20 Best Shows Like The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale has been one of the most intense and critically acclaimed dystopian stories in television history. Based on the classic Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, the book and TV show are based on a dystopian version of the United States. In this world, a patriarchal totalitarian group known as the Republic of Gilead overthrew the United States government and turned many women into "Handmaids," where they were forced to produce children for the ruling class of Gilead, taking away all women's rights.

This terrifying look at a possible future is even more frightening in today's society, which the best dystopian stories are always able to pull off. There are several other television shows that also approach the same level of a ruling class taking away rights from its citizens, often with people offering up their own freedom for an easier life. There are also many shows that approach the struggle for women's rights and for other marginalized groups as well, with television able to tell long-form stories that have deep meaning to this day.

20 Made For Love (2021)

A Man Implants A Tracking Device In His Wife's Brain

In one of the lesser-known shows like The Handmaid's Tale, Made for Love also focuses on stripping a woman of her autonomy. Based on the 2017 Alissa Nutting novel of the same name, the series focuses on a woman named Hazel Green (Cristin Milioti) who escapes her unhappy marriage of 10 years to a tech billionaire. However, when she finally finds her freedom and starts to try to regain her independence, she makes a shocking discovery.

Her husband has inserted a tracking device into her brain, where he can track her location, watch her living, and know her "emotional data," stripping her of all her independence. The second season sees Hazel return to her husband and the virtual reality Hub, where she once again loses her freedom — a similar spot that the women in The Handmaid's Tale find themselves in, but in the real world. The series received a Primetime Emmy nomination, but it was one of the shows Max removed from its streaming service.

19 Upload (2020–Present)

Humans Can Upload Consciousness Into A Virtual Afterlife Following Their Deaths

At its heart, The Handmaid's Tale is about the loss of human rights, body autonomy, and basic freedoms. On a similar level, the Amazon Prime Video series Upload has those same themes but with a more sci-fi aspect. In Upload, when a person dies, they can "upload" their consciousness into a virtual afterlife of their choosing. However, when a programmer named Nathan (Robbie Amell) dies young, he finds he was uploaded into a very expensive afterlife known as Lakeview.

The Handmaid's Tale Ofglen, June, Serena

15 Best Episodes Of The Handmaid's Tale

The best episodes of The Handmaid's Tale, a critically acclaimed series based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, feature standout moments.

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Where this really ties into The Handmaid's Tale is that Nathan didn't choose this afterlife — his girlfriend chose it for him, and she has complete control over his fate now, stripping him of all freedom and autonomy. The series is an interesting look at the idea of the afterlife, and it flips back and forth from the AI world, where Nathan tries to figure out his place, to the real world, where people are trying to find out what really happened to Nathan when he died.

18 Snowpiercer (2020-2024)

The World Enters A New Ice Age

Snowpiercer is based on a 1982 French graphic novel that tells the story of a world where a new ice age has ravaged the planet, and the survivors live aboard a self-sustaining non-stop train until the world can become inhabitable again. While the train was meant for the upper-class wealthy and the middle-class with money to buy a place on it, they remained separated by wealth and social class aboard this train. However, when a group of working-class people rushes the train and boards before it takes off, it throws the ecosystem into turmoil.

The 2013 Snowpiercer film adaptation was directed by Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), and was the filmmaker's first English-language movie.

Just like The Handmaid's Tale, this story (which was also made into a movie before becoming a TV show) has the wealthy ruling class imposing their will over everyone else, and here, it is everyone who is considered "poor," who is left to live like cattle in the back of the train, until a rebellion finally arises. The series lasted for four seasons and 40 episodes, surviving after TNT canceled it and AMC picked it up for the final fourth season, which wrapped up the story.

17 The Plot Against America (2020)

An Alternate History Series Bringing Fascism To America

The Plot Against America is a very similar series to The Handmaid's Tale, although it is more about the rise of fascism in America, whereas The Handmaid's Tale is about the society already in ruin thanks to fascism. This show is also an alternate Earth tale, re-imagining history by asking what would happen if Charles Lindbergh rose up through politics and brought his xenophobic populist beliefs to the U.S. government when he became president.

Based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name, the series follows a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey as they watch Lindbergh's rise to power and the eventual destruction of the country they loved. The cast is spectacular, with John Turturro as a leader and supporter of Lindbergh and Morgan Spector as a New Deal socialist. The series earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for cinematography and received an 87% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes by critics.

16 Severance (2022–Present)

People Give Up Their Memories To Work Harder

The Apple TV+ series Severance is an interesting take on the working class and how the elite abuses them to get richer at the expense of the people actually doing all the work. The show focuses on a company called Lumon Industries and a technology that was created to allow for more work and fewer distractions in the workplace. This was done by a technique called "Severance," where people have no memories of the outside world while at work and no memories of their job when they leave work.

Similar to The Handmaid's Tale, there are people who volunteer for this and support it, but others are realizing that things might not be all it seems.

The drama comes when some employees begin to realize that Lumon Industries might be using Severance in unethical ways. Similar to The Handmaid's Tale, there are people who volunteer for this and support it, but others are realizing that things might not be all it seems. The series was hugely successful for Apple TV+, with three Golden Globes nominations and several Primetime Emmy nominations, winning two.

15 The Americans (2013-2018)

Soviets Living In America As Sleeper Agents

In The Handmaid's Tale, fans watch a dystopian future where an oppressive government has stripped women of almost all their rights in society. In The Americans, a very different future plays out, and it comes straight out of the old Cold War fears of the 1970s and '80s. Just like TheHandmaid's Tale, the show is relentless in the dangers of this look at society.

The show lasted for six seasons and showed, in the end, that fans could cheer for the Soviets living in America as sleeper agents and still see the truth that their lives demanded sacrifice while rewarding none of them, leading to inevitable ruin and destruction.

14 Harlots (2017-2019)

Women Fighting For Their Rights In 1760s London

While The Handmaid's Tale takes place in a dystopian future, the Hulu series Harlots is a period drama. However, both share similar themes. TheHandmaid's Tale shows a society where women are oppressed and have to fight for their rights, Harlots showed women who are also oppressed, and in this case, have a chance to fight against the patriarchy in their society.

Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton) and Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville) run rival brothels and fight to remain in business and protect their livelihoods. While the women in Handmaid's Tale are forced into sexual situations against their will to help build society, Harlots has the women empowered through sex, and here it is used to often keep these women in power, at least of their own rights.

13 Orphan Black (2013-2017)

Clones Fight For Their Survival

Tatiana Maslany enjoyed her breakout role in the BBC series Orphan Black. The woman who went on to play She-Hulk for the Marvel Cinematic Universe played more than 17 different characters in this series. She plays Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Helena, Rachel Duncan, as well as various others, as clones born in 1984 by in vitro fertilization.

The show starts with a con artist named Sarah who witnesses one of her clones die by suicide, and this sets into motion an astonishing sci-fi story full of twists and turns. When she learns she is a clone and someone wants to kill her and the others, she ends up fighting for her life. Just like Handmaid's Tale, this show takes away the women's control of their bodies and places them in an oppressive system, forcing a fight-or-flight situation.

12 Colony (2016-2018)

The Aftermath Of An Alien Invasion

Colony is a sci-fi drama about a dystopian future where an alien invasion has already happened, and everyone is forced into a military-controlled society. Just like in The Handmaid's Tale, the government strips people of their rights, and in this case, it is everyone who is oppressed.

The show starred Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) as a couple set to battle as part of the secret Resistance. While TheHandmaid's Tale is more of a dramatic story about people trying to overcome the ruthless government, Colony is a show that takes a different approach and is more of a sci-fi action series.

11 Westworld (2016-2022)

Robots Made For Amusement Rebels

Westworld ended on HBO Max, as the HBO-Discovery merger caused the show's cancelation. This will leave many of Westworld's fans with a lot of unanswered questions, but at least four seasons of the critically acclaimed series aired before its end.

The show shares a lot in common with The Handmaid's Tale, especially from the robots' point of view. Created to serve men and used as entertainment despite a growing intelligence, the robots had no rights and often found themselves killed for no reason before being mind-wiped. The show then changed to reveal the robots wanting their freedom at any cost, and that is the exact trajectory of The Handmaid's Tale.

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