Files
There’s plenty to love about this retro show following popular 90s conspiracies and myths. Fans of Stranger Things and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water will devour this series that capitalizes on the electric relationship between alien and monster-chasing Fox Mulder (DavidDuchovny) and his skeptical partner Dana Scully (GillianAnderson). Over its 11 seasons, the far-reaching show explored everything from a serial killer who could squeeze himself between grates (“Squeeze,” Season 1, Episode 3) to the shadowy syndicate controlling the FBI and hiding alien secrets.
Black Spot
This spectacular supernatural French-Belgian thriller follows events in a tiny fictional town called Villefranche, where the murder rate is six times the national average. Police chief Laurène Weiss (SulianeBrahim) hides a mysterious past, and prosecutor Franck Siriani (LaurentCapelluto) is determined to uncover it as they work to discover who killed a young woman found hanging in the forest, as well as numerous other strange occurrences. The mayor’s daughter has disappeared, and local townspeople are terrified by bizarre animals in the forest. Thieves and criminals plague local businesses. Can Laurène discover her past and can the pair work together to bring order to a seemingly cursed town?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy (SarahMichelleGellar) is a high-kicking high school girl–but not in her team’s cheerleading squad anymore. Instead, Buffy is kicking vampires to the curb in this cult series, with a little help from the Scooby gang. This campy series has got it all–fast-paced fight scenes, quippy jokes, love triangles and librarians doubling as guardians of vampire slayers. If you always wanted a little more Clueless in your Stranger Things, this is it. (And if you love this one, try its spinoff, Angel.)
Dark
Netflix’s first German-language series is a sci-fi thriller seeking to uncover the truth about the unexplained disappearance of several children. Turns out, the residents of fictional town Winden are caught up in a time travel war that threatens to break their fragile stability and expose their affairs, lies and cruelties. Characters bounce between the 20s, 50s, 80s, our present-day world and the future of 2053. Will the families be able to conquer time’s fickleness to find their missing children? That depends on a time travel war between two Winden factions, each with its own motivations.
Sense8
Eight strangers are psychically connected to each other by a woman named Angelica (Daryl Hannah), despite their far-flung geographical locations. Emotionally drawn to one another, these “sensates” can communicate from afar. But a wicked organization called the Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO) and a high-ranking sensate inside BPO are after them. A sensate named Jonas (Naveen Andrews) attempts to help them, but unfriendly sensates abound. The cluster of eight struggle to figure out Angelica’s relationship with BPO and avoid its Chairman, who orchestrates a global attack on them.
I Am Not Okay With This
Sydney Novak (SophiaLillis) is girl who hates Pennsylvania–at least, her polluted small town in Pennsylvania. There’s not much for Sydney to love about her life, since her father recently passed away and she’s not too stoked on her new high school–except for her super cute best friend Dina (Sofia Bryant), who unfortunately likes the school jock. Sydney knows she has anger issues, but is scared when she starts discovering that she has telekinetic powers. When she finds out her father may have had similar powers, her story truly begins.
The Twilight Zone
Jordan Peele’s genius unfolds in this eerie 2019 reboot of classic 1959 Rod Serling series. Narrated by Peele, the weekly series explores new topics, including immigration, racism and misinformation in the press, along with mysterious plane crashes and UFOs. Like the original series, each episode features a different universe, plotline and unexpected twist. With guest appearances by Chris O’Dowd, Sanaa Lathan, Morena Baccarin and Damon Wayans Jr., this series is a compelling look at the uncanny, often sinister worlds that exist–or could exist–alongside our own.
Twin Peaks
Both Twin Peaks and Stranger Things peel back the skin on quiet bedroom communities to expose a seedy underbelly that’s anything but normal. But Twin Peaks relies on fewer monumental monsters and more on the psychological disturbances that plague humans. Helmed by F.B.I. Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) as the unflappable hero, this series draws you in with a host of quirky characters in a small Northwestern American town–any of whom could ultimately be responsible for the creepy murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Looking for something a little more uppity? Try these shows like Bridgerton.
