TV Shows Like Stranger Things
If you like Stranger Things, here are 11 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
Netflix · Action & Adventure · Stranger Things is ended
Stranger Things works because it earns its nostalgia rather than just performing it. The show is set in a small Indiana town where the familiar rhythms of suburban life, bikes, school, basement hangouts, get cracked open by something genuinely frightening underneath. The Upside Down is a great image precisely because it mirrors the real world exactly but strips it of warmth. The kids at the center of the story are written as actual children, not miniature adults, which makes the danger feel real rather than theatrical. It is, at its core, a show about a community forced to see what has always been hiding in plain sight.
The best shows like Stranger Things
1. True Blood
True Blood is built around the same premise that makes Stranger Things so effective: a small, tight-knit town where something impossible has become unavoidably real. The show is set in rural Louisiana and uses its community of recurring characters the way Stranger Things uses Hawkins, as a place where everyone knows everyone, and secrets have consequences. It is darker and more adult in content, but the mixture of mystery, supernatural menace, and small-town politics will feel immediately familiar.
Stream on Hulu, HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Ended0%
2. IT: Welcome to Derry
IT: Welcome to Derry is probably the closest tonal match to Stranger Things on this list. It is set in the early 1960s, centers on a group of kids investigating the disappearance of local children, and layers in a military subplot that echoes the government conspiracy running through Stranger Things. The ancient evil lurking beneath the town, the endangered children, and the adults who refuse to see what is right in front of them are all recognizable beats for any fan of the show.
Stream on HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Likely Renewed88%
3. It
It captures the specific feeling Stranger Things chases better than almost anything else: a group of misfit kids, bound by loyalty and shared trauma, facing a monster that adults cannot or will not acknowledge. The shape-shifting creature here is crueler and more psychologically invasive than the Demogorgon, but the emotional architecture is the same. If the friendship at the center of Stranger Things is what keeps you watching, this is the place to go next.
Ended0%
4. Ash vs Evil Dead
Ash vs Evil Dead is the tonal wildcard here, leaning into comedy in a way Stranger Things only occasionally does. But the show shares a genuine quality with it: a sense that the supernatural is not just dangerous but relentless, always coming back no matter how many times you think you have closed the door on it. Fans who enjoyed the moments of levity and camaraderie in Stranger Things, the group dynamics and the reluctant-hero energy, will find a lot to like in Ash and his ragtag crew.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Starz Apple TV Channel, Starz Roku Premium Channel, Starz
Cancelled0%
5. Locke & Key
Locke & Key follows three siblings who move into a family home full of magical keys that are equal parts gift and threat, which maps closely onto the way Stranger Things uses the Upside Down as something fascinating and horrifying at the same time. The show centers young characters dealing with grief and danger, and it keeps its mystery grounded in family and loyalty rather than spectacle. It is less scary than Stranger Things but hits the same notes of wonder mixed with dread.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Ended0%
More on shows like Stranger Things
Fans of Stranger Things tend to want a few specific things from their next show: a tight community of characters who feel like they actually know each other, a supernatural threat that has weight and history, and a setting, usually a small town, that functions almost as a character in itself. The horror should be scary but not nihilistic. The friendship and loyalty between characters should matter as much as the monster. When those elements line up, the genre almost disappears, and you just get a story about people under impossible pressure.
The shows here hit those notes in different ways. IT: Welcome to Derry and It are the most direct parallels, both rooted in Stephen King's vision of a town rotted from within, with children banding together against something ancient and local officials too compromised or too scared to help. Locke & Key takes the kids-uncovering-dark-family-secrets angle and runs it through a fantasy lens, with magical objects standing in for the Upside Down as a source of both wonder and genuine menace. True Blood uses the small-town-harboring-impossible-secrets premise too, though it skews older and more satirical, translating supernatural coexistence into something closer to a social drama with fangs. Ash vs Evil Dead is the outlier in tone, leaning hard into comedy, but the core of a reluctant hero dealing with demonic forces that never fully go away will feel familiar to anyone who has watched the Hawkins crew drag themselves back into the fight one more time.
None of these shows are Stranger Things exactly, but each one shares something real with it. The best place to start depends on what you loved most: the King-esque dread of children in danger, the small-town atmosphere with a conspiratorial undertow, or the genre-mixing energy that makes you laugh and then flinches you. There is something here for each of those impulses.
More shows like Stranger Things
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Stranger Things?
- True Blood is the most popular show similar to Stranger Things in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Stranger Things still on the air?
- Of the 11 shows similar to Stranger Things listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Stranger Things?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.