10 Best TV Shows Similar to Fear the Walking Dead
The Spiderwick Chronicles
SimilarFallen, Game of Thrones, Hero Return, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!,
Planet of the Apes The 100, The Far Pavilions, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Lost World,
Studio20th Television, Paramount Television Studios,
As the opening minutes of Roku's The Spiderwick Chronicles is all too glad to remind us, "This is a dark fairy tale." A decidedly on-the-nose sentiment to blurt out to an audience in its beginning seconds, to be sure, but that matches the vibe of the series: A lot of spells, but very little magic. The show was rescued by Roku after Disney+ cut it in 2023 after completing the series; the move was ostensibly to cut costs, part of the streaming squeeze we're all going through as streamers start realizing it doesn't quite pay to firehouse out an endless stream of expensive content. But based on what we've seen, they may have been on to something.
Based on the early-aughts children's fantasy novels by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi and updated by Aron Eli Coleite, the show offers a coincidentally similar premise to Coleite's prior show, Netflix's Locke & Key: A mom and three siblings moving to their family's ancestral home in the wake of losing their father (here, it's to divorce), only to find magical secrets that lie inside. In Spiderwick, that family is the Graces, each of which has their own distinct quirks but not a lot of space to develop beyond them. There are twin brothers Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cottrell), the former with mental health issues and the latter with a chip on his shoulder about leaving their dad behind. Older sister Mallory (Mychala Lee) is a fencing prodigy whose meticulous life planning may be her biggest weakness. Mother Helen (Joy Bryant) is doing her best to hold the family together, all while trying to deal with her institutionalized Aunt Lucinda (a small but powerful guest turn from Charlayne Woodard), who continually goes on about boggarts and ogres and faeries.
The Spiderwick Chroniciles (Roku)
But based on the house they move in, the creaky, ancient Spiderwick estate, with its labyrinthine tunnels, and the large tree that grows in the middle of the foyer, there may be something to Aunt Lucinda's mutterings (and, it turns out, Jared's visions). Turns out their relative, Arthur Spiderwick (Arthur Jones), spent his life chronicling the fantastical creatures and artifacts he came across in his varying travels, collecting them all in a Field Guide that the kids happen upon not too far into the series. Trouble is, they're not the only ones looking for the guide: maniacal ogre Mulgarath (Christian Slater) wants it too, and for hardly altruistic reasons. Continue Reading →
Franklin
SimilarA Fortunate Life, A Little Princess, A Respectable Trade,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Chicken Nugget, Cleopatra, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Fallen, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Intruders, Jack the Ripper, Jewels, M*A*S*H, Monarch of the Glen, Murder in the Heartland, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Peter and Paul,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II,
Pride and Prejudice Scully Sherlock Holmes Son of the Morning Star, Tales from the Neverending Story, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The 100, The Far Pavilions, The Fire Next Time, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Phantom of the Opera, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Shining, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Wedding Impossible, Wycliffe,
StudioApple Studios,
Michael Douglas's career so deeply connects him to as specific kind of late 20th/early 21st Century man. As a result, throwing him back to the 18th Century and into the body of Benjamin Franklin feels deeply counterintuitive. It is not surprising that Franklin—an adaptation of the book A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff—is one of the few period projects Douglas has done, joining the likes of The Ghost and the Darkness and those flashback scenes in the Ant-Man films. What is surprising, and to the series’ credit, is how quickly that strangeness recedes. It isn’t that Douglas manages to fade into the role of Franklin until he disappears entirely, but he does manage to recede enough that he doesn’t disrupt the show’s reality.
In some ways, Douglas proves a surprisingly apt selection. No stranger to playing womanizers on screen, Douglas easily finds the correct valence to portray Franklin’s specific flavor of late 18th-century skirt chaser. The metacommentary works in his favor as well, an aging icon who retains much of his skill but perhaps can no longer command the same buzz or box office returns embodying an aging icon whose mind remains sharp but whose body—and possibly will—has been beaten up by life and time. While almost a decade older than the Franklin he’s portraying, Douglas also excels at the moments where the audience witnesses the statesman energized like old times.
Thibault de Montalembert has neither the time nor the interest in your lame attempts at Call My Agent/Dix pour cent joke attempts. (AppleTV+)
Still, the script too frequently hamstrings the actor. Not bad by any means, the writing still suffers for trying to match Franklin’s reputation. It’s the old conundrum of trying to build a series, film, or play around a singular piece of art. How does a creator convince the audience that someone is singing the most fantastic song ever without truly writing the most fantastic song ever? Similarly, how do writers provide dialogue to what is, by historical reputation, one of the greatest wits in American History without simply quoting his greatest hits? Continue Reading →
The Sympathizer
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, A Fortunate Life, A Little Princess,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Blackeyes, Bodies, Christopher Columbus, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, G.B.H., Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Intruders, Jack the Ripper, Jewels, La Femme Nikita, Love You Just as You Are, M*A*S*H, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, Murder in the Heartland, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Scully Sherlock Holmes Son of the Morning Star, The 100, The Chestnut Man, The Fire Next Time, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Phantom of the Opera, The Shining, The Singing Detective, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Sun Also Rises, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Tira, Troubles, Ultraviolet, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Viso d'angelo, Witchcraft, World War II: When Lions Roared, Wycliffe,
"All wars are fought twice. The first on the battlefield. The second time in memory." This line, emblazed in Vietnamese and English in the opening moments of The Sympathizer, is taken right from Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen's bestselling novel of the same name. Fittingly, it also serves as the thesis statement for Max's adaptation of the sprawling work, a fleet-of-foot miniseries that explores the malleability of identity and perception through the lens of the Vietnam War, and the dynamic lenses through which our lives and conflicts can be viewed.
That duality is encapsulated in the titular character, a French-Vietnamese biracial protagonist known only as The Captain (Hoa Xuande). From his childhood in Vietnam, he was always ostracized for being neither white nor Asian enough; his only solace came from his two friends, Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) and Man (Duy Nguyen), who instead frame his heritage as being "twice of everything." Cut to Vietnam in the '70s, in the days leading up to the Fall of Saigon: He works for the Vietnamese Secret Police, interrogating Viet Cong prisoners at the behest of his arrogant martinet of a boss, The General (Toan Le). But he's also a communist mole, feeding information back to Man, who's now his North Vietnamese Army handler, and his daily life is a struggle to reconcile all of these varying identities.
That struggle is further compounded after the Fall of Saigon (an escape attempt rendered in the first episode as an exciting, terrifying barrage of booming explosions and a foot race to a fleeing cargo plane). The Captain and Bon make it to America, though not without some heartbreaking losses for the latter; now, the two are alone, the Captain still required to report on the General's activities while laying low for both his CIA handlers and the LA cultural figures who treat him as an object of curiosity. Continue Reading →
Parish
NetworkAMC+,
StarringGiancarlo Esposito,
Theoretically, Parish is an adaptation of the three-episode British series The Driver. In practice, the similarities boil down to “What if there was a driver who used to do crime and might start again?” Considering how standard the plot is—a reformed criminal pushed back into a life of crime—it seems strange to call it an adaptation.
To get specific, Gray Parish (Giancarlo Esposito) is a former wheelman who left crime a long time ago. In the time since, he met and married Ros (Paula Malcomson) and started a livery service. He and Ros had two children together as well, Maddox (Caleb Baumann) and Makayla (Arica Himmel). A year before the show’s story begins, Maddox was shot to death, and the killer remains at large. Gray has particularly struggled with the fallout. Additionally, his business is falling apart, seemingly from a combination of his grief and the economy.
Into this precarious situation arrives Colin (Skeet Ulrich), a friend of Parish’s from the old days. Colin, barely out of prison, has already gotten in trouble with The Horse (Zackary Momoh), leader of an increasingly powerful New Orleans gang, The Tongais. To keep himself alive, he needs Parish’s help in cleaning out a safe. Out of a mix of loyalty and his own financial desperation, Parish agrees. Unfortunately, one job is never just one job. Continue Reading →
Palm Royale
SimilarA Respectable Trade, Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Blackeyes, Bodies, Brides of Christ, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Fallen, Fearless, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Hero Return, Jewels, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, Monarch of the Glen, Oh, Doctor Beeching!,
Planet of the Apes Pride and Prejudice Spies of Warsaw, The Chestnut Man, The Far Pavilions, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Tira, Troubles, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Wedding Impossible, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft,
StudioApple Studios,
There’s something undeniably inspired about casting Kristin Wiig as Maxine Simmons in Palm Royale. A social climber attempting to ingratiate herself into late 60s Palm Beach high society, Simmons shares with Wiig a certain constant desire to change herself. The actor's years at Saturday Night Live and subsequent film roles have established her as a chameleonic performer. She has enough versatility to play everyone from the painfully grounded to live-action cartoon characters. In this case, Wiig pours that talent into a woman trying desperately to be a different version of herself.
As a kind of middle-aged conservative version of Tom Ripley, Wiig does indeed excel. The actor invests a mix of brute force cunning and barely hidden desperation in Simmons. That makes the would-be social maven compelling and repulsive in equal measure. Her machinations are too intriguing to ignore, but her very presence can be almost unendurable, especially for viewers with an overactive sense of vicarious embarrassment.
Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney try to hash it out. (AppleTV+)
The show also adds an interesting layer to her performance of wealth and class. Simmons’ claims often sound outlandish, the scrambling lies of someone trying to stay one step ahead of being exposed. However, Palm Royale slowly confirms a great many of them. Unlike Ripley or Saltburn’s Oliver Quick, she’s not a total fabrication. She has the credentials for the inner circle, but can’t stomach the time it takes. Continue Reading →
Apples Never Fall
NetworkPeacock,
SimilarA Fortunate Life, A Little Princess, A Respectable Trade,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Blackeyes, Bodies, Brides of Christ, Chicken Nugget, Christopher Columbus, Cleopatra, Dancing on the Edge, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Elizabeth R, Fallen, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Intruders, Jewels, Love You Just as You Are, M*A*S*H, Miss Marple: Nemesis, More than Blue: The Series, Murder in the Heartland, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Peter and Paul,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II,
Pride and Prejudice Scully Sherlock Holmes Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan, Tales from the Neverending Story, The 4400, The Buccaneers, The Far Pavilions, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Shining, The Singing Detective, The Sun Also Rises, Tira, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Wedding Impossible, World War II: When Lions Roared, Wycliffe,
The expression, “The book was better,” has become a truism in adaptation, an assumption where the few exceptions only prove the rule. But what’s a creator to do when the source material is deeply flawed?
If you’re Apples Never Fall creator Melanie Marnich, you make several cosmetic changes to Liane Moriarty’s novel. The drama moves from Australia to West Palm Beach. The four Delaney children—Troy (Jake Lacy), Brooke (Essie Randles), Amy (Alison Brie), and Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner)—are no longer uniformly tall and olive-skinned. Quite the opposite, really, on the skin tone front. Relationships are shuffled a bit. Unfortunately, these changes fail to elevate the series.
The broad strokes of the plot itself are intriguing. The Delaney parents Joy (Annette Bening) and Stan (Sam Neill) have finally retired from a lifetime of running a tennis center, including their own stints as players and coaches. Rather than a delightful occasion, it churns up all manner of unprocessed relationship issues. Stan is cantankerous and competitive, oscillating between diminishing everyone around him with words and beating them all over the court. Joy, on the other hand, expected to spend her golden years catching up with her children, who lack the time or interest in doing the same. Continue Reading →
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin
SimilarChicken Nugget, Family Guy, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, The Sound of Your Heart,
StarringNoel Fielding,
There is perhaps no more annoying phrase to hear from someone recommending a TV series in the streaming age than, “It’s very good, but you do have to wait a few episodes.” Regretfully, this writer nonetheless must employ it in reviewing The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin. When the series finds its footing, it is equally adept at the goofy gag and the droll declaration. It’s just that it doesn’t settle into that groove until the third of six episodes provided to critics.
The premise revolves around a decidedly ahistorical take on the British outlaw Dick Turpin (Noel Fielding, late of The Great British Baking Show). For those not steeped in 18th-century English criminal lore, Turpin was a highwayman who became something of a legend after his execution at the age of 33. Fans of new wave pop star Adam Ant may recall the singer briefly made Turpin a sartorial touchpoint with the inclusion of a tri-corner hat in his rotation.
In co-creators Claire Downes, Ian Jarvis, and Stuart Lane’s The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, Fielding’s interpretation of the character hardly reflects the historical or legendary figure. Rather Turpin patrols the lawless outskirts of the Georgian era as a thoroughly modern man. A vegan who’s terrible with a gun and worse with his fists, he seems more drawn to the theatrics of criminality than the violence or even the money. As a result, he frequently confounds the odds through his stubborn insistence on making unusual choices and a healthy dose of good luck. Continue Reading →
The Fall of the House of Usher
SimilarA Little Princess, Alias Grace, American Horror Story, Angel, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Birds of Prey, Brides of Christ, Brimstone, Christopher Columbus, Dancing on the Edge, Elizabeth R, From, Further Tales of the City, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Golden Years, Heidi, House of Cards, Kamen Rider, Love You Just as You Are, Millennium, Miss Marple: Nemesis, More Tales of the City, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Peter and Paul, Pope John Paul II, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Pride and Prejudice Queen Cleopatra, Rescue Me,
Scully Spies of Warsaw, Tales from the Crypt, The Buccaneers, The Dead Zone, The Far Pavilions, The Gangster Chronicles, The Gold Robbers, The Shining, The Singing Detective, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Wallflower, Three Days of Christmas, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Ultraviolet, Unorthodox, White House Plumbers, World War II: When Lions Roared,
The most gripping moment in 2022’s Academy Award-winning documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is when members of the now disgraced Sackler Family, whose pharmaceutical company manufactured and marketed the highly addictive painkiller Oxy-Contin, are ordered to attend a virtual hearing in which they're confronted by families who had been impacted by the drug. Listening to tragic stories of accidental overdoses, birth defects, and young men cut down in their prime due to a prescription medication that had been promoted as safe and non-addicting, the Sacklers could not look more bored, even slightly annoyed. It’s a chilling reminder that extreme wealth often results in a loss of empathy, if not one’s entire soul. Continue Reading →
The Goldbergs
NetworkNBC,
Similar'Allo 'Allo!, Astro Boy, Catterick, Fawlty Towers, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace,
Great News I Dream of Jeannie, LA to Vegas, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Off Centre, Red Dwarf, Taxi, That '70s Show,
The Cara Williams Show The John Larroquette Show The War at Home, Two and a Half Men,
In 1983, a group of crooks broke into a vault at the Heathrow International Trading Estate in London, patrolled by Brink’s Mat security conglomeration. The Brinks company was already famous for a famous robbery, one that was carried out in the '50s in the North End in Boston, an incident that turned into a charmingly strange movie by William Friedkin in 1978. Continue Reading →
Based on a True Story
SimilarBates Motel, I Love Lucy,
Delia, oh, Delia, Delia all my life/If I hadn't have shot poor Delia/I'd have had her for my wife/Delia's gone, one more round, Delia's gone." Continue Reading →