Best tv shows like 1990
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties. Edward Woodward plays Jim Kyle, a journalist on the last independent newspaper called The Star, who turns renegade and begins to fight the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD, in turn, try to provide proof of Kyle's subversive activities.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 156
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: futuristic
Best tv shows and movies like 1990 (1977):
Similar in 90%
Hot Skull (2022)
Plot Summary:
In a world shaken by an epidemic of madness that spreads through speech, Murat is the only immune person. As he searches for the secret of his mysterious immunity, his “hot skull", he has to leave the safe zone and embark on an adventure within the ruins of Istanbul.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Turkey
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: futuristic, dystopian
Similar in 85%
Arcadia (2023)
Plot Summary:
Following a major catastrophe, a new society, Arcadia, is born. Resources have become scarce and a point system, known as the Citizen Score, is introduced. It determines what you can and may do and what a citizen is entitled to.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 385 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Doomwatch (1970)
Plot Summary:
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Sci-Fi, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: spooky
Similar in 87%
Berko (2019)
Plot Summary:
Sparks fly between an investigative journalist and a young escort with secrets as they investigate the hidden world of arms trafficking.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 17
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Chile
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Cold Lazarus (1996)
Plot Summary:
Dennis Potter's last production for television, screened alongside Karaoke.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 760
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: futuristic
Similar in 77%
An Englishman's Castle (1978)
Plot Summary:
Set in an alternative 1970s where Germany won the Second World War and occupied Europe, a soap opera called 'An Englishman's Castle' plays out through writer Peter Ingram.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: soap opera
Similar in 84%
54 Days (2014)
Plot Summary:
5 people trapped in a bunker after a nuclear and biological attack are forced to make an impossible decision - either one dies or they all die.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Quatermass (1979)
Plot Summary:
After the mysterious destruction of the new space station, young people find themselves drawn to a stone circle in England, and other locations around Earth. They believe they'll be taken to a better place by a higher power. Only Professor Quatermass realizes that the young people are being tricked by an alien power, who wants to "harvest" humanity. It's up to Quatermass to find a way to stop the deadly plans of the aliens.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 204 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Invaders (1967)
Plot Summary:
The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them, for him it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 51 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, retro, anthology, serious, vintage
Similar in 79%
SS-GB (2017)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from Len Deighton’s 1978 alternate history novel. A British detective investigates a murder in German-occupied Britain during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, period drama, detective series
Similar in 76%
Blake's 7 (1978)
Plot Summary:
A group of convicts and outcasts fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from a highly advanced alien spaceship.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: cult classic, futuristic, serious, suspenseful, stylized, vintage
Similar in 82%
The Tripods (1984)
Plot Summary:
Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Masters using their giant Tripods. cousins. When humans reach the age of sixteen, they must undergo a process known as capping which places their mind under the control of the conquerors. In 2089, having learned the truth, cousins Will and Henry Parker embark on a journey to the White Mountains in search of a group of free men.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Australia, UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
V (2009)
Plot Summary:
V is an American science fiction television series that ran for two seasons on ABC, from November 3, 2009 to March 15, 2011. A remake of the 1983 miniseries created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series chronicles the arrival on Earth of a technologically advanced alien species which ostensibly comes in peace, but actually has sinister motives. V stars Morena Baccarin, Lourdes Benedicto, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Charles Mesure, Elizabeth Mitchell, Laura Vandervoort and Scott Wolf, and was executive produced by Scott Rosenbaum, Yves Simoneau, Scott Peters, and Jace Hall. The series was produced by The Scott Peters Company, HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, apocalyptic, captivating, stylized, cliffhanger, tense, exciting, serious, atmospheric, sweet
Similar in 80%
Outcasts (2010)
Plot Summary:
Outcasts is a 2011 British television science-fiction drama serial, starring Liam Cunningham, Hermione Norris, Amy Manson, Daniel Mays, Jamie Bamber, Eric Mabius and Ashley Walters. It originally aired on BBC One, and BBC HD. It was broadcast in the United States on BBC America.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: futuristic, suspenseful, contemplative, apocalyptic, captivating, psychological, tense, serious, stylized
Similar in 90%
The Last Train (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Last Train is a British six-part post-apocalyptic television drama serial first broadcast on the ITV network in 1999. It has since been repeated on ITV2 in 1999/2001 and on numerous occasions on the UK Sci-Fi Channel. The serial was written by Matthew Graham and produced for ITV by Granada Television. In the United States, the Fox Network purchased the rights to produce a new version of the series soon after its original UK transmission. Retitled The Ark, the idea did not progress beyond the pilot stage. As of May 2013, the series has not been released on DVD or any other format, and has never aired in the US.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 987
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, gloomy, bleak, serious, captivating, futuristic, suspenseful, stylized, disaster movie
Similar in 84%
Trepalium (2016)
Plot Summary:
It’s the end of the 21st century and society is in decline. The economic situation is a nightmare: only 20% of the population is actively employed while everybody else is jobless. On one side, the Jobless—hungry, thirsty, in a state of total abandon. On the other, the Actives—forever terrorized by the idea of losing their jobs. Separating them is a wall. Each camp expresses one facet of the same suffering; work, or the absence of it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 614
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, suspense, futuristic
Similar in 77%
Planet Earth (1974)
Plot Summary:
Planet Earth is a sequel to Gene Roddenberry's Genesis II (1973) made-for-TV movie, in which a NASA scientist, Dylan Hunt, is revived from suspended animation in the post-nuclear war United States. In Planet Earth, Dylan is now a sworn member of PAX, the colony of people who revived him. Dylan and his PAX team find another colony which is ruled by women and where all men are slaves. He is captured and sold as a slave, but escapes and organizes a rebellion. Dylan once again has a profound influence in the new world that he finds himself in, in the year 2233.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, grindhouse, exciting, offbeat, serious, futuristic, suspenseful, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 82%
Silo (2023)
Plot Summary:
In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant underground silo that plunges hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 100000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 49 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Into the Night (2020)
Plot Summary:
When the sun suddenly starts killing everything in its path, passengers on an overnight flight from Brussels attempt to survive by any means necessary.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Belgium
Duration: 35 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, tense, suspense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, futuristic, intellectual, twisted
Similar in 88%
The Survivalist (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a time of starvation, a survivalist lives off a small plot of land hidden deep in forest. When two women seeking food and shelter discover his farm, he finds his existence threatened.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, intellectual, futuristic, disturbing, stylized, apocalyptic, bleak, artsy, brutal
Similar in 80%
Snowpiercer (2020)
Plot Summary:
Set seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a gigantic, perpetually-moving train that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival are questioned in this riveting series.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 60000
Genere: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, unusual plot structure, captivating, brutal, depressing, suspenseful, intellectual, interesting, disaster movie
Similar in 88%
To the Lake (2019)
Plot Summary:
Mini-series in which an unknown virus turns Moscow into a city of the dead. There is no electricity, money has lost all value and those who are still not infected, are desperately fighting for food and fuel. The main character, Sergei, lives outside the city with the woman he loves and her autistic son. It's still safe there. In spite of that he rushes to Moscow to save his ex-wife and their son, although she hates Sergei . These people, who never believed they'd be under the same roof again, have to put the past behind them and set off on a long, dangerous journey north to find an isolated hunting lodge on a deserted island. The Outbreak is a family drama in the midst of a global disaster.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Russia
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, suspenseful, suspense, serious
Similar in 85%
Brave New World (2020)
Plot Summary:
In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 415 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, futuristic, surprise ending, apocalyptic, atmospheric, serious, disturbing, intellectual, realistic, saga
Similar in 85%
Real Humans (2012)
Plot Summary:
Set in a parallel universe, Real Humans imagines a world where robots have become so human that they're barely distinguishable from real humans and follows the resulting emotional effects on two families as well as the trials of a group of robots who have attained free will and want their freedom from human ownership.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: stylized, serious, captivating, thought provoking, suspenseful, intellectual, cyber, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Raised by Wolves (2020)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 85000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: futuristic, suspense, apocalyptic, intelligent, visually appealing, atmospheric, gothic, sad, anthology, dread
Similar in 89%
12 Monkeys (2015)
Plot Summary:
The provocative story of Cole, a time traveler from a decimated future in a high-stakes race against the clock. Utilizing a dangerous and untested method of time travel, he journeys from 2043 to the present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will all but annihilate the human race.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: futuristic, mind bending, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, mindfuck, intense, suspense, exciting, spiritual
Similar in 82%
The Peripheral (2022)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 77000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: futuristic, exciting, thrilling, smart, dark, clever
Similar in 77%
The Handmaid's Tale (2017)
Plot Summary:
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. A TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 253000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, melancholic, bleak, captivating, apocalyptic, intellectual, thought provoking, erotic, exciting
Similar in 81%
The Rain (2018)
Plot Summary:
After a brutal virus wipes out most of the population, two young siblings embark on a perilous search for safety. A Scandinavian thriller series.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Denmark, USA
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, atmospheric, exciting, apocalyptic, tense, bleak, suspenseful, stylized, compassionate, sitcom
Similar in 78%
Black Mirror (2011)
Plot Summary:
A contemporary British re-working of The Twilight Zone with stories that tap into the collective unease about our modern world. Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm - a plasma screen; a monitor; a smartphone - a black mirror of our 21st Century existence.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 622000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: philosophical, serious, thought provoking, anthology, clever, bleak, stylized, cynical, disturbing, biting