10 Shows Like Sulphur Springs Everyone Needs To See
Disney's "The Secrets of Sulphur Springs" is a family-friendly sci-fi/fantasy series about a family who moves from Chicago after Ben Campbell (Josh Braaten) quits his job and buys the vacant Tremont Hotel in Sulphur Springs, Louisiana, where he went to summer camp as a child. On his first day of school, Ben's son Griffin (Preston Oliver) learns the hotel is rumored to be haunted by Savannah (Elle Graham), a girl who went missing while attending camp 30 years ago.
While exploring the hotel, 12-year-old Griffin and his new friend Harper (Kyliegh Curran) discover a fallout shelter in the hotel's basement and a hatch to an open field that transports them 30 years into the past where they meet Savannah, Griffin's dad Ben (Jake Melrose) and Harper's mom, Jess (Diandra Lyle) as children. When Griffen and Harper realize their parents have been lying, they suspect their parents may have had something to do with Savannah's disappearance. While Griffin and Harper try to stop Savannah's disappearance in the past, his siblings Wyatt (Landon Gordon) and Zoey (Madeleine McGraw) bond with Harper's brother Topher (Bryant Tardy) over another ghost who is haunting the Tremont Hotel.
"Sulphur Springs" is a terrific kids' series shot in the New Orleans area with excellent audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. It tells the story of parents brought together by shared experiences and an estate with a long and interesting history, and their children who hunt ghosts, travel through time, and solve mysteries together. Keep reading if you're looking for a series to binge while you're between seasons.
Hardy Boys
Hulu's "Hardy Boys" is an adaptation of the beloved book series. After their mother dies in a car accident, Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe (Alexander Elliot) move with their father Fenton (James Tupper) to the small town of Bridgeport, where their parents grew up, to stay with their Aunt Trudy (Bea Santos) for the summer. Fenton has taken a leave of absence from the police department and is looking into his late wife's accident after learning she was investigating a news story he didn't know about.
The first season of Hulu's "Hardy Boys" isn't exactly a sci-fi/fantasy series like "Sulphur Springs" but it's about siblings who move from the big city to a small town and are drawn into an investigation that reveals family secrets and the strange history of the area. Although Season 1 only flirts with the mystical, Season 2 leans heavily into the supernatural as the boys look for a missing classmate, giving the series even more in common with Disney's "Sulphur Springs."
The series is also similar to "Sulphur Springs" because it's about kids who aren't happy about moving but soon realize their new small town actually feels like home. "Hardy Boys" has good ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and the finale of Season 2 left the story wide open for another season, but the fate of the series is unclear. Although Spoiler TV reported in July that production was scheduled to start in August, Hulu hasn't made an official announcement about the future of the series.
Home Before Dark
The Apple TV+ series "Home Before Dark" is rooted in reality rather than science fiction and fantasy. Still, this series has many similarities with Disney's "The Secrets of Sulphur Springs." Both shows are about a family moving from the big city to a small town where the father has a complicated history. Both series have a mystery about a missing child the men knew when they were children, and in both series, it is the children who investigate the case.
After Matt Lisko (Jim Sturgess) gets fired from his job as a journalist for getting too emotionally invested in a missing person's story, his family is forced to move from Brooklyn to Erie Harbor, Washington, where he grew up. Matt's wife Bridget Jensen (Abby Miller) goes back to work as a litigator, and their precocious nine-year-old daughter Hilde (Brooklynn Prince), who is also a journalist, quickly finds her first story, investigating Penny Gillis' (Sharon Taylor) death. Hilde's investigation reveals Matt's best friend, Ritchie, was kidnapped and presumed dead when they were children, and Matt never recovered from the trauma.
Soon, Hilde's investigation exposes local corruption and helps a wrongly imprisoned man appeal his conviction. Hilde's relentless pursuit of truth keeps her digging into strange occurrences in Eerie Harbor, convinced she is about to uncover a conspiracy related to Ritchie's kidnapping and her grandfather's illness. Hilde gets her whole family involved in trying to save their community. "Home Before Dark" has excellent scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, and has been renewed for a third season.
Intertwined
"Intertwined" is an Argentinian fantasy series streaming on Disney+. This series is about Allegra (Carolina Domenech), who dreams of joining the theater group Eleven O'clock. After forging her disapproving mom Caterina's (Clara Alonso) signature, Allegra auditions for the lead role in a musical theater version of "Freaky Friday," the play that made her estranged grandmother Cocó famous. When she learns what Allegra has done, Caterina stops the audition and they argue while driving home.
After a car accident incapacitates and hospitalizes Caterina, Allegra meets her grandmother Cocó for the first time and finds a magic bracelet hidden in her bedroom that transports her through time back to 1994 when her mom was a teenager. Allegra follows teenage Caterina (Manuela Menéndez) to the theater where Allegra discovers her mom was once a member of Eleven O'clock and auditioned for the same role in "Freaky Friday." After traveling back to the present, Allegra uses the magic bracelet to discover why her mom is against Allegra joining Eleven O'clock.
Much like "Sulphur Springs," this series is a family-friendly show about a teenager who time travels trying to understand her mom better by investigating what happened between Cocó and Caterina when she was a teenager and hoping to discover what made her mom so unhappy as an adult. It's a fun time travel series that's perfect for fans of "Sulphur Springs" and "High School Musical." And if you love Season 1 of "Intertwined," don't worry — it's been renewed for a second season.
Just Beyond
Disney's "Just Beyond" is an anthology series that tells sci-fi and fantasy stories from the mind of R.L. Stein. It fits perfectly on a list with "Sulphur Springs" because the stories are centered on teenagers dealing with the usual struggles of growing up while learning life lessons from the unusual circumstances they encounter — including mind control, aliens, witches, ghosts, a soul-stealing demon who uses an app that preys on insecurity, and a parallel universe.
Each episode is a unique short story, giving a sampling of fantastical elements with kids centered in the plot. In "Leave Them Kids Alone," Veronica is sent to Miss Genevieve's School for Difficult Girls, where she instigates a revolt. In "Which Witch," Fiona learns to embrace her witch heritage rather than trying to blend in with her human classmates.
In "My Monster," Olivia moves back to her mom's hometown following her parents' divorce and is haunted by a frightening monster. After telling her mother about the monster, Olivia learns to face her fears. In "We've Got Spirits, Yes We Do," Ella spends the night in a historic theater with ghosts who help her find her confidence again after losing her best friend to a new social clique.
Like "Sulphur Springs," each episode of "Just Beyond" is family-friendly entertainment with inventive storylines, interesting characters, and bizarre adventures. "Just Beyond" has good scores on Rotten Tomatoes; unfortunately, the future of the series remains unclear. Luckily, since it's an anthology series, each episode stands on its own.
Locke & Key
In Netflix's "Locke & Key," after their father's suspicious murder, Locke siblings Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones), Bode (Jackson Robert Scott), and their mom Nina (Darby Stanchfield) move from Seattle to the small town of Matheson, Massachusetts, where their father grew up. They aren't happy about moving and expect to hate living in a small town, but they discover an inheritance of magical keys hidden in their ancestral home, Keyhouse.
Much like "Sulphur Springs," this fantasy series is about three siblings who move to a strange house with a long history before embarking on an investigation to learn more about their father's past. As the siblings learn more about the history of Keyhouse, they discover their father's death and their family legacy is tied to the magic keys and the history of the town itself. When they discover adults can't remember the magic, their uncle Duncan's (Aaron Ashmore) blank memory about his childhood and their mother's weird behavior suddenly make sense.
"Locke & Key" is definitely scarier and more mature than "Sulphur Springs," but their similar themes make these shows spiritual cousins. Both series invoke supernatural elements, although they're more sinister in "Locke & Key." For three seasons, the Locke siblings and their uncle Duncan (Aaron Ashmore) investigate what their family legacy is and how they're supposed to be the guardians of a mysterious portal hidden in the caves below Keyhouse. As a family, they fight demons, protect each other from emerging threats, and decide the fate of the keys.
Parallels
"Parallels" is a French sci-fi series about a group of friends living on the French-Swiss border whose lives are altered when an experiment at the world's largest particle accelerator (LHC) goes awry, splitting them up and sending them into alternate dimensions. Victor (Maxime Bergeron) and Romane (Victoria Eber) vanish, Bilal (Omar Mebrouk) now looks 30 years old, and Samuel (Thomas Chomel) — who was left behind — is confused and scared.
Desperate to find their friends, grown-up Bilal and Sam work together, while Romane and Victor, who is also Sam's little brother, think the others have vanished. Bilal makes a connection between their friends vanishing and a missing person's case from 10 years earlier, realizing there is a correlation between the LHC experiments and missing kids. Four years after the incident, Victor (Jules Houplain) convinces Romane (Jade Pedri) to revisit the bunker where Bilal and Sam vanished because Victor thinks the next test at the LHC might send them back in time.
Victor is right, and they've returned to the day after the incident when they ask Bilal's mother, Sofia (Naidra Ayadi), who is a particle physicist and works at the LHC to help them reconnect with their friends. The group asks Sofia to help them return to before they were separated and sent them to alternate timelines because they want to be teenagers together again. Although "Parallels" is straight sci-fi and doesn't have any ghosts, it shares themes of time travel and missing children's cases with "Sulphur Springs."
The Mysterious Benedict Society
This Disney sci-fi/mystery series is about a group of gifted orphans. Reynie Muldoon (Mystic Inscho), George 'Sticky' Washington (Seth Carr), Kate Weatherall (Emmy DeOliveira), and Constance Contraire (Marta Kessler) are recruited for a secret mission by an eccentric benefactor, Mr. Benedict (Tony Hale). The children infiltrate the secretive boarding school known as the Institute, going undercover as students, and they must foil the plans of Dr. Curtain, who runs the school.
"The Mysterious Benedict Society" is a charming, whimsical adventure about exceptional orphans adapted from the bestselling children's book series by Trenton Lee Stewart. The children's benefactor has sent the children to discover how his evil twin, Dr. Ledroptha Curtain, is creating a global crisis known as the "Emergency," using Dr. Curtain's invention the "Whisperer." Dr. Curtain is creating a worldwide panic and undermining truth by planting ideas in people's minds with subliminal messaging.
Although this series is certainly quirkier than "Sulphur Springs" and has a more stylized look, both Disney series feature advanced technology and young sleuths intent on solving a mystery. "The Mysterious Benedict Society" has great scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, and was approved for a second season shortly after its first premiered. Season 1 followed the action of the first book in the series, so it's safe to say "The Mysterious Benedict Society" Season 2 will follow the action of the second book in the series, with the children looking for Mr. Benedict and Number Two after they're kidnapped.
Silverpoint
The BBC's "Silverpoint" is a sci-fi series about students attending Silverpoint Adventure Camp near the Silverpoint Woods, where four kids disappeared in 1997. In the present, Louis (Oliver Cunliffe) who is attending summer camp after his father's death, is intent on discovering what really happened in the woods all those years ago. Campers are matched into groups, and Louis is paired with Meg (Katy Byrne), Kaz (Maiya Silveston), and Glen (Krish Misra), making up team Dragonfly.
Kaz runs away, so her team follows her into the woods, past the fence where they discover a spot in the woods where the laws of physics are disrupted when Kaz's backpack floats in the air, defying gravity. Curious about the phenomenon, team Dragonfly returns to discover a device buried in the ground. After some experimentation, the group discovers the device teleports objects; they enlist the help of Bea (Aoife Hughes), whose parents run the camp, with their experiments.
"Silverpoint" has similarities to "Sulphur Springs" because both series are about kids who went missing at summer camp and the amateur sleuths who try to solve the mystery decades later. Both series also fit into the sci-fi/mystery genre, featuring futuristic (possibly alien) technology and detective work. For a delightful change of pace, "Silverpoint" takes place in the UK, getting us out of the United States.
Stranger Things
Netflix's hit "Stranger Things" is a sci-fi/fantasy series beginning with a group of kids discovering a government cover-up of an experiment gone wrong at Hawkins Lab in Hawkins, Indiana while trying to find their missing friend Will (Noah Schnapp). After Will's disappearance, his best friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) team up with the mysterious Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who appeared the night Will vanished. Mike's older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) joins forces with her boyfriend Steve (Joe Keery) and Will's older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) when her friend Barb goes missing.
Local constable Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) and Will's eccentric mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) carry out their own investigations, but eventually, they all work together, locating Will in an alternate dimension under Hawkins. Eleven uses her telekinetic and psychic gifts to help Joyce and Hopper rescue Will, starting a saga that's captivated millions during its acclaimed multi-season run.
Although Netflix's series doesn't include time travel (yet), it has similarities to "Sulphur Springs" because both show are about a group of children who become amateur sleuths discovering hidden dimensions in their communities. "Stranger Things" includes more mature themes than "Sulphur Springs," but the two share striking parallels.
Timeless
"Timeless" isn't a kids' show, but it is all about time travel, making it a natural fit for this list. Scientist Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), soldier Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), and historian Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer) are recruited to form a government-supervised task force in pursuit of time-travel terrorist Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic). They're tasked with unraveling Flynn's master plan while trying to maintain the integrity of our timeline despite Flynn's attempts to change history.
"Timeless" is action-packed, features time paradoxes, visits numerous historical periods, and uncovers a secret society running the world behind the scenes. It's perfect for viewers who were fans of the original "Quantum Leap" series. As an NBC network television show, "Timeless" is appropriate entertainment for the whole family. Even if some complexities of the plot might go over younger viewers' heads, they'll still enjoy the exciting adventures in the series and the immersive visits to other times.
Although this NBC series isn't aimed at children, it has similarities with "Sulphur Springs" because both shows involve time travel, investigating a mystery, characters who learn more about their family history, and characters struggling with the temptation to change history for personal reasons. "Timeless" has solid scores on Metacritic and excellent scores on Rotten Tomatoes.