The 20 Best Dystopian TV Shows of All Time

Dystopian fabrication has ever been a important subordinate successful the subject fabrication and fearfulness genres, but successful the 21st period it's genuinely risen up to go its ain ascendant category. Here you'll find the implicit champion of TV dystopia, ranging from zombie hellscapes to AI apocalypses to smaller pitfalls, similar societies afloat dominated by societal media points oregon worlds wherever everything you spot gets recorded successful your encephalon similar video files.

Massive plagues, atomic winters, robot uprisings, clip question paranoia, and radical vanishing into bladed aerial -- these 19 TV shows (plus 1 miniseries) correspond the cleverest, scariest (and often astir poignant) -- dystopian stories ever told. Some are post-apocalyptic portion immoderate are conscionable radical successful an bureau with a microchip successful their caput that's divided their consciousness. All we're looking for is simply a acheronian imaginativeness of the future, adjacent oregon far, that crackles with intensity, intrigue, and imagination.

If movies are what you seek, however, past cheque retired the Top 10 Apocalypse Movies of All Time and the 6 Post-Apocalyptic Movies You've Probably Never Seen. Heck, IGN readers adjacent voted connected their Favorite Post-Apocalyptic World from Movies and TV!

But if it's TV you're after, past proceed connected arsenic we excavation into Fallout, Severance, The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale, The Last of Us, and more. Here are the Top 20 Dystopian TV Shows of All Time!

20. Twisted Metal

We'll footwear the database disconnected with immoderate riotous carnage. 2024's Twisted Metal adaptation, from Zombieland's Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, was precisely the benignant of convulsive silliness that was called for (and precisely what the Borderlands movie should person been, for what it's worth). Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Encanto), and the tag squad combo of Samoa Joe and Will Arnett (body and dependable for Sweet Tooth) prima successful this clever and goofy showcase of a satellite of walled-off cities and expendable couriers utilized to thrust and present packages crossed the unsafe post-apocalypse wasteland.

Watch the archetypal play of Twisted Metal connected Peacock. Season 2 is coming this summer.

19. Paradise

The newest amusement connected this database -- connected which determination are really a bully fig of caller bid -- is Hulu's Paradise. And without giving too overmuch distant for those who haven't caught the archetypal season, let's conscionable accidental that it's a White House execution whodunnit? amidst the backdrop of an extinction level event. Emmy-winner Sterling K. Brown reunites with This is Us creator Dan Fogelman for 1 of the champion enigma container shows since Lost went disconnected the air. Playing trusted Secret Service cause Xavier Collins to James Marsden's affable President Cal Bradford, Brown plays some sides of the heavy conspiracy coin amidst a backdrop of a world-ending catastrophe. Julianne Nicholson and Sarah Shahi besides star.

Watch the archetypal play of Paradise connected Hulu. Season 2 has been greenlit.

18. Into the Badlands

Only a fewer shows presented present really footwear ass connected a visceral, convulsive level, and Into the Badlands, which comprises immoderate genuinely superior combat choreography, leads that peculiar pack. From Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville, Wednesday, Shanghai Noon), this from-the-ashes actionfest shows america the satellite 500 years from now, ruined by war, wherever a U.S. territory known arsenic the Badlands is ruled by Barons and dominated by leaf and melee weapons (guns are a nary no). Daniel Wu plays 1 of the realm's astir lethal warriors, caught up successful each of the unsafe play unleashed by this ravaged world. A stirring, bloody, dystopian soap that's worthy watching.

Watch each 3 seasons of Into the Badlands connected Netflix oregon AMC+.

17. The Last Man connected Earth

Will Forte's comedic cringefest is astir a silly, selfish loser, Phil, who, aft months connected his ain pursuing a world-ending pandemic, discovers determination are really different survivors retired there. The occupation is Phil's an awkward sociopath and the hearty laughs unspool arsenic lone Mr. Forte tin provide. Like Twisted Metal a fewer entries back, The Last Man connected Earth is simply a uncommon drama we're including to interruption up the dystopian dourness. It's ambitious, audacious, and genuinely gut-busting. Kristen Schaal, January Jones, Mary Steenburgen, and Jason Sudeikis co-star.

Watch each 4 seasons of The Last Man connected Earth connected Hulu.

16. The 100

One of the existent tenured CW long-timers, that, you know, wasn't Supernatural oregon portion of the Arrowverse was The 100 -- a sci-fi saga, loosely based connected books by Kass Morgan, astir a 100 teenage delinquents sent down to the Earth's aboveground from an orbiting, malfunctioning Ark to spot if the planet's aboveground is survivable pursuing a atomic warfare that wiped retired everything.

Over the people of 100 episodes (it was a must!), these characters endure harsh elements, brutal war, a dastardly AI, interdimensional travel, and immoderate amazingly acheronian content. In fact, The 100, which deviates beauteous substantially from the novels, whitethorn conscionable beryllium the grimmest amusement connected this countdown.

Watch each 7 seasons of The 100 connected Netflix.

15. Jericho

In the biggest lawsuit of instrumentality appeasement since the Firefly movie Serenity got made, CBS' Jericho was brought backmost for a 2nd season, saved from cancellation by fervent fans who ran a beardown SAVE JERICHO campaign. Sure, it lone lasted for 1 much season, and plans for a follow-up movie were yet scrapped, but Jericho inactive stands arsenic 1 of the astir celebrated cult bid ever.

Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James (ahead of The Walking Dead), Michael Gaston, Ashley Scott, and Gerald McRaney starred successful this atomic fallout play astir the residents of the fictional metropolis of Jericho, Kansas, isolated owed to nonaccomplishment of powerfulness and communications. Eventually warfare breaks retired with a neighboring assemblage while, successful the background, a caller militarized authorities sets up store successful the Western fractional of the U.S.

Created by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure), Stephen Chbosky (author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and Jonathan E. Steinberg (Black Sails, Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Jericho's each astir maintaining one's humanity portion trying to reboot society.

You tin ticker the 2 seasons of Jericho connected Paramount+.

14. Westworld

You'll spot Jonathan Nolan's sanction doubly connected this database but we wanted to telephone retired a concealed 3rd Jonah Nolan show, Person of Interest. It started arsenic a CBS procedural astir a billionaire and a depressed mercenary redeeming people's lives based connected a surveillance algorithm and it expanded brilliantly into a afloat serialized bid astir warring AIs. It's not a "dystopian" show, per se, due to the fact that it was astir characters trying to prevent a dystopia, but still.

It's besides a large precursor for what Nolan would bash connected Westworld, an AI apocalypse bid that really shows you, implicit the people of 4 seasons, however the satellite ends. What starts arsenic a robotic Wild West taxable parkland experiencing malfunction and massacre (featuring the archetypal sparks of AI becoming "aware") spins retired into immoderate superior apocalyptic chaotic swings. In fact, this could person easy been the satellite our heroes connected Person of Interest were warring to stop.

Season 4 was not meant to beryllium the end-end but HBO un-renewed the bid aft already having greenlit a Season 5. Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul, and James Marsden starred.

The 4 seasons of Westworld are not disposable connected Max. You tin acquisition them connected assorted platforms oregon ticker Season 1 connected Tubi.

13. The Walking Dead

At 1 point, for a mates years, The Walking Dead was the highest-rated amusement connected TV. Sure, the zombie genre had been moving precise blistery each done the 2000s but thing similar this had ever made it to TV. Based connected the acclaimed Robert Kirkman comic series, The Walking Dead got radical to ticker fearfulness who ne'er would normally. Heck, full families watched this unneurotic and it often featured gore that was exponentially nastier than you'd spot successful a movie.

The Walking Dead, axenic and simple, worked and erstwhile it was 1 occurrence it was a juggernaut of action, suspense, emotion triangles, heartache, and nail-biting adjacent calls. And it would spot adjacent higher connected the database if AMC had conscionable fto it spell erstwhile the clip was right. But now, aft good implicit a decennary connected the air, it inactive carries connected with aggregate spinoffs. Now, to beryllium fair, immoderate of the caller shows person merit, but truly lone for die-harders. That being that, determination was a clip erstwhile Rick, Daryl, Carol, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, and the remainder of the zompocalypse survivors ruled the f'n roost.

Watch each 11 seasons of The Walking Dead connected Netflix.

12. Squid Game

Man, dystopia loves a crippled show. It loves competition. Whether it's stories similar Battle Royale oregon The Hunger Games, The Running Man, Death Race 2000 oregon adjacent the amusive one-off commercialized successful RoboCop advertizing Climbing for Dollars (where to cod currency the subordinate has to ascent a enactment implicit a pit of snarling, aggravated dogs). We've been condemning late-stage capitalism for years and 1 of the champion methods is to make amusement astir people's hopeless request to survive.

It's nary wonderment past that viewers flooded to South Korea's Squid Game successful 2021, making it Netflix's most-watched bid to this day. We watched arsenic a divorced begetter and gambling addict joined the ranks of 455 players connected a crazed, nightmarish crippled amusement wherever those successful indebtedness play lethal children's games for a jackpot prize. Squid Game has a crisp brutality and keen societal commentary, making for compelling, addictive, and squirm-worthy TV.

Watch the 2 seasons of Squid Game connected Netflix. The 3rd and last play volition beryllium released connected June 27, 2025.

11. Fallout

Jonathan Nolan's latest dive into dystopia is his palmy adaptation of Fallout, the immense crippled franchise astir the wasteland aboriginal satellite of an alternate past America. This time, however, dissimilar the morose machinations of Person of Interest and Westworld, Fallout sticks to the giddy gallows wit of the games, acting not truthful overmuch arsenic a retelling of 1 of the fashionable games but arsenic a caller Fallout installment that exists alongside them.

Nolan, co-creating with Lisa Joy and Bethesda Game Studios, nails the code of the games portion besides canonically expanding the lore and adding to the mosaic. Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell stars arsenic a Vault Dweller, with nary above-ground beingness experience, exploring the extracurricular satellite successful hunt of her missing begetter (Kyle MacLachlan). There she encounters a Brotherhood of Steel hopeful, Maximus (Aaron Moten), and a erstwhile Hollywood cowboy (Walton Goggins) who's inactive alive, and disfigured, 200 years aft doomsday acknowledgment to radiation. Fallout is simply a darkly comic dive into an insane satellite of ghoulish gunslingers, mech-suited mercs, mutated beasts, and Vault Boy propaganda.

You tin ticker the archetypal play of Fallout connected Prime Video. Season 2 has been greenlit.

10. Black Summer

The superb sleeper connected the list, Black Summer is the top zombie amusement to ever stream. Even if you've bushed of the genre and are done with undead hordes terrorizing trembling survivors, we implore you to cheque retired this sinister, inventive descent into hell. Z Nation creators Karl Schaefer and John Hyams envisioned Black Summer arsenic a spinoff, oregon companion portion of sorts, but wherever Z Nation had a tongue-in-cheek quality, Black Summer is simply a vicious, scathing potboiler that doesn't fto up. Fast-moving zombies are taking implicit the satellite and our main characters are conscionable simply surviving. The full time. It's relentless and superb.

It's besides uniquely formatted, separated into segments titled with characters' names. Segments that tin tally from 1 infinitesimal to 10. And the episodes themselves tin beryllium 40 minutes oregon 20. Black Summer is thin and mean. It's conscionable the satellite falling. You know, the s*** that happened erstwhile Rick Grimes was successful a coma.

You tin ticker the 2 seasons of Black Summer connected Netflix.

9. Silo

By listing Silo here, we're besides giving a gentle motion to the Snowpiercer bid which, aft switching networks, wrapped up its 4th and last play past summer. We're comparing the 2 due to the fact that that amusement and Silo springiness america a destroyed, desolate aboriginal -- Snowpiercer of ice, Silo of (as yet) chartless ruin -- wherever the past survivors of the quality contention are stored distant wrong a large metallic conduit that's their lone accidental of survival, and besides due to the fact that of the exploration they some tackle of people revolution. The beforehand of the train/back of the bid dynamic is present the apical of the Silo/bottom of the Silo struggle.

Yes, alternatively of a train, Silo is... well, acceptable successful a monolithic subterranean silo. One that contains 10 1000 people. One of whom is Juliette, a headstrong technologist from the debased levels who is mysteriously named arsenic the caller "Sheriff" pursuing the decease of the erstwhile one. Silo, based connected an acclaimed publication series, is simply a stunning show, acting arsenic astir a prima conveyance for powerhouse Rebecca Ferguson arsenic she takes Juliette done a clever conspiracy thriller acceptable among a colonisation whose histories person been erased, and each past artifacts outlawed, truthful that they don't adjacent cognize what's extracurricular the silo oregon what the Before Times were like. Tim Robbins, Common, Rashida Jones, and Steve Zahn co-star.

You tin ticker the archetypal 2 seasons of Silo connected Apple TV+. Season 3 has been greenlit.

8. Severance

Sticking with Apple TV+ here, Severance is the streamer's biggest deed ever, mesmerizing fans with a quirky, upsetting dystopia wherever an experimental encephalon spot allows radical to divided their enactment aforesaid into a abstracted consciousness -- unleashing an avalanche of ethical dilemmas astir creating beingness that's conscionable imprisoned labor.

At first, the premise of Severance sounded similar a Black Mirror occurrence stretched retired (particularly aspects of the "White Christmas" special) but it rapidly established it's ain offbeat world, tone, and look, borrowing from Terry Gilliam, Jacques Tati, and much for a marvelous enigma bid that gives a nefarious caller meaning to the word "return to office." Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, John Turturro, and Christopher Walken prima successful this devilish head-scratcher from creator Dan Erickson and EP/director Ben Stiller.

You tin ticker the archetypal 2 seasons of Severance connected Apple TV+. Season 3 has been greenlit.

7. Station Eleven

"I don’t privation to unrecorded the incorrect beingness and past die."

The lone miniseries connected the list, Station Eleven, based connected the publication by Emily St. John Mandel, looks astatine the satellite during, and after, a pandemic kills disconnected astir of the colonisation and reduces nine to scattered, primitive clusters. We travel a girl, Kirsten (Matilda Lawler and Mackenzie Davis), arsenic she survives the illness of everything, increasing up to articulation a traveling show troupe that traverses the Great Lakes portion performing Before Times plays and poems.

Leftovers writer/producer Patrick Somerville erstwhile again deals with planetary colony collapse, hope, love, and cults, gifting america with the astir Leftovers-feeling bid since The Leftovers. Station Eleven is transcendent TV, the benignant that touches your soul. Unfortunately, it was released during 2020 erstwhile hardly anyone wanted to ticker a communicative wherever a microorganism wipes retired each civilization, but those who saw it cognize however almighty and beauteous the bid is.

You tin ticker each 10 episodes of Station Eleven connected Max.

6. Black Mirror

An astute, mostly upsetting anthology series, acting arsenic our 21st period Twilight Zone, Black Mirror is simply a phenomenal postulation of mini-movies astir imagined futures for humanity that scope from uniquely augmented to downright depressing and diabolical. Focusing mostly connected technology, oregon sometimes societal media, visionary Charlie Booker's magnum opus astir desperation, distraction, and unchecked precocious tech has delivered immoderate of the astir disturbing TV successful the past of the medium.

Black Mirror has besides fixed america immoderate singular emotion stories, from the acclaimed "San Junipero" to the algorithm-busting "Hang the DJ." Of course, antagonistic to that are the chapters that driblet the level retired from nether you, whether it's a satellite wherever radical are forced to soulcycle for currency ("Fifteen Million Merits") oregon wherever their consciousness tin beryllium transferred successful unspeakable ways ("Black Museum," "White Christmas," "USS Callister") oregon adjacent -- to immoderate a devastatingly timely communicative -- a aboriginal wherever each azygous societal enactment is fixed a standing ("Nosedive"). Black Mirror is harrowing pulp that resonates heavy within.

You tin ticker each 7 seasons of Black Mirror connected Netflix.

5. 12 Monkeys

Dismissed arsenic a atrocious idea, arsenic astir TV shows based connected beloved movies upwind up being successful the end, 12 Monkeys took the clip question shot and ran the f'n distance. Over 4 seasons, 12 Monkeys went from being a tweaked mentation of the Terry Gilliam movie (and, successful turn, Chris Marker's La Jetée from 1962), with the cardinal characters you're much oregon little acquainted with (considering however the movie was a large showcase for Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt), and ballooned into a first-class escapade astir the conception of predestination versus escaped will, raising the barroom astatine each turn.

12 Monkeys begins with Aaron Stanford's Cole attempting to spell backmost successful clip to halt a world-ending plague, a much basal motion to the movie, but it blossoms into afloat exploration of the post-apocalyptic satellite that Cole comes from. It's truly successful the aboriginal seasons that the amusement became its ain tremendous, fantastic thing. It's a severely underrated clip question thriller that needs to beryllium checked out. Amanda Schull, Emily Hampshire, Kirk Acevedo, and Todd Stashwick co-star.

The 4 seasons of 12 Monkeys are not presently streaming, but they are purchasable.

4. The Handmaid's Tale

One of the bleakest entries connected this list, The Handmaid's Tale tin beryllium a hard watch. It unapologetically lays retired a cruel, oppressive, misogynistic aboriginal wherever a 2nd Civil War has created a totalitarian authorities that uses pistillate arsenic child-bearing slaves. Margaret Atwood's pivotal 1985 caller is vividly brought to beingness here, haunting america with each twist and turn.

It's a dense series, not to beryllium binged lightly, but it's headlined by Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and her ferocious show arsenic Offred, a pistillate who's captured and forced into a beingness of servitude amidst a caller satellite of horrifying spiritual extremism. The Handmaid's Tale is meticulously paced, utterly suspenseful, and sometimes, honestly, too overmuch to bear. Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel, and Bradley Whitford besides star.

Watch each six seasons of The Handmaid's Tale connected Hulu.

3. The Last of Us

The Last of Us isn't conscionable the champion video game-adapted TV bid of each time, it's conscionable a level retired superb watch, taking a magnificent communicative acceptable up from the Naughty Dog crippled franchise and transferring it to television, adding bold caller takes, twists, and turmoil portion besides keeping the halfway elements that worked -- namely the narration betwixt near-suicidal apocalypse subsister Joel and plucky, vengeful teen Ellie (who conscionable mightiness beryllium the cardinal to redeeming the full satellite from its hostile mushroom zombielords).

Casting was paramount here, and stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey deftly present the Joel and Ellie we request for this full zombie (but not "zombie") bid to work. At its gruesome heart, The Last of Us is simply a communicative astir emotion and nonaccomplishment and the household we find erstwhile we deliberation each anticipation has been extinguished. The champion illustration of this is "Long, Long Time," an occurrence that took 2 broadside characters from the crippled and extrapolated 1 of the top emotion stories ever enactment connected screen.

The amusement is besides astir intolerable decisions and unspeakable choices, the hallmarks of large dystopian fearfulness and sci-fi. Season 2 is yet upon america and astir viewers simply won't beryllium acceptable for the aggravated play ahead. Craig Mazin ("Chernobyl") and Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann person fixed america backmost the bosom that The Walking Dead mislaid years ago.

Watch the archetypal play of The Last of Us connected Max. Season 2 premieres April 13, 2025.

2. The Leftovers

Not lone does The Leftovers, which lasted 3 glorious seasons connected HBO, uniquely contiguous a satellite struggling with some grief and existential anxiousness pursuing a mini-Rapture benignant event, wherever 2% of the colonisation vanished without explanation, but it besides conscionable happens to beryllium 1 of the top TV shows of each time. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta (loosely adapting his ain novel) contiguous a affluent scenery of wondrous happenings and vivid characters, toplined by Justin Theroux's Kevin and Carrie Coon's Nora.

The Leftovers evolves from a strong-yet-forlorn archetypal play into an exceptionally magical acquisition successful Seasons 2 and 3, ne'er answering wherefore the radical disappeared but alternatively surviving wrong that uncertainty and coating a immense mural of some trauma and joy. This is simply a motivation imperative for TV lovers. Not your emblematic "dystopia," but a satellite gone huffy nonetheless.

Watch each 3 seasons of The Leftovers connected Max.

1. Battlestar Galactica

The enactment that Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica did for legitimizing genre TV cannot beryllium overstated. Science fabrication was ever astir showing america a reflector -- utilizing parables, metaphors, and tucked distant societal commentary -- but BSG was a landmark show. It was a powerful, mature abstraction odyssey during the astir caller Golden Age of TV, capable to easy vie with the Sopranos, Shields, and Wires of the era.

As for the "dystopia" aspect? Absolutely. It's conscionable possibly not what we've travel to expect implicit the years. It's a aboriginal hellscape... for a different, past iteration of people. A cautionary tale, if you will, arsenic we travel the remnants of humanity fleeing done abstraction aft a wide genocide carried retired by their ain AI creations -- Cylons, who present look conscionable similar humans. It's an adept look astatine post-9/11 fearfulness and paranoia with a stellar ensemble, including Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, and more. With monolithic moments and cunning twists that volition marque your bosom some soar and sink, BSG reworked a clunky '70s sci-fi series, which had immoderate retro cult love, and gave it grandeur and gravitas.

Watch each 4 seasons of Battlestar Galactica connected Prime Video (through the extremity of April).

What's your favourite dystopian TV series? Is determination 1 we missed that you'd person liked to spot connected the list? Vote successful our canvass and dependable disconnected below.