Among the locations that are most appreciated and evocative on television, islands certainly do not lag behind. Who could forget the role played by the setting in the dynamics of Lost? Among the TV Series most beloved of all time, Lost wove together character-driven stories with deep mysteries often tied precisely to the place that for seasons hosted the castaways, and it isn’t the only one to have exploited the allure of the setting to its advantage. Also The White Lotus, for example, set the first season in Hawaii, taking advantage of the appeal of luxury vacationing in a clearly defined locale. The island is not a place like any other, but becomes a generator of suspense in its own right, a space from which it is not possible to retreat and that sets its own rules. Whether it’s mysteries, conspiracies, supernatural misadventures, or emotional journeys, the island is the ideal setting for these three stories we are about to suggest.
The Lost Effect: 3 Must-See TV Series Set on an Island
The Wilds
Spanning two seasons, The Wilds is a dramatic TV series set precisely on an island. Following a bit in the wake of Lost, The Wilds tells of a group of adolescents who, after a plane crash, find themselves alone on a remote island awaiting rescue. Meanwhile, they are forced to reinvent themselves to survive, unaware that they have actually been involved in a dramatic social experiment at their expense. The series is available for streaming on Prime Video, and the island in this case plays a fundamental role because it not only represents the challenge posed by wild and pristine nature, but also a kind of open-air laboratory, a dark Big Brother where the protagonists must look after themselves without knowing they are continually being watched.
Sterling Point
Definitely less dark but not any less dramatic is Sterling Point, a teen romantic drama recently released on streaming on Prime Video during the summer of 2026 and renewed for a second season. The island is the one that lends its name to the series in question, a small Canadian community that has represented a sort of safe rock for Annie Jacobson’s mother, who died many years earlier but took to her grave a very important secret. Years later, Annie arrives on that island following the will of her late grandfather, discovering that she had a sister all along, Ramona. In this case the island both takes away and gives, offering secrets that threaten the emotional stability of the protagonists. And one summer is not enough to understand all the motivations that pushed their family to lie, driving them apart one lie after another.
Widow’s Bay
In turn, a 2026 newcomer on Apple TV and renewed for a second season, Widow’s Bay owes almost all its charm to the island where the story is set, especially because it seems to be a cursed island. It is said that anyone born on the island cannot leave, hostage to a haunted place whose nature begins to reveal itself even to the skeptical mayor Tom Loftis. At first, Tom tries to stir the island with a bit of publicity hoping for tourist influx, but very soon he will feel on his own skin what it means to live in Widow’s Bay. Between local secrets, unpredictable threats, and ancient tales, the island’s inhabitants must come to terms with the mysterious tolling of the bells that herald the arrival of something dark. Amid thick fog and stormy seas, the island visually becomes a prison.
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