Shows Like
Shows Like Stranger Things (No, Not Just Netflix Ones)
By Jordan A. · · 3 min read
Stranger Things is a show built out of other shows, and that's its whole trick. It takes the 80s kid-adventure formula, dresses it up in neon, and lets you feel ten years old again while something awful eats the neighborhood. The good news is that the 80s kid-adventure formula has been copied so many times there's a real list of worthy follow-ups. The bad news is that most of them aren't on Netflix, so you'd never see them scrolling that one app.
The obvious-but-good ones
Dark is Netflix's other time-loop-in-a-small-town show and it's a very different vibe. Colder, smarter, German. If you want to be challenged, start here.
The OA is the weird sincere sibling. Two seasons, cancelled too soon, both worth your time.
Locke & Key is a gentler take on the haunted-house-with-kids formula. Three seasons, neat bow at the end.
The horror-adjacent ones
The Haunting of Hill House from Mike Flanagan is the rare horror show that's really a family drama. Episode six is one of the best hours of TV in the last decade.
Midnight Mass is Flanagan's best work. Seven episodes, small island, a new priest.
Lovecraft Country got one season and it deserved ten. Monsters, history, and a family at the center.
For the kids on bikes energy
Paper Girls is the Amazon show that basically was the other Stranger Things and nobody watched it. One season, and it's great.
Dark Matter from Apple is for the slightly older version of you who wants the sci-fi without the nostalgia filter.
From is a horror show about a town you can't leave and it has the same pull as Stranger Things once it gets going.
For the 80s nostalgia specifically
GLOW is Netflix's cancelled-too-soon wrestling comedy and it nails the decade better than Stranger Things does.
Physical has the same texture in a very different tone.
Halt and Catch Fire is the 80s-and-90s tech show you didn't watch and should. Four seasons of quiet greatness.
For the small-town secrets
Mare of Easttown is Kate Winslet in a seven-episode crime drama that hits like a novel.
Yellowjackets is a small group of people keeping a very bad secret. It's the closest any recent show gets to Stranger Things's specific friendship-forever-no-matter-what feeling.
Wayward Pines is the Shyamalan show that doesn't get enough credit. First season only.
For the sci-fi heart
Tales from the Loop is the show I bring up every chance I get. Gentle, science fiction, unforgettable.
Counterpart is a spy-show-slash-parallel-universe-show with J.K. Simmons being J.K. Simmons twice.
Across every service, there's way more Stranger Things DNA than Netflix will ever show you. That's what BingeNext is built for. It looks across every service you pay for at the same time, so you don't miss the good stuff hiding on Apple TV+ or Max just because you were on the wrong tab.
Stranger Things isn't going to make another first season. Nothing can. But the feeling it gives you, that weird mix of scared and safe and ten years old again, lives in more places than you think.
Topics covered: stranger-things, sci-fi, horror, nostalgia
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and writes every guide on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu, and he still tests every pick the hard way: by watching it.