15 TV Shows Like Fallout You Should Watch Next

Prime Video’s Fallout series , an adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name, is set more than two centuries later on an Earth still devastated by a long-ago nuclear war between the United States and China. The protagonist, Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), emerges from the underground bomb shelter where she has lived her entire life in search of her father and gains a greater understanding of the world above, a wasteland dominated by warring factions and monstrous mutants.

It’s a bold and hilarious adaptation of an incredible source material, and it’s astounding that in just a couple of years we’ve gone from virtually zero decent video game adaptations to two shows (the other being HBO’s The Last of Us ) vying for an Emmy for Outstanding Series. Strange times. But these two shows are far from the only post-apocalyptic stories you can find on streaming platforms right now. Here are 15 more shows, from the dramatic to the funny and everything in between, to fuel your apocalyptic fantasies. (It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m okay, lol.)

Twisted Metal (2023–)

The ’90s were a great time for post-apocalyptic video games, and the 2020s seem perfect for adapting them for television. Peacock’s most violent show is based on the car-battle games your parents probably hated far more than Fallout (it’s frantic, demolition derby-style action where you smash and/or blow up your opponents). It stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, an effective nexus in the chaos of this lawless future America, where roads have become battlefields. The series offers plenty of witty humor amid the frenetic car (and truck, hearse, ice cream truck, etc.) collisions. Basically, everything explodes, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want—it’s a show for the 15-year-old gamer in all of us. Watch Twisted Metal on Peacock .

Silo (2023 – )

Rebecca Ferguson plays Juliet Nichols, an engineer who becomes embroiled in an investigation involving the local sheriff (David Oyelowo). It’s a typical detective procedural, except all the characters inhabit a massive 144-level bunker that protects the remaining 10,000 people from a supposedly poisoned world above. Those who run the bunker have convinced everyone remaining that only strict adherence to rules and procedures will protect them from the dangers outside. It’s a darker, less graphic apocalypse than Fallout —a prestige drama that incorporates elements of horror, detective fiction, and sci-fi to tell human stories about fear and control. Two more seasons are coming. Watch Bunker on Apple TV+ .

Z Nation (2014 – 2019)

While The Walking Dead and The Last of Us turned the zombie apocalypse into prestige television, this Syfy original series explores zombies as fun, gory entertainment. It all begins with a soldier tasked with delivering a package across the country. The package is actually a zombie survivor who might be able to help create a vaccine (sound familiar?), but the emotional intensity is far lower than the harrowing journey of The Last of Us . Created by the trash masters at The Asylum, the creators of infamous B-movies like Sharknado , the tone speaks volumes. Watch Z Nation on Peacock , Tubi, AMC+, and Shudder.

The Decameron (2024)

I’ve never been particularly convinced that a narrative about the end of the world necessarily has to take place in the future, and this darkly humorous yet surprisingly humane series offers a glimpse into a real-life apocalypse. Loosely adapting Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century short story collection with a touch of Bridgerton-esque bravado, we’re transported to Florence ravaged by the plague, where a group of nobles and servants make their way through the treacherous landscape to a country villa and wait out the end of the world, drinking all the liquor along the way—as you’d expect. Rules and societal norms are upended, especially by the maid Liciska (Tanya Reynolds), who accidentally kills her mistress on the way to the villa and then decides to take her place. Despite being largely a show about hell being other people, it’s incredibly addictive.Watch The Decameron onNetflix .

In the Desert (2015–2019)

Roughly 500 years later, war has wiped out all resemblance to civilization and left the planet devastated, though some remnants of technology still remain. However, firearms are largely taboo due to the destruction they cause, creating an apocalyptic action film dominated by hard-boiled martial arts. The wasteland, Rocky Mountains, and the Mississippi River are transformed into competing feudal kingdoms, ruled by the creepy, eccentric Baron Quinn (Marton Csokas) and, at least initially, his chief lieutenant, Sunny (Daniel Wu). Watch Into the Badlands on Prime Video and AMC+ .

Reign of the Scavengers (2023)

This clever, impressively voiced, and beautifully animated sci-fi epic follows the survivors of an interstellar cargo ship crash. The web of life on the planet they find themselves on is extraordinarily complex, and the laws of biology they know seem to break down. At first glance, the space sci-fi setting bears little resemblance to the desolate wasteland of Fallout , but both series are set in fictional worlds that are complex, colorful, and diabolically cunning. Watch Cave Kingdom on HBO Max .

Snowpiercer (2020–2024)

While the series initially feels like a needless sequel to Bong Joon-ho’s allegorical post-apocalyptic film Snowpiercer , it eventually takes on a life of its own as a clever sci-fi melodrama that cleverly acknowledges that at the end of the world, there are no heroes and few true villains—mostly just people doing their best to survive. In a frozen future (2026, to be precise), humanity survives on an extremely long train traveling around the world. If it stops, the power will go out, and everyone (literally everyone) will die. Those who arrived on the train with wealth live at the front in relative luxury, while the poor live on scraps (or worse) at the back. Daveed Diggs plays former detective Andre Layton, a “tailman” tasked by Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill, the train’s engineer and head of hospitality, to solve a series of murders. The inevitable uprising that follows places them on opposite sides of a brutal conflict, before each ultimately realizes they are mere pawns of the elite—as always. Watch Snowpiercer on AMC+ or buy episodes on Prime Video .

Train to the End of the World (2024)

This anime series makes it clear that we shouldn’t be worried about 5G… but 7G, an experimental cellular network that’s warping reality and turning Japan into a series of isolated settlements. It’s also caused strange mutations, including turning people into animals and creating mind-controlling mushrooms like in The Last of Us . After discovering evidence that one of her classmates is alive outside of Tokyo, Shizuru Chikura gathers her friends and hijacks a train to travel through a strange new wilderness. Watch “Train to the End of the World” on Crunchyroll or buy episodes on Prime Video .

The Last of Us (2023–)

The Last of Us , which premiered about a year before Fallout , ushered in a highly exclusive club of successful video game adaptations, even winning multiple Emmys. Fallout may have lagged behind in terms of major awards, but it did receive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor, which is no small feat. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star, at least initially, as Joel and Ellie, travelers through an apocalyptic wasteland populated by zombified humans infected with a fungus. The series has genuine tension and expertly crafted dread, but it all hinges on the dynamic between Joel and Ellie: a battered smuggler and the immune teenage girl he’s paid to deliver across the country. Their relationship makes the plot compelling and makes for a sense of security when the mushroom-dwelling zombies show up. When the show flips everything on its head in season two, it’s terrifying. Watch The Last of Us on HBO Max .

Murderbot (2025 – )

I think it says a lot about our unique and hilarious era: you can turn on your TV and choose any dystopian future—and here we find ourselves in a hyper-capitalist future where everything is perfect if all you care about is money. Based on Martha Wells’s Hugo Award-winning book series, this dark comedy stars Alexander Skarsgård as a hilariously unflappable robot, a private “security robot” who manages to hack his own programming and gain free will—which he mostly uses to watch his favorite TV shows. He can’t simply run away for fear of attracting attention, but the self-proclaimed Murderbot (ironically, in a way) is content to do the bare minimum when he’s assigned to a team of inexperienced and naive hippie researchers who see no need for a killer robot—at least until they find themselves embroiled in a complex capitalist conspiracy in which they are all mere cogs. Watch Murderbot on Apple TV+ .

Station Eleven (2021–2022)

The miniseries, based on Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling novel, arrived at either the perfect or the worst possible time: the story of the flu pandemic that erupted twenty years ago landed on HBO right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic—and don’t all of our current apocalyptic dramas owe at least partly to this waking nightmare? The series follows two storylines: one introduces Kirsten Raymond, a young theater actress whose performance in a production of King Lear is cut short by a virus with a 99% fatality rate. Then we see Kirsten twenty years later, still an actress, in a vastly changed world. The series unfolds slowly, gaining momentum only after a couple of episodes, but ultimately makes a compelling case for the power of art, even (or especially) in moments when survival is at stake. Watch Station Eleven on HBO Max .

Survivors (2014–2017)

There are no strange mutations here; instead, we see an apocalypse that feels eerily normal. At the series’ opening, about 2% of the world’s population disappears without explanation—enough to upend almost everything. Politics has adapted to the new reality, religions have collapsed and reformed, and families have had to come to terms with the inexplicable loss of loved ones. The first season focuses on the Garvey family, led by Kevin (Justin Theroux), a sheriff whose wife (Amy Brenneman) left him to join a cult, and subsequent seasons expand the scope, introducing other characters in different locations. Showrunner Damon Lindelof also co-created Lost , and The Leftovers inherits his relatively bleak tone but delivers a more compelling ending. Watch The Leftovers on HBO Max .

Rain (2018–2020)

We often see dystopias in the style of Fallout , but as always, the melancholy Danes have decided to build an apocalypse around precipitation. In this three-season series, a virus spread by rain wipes out most of Scandinavia’s population. Six years later, siblings Simone and Rasmus emerge from their bunker and set off on a journey across Scandinavia in hopes of finding safe haven and, perhaps, their father. It turns out that one of them holds the key to destroying the virus and saving the world. The premise isn’t the most original ( The Last of Us was released five years ago), but the setting lends the series a unique atmosphere, and it builds to a climactic ending.Watch “Rain” on Netflix .

Apocalypse Now (2019)

So, maybe the end of the world is already too bleak for you, and you’re looking for something lighter and more “gay.” I’ve got you covered! New queer cinema pioneer Greg Araki followed up his neon-lit apocalypse with Kaboom with Apocalypse Now , his spiritual successor. Avan Jogia plays Ulysses Zane, who lives in sun-drenched California with his best friend Carly (Kelli Berglund), an aspiring actress and sex worker. He’s plagued by strange dreams of an alien invasion, which increasingly resemble premonitions… or perhaps just disturbing hallucinations brought on by excessive marijuana use. The series only lasted one season and never quite reached the predicted apocalypse, but it was certainly fun while it lasted and certainly offers something a little different from the typical grim end of the world. Watch Apocalypse Now on Tubi .

100 (2014–2020)

The CW’s seven-season series The 100 is currently the most thoroughly researched apocalypse drama on television, telling the story of the descendants of nuclear disaster refugees who return to Earth from their space habitat to meet the remnants of humanity left on Earth. Naturally, the first people sent to investigate are juvenile delinquents (better them than me, frankly), and they discover three post-apocalypse civilizations, all of which are pretty terrifying (including the inevitable cannibals). The series builds an impressive mythology throughout its run, leading to a finale that borders on the metaphysical. You can buy episodes of The 100 on Prime Video .

More…