Top Alternate History TV Shows To Explore Different Reali...

8 Best Shows About Alternate History

Watchmen cops wearing yellow masks and batons.MovieStillsDB

By Cher Thompson Published 14 minutes ago

Cher Thompson is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, where she covers everything from explosive reality TV moments to cast interviews about the twists and turns of scripted dramas. With a background in creative writing, marketing, and teaching, Cher knows how to spot both the storytelling genius and the guilty pleasures in pop culture. Her work blends wit with insight, making readers feel like they’re chatting with a friend who just happens to know way too much about TV.

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TV shows that explore alternate history ask viewers to walk with them into a complicated story, but the payoff is nearly always worth the suspension of disbelief. Asking viewers a deceptively simple question, alternate history shows posit the idea that one specific moment in history happened differently, changing the course of everything. They then build a different world, sometimes incredibly similar to reality, to explore the consequences.

The point where everything hinges in an alternate history show is always important to note. From assassinations that never happened to wars that were won by different sides, alternate history shows ask their viewers to accept a premise based on something a bit more complicated than fantasy. Throwing viewers off-kilter, alternate history shows then have to ground their stories in a detailed way to keep things steady.

The genre as a whole builds entire worlds that explore the changes that come from a singular shift in time, and while there are some alternate history shows that can't sustain themselves, others find their footing quickly and ensure that every detail is well-communicated. In exploring the consequences of a shift in time, alternate history shows investigate the cause and effect of world events.

Showing how a small divergence, and in some cases a large divergence, can reshape institutions and identities, alternate history shows use their storytelling abilities for an interesting reason. Dramatizing modern anxieties, alternate history shows often try to draw out intense storylines that involve authoritarianism, racial and social injustice, surveillance, and colonialism. Amplifying these conflicts, alternate history shows work hard to ensure their worlds look different.

While some alternate history shows lean into speculative thrills like time travel, conspiracy theories, and espionage, others focus on domestic or institutional shifts. The strongest alternate history shows combine careful world building with character-driven stories, allowing the premise to shine while letting viewers connect with the characters on relatable foundations. With higher budget shows building on pie-in-the-sky premises, alternate history shows have become popular.

8 The Man In The High Castle

Prime Video

Rupert Evans holding a gun in The Man in the High Castle

Prime Video's The Man In The High Castle is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novels, imagining a 20th century version of the US if the Axis powers had won World War II. Set primarily in the 1960s, The Man In The High Castle builds a detailed world in which Nazi Germany controls the east, while Imperial Japan controls the west, a neutral zone between them.

The series looks at daily life under the new occupation, what resistance movements look like, how propaganda works, and the moral compromises that people have to make in order to survive the new world order. Visually meticulous, the series carries heavy themes and works hard to use its storytelling to make a point.

9.5/10

6/10

The Man in the High Castle

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Sci-Fi Release Date 2015 - 2019-00-00 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner Frank Spotnitz Directors Frank Spotnitz Writers Frank Spotnitz

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Rufus Sewell
Luke Kleintank

Genres Sci-Fi Powered by

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7 Hunters

Prime Video

Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in Hunters looking surprised.

Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in Hunters Amazon Prime Video

Another Prime Video original, Hunters offers an alternate history in the late 1970s, focusing on a New York band of Nazi hunters. This group discovers that there are high-ranking Nazis living in the US and plotting to establish a Fourth Reich. Reframing postwar history through the lens of conspiracies, Hunters mixes revenge-driven vigilantes with moral ambiguity.

Highly stylized and frequently courting controversy for its depictions of Holocaust-related events, Hunters does its best to ground its high-concept story in a thick layer of ethics. Using its alternate history procedural format to ask how memory, justice, and trauma intersect, Hunters is a fascinating revenge fantasy.

5.0/10

Hunters

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Crime Release Date 2020 - 2023-00-00 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner David Weil Directors David Weil Writers David Weil

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Logan Lerman
Al Pacino

Genres Crime Powered by

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6 Hello Tomorrow!

Apple TV

Billy Crudup watches TV in the back of a limo in Hello Tomorrow

Apple TV's Hello Tomorrow! reimagines mid-century American optimism as an alternate reality, following Billy Crudup as Jack Billings, a lunar timeshare salesman. With glossy optimism having arrived in Hello Tomorrow!'s world far earlier than they did in history, the show is able to blend satire with melancholy as it builds a world far different than our own.

Focusing on Curdup's Billings and his small company of salesmen, the show's themes are grounded in a realistic space while its events typically blend the fantastical with the American optimism of the 1950s. The show's charm lies in the collision of nostalgia and speculation, producing a bittersweet study of capitalism, dreams, and deception.

10/10

Hello Tomorrow!

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Comedy Drama Science Fiction Release Date 2023 - 2023-00-00

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Billy Crudup
Hank Azaria

Genres Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction Powered by

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5 11.22.63

Hulu

James France as Jake Epping in Stephen King 11.22.63

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, J.J. Abrams' Hulu original 11.22.63 explores the idea that John F. Kennedy's assassination is the turning point in American history. As a schoolteacher, Jake Epping (James Franco), travels back to the late 50s in hopes he'll be able to stop the assassination, it quickly becomes clear that altering time is far more difficult than he anticipated.

The series balances its status as a period piece with questions about morality and responsibility, probing at the unintended consequences of rewriting history. Combining large-scale historical events with a deeply human story, 11.22.63 questions whether even the most well intentioned changes could be detrimental to society.

10 7.5/10

11.22.63

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Sci-Fi Release Date 2016 - 2016-00-00

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James Franco Jake Epping
Sarah Gadon Sadie Dunhill

Genres Sci-Fi Powered by

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4 Paradise

Hulu

Sterling K. Brown looking directly at camera in Paradise

Hulu’s Paradise is Dan Fogelman’s post-apocalyptic thriller that reimagines the world in an underground society, shaken by constant tragedy. Set in a city-sized underground bunker years after a doomsday event, the series focuses on Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) as he becomes the prime suspect in the president's death.

The show compresses national stakes into an intimate mystery of who controls the narratives, who writes history, and how institutions protect themselves regardless of the stakes. With the setting reframing modern political drama with a human drama wrapped around it, Paradise offers its own take on trust and governance as they intersect.

92 9.2/10

6/10

Paradise

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Drama Crime Thriller Release Date January 26, 2025 Network Hulu Directors Gandja Monteiro Writers Jason Wilborn

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Sterling K. Brown Xavier Collins
Julianne Nicholson Samantha 'Sinatra' Redmond

Genres Drama, Crime, Thriller Creator(s) Dan Fogelman Powered by

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3 Fringe

Fox

From left to right, the Fringe lead cast Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham, Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop, Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles, and John Noble as Walter Bishop

The Fringe lead cast Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham, Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop, Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles, and John Noble as Walter Bishop

J.J. Abrams' sci-fi procedural, Fringe, explores the idea of alternate history through a team of investigators looking into two separate realities. Fringe blends procedural elements with an alternate universe, delving into a secretive world of the FBI's Fringe Division upon the discovery of a parallel reality. The show's longest arc uses the other universe to show how small decisions create large divergences in reality.

Fringe excels at using alternate history as a long-term plot device rather than a one-off twist. As a persistent engine of character development and amplification of stakes, Fringe's multiple universes force emotional reckonings for its core group of characters, exploring identity and loss through time and space.

103 9.4/10

8/10

Fringe

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Sci-Fi Horror Drama Mystery Release Date 2008 - 2013-00-00 Showrunner Jeff Pinkner Directors Jeff Pinkner Writers Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman

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Joshua Jackson
Blair Brown

Genres Sci-Fi, Horror, Drama, Mystery Powered by

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2 Watchmen

HBO

Regina King on a poster for Watchmen

2019's Watchmen series on HBO reworked Alan Moore and David Gibbons' graphic novel into a contemporary alternate history that imagines a whole new reality. Creating an alternate history centered around the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, Watchmen's fictional timeline explores how history shapes the present. Delving into institutions that hold power, race relations, and vigilantism, Watchmen lays the groundwork for a tough reality.

Using its story to explore racial trauma, systemic violence, and masked justice, Watchmen alters and spotlights specific historical moments that viewers may not have been aware of to make its points. The bold format and intense choices make Watchmen a provocative alternate history series.

17 7.5/10

Watchmen

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Crime Drama Mystery Superhero Release Date 2019 - 2019-00-00 Network HBO Directors David Semel, Fred Toye Writers Nick Cuse, Carly Wray

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Regina King Red Scare
Don Johnson Angela Abar / Sister Night

Genres Crime, Drama, Mystery, Superhero Creator(s) Damon Lindelof Powered by

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1 For All Mankind

Apple TV

Apple TV+’s Most Acclaimed Sci-Fi Series Prepares For Earth vs Mars Conflict In Upcoming Season

Apple TV's For All Mankind posits an entirely different Cold War, giving the moon landing to the Soviet Union over the United States and setting off a completely different chain of events through the years. Reshaping geopolitics, culture, and technology, For All Mankind proves that even the smallest changes in history could prove to alter the course of humanity.

The show moves through multiple generations of astronauts, engineers, and leaders as it works to show the changes rippling through society over the course of times. With For All Mankind's alternate history becoming a universe now that a spinoff has been announced, the series' meticulously researched universe is well-worth exploring.

For all Mankind Season 4 Apple TV Plus Poster

25 9.5/10

9/10

For All Mankind

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Drama History Sci-Fi Release Date November 1, 2019 Showrunner Ronald D. Moore Writers Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi

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Michaela Conlin
Jodi Balfour

Genres Drama, History, Sci-Fi Creator(s) Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi Powered by

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For All Mankind
Watchmen
Fringe

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