Now that Stranger Things has finished, many viewers are searching for a similar show to watch on Netflix. Luckily, there’s a fantastic, but often missed, series that fits the bill. While Stranger Things initially appealed to viewers with its 80s vibe – feeling like a blend of Stephen King horror and Steven Spielberg science fiction – it quickly became much more. The show delved into darker themes and explored a hidden, significant world beneath the surface, and that’s something you’ll also find in this other Netflix series.
After the first season of Stranger Things came out in 2016, a German science fiction mystery series called Dark premiered in 2017 and ran for three seasons, telling a complete story.
Stranger Things Fans Should Watch Netflix’s Dark
If you enjoy Stranger Things and are looking for something similar once it ends, Dark is a great choice. This German sci-fi series is centered around time travel, but it’s also a complex story about four families in a small town called Winden, Germany. They’re trying to solve the mystery of a missing child, which, like the first season of Stranger Things, leads to uncovering a dark and dangerous world.
Both Stranger Things and Dark featured supernatural mysteries involving hidden worlds. Stranger Things introduced the eerie Upside Down, a dark and dangerous parallel dimension, while Dark used a cave as a gateway for time travel. Despite these differences, both shows centered on families searching for answers and grappling with their destinies.
Both shows include younger characters whose journeys are central to the plot. In Dark, the missing boy isn’t actually kidnapped—he travels back in time to live among his ancestors. Similarly, Stranger Things features a young boy pulled into another dimension, the Upside Down, who eventually returns home unaware of how his experience will affect his friends. Both series also involve powerful organizations attempting to control and interpret the unfolding mysteries to their advantage.
Dark is Even More Twisted Than Stranger Things
Both Dark and Stranger Things explore similar ideas—lost kids, eerie mysteries, and families struggling with problems—but Dark is significantly more complex and confusing. Stranger Things has its share of strange occurrences and surprising moments, but Dark takes the initial mystery of a missing child and relentlessly builds on it with increasingly bizarre twists that constantly upend expectations throughout the entire series.
I’m completely captivated by the cast of Dark – it’s incredible how almost all of them play multiple versions of their characters across different time periods! It’s a bit confusing at first, with so many people appearing as different folks depending on the year. It all kicks off in 2019 when a young boy named Mikkel vanishes into a cave – that cave turns out to be a gateway to the past and future. The story jumps around to 1986, 1953, and even way ahead to 2052, but that’s just the beginning. Season two expands everything, pushing each timeline forward a year and adding another layer with a storyline in 1921. Then, the final season throws in another timeline in 1888, and it gets even wilder when you realize there’s a whole parallel reality with alternate versions of everyone. It’s a mind-bending experience, honestly!
Although it can be a bit complex, this show is ultimately very rewarding and consistently delivers quality entertainment. Critics love it – the first three seasons have incredibly high Rotten Tomatoes scores of 90
Both Dark and Stranger Things offer compelling science fiction, but they approach it differently. Dark is a complex, thought-provoking show that requires close attention, but it’s incredibly satisfying if you stick with it. Stranger Things prioritized fun and rooting for the characters as they battled monsters, while still delivering a strong sci-fi narrative. If you enjoyed the sci-fi aspects of Stranger Things, Dark is definitely worth checking out.
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2025-12-30 20:45