3 Shows You Should Watch if You Like ‘Blindspot’

Blindspot may have ended for the season, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get your weekly dose of intrigue.

Whether you enjoyed the action-packed tattoo-of-the-week episodes, relished in the mystery of Jane Doe’s identity, or you want something a little more well-rounded, here are three shows we think you’ll like if you enjoy Blindspot.

1. Dollhouse (2009-2010)

One of the first parallels that I found easiest to draw was the way Jane’s memory wipe resembled those of the Actives in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.

Like Blindspot, Dollhouse deals with people being robbed of their identity, and much like Jane Doe, the people who have surrendered their identities have volunteered for this.

Dollhouse was a short-lived Fox series in which an organization offered deals to down-on-their-luck young people. In the pilot we meet Caroline. She’s sitting in a room with a British woman named Adelle Dewitt who is making her an offer:

ADELLE: My offer is simple. Your life for your life. I get five years. You get the rest.

What Caroline is volunteering for is to be held captive in the Los Angeles branch of an underground organization called The Dollhouse.

Upon entering The Dollhouse, Caroline’s personality will be stored on a hard drive and she will be rented out to anyone willing to pay their high price tags for what they call “engagements.”

The residents could be a dream date one week and then a ninja the next.

We follow Caroline through her time at the Dollhouse, during which she is given the code name Echo.

However, Echo poses a threat to the organization. Unlike the other actives, she can resist the memory wipes given to her when she returns from an engagement.

Echo’s evolution is the main story, but the conspiracy that lies behind the Rossum Corporation and their development of the Dollhouse technology is another matter entirely.

Similar to the evolution of Jane Doe, during Blindspot’s first year, Dollhouse relies on the evolution of their main character to transcend a technology being used on her.

The greater mystery in this series lies not in tattoos, but in the organization itself and a federal agent that is investigating why The Dollhouse exists. You can currently find Dollhouse is available for streaming on Netflix.

2. The 4400 (2004-2007)

Imagine thousands of missing people coming out a ball of light that everyone thought was a comet.

Sound crazy? That’s how The 4400 starts.

A comet is slowing down and changing course to land right outside of Washington’s Mt. Rainer. Suddenly, the ball of light expands and 4400 (pronounced forty-four hundred) people are left standing on a lake in Washington State.

None of the returnees can remember what happened to them, and they haven’t aged a day. Some have been gone a few months, others fifty years.

Why they are here is the mystery that Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris must solve.

Soon, they find that the some of the returnees are developing new abilities and the question of who took them is more pressing than ever.

Just like Blindspot, this series begins with a bang and then proceeds to unravel the mystery.

Much like Jane Doe, the questions surrounding The 4400 include: Who took them? Why were they sent back now? Why haven’t they aged?

Throughout four seasons that question of who they are and why they are here drives the story as we follow our agents and the 4400 through their lives interrupted, just like Jane Doe.

The 4400 is available for streaming on Netflix.

3. The X-Files (1993-2002, 2016)

There is no identity mystery when it comes to Dana Scully and Fox Mulder are but the large government conspiracy that is teased throughout the ten seasons of The X-Files is a perfect way to satiate the appetite of a Blindspot fan.

The X-Files follows an oddball FBI Agent named Fox Mulder who believes that his sister has been abducted by aliens. At the start of the series, the FBI sends in Special Agent Dana Scully M.D. to debunk his work.

The cases that ensue explore the strange and unusual and while it may be a bit on the outside of your typical police procedural, but it a worthy read.

It might be hard to see the similarities between Blindspot and The X-Files, but the two shows have a similar format.

While The X-Files has plenty of Monster-of-the-Week episodes, it gets just as much praise for its larger mythology.

Blindspot had a similar format this season with cases emerging week-to-week centered around a tattoo and a larger mystery of who Jane Doe is. The X-Files amplifies this and takes it to a national, if not global scale.

The intricate mythology of The X-Files includes everything from abduction lore to the black oil and the secret farms full of bees and super soldiers, the parts of the whole work together to create a gripping plot.

Plus, Mulder and Scully have so much UST to go around.

The X-Files is available for streaming on Netflix (Season 1-9) and Hulu (Season 1-10).

Plan on watching any of the shows above? Have another one you would recommend? Comment below and let us know what you will be watching this summer.

Blindspot returns this fall on Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.