20 shows and movies like Stranger Things to watch while waiting for season 5

Shows like Stranger Things: Roswell & Roswell, New Mexico

If you’ve ever been watching Stranger Things and found yourself wishing for aliens instead of Demogorgons then Roswell should be right up your alley. The original series and the recent CW reboot are both based on Melinda Metz’s young adult book series Roswell High. Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl and Brendan Fehr starred in the 1999 show, which ran for three seasons.

Then The CW rebooted the series as Roswell, New Mexico in 2019 and it will wrap with its fourth and final season. Each series starts with the same basic premise of a teen girl living in Roswell and working at a local restaurant, later discovering her crush is an alien, but the overall storylines and characters are very different.

Streaming: The original series is on Hulu while The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico is streaming on Netflix.

Shows like Stranger Things: The X-Files

Similar to Roswell, The X-Files also deals with aliens, but beyond that, it’s a fantastic show that goes much further than the extraterrestrial. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny explore all manner of conspiracies in this long-running sci-fi classic. Similar to Twin Peaks, Stranger Things certainly owes some of its DNA to this series.

If you consider yourself a fan of sci-fi and supernatural shows, then The X-Files is a must-watch. The series really pioneered the monster-of-the-week format mixed with mythology episodes and while Stranger Things is not a MOTW show, you can still see the foundation for it in this series.

Streaming: Hulu and Amazon’s Freevee (free with ads)