15 post-apocalyptic TV shows to fill the void left by The Last Of Us

takes place 15 years after the Second Impact, a cataclysmic event that shifted the Earth’s axis and wiped out roughly half the world’s population. Subsequent wars and climate change leave the planet ravaged, and it only gets worse when giant, monstrous beings referred to as Angels begin appearing in Japan. The cause of the Second Impact and what the Angels want are major plot points, yes, but the Japanese anime series’ biggest draws are its gorgeously choreographed fights between the giant mechas, Evangelions, and the Angels. [Jen Lennon]

taps into the very real horror of what would happen if the world lost access to electricity. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama from Eric Kripke (The Boys, Supernatural) examines a world that’s said goodbye to everything from computers to planes to cars. While the “blackout” took place in 2012, Revolution begins in 2027 when new governments and public orders have been created in the U.S. The show is inexplicably compelling as central characters trudge through political warfare, rebellions, and gritty landscapes in their fight for survival and a search for electricity. The series also boasts an impressive ensemble, including Giancarlo Esposito, Billy Burke, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Zak Orth. [Saloni Gajjar]

has absolutely no right to be as good as it is. Taking a movie and stretching it out into a series is always a dicey proposition, as a lot of shows have found out. Still, by using the film as a jumping-off point to tell its own unique story, the show quietly became an acclaimed sci-fi TV experience. Much of that is thanks to the fleshed-out characters, a ragtag group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic future who travel back in time to try to stop the release of a deadly virus. Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek) shines as a brilliant but unstable mathematician, and Todd Stashwick (The Originals) seems to be having the time of his life as the sleazy, dangerous Deacon. [Jen Lennon]

may not seem like a typical post-apocalyptic show—it fits more comfortably into the neo-noir and space Western genres—but make no mistake: Spike Spiegel & Co. are jetting across the galaxy and working as intergalactic bounty hunters because Earth has become a crater-riddled hellscape after the moon exploded and rained asteroids down on the planet below. The Astral Gate Accident killed 4.7 billion people, and even though the anime mostly relegates the incident’s effects to the background, it still informs the tone, setting, and character backstories. There are no monsters here except the shadows of past regrets. The fights for survival are more of the “we’re out of food, money, and gas” variety than “a mutant creature is trying to infect me.” Still, the beautifully formed characters and fully realized world share a common thematic language with more traditional post-apocalyptic shows. [Jen Lennon]

was defined by many big swings (multiple genocides, nuclear events, sealed bunkers protecting the last of humanity, trips back and forth from space, and on and on). It didn’t always work, but when it did, it was network television’s most imaginative, expansive (and underrated!) drama. Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) went from an idealistic leader to a world-weary antihero with blood on her hands, trying and (for the most part) failing to create a better world than the one that had been destroyed. The series quickly evolved from into a dark, challenging exploration of morality—even if it did veer entirely off the rails by the final season. [Mary Kate Carr]

Part of the appeal of post-apocalyptic TV is that it allows for a real exploration of the, let’s call it, post-post-apocalypse: the moment when all involved look around at their broken and dying world and ask themselves, “What do we build here now?” Such was the appeal of Rockne S. O’Bannon and Syfy’s plucky little space Western which saw an Earth ravaged by alien invasions and warfare attempting to build itself back up from the rubble. The result approximated Deadwood Except Some Of The People Have Weird Stuff On Their Faces: hard-scrabble lives, occasional threats of existential re-imperiling, and a society of frontier survivors fighting to create something new in the shadow of a far-future version of St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. Sometimes goofy but also undeniably affecting, Defiance asked the hardest and most important apocalyptic question of them all: What comes next? [William Hughes]

It can be hard to call the updated re-imagining of a post-apocalyptic show since, for the crew of that titular battled old space cruiser, the apocalypse never really stopped. Nuked nigh out of existence, pursued at every juncture, and torn apart by enemies both real and imagined, the crew of the Battlestar lived, for four seasons and a variety of spin-off mini-series and movies, in the midst of the ending of their world. No one’s going to argue that Battlestar Galactica didn’t take some big, stupid swings in its five years on the air—we’ll never be able to hear “All Along The Watchtower” without a hint of an eyeroll ever again—but few shows have ever tried to grapple as honestly with the crushing weight of despair that comes from surviving something on this scale. It’s the rare apocalyptic TV show where survivor guilt and PTSD can score a body count nearly as high as the oncoming robot horde, and it remains, to this day, capable of moments of sublime beauty and grace as a consequence. [William Hughes]

The world slept on when it aired for one season on Starz in 2019, but you still have time to catch up. The farcical comedy follows Ulysses (Avan Jogia), Carly (Kelli Berglund), and Ford (Beau Mirchoff) as they navigate sex and fame in Los Angeles. However, Ulysses is plagued by premonitory dreams of end times. But are they real or just drug-fueled delusions? Now Apocalypse uses this device to tell fascinating and surprisingly raunchy stories while pondering our existence. [Saloni Gajjar]