5 TV Shows To Watch If You Like Spider-Noir

After making his screen debut in 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," the hardboiled 1930s detective version of the web-slinger finally went live-action this year via Prime Video's "Spider-Noir." With Nicolas Cage reprising his voice role from the "Spider-Verse" films, "Spider-Noir" is exactly what it should be — part superhero action series and part film noir mystery that's so old Hollywood that you can watch the entire thing in black and white. If you can't decide whether to watch "Spider-Noir" in black and white or color, definitely go with black and white — the intentionally bad "colorized" look of the color version is accurate and all, but not enjoyable to watch.

All eight episodes of Season 1 of "Spider-Noir" hit in May, and it was an instant ratings hit as the third most-watched streaming show across all platforms in its first week. Even with a few other incredibly buzzy shows – "Off Campus," "Every Year After," and "Your Fault: London" — hitting Prime Video since, "Spider-Noir" has held strong just behind them on the streamer's charts. People are clearly either still discovering it for the first time, or perhaps watching it again with the opposite of whatever color scheme they used the first time. 

But once you've binged it a few times, what else are you going to watch until the next season of "Spider-Noir"? That's assuming there's going to be one, which hasn't been confirmed yet. In the meantime, you might want to try one of these shows: each one brings that same gritty noir edge, but with a mix of superhero and non-superhero protagonists. 

While "Batman: The Animated Series" doesn't actually take place in the 1930s, it very well could have. The series goes very heavy on the noir vibes, from many of the scenes taking place at night and/or in dimly lit rooms, to the fact that Batman also happens to be a detective. The art style also heavily draws from '30 and '40s film noir and art deco to create a classic vision of Gotham City that's juxtaposed against all the modern tech and other trappings seen throughout the show. It gives "Batman: TAS" a retro-futuristic feel that "Spider-Noir" also exhibits in its own way.

And all this from a show that was technically for kids, whom all of the aforementioned inspirations would have been lost on. But they enjoyed "TAS" all the same, because it was still a great comic book adaptation that was as fun and action-packed as it was moody and gloomy.

We also wouldn't have Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) without "TAS," as this is where she originated. And the icing on the cake is that the show's version of Batman easily sits atop the mountain of the best animated superheroes, thanks in no small part to his portrayal by the late, great Kevin Conroy.

To borrow an overused phrase, this ain't your grandpa's Perry Mason. It's a little weird to say that, however, since the 2020 "Perry Mason" series actually takes place in an even older time period than the 1957 show, with the latter set in the then-present while the former takes the titular lawyer back to his roots as a private investigator in the 1930s. But the shift makes for a grittier, more flawed, and more hardboiled take on the famed character, far from the polished do-gooder who wins almost every trial that actor Raymond Burr played for 36 years.

It also makes the newer show — which we'll just refer to as "Perry Mason" from here on out — much more fitting for "Spider-Noir" fans. In this version, Mason (Matthew Rhys) is recently divorced, dealing with PTSD from fighting in World War I, and struggling in his new career. But a high profile case falls on his desk that could mean big things for his future, so long as the many strings attached to the case don't choke him in the process.

In an exclusive interview with Looper, the showrunners of "Perry Mason" told us that their version allowed viewers to know the character on a far more personal level than any previous adaptations. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) only got to spend his debut solo movie — "Captain America: The First Avenger" — in his own time, the 1940s. From then on, we've only seen him in the present (more or less), which is disappointing for those who enjoyed the uniqueness that the period brought to the MCU. Enter "Agent Carter," which aired for two seasons on ABC and followed Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) as she continued to live and work in the 1940s after what she thought was Steve's death.

Carter becomes a secret agent for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), the precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D. The show leans heavily into its time period setting, looking not unlike a mid-20th century spy show only with modern production values. "Agent Carter" was praised at the time for how much it felt like it was made on a movie budget rather than a TV budget, something we take for granted now as that applies to pretty much all superhero shows these days — "Spider-Noir" included.

Atwell has said she would love to make a Peggy Carter movie, and while that unfortunately doesn't look likely at this point, she will at least finally bring the character back to the big screen later this year in "Avengers: Doomsday."

As Marvel went all-in on epic, largely family-friendly adventures on the big screen in the mid-2010s, something very different was happening on Netflix. In 2015, "Daredevil" debuted, a TV show that followed Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), blind lawyer by day and blind vigilante by night. As the persona that would later become known as Daredevil, Matt spends his off hours using his fists to administer the justice that going through the proper channels of the legal system often fails to achieve.

"Daredevil" took full advantage of both being on Netflix and also not having to adhere to the same content guidelines as mainline MCU projects — there was blood, there was cursing, and there was very explicit death. The show eventually paved the way for the entire Defenders franchise, which included "Jessica Jones," "Iron Fist," "Luke Cage," and "The Punisher." But "Daredevil" is the most similar to "Spider-Noir" in that it's about straddling that line between legal and not-so-legal methods of taking down criminals — with much of the latter also taking place in dark, rain-soaked urban alleyways.

In our review of Season 1 of "Daredevil: Born Again," the revival series that came to Disney+ in 2025, we proclaimed that the character was "back and better than ever." Definitely watch that series too, but start with the OG first. 

While Clive Owen used to do his best work on the big screen, television has been the more frequent recipient of his considerable talents in the 2010s and 2020s. From his Primetime Emmy-nominated performance in the HBO movie "Hemingway and Gellhorn" to starring in "The Knick" — one of the most rewatchable doctor shows of all time — Owen has really made a name for himself via prestige television. In 2025, he starred as legendary private eye Sam Spade in the miniseries "Monsieur Spade," with critics on Rotten Tomatoes gushing, "Commanding the camera's full attention amidst the French countryside, Clive Owen makes for a mesmerizingly craggy Sam Spade."

Positioning itself as something of a sequel to the classic Sam Spade book and film "The Maltese Falcon," "Monsieur Spade" picks things up about 20 years later in 1963, with Spade on vacation as he tries to enjoy a relaxing retirement. But when he hears that one of his old foes is back at it, Spade can't help but don his detective hat and trench coat again in order to take him down.

Like the legendary movie it follows up, as well as all the other trailblazing noir films of the day, "Monsieur Spade" is a deliberate slow burn — like "Spider-Noir" — that takes its time and doesn't dole out any more fights or car chases than it has to in telling its tightly-crafted mystery tale.