Black Mirror has covered a lot of great ideas over its seven seasons. It’s dark, smart, and sometimes uncomfortable in a compelling way. Each episode has its own story and characters that deal with AI, tech, society, and where the future might be going, all spun in a dystopian way.
It’s impressive and also depressing how some of the absurd ideas and scenarios from earlier seasons of the 2010s are getting ever so closer to becoming a reality. If you’re into that kind of thought-provoking and eerie storytelling, then there are plenty of TV shows out there that give off a similar vibe, even if some of these might be more grounded and realistic.
8Love, Death + Robots (2019-Present)
Rotten Tomatoes: 86 Percent
Love, Death + Robots is an animated anthology show, kind of like Black Mirror but way more out there.Each episode is different, not just in story, but also in animation style, since they’re made by different animation studios. Some episode styles are hyper-realistic, while others are more traditional.
Like Black Mirror, a lot of episodes focus on dystopian settings and the use of technology. But this one doesn’t just stick to one tone. Some episodes are funny, while others are far more serious, and the variety is part of what makes it great.
7The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92 Percent
The Twilight Zonebasically started it all, and Black Mirror is clearly inspired by it. Every episode has its own little story, just like Black Mirror. Some are creepy, and some are just weird and surreal in the best way.
The episodes deal with society, technology, and human nature. Rod Serling, who created it, really pushed the limits of what TV could do at the time. Back then, TV wasn’t doing anything remotely close to being this smart or strange. After its release in 1959, it took 40 years for shows to reach the same heights, with The Sopranos in 1999, which started a new era of prestige television.
6Devs (2020)
Rotten Tomatoes: 82 Percent
Devs is made by Alex Garland, and has a somewhat similar sci-fi tone to his movies like Ex Machina and Annihilation, and compared to his more grounded stuff like Civil War and Warfare.
The show is about this mysterious tech company that’s working on shady stuff behind the scenes. The setting is unique too - modern but with a strange and peaceful creepiness. It builds tension very well and is smartly written. The standout performance comes from Nick Offerman, who plays the CEO of the tech company.
5Mindhunter (2017-2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97 Percent
Mindhunter isn’t a sci-fi and far more psychological, but it can still feel in line with Black Mirror. The show is about the early days of FBI criminal profiling, and it’s one of thebest works by David Fincher, even with all of his amazing movies.
The atmosphere is so thick, it greatly pulls you in right from the first episode. The characters are all very well-written, including the various serial killers that the main characters interrogate. Even though it’s all grounded in reality, it still has such an eerie and captivating feel. It never got a third season, despite a lot of fan demands, but those two seasons are some of the best television out there.
4Mr. Robot (2015-2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 94 Percent
Despite being universally acclaimed, Mr. Robot still isn’t as popular as it should be. The show is about a vigilante hacker named Elliot who takes down corrupt systems and organizations. It plays with reality, mental health, and identity in really smart ways.
It’s a little sci-fi, but more grounded and gritty. This was Rami Malek’s breakout role, and he does a great job. It does show how tech can affect people’s lives, so there’s some overlap with Black Mirror. It can also be a little subversive with its story decisions.
3Fargo (2014-2023)
Fargo is a realistic anthology show that isn’t sci-fi at all, except for that random UFO scene in season two. Each season tells a different crime story, usually set in the Midwest. The character work across all seasons is amazing, with consistent themes of morality, people making awful choices, and how random some things can feel when you’re not in control.
The writing is sharp, and multiple characters in every season always stand out with their development. It also does the historical aspects really well, like with season two in the ’70s, and season four in the ’50s, while seasons one, three, and five take place in different time periods of the 21st century.
2Severance (2022-Present)
Rotten Tomatoes: 96 Percent
Severance came out strong with its first season and pulled everyone in. Then it took three years for the second season to drop, but it was evident in the show’s quality. The stories about workers at a company who split their minds between work and personal life, and don’t have any memories of the other part of their lives.
The characters, especially Mark, Helly, and Irving, are layered and slowly open up as the story goes, with even more expanded rolesin the second season. It kinda feels like a Black Mirror episode adapted into a full show, which works really well.
1Westworld (2016-2022)
Rotten Tomatoes: 80 Percent
Westworld started off as a cool sci-fi western, but it grew into something way more complicated and complex with later seasons. The show is about AI robots, consciousness, and what makes someone truly human. It takes place in a theme park where people can live out wild-west fantasies, but underneath it all, there’s a lot of dark stuff going on.
It was created by Jonathan Nolan, who’s also behind the Fallout series, and you’re able to really see the video game influence here with its storytelling choices and narrative design, since Jonathan is a huge gamer himself. The storytelling is complex, sometimes even too much, but it’s very ambitious.
