Unearthing TV Gold: 15 Lesser-Known Shows Like Dark and Stranger Things That You'll Love
There's lots of great TV out there. But it's not all easy to find.
So, if you're a fan of shows such as Dark and Stranger Things who is looking to unearth TV gold and is prepared to go off-piste in search of lesser-known quality, these are for you.
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Set in dystopian Brazil, this post-apocalyptic thriller was the first Netflix original to be streamed in Portuguese. It sees young adults from the poverty-stricken 'Inland' offered an opportunity to complete 'The Process' and move to the wealthy 'Offshore'. But 97% of those who attempt it don't survive. There are 4 seasons and a total of 33 episodes.
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1899
A multi-lingual period drama mystery set on board a ship bound for New York. The tense thriller has only 8 episodes and was critically acclaimed yet cancelled by Netflix.
A sci-fi drama that was praised for its character development and political storylines. Humanity controls and inhabits the Solar System, and the show follows a crew as they inadvertently unravel and find themselves wrapped up in a conspiracy that threatens to destroy cold war fragility. It ran for 6 seasons.
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Copenhagen Cowboy
A Danish supernatural thriller in the style of film noir. It ran for a single season lasting just 6 episodes and sees a psychic who returns to Copenhagen and gets tangled up in the criminal underworld…and encounters some strange goings on.
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Midnight Mass
A strange priest arrives in a remote town and begins to rejuvenate its faith community in this 7-part miniseries. At the same time, a young man who has just served 4 years in prison returns to his hometown. But all is not as it seems, and strange events start to occur.
An au pair is hired to look after two children in a country house. But when she gets to the Bly estate, she starts seeing apparitions. This gothic horror mini-series ran for 9 episodes and was critically acclaimed.
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Paper Girls
Set in 1988, the show was based on a comic book series of the same name. The morning after Halloween, four young girls are doing newspaper deliveries when they find themselves in the middle of a war between time travellers. This Amazon Prime series ran for just 1 season but received plenty of positive reviews.
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Travelers
'Travelers' from the future are sent back to the 21st century to prevent a series of destructive events. Using the digital footprints of their targets, these operatives are able to find out pretty much everything about the lives of the people whose bodies they will inhabit. Chilling and relevant, the show ran for 3 seasons and 34 episodes.
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Katla
An Icelandic drama set in the town of Vík after a volcanic eruption that wiped out most of the local population. Ash-caked people who had died before the eruption begin to return to the village. And the remaining residents are forced to revisit issues from their past. The show ran for 1 series consisting of 8 episodes.
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American Gods
A dark thriller that follows two detectives investigating murders that are entwined with the history of Ireland. There are plenty of twists – and plenty of murders to get stuck into. There is currently just 1 season containing 8 episodes, but a second is being talked about.
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Black Spot
A French-Belgian supernatural thriller that follows Police-Major Laurène Weiss, the police chief in her isolated hometown of Villefranche which is surrounded by mysterious woods. The murder rate in the town is 6 times the national average. And a lot of them take place in that forest.
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Tribes of Europa
43 years on from a technical failure that resulted in the collapse of Europe as a civilised society, three family members get caught up in a tribal dispute. This German dystopian sci-fi drama ran for 1 season of 6 episodes.
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Locke and Key
This US fantasy drama ran for 3 seasons and 28 episodes. Following her husband's murder Nina Locke and her 3 children move to the family home, Keyhouse. It soon transpires that this is no normal house, though. It has strange keys that unlock doors in magical ways. Naturally, there is a demonic entity that wants these magical keys for itself.
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Behind Her Eyes
A psychological thriller. Single mother Louise has an affair with her new boss and, somehow, also befriends his wife, Adele. Things turn pretty dark as it's revealed that nothing and nobody are quite what they seem.
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Ragnarok
A Norwegian fantasy drama series set in a modern-day town. With climate change high on the agenda, local factories are said to be a contributing factor. But the 'family' that runs the factories are in fact supernatural beings. And one teenage boy (who discovers that he's the reincarnation of Thor) is out to find out more about what they're really up to.