15 TV Shows To Watch If You Like Hulu’s Paradise

Dan Fogelman is primarily known for weepy dramedies that sensitively examine the human condition like “This Is Us” or “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” But in 2025, he pivoted hard, creating an intense sci-fi thriller series that rocked everyone who streamed it on Hulu.

“Paradise” stars Sterling K. Brown (Fogelman’s “This Is Us” collaborator) as lead Secret Service agent Xavier Collins, tasked with personally protecting President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). There’s just one small problem: It sure looks like the president has been murdered, and it sure looks like Xavier is the prime suspect. As Xavier tries desperately to prove his innocence, the show pulls another rug (with spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the pilot), revealing they live in a bunker simulating a typical American existence after an apocalyptic event.

In what will likely be just three seasons, “Paradise” has become quite the addictive binge, surely giving its fans a need for more of those vibes. Therefore, check out these 15 TV shows to watch if you like Hulu’s “Paradise.”

Before “Paradise” threw a government agent into unwieldy, thrill-drenched conspiracies and before “The Pitt” presented the most stressful real-time 24 hours in the history of TV, there was Fox’s “24.”

Kiefer Sutherland stars as counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer, and with each episode taking place over one hour in real time (or as close to “real time” as a network episode with commercial breaks will allow), Bauer is thrown through the most hyperbolically intense situations a human could muster, trained special agent or not. Whether the president (Dennis Haysbert) is under a grave threat, Bauer’s daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) makes his missions personal, or there’s a gosh darn cougar on the prowl, Bauer does his best to get results by any means necessary.

Thankfully, Bauer has allies, including and especially analyst Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), whose quirky chemistry with Bauer gives some of the grimmer, torture-soaked sequences a bit of helpfully grounding humanity.

And if you dig the OG series, check out the one-season revival “24: Live Another Day” and the one-season spin-off “24: Legacy.”

A 2014 miniseries produced in Canada and aired in the U.S. on Syfy, “Ascension” is an underseen piece of speculative fiction, a curious work of historical drama that pokes at some of the United States’ most entrenched traumas and values.

In this show’s version of 1963, smack dab in the middle of the Cold War and the Space Race, President John F. Kennedy launches the USS Ascension, with 600 souls aboard, into outer space. Its goal: to colonize a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, thereby positioning the U.S. as the ultimate winner of universal exploration — plus, it gives the U.S. a place to crash if the Cold War blows up Earth.

But halfway through the 100-year journey, a murder rocks the crew. Led by Captain William Denninger (Brian Van Holt) and his manipulative wife Viondra (Tricia Helfer, used to manipulating as Satan’s mom on “Lucifer”), the members of Ascension must solve the homicide, and just might find a nefarious plot underpinning their entire mission.

Basically, “Ascension” is “‘Paradise’ in Space.”

One of the best British crime drama series of all time, “Bodyguard” stars Richard Madden as David Budd, a veteran who works in the London Metropolitan Police Department’s Protection Command division, which guards important people like government officials and royalty.

Budd is assigned to Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), who has clear sights on becoming the prime minister. Montague uses her position to expand the government’s reach, including increased police authority to spy on citizens’ telephone and computer communications. Budd, who struggles with PTSD and disillusionment with British values, disagrees strongly with Montague’s ambitions.

Creator and writer Jed Mercurio spins a cerebral, more buttoned-down thriller here, but one that will still have you gripping your armchair. It’s “Paradise” for people who wanted “Paradise” to play a little more grounded, a little less science-fictiony, and a little more dialogue-driven.

Created by thriller writer extraordinaire Tom Rob Smith (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”), Hulu’s “Class of ’09” tells a peculiar kind of police story, one with an intriguing blend of near-future science fiction.

A group of FBI recruits, including Tayo Michaels (Brian Tyree Henry, friends with Sterling K. Brown) and Ashley Poet (Kate Mara), undergo the Quantico training program in 2009. This motley crew discuss police brutality, their philosophies on criminal justice, and their personal feelings toward each other.

But this isn’t just a coming-of-age FBI tale. “Class of ’09” presents two other eras concurrently, with the 2009 story called the “Past.” In the “Present,” which takes place between 2023 and 2025, these recruits are now active agents in the FBI, and we watch as mass surveillance and artificial intelligence become more prominent and complicated tools in law enforcement.

By the “Future” timeline, taking place in 2034, artificially intelligent agents are de rigueur for all of the FBI, including the characters we’ve been following, some of whom are now at the top of the FBI hierarchy. It all makes for a unique, provocative miniseries.

“Paradise” takes a likable ensemble cast, sticks them all in a secluded environment, throws all kinds of mystery boxes at them, and whips its audience through revealing flashbacks and flash-forwards. If you like all of these elements, you must take a trip to the island where they were previously explored, and in some cases, perfected.

“Lost” — created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof — aired on ABC from 2004 through 2010 and became a phenomenon that changed serialized television. It began with a plane crash that stranded its survivors including ostensible leader Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) on a deserted island. While their initial gestures at survival and discovery play more like an average castaway story (think, well, “Cast Away”), “Lost” ramps up in intensity, supernatural terror, and out-and-out confusion.

Over its six seasons, “Lost” throws everything and the kitchen sink at the wall, and your mileage may vary as to how much of it works. But for “Paradise” fans and TV historians alike, it remains an essential, intriguing watch.

Starring the always-welcome Colman Domingo as a media personality on a desperate chase to clear his name, “The Madness” is a recent Netflix series offering thrills of a similar ilk to “Paradise,” all in a self-contained eight-episode miniseries.

Domingo’s Muncie Daniels is in the Pocono Mountains when he happens upon a murder. The surrounding locals suspect he is the murderer, leading Muncie to undergo any means to prove his innocence (sound familiar, “Paradise” fans?). Beyond the plot machinations, Muncie’s journey takes him to his long-estranged family, where the path to freedom might mean confronting things that he’s tried to hide about himself.

Domingo’s performance is, per usual, a delight, with the man commanding gravitas and urgency while avoiding dourness and instead inviting the audience in intimately. And the creator, noted playwright Stephen Belber, juggles the demands of the genre with the curious character notes that give “The Madness” an edge in your streaming queue.

From the enigmatic dream team of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (“The OA”), “A Murder at the End of the World,” like “Paradise,” takes the locked-room murder mystery and flips it on its head.

Emma Corrin stars as Darby Hart, a young, aspiring detective who’s one of several guests invited to an isolated Icelandic compound by eccentric tech billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen). She is surprised to see that one of those guests is her estranged partner Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson) — and she becomes even more surprised when Bill turns up dead later that night.

Darby suspects foul play and takes it upon herself to investigate the eclectic clientele, including Andy’s wife (Marling), business partner (Raúl Esparza), and head of security (Louis Cancelmi). What she uncovers is a fascinating end of the world … both literally and metaphorically.

Marling and Batmanglij’s works can be an acquired taste, but Hulu’s “A Murder at the End of the World” is their most accessible yet, playing perfectly for folks already into “Paradise.”

Kiefer Sutherland is back, and this time, he’s teamed up with “Paradise” executive producers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra.

In “Rabbit Hole” on Paramount+, Sutherland plays John Weir, a master of the art of corporate espionage. His job is to make high-powered executives’ lives miserable for the sake of other high-powered executives paying him boatloads of money.

Things are going fine for Weir until his friend and colleague Miles Valence (Jason Butler Harner) doctors some documents implicating Weir in a murder — the murder of Valence himself, who commits suicide as part of some nefarious plan. As Weir is forced to clear his name, it becomes evident that a shadow organization, seemingly led by the mysterious Hailey Winton (Meta Golding), is out to get revenge on Weir for his many sins.

“Rabbit Hole” plays like “Paradise” crossed with a bit of “Succession,” with just a tinge of Sutherland’s old “24” vibes for good measure. It only aired for one season, but it’s still worth your investment.

A 21st-century network TV classic from TV guru Shonda Rhimes, ABC’s “Scandal” is, like “Paradise,” a twist-filled political thriller predicated on the surprisingly intimate relationship between a president and his staffer. It’s just that in this case, that relationship turns into … love.

Kerry Washington stars as the iconic Olivia Pope, the head of a crisis management firm based in Washington, D.C. Pope and her team deal with all kinds of clients going through all kinds of, well, scandals, and these cases of the week provide the viewer with all kinds of classic procedural TV pleasure.

But where “Scandal” really starts to cook is with Olivia’s relationship to President Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant III (Tony Goldwyn). Olivia and Fitz have a tempestuous, on-again-off-again romance, one that often gets in the way of both parties’ interests. And over seven gloriously lurid seasons, Rhimes and her team twist and turn every facet of their characters’ allegiances and desires until no one is safe.

Another high-concept thriller with a surprising science-fiction twist, Apple TV’s Shining Girls” is a grim and fascinating series that will leave you buzzing with theories at its conclusion.

Elisabeth Moss stars as Kirby Mazrachi, a Chicago archivist who suffers a vicious attack by a would-be murderer (Jamie Bell). After that trauma, she does her best to live a normal life, although the circumstances of her reality seem to keep changing in supernatural ways. Is that a complication of PTSD, or is something more complicated happening?

When a similar attack happens to another woman (Karen Rodriguez), the issue can no longer stay hidden. Kirby teams up with fellow reporter Dan Velazquez (Wagner Moura) to find the truth behind the assailant, no matter how much the truth seems to unravel the space-time continuum.

If it feels like we’re dancing around the core premise at “Shining Girls,” that’s because we are. This is the type of show best experienced knowing as little as possible (kind of like “Paradise”), so all the twists can hit you hard.

In “Paradise,” a global catastrophe siphons a key group into a giant, domed bunker. In “Silo,” a global catastrophe siphons a key group into a giant … you guessed it … silo. As to where you’d rather stay, you’ll have to watch both shows and see.

Developed for Apple TV by mastermind Graham Yost (“Justified”) from the Hugh Howey book series, “Silo” takes place in a 144-level underground silo where what’s left of the human race now lives after an apocalyptic event. While the powers that be, including toughened characters played by the likes of Common and Tim Robbins, assure their public that the silo is a safe, benevolent place, engineer Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) isn’t so sure. Thus begins the unraveling of a conspiracy theory, in which Juliette learns the truth runs deeper than even 144 levels.

Like Sterling K. Brown in “Paradise,” Ferguson gives a deeply human performance that grounds some of the series’ pulpier instincts, making it worth any sci-fi drama fan’s time.

There have been two miniseries based on Stephen King’s beloved post-apocalyptic fantasy novel. The 1994 take has ample charm and a compelling cast, but to get something closer to “Paradise,” we’d recommend the 2020 take on Paramount+.

And in 2020, “The Stand” was a particularly relevant story, starting with a global pandemic of a mysterious strain of influenza that kills nearly the entire population. The remaining survivors find themselves drawn to one of two factions: the noble scions of Mother Abagail Freemantle (Whoopi Goldberg) and the ruthless killers of Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård, joining his brother Bill in playing King avatars of evil). What results is a nigh-mythological showdown between good and evil that will have long-echoing repercussions.

“The Stand” definitely has more fantastical elements than “Paradise,” owing more in common with other high-concept King works like “The Dark Tower” than his more grounded horror stories. But if you dig the premise of “Paradise” and want to see it blown out further, give this a stream.

How about another Stephen King adaptation?

“Under the Dome,” a CBS series based on King’s 2009 novel, puts a small Maine town under a giant, see-through, and seemingly indestructible dome. Unlike “Paradise,” however, this dome wasn’t installed for safety reasons. It simply appeared out of nowhere, puzzling and frightening its inhabitants.

It’s up to these townspeople, many of whom have their own demons and traumas to reckon with, to figure out why this dome appeared, who’s responsible, and whether they can remove it before it’s too late. Meanwhile, the United States military takes an interest in what seems to be an impenetrable shield, sending forces outside the dome to try and make sense of it by any means necessary.

Like “Paradise,” “Under the Dome” uses this big science fiction premise as a Trojan horse for analyzing the darkest components of human nature under crisis. Of particular interest is Big Jim Rennie (Dean Norris), a gruff-talking, charismatic local celebrity who uses the dome as an excuse to live out his most repellent power fantasies.

Co-starring President Bradford himself, James Marsden, “Westworld” is a complicated genre-blender, a fascinating experiment that takes Michael Crichton’s original, campy 1973 film and refracts it into a serious exploration of humanity through technology. The HBO series doesn’t always hit, especially in its later seasons, but even the elements that don’t work are interesting in their own right.

Marsden plays Teddy, a robot programmed to behave like a classic cowboy at an amusement park of sorts called Westworld. Here, high-paying clientele can engage in any fantasy they wish with any of the robots, called hosts, without fear of legal or physical repercussion.

But are these hosts really blank-brained simulations of humans made strictly for our pleasure? Or are they struggling with their own remnants of humanity themselves? Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy wisely put the hosts front and center, delving into the cyber-psychology of these characters like no other sci-fi TV series you’ve seen. It’s like “Paradise” crossed with “Black Mirror” and a seasoning of “Lost” for good measure.

Most former presidents use their newly acquired free time away from government by starting foundations or podcasts. Not so with George Mullen, the former president played by Robert De Niro in the Netflix miniseries “Zero Day” which, incidentally, is not De Niro’s first TV vehicle.

When a ruthless cyberattack renders the entire United States functionless, causing thousands of deaths in the process, current President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) puts Mullen in charge of a commission to try and find the terrorists responsible.

Mullen finds lots of friction in his task, including from his estranged daughter, Representative Alexandra Mullen (Lizzy Caplan), his bodyguard (Jesse Plemons), and a radical media pundit (Dan Stevens) who quickly becomes a public thorn in his side.

This star-studded cast (which also includes familiar faces like Bill Camp, Joan Allen, and Connie Britton) rides the fast-paced miniseries through its explosive conclusion, making for a show equal parts prestigious and pulpy.