10 TV Shows Like Black Mirror That You Should Watch in the Future.
Black Mirror debuted in 2011, and over the past 15 years, the real world has steadily raced to surpass its alarming vision of a technological future. In the age of artificial intelligence, when language models can quite adequately recreate humans (if not human empathy), the phrase “this sounds like an episode of Black Mirror” has become increasingly common.
This was an unfortunate mistake for the show itself, which had to reinvent itself in subsequent seasons, focusing both on genre experimentation and on inventing new sci-fi ways to destroy us with technology. But if you want more stories about the dark side of technology, you don’t have to limit yourself to Black Mirror’s seven seasons (for now, as an eighth season is in development ). Here are 10 more series—some of them also anthologies—that share a similar sense of ambivalence about modern life and technology, and where they’re leading us.
Love, Death & Robots (2019–2025)
This animated anthology series, created by Tim Miller and with director David Fincher serving as executive producer, is a collection of incredibly diverse stories: each episode is produced by a different international studio, and the only connection between them is one of the three words in the series title. One episode focuses on robot gladiatorial combat in a dystopian London, another finds us under threat from sentient yogurt, and a third follows an ambitious cat learning to use the family’s robot assistant. The stories are often less philosophically ambitious than Black Mirror , but often far more fun—four seasons offer a mix of technology, sex, and violence, all with gorgeous animation.Watch Love, Death & Robots on Netflix .
Separation (2022 – )
Struggling to balance your work and personal life? In the series ” Breakdown ,” biotech giant Lumon Industries offers a solution: it splits your consciousness between your life at work and your life outside of it, so that one doesn’t remember or experience the other. As the series progresses, the work- and home-based consciousnesses become increasingly distant, revealing that they are, in fact, entirely different people—raising numerous questions about the ethics of essentially trapping people in a hell of perpetual work. Inspired by dark office comedies, as well as films like “Brazil” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” the series, by combining hazy futuristic technology with the dangers of contemporary American totalitarian capitalism, is a serialized response to the anthology format of ” Black Mirror .” Watch “Breakdown” on Apple TV .
Years and Years (2019)
Doctor Who creator Russell T. Davies directed this miniseries, which follows one family over 15 turbulent years, not much like Black Mirror —except that it begins in the present (or rather, the present as of 2019, when the series premiered) and moves forward into the near future. The series imagines a highly unlikely scenario: Donald Trump wins a second term (cough), ushering in populist Vivienne Rook (played by Emma Thompson) in the UK with a program of tariffs and the expulsion of all immigrants (cough). While all this is happening, the Lyons family (played by Rory Kinnear, Russell Tovey, Ruth Madeley, and T’Nia Miller, among others) faces a pace of technological change so rapid that upheaval is constant (cough). It’s a bit too prescient—it’s as if every episode of Black Mirror is happening to the same family. Watch “Y Years and Years” on HBO Max.
Ultra Q (1966)
What is Ultra Q , you ask? Don’t look for clues in the title, which mostly stems from the ubiquity of the word “ultra” in Japan at the time the series was produced. The original title, Unbalance , better captures the series’ ideological underpinnings. Episodes frequently touch on the idea that modern civilization has created a rift between humanity and the natural world—a state of chaos 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 events, often involving giant monsters. But the series uses kaiju in a variety of contexts, including stories about haunted houses, possessed children, and time travel. Shortly after the series ended, the more famous Ultraman appeared, which abandoned the proto- X-Files but retained many of the same monsters. Watch Ultra Q on Tubi.
Room 104 (2017–2020)
One of the most eclectic series of the last decade, Room 104 wasn’t afraid to tell a wide variety of stories over its four seasons. Room 104 combines comedy, drama, sci-fi, and horror within its clever, budget-friendly setting—a single, boring-looking motel room that could be literally anywhere. The atmosphere ranges from sweet to disturbing and apocalyptic (at least in a couple of episodes), with an impressive list of guest stars: Tony Todd, Michael Shannon, Judy Greer, Brian Tyree Henry, Mahershala Ali, Cobie Smulders, Dave Bautista, and Harvey Guillén are just a few of the names who have left their mark on the guest list. What it shares with Black Mirror is a cynicism about modern American life and a disorienting sense of never knowing what will happen next. Watch Room 104 on HBO Max .
The Outer Limits (1963–1965)
I’m talking about the original series, not the ’90s reboot—that one’s also good, but it lacks the original’s distinctive perspective. It’s often compared to The Twilight Zone (though it has more and wilder monsters), but while Rod Serling’s classic series was known for its moral parables, The Outer Limits was more often about flawed, complex, human characters facing existential, often technological, threats. Just as dark, but less cynical, its short-sighted characters are capable of growth amid technological upheaval, even if the price of that growth is never cheap. Watch The Outer Limits on Prime Video and Tubi .
Alice in Borderland (2020–2025)
Several episodes of Black Mirror have explored augmented reality, most notably in Season 3’s “Game Test” (where Wyatt Russell finds himself trapped in a not-quite-real mansion). The Japanese series Alice in Borderland, while less philosophically ambitious, explores some of the same themes in its story of video game-obsessed Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), who, along with his friends, finds himself trapped in an augmented reality game in an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—a borderland vividly recreated with clever green screen work. The trio are thrust into an arena and given instructions for the game, which they will play whether they want to or not. Watch Alice in Borderland on Netflix .
Electric Dreams (2017 – 2018)
While Black Mirror often draws inspiration from the works of Philip K. Dick (the author behind Blade Runner , Minority Report , and Total Recall ), Electric Dreams goes straight to the source, adapting ten of his short stories. The episode “Safe” examines the growing convenience of a totalitarian surveillance state, “Real Life” explores augmented reality as a means of combating survivor’s guilt, and several episodes explore the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and synthetic consciousness—themes and ideas sure to resonate with Black Mirror fans. Watch Electric Dreams on Prime Video .
People (2015–2018)
Thematically, the series “Humans” explores how humans constantly find excuses to dehumanize beings with thoughts and feelings similar to our own (usually other humans). But in this near-future world, high-tech “synthetics” have become commonplace, performing jobs that ordinary humans don’t want to do. Of course, these beings are treated as utterly expendable, cheap labor, despite their obvious and growing humanity. It’s the kind of sci-fi analogy that the best episodes of “Black Mirror” skillfully exploit. Watch “Humans” on Peacock , Prime Video , and Tubi.
Tales from the Loop (2020)
“Tales from the Loop” is a gorgeously rendered (sort of) short story collection set in the small town of Mercer, Ohio, home to the eponymous Loop, a physics laboratory exploring mysteries that science cannot answer. Each episode tells the story of a person or family from the town impacted by the Loop’s work—slowly unfolding parables at the intersection of technology and human existence. Based on a concept art book by artist Simon Stålenhag, the series successfully captures the book’s striking visual style and atmosphere. Watch “Tales from the Loop” on Prime Video .