I Will Never Watch Stranger Things Again

Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Noah Schnapp, Stranger Things — Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Noah Schnapp, *Stranger Things*
Netflix

Stranger Things 3 came out what seems similar ages ago, but it'southward yet one of Netflix'south almost endearing and entertaining shows. Its mix of nostalgia and take chances reminds viewers of the kind of movies many of us grew up on, like The Goonies or E.T. or Flight of the Navigator. Stranger Things is so popular, in fact, that it'southward get quite the influencer itself, spawning a boom in shows looking to become "the next Stranger Things."

But Stranger Things is coming back very soon to remind us how it'due south done. Seriously, very soon. Then shortly that Netflix released an heady full trailer for Flavor 4 that shows what'south on deck for the season, including a scary new monster from the Upside Down with a Confront with optics and everything! He may accept taken them from new cast member Robert Englund (aka the guy who plays Freddie Krueger), who's very briefly seen in the trailer without any optics.

Stranger Things 4 has 2 premiere dates. Volume one will hit Netflix on Friday, May 27th, followed by Volume 2 on Friday, July 1. So after making the states wait three years, they're giving united states of america what's going to feel like ii seasons. It looks like information technology's gonna be worth the look.

And brand no mistake, there's still a wait. In the meantime, if y'all don't want to rewatch the first 3 seasons to refresh your retentiveness — information technology has been a long time, after all — yous might desire to watch some shows that aren't Stranger Things merely feel kind of like Stranger Things. You lot could pick something from this list nosotros've put together, which features supernatural teens, '80s nostalgia, and familiar Stranger Things faces.

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Outer Range

Don't be fooled past the cowboy hats and horses. Outer Range is as much a evidence about the paranormal as it is a Western. Josh Brolin stars as a Wyoming rancher who finds a perfectly circular pigsty about 30 feet wide in the far reaches of his pasture, and when he goes into it (minor spoilers alee!), he pops out on the other side somewhere... different. Even if there are no monsters (yet!), it volition remind yous of the Upside Down, specially with all the scientists investigating what it might be. Similar Stranger Things,Outer Range is also heavily invested in small-scale-boondocks family unit drama, but be warned: The content is much more aimed at adults and so pre-teens similar Stranger Things. Also, it'southward hella weird. -Tim Surette

Paradise (Paraiso)

Cristian Lopez, Pau Gimeno, and María Romanillos, Paradise — Cristian Lopez, Pau Gimeno, and María Romanillos, *Paradise*
HBO Max

We're already seeing the effects ofStranger Things' success with new shows coming out that were definitely pitched to streaming executives as "Information technology'southward Stranger Things... except THIS." In Paradise's example, "THIS" roughly translates to "the supernaturally tangled teens are in Spain." I won't give away the specifics because that's most of the fun, but Paradise (released in Spain equally Paraiso) does involve familiar Stranger Things aspects like missing children, a decades-old setting (the '90s), a synth-heavy score, kids on bikes, a massive mystery, a curly-haired comedic sidekick, a great-turned-ally similar Billy, and, oh yep, another dimension. While information technology's not up to the quality of Stranger Things— non much is! —Paradise would never have existed without Stranger Things and information technology shows. -Tim Surette

Fear Street: 1994 / Fear Street: 1978 / Fright Street: 1666

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 — *Fright Street Function Two: 1978*
Netflix

Proving once and for all that nostalgia always wins, the Fear Street trilogy has been insanely popular on Netflix since the first motion picture,1994, premiered. The films are based on R.L. Stine'south book series, and are all set in Shadyside, Ohio, a town that has been plagued by a notoriously evil force for centuries. All 3 accept place during a different year but weave their timelines in with each other, and the common thread is that it's e'er, always upwardly to the teens to chase downwardly the killer and put an end to the reign of terror. The Fear Street movies are somehow both darker and campier than Stranger Things (in a slap-up way!), but they're as well influenced by horror of the by: The kickoff ii films —1994 and1978 — evoke classic slasher films likeScream andFriday the 13th, something film nerds should enjoy pointing out to whoever they're watching these movies with. As a bonus, Stranger Things' ain Max Mayfield, Sadie Sink, appears in 1978 and 1666. There's besides a family connection behind the photographic camera: Leigh Janiak, the writer-director of the Fear Street trilogy, is married to Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer. They must watch a lot of movies together, because they take similar gustatory modality in influences.

Black Spot

The city of Hawkins is central to Stranger Things' narrative because information technology's the location of the gate to the Upside Down, the alternate dimension that is home to all the monsters who've kept our heroes in prime fighting shape for 3 seasons. The isolated small town at the center of the French-Belgian thrillerBlackness Spot (known in France as Zone Blanche) is equally important to its series' narrative, just in much creepier means. The bear witness follows a prosecutor who'due south arrived to investigate why the town has such a high murder rate, but what he -- and we -- quickly detect out is that the forest surrounding the town is full of dark secrets, and it's all somehow related to the head of the local constabulary, who is withal trying to figure out what happened to her the nighttime she was kidnapped and chained up in said forest. Suspenseful and atmospheric, Blackness Spot deftly mixes elements of the mythological with the tension of a bang-up law-breaking drama to create an eerie but highly bingeable series. -Kaitlin Thomas

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Like Stranger Things, Joss Whedon's classic supernatural teen series is appealing to everyone ages 12 and upward, as it follows young people coming of historic period while battling monsters. The Scooby Gang may be a trivial older than the Stranger Things kids (most of the actors were patently around 30 years one-time while playing loftier schoolers), simply they take a similarly unbreakable bail of friendship thanks to their shared experiences and secrets, even when they're not getting forth. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars equally the titular chosen one, who, like Xi (Millie Bobby Brown), just wants to live a normal life, but she has to fight vampires as well as ghouls, demons, and other contrasted creatures with her friends because their boondocks has an interdimensional portal. And though it was contemporary at the time, watching information technology now invokes nostalgia for the late '90s/early '00s in the way that Stranger Things is cornball for the '80s.

Dark

When the mind-bending High german serial Dark first debuted in 2017, there were numerous comparisons to Stranger Things because both shows opened with children going missing. But Dark eventually swerved into hard sci-fi and time travel while Stranger Things leaned into monsters and the supernatural. And yet, that doesn't mean the show isn't worth watching if you lot similar Stranger Things. The time travel show follows iv interconnected families in a small-scale town and explores the actions of multiple generations throughout several different time periods. Posing circuitous questions well-nigh determinism and complimentary volition, and with overt religious undertones, Dark has lofty narrative ambitions, and information technology follows through on everything it promises. Y'all might have to read subtitles for this 1, but it'due south worth it. (And once you're done, we've got a few explainers to help you understand it all.) -Kaitlin Thomas

Eerie, Indiana

When I remember of Stranger Things, I think of iii things: Sci-fi, the '80s, and kids. All the other shows on this list may bank check off one of ii of those, but no other checks all three similar Eerie, Indiana. (OK, admittedly Eerie, Indiana came out and took place in the early '90s, but close enough.) The NBC serial only lasted one flavor, just it'due south nineteen episodes following a young teen and his friend investigating oddities and peculiarities, like haunted libraries, magical ATMs, and mysterious UFOs, in his pocket-size town in Indiana. The tone is more fun and whimsical than Stranger Things (though at that place is a fair share of murderous villains), only more than importantly, they both share that charming sense of wonder and excitement that tin can only be captured through the eyes of kids. And they're both set up in the Hoosier State. -Tim Surette

GLOW

GLOW is a dramedy about the extremely '80s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, an off-make women's wrestling promotion, and stars Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin. Information technology's very different than Stranger Things both tonally and stylistically, but in terms of being another a fun show fabricated in the late 2010s about the mid-1980s, nothing does it better (except The Americans, which is so different from Stranger Things that it truly can't go on this list).

I Am Not Okay With This

If Eleven as a telekinetic badass is your favorite role of Stranger Things, you should check out I Am Not Okay With This, which shares producers with Stranger Things and also features a telekinetic heroine at the center of its story. Set in the Rust Belt, the coming-of-age prove follows Sydney (Information technology's Sophia Lillis), a young teen who is attempting to navigate the complexities of high schoolhouse, her begetter'south contempo suicide, and her budding sexuality while besides struggling to understand and command her newfound telekinesis, which is a not-so-subtle metaphor for the experiences of growing up. The show, which is based on Charles Forsman'south comic of the aforementioned name, is more than expansive and much lighter in tone than its source material, and therefore a lot more viewer friendly. Plus, the bear witness has an awesome soundtrack and episodes are only 30 minutes long. You pretty much can't get wrong here. -Kaitlin Thomas

The OA

Talk virtually stranger things! Brit Marling's Netflix series The OA might be the weirdest evidence on the streaming service, merely it shares a few common threads with the Duffer Brothers' hit. The logline for The OA is a young, blind woman named Prairie returns with her sight intact after going missing for seven years, but from there information technology rockets into cuckoo land involving interpretive trip the light fantastic toe, basement science experiments, and transdimensional or transuniversal movement, and, if you can believe information technology, things gets even stranger than that. In the kickoff season in particular, Prairie works with some high school kids to tell her story, opening their optics to run into that at that place's a lot more to our earth than what nosotros're told — much similar the kids of Stranger Things observe with the Upside Down. The OA is much more philosophical than Stranger Things, actually exploring the ideas of organized religion and destiny, while also thoughtfully discussing human connexion. It's a real trip, one that some will discover totally magical and others volition detect too much. -Tim Surette

The Twilight Zone

This reboot of the archetype anthology serial isn't obviously like Stranger Things, but it probably wouldn't be in its current form without the success of Stranger Things' "kinda creepy but not also creepy" temper, which is kind of ironic, because Stranger Things itself is heavily indebted to each of the directors of the Twilight Zone movie from 1983, Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante, and George Miller. The streaming-era Twilight Zone has some notable things in mutual with Stranger Things. Sci-fi qualities in a recognizably existent-world setting? Bank check. Light horror uneasiness? Bank check. Throwback vibes? Cheque. Parallel universes? Check! It's kind of surprising that Stranger Things and The Twilight Zone haven't had whatever cast crossover, but Brett Gelman feels like someone who could easily enter the Twilight Zone.

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks, Wash., like Hawkins, Ind., is a town where odd occurrences happen due to a rupture in the boundary between dimensions. The Upside Downwardly is conspicuously influenced by Twin Peaks' Blackness Lodge, and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) relationship is a lot like Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James' (James Marshall), every bit the privileged girl falls in love with the loner boy from the other side of the tracks over the course of their investigation into the disappearance of her best friend. And Stranger Things has a quirky sense of humour that pulls a little bit from Twin Peaks.

Wormwood

This one's for the Murray Bauman fans. Information technology'south been heavily fictionalized for the show, which basically just uses the name for inspiration, but Project MKUltra, the experimental CIA heed control program that created Eleven, was real. This limited series about the origins of the plan is directed by legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris and tells the story of Frank Olson, a biological warfare scientist and CIA employee who vicious to his death from a hotel window in 1953 9 days afterward being dosed with LSD equally role of Project MKUltra. His decease was ruled a suicide, but there are still lingering questions all these years later. Morris investigates with his signature doggedness, and the prove uses abnormally loftier-quality reenactments in which Peter Sarsgaard plays Olson. It's a unique projection that blends documentary and character-driven conspiracy drama. If exposure to Stranger Things has you interested in going down the rabbit hole toward something a little more than esoteric, check this out.

The 10-Files

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, The X-Files — David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, *The X-Files*
Fox

Before Stranger Things had an unforgettable synth theme vocal, The X-Files had an unforgettable synth theme vocal. Investigating the Hawkins lab would have just been a twenty-four hours at the function for Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson). They would have defeated the Demogorgon and captured Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) and been out of there, off to look for black helicopters over Phoenix or something. And instead of Principal Hopper (David Harbour), they had their own Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis).

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Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/shows-and-movies-like-stranger-things-season-4-what-to-watch-next/