David Alpay as Jade in From Season 3 FinaleImage via MGM+
By
Erik Kain
Published 35 minutes ago
Erik is a writer based in Arizona. He's written about video games and the entertainment industry for over a decade, and previously covered politics and culture. He also runs a Substack newsletter about entertainment and culture, a YouTube channel about these same topics and designs tabletop RPGs. He lives with his pack of three kids and three dogs in the mountains, and manages to find time to write inbetween daily chores. He was a 2014 nominee for a Shorty Award. His work has appeared in Forbes, The Atlantic, National Review, Mother Jones and elsewhere. He also writes poetry and fiction and has big dreams about writing scripts someday.
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After a brutal three-year wait, Stranger Things 5 is finally here. Netflix dropped the first four episodes of Season 5 just in time for Thanksgiving, but there are four more waiting in the wings. Volume 2 comes to Netflix this Christmas, and the big series finale will land on the streaming service — and in select theaters — on New Year's Eve.
It's not a terribly long time to wait, and there's something nice about releasing the season in separate chunks so that fans have a chance to discuss the episodes, make predictions and Lost and Game of Thrones and their weekly release schedule. Still, after such a long wait between Season 4 and Season 5, splitting up the final season of Stranger Things is a lot to ask out of fans, no matter how patient. Of course, there are plenty of other great shows to watch in the meantime. Here are five that should at least partly scratch that Stranger Things itch.
5 Locke & Key (2020-'22)
Netflix
The Locke siblings talking seriously in the series 'Locke and Key.'Image via Netflix
Based on the comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key follows the story of a family who returns to their father's ancestral mansion in Matheson, Massachusetts after his death. Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones) — who recently starred in the excellent HBO crime series, Task — and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) discover that all is not as it seems in this quiet New England hamlet when they discover magical keys that unlock mysterious doors in the old mansion — and uncover secrets that might better be left buried.
The series ran three seasons and packs a ton of mystery, magic and suspense into all three. While many fans were disappointed with the third season, the first two are great fun and filled with the kind of dark, scary magic that makes Stranger Things tick, including lovable characters, an ancient evil, lots of good friend (and family) dynamics, and a few fun twists and turns.
4 Severance (2022-)
Apple TV
Image via Apple TV+
Apple TV has many great shows, but one clearly rises head and shoulders above the rest: Severance, which is a bit like Stranger Things meets The Office. The workplace dark comedy sci-fi series is hard to define and incredibly difficult to explain to people without spoilers.
The story follows Mark (Adam Scott), a widower who undergoes the controversial "severance" procedure to sever his work conscious from the rest of his conscious. His work self, or "innie," works at a company called Lumon on the "Severed floor" in Macro-data Refinement. He's joined by Irving B. (John Turturro), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) and newcomer, Helly R. (Britt Lower). Soon, both halves of Mark are investigating the strange conspiracy surrounding Lumon and how it all ties back to Mark's own tragic backstory.
Severance is genuinely one of the best TV shows of the streaming era, and captures a lot of the great mystery — and unique music — that made Stranger Things such a massive sensation.
3 Yellowjackets (2021-)
Showtime
The Antler Queen sitting around a fire with the girls in Yellowjackets Season 1, Episode 10Image via Showtime
An icy wilderness haunted by a dark and mysterious evil. A group of teenage girls lost in a vast wilderness, slowly turning on one another. Mysterious cults, cannibalism, murder — Yellowjackets has it all. The story is divided into two timelines. In the '90s, a female high school soccer team is on the way to a tournament when their plane crashes in the middle of nowhere. The survivors find themselves up against something much more dreadful and terrifying than the rugged landscape.
In the present timeline, the teens who survived are now all grown up. As they struggle to lead normal lives, their dark past comes back to haunt them. While Yellowjackets has struggled to maintain the intensity and tight plotting of its first season — which remains a horror masterpiece from start to finish — it's still one of the most compelling shows on TV at the moment, with a fourth and final season slated to come out next year. It's also one of the best female-led genre shows out there, with an incredible cast that includes Ella Purnell, Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Sophie Thatcher and many other talented actors.
2 From (2022-)
MGM+
Imagine that you're on a road trip with your family when up ahead you see a log in the road, blocking your path. Crows caw from the trees. Forlorn clouds drift across a pale blue sky. If you haven't seen MGM's terrifying series, From, you might think this was just a mild inconvenience. If you have seen it, however, you might have a panic attack.
From — like Yellowjackets — traces its lineage back to Lost. Indeed, Lost star, Harold Perrineau takes the lead role of Sheriff Boyd Stevens, and director Jack Bender directed many of Lost's best episodes.
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Vecna and the heroes of Hawkins set out on a collision course.
Posts By Robert Brian Taylor 2 days agoIn From, anyone who encounters that log I described above will find themselves trapped in a mysterious, nameless town. Horrifying monsters prowl the town at night, kept at bay only by strange talismans that the residents hang over their doors. But this is only the tip of the spear: The mysteries of From go much deeper, and by the mind-boggling finale of Season 3, it's clear that whatever is at the root of this place's evil goes back generations — and is very likely tied to a terrible and horrific injustice. The show can be a bit uneven at times, but it's wildly underrated and one of the best shows nobody is talking about.
From is set to return for a fourth season in 2026.
1 IT: Welcome to Derry (2025-)
HBO Max
The newest show on this list is actually still airing as we speak. The eight-episode season of IT: Welcome to Derry will end just a couple of weeks before Stranger Things 5 Volume 2 comes to Netflix. The story, which serves as a prequel to the recent IT films, is set decades before the events of those movies. Like the films and the book by Stephen King, Welcome to Derry mostly centers on a group of children as they're confronted with a diabolical evil terrorizing the not-so-sleepy Maine town.
Welcome to Derry expands the lore of the original story, giving us new insights into the origin of Pennywise the clown (Bill Skarsgård). The show also explores the racism of the '60s, the tension between the US government and the indigenous population, and other social issues of the time. It's a solid mystery with some genuinely shocking scenes of horror and violence, though the CGI can be a little bit goofy at times. While prequels can suffer from foreknowledge, I'm still dying to find out what happens to this group of kids, who invariably must fail given what we know. In many ways, Stranger Things borrowed from King's classic novel (among other classics, from E.T. to Ghostbusters) so it's kind of like coming full circle.
There are other shows that ought to be on this list, of course. Netflix's German-language series, Dark, is often hailed as one of the best Stranger Things-like shows out there, but I've only just started watching that one, so I'll have to leave it for another time. Classics like Twin Peaks or The X-Files certainly also fit the bill. And the film, Super 8, in many ways beat Stranger Things to the '80s nostalgia punch. So many shows and movies to watch, so little time. What would you recommend to tide over Stranger Things fans as they wait for Volume 2? Let us know in the comments.
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Stranger Things
TV-14
Drama
Mystery
Horror
Science Fiction
Release Date
2016 - 2025-00-00
Network
Netflix
Showrunner
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Directors
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz
Cast
See All-
Millie Bobby Brown
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
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Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler
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Netflix
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IT: Welcome to Derry
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