(Photo by Eike Schroter/Netflix)
67 Ghost TV & Streaming Shows Ranked
Do ghost stories make for good TV? You boo-tter believe it.
Whether it’s spooky dramas like Netflix newcomer The Fall of the House of Usher (releasing Friday) and 15-season horror stalwart Supernatural or comedies like short-lived, but Certified Fresh Truth Seekers and, well, Ghosts (US and UK versions), many a dearly departed character’s favorite medium is television. And, yes, this includes the Patricia Arquette–starring TV show Medium.
But ghosts do have the power to show up in unexpected places. Shows like Lost and Angel saw their share of spirits, while kinder apparitions offered guiding advice on nighttime dramas like Providence and A Gifted Man and in teen programs like Julie and the Phantoms. Ghosts are also popular storylines on soap operas like General Hospital (although some daytime soaps use that narrative device more than others) and have conjured a whole genre of reality TV, but we’ll save those discussions for another list.
Rotten Tomatoes has compiled the best and worst ghost stories on TV and streaming and some that don’t have Tomatometer scores, but need to appear on any “ghostly TV” list worth the claim. While the series don’t have to solely focus on ghosts to be included, they do have to routinely include storylines about them.
The series are ranked by Tomatometer score, then shows without Tomatometer scores are listed by Audience Score (denoted by “A” and its rank; see Audience Scores on the series’ pages). Those without any scores — either because they didn’t get enough reviews or have scores on less than half of their seasons — are then listed alphabetically.
Synopsis: Deciding to turn over a new leaf, a group of friends who also happen to be vampires and werewolves move...
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Synopsis: Samantha, a cheerful freelance journalist, and Jay, an up-and-coming chef from the city, throw both caution and money to the...
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Synopsis: A young couple who are desperately trying to save up for their first home are shocked to learn that they...
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Synopsis: A famous horror writer who is lured back to her hometown discovers that the evil spirit who plagues her dreams...
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Synopsis: This haunting series follows the thrilling yet terrifying journeys of Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who face an increasingly...
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Synopsis: This modern reimagining of the Shirley Jackson novel follows siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on...
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Synopsis: Teenager Julie finds her passion for music and life while helping the Phantoms, a trio of ghostly guys, become the...
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Synopsis: A girl with psychic abilities joins two teen boys at a ghost-hunting agency to fight the deadly spirits plaguing London....
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Synopsis: Siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built a pharmaceutical company into an empire of wealth, privilege and power; however, secrets...
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Synopsis: A young governess arrives at Bly Manor and begins to see apparitions haunting the estate....
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Synopsis: Leaving his true love, Buffy, behind in Sunnydale, the vampire Angel tries to get a fresh start in Los Angeles....
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Synopsis: Heavily influenced by the ghostly series THE KINGDOM, the sleepwalker Karen seeks answers to the unresolved questions of the series...
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Synopsis: On one day in 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy...
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Synopsis: The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were 1,000 miles off course when they crashed on a lush, mysterious island. Each...
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Synopsis: Sarah Michelle Gellar takes on the role of Buffy Summers in this TV version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," based...
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Synopsis: This action-packed fantasy-drama revisits the saga of King Arthur and his wizard, Merlin, by focusing on the two characters when...
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Synopsis: In the mythology of "Dead Like Me," certain people, when they die, are offered the job of grim reapers. They...
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Synopsis: Maddie is a teen girl stuck in the afterlife investigating her own mysterious disappearance; she goes on a crime-solving journey...
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Synopsis: This adaptation of the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" tale is a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror and the...
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Synopsis: "Being Human," based on a BBC series of the same name, features three 20-something roommates who each try to keep...
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Synopsis: When Caleb Rivers heads to Ravenswood, a town near his hometown, to help some friends who went there to crash...
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Synopsis: Paranormal investigators set out to film ghost sightings, but as their supernatural experiences grow more frequent, they begin to uncover...
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Synopsis: While attending Nevermore Academy, Wednesday Addams attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a killing spree and solve the...
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Synopsis: Demon hunter and master of the occult John Constantine figured there was no longer any point in fighting the good...
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Synopsis: A dysfunctional family moves from the city to a small town after Patricia "Pat" Phelps, a former "wild child" who...
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Synopsis: Seattle medium Cassie Bedford struggles with a gift that sometimes feels like a curse. Haunted by the dead in search...
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Synopsis: Materialistic surgeon Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) always believed in working hard for the luxuries in life until he started seeing...
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Synopsis: Everything is not what it seems in Trinity, South Carolina. Sheriff Lucas Buck develops a sinister interest in Caleb. Caleb's...
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Synopsis: Based on Charlaine Harris' book series by the same name, "Midnight, Texas" follows the lives of the strange inhabitants of...
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Synopsis: Four years ago, Frank Taylor was a career police detective with a wife and young son. His marriage ended after...
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Synopsis: Nell Serrano, a broke and newly single self-described disaster, works to restart the life and career she left behind 10...
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Synopsis: When a modern-day groundskeeper opens the Collins family crypt during a treasure hunt, Barnabas Collins, the 200-year-old family vampire, emerges...
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Synopsis: The Bedlam Heights apartment block is strangely full of tenants, strange because it's the site of a former mental asylum....
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Synopsis: A vampire returns to his family mansion in Collinsport, Maine....
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Synopsis: A 12-year-old boy and a thrill-seeking classmate discover a secret portal that allows them to travel back in time and...
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Synopsis: Quick wits lead to daring discoveries for beachside besties Sam and Jade as they sleuth out supernatural mysteries in their...
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Synopsis: A group of sisters discover they are witches. Luckily for the world, they're of the good variety. Banding together in...
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Synopsis: Fourteen-year old computer geek Fiona "Fi" Phillips), who is on the road with her rock-star mom, is seriously into paranormal...
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Synopsis: Melinda Gordon is a young woman who can communicate with the earthbound spirits of people who have died -- and...
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Synopsis: Brainiac Velma, jock Fred, fashionista Daphne, hippie Shaggy, and Shaggy's highstrung, talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, climb into their green van,...
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Synopsis: Nancy Drew is a brilliant teen detective whose sense of self had come from solving mysteries in her hometown of...
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Synopsis: Surgeon Alex Reid finds herself in a state of shock when her charismatic fiance -- Chief of Surgery Charlie Harris...
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Synopsis: Tween optimist Molly McGee and a grumpy ghost named Scratch become bound to each other when one of Scratch's spells...
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Synopsis: A young boy and his family move into a haunted home, where he meets three ghost pups and tries to...
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Synopsis: Danny Fenton was once your typical kid until he accidentally blew up his parents' laboratory and became ghost-hunting superhero Danny...
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Synopsis: Ebenezer Scrooge experiences a dark night of the soul in an original take on Charles Dickens' ghost story....
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Synopsis: Real estate agent Luke Roman is the owner of The Roman Agency, a boutique residential real estate brokerage specializing in...
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Synopsis: Kevin Pacalioglu (played by the infinitely likeable Tyler Labine), is definitely not your average New Yorker. "Pac," as he's known,...
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Synopsis: When a ghost haunts a neighborhood bookstore and starts releasing fictional characters into the real world, four kids must team...
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Synopsis: Housewife and mother Allison DuBois uses her psychic visions about dead people and the violence surrounding them to work as...
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Synopsis: In 1890s Malacca, Li Lan finds herself in the afterlife; she becomes mired in a mystery linked to the sinister,...
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Synopsis: Mel and Maggie Vera suffer a shock when their mother dies suddenly, but before they have time to heal from...
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Synopsis: A teen befriends the ghost living in their new home in Beverly Hills....
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Synopsis: A man finds his mother reincarnated as the family car....
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Synopsis: When a skilled but timid chef is possessed by a sassy spirit, her newfound confidence catches the eye of her...
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Synopsis: A high school athlete who has been bitten by a werewolf fights to save his town....
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Synopsis: A young widow leases a house haunted by a long-dead sea captain....
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Synopsis: A group of teens solves neighborhood crimes and mysteries in New York with the help of a spirit who can...
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Synopsis: A troubled psychologist returns from the U.S. and sets up a clinic in Taiwan, where mysterious patients and uncanny events...
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Synopsis: Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans joins forces with filmmaker Eli Roth to present a terrifying film anthology inspired by pieces found...
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Synopsis: Students at a remote British boarding school face the supernatural....
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Synopsis: Families tormented by unusual activity in their homes -- with the added stress that the spirits may be their own...
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Synopsis: Kingdom Hospital is populated by a brilliant surgeon who lives in the basement, a nearly blind security guard and a...
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Synopsis: A group known as The Legacy battles the forces of evil and the paranormal in an effort to keep humanity...
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Synopsis: Dr. Sydney Hansen is a successful plastic surgeon who becomes tired of catering to superficial, spoiled rich people. She moves...
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Synopsis: A suburban family finds that its new home is haunted....
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Synopsis: The child-size spirit is more interested in making friends than in scaring people....
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