10 TV Shows To Watch If You Like Dark Matter

One of the best sci-fi shows on Apple TV is “Dark Matter,” based on the novel by Blake Crouch, who also serves as a showrunner and executive producer for the television adaptation. Premiering in 2024, the series opens with family man Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) being exiled to an alternate universe by his multiversal doppelganger. The show’s first season is about the prime Jason trying to return to his native dimension and reunite with his family while contending with the perils of the multiverse. “Dark Matter” Season 2 puts the Dessens on the run again, this time navigating infinite realities together while looking for a safe haven.

With its tale of parallel dimensions and the endless scope of the multiverse, “Dark Matter” is certainly a show of limitless potential and it’s not alone. There are plenty of excellent series that revolve around alternate realities, divergent timelines, and other cosmic odysseys to take audiences on. We’ve rounded up the best sci-fi shows that delve into similar subject matter or carry a similar tone as the hit Apple TV original series. Here are 10 TV shows to watch if you like “Dark Matter” and want to keep those reality-bending thrills coming.

The granddaddy of all time travel and alternate reality shows, certainly in terms of near-continuous legacy, is “Doctor Who.” One of the best TV shows of the 1960s, the British series has continued on for decades, with the occasional extended hiatus between seasons. For the uninitiated, the show centers on an extraterrestrial explorer who cruises through time and space, often accompanied by human companions. While venturing through the timeline and parallel worlds, the Doctor encounters fearsome monsters, with the iconic character regularly regenerating whenever a new actor is cast in the role.

A sci-fi show that defines the genre, “Doctor Who” redefines itself with every subsequent generation and lead actor change. What stays consistent is the sheer scope of the show, with the Doctor regularly exploring the fantastic, alternating between playfully energetic and ready for action in a snap. Every fan has their own favorite Doctor and their favorite recurring adversary for the time traveling hero, underscoring the show’s breadth and wide appeal. If you’re looking for a show all about traveling through timelines and different realities, “Doctor Who” helped establish those kinds of stories on television.

The ’90s saw a number of sci-fi shows that deliberately leaned into the campy qualities that come with the genre. Among the more enduring series of this era, or at least one that could use a modern revival, is “Sliders.” Debuting in 1995, the show opens with scientist Quinn Mallory (Jerry O’Connell) creating a device that lets him and his friends slide through the multiverse. Accidentally sent spiralling outside of their home reality, Quinn and his companions visit strange worlds while trying to find a way to make it back to their dimension.

So much of the appeal to “Sliders” comes from O’Connell’s rakish charm and his on-screen rapport with co-star John Rhys-Davies. The show always took advantage of its premise, creating interesting alternate worlds for its characters to play in before they’re called away on their next slide. The show mixed up most of its main cast after its fourth season but, unfortunately, it never got close to the quality of its preceding years. A galavanting fun-filled tour of the multiverse, “Sliders” is a ’90s sci-fi show that still holds up today.

The 2008 Fox series “Fringe” had an impressive creative team behind it, with frequent collaborators J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Robert Orci creating it. The game follows a special secret branch of the FBI that handles paranormal investigations which are linked to the existence of a parallel universe. This unit is led by FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), who is joined by scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson). As the group becomes more involved in exploring parallel universes, they come into contact with a strange ensemble of otherworldly figures simply known as the Observers.

“Fringe” was deliberately designed to avoid becoming another “Lost,” initially alternating between self-contained stories and episodes feeding into the overarching narrative. But once the full multiversal scope of the story really comes into play, the series really leans into this alternate reality premise. The show featured a much more expansive puzzlebox story than “Lost,” albeit not without the tight narrative focus, as it weaves its multiversal mystery. A sci-fi story that largely lives up to its reality-spanning ambitions, “Fringe” makes good use of a parallel world premise.

Sometimes an alternate reality is the product of a divergent timeline forming as a result of historical changes created by time travel. The 2012 Canadian series “Continuum” is all about alterations to the space-time continuum, as its title suggests, revolving around a battle for the fate of the future. The show’s protagonist is Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a cop serving a North American dictatorship in 2077 who pursues time traveling freedom fighters to 2012. While searching for her targets, Kiera learns about how time travelers’ individual actions are affecting the timeline and ponders the efficacy of the government she works for.

Looking back over a decade after its cancellation, “Continuum” is a forgotten 2010s sci-fi show still worth watching today. On the surface, the series is a crime procedural with a time-bending overarching narrative to distinguish it from its contemporaries. That more grounded approach to the premise helps it from becoming overly outlandish, something grounded effectively by Nichols’ performance. Running for four seasons, “Continuum” is a sci-fi crime show with a heck of a hook that gets better as it goes.

Before “Stranger Things,” the Duffer Brothers worked on the sci-fi series “Wayward Pines,” which ran for two seasons on Fox. The 2015 series also takes place in a small town with a paranormal secret, investigated by Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) as he searches for two missing agents. Once within the town of Wayward Pines, Burke finds himself unable to leave or contact the outside world, leading him to try to find a way out. The second season expands the action, escalating to a story of apocalyptic proportions stemming from the town’s secrets.

While “Wayward Pines” is admittedly something of an outlier, it makes this list because it shares something with “Dark Matter” in its source material. Both shows are based on novels written by Blake Crouch, with the first season of “Wayward Pines” adapting all three books in Crouch’s series. There are no parallel universes or divergent timelines in this particular story, but the sci-fi stakes and twists are still very much present. A solid adaptation of Crouch’s work, “Wayward Pines” is a must-watch for “Dark Matter” and “Stranger Things” fans alike.

One of the disappointing trends about this list is that a lot of the shows met untimely ends before their stories could reach a truly satisfying conclusion. This is certainly true of “The OA,” which was cancelled by Netflix after its second season in 2019. The show opens with Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling), who returns to her hometown after a seven-year disappearance. Now referring to herself as the OA, or original angel, Johnson travels to recruit other lost figures to help her on a quest spanning alternate dimensions.

The thing about the shows on this list that got truncated runs is that they still take the opportunity to tell compelling stories. “The OA” definitely qualifies on that score, weaving a genre-defying series that plays out like a fantastical mystery. Even as the full ambitions of the story come to light, that dense storytelling and attention to character remains consistent. A delightfully weird show where the existence of alternate dimensions seems like the least outlandish thing about, “The OA” is still a treat despite its early end.

“Dark” is another one of those shows that deals with complexities of time travel and its potential to create divergent timelines rather than conventional parallel universes. The show is set in and around a small German town and four families who endure tragedy across multiple generations. As these incidents cause the secrets shared between the families to come to light, they discover a local cave system has a portal allowing access to different points in time. This escalates into a full-blown apocalypse and the creation of a divergent timeline as the families try to find a way to avert this coming cataclysm.

“Dark” is a Netflix show without a single bad season, maintaining its quality even as its stakes grow in apocalyptic intensity. With its complex nature, the show is one that viewers need to be paying full attention to in order to fully appreciate its intricate nuances. At the same time, the series never loses sight of its familial stakes and the uncomfortable intimacy that comes with this focus. The sort of puzzle box show that’ll leave you wanting to rewatch it all over again to catch more clues, “Dark” is one of the best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix.

The short-lived Starz original series “Counterpart” revolved around a cold war of multiversal proportions when it premiered in 2017. Just like Joel Edgerton in “Dark Matter,” J.K. Simmons stars as multiple multiversal iterations of his character in the series, Howard Silk. The show’s intrigue is fueled by tension between Prime Earth and Alpha Earth, two parallel universes that have sleeper agents installed on the rival worlds. The Howard of Alpha Earth is an unassuming office worker while the Prime Howard is a covert operative embroiled in a mission involving the fate of both worlds.

With its different variations of familiar faces, “Counterpart” feels like “Dark Matter” with a more pronounced espionage approach. This leads to heightened thriller tone, especially as the true scope of Howard Prime’s mission comes to light as the series progresses. Unfortunately, Starz cancelled “Counterpart” after two seasons, feeling it wasn’t in line with its programming goals at the time. But, led by an always good J.K. Simmons, the series definitely tells a gripping and tautly paced story worth watching despite its brief run.

Twisted timelines and video games collide in the Prime Video original series “The Peripheral,” based on the 2014 novel by prolific cyberpunk author William Gibson. The show stars Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, a young woman living in 2032 who supports her family through advanced virtual reality games. Playing what she presumes to be a prototype game, Flynn discovers that it’s linked to a war in 2099, with her taking control of a war machine in the future. Becoming involved in this conflict makes Flynne and her family targeted in the present as she simultaneously fights to save the future.

“The Peripheral” is a stunner that delivers a potent high-tech buzz, mixing near-future dystopia with pulse-pounding sci-fi action. Yes, there are shades of “The Last Starfighter,” “WarGames,” and “Ready Player One,” but the show does feel like its own distinct take on a familiar ground. That distinction comes from a much darker tone and a command performance from Moretz as a woman who is quickly in over her head. Running for eight episodes, “The Peripheral” is perfect to binge over a weekend for those wanting a video game twist to their sci-fi.

“Dark Matter” was not the only Apple TV original series that prominently featured alternate universes to premiere in 2024. Three months prior, the sci-fi thriller “Constellation” debuted, though its story leans more heavily into its unsettling narrative implications. The story centers on astronaut Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace), who finds memory gaps and vivid hallucinations after returning home to her family on Earth. This is exacerbated by Jo gradually realizing that her memories do not align with the world that she finds herself in.

Unfortunately, Apple TV’s “Constellation” was cancelled after one season, leaving the impromptu series finale’s cliffhanger ending frustratingly unresolved. But for the eight episodes that we did get, the series weaves a spellbinding mystery keeping audiences off-balance until its true scope comes into focus. Grounding the whole experience is Rapace, who alternates between steely determination to unbalanced vulnerability expertly on a dime. One of the most underrated Apple TV original series, “Constellation” is a moody thriller that deserves far greater love.