Netflix’s Hellbound: Best Shows To Watch Next From The Leftovers To Jirisan - Den of Geek
Keep Hellbound’s existential horror coming with these recommended supernatural fantasy TV shows from around the globe, List of related series:
1. The Leftovers (HBO Max)
Like
Hellbound,
The Leftovers is an existential drama that starts with an incomprehensible, potentially divine metaphysical event. In
Hellbound, it is the realization that creatures that seem a lot like angels and demons exist and are coming to kill people. In
The Leftovers, it is the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world’s population. Lesser shows—or at least more plot-driven shows—would focus on explaining the supernatural phenomena that start it all. Both
Hellbound and
The Leftovers, however, are more interested in studying how people and society might react to such reality-shaking events—how we all might try to make meaning from this new information. In both cases, this involves the formation of cults that use their sudden, growing influence to accumulate power and hurt people under the guise of righteousness.
2. Good Omens
Amazon Prime
Listen, there are plenty of shows featuring angels and demons, but no show featuring angels and demons is as god damn charming as
Good Omens, the Amazon Prime adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved novel of the same name. For any ignorant heathens out there,
Good Omens follows a demon named Crowley (played by
Doctor Who’s David Tennant) and an angel called Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) who, after millennia of acquaintance (read: friendship), decide to work together to stop Armageddon, aka the final battle between Heaven and Hell. If you liked
Hellbound but wished the angels and demons were a little cuddlier, then
Good Omens is the show for you.
3.
Les Revenants.
AMC (US); Amazon Prime Video/Apple TV (UK)
If it’s existential mystery and one hell of an atmosphere you’re after, then you won’t do better than Fabrice Gobert’s
Les Revenants. Set in a remote French mountain town, it’s a beautifully filmed drama that asks what would happen if the dead came home years after their deaths, with no memory of any time having passed. The early episodes get by largely on ambiance and intrigue, while the characters and their journey through grief and faith draw you back to the later instalments. Season two gets a little more involved in the mythology/death cult side of things than the human questions, but it’s a stand-out drama all the same.
Lost’s Carlton Cuse adapted it for US television as
The Returned but without great success, and it was cancelled after a single season, so the original is the one to watch.
4. The Fades
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video/Hulu (US); BBC iPlayer (UK)
The creature VFX of this 2011 supernatural drama on a BBC budget might not quite stand up to those of
Hellbound, but the quality of the writing, direction and cast more than make up for that.
The Fades was created by Jack Thorne, a playwright and screenwriter who cut his teeth on
Skins, collaborated multiple times with Shane Meadows on his sterling
This Is England series, and recently headed up the writing team on BBC/HBO fantasy
His Dark Materials (another decent recommendation that would sit nicely in this list, come to mention it). Over a decade ago, Thorne created
The Fades, the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled in a celestial battle between the living, the dead, and everybody in between. It’s scary, funny, well-plotted and packed with geek pop culture references. All that, plus a cast including
Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer,
Lucifer’s Tom Ellis,
Agents of SHIELD’s Iain De Caestecker and
Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya.
Coming Soon
Also keep an eye out for Korean space thriller
The Silent Sea, due to arrive on Netflix on December 24th, and Korean zombie drama
All Of Us Are Dead, based on Naver Webtoon
Now At Our School, which is set to land in January 2022.
.......