These 25 Mind-Bending Shows are a Must-Watch for Black Mirror Fans
It's all about some sides of brain-twisting, technology and humanity you might never have imagined.
If you love Black Mirror and its wild twists that make you think twice about technology and life, then you're in for a treat with this list of 25 shows that will mess with your mind just as much; these series are all about exploring the "what ifs" of our world and beyond, taking you on rides through futuristic cities, alternate realities, and digital dimensions that feel too real to ignore.
1. "Counterpart" (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Howard Silk, a low-level bureaucrat in a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency, discovers that his organization safeguards a crossing to a parallel Earth; he meets his counterpart from this parallel world, and they must navigate a web of intrigue, espionage, and betrayal that involves both sides.
2. "Travelers" (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
In a post-apocalyptic future, operatives known as "travelers" have their consciousnesses sent back to the 21st century into random people's bodies. Forming teams, they work to execute missions aimed at saving humanity from a terrible future.
3. "Russian Doll" (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Nadia, a game developer, finds herself caught in a mysterious loop, repeatedly dying and waking up at her own birthday party. She searches for a way out, encountering others trapped in their own cycles.
4. "Undone" (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
After surviving a near-fatal car accident, Alma discovers she has a new relationship with time and uses this ability to find out the truth about her father's death. Her exploration leads her to question the nature of reality itself.
5. "Severance " (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Employees at Lumon Industries undergo a "severance" procedure, which surgically divides their memories between work and personal life. When one employee starts to unravel the truth behind the company, the boundaries between his divided selves begin to blur.
6. "Dark" (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
In the German town of Winden, the disappearance of two children exposes the relationships among four families, uncovering a time travel conspiracy that spans several generations, and revealing disturbing secrets and hidden agendas that tie back to a nuclear power plant.
7. "Mr. Robot" (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with dissociative identity disorder, is recruited by an insurrectionary anarchist known as "Mr. Robot" to join a group of hacktivists aiming to cancel all debts by attacking the corrupt corporation E Corp.
8. "For All Mankind" (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Imagining a world where the global space race never ended after the USSR succeeds in the first manned Moon landing, this series explores the lives of NASA astronauts, engineers, and their families, as they push the boundaries of space exploration amidst personal and global challenges.
9. "Misfits" (2009)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
A group of young offenders doing community service get struck by lightning during a storm, granting them supernatural abilities; they must deal with their new powers, personal issues, and the consequences of their actions, all while uncovering the darker aspects of their town.
10. "Upload" (2020)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
In the near future, Nathan Brown, a computer programmer, opts for his consciousness to be uploaded into a luxurious digital afterlife. He navigates this new existence while trying to solve the mystery of his premature death with the help of his living customer service rep, Nora.
11. "The Leftovers" (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
Set three years after 2% of the world's population inexplicably vanishes, the series follows the lives of those left behind in a suburban community, exploring themes of loss, grief, and the search for meaning in a changed world.
12. "Legion" (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
David Haller, diagnosed as schizophrenic, discovers his mental illness may actually be manifestations of his mutant powers. With the help of other mutants, he battles the parasitic entity Farouk and confronts the reality of his existence and powers.
13. "Fringe" (2008)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
FBI agent Olivia Dunham teams up with a mentally unstable scientist, Walter Bishop, and his son Peter to investigate bizarre scientific anomalies, leading them into a series of complex mysteries involving parallel universes and a shadowy corporation pulling the strings behind the scenes.
14. "Continuum" (2012)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Kiera Cameron, a police officer from the year 2077, finds herself trapped in present-day Vancouver while pursuing a group of terrorists. As she seeks a way back to her time, she joins the local police force to thwart the terrorists' plans that could alter the future.
15. "Foundation" (2021)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
Based on Isaac Asimov's sci-fi series, the show follows mathematician Hari Seldon who predicts the fall of the Galactic Empire and sets out to save the knowledge of humanity, forming the Foundation — a group of exiles who struggle to preserve the future of civilization amidst political upheaval.
16. "Umbrella Academy" (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
Following their adoptive father's mysterious death, the estranged Hargreeves siblings, each born on the same day with unique powers, reunite to solve the mystery of his passing and prevent an impending apocalypse, uncovering family secrets and facing various adversaries along the way.
17. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%
Sarah Connor and her son John, trying to stay under the radar from the authorities and future robots, find themselves in a constant battle to prevent the creation of Skynet, the AI that will cause a future apocalypse, with the help of a reprogrammed Terminator.
18. "Maniac" (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%
Two strangers, Annie Landsberg and Owen Milgrim, participate in a pharmaceutical trial for a drug that promises to repair anything about the mind, leading them through a series of surreal and immersive fantasies drawn from their subconscious.
19. "The OA " (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
Prairie Johnson, a blind woman who disappeared for seven years, returns with her sight restored and now calls herself "The OA." She recruits a group of locals to share her story of captivity and explains her newfound abilities with plans to open a portal to another dimension.
20. "Man in a High Castle" (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
Set in an alternate 1962 where the Axis powers won World War II, characters navigate a divided United States, controlled by Nazi Germany in the East and Imperial Japan in the West, discovering a mysterious film that could hold the key to freedom or deeper subjugation.
21. "11.22.63" (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 83%
Jake Epping, a high school teacher, is given the chance to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by stepping back into the past through a time portal. However, he discovers that changing history is far more dangerous than he anticipated.
22. "Devs" (2020)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%
Lily Chan investigates the secretive development division of her employer, a cutting-edge tech company known as Amaya, which she believes is behind the murder of her boyfriend. The division is creating a system that can predict and possibly control the future.
23. "Altered Carbon" (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 75%
In a future where consciousness can be transferred to different bodies, ex-elite soldier Takeshi Kovacs is resurrected to solve the murder of wealthy Laurens Bancroft, uncovering a web of intrigue that explores the depths of human nature, identity, and societal decay.
24. "Ascension" (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%
Aboard a generation spaceship launched by the U.S. government in the 1960s, the ship's population, isolated from Earth for 50 years, experiences a murder that causes them to question the true nature of their mission and the reality of their existence on Ascension.
25. "Limitless" (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 58%
Brian Finch discovers the power of the brain-enhancing drug NZT-48 and is coerced into using his newfound extraordinary cognitive abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI, all while uncovering the drug's origin and its dark ties to his own life.