Shows Like BrainDead
If you loved BrainDead's Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Drama storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Threshold
Threshold was a science fiction drama television series that first aired on CBS in September 2005. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the series focuses on a secret government project investigating the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.
Debris
Two federal agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.
Invasion
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.
NOS4A2
A young Victoria "Vic" McQueen discovers she has the power to unlock portals that help her find lost objects. As she delves further into this hidden universe, she encounters many other "inscape travelers" - some benevolent, and some who have been corrupted by their power. When Vic encounters Charlie Manx, an immortal who stays that way by feeding off of the souls of children, she makes a sworn enemy of Manx.
Naomi
Follow a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes
Tales from the Darkside
Tales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and some episodes featured elements of black comedy or more lighthearted themes.
The Crossing
Refugees from a war-torn country start showing up to seek asylum in an American town. Only the country these people are from is America and the war they are fleeing is 250 years in the future. The local sheriff with a past, a federal agent and a mother in search of her missing refugee daughter drive this allegory with a surprising conspiracy at the center.
La Brea
An epic adventure begins when a massive sinkhole opens in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling hundreds of people and buildings into its depths. Those who fell in find themselves in a mysterious and dangerous primeval land, where they have no choice but to band together to survive. Meanwhile, the rest of the world desperately seeks to understand what happened. In the search for answers, one family torn apart by this disaster will have to unlock the secrets of this inexplicable event to find a way back to each other.
More Shows Like BrainDead
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.
Roswell, New Mexico
After reluctantly returning to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, the daughter of undocumented immigrants discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer—he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.
The Midwich Cuckoos
A small fictional village in England is completely subdued by an alien presence for an entire day. Upon waking, it is discovered that numerous women in the town are pregnant.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The lives of the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
Alien: Earth
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.
The Ray Bradbury Theater
A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories.
Joan of Arcadia
Joan Girardi has begun acting a little strange since her family moved to the city of Arcadia. No one knows that various people keep introducing themselves as God, and then giving the teenager specific directions to do things. Unsure of what God wants, and if she's even sane, Joan tentatively begins to follow God's cryptic directives, all the while trying to retain a "normal" teen-aged existence.
Star Trek: Discovery
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.
Defiance
In the near future, planet Earth is permanently altered following the sudden—and tumultuous—arrival of seven unique alien races. In the boom-town of Defiance, the newly-formed civilization of humans and aliens must learn to co-exist peacefully.
Ghost Wars
Set in a remote Alaskan town that has been overrun by paranormal forces, the series focuses on local outcast Roman Mercer who must overcome the town’s prejudices and his own personal demons if he’s to harness his repressed psychic powers and save everyone from the mass haunting that’s threatening to destroy them all.
Don't Look Deeper
In near-future California, high school senior Aisha learns a dark secret about herself. She goes from dreams of graduation and college...to suddenly running for her life.
Teen Wolf
Scott McCall, a high school student living in the town of Beacon Hills has his life drastically changed when he's bitten by a werewolf, becoming one himself. He must henceforth learn to balance his problematic new identity with his day-to-day teenage life. The following characters are instrumental to his struggle: Stiles, his best friend; Allison, his love interest who comes from a family of werewolf hunters; and Derek, a mysterious werewolf with a dark past. Throughout the series, he strives to keep his loved ones safe while maintaining normal relationships with them.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with BrainDead (2016): Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Drama 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 BrainDead.
See full details for BrainDead (2016)