9 Near-Perfect TV Shows Inspired By George Orwell

Published Sep 23, 2026, 6:45 PM EDT Ben is a Senior Writer on the New TV team at Screen Rant. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class B.A. Degree in English Literature and History. Born and raised in Ireland, Ben has always had a love for storytelling in all forms of media and operates multiple projects under the name Benjamin Blogs. Ben is a comic book writer and podcast host, in addition to his work as an entertainment journalist. He has worked as both a writer and editor for Screen Rant, Collider, and other media outlets across various departments, including features, news, reviews, and interviews. George Orwell's influence on TV is extraordinary, with his writing serving as a partial foundation for a number of the most popular shows on TV. Despite having passed away before most people owned a television in their own homes, Orwell's extraordinary literary works have become incredibly prescient and relevant to modern audiences, as evidenced by how popular shows based on his body of work have become. Novels like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm stand out as some of his most recognizable works of fiction, with both exploring themes of social injustice through unique lenses. But the messages in these books have spread far and wide beyond the pages of those books, with the concepts becoming a part of modern vernacular. For instance, the ominous "Big Brother" from Nineteen Eighty-Four refers to a mysterious governing body that sees and hears everything, and today, this has become a common saying to describe a sense of being watched or observed. And of course, the popular reality TV show where guests are put in a house with dozens of cameras and mics as every moment of their time in the house is broadcast to the world. But beyond reality TV and common sayings, Orwell's works have also inspired modern storytellers as they develop TV shows that highlight some of the most unnerving and compelling aspects of the worlds created by Orwell. 9 The Prisoner The Prisoner is a 1967 cult classic written by and starring Patrick McGoohan and is among the most overtly Orwellian shows on this list, despite McGoohan rarely referring to his inspirations for the series. Despite this, the show bears several similarities, with constant surveillance of a community, a corrupt power structure, and deep-rooted anxiety and distrust among the people who live in The Village. Beyond that, characters lose their identities, as they are referred to by numbers rather than a name, which strips them of their identities. All of this combines to create one of the best non-adaptations of Nineteen Eighty-Four, which still manages to communicate the core messages and themes from Orwell's text without overtly stating the connection. 8 The Invaders In the same year, Larry Cohen released his alien body snatcher series, The Invaders. Despite Cohen typically referencing connections to popular 1950s alien invasion films and the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, the story in The Invaders also draws on themes that closely resemble Orwell's stories. The show follows a lone protagonist who fights to maintain truth and knowledge despite an intentional erosion. There is a high degree of social compliance, which leads to people rejecting reality in favor of a new story fed to them by the corrupt invaders, ultimately resulting in a warped world. There is clearly a connection between the story told in this series and the texts of Orwell. 7 The Outer Limits The Outer Limits, an anthology series that was originally released in 1963, came from the brilliant mind of Leslie Stevens. The series itself tried to follow in the footsteps of The Twilight Zone, digging into a strange and mysterious new narrative yarn with each new episode, but the show's opening sequence gave it a distinctly intentional Orwellian flavor. At the start of the show, the title sequence would be narrated by a voice, known as the Control Voice, who would tell audiences not to tamper with their own TV's as it began to take control of the device and retune it for its own purposes. Likewise, the episode would end with a similar voice-over that told the audience it relinquished control, until the following week. 6 Devs Image via MovieStillsDB Jumping decades forward, Devs was a miniseries that debuted in 2020, created by the extraordinary Alex Garland, who has created numerous popular science fiction stories. The series itself depicts a dystopian near future where tech companies have transformed the world into something that is almost unrecognizable, though eerily familiar. The series again draws on the powerful imagery and themes found in Orwell's works with overwhelming levels of surveillance, corporations controlling narratives, and an exploration of what exactly it means to be free. This series also marks a new wave of dystopian science fiction that has proven deeply prescient and resonates with modern audiences. 5 The Handmaid's Tale Image via Hulu The Handmaid's Tale is adapted from the literary works of Margaret Atwood. However, Atwood has drawn clear comparisons and connections between her texts and the works of Orwell and has drawn direct inspiration from the rich and visceral worlds of his novels. In fact, in one interview, she suggested that her novels were akin to "the world according to Julia," as a reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four, about how The Handmaid's Tale prioritizes the female perspective (via The Guardian). Atwood is an inspired storyteller, whose work has built a vast world in the novels and now on TV with The Handmaid's Tale and the spin-off series, The Testaments. In both, adherence to a strict way of life that is so overtly contrary to how people live in today's world creates a jarring disconnect from reality. However, the way that power is used and abused, the way that women are treated as assets and property, and the deep distrust of everyone's motives or intentions feel much more visceral. 4 Severance Atsushi Nishijima/©Apple TV/Courtesy Everett Collection Severance is a series created by Dan Erickson, who developed the idea in response to imagining a way to achieve a greater work-life balance. Evidently, the resulting idea is a pretty striking dystopian science fiction, and the series has grown to be one of the most popular and intriguing new releases under the Apple TV banner. That being said, the series also bears a striking resemblance to the dystopian world created in the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. While the concept of doublethink takes on a much more literal meaning in Severance, the corporate overlords, the deification of leaders, and the intense secrecy all create clear parallels that exist in both works. 3 Mr. Robot Elizabeth Fisher/©USA Network/Courtesy Everett Collection Sam Esmail created the cerebral and fast-paced Mr. Robot as a study of a digital dystopia in a surveillance state, and as a result, the show ends up with very similar themes. However, Esmail clearly recognized these links and made a conscious effort to include Easter Eggs within the show, often referencing in overt ways the works of George Orwell. Beyond that, the show digs into a single protagonist's story as one man with the motivation to uncover the truth and alter the status quo begins to push back. As he goes on this adventure, he is faced with enormous hurdles as society, technology, and the world around him converge and push him back, but in the face of insurmountable odds, he continues to push for liberty and freedom. 2 Succession While on the face of it, Succession may seem like the most distant entry on this list from the dramatic dystopian worlds of Orwell's writing, it's surprising how many connections appear to link these two worlds closely together and illustrate how one might just lead to the other. For instance, Succession's premise about a major media corporation about to change hands as the aging father and leader of the organization prepares to retire gives way to an insightful study of how this megacorporation has built its own microcosm of reality where the rules have been rewritten by those with money and power. The show has direct comparisons between the concept of Newspeak, from Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is used to control narratives and how people think on a fundamental level, and Corporate Speak, which is used to dehumanize incidents, such as a cruise line scandal which is reduced to NRPI: "No Real Person Involved." There are also examples of doublethink, Logan Roy as Big Brother, and a contempt for those viewed as less than by high-ranking individuals like Roy's, which appears comparable to the proles of Orwell's writing. Overall, the same themes and messages exist in both, though one seems to be a few more steps down the road of true dystopian literature. 1 Black Mirror Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror is viewed by many as a modern-day equivalent to Orwellian ideas due to the anthology series exploring themes of surveillance, corruption, power, technology being used to control, and more. Each episode explores a new dystopian world, but through all of these distinct narratives, core themes prevail, and connect back to those early ideas illustrated by Orwell's writing. Throughout each and every one of these shows, there is a clear connection to the horrifying imagined worlds created by George Orwell, who in some ways appears to be the father of modern dystopian narratives due to how his exploration of these subjects has become so intrinsically tied to modern stories on TV. Evidently, George Orwell's work was ahead of its time, and when the concepts he gave such vibrant life to all those decades ago are adapted on the small screen, it manages to resonate with a whole new audience of people who find these ideas equally troubling, and just a little too real.