5 Best TV Shows To Watch After The Testaments

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments, just ended its first season this week, bringing some of the season’s most tense storylines to a close while also setting up for what might just be the most dangerous chapter yet: the beginning of the end of Gilead. A second season is already in the works for the series, and there is plenty more ground to cover as the novel the series is based on takes Agnes (Chase Infinit) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday) deep into the effort to topple the oppressive, authoritarian regime. However, we don’t yet know exactly when Season 2 will arrive, something that leaves a dystopia-shaped opening in our television viewing plans.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of solid dystopian-themed television series to stream and, even better, some of them make for excellent watching after The Testaments. While nothing is exactly the same—and we’re not going to suggest The Handmaid’s Tale because we’re operating under the assumption that you’ve already seen that Hulu series—themes of oppression, revolution, and the hope for a better tomorrow are all major components of some great series you should check out next and while not everything on this list is technically a dystopia, we think you’ll understand exactly why one particular series gets our thumbs-up.

5) Alias Grace

We’ll start the list with the one series on it that isn’t a dystopia but is still one you should check out after The Testaments for one key reason: it’s based on a novel by Margaret Atwood. The series is Alias Grace.  The six-episode miniseries debuted in 2017 and follows the story of Grace Marks, a poor Irish immigrant who is found guilty of double murder in 1843. After more than a decade in prison, Dr. Simon Jordan is hired to give a psychiatric evaluation of Grace to explore the possibility of her release. What unfolds is part murder mystery, part exploration of the trauma Grace endured that may very well have led her to carry out the brutal crime.

While it’s not a dystopia, there are some overlapping themes with what we find in The Testaments, specifically those around the powerlessness and disenfranchisement of young women. It’s also worth noting that Atwood’s novel Alias Grace is loosely based on real-life events, which makes it even more interesting. You can stream it on Netflix.

4) Silo

Another dystopian television series based on a book, Apple TV+’s Silo is based on Hugh Howey’s Silo trilogy of novels and is set in a grim future where humanity lives in a massive, 144-level underground silo after a catastrophic event made the Earth’s surface uninhabitable and toxic. Inside the silo, residents have lived for decades under strict, class-based rules—though engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) begins to question the truth.

While Silo doesn’t have the gender-based oppression and discrimination that we see in The Testaments, the strict and brutal class divisions and tight trip of authoritarian control are shared themes.  There’s also just a little something fascinating about seeing a world set within the aftermath of a catastrophe, which is something that we get hints of in the world of The Testaments (remember, the declining birthrate and the toxic “Colonies”?) but don’t see very much of. You can stream the first two seasons of Silo on Apple TV+ while Season 3 debuts in July.

3) 3%

Here is one you may not have ever heard of before and that’s a shame because not only is it a great series to watch after The Testaments but it’s perfect for fans of The Hunger Games as well. The Brazilian series 3% is set in a future where 20-year-olds living in an impoverished environment called “Inland” are given the opportunity to escape their situation and move to the affluent, distant “Offshore” society by completing something called “The Process.” Of course, The Process isn’t some simple test and only 3% manage to succeed—the others either fail to survive or are just eliminated. Of course, as is the case in any dystopia, there’s a resistance movement as well.

3% is a complex, exciting, and at times uncomfortably too-close-to-home dystopia and while it feels very The Hunger Games coded, make no mistake: this series is far, far darker and much more adult. It’s a great series and the best part is, it’s also a complete series with all four seasons streaming on Netflix.

2) Leila

If you’re a fan of The Testaments and The Handmaid’s Tale, you really don’t want to miss Leila because the six-episode Indian dystopian drama is very, very similar. Based on Prayaag Akbar’s novel of the same name, Leila follows a woman named Shalini in the late 2040s living in a severely segregated India where water and clean air are luxuries. There are also severe “purity” laws which leads to Shalini’s life being turned upside down because of her interfaith marriage: her husband is killed and their daughter is kidnapped by the government while Shalini is sent to a “re-education center” for women seen to be unclean.

There are a lot of overlaps thematically with the world of The Testaments. Women are held to extreme moral standards that are always shifting, the authorities brutally stifle dissent, and religion is paramount. It’s a short series and it ends in a rather ambiguous manner, but it’s perfect to continue the same elements fans have come to love from The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments—just bleaker. You can stream it on Netflix.

1) Station Eleven

While most of the shows on this list are pretty grim and dark as is frequently the case with dystopias, we couldn’t leave you without a suggestion that wasn’t at least a little hopeful. An adaptation of the bestselling book of the same name (and a rare case where the adaptation is both different and equally as good as its source material), Station Eleven isn’t a dystopia in the sense that there’s an oppressive government. Instead, this is more of a post-apocalyptic story. Set 20 years after a flu caused civilization to collapse, the story follows a group of travelling performers who, in their travels, encounter a violent cult who is led by a mysterious man with surprising ties to their group.

While there is the element of the cult and the cult leader in Station Eleven, at its core is it is a story about humanity and hope. The series is less about the end of the world and more about humanity finding its way forward, which makes it a little unusual for apocalyptic stories. You can stream all 10 episodes on HBO Max.

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