Best Survival Series Worth Watching

Quick picks

• Best overall: The Last of Us.
• Short and complete: The Terror or Station Eleven.
• Mystery you can get lost in: Lost or Yellowjackets.
• Real people, real cold: Alone.

After the collapse

The Last of Us (HBO, 2023 onward). Twenty years after a fungal outbreak, smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) has to get 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the US. It's adapted from the PlayStation game and is as much about grief and loyalty as infected monsters. Season 1's third episode, a near-standalone love story, is one of the most praised hours of recent TV. Two seasons so far, with a third on the way.

Station Eleven (HBO Max, 2021). Based on Emily St. John Mandel's novel. A flu pandemic wipes out most of the world, and the story jumps between the outbreak and, twenty years later, a troupe performing Shakespeare to scattered settlements. It's gentle and hopeful for the genre, so pick it if you want survival without constant dread. Ten episodes, complete.

The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010-2022). Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes wakes from a coma into a zombie outbreak. Over 11 seasons and 177 episodes it becomes a long study of how groups govern themselves when there are no rules. The early seasons are the strongest; it's a big commitment.

Stranded

Lost (ABC, 2004-2010). Survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 crash on an island that hides polar bears, a smoke monster and a lot of secrets. Six seasons and 121 episodes. The survival story fades as the mythology grows, and the ending still divides people, but the first season is a model of how to hook an audience.

Yellowjackets (Showtime, 2021 onward). In 1996 a New Jersey high school girls' soccer team crashes in the Canadian wilderness and survives 19 months. In the present, the survivors (played by Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis among others) are still hiding what they did to stay alive. Darker and stranger than Lost, with a strong dark streak of humour.

The Terror (AMC, 2018). In 1845 the Royal Navy ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage, are trapped in Arctic ice. Disease, cold and a creature on the ice pick off the crew. Based on Dan Simmons's novel, with Jared Harris leading. Season 1 is a complete ten-episode story, and it's the best pick here for historical, slow-building dread.

Trapped inside a system

Silo (Apple TV+, 2023 onward). Ten thousand people live in a 144-level underground silo and are told the air outside is lethal. Engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) starts asking who built it and why. Based on Hugh Howey's Wool books. The survival here is political as much as physical: who controls the truth.

The real thing

Alone (History, 2015 onward). Survival experts are dropped alone in remote wilderness with a few chosen tools and film everything themselves. Whoever lasts longest wins, usually $500,000. Slow, quiet and surprisingly gripping, and it makes every scripted show's foraging scenes look easy.

Our verdict

If you only watch one, make it The Last of Us. If you want a story that's finished and won't take months, The Terror is the most underrated show on this list.

Frequently asked questions

Is The Terror based on a true story? Partly. It's based on Dan Simmons's novel about Franklin's real lost 1845 Arctic expedition, with a supernatural creature added.

Is there a real survival show like these dramas? Alone, on History, drops real survival experts into the wilderness alone. The last one to leave wins the prize.

Want something matched to your mood?

Our series quiz can find a survival story, or something else entirely, based on how tense you want tonight to be.