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The Peripheral poster

Shows that feel likeThe Peripheral (2022)

Stuck in a small Appalachian town, a young woman’s only escape from the daily grind is playing advanced video games. She is such a good player that a company sends her a new video game system to test…but it has a surprise in store. It unlocks all of her dreams of finding a purpose, romance, and glamour in what seems like a game…but it also puts her and her family in real danger.

If you loved The Peripheral, the closest series we have are Shadow and Bone (2021), Altered Carbon (2018) and Dark Matter (2024). All three share The Peripheral's cerebral and dreamlike feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Timeless (2016).

★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗1 season · Prime Videocreated by Scott B. Smithcerebraldreamlikecontemplative
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video
Stream it:Prime Video ↗

If The Peripheral hit the spot, these will too

Shadow and Bone poster
Shadow and Bone
2021–2023 · 2 seasons · Netflix
★ 7.5drama · sci-fi & fantasyNetflix

Both keep coming back to the same thing: young woman

In a world cleaved in two by a massive barrier of perpetual darkness, a young soldier uncovers a power that might finally unite her country. But as she struggles to hone her power, dangerous forces plot against her. Thugs, thieves, assassins and saints are at war now, and it will take more than magic to survive.

Altered Carbon poster
Altered Carbon
2018–2020 · 2 seasons · Netflix
★ 7.9sci-fi & fantasy · dramaNetflix

Common ground in both: virtual reality and cyberpunk

After 250 years on ice, a prisoner returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: by solving a mind-bending murder.

Dark Matter poster
Dark Matter
2024– · 2 seasons · Apple TV
★ 7.6sci-fi & fantasy · dramaApple TV+

The same mix in both: ideas, then dream logic

Jason Dessen is abducted into an alternate version of his life. To get back to his real family, he embarks on a harrowing journey to save them from the most terrifying foe imaginable: himself.

The Magicians poster
The Magicians
2015–2020 · 5 seasons · Syfy
★ 7.6drama · sci-fi & fantasy

Both lean on stillness more than on sci-fi & fantasy

Brakebills University is a secret institution specializing in magic. There, amidst an unorthodox education of spellcasting, a group of twenty-something friends soon discover that a magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real— and poses grave danger to humanity.

My Holo Love poster
My Holo Love
2020 · 1 season · Netflix
★ 7.6drama · sci-fi & fantasyNetflix

Common ground: artificial intelligence

Unexpected love finds a lonely woman when she forms a connection with a humanlike hologram who looks exactly like his prickly creator.

The Wheel of Time poster
The Wheel of Time
2021–2025 · 3 seasons · Prime Video
★ 7.2sci-fi & fantasy · dramaPrime Video

Drama built on ideas, twice over

The lives of five young villagers change forever when a strange and powerful woman arrives, claiming one of them is the child of an ancient prophecy with the power to tip the balance between Light and Dark forever. They must choose whether to trust this stranger – and each other – with the fate of the world before the Dark One breaks out of His prison, and the Last Battle begins.

Raised by Wolves poster
Raised by Wolves
2020–2022 · 2 seasons · HBO Max
★ 7.4sci-fi & fantasy · drama

One thread runs through both: android

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.

Doom Patrol poster
Doom Patrol
2019–2023 · 4 seasons · DC Universe
★ 7.7sci-fi & fantasy · dramaMax

Dreamlike sci-fi & fantasy in both cases

The Doom Patrol’s members each suffered horrible accidents that gave them superhuman abilities — but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found purpose through The Chief, who brought them together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence — and to protect Earth from what they find.

Fate: The Winx Saga poster
Fate: The Winx Saga
2021–2022 · 2 seasons · Netflix
★ 6.8sci-fi & fantasy · dramaNetflix

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The coming-of-age journey of five fairies attending Alfea, a magical boarding school in the Otherworld where they must learn to master their powers while navigating love, rivalries, and the monsters that threaten their very existence.

Invasion poster
Invasion
2021– · 3 seasons · Apple TV
★ 6.2sci-fi & fantasy · dramaApple TV+

Cerebral sci-fi & fantasy, and it commits to that

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.

Travelers poster
Travelers
2016–2018 · 3 seasons · Showcase
★ 8drama · sci-fi & fantasyNetflix

Dreamlike drama in both cases

Hundreds of years from now, the last surviving humans discover the means of sending consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These "travelers" assume the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform missions in order to save humanity from a terrible future.

Timeless poster
Timeless
2016–2018 · 2 seasons · NBC
★ 7.6drama · action & adventure · sci-fi & fantasyPrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: time machine

The difference: Sits closer to action & adventure than The Peripheral does

A mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, a soldier and a history professor, who must use the machine's prototype to travel back in time to critical events. While they must make every effort not to affect the past themselves, they must also stay one step ahead of this dangerous fugitive. But can this handpicked team uncover the mystery behind it all and end his destruction before it's too late?

In the mood for more cerebral?

all cerebral shows →

The best-reviewed series that share The Peripheral’s defining feeling.