9 Shows Like Supernatural to Watch if You Like Supernatural

Supernatural is dead, and Supernatural may never die. The CW's hit series, which ran for 15 seasons, may have ended, but the story of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) had an undeniable influence on the fans and, we'll say it, on pop culture as a whole. You could just stare at your ceiling missing it (but beware of images of burning parents). You could also rewatch all bazillion episodes of Supernatural. But if you'd rather scratch that itch with a different show that feels like Supernatural, you've come to the right place, my wayward son.

We've come up with a list of shows that all Supernatural fans should check out on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, and more. Most deal with the supernatural, some feature sibling bonds, and others feature investigators trying to explain what no one and nothing else can. All of them will give you a reason to carry on. 

Supernatural Watch on Netflix

The Winchesters

The CW's third attempt at spinning off Supernatural follows the adventures of Sam and Dean's parents, Mary (played here by Meg Donnelly) and John (Drake Rodger), in the 1970s. The series doesn't capture the magic of the mothership, and it also changes a lot of what we were told and shown had happened with Mary and John during Supernatural. But it's got occasional appearances from Supernatural actors — including Jensen Ackles, who executive produced The Winchesters — not to mention a killer twist in its first season finale (which will also mark the end of the show). So it's going on the list!

Walker

If you want to follow Jared Padalecki on a new adventure, check out Walker, the Western-inflected CW cop drama he stars in and executive-produces. The erstwhile Sam Winchester wasted no time lining this show up after Supernatural ended, and he's a (super)natural fit as a family-oriented Texas lawman. In this reimagining of the Chuck Norris show Walker, Texas Ranger, Padalecki plays Cordell Walker, a decorated Texas Ranger who's trying to readjust to normal life and repair his relationships with his family after coming home from a long undercover assignment, which he took on to avoid having to deal with his grief over the murder of his wife Emily (played in flashbacks by Padalecki's real-life wife Genevieve). Throughout the show, he balances case-of-the-week crimes with his responsibilities to his family while trying to solve the mystery of who killed Emily. So while on the surface it doesn't seem much like Supernatural at all, it's pretty similar in the structural and thematic ways that count. -Liam Mathews 

Grimm

The NBC cult hit Grimm, about a Portland cop (David Giuntoli) who discovered he was from a long line of guardians sworn to protect the world from mythological creatures, had all the components to become the next Supernatural. It was a crime procedural loaded with fantasy elements. It had strong characters that could carry arcs across multiple seasons. It was dark, but never shy about being a little goofy. And most importantly, it was a whole lot of fun. While other more-marketed shows flopped, Grimm, which ran for six seasons and 123 episodes, staved off cancellation with consistent ratings for many years because of its rabid fans, much like how Supernatural did on The CW. 

The Dresden Files

One type of show we don't really talk about Supernatural being is a detective show, but more often than not in the most intriguing episodes of the series, Sam and Dean spend more of their time sleuthing claims of ghosts or other paranormal phenomena than actually hunting them. There's no doubt that Jim Butcher's supernatural detective book series The Dresden Files influenced Eric Kripke's vision of Supernatural, so if you want that Supernatural vibe after the series finale, your next watch should be the 2007 Dresden Files adaptation that aired on Syfy (then known as the Sci Fi Channel). It follows Harry Dresden (Paul Blackthorne), a private investigator and wizard, as he helps cops with supernatural cases in Chicago. Harry has a little bit of a Dean thing going on, as he's a cool cat who loves his late father but is also a little rough around the edges, and the 2007-ness of the show will remind you of Supernatural's early seasons, right down to the funky jazz-rock TV score. Of all the shows on this list, this is easily the most like Supernatural, and real fans have been clamoring for a Dresden Files-Supernatural crossover that never happened except in fanfic. 

More recommendations:

• These Are the Best Shows to Watch Based on Shows You Already Love
• The Best Supernatural Shows to Watch Right Now
• The Best Sci-Fi Shows to Watch Right Now

The X-Files

I mean, obvious, but this list wouldn't be complete without it, and Supernatural wouldn't exist without The X-Files. The Fox drama not only saved Fox from an early grave, but it brought sci-fi television to the mainstream and opened up the possibilities of what a procedural could be. Plus, for those of you Supernatural fans who couldn't stop shipping the main characters, there's real shippin' fuel between Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Agent Mulder (David Duchovny). And even though it's not quite at Supernatural's 15 seasons and 327 episodes, it still clocks in at an impressive 11 seasons and 218 episodes.

13 Ways Supernatural and The X-Files Are Basically the Same Show

Fringe

If you like Supernatural for the combination of standalone episodes and serialized genre storytelling, then cancel all your plans and get started on Fringe. Just as Supernatural was in the middle of its epic three-season arc that concluded with Season 3, Fringe was perfecting the "mythalone" episode: a perfect blend of procedural-style episodes and large-scale arcs loaded with mysteries and twists. The Fox show was produced by J.J. Abrams, and his fingerprints are all over it, telling the story of a small FBI team that investigated unexplained phenomena and throwing in massive reveals that all pushed the show to a final conclusion. But like Supernatural, the character relationships were key. Josh Jackson and John Noble played a son-father duo whose rocky relationship was the emotional core, and Jackson's romance with Anna Torv's character is an epic love story that spanned multiple dimensions and multiple versions of themselves.

Person of Interest

No, they weren't brothers like Sam and Dean, but Person of Interest's Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) and John Reese (Jim Caviezel) shared a fraternal love for each other that developed over five seasons into one of TV's best bromances. The CBS show was sold like another of the network's procedurals, but its take on the dangers of artificial intelligence and government corruption — courtesy of creator Jonathan Nolan, who went on to make Westworld — were much more cerebral than the acronyms that came before it. Finch, a nerdy computer whiz, and Reese, a former Special Forces stud, teamed up to stop crime before it happened with the help of a machine that predicted perpetrators before they committed the act. Like Supernatural, episodes were self-contained, bled together for a bigger story, were surprisingly funny, and would sometimes break format for a little bit of fun.

Wynonna Earp

The brothers Winchester did remarkable things for sibling storytelling on television, but can we get something for the sisters? The cult favorite Wynonna Earp, another Syfy series, went deep into the bond of sisterhood with its story of Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp who is tasked with banishing demons from this earthly plane, and her younger half-sister Waverly Earp (Dominique Provost-Chalkley). Like Sam and Dean, these two are willing to do anything for each other, AND they send demons back to Hell. It's a really strong supernatural series about family bonds and kicking ass, it's surprisingly funny, and it deals with themes of destiny, just like Supernatural. 

Crazyhead

If it's a pair of regular folks hunting demons that you're looking for check out the British comedy Crazyhead, a delightful and frightful horror comedy about a young bowling alley worker who thinks she's mentally ill but learns that she's a "seer" — someone who can see demons who are hiding among the living — from another seer who befriends her. It's more of a serialized comedy than Supernatural is, as the two ladies also deal with the same troubles regular young women do, but isn't afraid to get serious, as you'll see at the end of the first episode. Crazyhead's best for a Supernatural fan who wants a quick diversion; it consists of one season of just six 45-minute episodes.