How much could a Witcher watch after a Witcher watched The Witcher? Well, good news for you, we've got 9 picks for fans who just watched Geralt of Rivia's travels and travails. This list includes excellent book-to-TV adaptations, battles between monsters and men and — of course — more of Henry Cavill.
And if you're simply chomping at the bit for more of this Netflix original, know that we're already tracking The Witcher season 2. Either way, you're watching some seriously good piece of brooding fantasy and sci-fi, and some of the best shows on Netflix.
Good Omens
The Witcher was one of the two best “book-to-TV” adaptations I’ve seen in a while; Good Omens was the other. This show, based on the absurd, delightful, occasionally hilarious novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett is all about the end of the world. And not just any end of the world — the Biblical Armageddon prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Earth's only hope for survival lies in an odd duo: a rogue angel, Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), and a rogue demon, Crowley (David Tennant), who have teamed up because they prefer life on Earth to eternal boredom. Like The Witcher, Good Omens features weird monsters, lots of magic and two male leads who can never admit their feelings, regardless of how bad the situation gets. — Marshall Honorof
The Tudors
Henry Cavill fans will have a royally good time watching him smolder and smirk in Showtime’s sexy historical drama about the reign of England’s King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As Charles Brandon, Henry’s best friend and later the Duke of Suffolk, Cavill must weather tumultuous times — much like The Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia — navigating choppy political waters, romancing the strong-headed Princess Margaret and fighting in bloody battles. And though he has no supernatural creatures to slay, Brandon does have to contend with a different kind of monster in the egotistical, lust-driven, impetuous king. -- Kelly Woo
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
If you're drawn to The Witcher because of its bestiary full of fantastical monsters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is your next logical binge. This supernatural teen drama features a horrific new vampire, demon or hellgod almost every week, from flesh-eating fish-people, to superintelligent cyborgs, to the living manifestation of all evil, Buffy is a mythological tour-de-force. Like The Witcher, the show features great fight scenes, complex world-building and a continuous story that can change dramatically from episode to episode. It also features a wisecracking, beleaguered protagonist who's constantly falling in love with all the wrong people: Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). If you like the show, its spinoff, Angel, is darker, weirder and arguably even better. — Marshall Honorof
Shannara Chronicles
Elves, gnomes, druids and demons engage in epic battle in the Four Lands. In the adaptation of Terry Brooks’ bestselling Shannara trilogy, a fierce elf princess, a half-human/half-elf holding magical artifacts and a human Rover thief team up to save the dying magical Ellcrys tree and prevent a horde of bloodthirsty demons from invading their world. The show, which originally aired on MTV and Spike, is a little low-rent on production values (aside from the stunning landscapes of New Zealand), but it’s got an absorbing mix of inter-fantastical race politics, action/adventure and romance (there’s a love triangle, natch). — Kelly Woo
Carnival Row
Cara Delevigne's got wings. Orlando Bloom's a hard-boiled cop. Satyrs, fairies and centaurs walk the streets -- but they're second-class citizens in a city-state run by and for humans. The premise sounds ridiculous, but Amazon's wholly original series is much better than you'd expect. Part of the appeal is that it skips the high-medieval tropes of most fantasy fiction and instead puts all those mythical creatures in a late-Victorian world, complete with frilly corsets, massive sideburns, Gatling guns and salty-tongued Cockney streetwalkers. It's as if Masterpiece Theater added magic, swear words and lots of sex. — Paul Wagenseil
Game of Thrones
Like The Witcher, Game of Thrones is based on a popular series of seven dark fantasy novels. Unlike The Witcher, though, the source material for Game of Thrones isn't finished yet, so the TV show is the closest thing we have to a complete story. The story begins when Ned Stark (Sean Bean) leaves his ancestral home in Winterfell to serve as a royal advisor to King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy). When the king dies, though, it sets off a war of succession with combatants from every corner of the Seven Kingdoms. There's Robert's scheming wife Cersei (Lena Heady); the imperious Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke); and even Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow (Kit Harington). But claiming the Iron Throne won't mean much if the kingdoms can't defeat an impending army of ice zombies from the North. — Marshall Honorof
Castlevania
If moody monster hunters are your thing, you should definitely check out Castlevania, the animated Netflix show based on the classic action-adventure game franchise. Swap out Geralt for Trevor Bellmont, the disgraced last son of a monster-hunting clan, who carries not only a sword, but a badass bullwhip and a handful of other enchanted weapons for taking down demonic baddies. Throw in a novice enchanter and a vampire halfling and a vampire war led by Dracula himself, and you've got swords and monsters aplenty. Plus, the whole thing is voiced by some seriously talented folks, like Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar in Battlestar Galactica), Graham McTavish (Dougal Mackenzie in Outlander) and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, among other things). It all combines to be a far more satisfying ride than the NES-game-turned-animated-Netflix-show description would suggest, and left me eager for the upcoming season 3. — Brian Westover
His Dark Materials
If high-concept fantasy is your thing, His Dark Materials brings magic and mythical creatures into a setting that's almost — but not exactly — like our own world. The show is based on a trilogy of young adult novels by Phillip Pullman, and tells the story of Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), an adventurous girl in Oxford. Her world is somewhat like ours, but technology has a distinctly Victorian feel, and magic is very real, from witches, to dimensional travel, to shapeshifting "daemons" that accompany every person on Earth. When Lyra's uncle disappears during an expedition to the Arctic, Lyra follows him and discovers a world of manipulative socialites, daring aeronauts, secretive sorceresses and talking polar bears who can help — and hinder — her quest. — Marshall Honorof
The Magicians
Think Harry Potter, but rated R for sex, language and partial nudity. In place of Harry, the main character is Quentin Coldwater, who enrolls at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy. He and his budding magician friends discover that the realm of Fillory, an enchanted land from a series of books, is real. When Quentin’s love interest Alice misuses her powers, she accidentally summons the Beast, a terrifying creature from Fillory. The Brakebills bunch must work together to defeat the monster and save the world. — Kelly Woo
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