Television series

Raising Dion

A single mother races to understand her young son's mysterious superpowers while protecting him from those who'd weaponize them. Raising Dion blends intimate family drama with sci-fi stakes, asking what it means to raise a child who's already becoming someone beyond your control. Warm, anxious, occasionally thrilling—it's for anyone who loves watching ordinary people navigate impossible circumstances.

TVMaze rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like family dramas where the superhero hook is a pressure cooker for a parent doing their best, with grief and money worries sitting right beside the wonder and the wider mystery.

Skip it if you want superhero spectacle, with big fights and costumed set pieces; this keeps the powers small, domestic and often a little awkward, and the stakes feel personal rather than cosmic.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about 43 minutes, with two seasons and seventeen episodes in total, so it's a light commitment that rewards steady attention to the household details.

If you liked this

The Umbrella Academy2019

Superpowered siblings grappling with family trauma and cosmic threats. Like Raising Dion, it finds genuine emotion in the wreckage of extraordinary circumstances, mixing humor with real stakes and a rock-solid ensemble.

But It's considerably weirder and more baroque. If you want grounded emotional realism, the baroque production design and apocalyptic plotting might feel like visual noise.

The Umbrella Academy poster

Manifest2018

Ordinary people confronting impossible mysteries that spiral outward. Mystery-box plotting with real family dynamics at its heart, asking how you survive when the world stops making sense but your kid still needs dinner.

But The mythology gets increasingly convoluted and the show was cancelled on a cliffhanger. If you need resolution, this will frustrate you.

Manifest poster

Dark Matter2024

A found-family ensemble uncovering secrets about their own existence while protecting each other. Intimate character work grounded in sci-fi premise—it cares as much about relationships as it does about plot twists.

But It can feel deliberately oblique. If you want clarity and straightforward storytelling, the narrative ambiguity might feel evasive rather than intriguing.

Dark Matter poster

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Vast of Night2019

Both explore how knowledge of the extraordinary isolates you from the ordinary world around you. Both ask what you owe others when you know something they cannot handle.

Small-town 1950s Americana meets genuine sci-fi mystery, told with formal ingenuity and a protagonist's breathless drive to understand what he's stumbled into. Captures that same sense of hidden knowledge in familiar places, but inverts the timeline—mystery first, then the reckoning.

But It's deliberately stylized in ways that might feel like affectation. The 1950s pastiche and experimental structure prioritize mood over plot efficiency.

The Vast of Night poster
More like this (7)

Fringe2008

A mother protecting her gifted son from shadowy forces while investigating the science behind his abilities. Deep mythology, genuine warmth between characters, and a parent's fierce determination running through every episode.

But Nine seasons is a commitment and it gets serialized fast. Starting it means signing up for years, and the later mythology might test your patience.

Fringe poster

Sweet Magnolias2020

Ensemble family drama that treats adult relationships and child crises with equal weight. Warm, funny, deeply felt—the kind of show that remembers people have interior lives and contradictions.

But It's Southern soap opera in the best and worst ways. If you want plot efficiency over emotional sprawl, the melodrama might feel like wheel-spinning.

Sweet Magnolias poster

Atypical2017

A family navigating a child's difference—neurodivergence instead of superpowers, but the same core story of a parent learning and adapting. Funny, genuinely tender, and unafraid of messy feelings.

But The teen subplot can feel like filler and the humor is sometimes broad. Some episodes prioritize coming-of-age comedy over the emotional core you came for.

Atypical poster

Sense82015

Eight strangers suddenly connected by an inexplicable force, learning what they're capable of together while hunted by those who want to exploit them. Sprawling, sensual, deeply committed to its characters' emotional journeys.

But It's deliberately slow and experimental. The visual storytelling is beautiful but oblique, and patience with ambiguity is non-negotiable.

Sense8 poster

The OA2016

A young woman with mysterious powers and an ensemble bound by strange circumstances. Visually inventive, genuinely moving, and unafraid of sincerity in ways mainstream TV usually isn't.

But It ended on a cliffhanger before cancellation. If you need closure, this will leave you angry and unsatisfied.

The OA poster

The Gifted2017

A family on the run after discovering their children have mutant powers. Grounded X-Men storytelling focused on parental desperation and adolescent confusion rather than spectacle.

But It was cancelled after two seasons and never wrapped its story. If you hate unresolved narratives, don't start this.

The Gifted poster

Okja2017

Both center on a young person's refusal to let the world weaponize something precious. Both ask what it costs to protect innocence when systems want to destroy it.

A girl protecting a creature she loves from people who want to exploit it. Formally playful, wildly imaginative, with genuine stakes and a child's moral clarity cutting through adult corruption. Toni Erdmann director, Bong Joon-ho sensibility.

But The tonal shifts are jarring—cute to grotesque to heartfelt in minutes. If you need tonal consistency, it will feel chaotic.

Okja poster

People

Cast

Writing

Production

Recommended by