10 Best Sci-Fi Shows Like Netflix's Dark

The German series "Dark" is one of the best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix. The events of "Dark" take place in a small town where children disappear across multiple points in history. As the families involved investigate the incidents, they discover a strange cave on the outskirts of town. This leads to a story spanning multiple generations, escalating to a post-apocalyptic scope as the show progresses across its acclaimed three-season run.

For fans of moody small-town thrillers with mysterious undertones, there are plenty of shows sharing that basic framework. These include series that provide their own twists on science fiction and horror. What follows is a list that's heavy on unsettling moods, atmospheric thrills, suspenseful storytelling, and memorable characters facing dilemmas far beyond their imaginations.

As far as small-town paranormal mystery shows go, the 1990 ABC series "Twin Peaks" casts a long shadow over the genre. Created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, "Twin Peaks" begins when homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) washes up on the beach "dead ... wrapped in plastic," in the words of fisherman Pete Martell (Jack Nance). FBI special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to town to investigate and finds plenty of dark and twisted secrets beyond Laura's death. Otherworldly figures begin to surface, and some of them offer Cooper guidance in the form of cryptic messages like "The owls are not what they seem" and "That gum you like is going to come back in style."

Though David Lynch wasn't thrilled with "Twin Peaks" Season 2, overall, it's not entirely the sharp drop in quality its legacy suggests — in fact, the Season 2 premiere and finale in particular are essential viewing for Lynch fans and TV buffs. Regardless, "Twin Peaks" stuck the landing 25 years later with a revival season on Showtime, ending its enigmatic story on an exceptionally high note.

The 2008 sci-fi series "Fringe" follows a special division of the FBI based out of Boston that focuses on paranormal incidents. These cases are primarily involved with the existence of parallel universes. The story centers on FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and civilian consultant Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) as they uncover a complex conspiracy spanning multiple realities.

"Fringe" is one of those sci-fi shows that consistently improves as it continues, building out an engrossing mythology around its core concept. The more that the show moves away from its case-of-the-week format and leans into a larger overarching narrative, the stronger it becomes. Along the way, the story packs plenty of twists and turns, right through to the burning questions left by the series finale. An ambitious tour of alternate realities that left audiences guessing every step of its five-season journey, "Fringe" was a steadily entertaining fixture on Fox.

Science fiction time-travel stories get a contemporary crime drama twist with the cult Canadian series "Continuum." The show opens with a terrorist group from 2077 going back to 2012 to escape their dystopian future where the world is run by corrupt megacorporations. Police officer Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) inadvertently goes back with them. Upon her arrival in 2012, she tries to stop the terrorists from altering established history. She also searches for a way to get back ... to the future ... and reunite with her family. 

"Continuum" brings its sci-fi setup to the police procedural format, as Kiera takes on different cases each week while maintaining her cover. This is juxtaposed with the overarching narrative of the intrepid detective facing her fellow time-travelers and the hallmarks leading to her future. Like "Fringe," the show begins to lean more into this serialized story as the wider consequences from the characters' tampering with history grow more evident.

The 1995 Terry Gilliam movie "12 Monkeys" serves as the loose basis for the similarly titled 2015 Syfy show. TV's "12 Monkeys" has Earth devastated by a contagion released by a terrorist organization known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys. Decades after this cataclysmic event, survivor James Cole (Aaron Stanford) travels back in time to prevent the outbreak and save humanity's future. Upon arriving in the past, Cole teams up with scientist Cassie Railly (Amanda Schull).

Like "Dark" after it, "12 Monkeys" features a tightly crafted time-travel story that maintains careful attention to detail, especially as it grows more ambitious across its four seasons. But for all the time-travel mechanics, the show develops its human stakes and memorable characters to emotionally stirring effect. "12 Monkeys" is a peak TV treasure that deserves far more attention than it got, both during its broadcast run and in the years since its conclusion.

Before "Stranger Things," the Duffer Brothers worked on the underrated sci-fi series "Wayward Pines," which premiered on Fox in 2015. The show begins with U.S. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) searching for two missing agents in the town of Wayward Pines, Idaho. Burke finds himself trapped in the community and unable to contact the outside world, as the sheriff Arnold Pope (Terrence Howard) keeps the town under tight control.

"Wayward Pines" is a show that gets wilder as it goes, particularly in its second and final season. A lot of the stylistic hallmarks that the Duffers brought to "Stranger Things" are present, but with an authoritarian twist. The first season adapts the novels of the same name by author Blake Crouch and is significantly stronger than the second season.

When it comes to sci-fi shows like "Dark," there is simply no topping its fellow Netflix original "Stranger Things." Premiering in 2016, "Stranger Things" takes place in the fictional Indiana town of Hawkins, starting in November of 1983. After local boy Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) goes missing, his friends uncover a government conspiracy that involves monsters from an extra-dimensional portal. Meanwhile, a strange girl known simply as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) escapes from government custody to seek refuge in Hawkins.

Blending '80s nostalgia with sci-fi horror, "Stranger Things" felt like event television every time it dropped a new season. While the "Stranger Things" series finale left big questions unanswered, the joy of the show is its characters' coming-of-age journey.

The 2016 Netflix series "The OA" combines science fiction and fantasy to create a wholly unique story. The show opens with Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) returning to her hometown after seven years missing, with her eyesight mysteriously restored and new, strange scars. 

Running for two seasons before its cancellation, "The OA" revolves around a fantastical mystery propelling its misfit main cast of characters on a cross-country adventure. This expands to a tale that's cross-dimensional in its scope. Like "Dark" and "Stranger Things," the story is predicated on a small town in a dilemma far beyond conventional comprehension. What makes "The OA" such a television gem is that it leans more into sci-fi and fantasy than the usual horror thrills of its contemporaries.

Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang's 2015 comic book "Paper Girls" was adapted into a Prime Video original series in 2022. The show opens with four girls delivering newspapers in their Ohio suburb the morning after Halloween in 1988. Without spoiling too much, we can say the protagonists encounter more than their fair share of time travel.  

Like "Stranger Things," "Paper Girls" features a strong young cast front and center and plenty of '80s nostalgia. Unfortunately, "Paper Girls" was canceled after a single season, ending its story on a cliffhanger unlikely to ever be resolved on TV. Fortunately, if you want to know what would've happened in Season 2, you can always read the comics. 

Conceptually, "Paper Girls" is pretty close to "Dark," with its time-bending mystery unfolding across multiple eras.

Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, creators of "Dark," reunited for another Netflix original mystery series, "1899," in 2022. The story is ostensibly set in its titular year and follows a steamship crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to New York City. What unfolds is a disturbing mystery surrounding the true nature of the steamship and its voyage.

Just as they did with "Dark," Friese and Odar told their story with a foreboding atmosphere that only grows more ominous as it progresses. The show boasts a solid international cast led by English actor Emily Beecham. Unfortunately, "1899" was canceled at Netflix after a single season, leaving many of its bigger questions unresolved just as they started to surface. But for those looking for another spellbinding series from the creators of "Dark," "1899" delivers with a similar level of moody and unsettling storytelling.

The 2022 thriller series "From" evokes the unease that informs a lot of "Dark," albeit in a different way. The show is set in a remote town that, via supernatural means, traps anyone who passes through its borders. The community's sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau) tries to maintain order as he investigates the town's secrets and looks for a way to escape. Meanwhile, whenever the sun goes down, the surrounding area becomes a hunting ground for deadly beasts.

"From" serves as an unusual puzzle box of a story that gets more disturbing and ambitious the deeper audiences get sucked in. Perrineau is a seasoned veteran, and he brings that steady presence to the MGM+ series. After three seasons, "From" hasn't gotten stale or felt like it's spinning its creative wheels as it proceeds at a deliberate pace. Tightly crafted and delivering intrigue and nightmarish thrills in equal measure, "From" is a strong addition to the MGM+ library.