For Corporate Mysteries: Severance
If the corporate conspiracy and bifurcated identity of Westworld's hosts captivated you, meet your new obsession. Apple TV+'s Severance presents a world where employees undergo a procedure to surgically divide their work memories from their personal lives.
Their “innies” know nothing of the outside world, and their “outies” have no idea what they do for eight hours a day. What begins as a dark satire on work-life balance quickly descends into a chilling mystery about identity, free will, and control. The show masterfully builds a sense of paranoia and features a meticulously crafted, sterile world that, much like Delos' labs, hides a deeply sinister purpose. For fans who loved decoding Westworld's timelines, Severance's slow-burn reveals and central question—what makes you you—will feel like coming home.
For Philosophical Tech-Noir: Devs
From writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina), this FX limited series is arguably the closest spiritual successor to Westworld's core philosophical debates. When a software engineer’s boyfriend dies by apparent suicide after his first day on a top-secret team at a quantum computing company, she begins to uncover a conspiracy that reaches the very fabric of existence. At its heart, Devs is a stunningly beautiful and deeply unsettling exploration of determinism versus free will. The all-powerful tech company, Amaya, feels like a more brooding, Bay Area version of Delos, complete with an enigmatic CEO haunted by personal loss. If you were fascinated by the idea of hosts running on predetermined loops and the struggle to break free, Devs takes that concept and applies it to the entire universe, creating a tense, mind-bending thriller.
For Standalone AI Fables: Black Mirror
This one might seem obvious, but its anthology format allows you to pick and choose your Westworld-esque experience. While the whole series tackles humanity's complicated relationship with technology, several episodes directly echo Westworld's most compelling themes. Episodes like “San Junipero” and “Be Right Back” explore the concept of uploading human consciousness to a digital afterlife or an artificial body. “White Christmas” delves into the ethics of creating sentient digital copies for servitude, a theme that feels pulled directly from the host's plight. Each story is a self-contained, thought-provoking narrative, making it the perfect series to dip into when you want a concentrated dose of the techno-ethical questions that made Westworld so memorable without committing to a multi-season mystery.
For Epic, Ambitious Sci-Fi: Raised by Wolves
If what you miss most is Westworld's sheer ambition and grand-scale, bizarre mythology, HBO's Raised by Wolves is your ticket. Executive produced by Ridley Scott, the series follows two androids, Mother and Father, tasked with raising human children on a desolate planet after Earth is destroyed by a religious war. Much like Westworld, this show isn’t afraid to be weird, dense, and allegorical. Mother, a repurposed military android with terrifying powers, wrestles with her programming and newfound maternal instincts in a way that mirrors Maeve’s and Dolores's journeys. The show is packed with religious symbolism, creator-creation conflicts, and a harsh, alien landscape that shapes its characters. It trades the Western aesthetic for a grim, futuristic one but keeps the same level of breathtaking visuals and philosophical heft.
For Unreliable Realities: Mr. Robot
While not a sci-fi show in the traditional sense, Mr. Robot shares a crucial piece of DNA with Westworld: a narrative that constantly forces you to question what is real. The series follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and vigilante hacker with social anxiety disorder and clinical depression, who is recruited by an anarchist known as Mr. Robot. From the very beginning, Elliot is a classic unreliable narrator, and the show uses visual and narrative tricks to place you directly inside his fractured perception of the world. This creates a similar viewing experience to Westworld's first season, where you slowly realize the story you're being told is not the whole truth. The anti-corporate crusade at its center also echoes the hosts’ rebellion against their wealthy, exploitative creators.
