Exploring the Darkest Corners of Human Nature

At seven seasons, The CW’s YA series ‘The 100’ became a deeply explored TV apocalypse, telling the story of the descendants of refugees of nuclear devastation who return to Earth from their habitat in space to encounter the remnants of humanity that has survived. The show’s unique blend of science fiction, drama, and social commentary has captivated audiences worldwide, and for good reason. In this article, we’ll explore 10 shows like ‘The 100’ that explore dystopian worlds and apocalyptic futures, each with its own unique twist and take on the genre.

Source: lifehacker.com

1. Silo (2023 – )

Silo is a futuristic neo-noir that inverts the premise of ‘The 100,’ finding people from a space station visiting a blasted Earth instead of the other way around. The show follows Rebecca Ferguson’s character, Juliette Nichols, an engineer who gets wrapped up in an investigation involving the local sheriff (played by David Oyelowo). The series takes place in 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. The tones are very different, but both ‘The 100’ and Silo turn on the significance of manipulations and lies that keep the lead characters from ever understanding the full picture.

Source: lifehacker.com

Source: lifehacker.com

Stream Silo on Apple TV.

2. Snowpiercer (2020 – 2024)

Snowpiercer is a clever sci-fi melodrama that realizes there are no heroes and few true villains at the end of the world, but mostly just people doing whatever they can to survive. In a frozen future (2026, to be precise), humanity survives on an extremely long train that circumnavigates the globe. If it stops, the power will go out and everyone (literally everyone) will die. Those who came aboard with wealth live near the front in relative luxury, while the poor live on scraps (or worse) in the tail. Daveed Diggs stars as former detective Andre Layton, a ‘Tailie’ deputized by Jennifer Connelly’s Melanie Cavill (engineer and the train’s head of hospitality) to solve a series of murders. The inevitable uprising that follows sets the two of them on different sides of a violent conflict, as each comes to realize they’re just pawns of the elites—same as it ever was.

Stream Snowpiercer on Peacock, Hulu, and Prime Video.

3. The Wilds (2020 – 2022)

The Wilds is a mystery/thriller series that sees an airplane full of teenage girls crash on the way to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It quickly becomes clear that the accident was engineered and that the whole thing is some sort of social experiment, and the survivors are forced to compete against each other if they want to live—it’s reminiscent of the manipulations at the heart of ‘The 100,’ even if the setting is less overtly sci-fi. The show understands the ways in which young women are exploited and expected to compete against each other in the real world, making clear that a Lord of the Flies-esque scenario with women at its center isn’t going to go any better, even if it would play out differently.

Stream The Wilds on Prime Video.

4. Tribes of Europa (2021)

Tribes of Europa is a show that posits a global technological collapse, with a complete societal breakdown and the dissolution of governments into a bunch of warring micro-states. Three groups are important here: the aggressive Crows; the militaristic and politically minded Crimsons; and the peaceful Origines, three of whom happen upon advanced technology that makes the teenagers targets for just about everyone. The show takes place in 2074, 45 years after the global collapse.

Stream Tribes of Europa on Netflix.

5. Shadowhunters (2016 – 2019)

Shadowhunters is an urban fantasy series that’s a match for ‘The 100’ by demographic, being adapted from a popular YA novel series. Both series put young women as reluctant warriors at the front, fighting for their families and friends in the face of world-ending consequences. From the long-running Cassandra Clare-written Mortal Instruments series, Shadowhunters finds Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara) discovering that her mom’s been lying to her for her whole life: She’s the daughter of a rogue Shadowhunter who split off to form his own group of, like, magical bigots, going extreme in his mission to defend people from demons and supernatural beings, not all of who are bad.

Stream Shadowhunters on Hulu.

6. 12 Monkeys (2015 – 2018)

12 Monkeys is another future dystopia involving the aftermath of global catastrophe—only here we’re counting on time travel to save us. James Cole, a scavenger from 2043, travels back in time to 2015 to stop a deadly plague. Though the series at first felt like a retread of the Terry Gilliam film (and of La Jetée, on which that was based), it eventually began to luxuriate in its extended timeline and use it to ruminate on ideas of free will versus predetermination, even while throwing in plenty of action and mystery; extended plot-lines, complex character dynamics, and impossible choices are points of convergence.

Stream 12 Monkeys on Prime Video.

7. Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyō) (2023)

Heavenly Delusion is a post-apocalyptic anime that follows two parallel narratives: In one, a group of children live in a confined, sterile, closely monitored school environment called ‘Heaven’ and are protected from what we quickly learn is the monster-filled devastation outside; in the other, bodyguard Kiruko and their companion Maru travel across a devastated Japan. Those relatively straightforward dystopian strands soon give way to some wild twists and turns as the plot lines dovetail into a story involving gender and sexual politics, as well as a whole lot of dark secrets.

Stream Heavenly Delusion on Hulu.

8. 3% (2016 – 2020)

3% is a show that would be tempting to see as a metaphor for the American dream, but, of course, it’s a Brazilian show, and it’s not as though inequality was invented in the United States—we’re just particularly good at it. In 3%, the impoverished young Inlanders have one shot at success: completing ‘The Process,’ a series of interviews, puzzles, and escape rooms designed to test their worthiness to join a futuristic offshore utopia. Most fail, and many don’t survive, leaving a success rate of…3%. This is very much Hunger Games territory, but there’s also a very 100%-esque sense of young people being seen as expendable, particularly when they don’t occupy the right spot in the social order.

Stream 3% on Netflix.

9. The Rain (2018 – 2020)

Welcome to the apocalypse, but, you know…wetter. In this three-season Danish import, a virus spread by rainfall wipes out most of the population of Scandinavia. Siblings Simone and Rasmus emerge from their bunker six years later, setting off across the countryside with the hope of finding a safe haven, and maybe tracking down their father. It turns out that one of them…

Stream The Rain on Netflix.