10 Movies and Shows Like ‘The Boroughs’ That Will Fill the Void Until Season 2

‘The Boroughs’ has arrived on Netflix with all the hallmarks of the streaming era’s next great sci-fi obsession. Produced by Matt and Ross Duffer, the show follows a group of retirees in New Mexico who discover they are living among monsters, and unresolved traumas and a central supernatural mystery make it a recognisable successor to ‘Stranger Things.’ The combination of ensemble character work, genre thrills, and a deceptively idyllic setting has already drawn comparisons to some of the most beloved mysteries in television and film history.

The show appeals to fans of ‘Stranger Things’ and other Duffer Brothers projects, but it also speaks to anyone who appreciates sci-fi and incredible acting from a cast that has been around the block. If you have binged all eight episodes and are already hungry for something that scratches the same itch, this list pulls together the ten films and shows that share the most DNA with what makes ‘The Boroughs’ so compelling.

‘Stranger Things’ (2016–2025)

Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, ‘Stranger Things’ follows a group of friends after a creature from another dimension kidnaps a boy, while an escapee child test subject with psychic powers attempts to evade her former captors. The show was imagined by its creators as an eight-hour blockbuster film and paid homage to the classic genre films of the 1980s.

It is the most direct reference point for ‘The Boroughs,’ and for good reason. The Duffer Brothers worked as executive producers on ‘The Boroughs’ and Netflix actively marketed the series to millions of ‘Stranger Things’ fans under their names.

‘Cocoon’ (1985)

‘Cocoon’ centers around a group of elderly residents at a retirement home who discover a transformative pool that revitalizes their aging bodies and spirits, a magical pool tied to extraterrestrial cocoons stored there by visiting aliens. Ron Howard directed this warm, deeply humanistic science fiction film that balances its otherworldly premise with a genuine meditation on aging and friendship.

The Duffer Brothers themselves said that for years they had wondered why no one had made a film like ‘Cocoon’ since ‘Cocoon,’ and that when they read Jeff and Will’s idea for ‘The Boroughs’ they were struck by its story about retirees and monsters. If you want to go directly to the spiritual blueprint, start here.

‘Dark’ (2017–2020)

‘Dark’ is a sci-fi drama that was groundbreaking for being Netflix’s first German-language original series, featuring an unparalleled ambition and scope for such a contained story, with a plot spanning multiple timelines and a cast of living, breathing people with nuanced motives. A missing child sets four families in a small German town on a desperate hunt for answers that spirals into a labyrinth of time travel and conspiracy.

The show received a 95 percent average Tomatometer score across its three seasons and ran from 2017 to 2020 on Netflix. Like ‘The Boroughs,’ it is built on the idea that a seemingly ordinary community is hiding something that will rewrite everything its residents thought they understood about the world around them.

‘The Leftovers’ (2014–2017)

‘The Leftovers’ is set three years after the unexplained disappearance of two percent of the global human population, following a group of people in a small New York community trying to continue their lives while coping with the tragedy of the event. Created by Damon Lindelof and based on Tom Perrotta’s novel, it is a show about grief, community, and the impossibility of closure.

‘The Leftovers’ focuses on character first and mystery second, fleshing out its ensemble in a much deeper way by letting the audience know from the start that this story is about experiencing a worldwide traumatic event through the eyes of a handful of perspectives. It shares with ‘The Boroughs’ that rare quality of treating older characters and weathered people as full human beings rather than punchlines.

‘Lost’ (2004–2010)

‘Lost’ follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, stranded on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean, in a story told in a heavily serialized manner. Every episode layered new mythology onto a central community of misfits who had no choice but to rely on each other against forces they could barely understand.

The show featured a convoluted plot in which nothing was as it seemed, and new story lines could erupt without warning, with each mystery typically weaving into a larger one that implied there might be one underlying explanation for all of the island’s curiosities. The dynamic of an ensemble forced together by extraordinary circumstances and slowly uncovering a dark secret beneath a seemingly contained world is something ‘The Boroughs’ inherits directly.

‘The OA’ (2016–2019)

‘The OA’ follows Prairie Johnson, a missing woman of seven years who reappears with mysterious new abilities and the gift of sight despite being blind when she disappeared, who then recruits five strangers for a secret mission. Created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij for Netflix, it is one of the most audacious supernatural dramas the streamer has ever produced.

The series is about second chances, unlikely bonds, and acceptance, and is low-budget sci-fi at its best, with many of its scenes taking place in ordinary suburban settings that ground its elaborate tale. Viewers who responded to the way ‘The Boroughs’ finds the extraordinary lurking inside the unremarkable will feel right at home here.

‘Twin Peaks’ (1990–2017)

‘Twin Peaks’ began with the discovery of the body of a murdered teenage homecoming queen in the small town of Twin Peaks, Washington, and revolved around the ensuing murder investigation led by an idiosyncratic FBI special agent, with the investigation gradually uncovering a network of secrets and mysteries of a supernatural nature. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, it remains one of the most influential genre experiments in television history.

Starting out as a hybrid crime drama, it quickly took off with a pervasive supernatural element and revealed itself to be an occult detective story with surreal elements that smacked of off-kilter magic realism. Its influence on the idea of the perfectly manicured American community hiding genuine darkness beneath the surface is felt throughout ‘The Boroughs.’

‘Midnight Mass’ (2021)

An isolated island community experiences miraculous events and frightening omens after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest in Mike Flanagan’s remarkable Netflix limited series. The show unfolds slowly and deliberately across seven episodes, layering dread and religious atmosphere over what begins as a quiet drama about faith and guilt.

The story revolves around a small isolated fishing community, and after going to prison a young man returns home to try to start over, while a charismatic priest comes to lead the church and sets off a chain of strange and miraculous events. The DNA it shares with ‘The Boroughs’ lies in that same device of a tight-knit community completely unprepared for the monster that has already taken up residence among them.

‘From’ (2022– )

‘From’ revolves around a mysterious town in the United States that somehow traps all who enter, with residents working together to survive while being hunted every night by grinning monsters, and explores the terrifying secrets hidden in a seemingly ordinary town through a rich mythology and a variety of characters. Streaming on MGM+, it remains one of the most criminally underseen supernatural shows currently airing.

‘From’ is a mystery horror series with themes of faith and redemption, and the show’s premise, use of mystery box storytelling, and thematic exploration have led to comparisons with ‘Lost.’ If the idea of a community facing an incomprehensible threat together and discovering the rules of their new reality one harrowing episode at a time is what drew you to ‘The Boroughs,’ this is the next obvious stop.

‘The X-Files’ (1993–2018)

‘The X-Files’ is a seminal work of science fiction television and inspired many of the shows that followed, including ‘Stranger Things,’ and every fan of that kind of supernatural mystery should consider it essential viewing. The long-running Fox series followed FBI agents Mulder and Scully as they investigated cases involving paranormal phenomena, alien conspiracies, and government cover-ups across hundreds of episodes.

‘The X-Files’ created a foundation for many mystery-based supernatural shows that followed, focusing on paranormal investigations, alien encounters, and government conspiracies. Its central idea that the forces threatening ordinary people are being actively hidden by those in power, and that ordinary investigators can uncover the truth if they refuse to be dismissed, echoes loudly through the premise of ‘The Boroughs.’

Which of these picks are you planning to queue up next, and which one do you think comes closest to capturing what makes ‘The Boroughs’ so hard to shake?