Many of us love nothing better than to find a new show that we can sink tons of time into, growing with the characters over multiple seasons. But sometimes, you don’t have time for that, and need a show you can watch for an hour, leave for weeks on end, and come back without fear that you’ve lost the plot.
In the distant past, shows like The Twilight Zone would scratch this itch, since each spooky sci-fi story stood on its own. You could jump in anywhere and know everything you needed to know. There are lots of modern shows that have taken up that mantle, in all kinds of genres.
If you miss Black Mirror, these 5 shows will ruin your brain just as well
A mind-bending journey awaits in these twisted tales.
Black Mirror
The obvious
Any list of modern anthology shows has to include Black Mirror, a sci-fi series where every episode explores a different kind of horror that could be visited upon us through advanced technology. Some of these stories seem prescient, like a sad story about a husband (Chris O’Dowd) who pays a medical company a subscription to revive his comatose wife, only to find that he doesn’t have the money to keep it up. Other episodes are more fun, like the Star Trek send-up “USS Callister,” where a man recreates his favorite TV show in a simulated environment using the genetic material of coworkers who did not give their permission.
There are seven seasons of Black Mirror and counting. There may be sci-fi shows out there even smarter and darker than Black Mirror, but none that offer this kind of watch-in-any-order-you-like viewing experience. Enjoy watching this dire warning about the dangers of technology on your streaming device.
- Release Date
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December 4, 2011
- Network
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Channel 4, Netflix
- Showrunner
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Charlie Brooker
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Cristin Milioti
Nanette Cole
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Milanka Brooks
Elena Tulaska
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Paul G. Raymond
Kabir Dudani
Dimension 404
Like Black Mirror but funny
Mark Hamill hosts this Hulu anthology series that also tells different stories about technology, but the whole thing is less depressing and more tongue-in-cheek than Black Mirror. One story explores the possibility of a dating app that is too good at matching people, another is about a professional gamer who gets more of an edge from a powerful energy drink than he bargained for, and so on.
With only one season, Dimension 404 is a quick watch. Check it out when you want a break from bleaker sci-fi anthology shows.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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Hulu
- Directors
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Matthew Arnold, Freddie Wong, Dave Boyle, Desmond Dolly, Stephen Cedars
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Mark Hamill
Narrator (voice)
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Patton Oswalt
Uncle Dusty
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Love Death + Robots
Like Black Mirror but animated
Every episode of Love Death + Robots involves one of the three words from the title. The episodes range from fantasy to sci-fi to horror, and can be as goofy as the silliest episodes of Dimension 404 or as serious as the most severe episodes of Black Mirror.
The draw here is the style. Most episodes of the show are animated, and in wildly different ways. Love Death + Robots is a feast for the eyes and ears, and you never get the same thing twice.
- Release Date
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March 15, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Víctor Maldonado, Patrick Osborne, Robert Valley, Alfredo Torres Martínez, Jerome Chen, Emily Dean, Rémi Kozyra, Léon Bérelle, Dominique Boidin, Alberto Mielgo, Maxime Luère, Andy Lyon, Robert Bisi, Dave Wilson, David Nicolas, Simon Otto, Damian Nenow, Laurent Nicolas, Kevin Van Der Meiren, Vitaliy Shushko, Owen Sullivan, István Zorkóczy, Javier Recio Gracia, Oliver Thomas
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-
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john oliver
K-VRC (voice)
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Documentary Now!
Not like Black Mirror at all
Documentary Now! is a parody series that ran for four seasons on IFC (and that you can watch on Netflix for a little longer before it leaves, so get on it). Every episode spoofs a different documentary, from famous ones like The Thin Blue Line to obscure docs you’ve never heard of. But whether you know the references or not, every episode is hysterical. When the show is created by Saturney Night Live alums Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Seth Meyers, how could it not be?
It’s clear that everyone behind this show has a real passion for both documentaries and for mercilessly mocking documentaries. It all comes together in a special show you can watch in any order you please.
- Release Date
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2015 – 2022-00-00
- Network
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IFC
- Writers
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John Mulaney, Duffy Boudreau
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Alexander Skarsgard
Rainer Wolz
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Bill Hader
Various Characters
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I Think You Should Leave
You sure about that?
Tim Robinson worked as a writer on Saturday Night Live for years, where his bizarre sketch ideas were often shot down. He took a lot of those ideas to I Think You Should Leave, a Netflix sketch series that has been cycling around social media in meme form for years. If you’ve ever seen a gif of Robinson in a hot dog costume demanding to know who drove the hot dog-shaped car through a wall, it’s from this show.
The humor in I Think You Should Leave is an acquired taste, but once you’ve had a bite, it’s hard to stop eating.
- Release Date
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2019 – 2023-00-00
- Directors
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Alice Mathias, Akiva Schaffer, Zach Kanin, Steve Smith
- Writers
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Zach Kanin, Tim Robinson, John Solomon, Patti Harrison
Kaleidoscope
The serialized anthology show
Kaleidoscope is a really interesting show. This is a drama series about a heist gone wrong, starring Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito as a career criminal who wants to rob bearer bonds from a seemingly impregnable vault. There is a robust plot here that takes multiple episodes to absorb, but the show is designed such that you can watch those episodes in any order you want. The story isn’t complete until you see them all, but one does not follow from the other.
The exception is the finale, which is designed to be watched after you’ve seen the other seven episodes. Still, kudos to this show for trying something a bit different.
- Release Date
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2023 – 2023-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Robert Townsend
- Writers
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Robert Townsend
Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Guillermo Del Toro wants you scared
Shifting into horror, acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water) lent his name to this eight-episode anthology series where each installment tells a different spooky tale, from a poignant ghost story set in a remote lake house to a satire on beauty standards to a horrific yarn about a coroner who discovers an otherworldly parasitic entity in the course of his job. Number high-profile directors, writers, and actors lend their talents to this show, with Del Toro also writing a couple of the episodes.
And if you get to the end of this Netflix show and still want more, Del Toro has a couple of movies for the service, including Pinocchio and Frankenstein.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2022-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Guillermo del Toro
- Directors
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Guillermo del Toro
- Writers
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Guillermo del Toro, Haley Z. Boston, Emily Carroll, Regina Corrado, Panos Cosmatos, David S. Goyer, Jennifer Kent, Henry Kuttner, Lee Patterson, Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Mika Watkins
American Horror Stories
Not to be confused with American Horror Story
American Horror Stories is an anthology spin-off of American Horror Story, which itself tells a different scary tale every season. The spin-off doubles down on that and tells a different story every episode, ranging from slasher fiction to body horror and even a few episodes that connect back to the main American Horror Story mythos.
There are already three seasons of American Horror Stories available to watch with a fourth on the way.
- Release Date
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2021 – 2024-00-00
- Network
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FX
- Showrunner
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Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck
Room 104
Anthologies get experimental
Finally, we have a couple of anthology shows that get a little more high-concept. The gimmick of Room 104, which ran for four seasons on HBO, is that every episode takes place entirely in one hotel room. Within that setup, we get comedies, dramas, horror stories, sci-fi tales, and even interpretative dances. The show is a testament to how many different stories people can think up to play out in one room. Some episodes are better than others, but because you can watch the episodes in any order you want, you can always just ignore the failures.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2020-00-00
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Josephine Decker, Patrick Brice, Jenée LaMarque, Natalie Morales, Sarah Adina Smith, Chad Hartigan, Macon Blair, Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden, Karan Soni
- Writers
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Mel Eslyn, Julian Wass, Miguel Arteta, Benjamin Kasulke, Sam Bain
Inside No. 9
This subheading has nine words in it in total
Another experimental series, every episode of Inside No. 9 tells a different story with a different set of characters, with many of them falling into the thriller and dark comedy genres. The throughline is that every episode has something to do with the number nine, whether it be the number of characters involved, the address of the house where that story takes place, or even someone’s shoe size.
Inside No. 9 is highly regarded, and because there are nine seasons (of course), there’s plenty to keep you entertained.
Revenge of serialization
Sometimes, you want a show that you can hop into at any time without it making huge demands on your time. But when you’re done with that, and you feel like committing to a long TV series that will take you weeks or longer to complete, they’re out there waiting for you.
