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Illustrations by Claire Merchlinsky

8 shows to watch after you finish season 3 of ‘Stranger Things’

Your streaming guide for when you can’t get enough of the supernatural.

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You’ve journeyed through the Upside Down, battled the Demogorgon and tentacled nightmares (not to mention puberty). Now that you’ve sped through all of Stranger Things Season 3, you can’t believe it’s over. Even though you’ll have to wait a while for the gang’s next adventure, you can still get a taste for the same kind of spectral weirdness you love from other shows. There are options with the same type of creepy vibe and others with similar dark secrets. All of these shows have twists and turns. They range from science fantasy to horror and everywhere in between, and all of them, like Stranger Things, will make you question the boundaries of reality even as they keep you on the edge of your seat.

What to binge for another weird show that’ll make you think: Black Mirror (Netflix)

Just like Stranger Things, Black Mirror is often dark and fantastical, but it’ll also make you think. Black Mirror is an anthology show, meaning that each episode has a new storyline and new characters, but they all explore the same theme: how technology has changed everything. If we’re not careful, the same tech that makes our lives simpler can easily take a dark turn. Unlike Stranger Things, which is set in the 1980s and is heavy on nostalgia, Black Mirror episodes often take place in the near future, one that’s recognizable enough to give you chills.

What to binge for more twisted, unpredictable drama: Westworld (HBO)

Another show set in the near future, Westworld offers up a vision of society where wealthy people pay to enjoy immersive theme parks and interact with realistic humanoid robots. The main subject of the show is a park that replicates the Wild West. There, patrons let loose their basest desires, and submit the robots, called the “hosts,” to unspeakable violence, seemingly without consequences. But like Stranger Things, Westworld can be unpredictable. The trouble starts when the hosts gain sentience and start to fight back against the violence they have endured for so long.

What to binge for more tentacles: The OA (Netflix)

Gang of misfit kids? Check. Jaunts into mysterious dimensions? Check. If you’re looking for a show like Stranger Things, The OA checks a lot of boxes, but it has a story and characters that are uniquely its own. The show follows Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling), who has suddenly returned after having been missing for seven years. Before she disappeared, Prairie was blind. Now, she can see. What happened to Prairie in those seven years? The truth will make you — and the characters in the show — question reality.

What to binge for another genre-busting story: Orphan Black (Amazon Prime)

Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) has a troubled past. She went from home to home in the English foster system for years without putting down roots before being swept off to America. Then one day she witnesses the death of Beth (also Tatiana Maslany), a woman who looks just like her. Sarah decides to assume Beth’s life and start over, but she soon learns that there is more to Beth’s perfect life than meets the eye. Sarah is pulled into a web of conspiracies and clones. Like Stranger Things, Orphan Black takes a predictable science fiction idea and turns it on its head.

What to binge for more surprising twists: Classic Twilight Zone (Netflix)

One of the most iconic shows in television history, The Twilight Zone first aired in 1959, introducing viewers to a world where superstitions come to life and your trippiest nightmares are just the beginning. Many episodes end with a shocking twist. Shows like Black Mirror and Jordan Peele’s modern version of The Twilight Zone are its spiritual successors. Episodes include hitchhiking grim reapers, nightmares, aliens, possessed dolls, paranoia, purgatory, and the monsters inside us all. The Twilight Zone is the grandfather of weird sci-fi TV. Stranger Things wouldn’t exist without it.

What to binge for more sinister secrets: Wayward Pines (Hulu)

In many ways, Wayward Pines is a successor to Twin Peaks. The two shows have a lot in common: in both, a federal agent ventures into an eerie small town to uncover bizarre secrets. In Wayward Pines that agent’s name is Ethan Burke. He’s been sent to uncover the truth about the disappearances of two fellow agents. But the longer he stays in that isolated Idaho town, the more it seems like something deeply wrong is taking place beyond the public eye. Let’s just say, to avoid major spoilers, that human aberrations lurk in the forest. As Burke goes deeper, his questions multiply. The most important one becomes: Will I make it out alive?

What to binge for more original chills: Channel Zero (SyFy & Amazon Prime)

Like Black Mirror, Channel Zero is another anthology show with a twist. Each season takes internet-spawned nightmare fuel and weaves it into a story that will make you want to sleep with the lights on. The first season, like Stranger Things, deals with a case of missing children. The next season focuses on a haunted tourist attraction, and the third follows a series of disappearances. The fourth season, the show’s last, examines a mysterious door into an unknown world. Every season will give you the creeps without relying on the same old stuff, making it just as fresh and weird as Stranger Things.

What to binge for more surreal mystery: Twin Peaks (Netflix)

All of the shows on this list share something essential with Stranger Things, but the only one that has the same creepy vibe is David Lynch’s 1991 cult-classic supernatural mystery, Twin Peaks. FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to a quiet town in Washington state to investigate the murder of a high school student, Laura Palmer. Even as the town pulls him into their drama, things start to feel a little off. You’ll get bad vibes from the place, just like you have in Hawkins, Indiana, the town in Stranger Things. And just like in Hawkins, an evil otherworld is beckoning from the shadows.

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