Thursday, July 03, 2025
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Given the volume of video game adaptations out there, it's kind of shocking how few of them are any good. The Last of Us managed to break through in a big way, becoming a critical hit as well as a buzzy audience favorite. It has done The Walking Dead one better in its portrayal of our zombie-infested future (well, in this case, our fungal future).
The show's third season is confirmed, but still without a release date—and given the way these things go, I wouldn't expect it to arrive before 2027. In the meantime, here are 10 shows you'll enjoy if you find yourself missing Joel, Ellie, Dina, and all the rest of your post-apocalypse pals.
Silo (2023 – , two seasons)
No zombies here, but this futuristic neo-noir (kicking off, as it does, with a murder mystery) is of a piece with the dystopian post-apocalypse vibes you'll encounter on The Last of Us. Rebecca Ferguson stars as Juliette Nichols, an engineer who gets wrapped up in an investigation involving the local sheriff (played by David Oyelowo). The usual stuff—except that the characters all inhabit a massive silo, 144-levels deep, protecting the remaining 10,000 humans from the allegedly poisoned world above. Those running the silo have managed to convince everyone left that only strict adherence to rules and procedures will keep them safe from the dangers outside. Like The Last of Us, it's a prestige drama that incorporates elements of horror, mystery, and science fiction to tell very human stories about fear and control. You can stream Silo on Apple TV+.
Chernobyl (2019)
If the gloomy aesthetic of historical drama Chernobyl seems familiar, it's no accident: both shows come from writer/director/producer Craig Mazin, and they really do feel like two sides of the same coin. Of course, the one is dystopian fiction while the other is based on a true story, that of the titular 1986 nuclear meltdown in Ukraine. From its opening moments, there's a sense of creeping dread that only increases as the series goes on and, as in Last of Us, the personal becomes political as the failing Soviet culture of deception, censorship, and obfuscation first contributes to the disaster, and then hinders the response to it at every turn. Luckily we don't have to deal with that sort of political incompetence and institutional collapse in modern day America! You can stream Chernobyl on HBO Max or buy it from Prime Video.
American Primeval (2025)
Mark L. Smith, screenwriter of The Revenant, created this historical-fiction miniseries, which may well give you as sense of the tone. Set during the 1857 Utah War—an armed clash between Mormon settlers and the U.S. government—the show stars Taylor Kitsch as Isaac, a mountaineer who, against his better judgement, agrees to help shepherd a disabled boy and his mother (Betty Gilpin), who is wanted for the murder of her husband, across an unforgiving landscape. The harsh setting and haunted nature of the characters will be familiar to The Last of Us fans, as will the sense that other people are a greater threat than the wilderness. You can stream American Primeval on Netflix.
Kingdom (2019 – 2021, two seasons and then some)
Another series that tackles zombies (or the "infected") from a wildly different perspective, Kingdom is set in a fictional version of Korea in the 17th century and follows a struggle to contain a viral outbreak in the years after a series of Japanese invasions. With real historical trappings, it flips the themes of The Last of Us on their head in many regards—we haven't encountered much in the way of formal political authority in that HBO series, whereas Kingdom is almost entirely focused on the elite, the destabilizing influence of the outbreak on the ruling dynasty, and how decisions made at the top carry down to the population at large. The zombie plague is initially believed to be smallpox, which serves as a reasonably good analogy, and the show deftly combines horror and medieval-esque political intrigue, making it something wholly unique to either genre. It's based on a webcomic series authored by show creator Kim Eun-hee, and is Netflix’s first original South Korean series. You can stream Kingdom on Netflix.
The Underground Railroad (2021, miniseries)
The harrowing miniseries, based on Colson Whitehead’s award-winning 2016 novel, blends real history with fantasy (or, at least, a sense of magical realism) to imagine the historical Underground Railroad as a literal railroad, rather than metaphorical one. Thuso Mbedu stars as Cora Randall, and enslaved woman from Georgia who is working her way up through the subterranean network, with each episode representing a different stop. Helmed by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, the series offers lush production values and is often gorgeously filmed, and feels incredibly evocative of the experience of someone like Cora—a young woman traveling through an unfamiliar, and almost entirely hostile America. The Underground Railroad makes a strong case that the dystopian trappings of of The Last of Us have long been a reality for many Americans. You can stream The Underground Railroad on Prime Video.
Fallout (2024 – , renewed for second and third seasons)
Like The Last of Us, Fallout is a rather shockingly effective video game adaptation, albeit with a lot more color, vibrancy, and quirky humor (in the world of Fallout, the aesthetic of the 1950s hung on for a lot longer than it did in ours). The background is a little complicated, but not belabored in the show itself: It's 2296, on an Earth devastated two centuries earlier by a nuclear war between the United States and China. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) emerges from the underground fallout shelter where she's lived her entire life in order to find her father, kidnapped by raiders. The aboveground wasteland is dominated by warring factions, each of which considers the others cults and believes that they alone know the correct way forward for mankind. Amid this conflict, the landscape is also overrun by Ghouls, Gulpers, and other wild radiation monsters, with Lucy just about the only human with any lingering belief in humanity. You can stream Fallout on Prime Video.
The Leftovers (2014 – 2017, three seasons)
The premise of The Leftovers is brilliantly subdued: Around 2% of the world's population disappears without explanation, and it's enough to upend just about everything. Politics have adapted to the new normal, religions have collapsed and reformed, and families have had to make peace with the inexplicable loss of loved ones. The first season revolves around the Garvey family. led by Kevin (Justin Theroux), a sheriff whose wife (Amy Brenneman) left him to join a cult, while subsequent seasons broaden the scope to bring in other characters in other locations. Showrunner Damon Lindelof also co-created Lost, and the two series share some similarities (including a relatively grim tone), but where Lost spun out of control, The Leftovers recognizes that complex plotting and the search for answers really the point. You can stream The Leftovers on HBO Max.
Z Nation (2014 - 2019)
Where The Walking Dead and The Last of Us made prestige television out of the zombie apocalypse, this SyFy channel original is all about zombies as a campy, gory good time. Things kick off with a soldier who’s been tasked with transporting a package across country. The package in question is actually a human being, a survivor of a zombie bite who might be able to help create a vaccine (sound familiar?). The show comes from the schlock-masters at The Asylum, purveyors of infamous B-movies like Sharknado, which should tell you all you need to know about the tone. You can stream Z Nation on Tubi, Peacock, Shudder, and AMC+ or buy it from Prime Video.
Station Eleven (2021, miniseries)
The miniseries, based on the Emily St. John Mandel novel, was released at either the best time or the worst possible time—the story of a flu pandemic dropped on HBO Max right in the middle of the first wave of COVID. The show follows Kirsten Raymonde, a young stage actor whose performance in a production of King Lear is cut short by the onset of a virus with a 99% fatality rate. We meet Kirsten as a child at the outset of the pandemic, protected by reluctant caretaker Jeevan (Himesh Patel); we then jump 20 years into the future, and a world very much changed. It’s a slow burn, but ultimately, the series makes a moving case for the value of art, even (or especially) in moments when survival is on the line. You can stream Station Eleven on HBO Max.
The Decameron (2024)
I'm going a bit out on a limb with this one, ans it's entirely unlike The Last of Us in tone, and lacks any zombie analogues whatsoever. Nonetheless, I think it's a near-perfect thematic match. This funny, very dark, but surprisingly humane show loosely adapts Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century short story collection with hints of Bridgerton-esque swagger. With the plague ravaging Florence, a bunch of nobles and attendants make their way across a dangerous landscape to hole up in a countryside villa to wait out the emergency while draining the liquor supplies. Rules and mores are turned upside amid in this small-scale apocalypse, particularly by servant Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), who kind of accidentally kills her lady on the way to the villa and then decides to take her place. Despite being about how hell is other people, the show makes for an entirely addictive binge experience. You can stream The Decameron on Netflix.
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