Finished Stranger Things? These 6 series will fill the Hawkins-shaped void

The lights have gone out in Hawkins. The bikes are parked for good. The Upside Down has finally sealed itself shut. With Stranger Things now officially complete, the post-finale comedown is real. That specific mix of dread, wonder, friendship, and cosmic weirdness is hard to replace. Hard, but not impossible.

If what you loved was the creeping mystery, parallel realities, found-family chaos, and the feeling that something ancient and terrifying is leaking into a very ordinary town, these TV shows should ease the withdrawal nicely.

Dark (2017)

If Stranger Things taught you to fear government labs, Dark teaches you to fear time itself. Set in the ominously quiet town of Winden, this German sci-fi epic begins with missing children and spirals into an exquisitely complex knot of timelines, family trees, and cause-and-effect loops.

Think the Upside Down, but abstracted into time rather than space. Every secret echoes across decades. Every sin compounds. It demands attention, rewards patience, and trusts the audience to keep up. For fans who loved the mythology-heavy later seasons of Stranger Things, this is required viewing.

Where to watch: Netflix

Fringe (2008)

Before Hawkins had portals, Fringe had parallel universes tearing holes in reality on a weekly basis. J.J. Abrams’ cult sci-fi series starts as a procedural about unexplained phenomena and quietly evolves into a grand, emotional story about identity, sacrifice, and worlds colliding. There are alternate realities, government conspiracies, and science pushed far past ethical limits. Sound familiar?

Replace bikes with FBI badges, Demogorgons with theoretical physics, and you have something that scratches the same itch while carving out its own legacy.

Where to watch: Prime Video

IT: Welcome to Derry (2025)

A group of kids in a small town band together to confront an ancient, unspeakable evil. If that sounds familiar, it should. Set decades before the events of Andy Muschietti’s IT films, IT: Welcome to Derry winds the clock back to 1962, uncovering a darker chapter in the long, blood-soaked history of Derry, Maine. This time, the threat is not lurking in an alternate dimension, but hiding in plain sight, feeding on fear, trauma, and the town’s collective silence.

For Stranger Things fans who always wanted the horror dial turned all the way up, and who do not mind trading bikes and walkie-talkies for blood-soaked mythology, this is an uncomfortably good next stop.

Where to watch: JioHotstar

The Umbrella Academy (2019)

What if the Hawkins gang grew up deeply traumatised, acquired superpowers, and never quite learned how to be functional adults? The Umbrella Academy trades small-town innocence for dysfunctional family chaos, but keeps the core DNA intact. Misfit siblings, time travel disasters, looming apocalypses, and a soundtrack that knows exactly when to show off.

It is messier and more stylised than Stranger Things, but fans who enjoyed Eleven’s powers and the show’s darker humour will feel right at home.

Where to watch: Netflix

Alice in Borderland (2020)

Strip away the nostalgia and you are left with survival, friendship, and a hostile alternate reality. This Japanese thriller drops its characters into a warped version of Tokyo where deadly games determine who lives another day. There are no monsters lurking in the shadows, but the tension is relentless and the mystery just as addictive.

If you loved the way Stranger Things balances human bonds against impossible odds, Alice in Borderland delivers that same emotional pressure cooker, only sharper and far more brutal.

Where to watch: Netflix

Archive 81 (2022)

For fans who preferred the slow-burn dread of Season 1, this one hits close to home. Archive 81 leans into analogue horror, cults, forbidden knowledge, and realities bleeding into one another through forgotten media. It is less blockbuster, more unsettling slow creep, but the parallels are clear.

It may not have lasted long, but its atmosphere lingers. Much like the first time we realised Hawkins was hiding something deeply wrong.

Where to watch: Netflix

ALSO READ: Stranger Things series finale trailer is here; teases epic conclusion

Stranger Things may be over, but the genre it helped reignite is very much alive. These shows do not replace Hawkins. They expand the map around it. Which one will you watch first? Drop a comment to let us know.