If you love Special Ops: Lioness, the best next series depends on what you want more of: undercover intelligence work, female-led espionage, military missions, political maneuvering, or the pressure covert work puts on family life. No show is an exact substitute. This guide matches 30 series to the particular parts of Lioness they share, so you can choose by premise and tone rather than by a loose “spy show” label.
Paramount describes Lioness as a female-led espionage thriller inspired by a real U.S. military program, following CIA operative Joe as she balances high-stakes work with her personal life. Its official listing records three seasons, with season three premiering August 2, 2026. Paramount Global Content’s series listing and a July 16, 2026 season-three announcement frame the show around espionage, hidden networks, foreign operatives, betrayal, and home-life strain.
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![Special Ops: Lioness - Season One [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41V52Mabc7L._SL160_.jpg)
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Special Ops: Lioness - Season One [Blu-ray] | $20.11 | Buy on Amazon |
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![Special Ops : Lioness - Season One [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51e26HJzpjL._SL160_.jpg)
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Special Ops : Lioness - Season One [Blu-ray] | $48.99 | Buy on Amazon |
Choose your next show by what you liked about Lioness
Paramount+’s recommendation guide makes the useful point that no series is identical to Lioness: its suggestions share particular ingredients, not the whole recipe. Use the guide below to decide whether you want a woman at the center of an undercover story, a military team in the field, or a more analytical intelligence drama. The number beside each title is for navigation, not a ranking.
- Covert work and spy tradecraft: start with The Agency, The Bureau, Homeland, or Alias.
- Female-led espionage: try Black Doves, Alias, Covert Affairs, or Nikita.
- Military missions and team dynamics: choose SEAL Team, The Unit, or Strike Back.
- Action with a different line of work: consider Elite Force or Marshals.
- Crime, politics, or Sheridan-style storytelling: look to the final group, but do not mistake those overlaps for espionage premises.
For all 30 recommendations, availability is not treated as permanent: streaming catalogs vary by region and can change. Check your local service listings before deciding where to watch.
#1 Best Overall
- Genre: TV Action & Adventure
- Rating: NR
- Movie Title: Lioness: Season One
- Movie Year: 2023
- Movie Cast: Zoe Saldana^Laysla De Oliveira^Michael Kelly^Morgan Freeman^Nicole Kidman^Dave Annable^Jill Wagner^LaMonica Garrett^James Jordan^Austin Hebert
For undercover work and intelligence tradecraft
1. The Agency
An undercover CIA operative is recalled from Africa and has to reckon with the personal cost of returning to agency life. It is a strong choice if Joe’s divided identity and the consequences of living undercover matter more to you than nonstop combat. TV Guide notes that this American series remakes the French original, The Bureau.
2. Alias
Jennifer Garner plays a CIA mole embedded in SD-6, concealing her real loyalties and a double life. Pick it for an agent-centered story of infiltration and secret identities, with a more heightened spy-adventure feel than Lioness.
3. Covert Affairs
CIA recruit Annie Walker takes on threats to the United States with help from her handler, while the series follows her development as an operative. Its appeal is the combination of field assignments, agency work, and a woman learning the job.
4. Homeland
A CIA officer investigates whether a returned war hero has been turned by an adversary, putting her own judgment and safety at risk. Choose it for psychological tension and political stakes rather than for a military team’s mission structure.
5. Jack Ryan
A CIA analyst is pulled from analysis into national-security crises and field action. It suits viewers who want intelligence work to widen into a large-scale thriller, rather than a story focused chiefly on undercover placement.
6. Killing Eve
A British intelligence operative pursues an international assassin, and the hunt becomes a complicated mutual obsession. The series mixes action with dark humor, making it a less straight-faced option for viewers who want cat-and-mouse espionage and a strong central woman.
7. The Bureau
This French series is the original source for the American remake The Agency. Consider it if you want a more grounded intelligence drama and are comfortable with a different national setting and style.
For female-led spy and undercover stories
8. Black Doves
Keira Knightley plays an undercover operative who has built a family life around her cover. That collision between domestic life and secret work gives it a clear connection to Lioness, though its tone is more colorful and humorous.
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Maggie Q plays an assassin who escapes the government organization that trained her and returns to dismantle it, working alongside another female operative. It is the pick for a more action-forward story of a woman fighting the system that made her.
10. Alias
For a second route into female-led espionage, Alias centers on a woman balancing a covert assignment inside SD-6 with her CIA loyalties. Its double-agent premise makes identity management the central hook.
11. Covert Affairs
Choose Covert Affairs if you want a woman’s progression inside intelligence work, with a handler relationship and assignments shaping the story. It has a more conventional recruit-to-operative arc than Lioness.
For military missions, teams, and home-front strain
12. SEAL Team
Bravo Team undertakes dangerous missions, while the series also follows the effect of that work on operators and their families. This is among the closest picks when you want the mission-and-home-life combination, though its focus is a military team rather than a CIA operative managing an undercover asset.
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13. The Unit
A Delta Force-inspired unit carries out secret missions, with field operations paired against family life at home. Try it if the contrast between professional secrecy and domestic consequences is your favorite Lioness thread.
14. Strike Back
This British military thriller follows Section 20, a covert special-operations branch deployed on high-risk missions. It is a better fit for viewers seeking rapid, action-led deployments than for those chiefly looking for intelligence tradecraft or family drama.
15. Elite Force
This French action series follows GIGN counterterrorism and hostage-rescue work. TV Guide recommends it particularly for viewers seeking action set pieces, so approach it as an action match rather than a close espionage equivalent.
16. Marshals
A Yellowstone spin-off, Marshals follows former Navy SEAL Kayce Dutton as he joins a team of U.S. marshals. Its team element and action provide a partial connection to Lioness, but its work is law enforcement rather than CIA espionage.
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These seven titles appear in Paramount+’s broader recommendation list. Their connection to Lioness is selective—such as action, crime, political tension, or related creative sensibilities—not a shared spy premise.
17. Landman
Consider it if you are drawn less to covert operations than to high-stakes conflicts and the wider dramatic world associated with Taylor Sheridan’s series. It is an adjacent recommendation, not an intelligence thriller.
18. Dutton Ranch
This title belongs on a broader Sheridan-related watchlist, rather than a strict list of spy dramas. The connection is the recommendation guide’s wider programming lane, not undercover work.
19. MobLand
For viewers whose favorite Lioness element is dangerous power struggles, MobLand offers a crime-oriented alternative. Its overlap is tension and conflict, not military or intelligence operations.
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20. Tulsa King
Tulsa King is another crime-series option in Paramount+’s broad set of recommendations. Try it for a different take on power and criminal maneuvering, rather than for the covert mission format.
21. Mayor of Kingstown
This recommendation is best understood through its political and crime-drama overlap. It may appeal if you want morally fraught power dynamics, but it is not a spy-show counterpart.
22. Sheriff Country
Consider Sheriff Country if the law-enforcement side of the broader recommendation pool interests you. Its connection is the crime-and-investigation lane, not a CIA or special-operations premise.
23. Boston Blue
Boston Blue rounds out the adjacent recommendations as a law-enforcement option. Choose it for a different institutional setting and investigative focus, not for undercover espionage.
How to narrow the list
If two or three options still sound right, compare them by the kind of work on screen, who leads the story, its tone, and how much private life matters. These distinctions are more useful than asking whether a show is simply “like” Lioness.
Quick Recap
- Work: undercover espionage and agency tradecraft (The Agency, The Bureau, Alias); intelligence investigation (Homeland, Jack Ryan); military operations (SEAL Team, The Unit, Strike Back); or law enforcement (Marshals, Sheriff Country, Boston Blue).
- Lead perspective: a woman-centered spy story (Black Doves, Covert Affairs, Nikita), a team ensemble (SEAL Team, The Unit), or a single-agent thriller (The Agency, Homeland).
- Tone: psychological tension (Homeland), grounded intelligence drama (The Bureau), action-forward missions (Strike Back, Elite Force), or a more humorous spy story (Black Doves, Killing Eve).
- Personal stakes: for work colliding with family life, start with SEAL Team, The Unit, or Black Doves; for a more mission-centered watch, try Strike Back or Elite Force.
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