TV

10 Best Shows About Zombies If You’ve Seen All the Walking Dead Spin-Offs

10 Best Shows About Zombies If You’ve Seen All the Walking Dead Spin-Offs
Image credit: Starz, Netflix, Syfy

Classic zombies, modern zombies, zombie detectives and zombies in a historical Korean setting.

Since George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, zombies have been seen as a relevant social metaphor, but this is far from the only possible interpretation. Zombies can tell you about the fear of death, scare, and even make you laugh.

In this list, you'll find both popular and lesser-known zombie series – if you want to know what kind of life the dead have found on the small screen (aside from The Walking Dead and its spin-offs), then you can't do without these shows.

1. Kingdom, 2019-2020

Kingdom takes place in medieval Korea, which is overwhelmed by an epidemic of bloodthirsty dead. The young prince tries to gain an audience with the king, but soon realizes that his father has become a monster. The struggle for power becomes as much a part of the plot as battling hordes of zombies.

Kingdom is the perfect show about zombies in a historical setting – it has spectacular battle scenes and luxurious scenery. The show proves that South Korea is revolutionizing the genre – the Korean full-length zombie horror films Rampant and Train to Busan have deservedly gained worldwide popularity.

2. Santa Clarita Diet, 2017-2019

Married couple Sheila and Joel live in the suburbs with their teenage daughter and work as real estate agents. Trouble comes unexpectedly – Sheila dies and almost immediately returns from the afterlife. Sheila's behavior changes dramatically – she begins eating raw meat.

Santa Clarita Diet is full of guts, blood and dark humor, but turns out to be a very lighthearted show about love. The couple is played by Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant – and they are a dream team. While Sheila kills again, Joel tries to cover her tracks so that their cop neighbors don't find out.

3. iZombie, 2015-2019

The main character is a young medical student, Olivia, who has turned into a zombie. Olivia doesn't want to kill innocent people, so she gets a job in a morgue, where she can eat brains no one needs anymore. The trick is that Olivia gains access to the corpse's memories.

Deciding to put her newfound abilities to good use, she becomes an assistant to a local detective, who initially mistakes her for a psychic. iZombie can be watched to relax after a long day – the show has a comedic charm and a pinch of detective and romance.

4. The Returned, 2012-2015

In a small town in the French Alps, long-dead residents suddenly return, looking exactly as they did when they died. Among them are a little girl, a serial killer, a nurse, and many others. What should their relatives do, who have long mourned the dead and gone on living?

The show does not give a clear answer, but creates an atmosphere of hopeless existential melancholy. The Returned received a direct American adaptation of the same name, and inspired a number of other shows with a similar concept.

5. Death Valley, 2011

A black comedy about the daily work of a Los Angeles police unit that fights the living dead, vampires and werewolves. The series is a pseudo-documentary – the events are shown through the camera of a cameraman who follows the special unit everywhere.

Death Valley is worth watching because it is probably the only mockumentary show about zombies – and a very decent one. This is confirmed by the reviews – the show has an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

6. Ash vs Evil Dead, 2015-2018

A horror-comedy full of dismemberment from Sam Raimi, the author of the original Evil Dead franchise. And in the role of the aged Ash is the same charismatic Bruce Campbell.

The show is set 30 years after the events of the trilogy. The main character works in a supermarket and carefully avoids anything to do with the other world. But after the next awakening of evil, the world is in real danger, and only Ash can save it.

7. The Bite, 2021

The show unfolds in New York City during the COVID-19 epidemic. People are already tired of the Covid restrictions, and out of nowhere comes another dangerous virus that turns people into the living dead.

Unable to rely on the government, Rachel, a doctor, and her upstairs neighbor, Lily, set out on their own to find a cure for the virus.

The project was created by the authors of The Good Wife – Michelle and Robert King, who wanted not only to show a dark and funny story about the virus, but also to support Broadway actors, who were left without work for almost a year – as many as 35 Broadway actors starred in The Bite.

8. Day of the Dead, 2021

A zombie apocalypse begins in the fictional town, where the dead, rising from their graves, quickly fill the streets, and the locals must adapt to the new reality just as quickly. A group of survivors led by the mayor organizes a shelter in a supermarket, but the only safe place in the area is attacked by the undead.

Day of the Dead is based on the movie of the same name by George A. Romero. The authors of the project were inspired by the classics of the genre, but at the same time they abandoned the generally accepted rules of zombie cinema.

A bite from the undead does not necessarily turn the victim into another zombie, just as not every dead person immediately turns into a flesh-eater.

9. Zomboat!, 2019

Zomboat! is a six-part British TV show about the invasion of the living dead in Birmingham. Sisters Kat and Jo, along with two fellow travelers, escape the apocalypse in the world's slowest boat. It turns out that the safest way to travel is by water, because the dead cannot swim.

The characters of Zomboat! are luckier than others, because the team of survivors has a real expert on the undead. Kat knows everything about them: she watched Romero's movies, killed zombies in video games, and learned all the rules of survival from Zombieland.

10. In the Flesh, 2013-2014

A series about how formerly dead people are rehabilitated and reintegrated into normal society after an epidemic. The main character is a teenager who is sent back to his family in a small town. There he has to fight both his own demons and the locals who believe that there are no former zombies.

This show can hardly be called a classic of the genre – the authors decided to take a different path and fantasize about a reality in which scientists have found a cure and stopped the infection.

The project has an acute social connotation, as yesterday's zombies are perceived by most as outcasts from society.