If you're looking for more shows like The Last of Us to watch, check out these apocalyptic series

HBO’s latest prestige drama The Last of Us is putting up dragon-sized Game of Thrones-caliber ratings, and for good reason, as the big-budget TV adaptation of the acclaimed Playstation video game series is easily as good as fans were desperately hoping it would be. 

Set several years in the future after a deadly fungus has killed billions and left the world overrun and stalked by infected, the series from Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the game’s creator Neil Druckmann follows seasoned survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he’s tasked with transporting a teenaged girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who’s immune to the infection, across the country. Along the way, they run across dangerous factions of survivors, killer creatures, and the relentless pressure to find food and supplies.

HBO has already confirmed it will be bringing the show back for at least one more season (which makes sense, as there have been two games in the series so far), so there’s at least a few more stories to come in this epic, apocalyptic saga. But what if you’re looking for a whole lot more of the apocalypse right now? We’ve pulled together 12 excellent TV series set in the post-apocalypse (or at least apocalypse-adjacent) that pair quite well with HBO’s vision of the end of the world. Here’s what’s worth watching.

Also read: 11 must-watch goth teen TV shows

The Best Apocalyptic TV Shows

CBS Television Distribution

The 100 (2014-2020)

This one is admittedly a bit more sci-fi teen series, but The CW’s beloved original The 100 is still an excellent spin on the apocalypse. The series follows a group of young survivors who return to a long-abandoned Earth in the wake of a nuclear fallout. What they find isn’t just an unforgiving planet, but also the angry remnants of humanity that were left behind. For a lower-budget CW series, this one takes some big creative swings, and delves into some ambitious and creative world-building across its seven seasons. 

NBCUniversal Television Distribution

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)

The Syfy’s revival of the cheesy 1970s science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica turned out to be an award-winning tour de force in the early-to-mid 2000s. Instead of a virus, the series picks up after pretty much all of humanity has been wiped out by killer robots called Cylons, a human creation that eventually turns on their masters. The series is largely set on a series of barely-functioning space ships, as the remaining few thousand left make a run for it to try and survive. It grapples with politics, depression, paranoia, the push-and-pull between the military and civilian government, and, most importantly, the effects of this pressure cooker type of life on the psyche and morale of humanity. 

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Containment (2016)

If you’re looking to rewind the story to the early days of a potential global outbreak, The CW’s short-lived 2016 series Containment is a compelling series that largely came and went with little fanfare. But it was a fascinating series exploring the ins and outs of an area of Atlanta after a quarantine is put into effect around a mysterious pathogen outbreak. The story follows doctors and survivors from inside and outside of the containment zone, telling a story that became all too prescient just a few years later during the COVID-19 pandemic. For deep cut sci-fi fans, it’s worth noting it also starred Farscape and Stargate SG-1 fan favorite Claudia Black.

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Falling Skies (2011-2015)

Falling Skies was a big-budget tentpole back when TNT was still in the drama business, and starred Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood as survivors of an alien invasion and leaders in a resistance movement against the deep space overlords. The show was produced by Steven Spielberg, and featured plenty of those trademark Amblin vibes, as it zeroes in on the father-son dynamic and how it can survive even when the world falls apart. This one gets a bit silly in its later seasons with warring alien factions and half-baked conspiracies, but the production value and the way the series wears its heart on its sleeve makes it worth sticking around.

MGM Television

Jeremiah (2002-2004)

Though J. Michael Straczynski is best known for creating the sci-fi epic Babylon 5, he also dipped his toe into the post-apocalypse with the 2002 Showtime original series Jeremiah. Set in the far flung (ahem) future of 2021, the series follows a generation of survivors decades after a mysterious virus caused all the adults in the world to die. Now this younger generation has become adults themselves and are trying to rebuild a broken world. The series never found a lot of buzz or acclaim at the time and ran for just two seasons, but it was a clever idea from a surprisingly good cast led by Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Plus, Straczynski remains a fantastic storyteller, and anything he touches is worth consideration.

CBS Television Distribution

Jericho (2006-2008)

This CBS drama ran from 2006-2008 and tells the story of a small town left largely on its own after mushroom clouds erupt in the distance on top of nearby major cities. As the internet, phone, and communication lines go down, the survivors are left to fend for themselves and try to piece together what’s happened to the rest of the country. The first season keeps the action squarely on Jericho and its residents (comprised of network TV veterans like Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, and Ashley Scott), and it makes the stakes all the more real to see how it impacts not the country or world at large, but the small town that’s simply trying to survive. The show was renewed for an abbreviated second season, which upped the stakes and scope considerably (with mixed results), but that first season remains must-see TV.

20th Television

The Last Man on Earth (2015-2018)

Yes, even the end of the world can be funny if you do it right. This 2015 high-concept comedy from Fox starred Will Forte as the namesake “last man on Earth,” who survives a deadly virus and basically aims to live out the rest of his days doing whatever the hell he wants. But that life of lonely indulgence eventually gets old, and just when Forte’s Phil considers ending it all, he learns he’s actually not the only person left in the world. The series eventually evolves into the story of a tight ensemble, as these survivors look to find a way to live this life of solitude together. The show is darkly funny, and one of the most innovative spins on the apocalypse genre. It also features plenty of guest stars, with A-listers like Jon Hamm, Laura Dern, Alexandra Daddario, Will Ferrell, and Jack Black popping up along the way.

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

The Last Ship (2014-2018)

This TNT action drama ran from 2014-2018, and though it was a modest hit, it largely coasted under the radar. The series followed the crew of a U.S. naval battleship after a global pandemic kills much of the planet. It makes for an interesting lens to tell a post-apocalyptic story, looking at a military crew as they fall back on duty and service when there might not even be a functioning country left to serve. There isn’t much of a horror or sci-fi element to this one, but terrorists and other survivors prove plenty threatening. It starred Eric Dane, of Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria fame, along with Adam Baldwin and Rhona Mitra.

CBS/Paramount+

The Stand (2020-2021)

One of Stephen King’s most ambitious novels has been adapted a couple of times, but the 2020 television version at CBS All Access (now Paramount+) is certainly one of the coolest. It was an ambitious, big-budget swing that still maintained all of the weird and bizarre world-building that made it trademark King material. It starred a who’s who of random stars, from James Marsden to Alexander Skarsgård to Whoopi Goldberg, and threaded the apocalyptic sweet spot of pseudo-fantasy, religious ambitiousness. Critics called it a bit of a mixed bag, but if you’re already all-in on the apocalypse, this is a fascinating vision for how it might all end.

Netflix

Sweet Tooth (2021- )

Netflix’s acclaimed 2021 apocalyptic fantasy series follows the world after a virus takes out most of humanity, and eventually leads to animal-hybrid babies. It’s a lush, beautiful vision of a bizarre post-apocalypse, based on Jeff Lemire’s comic book series. Critics adored the series, and it was one of Netflix’s bigger hits in the year of its release. Though only one season is out now, Netflix has already renewed the series for a second season, so there are more adventures in this world on the way. Plus, one interesting note behind the camera: The show is produced by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan.

20th Television

The Walking Dead (2010-2022)

If you’re looking for more of the apocalypse, this is easily the most obvious place to look. The Walking Dead was a monster hit for more than a decade at AMC, adapting Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic about a zombie apocalypse and the survivors trying to make it one day at a time. Unlike The Last of Us’ tightly focused narrative, The Walking Dead features a massive ensemble of stars, and, yes, plenty of gory zombie kills along the way. It’s worth noting the show has spawned a few spinoffs already, with several more on the way, but it’s hard to beat the original series and its shambling, tense vision of the end of the world.

Disney/ABC Domestic Television

Y: The Last Man (2021)

Brian K. Vaughan’s seminal post-apocalypse comic book saga Y: The Last Man spent years in various stages of development, and the eventual 2021 adaptation more than lived up to the legacy. The series stayed true to the spirit of the original saga, about the last man on Earth and his pet monkey as they navigated a reality where every mammal with a Y chromosome (except them) has died. It delved into the political and societal fallout of what would happen if all cisgender men were just suddenly gone, and though the series was cancelled after just one season and cut short, it’s still an inventive vision of the apocalypse that should appeal to any Last of Us fan.