Top 7 Best TV Shows Like The Expanse (Ranked & Where to Stream)

A sudden nuclear ambush wipes out twelve colonies, leaving a battered, obsolete military warship to shepherd fifty thousand civilian survivors across an empty void. Ronald D. Moore treats fleet life with suffocating realism: fresh water runs out, fuel reserves dwindle, and anyone standing on the bridge could secretly be a humanoid infiltrator. Edward James Olmos commands the screen as William Adama, an exhausted pragmatist forced to balance martial law against democratic survival. The frantic, documentary-style camera work and lethal naval tactics will feel instantly familiar to anyone seeking tv shows like The Expanse, echoing its dirty industrial bulkheads and unblinking moral compromise.

Two androids named Mother and Father land on a desolate exoplanet tasked with gestating human embryos following an apocalyptic holy war on Earth. What begins as a clinical study in synthetic parenthood spirals into visceral madness once rival human factions arrive and native alien mutations surface. Amanda Collin delivers an unnerving performance as a reprogrammed war machine struggling with manufactured maternal instincts and volatile emotional outbursts. Viewers who were drawn to the unsettling biomechanical mysteries and uncanny alien artifacts in The Expanse will appreciate the show's daring willingness to make deep space genuinely weird, unforgiving, and biologically hostile.

Operating under cold digital dictates from an enigmatic future artificial intelligence, trained operatives have their consciousness projected back into 21st-century hosts right at the exact second of their historical deaths. The genius here lies in the mundane friction of mundane life: these lethal problem-solvers must stop civilization-ending cataclysms while keeping up with their hosts' marriages, substance addictions, and day jobs. Brad Wright constructs a lean, rule-bound narrative where mistakes carry permanent consequences. That meticulous attention to procedural mechanics and ground-level logistics offers the exact kind of calculated tension that makes fans of The Expanse feel right at home.

Starting with the skeleton of Terry Gilliam's cult film, this time-bending epic turns an airborne viral apocalypse into an intricate war across centuries. Aaron Stanford plays James Cole, a desperate scavenger sent backward through eras to untangle a conspiracy spearheaded by an enigmatic cabal called the Army of the 12 Monkeys. Showrunner Terry Matalas crafts an exceptionally airtight puzzle box that rewards close viewer attention, treating time travel as an agonizing physical ordeal rather than a clean party trick. Its relentless pacing, shifting loyalties, and stubborn refusal to grant easy moral victories echo the intricate narrative machinery that defined The Expanse.

Divided between Nazi control in the East and imperial Japanese dominance in the West, this bleak 1960s America explores the chilling mundanity of life under totalitarian occupation. When mysterious newsreels surface displaying an alternate reality where the Allies won, fragmented resistance networks launch reckless undercover operations to uncover the source. The real drama hinges on bureaucratic ruthlessness and ideological paranoia, grounded by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's subtle, soulful trade minister. The show's sweeping macro-level worldbuilding, factional cold wars, and multi-front tactical chess matches provide an easy landing pad for viewers craving the complex planetary diplomacy of The Expanse.

Faced with terminal oxygen depletion aboard a decaying space station, a desperate council sends one hundred juvenile delinquents to the radioactive surface of Earth to test its habitability. What initiates as survival teen drama rapidly mutates into a brutal crash course in Machiavellian statecraft, scorched-earth tribal combat, and unforgiving triage. Eliza Taylor's Clarke Griffin evolves into a hardened leader repeatedly forced to sacrifice the few to preserve the many. If you loved the Belter-Earther-Martian factional friction and zero-sum political calculus of The Expanse, this show's grim escalating warfare delivers a surprisingly savage punch.

Kicking off with a contested mutiny on the fringes of Federation territory, this wartime chapter strips away pristine utopia to show Starfleet forced into desperate compromise. Sonequa Martin-Green shines as Michael Burnham, a disgraced officer navigating the fallout of an escalating conflict against a fractured, fanatical Klingon Empire. The series leans into visceral bridge combat, deep tactical subterfuge, and moral decay within clandestine military black-ops divisions. While it lives inside a famous legacy franchise, its shadowy intelligence agencies and sprawling macro-conflict offer plenty of common ground for viewers looking for shows like The Expanse.