Best tv shows like The First Circle
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A ten-episode television series based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Set in a relatively comfortable Stalin-era prison in the town of Marfino where a community of prisoners with highly technical skills do research for the state.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Russia
Duration: 440 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like The First Circle (2006):
Similar in 85%
Saturday Fiction (2019)
Plot Summary:
An actress working undercover for the Allies in 1941 Shanghai discovers the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: China
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 75%
Autumn Cicada (2020)
Plot Summary:
The story of the show sets in the war period of modern China and mainly focuses on a spy of CPC called Ye Chong who was using the spy code Cicada of Autumn.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Drama, History, Mystery, Thriller, War
Country: China
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Shadow Lines (2019)
Plot Summary:
During the 1950s, Helsinki was the focal point of the Cold War, as global powers and their intelligence agencies coalesced in the small neutral country that stood between the East and the West. Shadow Lines is an international spy thriller that follows a secret intelligence team whose mission is to defend the independence of Finland no matter the cost.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 687
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: political, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, political thriller, historical drama
Similar in 81%
The Four (2008)
Plot Summary:
Using the political decline of Northern Song dynasty as the background, this is the story of the Four Great Constables upholding justice while punishing the wicked.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hong Kong
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 85%
State of Happiness (2018)
Plot Summary:
The night before Christmas 1969, the gas flare at the Ocean Viking is lit. Phillips has found the largest sub sea oil basin in history. And everything is about to change.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Norway, Belgium
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, period piece
Similar in 79%
The Trial of Christine Keeler (2019)
Plot Summary:
The minister, his mistress, and her lover the spy. The story of the woman at the centre of one of the 20th century's biggest scandals – which changed Britain forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 352 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, political, period drama, beautiful
Similar in 86%
The Wind Blows From Longxi (2022)
Plot Summary:
The year is 228 of the Common Era, and China is divided into Three Kingdoms, which find themselves at odds with each other. A seemingly decisive battle has just taken place, with the Shu army clashing with the Wei. But military leaders in the state of Shu believe that the battle’s result was swayed by a campaign of misinformation – with faulty information leading to a critical misjudgment. They believe that this was all masterminded by Chen Gong (Chen Kun), a powerful spy believed to be located somewhere in Wei lands. “The Wind Blows from Longxi” is a 2022 Chinese drama series that was directed by Lu Yang.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama, History, Mystery
Country: China
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Brezhnev (2005)
Plot Summary:
About the last days of Leonid Brezhnev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He is sick and depressed, but he is still trying to enjoy some pleasures of life. He is hunting, eating, and sleeping a lot. While awake, he is recalling his life and his career. Most depressing are his painful thoughts about his treason against Khrushchev, who promoted Brezhnev to the top. Other senile members of the Politbureau, are nervous about the choice of a successor. Andropov anxiously interrogates the doctor about Brezhnev's imminent death. He asks, "How soon?".
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 208 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspense, political thriller, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Ash (2013)
Plot Summary:
The action of the series takes place from 1938 to 1948 years, and covers key events of the era.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 364
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Russia
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 87%
Amazonia (2007)
Plot Summary:
Based on historical events 'Amazonia' recreates the story of the State of Acre, the latest territory to be annexed in Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Brazil
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Island (2010)
Plot Summary:
To Nisi is a Greek television series based on the best-selling English novel The Island by Victoria Hislop airing on Mega Channel. The series premiered on 11 October 2010 to record ratings and critical acclaim. It is one of the most expensive Greek television productions ever with a budget of €4 million.
IMDB Rating: 9.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 78%
BG: Personal Bodyguard (2018)
Plot Summary:
Akira Shimazaki (Takuya Kimura) lives with his middle school student son. He used to work as a bodyguard, but, due to an incident, he now works as a security guard at a construction site. The private security company where he works establishes a new bodyguard division. Hiding his past as a bodyguard, Akira Shimazaki begins work as a novice bodyguard.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 467
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, detective
Similar in 77%
The Glorious Era (2019)
Plot Summary:
Set in the period before and after the founding of PRC, it is a story that follows the first generation of People's Public Security. CCP undercover agent, Zheng Chao Yang, engages in a battle of wits and will against KMT operatives. Before the battle of Liaoshen, Communist operative CCP undercover agent, Zheng Chao Yang (Zhang Yi), infiltrates and lurks in the Peiping police station. Zheng Chao Yang's identity is discovered by a traitor, forcing him to evacuate the police station immediately. In his escape, he is able to take with him a secret list of KMT spies that can deal a detrimental blow to the KMT. After the liberation of Peiping, Zheng Chao Yang returns to the city. However, waiting for him is a new battlefield. The KMT has dispatched a team of elite spies operating under the codename "Tao Yuan". Tao Yuan is led by the elite spy codenamed "Phoenix" and who is actually Chao Yang's older brother, Zheng Chao Shan (Huang Zhizhong), who is a famous doctor.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 9
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 79%
The Orphan of Zhao (2013)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama, History
Country: China
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 81%
One Against All (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of Cadu, a public defender who sees his life change after being mistaken for a drug dealer.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Prisoner (2008)
Plot Summary:
Story of a Japanese man falsely imprisoned in Thailand who attempts to escape from jail.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Yosi, The Regretful Spy (2022)
Plot Summary:
An Argentinean intelligence agent infiltrates the Jewish community to gather information that is then allegedly used to perpetrate two of the worst terrorist attacks in Latin American history, leaving over 100 dead.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Argentina
Duration: 367 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, realistic, disturbing, non-linear
Similar in 85%
Slow Horses (2022)
Plot Summary:
This quick-witted spy drama follows a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 52000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating, tense, disturbing, funny, crime thriller, thrilling
Similar in 80%
MosGaz. Delo N2: Palach (2015)
Plot Summary:
Events take place on the outskirts of Moscow in 1965. In the center - the story of the exposure of a woman executioner who, during the war, at the behest of the Germans, shot prisoners, partisans, and civilians. This is actually a separate civil war of the fanatic with their people. During the war, she was barely 20 years old, and on her account there were already fifteen hundred murders. She shot her victims with a machine gun, hiding behind a toy bunny mask. Then she drank a bottle of moonshine and then appeared the next morning without a mask and lived an ordinary life, the same as everyone else ... Therefore, after the war, it was very difficult to figure out the killer. This case was assigned to the chief investigator. His suspicions fall on one or the other woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: History
Country: Russia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, enigmatic, bleak
Similar in 77%
Natural Light (2021)
Plot Summary:
World War II, occupied Soviet Union. István Semetka is a simple Hungarian farmer who serves as a Sub-Lieutenant in a special unit scouting for partisan groups. On their way to a remote village, his company falls under enemy fire. As the commander is killed, Semetka has to overcome his fears and take command of the unit as he is dragged into a chaos that he cannot control.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Hungary, Latvia, France, Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Barkskins (2020)
Plot Summary:
A disparate group of outcasts and dreamers battle to escape their pasts while navigating the brutal frontier hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization: the New World. Based on the novel by Pulitzer-winner Annie Proulx.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: bleak, tense, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, visually appealing, costume drama, historical drama, factual, period drama
Similar in 76%
Trouble in Store (2011)
Plot Summary:
In the spring of 1982, as Brezhnev’s power is waning, Yuri Andropov decides to tackle corruption and apathy in the Soviet Union.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Russia
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, exciting, suspense, historical drama, psychological, rough, tragic
Similar in 89%
The Looming Tower (2018)
Plot Summary:
Tracing the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, it takes a controversial look at how the rivalry between the CIA and FBI inadvertently might have set the stage for the tragedy of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 492 min
Plot tags: rough, suspense, political, disturbing, tense, thought provoking, interesting
Similar in 90%
Cambridge Spies (2003)
Plot Summary:
In 1934, four brilliant Cambridge men are recruited to spy for Russia. Fueled by youthful idealism, a passion for social justice and a talent for lying, they take huge personal risks to pass Britain's biggest secrets to Moscow. Based on true events.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 235 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, tense, suspense, political, political thriller, period piece, period drama
Similar in 83%
Mata Hari (2016)
Plot Summary:
A sex icon becomes a spy during one of the most important wars of the 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 495
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Russia, Portugal, Ukraine
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, emotional, disturbing, costume drama, beautiful
Similar in 82%
Richard Sorge. Master Spy (2019)
Plot Summary:
A film about the life and work of the Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge in Japan on the eve of and during the Second World War in Japan. Working as a correspondent for an influential German newspaper in Tokyo, he had access to the most valuable information in German diplomatic circles. His brilliant ability to communicate with people made it possible to obtain secret military information.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Mystery, War
Country: Russia, Ukraine, China
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating, exciting, realistic, factual, suspense, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
Life and Fate (2012)
Plot Summary:
This Russian series is based on the book of the same name, once considered a serious danger to the future of the Soviet Union. "Life and Fate" is an epic tale of World War II and a reckoning with dark forces emerging. It juxtaposes bedrooms and sniper's nests, science labs and the Gulag, taking us deep into the hearts and minds of citizens and soldiers struggling to cope with the ravages of war.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Vasiliy Stalin (2013)
Plot Summary:
General lieutenant at 26, a womanizer and a booze-hound, Vasily Stalin has always lived a life too scandalous for the Soviet Union and yet too insignificant to ever escape the shadow of his larger-then-life father. The dictator's sudden death will however sober Vasily up just to place even more hardships and trials on his shoulders.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
Duration: 53 min
Plot tags: sentimental, captivating, exciting, melancholic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Trotsky (2017)
Plot Summary:
The life pages of a man who changed the world but paid back everything he had. Leon Trotsky is being interviewed in Mexico city of the year 1940 by Canadian journalist Frank Jackson. During eight days they have eight interview sessions revealing the true face of Comrade Trotsky.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Russia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: rough, tense, suspenseful, disturbing, tragic ending, thought provoking, intellectual, surprise ending
Similar in 78%
Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973)
Plot Summary:
The series is based on a true story of a Russian spy Colonel Isaev (Stirlitz) in Fascist Germany during 17 days in very end of WWII. Stirlitz has worked his way to the very top of the Fascist hierarchy without being caught. However, his "colleagues", top Hitler's officers Borman, Mueller, Schellenberg are beginning to suspect him. Stirlits is constantly walking on the edge between his two identities, sending information to Russia, while skillfully maintaining the appearance of loyalty to fascist regime.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 830 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, realistic, semi documentary