Shows Like The Pretender
If you loved The Pretender's Drama and Mystery storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks

Alphas
Five ordinary people with superhuman physical and mental abilities are brought together to form one extraordinary team of Alphas. Operating within the U.S. Department of Defense, the team investigates cases that point to others with Alpha abilities.

The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man is a Sci-Fi American television series starring Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Eddie Jones, Shannon Kenny and Michael McCafferty. Somewhat more successful than previous television series involving invisible secret agents, it aired from June 9, 2000 to February 1, 2002, lasting two seasons. The plot revolves around Darien Fawkes, a thief facing life imprisonment who was recruited by a low-rent spy organization and given the power of invisibility via implantation of a special "Quicksilver gland" in his head. The gland allows Fawkes to secrete a light-bending substance called "Quicksilver" from his pores and follicles. The substance quickly coats his skin, hair, nails and clothes and renders him invisible. He can consciously release the Quicksilver, which then flakes off and disintegrates. However, the Quicksilver gland was sabotaged at its creation by scientist Arnaud DeFehrn to release a neurotoxin that accumulates in the bloodstream and causes intense pain, followed by antisocial behavior and psychosis. The host requires regular doses of "counteragent" to keep him sane and healthy, which is controlled by said government agency. This series lasted for two seasons, before being cancelled due to cost issues and internal bickering between the Sci Fi Channel and its then-parent company, USA Networks. The show's first season ran concurrently in first-run syndication as well as on Sci Fi.

Brimstone
Brimstone is a short-lived Fox television series, featuring a dead police detective whose mission is to return to Hell 113 spirits who have escaped to Earth. The series ran for only one partial season. Since cancellation, Brimstone reruns have aired on Syfy in the United States from the summer of 1999 onward. The reruns have no set schedule, but are usually aired in marathons during the channel's seasonal events like "Creatureland", "Inhumanland" and "the 31 Days of Halloween". Chiller also began airing reruns, on July 28, 2007. It currently airs in sporadic weekday marathons, like Syfy, and has no set airing schedule.

Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter, a boy-genius with a secret laboratory, constantly battles his sister Dee Dee, who always gains access despite his best efforts to keep her out, as well as his arch-rival and neighbor, Mandark.

The Secret World of Alex Mack
Thanks to a dousing in a top-secret chemical from an overturned truck, teenager Alex Mack is given amazing powers that make her the envy of her sister and best friend... and the target of a search by the chemical company, which wants to find her at all costs.

NEXT
A Silicon Valley pioneer discovers that one of his own creations – a powerful A.I. – might spell global catastrophe, and teams up with a cybercrime agent to fight a villain unlike anything we’ve ever seen – one whose greatest weapon against us is ourselves.

Mighty Med
When two comic book fanboys discover a secret hospital for superheroes, they're offered the job of a lifetime and get the chance to "save the people who save people."

Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew makes plans to leave her hometown for college, but finds herself drawn into a supernatural murder mystery instead.
More Shows Like The Pretender

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter who investigated mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those that law enforcement authorities would not follow up. These often involved the supernatural or even science fiction, including fantastic creatures.

John Doe
John Doe tell the story of a man who wakes up naked on an island off the coast of Seattle, knowing everything in the world there is to know—except for who he is and how and why he ended up there.

The Whispers
We love to play games with our children. But what happens when someone else starts to play with them too? Someone we don't know. Can't see. Can't hear. In The Whispers, someone or something -- is manipulating the ones we love most to accomplish the unthinkable. An unseen alien force has figured this human weakness out. They have invaded earth and are using our most unlikely resource to achieve world domination – our children.

Henry Danger
When 13-year-old Henry Hart lands a job as Danger, the sidekick-in-training to superhero Captain Man, he must learn to navigate a double life balancing the challenges of 8th grade with the crazy adventures of a real-life crime fighter!

Wizards of Waverly Place
Alex, Justin and Max Russo are not your ordinary kids - they're wizards in training! While their parents run the Waverly Sub Station, the siblings struggle to balance their ordinary lives while learning to master their extraordinary powers.

Taken
The show takes place from 1944 to 2002 and follows the lives of three families: the Crawfords, who seek to cover up the Roswell crash and the existence of aliens; the Keys, who are subject to frequent experimentation by the aliens; and the Clarkes, who sheltered one of the surviving aliens from the crash.

Super Friends
The most powerful heroes ever--Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin--join forces with teenagers Wendy and Marvin and their dog, Marvel the Wonderdog, to defend justice and guard the innocent.

Knight Rider
On the heels of NBC's hit movie, the iconic 1980s television classic comes roaring back to life as a reinvented, updated and super-charged action series showcasing the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand). Absolutely the coolest car ever created, KITT is equipped with an "AI" (artificial intelligence) that is capable of hacking almost any system. Its weapons systems match that of a jet fighter, and its body is capable of actually transforming into other vehicles and using sophisticated holographic imagery to elude villains.

Night Gallery
Rod Serling narrates an anthology of fantasy, horror and sci-fi stories from a set resembling a macabre museum. A chilling work of art serves as the connective link between the stories.

Marvel's Spider-Man
An insecure but courageous and intelligent teen named Peter Parker, a new student of Midtown High, is bitten by a radioactive spider and given powers. He becomes a hero named Spider-Man after the death of his uncle and he must adapt to this new way of life.

Marvel's Runaways
Every teenager thinks their parents are evil. What if you found out they actually were? Six diverse teenagers who can barely stand each other must unite against a common foe – their parents.

Danger Force
Captain Man has a new crew of superhero sidekicks - Danger Force. Captain Man and Schwoz create a fake school to train the kids to harness their uncontrollable superpowers to fight crime.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Pretender (1996): Drama and Mystery themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of The Pretender.
See full details for The Pretender (1996)