Television series

Stranger Things

Name: Stranger Things
Genre: Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 2016
Cast: Winona Ryder, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Natalia Dyer

Small-town 1980s kids on bikes go up against a secret government lab, a monster from another dimension, and their own middle-school anxieties, often in the same episode. It's Spielberg-and-Stephen-King cosplay executed with real craft, real stakes, and a soundtrack that makes your Walkman jealous. Warm, scary, funny, and increasingly epic across its run — built for anyone who wants nostalgia with teeth.

TVMaze rating

8.4

If you liked this

The Goonies1985

The blueprint for kids-on-bikes adventure, right down to the treasure map and the bully with a car. Funnier and looser than you remember, and every Stranger Things season owes it a debt.

But Broad 80s comic-relief acting and a plot that runs on pure momentum rather than logic.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982

Spielberg's suburban-childhood-meets-the-unknown template, done with a tenderness that Stranger Things reaches for constantly. The government-men-in-vans stuff is straight out of this playbook.

But Sentimental in a very sincere, unironic way that some modern viewers find syrupy.

Super 82011

J.J. Abrams' own love letter to Spielberg, with kids making a monster movie who stumble into an actual monster movie. Same DNA, same era, tighter runtime.

But Wears its influences so openly it can feel like a very good cover version rather than an original.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers1956

This is where the fear at the heart of Stranger Things was invented — the ordinary town secretly infiltrated, the friend who might not be your friend anymore. Same nervous system, three decades earlier and without a single special effect.

A small American town, an unseen force replacing its neighbours one by one, and a creeping paranoia that nobody in authority will believe you. Black-and-white dread that still lands.

But Slow by modern pacing, and its Cold War subtext is dated if you don't already know the context.

It2017

A gang of misfit kids versus an ancient evil that feeds on a town's fear — the horror is sharper and scarier here, with a genuinely unsettling villain.

But Meaner and gorier than Stranger Things; this one wants to actually frighten you, not just thrill you.

Fringe2008

Government conspiracies, parallel dimensions, and a damaged family at the center of it all, stretched across five seasons that get stranger and more emotional as they go.

But Slow, procedural first season before the mythology properly kicks in — needs patience.

Dark2017

A German small town, missing children, a secretive facility in the woods — same bones, but filtered through time travel and a much bleaker, more philosophical mood.

But Genuinely confusing family trees across timelines; you will need a chart, possibly two.

The X-Files1993

The government-cover-up engine at full throttle, monster-of-the-week style, with two leads whose chemistry never stops crackling. Hawkins Lab has clear ancestry here.

But Nine seasons of variable quality and a mythology that famously doesn't stick the landing.

Poltergeist1982

Suburban normalcy curdling into supernatural horror, with practical effects that still hold up and a sense that anything ordinary — a TV, a closet — might turn on you.

But Slower build than modern horror fans expect; the real chaos is back-loaded.

The Umbrella Academy2019

A gang of strange, powered kids raised by a shadowy authority figure, now grown and dysfunctional — same found-family warmth, glossier comic-book energy.

But Tonally scattershot, bouncing between slapstick and apocalypse in ways that don't always land.

Wormwood2017

Hawkins Lab isn't invented from nothing; the American government really did run secretive mind-control experiments on unwitting subjects. This is the true, considerably grimmer history sitting underneath the fiction, with nobody coming to save anyone.

Errol Morris's docu-drama hybrid reconstructs the real CIA MKUltra program and the death it may have covered up, mixing archival footage with staged scenes and a career-best performance from Peter Sarsgaard.

But It's a true story, so there's no monster to root against — just institutional cruelty, and no satisfying resolution.

Gravity Falls2012

Same structural engine — nosy kids, a town hiding a decades-old secret, adults who are either useless or complicit — reset entirely in animation and comedy. Proof the formula works even when you strip out the horror and the nostalgia.

Two kids spend a summer in a small town riddled with government conspiracies, secret journals, and things in the woods that shouldn't exist — told with real wit and surprising emotional depth for a cartoon.

But It's a Disney animated show aimed at kids; the stakes and scares are deliberately gentler.