Four shows to watch after Stranger Things, from Dark to It: Welcome to Derry

When Stranger Things debuted, it revived a love for small-town mythos, scientific overreach and adolescent loyalty. Hawkins, the town in the show, felt ordinary until it was not, a place where conspiracy was atmosphere and disappearance was mythology.

With the series now finished, following its debut in 2016, viewers looking for something similar have several strong options.

The following four shows share those core pillars: portals that rearrange identity; institutions that hide the truth; children who vanish into myth; and a town or universe shaped by consequence.

Dark

Dark, a German show, is set in Winden, a town riddled with caves. Photo: Netflix

This Netflix show is one of the streaming giant’s most intricately plotted science-fiction mysteries. Created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the German series premiered in 2017 and ran for three seasons, concluding in 2020.

The mystery ignites when children vanish in Winden, a town riddled with caves that conceal a wormhole linking timelines. Disappearances start the chain reaction, but the conspiracy is inherited, not solved. A 33-year cycle entangles four families, forcing characters to confront alternate versions of themselves as an audit of identity, consequence, and grief.

The town’s nuclear plant anchors the mythology, its experiments destabilising mirrored worlds where cause and effect collapse into recurrence. Louis Hofmann’s Jonas and Lisa Vicari’s Martha become the emotional and narrative pivots, their fates bound to choices that feel pre-written, recursive, and impossible to outrun.

Netflix streams all three seasons of the show. Arabic subtitles are supported across the region, with dubbing available in several languages.

The OA

The OA has become a cult staple for viewers who want speculative storytelling. Photo: Netflix

Created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, this show also premiered on Netflix in 2016, running for two seasons until its cancellation in 2019. It begins when Prairie Johnson returns after seven years missing, her sight restored and her identity rewritten by captivity and experimentation.

A secretive scientist, Dr “Hap” Percy, studies peop