5 best shows to watch if you like Stranger Things

Stranger Things 4 will gain Avatar 2's status on television. This is because it has been a long time since the last installment, but it is about to return in a bigger manner. And when we say "about to," we mean it. Season 4 Volume 1 will premiere on Netflix on May 27, featuring seven of season nine's episodes. (Volume 2 will be released on July 1 with the season's final two episodes, both movie-length.)

The '80s-style sci-fi adventure, about Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her friends battling invaders from an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down, became a hit because it reminded viewers of things they'd seen before — films like The Goonies, E.T., and Stand By Me — but with enough personality of its own to feel fresh and fresh.

While you wait for Stranger Things Season 4, we've compiled a list of TV and movies to watch. It has otherworldly teenagers, '80s nostalgia, and characters from Stranger Things.

---

5 shows like Stranger Things you must watch

1) Outer Range

Don't be deceived by the horses and cowboy hats, as Outer Range is a Western movie and a paranormal thriller. Josh Brolin is a Wyoming rancher who, in the far reaches of his property, discovers a perfectly round hole about 30 feet wide and enters it, only to emerge somewhere else.

Even if there aren't any monsters (yet), it'll make you think of the Upside Down. Outer Range is a small-town family drama but be warned that the content is geared towards adults rather than pre-teens.

---

2) Black Spot

Hawkins is essential to the Stranger Things story because it is home to the Upside Down. The tiny secluded village at the core of the French-Belgian thriller Black Spot (known in France as Zone Blanche) is just as vital to the story as the main character but in creepier ways.

The show follows a prosecutor who arrives in town to look into why the town has such a high murder rate, but what he soon discovers is that the forest surrounding the town is full of dark secrets, all of which are linked to the local police chief, who is still trying to figure out what happened to her the night she was kidnapped and chained up in the forest. Black Spot is a suspenseful thriller that masterfully blends mythological aspects with the tension of an excellent criminal drama to produce a scary but incredibly binge-worthy story.

---

3) Dark

Dark, a mind-bending German series, was compared to Stranger Things when it originally premiered in 2017 because both episodes began with children going missing. Stranger Things tended towards the supernatural, whereas Dark finally veered into sci-fi and time travel.

The time travel drama follows four interconnected families in a tiny hamlet as they explore the activities of several ancestors throughout several decades. Dark has big narrative ambitions, posing themes about determinism and free will and overt religious undertones, and it delivers on everything it promises. This one may require subtitles, but it is well worth it.

---

4) I Am Not Okay With This

If Eleven as a telekinetic badass is your favorite, you should watch I Am Not Okay With This, produced by the same people as Stranger Things and has a telekinetic heroine. Set in the Rust Belt, Sydney is a young teen attempting to navigate the complexities of high school and her father's recent suicide while also struggling to understand and control her newfound telekinesis.

The show, based on Charles Forsman's comic of the same name, is far more expansive than its source material. Furthermore, the show features excellent music, and the episodes are only 30 minutes long.

---

5) The X-Files

The X-Files had an iconic synth theme tune before Stranger Things. Investigating the Hawkins lab would have been routine for Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully.

They would have defeated the Demogorgon and kidnapped Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) before fleeing to Phoenix to hunt for black helicopters.