10 Shows Like 'Black Mirror' You Should Watch Next

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Credit: Black Mirror, Netflix

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Black Mirror debuted in 2011, and in the 15 years since, the real world has been racing to outpace its unsettling vision of our technological future. Certainly in the AI era, when language models can passably recreate humans (if not human empathy), "that sounds like an episode of Black Mirror" has become an increasingly common refrain.

That's been unfortunate for the show itself, which has had to reinvent itself in later seasons, focusing as much on genre experimentation as on inventing new science-fictional ways for technology to kill us. But if you want more stories about the dark side of tech, you needn't confine yourself to Black Mirror's seven seasons (so far, as the eighth is currently in the works). Here are 10 more shows—some of them also anthologies—that share a similar sense of ambivalence about modern life and technology, and where it's taking us.

Love, Death & Robots (2019 – 2025)

Created by Tim Miller and counting director David Fincher as an executive producer, this animated anthology series is a grab bag of wildly diverse offerings: Each episode is produced by a different international studio, with the only link between them being one of the three words in the show's title. One episode deals with robotic gladiator fights in dystopian London, another finds us under the threat of sentient yogurt, yet another finds an ambitious cat learning to make use of a family's robot helper. The stories are frequently less philosophically ambitious than those of Black Mirror, but often rather more fun—its four seasons offering up a mix of tech, sex, and violence with gorgeous animation. Stream Love, Death & Robots on Netflix.

Severance (2022 – )

Having trouble finding “work-life balance”? In Severance, biotechnology giant Lumon Industries has a solution: It will split your consciousness between your life at work and your life outside, so one has no memory or experience of the other. As the series progresses, the work- and home-based consciousnesses continue to grow apart, and it becomes clear that they are essentially entirely different people—which raises a lot of questions about the ethics of essentially trapping someone in the hell of perpetual work. Inspired by office-based dark comedies as much as movies like Brazil and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the show’s take on nebulously futuristic tech, alongside its dive into the dangers of modern American-style totalitarian capitalism, makes it a serialized answer to Black Mirror’s episode-by-episode anthology format. Stream Severance on Apple TV.

Years and Years (2019)

Doctor Who's Russell T. Davies crafted this miniseries following a family over the course of 15 tumultuous years, which doesn't sound terribly like Black Mirror—except that it starts in the present (well, the present as of 2019, when the show came out) and heads into the near future. The show posits the wildly improbable scenario of Donald Trump winning a second term (ahem), propelling Emma Thompson's populist Vivienne Rook into office in the U.K. on a platform of tariffs and kicking out all the immigrants (ahem). As all this is going on, the Lyons family (played by Rory Kinnear, Russell Tovey, Ruth Madeley, and T'Nia Miller, among others) are dealing with a pace of technological change so rapid that the upheaval is constant (ahem). It's a bit too prescient for comfort—a bit like every episode of Black Mirror is happening to a single family. Stream Years and Years on HBO Max.

Ultra Q (1966)

What the heck is Ultra Q, you ask? Don’t look for clues in the title, which mostly has to do with the ubiquity of the word “ultra” in Japan at the time it was made. The original title, Unbalance, conveys more of a sense of the show’s ideological underpinnings. Episodes frequently deal with the idea that modern civilization has created a schism between humanity and the natural world—a disordered state that will, naturally, give rise to destructive (or misunderstood) kaiju. Pilot and amateur writer Jun (Kenji Sahara) teams up with a young newspaper reporter to investigate mysterious happenings often involving giant monsters. But the show uses kaiju in a variety of contexts, including in stories of haunted houses, possessed children, and time travel. Shortly after its end, the series would give birth to the better remembered Ultraman, which ditched the proto-X-Files vibe but kept many of the same monsters. Stream Ultra Q on Tubi.

Room 104 (2017 – 2020)

One of the most eclectic series of the past decade wasn’t afraid to tell a wide variety of stories over its four seasons. In Room 104, comedy, drama, sci-fi, and horror stories all occur within its smart, budget-conscious setting—that of a single, boring-looking motel room that could be literally anywhere. The vibe ranges from sweet, to disturbing to apocalyptic (literally, in at least a couple of episodes), with an impressive roster of guest stars: Tony Todd, Michael Shannon, Judy Greer, Brian Tyree Henry, Mahershala Ali, Cobie Smulders, Dave Bautista, and Harvey Guillén are just some of the names that have signed the guest register. What it shares with Black Mirror is a cynicism about modern American life, and a disorienting sense that you never know what’s going to happen next. Stream Room 104 on HBO Max.

The Outer Limits (1963 – 1965)

I’m talking about the original series here, not the ‘90s reboot—that one's fine, but lacks the distinct perspective of the OG. This one often gets compared to The Twilight Zone (though with more and wilder monsters), but where that Rod Serling classic excelled in its morality plays, The Outer Limits more often dealt with flawed, complicated, human characters facing existential, often technological threats. Just as dark, but less cynical in its way, its shortsighted characters are capable of growth amid technological upheaval, even if the cost is never cheap. Stream The Outer Limits on Prime Video and Tubi.

Alice in Borderland (2020 – 2025)

Black Mirror has dealt with augmented reality in a few episodes, most prominently in season 3's “Playtest” (the one with Wyatt Russell trapped in a not-entirely-real mansion). The Japanese series Alice in Borderland isn’t quite so philosophically ambitious, but hits some of the same notes with its story of video-game-obsessed Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), who winds up stuck in an augmented-reality game with his friends in an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly brought to life via some clever green screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given the instructions for the game, which they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. Stream Alice in Borderland on Netflix.

Electric Dreams (2017 – 2018)

If Black Mirror often feels inspired by Philip K. Dick (the author whose works inspired Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall), Electric Dreams goes right to the source, adapting ten of his stories. “Safe and Sound” deals with the encroaching convenience of the surveillance state, “Real Life” explores augmented reality as a means of handling survivor’s guilt, and several episodes consider the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and synthetic consciousness...themes and ideas that will more than resonate with Black Mirror fans. Stream Electric Dreams on Prime Video.

Humans (2015 – 2018)

Thematically, Humans deals with the ways in which humans always seem to find excuses to dehumanize beings with thoughts and feelings just like ours (usually, other humans). But in this near-future world, highly advanced “synths” are commonplace, doing the work that regular humans can’t be bothered with. Of course, these beings are treated as entirely disposable sources of cheap labor, despite their apparent and burgeoning humanity. That’s the type of sci-fi analogy that the best of Black Mirror is adept at exploring. Stream Humans on Peacock, Prime Video, and Tubi.

Tales from the Loop (2020)

A gorgeous-looking anthology (sort of), Tales from the Loop takes place in the small town of Mercer, Ohio that happens to sit upon the titular Loop, a physics lab exploring mysteries for which science has no answers. Each episode offers the story of a person or family in the town impacted by the work of the Loop—slow-burning fables set at the intersection of technology and human existence. It’s based on a conceptual art book by artist Simon Stålenhag, and successfully ports over the book’s striking look and feel. Stream Tales from the Loop on Prime Video.