The X-Files

Series Similar to The X-Files

If you enjoyed The X-Files, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Torchwood

   2006 · Drama, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8.1).

   Captain Jack Harkness is a man from the 51st century trapped in the past who leads the last remnants of the Torchwood Institute, a top secret British agency outside the government whose job it is to investigate alien goings on in the world, act in mankind's best interest, and, if needed, be the Earth's last line of defense.

2. FlashForward

   2009 · Drama, Crime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Science-Fiction profile.

   What would you do if you were given a glimpse of the future? Would you accept what you saw and live life to its fullest, or would you do everything in your power to change your destiny? When the world's population is given a glimpse of their future, it forces everyone to come to grips with whether their destinies can be fulfilled or avoided.

3. Fringe

   2008 · Drama, Action, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8.6), also on FOX.

   When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is called in to investigate. After her partner is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop, our generation's Einstein. There's only one catch: he's been institutionalized for the last twenty years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter in to help. When Olivia's investigation leads her to a manipulative corporate executive, she and her team will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth and will explore the blurring line between the possible and the impossible.

4. Limitless

   2015 · Drama, Crime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Limitless, based on Relativity's 2011 Bradley Cooper thriller, picks up where the movie left off and follows Brian Sinclair as he discovers the power of the mysterious drug NZT, and is coerced into using his newfound drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI.

5. John Doe

   2002 · Drama, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8), also on FOX.

   A man who knows literally everything---except his own identity---helps the Seattle police solve crimes as he tries to figure out who he is and where he came from.

6. Firefly

   2002 · Drama, Adventure, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8.9), also on FOX.

   Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.

7. Life on Mars

   2006 · Drama, Crime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8).

   Drama about a present-day Manchester detective who, after suffering near-fatal injuries in a car-crash, awakes to find himself living in 1973.

8. Sugar

   2024 · Drama, Crime, Science-Fiction · returning

   Recommended for similar Crime / Science-Fiction profile.

   John Sugar is an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.

9. Person of Interest

   2011 · Action, Crime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8.8).

   You are being watched. The government has a secret system, a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the Machine to detect acts of terror but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people. People like you. Crimes the government considered "irrelevant". They wouldn't act so I decided I would. But I needed a partner. Someone with the skills to intervene. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You'll never find us. But victim or perpetrator, if your number is up, we'll find you.

10. ReGenesis

    2004 · Drama, Science-Fiction, Mystery · ended

    Recommended for similar Science-Fiction profile.

    Cloning, bioterrorism, genetic engineering, not since the atom bomb has science had such potential to change the world. Canada, Mexico, and the United States have created a trilateral taskforce, The North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission, or NorBAC, to investigate questionable advances in the fields of biotechnology, bio-weaponry and nanotechnology.Under the charismatic leadership of Chief Scientist David Sandstrom and Executive Director Caroline Morrison, the Toronto-based organisation struggles to understand the political, legal, and personal underbrush in which new science has become entangled.