5 Zombie TV Shows Way Better Than The Walking Dead
By Mike BedardJuly 12, 2026 10:18 am EST
When it comes to zombie TV shows, few manage to stand at the same heights as “The Walking Dead.” A big part of that is how all-encompassing the show became in the larger television landscape. It ran for 11 seasons and kept going even when the show’s protagonist, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), stepped away. It even spawned numerous spinoffs, so the show still has a lot of social cache to this day.
“The Walking Dead” absolutely has plenty of stellar moments. The first season alone is positively riveting all the way through. But if you watched the entire show, you’ll probably admit there are times when the series stumbled. Plenty of “Walking Dead” moments outraged fans or were just plain boring. Sometimes, it felt like the show was merely spinning its wheels until the finale when something explosive would happen.
“The Walking Dead” remains an essential piece of zombie media, but we’d argue there are several zombie show that are more consistently entertaining throughout their entire runtime. If you liked “The Walking Dead,” don’t just settle for the spinoffs. Check out some of these shows to see some very different takes on the undead.
All of Us Are Dead
Yang Hae-sung/Netflix
One issue that plagues any TV show that goes on for too long is the risk of narrative bloat. The first season of “The Walking Dead” is lean and gives every main character enough time to feel fully-rounded. In the later seasons, the show can feel far more meandering. “All of Us Are Dead” does a great job of capturing the kinetic energy of “The Walking Dead” Season 1
This is aided in the fact that the zombie outbreak occurs when the main characters are at school. Within their various cliques, they have to figure out how to work together to get out of the school and reach safety. It’s incredibly claustrophobic and made all the more terrifying in the undead’s design. Unlike the slow walkers of “The Walking Dead,” “All of Us Are Dead” features fast zombies who could catch someone in a full sprint.
Since there’s a more limited cast, you really get to know these teenagers. And one particular “All of Us Are Dead” scene had fans in tears. The ending of “All of Us Are Dead” sets the stage for more episodes, but we haven’t gotten a second season yet four years later. Hopefully, whenever the next chapter finally does come out, it lives up to the quality of the first season and doesn’t drop the ball like “The Walking Dead” did later in its run.
Dead Set
E4
Sometimes, less is definitely more. Why spend 11 years telling one zombie story when you can instill fear in the hearts of viewers with just five episodes? That’s precisely what “Dead Set” does. The miniseries came out in 2008 and was created by Charlie Brooker, who also made “Black Mirror.” He brings his signature satire to “Dead Set,” which follows a group of “Big Brother” contestants, who are completely oblivious to the fact a zombie outbreak is occurring in the rest of society until the undead show up on their doorstep.
A ton of action gets crammed into those five episodes, so there’s never a dull moment. And the series successfully juggles several different tones. There’s, of course, the inherent horror of an imminent zombie outbreak, but it’s balanced with real pathos, as we get to know the “Big Brother” contestants and production staff. There’s great work being done by Riz Ahmed, featured before he hit it big in the larger zeitgeist
“Dead Set” also offers scathing commentary on how we’ve all become mindless zombies when it comes to our consumption of entertainment. As zombies rage outside, the contestants talk about the stupid minutiae of living in a big house together. It puts things into perspective of how humanity tends to focus on nonsense when much bigger issues are happening right under our noses.
iZombie
The CW
The problem with a lot of zombie shows like “The Walking Dead” is that they all start to feel the same after a while. You have a group of survivors trying to escape hordes of the undead, and people get killed off one-by-one. “iZombie” upends this formula because it’s more of a crime-of-the-week mystery series as opposed to a zombie show.
“iZombie” follows Liv Moore (Rose McIver) who becomes a different kind of zombie than what most folks are used to seeing. She’s still in charge of her senses although she maintains a hankering for human brains. It winds up helping her in her career as a coroner’s assistant, and when she eats someone’s brain, she gains some of their memories of how they were killed, using her powers to help solve murders.
Zombies are often the villains in any piece of media, but here, a zombie’s the hero. McIver’s performance is truly the main reason to watch this show, as Liv also takes on a bit of the personality of whoever’s brain she eats. This lets McIver really stretch her acting muscle and take on different mannerisms from one episode to the next. If you like zombies but hate horror in general, then “iZombie” is for you. It’s easy to see why it’s one of the best zombie TV shows of all time
Kingdom
Ju-Han Noh/Netflix
Zombies feel like such a popular monster to use since anyone could feasibly kill them as long as they have a gun and can shoot them in the head. But what if you lived in a time when guns didn’t exist? That’s the intrigue offered by “Kingdom,” a South Korean zombie show set in the year 1601.
Right off the bat, that makes this show far more intriguing than most zombie properties out there. The characters instead have to defend themselves using swords as well as bows and arrows, offering a far bloodier and more visceral experience. The show primarily follows the powerful members of the House of Yi while an epidemic of the undead ravages the nation. In this way, the show functions as a metaphor for the lower classes rising up against the rich and powerful, all while the crown prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) must protect his throne from nefarious, non-zombie political foes.
“Kingdom” isn’t just a great watch if you like “The Walking Dead.” It’s also perfect for fans of “Game of Thrones” since there’s ample action and political intrigue. It’s one of the best horror shows you can find on Netflix in case you’re searching for your next weekend binge-watch.
The Returned
Canal+
When you hear the term “zombie show,” you probably have a good idea of what to expect. But there are so many other ways to tell a story about the undead without having to rely on excessive bloodshed and violence. If you want a zombie show that’s more about psychological horror than gore, check out the French series “Les Revenants,” translated to “The Returned.”
It’s a zombie show like no other because there aren’t even really zombies, at least not the ones you’re used to. The series opens with various people who died years earlier returning to their small town. Their loved ones are shocked to see them, but the returned have no recollection of dying. They return to their normal routines as though nothing has happened. On top of all that, strange happenings materialize around town, like dead animals randomly showing up on a church steeple and power outages.
Take one of the revenants: Camille (Yara Pilartz). She died in a bus crash four years prior, and then her mother finds her eating a sandwich in the kitchen one day completely normal. The horror isn’t that Camille wants to eat flesh. It’s that someone you mourned suddenly returns, and you’re unsure if it’s even the same person underneath. After a decade of watching the same “zombies chase humans” storylines on “The Walking Dead,” “The Returned” demonstrates how there’s still plenty of life to mine out of the genre.
