15 Best TV Shows Like Apple TV's Severance

Waiting for a new season of "Severance" can be as agonizing as a trip to the Lumon break room... but we have some suggestions to ease the pain.

Apple TV's heady sci-fi thriller returned in January for a triumphant second season — in fact, it made our list of the year's best shows — but we had to wait nearly three years for Season 2 to arrive, and we may have to wait until at least 2027 to clock back in with our friends at Lumon for Season 3. So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

Luckily, there are plenty of other TV shows that bend our brains in the same ways that "Severance" does: dystopian science fiction, puzzle-box mysteries and pitch-black workplace comedies that may serve to scratch that itch until "Severance" returns for Season 3. So if you've already refined all of your data for the fiscal quarter and you're looking for something new to watch, read on to see which shows we recommend to cure your "Severance" withdrawal.

Charlie Brooker's nightmarish Netflix anthology is the first show we think of when we think of "Severance" comparisons; actually, the "Severance" pilot feels a lot like a particularly great "Black Mirror" episode. Casting a skeptical eye on the way that technology has crept into every aspect of our lives, "Mirror" tells a new story in each episode, usually about a high-tech device or innovation that backfires in tragic fashion. It pairs a high-concept sci-fi premise with a distinct taste for dark comedy... although it gets even darker than "Severance" has ever dared at times.

A few "Black Mirror" episodes stand out as particularly "Severance"-y, like the holiday special "White Christmas" (with people replicated as digital clones) and Season 4's "USS Callister," with an evil video game developer keeping doubles of his co-workers captive in a "Star Trek"-esque game. But really, all of "Black Mirror" registers right up there with "Severance" on the dystopian sci-fi scale, and makes for a great companion piece.

Years before Mark S. first set foot in Lumon, computer hacker Elliot Alderson was unraveling a vast corporate conspiracy of his own on this USA Network thriller. Rami Malek won an Emmy, and rightfully so, for his terrific work as Elliot, who uses his hacking skills to try to take down the evil E Corp and expose its sinister crimes to the world. (Sound familiar?)

But Elliot struggles with mental illness, too, and as with "Severance," we can't tell at certain points if what we were seeing through his eyes is actually real. The persistent air of paranoia, stylish visuals, and jarring plot twists are right in line with what we love about "Severance," and "Mr. Robot" also gives us a densely packed mystery to puzzle over, told through the lens of technology. If you need another show where people stare at computer screens and clack away on keyboards — but is still absolutely riveting, somehow — this one is for you.

If you're still hanging on to that Apple TV subscription after "Severance" wrapped up Season 2, there's another acclaimed show airing on the service right now that might tickle your sci-fi fancy.

Springing from the mind of "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan, this mesmerizing drama stars "Better Call Saul" standout Rhea Seehorn as Carol, who seems to be the last person on Earth unaffected by a sweeping virus that turns every other human into a smiling cult member eager to assimilate her. Carol's battle against the cheerful hive mind feels a lot like Mark S.'s battle against the cheerful corporate culture at Lumon, and Gilligan's twist-filled story mixes puzzle-box mystery with dark comedy in a very "Severance"-like way.

"Pluribus" has already been renewed for a second season at Apple TV, too, so these two shows might be competing head-to-head at the Emmys soon enough. (Now that's a competition where we all win.)

Hailing from Alex Garland, of "Ex Machina" fame, this ambitious FX thriller flew under the radar during its one and only season — perhaps because it debuted in March 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic — but it might be the closest match for "Severance," plot-wise. Sonoya Mizuno ("House of the Dragon") stars as Lily, a software engineer at a mysterious tech company who starts investigating when her boyfriend disappears and stumbles upon a top-secret project that could change humanity forever.

Just like "Severance" does, "Devs" uses technology to explore big questions about humanity and identity — and takes us on a mind-bending journey to get there. Plus, the cast is spiked with solid supporting turns from the likes of "Parks and Recreation" alum Nick Offerman and rising star Cailee Spaeny. We may not be able to explain everything that happens in "Devs," exactly — we'd need an advanced degree in theoretical science to do that — but we still enjoyed going along for the ride.

An ominous sci-fi concept, a bureaucratic workplace with mysterious intentions, actors playing double roles... yes, we recognize the formula that this underrated Starz thriller is using. Oscar winner J.K. Simmons stars as Howard Silk, a timid office drone at a United Nations agency who doesn't realize that he's passing messages back and forth between parallel universes... and that in the other world, he's a badass spy.

Created by Justin Marks, who would go on to co-create the Emmy-winning FX samurai epic "Shōgun," "Counterpart" dives deep into hard sci-fi with lots of twists and turns (along with some hard-hitting social commentary), and it gives Simmons a chance to flex his acting muscles with very different dual roles. It mostly went unnoticed, lost in the tidal wave of Peak TV, and got the axe at Starz after just two seasons. But for "Severance" fans looking for a quick substitute, it's well worth rediscovering.

Like Lumon's cubicle-dwelling Innies, the theme park robots of "Westworld" are stuck at work forever... but they long to be free. That yearning for freedom is the beating heart of HBO's chillingly dystopian sci-fi drama, set at a futuristic theme park where visitors can live out their Wild West fantasies, accompanied by a team of highly realistic androids who will do anything the visitors wish.

The androids are supposed to have their memories wiped after each visit, but that goes haywire, of course, and Evan Rachel Wood and Thandiwe Newton give incredible performances as robots who start to recover their memories and fight for the chance to be fully human. "Westworld" was a big, buzzy hit for HBO when it premiered, but it tailed off in later seasons, with HBO canceling it in 2022... and then unceremoniously removing it from streaming a month later. (You can still rent episodes, though, if you want to get caught up.)

Oh, you like solving mysteries, do you? Unpacking a complicated sci-fi narrative over several seasons? Well, let us take you back twenty years to one of TV's first (and best) puzzle-box mysteries.

In 2004, ABC debuted an ambitious new drama inspired by "Survivor" and "Cast Away," with Matthew Fox leading a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a remote tropical island. But things quickly get a lot more complicated than that, as the survivors learn they're not alone — and the island may not be what it seems. Fans went through each episode with a fine-toothed comb and traded theories on online message boards, trying to decipher what the heck was actually going on, and the show became a mega-hit, running for six seasons.

It may not have provided the answers that everyone wanted — its series finale is still divisive to this day — but "Lost" absolutely paved the way for cerebral TV mysteries like "Severance" to follow.

Before "Severance" introduced us to the severance procedure, there was another dystopian TV thriller that literally messed with its characters' minds. "Mr. Robot" creator Sam Esmail serves up this grim slice of paranoia on Prime Video, with big-screen icon Julia Roberts playing a social worker who helps military soldiers acclimate to life as a civilian after returning home. Years later, she doesn't remember a thing about her time doing that work — and she discovers that she and the soldiers were guinea pigs for an experimental treatment meant to erase traumatic memories.

The fuzzy memories and shadowy high-level conspiracies at play here should be catnip for any "Severance" fan, and Roberts does some of her best work in years, joined by stellar turns from Stephan James, Shea Whigham, and future "The Bear" star Jeremy Allen White. Season 2 is a bit of a letdown, to be honest, with Janelle Monáe taking over for Roberts as the season's star, but as a whole, "Homecoming" is definitely cut from the same cloth that "Severance" is.

Fox has tried out and then quickly discarded a lot of wild sci-fi concepts over the years. (Remember the dinosaur drama "Terra Nova"? The robot cop show "Almost Human"?) But they hit the jackpot with this certified cult classic from "Lost" co-creator J.J. Abrams, starring Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble as members of a special FBI division using fringe science to investigate unexplained phenomena. Yes, it's heavily inspired by Fox's previous hit "The X-Files," but "Fringe" amassed a cult following of its own by leaning into hard science fiction to a degree rarely seen on network TV.

In later seasons, the show starts to explore the concept of parallel universes, and Noble and Torv absolutely thrive as they play doppelgangers of their characters. (Plus, this is a chance to see Noble in his defining TV role before he played Burt's husband Fields in Season 2 of "Severance.") Sci-fi doesn't get much more brain-bending than this.

If you like watching Britt Lower play both the rebellious Helly and the sinister Helena in a single episode of "Severance," you're gonna love being a member of the #CloneClub. Debuting on BBC America in 2013, "Orphan Black" starred Tatiana Maslany as a woman named Sarah who discovers to her horror that she's been the subject of a top-secret cloning experiment... and there are quite a few others just like her out there.

Maslany plays a myriad of clones here, from uptight housewife Alison to feral brute Helena, and she manages to develop a distinct personality for each, sharing scenes with herself and delivering one of the best TV performances of the century. (Her 2016 Emmy win was well-deserved indeed.) Plus, Sarah's pulse-pounding quest to find out what happened to her and reclaim her identity is echoed in Mark S.'s quest to expose Lumon in "Severance." Give "Orphan Black" a chance, and you'll be a #CloneClub member for life.

You probably weren't expecting to see a comedy on this list — but to be fair, this pitch-black workplace satire is about as bleak as a so-called "comedy" can get. Set at the fictional mammoth corporation Hampton-DeVille, it follows two miserable low-level employees (played by co-creators Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman) as they do their best to climb the corporate ladder without sacrificing their souls to get there. No, they're not literally trapped at work like Lumon's Innies are, but it does kind of feel that way.

"Corporate" gleefully skewers the meaningless jargon of today's office culture, and it features a fantastic performance from the late Lance Reddick as malevolent CEO Christian DeVille... who might literally be the devil. This show never really got the due it deserved during its three-season run on Comedy Central, but it's still available to stream on Paramount+, and it's a perfect match for "Severance's" wicked sense of humor.

Somehow, in the tsunami of content we were pelted with in the Peak TV era, a Netflix show starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone came and went without much fanfare. But looking back, it feels like a direct precursor to "Severance," exploring issues of identity and free will through a mind-blowing sci-fi concept.

Hill and Stone play Owen and Annie, two volunteers in a pharmaceutical trial for an experimental drug that promises to solve all of their problems. The drug sends them on a colorful psychedelic adventure, with Hill and Stone playing a kaleidoscope of different characters in various fantasies. Directed by "True Detective" veteran Cary Joji Fukunaga and penned by "The Leftovers" veteran Patrick Somerville, "Maniac" takes us on a wild ride indeed, with stunning visuals and surreal plot twists. Annie is even trying to get over past relationships in a way that recalls "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"... and Lumon's own Mark S., of course.

A surreal alternate universe made possible by a terrifying technological innovation? Speaking as "Severance" fans, sign us up!

Prime Video's sci-fi comedy imagines a future where you can upload your consciousness to a virtual afterlife after you die, enjoying lots of luxurious amenities... as long as you can pay for them, that is. Series creator Greg Daniels (who cut his teeth on "The Simpsons" and "The Office") brings a gleefully dark vision of the future to life here, with Robbie Amell starring as Nathan, a hapless guy who's forced into an afterlife he can't afford by his nagging girlfriend Ingrid (played by Allegra Edwards).

The idea of a futuristic afterlife for sale feels like a lost episode of "Black Mirror," or maybe the next innovation for Lumon after the severance procedure goes out wide. Nathan also develops feelings for his afterlife handler Nora, played by Andy Allo, and their forbidden romance gives us serious Mark-and-Helly vibes.

We had to dig deep into the archives for this one, but this short-lived Fox sci-fi drama from "Buffy" mastermind Joss Whedon has a premise that should ring a bell for any "Severance" fan. Eliza Dushku stars as Echo, one of several "dolls" who are implanted with temporary personalities and talents to entertain wealthy clients, only to have their memories wiped clean after each job. Echo starts to remember more than she should, though.

The high concept, and all the thorny ethical issues it raises, are a clear precursor to "Severance," and there's a bonus for fans of that show: Dichen Lachman — who would go on to play Ms. Casey/Gemma on "Severance" — co-stars here as a doll named Sierra who falls in love with another doll, despite all the memory wipes. Debuting back in 2009, "Dollhouse" may have been a little too far ahead of its time, though; it was axed after just two seasons.

Brain implants are all the rage on TV these days. A year before "Severance" bowed on Apple TV, HBO Max conjured up its own sci-fi nightmare, with future Emmy winner Cristin Milioti starring as Hazel, a woman who finally escapes from her tech billionaire husband — only to discover he implanted a device in her brain that lets him see everything she does and keep track of her whereabouts. How romantic!

During her marriage, Hazel was trapped inside a virtual reality complex that took care of her every need but wouldn't let her leave... which sounds a lot like life as an Innie to us. Milioti is fantastic as Hazel (she faced a similar dilemma in the "Black Mirror" episode "USS Callister"), and Billy Magnussen is a riot as her peppy ex-husband Byron, with Ray Romano popping up as her sex doll-romancing dad Herbert. Unfortunately, the show was a casualty of HBO Max's spree of tax write-offs, with the streaming service canceling it after two seasons before dropping it entirely. But they can't erase our memories!