While I'd never presume to speak for her, I suspect that Margaret Atwood would be perfectly happy to be a little less hot right now, if only it meant that her works of fiction, always prescient, weren't so alarmingly present. Written in 1985, The Handmaid's Tale feels closer than ever, and its 2019 sequel, The Testaments, now has a much-anticipated adaptation of its own. While Handmaid saw a generation of women coming to grips with an oppressive Christian nationalist regime consolidating its power, The Testaments finds a later generation of young women who've never known any different; for whom this is all perfectly normal. Which feels rather real. Stream The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments on Hulu, and then check out these other fascist dystopias.

Alias Grace (2017)

It’s the other big Margaret Atwood novel adaptation (existing well in the shadow of the bigger, buzzier Handmaid’s Tale), but this miniseries is every bit as biting and well-crafted. It’s based on the true story of a poor Irish immigrant found guilty of a double homicide in 1843 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and following a life of trauma. Years later, a psychiatrist comes to examine her and explores her past and the circumstances that might (just might) have driven a disenfranchised and powerless girl to murder. Stream Alias Grace on Netflix.

Alias Grace (2017)

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Pluribus (2025 – )

In some ways, this is a bit of an anti-Handmaid's Tale, with Pluribus leaning toward dark comedy, but we remain in a fascist dystopia in this show from Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan, albeit of a different variety. Rhea Seehorn plays Carol Sturka, a fantasy romance author and general grouch who becomes one of only 13 people on the planet immune to the "Joining," an alien virus that transforms the rest of humanity into a peaceful, perky, and perpetually content hive mind. Carol refuses to surrender her miserableness in the face of a loss of identity, fighting instead to restore humanity to its admittedly cruddy ways. Thrilling, heartbreaking, and oddly funny, the show manages to address big questions about what it means to be human, but also, more specifically, suggests that even women who don't quite have their shit together deserve freedom of thought and bodily autonomy. Stream Pluribus on Apple TV.

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Pluribus (2025 – )

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3% (2016 – 2020)

It would be tempting to see this as a metaphor for the American dream but, of course, it’s a Brazilian show, and it’s not as though inequality was invented in the United States—we’re just particularly good at it. In 3%, the impoverished young Inlanders have one shot at success: completing “The Process,” a series of interviews, puzzles, and escape rooms designed to test their worthiness to join a futuristic offshore utopia. Most fail, and many don’t survive, leaving a success rate of ... 3%. This is very much Hunger Games territory in terms of its themes, but the show has a darker, more adult edge. Stream 3% on Netflix.

3% (2016 – 2020)

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Watchmen (2019)

A standalone sequel to the groundbreaking Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins graphic novel from the '80s (one that ignores the point-missing Zack Snyder movie), this series plays in the sandbox of that book (arguably the wellspring of all modern superhero deconstruction) while advancing its themes. In an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a world where super-powered vigilantes exist but have been outlawed, the series starts, dramatically, with a depiction of the real-life massacre and destruction of Tulsa's Black Wall Street by white residents in 1921. Regina King plays Angela Abar, a modern cop whose grandparents were killed during those attacks, an event that echoes throughout the series—it's a dystopia that doesn't look all that much different from our own, with masked police operating on the edges of the law, and overtly racist organizations that hold increasing political sway. Generational trauma is at issue here, and, like The Handmaid's Tale, it's a show that looks more depressingly prescient with each passing year. Stream Watchmen on HBO Max.

Watchmen (2019)

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The Man in the High Castle (2015 – 2019)

From a novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle takes place in an alternate history in which the Axis powers won World War II, and in which the United States is split down the middle; Japan governing the west and Germany the east. The title’s man in the high castle offers an alternate view, though, one in which the Allies actually won, with the potential to rally opposition to the Axis rulers. As the show progresses through

10 Shows Like 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'The Testaments' You Should Watch Next