Which supernatural shows should I watch? A starter shelf

"Supernatural" covers a lot of ground: ghosts, small towns with secrets, things crawling out of closets. The eight shows below are the desk's honest starters - each earns its place with a reason, not a rating. All are long-finished or safely deep into their runs, so you will not be left waiting on a cliffhanger that never resolves.

The shelf

• Stranger Things - the gateway. Eighties kids, a government lab, and something underneath the town. If you have never watched a supernatural series, start here; if you have, you already know.
• The Haunting of Hill House - the family drama wearing a ghost story. The scariest series on this shelf and the saddest at once; the description rarely does it justice.
• Midnight Mass - slow-burn dread on an isolated island. From the same creator as Hill House; patience is required and repaid.
• Supernatural - two brothers, a Chevy, and fifteen seasons of monsters-of-the-week. The comfort food of the genre: enormous, uneven in places, endlessly watchable.
• Dark - the German time-loop mystery. Supernatural by way of a puzzle box; the most demanding show here and the most rewarding if you keep notes.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the template. Twenty-five years old and still the genre's best character writing; forgive the effects, keep the wit.
• The Witcher - monster-hunting with swords and a ledger of debts. Fantasy-forward supernatural for viewers who want action with their dread.
• Alchemy of Souls - the Korean entry: magic, body-swapping and a rich fantasy world. The bridge to the desk's K-drama starters.

How to choose tonight

Want to be scared? Hill House or Midnight Mass. Want fun? Buffy or Stranger Things. Want to think? Dark. Want comfort food for months? Supernatural. Can't decide between anything on any shelf? The pick-a-movie method works for series too. And when one of these hooks you, the catalogue shelves hold the desk's wider coverage - or jump genres entirely with the evergreen anime list.