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Shows Like Defiance

If you loved Defiance's Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.

Top Picks

Falling Skies
7.1

Falling Skies

2011

Falling Skies opens in the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign against the occupying alien force.

Invasion
7.1

Invasion

2021

Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens humanity's existence. Events unfold in real time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unraveling around them.

War of the Worlds
7.3

War of the Worlds

2019

When astronomers detect a transmission from another galaxy, it is definitive proof of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. The world’s population waits for further contact with bated breath. They do not have to wait long. Within days, mankind is all but wiped out by a devastating attack; pockets of humanity are left in an eerily deserted world. As aliens hunt and kill those left alive, the survivors ask a burning question – who are these attackers and why are they hell-bent on our destruction?

Halo
8.2

Halo

2022

Depicting an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant, the series weaves deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
7.5

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2008

The series picks up four years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day with John and Sarah Connor trying to stay under-the-radar from the government, as they plot to destroy the computer network, Skynet, in hopes of preventing Armageddon.

Alien: Earth
7.3

Alien: Earth

2025

When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, Wendy and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat.

First Wave
7.1

First Wave

1998

Framed for murder and on the run, a former thief struggles to expose the vanguard of an alien invasion with the help of a conspiracy theorist and newly discovered prophecies of Nostradamus.

Secret Invasion
6.5

Secret Invasion

2023

Nick Fury and Talos discover a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years.

More Shows Like Defiance

V
6.8

V

2009

A re-imagining of the 1980s miniseries about the world's first encounter with an alien race in which the aliens call themselves The Visitors, and have a seemingly friendly agenda that may or may not be a cover for something more malevolent.

Star Trek: Discovery
7.0

Star Trek: Discovery

2017

Follow the voyages of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new life forms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself.

V
7.1

V

1984

Once again, Earth is the battleground. But now the aliens whose human guise hides their true reptilian natures are wiser. They believe the secret to their survival on Earth lies in the DNA of the newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild. But that's something the world's Resistance Fighters cannot allow.

Firefly
8.3

Firefly

2002

In the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, follow the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship.

The Expanse
8.1

The Expanse

2015

A thriller set two hundred years in the future following the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

Raised by Wolves
7.5

Raised by Wolves

2020

After Earth is ravaged by a great religious war, an atheistic android architect sends two of his creations, Mother and Father, to start a peaceful, godless colony on the planet Kepler-22b. Their treacherous task is jeopardized by the arrival of the Mithraic, a deeply devout religious order of surviving humans.

Krypton
7.1

Krypton

2018

Set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet, Krypton follows Superman’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

Lexx
7.0

Lexx

1997

A Time Prophet predicted that Kai would be the one to destroy the divine order in the league of the 20,000 planets, someday that will happen, but not today. Today a cowardly security guard, an undead assassin, a female with a body designed for sex and a robot head madly in love with her all make up the crew of the spaceship Lexx, the most powerful weapon in the two universes.

Battlestar Galactica
8.2

Battlestar Galactica

2004

When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged Galactica protect a small civilian fleet - the last of humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.

Caprica
6.9

Caprica

2010

Set 58 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families - the Graystones and the Adamas - as they grow, compete, and thrive in the vibrant world of the peaceful 12 Colonies, living in a society close to our own. Entangled in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe, blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.

NEXT
7.1

NEXT

2020

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.

Childhood's End
7.0

Childhood's End

2015

The peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious “Overlords,” whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.

Why These Shows Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Defiance (2013): Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy 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 Defiance.

See full details for Defiance (2013)

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