Television series

Colony

Name: Colony
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 2016
Cast: Josh Holloway, Sarah Wayne Callies, Alex Neustaedter, Peter Jacobson, Isabella Crovetti

Other titles called Colony: the 2026 film.

Colony strips the alien-invasion genre down to something quieter and more uncomfortable: what would you actually do? Los Angeles sits behind a wall, run by an occupying force we barely see, and the Bowman family's survival depends on daily, grinding moral compromise. It's tense, paranoid, character-driven sci-fi for people who want their genre shows to ask hard questions rather than answer easy ones.

TVMaze rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a sci-fi occupation story told through a family's tense daily compromises, where the moral bargaining matters more than the alien spectacle.

Skip it if you want the aliens front and centre; this keeps them at arm's length and spends its time on kitchen-table dilemmas, checkpoints and who gets to stay quiet.

What it asks of you: Around an hour an episode, across three seasons of thirty-six, with a patient pace and a steady grey tone. It rewards staying with the characters rather than waiting for the next big set piece.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Man in the High Castle2015

The gold standard for occupation drama: an alternate history where America lost WWII, and ordinary people navigate collaboration, resistance and everything murky in between with real weight.

But Dense, slow-building and increasingly strange in its later seasons; it demands patience Colony's pace never asks for.

Falling Skies2011

A family and a resistance cell fighting to survive under alien occupation, with the same DNA as Colony but more firefights and less espionage — a satisfying, punchier cousin.

But Leans harder into action-adventure than Colony's slow paranoia; the moral complexity thins out as it goes.

Jericho2006

No aliens, just a small Kansas town cut off after a mysterious catastrophe, forced to rebuild its own government and decide who to trust — the same survival-under-pressure engine, human-scale.

But Cancelled abruptly after two seasons, so the ending is a compromise rather than a resolution.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Colony

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Okkupert2015

Same premise — occupied homeland, collaborators, a resistance forming in the shadows — but grounded entirely in real-world politics instead of sci-fi, proving the format works with zero genre disguise.

A Norwegian series imagining a near-future Russian occupation of Norway, dressed in exactly the same clothes as Colony but without a single alien — just cold, plausible geopolitics and quiet betrayal.

But Subtitled and slower-paced, more procedural than thriller; it trades Colony's tension for bureaucratic dread.

Homeland2011

Swap occupiers for terrorists and you get the same tightrope: characters forced into impossible loyalty tests, with genuinely gripping, paranoid plotting throughout.

But No sci-fi at all, and its politics can feel dated or clumsy watched back after a decade of real-world news.

Counterpart2017

A Cold War spy thriller disguised as parallel-universe sci-fi, obsessed with the same question Colony keeps circling: who do you become when survival requires becoming someone else?

But Cerebral and slow-burning, closer to a chess match than a thriller; it rewards close attention more than tension.

Revolution2012

Post-collapse America, warring factions, families torn apart by which side to join — pulpier and more melodramatic than Colony, but scratches the same itch.

But Gets sillier as it goes, with mythology that outpaces its own logic by the second season.

Under the Dome2013

A town sealed off overnight and forced to invent its own rules of survival and control — Stephen King's version of the same claustrophobic occupation premise.

But Starts strong, then sags badly; the central mystery never quite earns the answer it gets.

The 1002014

Young survivors making brutal, morally compromising choices to keep their people alive under a hostile new order — Colony's ethical bleakness, filtered through YA sci-fi.

But Uneven production values early on and tonal whiplash between teen drama and genuine horror.

Lost2004

Josh Holloway before Will Bowman, doing a different kind of survival — stranded, suspicious, forming and breaking allegiances with fellow castaways under mysterious rules.

But A completely different show in ambition and mythology; go in for Holloway and the ensemble craft, not for occupation-drama parallels.

Army of Shadows1969

This is the moral engine of Colony with the science fiction removed — occupation, informants, and the impossible arithmetic of who you sacrifice to survive, done as sober history rather than speculation.

Jean-Pierre Melville's austere, devastating account of the French Resistance during Nazi occupation — the real historical version of the choices Colony fictionalises, stripped of any comfort.

But Slow, unsentimental and grim by design; there's no genre scaffolding here, just the true weight of collaboration and betrayal.

V1983

Same skeleton — occupiers, collaborators, a family and neighbourhood splitting along fault lines of complicity — but played as unashamed genre spectacle, the register Colony carefully avoids.

The gloriously trashy 80s ancestor of alien-occupation TV: visitors arrive, promise peace, and a resistance forms among neighbours who suddenly can't trust each other.

But Camp, dated effects and soap-opera acting — this is pure pulp, not the grounded tension Colony works so hard to build.