It’s the 21st century, and you know what that means! It means we’re closer than ever to the sci-fi future of tomorrow! But will that future be utopian or dystopian? Human or alien? Soundtracked by cool synth music or no? Your guess is a good as mine. However, neither of our guesses are as good as the futures predicted by these stellar sci-fi series. If you’re looking to take a glimpse into the world of tomorrow before it arrives, tune in to the 10 best sci-fi shows of the 21st century.
Stranger Things
A nostalgia drenched, synth scored pop culture phenomenon, Stranger Things is a love letter to nerd culture and the pulp sci-fi past. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the small town peace is disturbed by the disappearance of young Will Buyers, abducted by an eldritch entity off the street! It’s every mom’s worst nightmare! Will’s friends are determined to get him back, and with a combination of Dungeons and Dragons logic and the help of a psychic girl, they might just do it. While it goes off the rails slightly in later seasons, prime Stranger Things is all the best parts of 80s coming of age classics like Stand By Me, combined with the vintage horror thrills of It and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Creepy, cozy, campy, comic, cathartic, can’t get any better.
Orphan Black
While not set in space or involving aliens like most of the other entries on this list, Orphan Black firmly establishes its genre roots through the exploration of a real life sci-fi phenomenon: cloning. Con artist Sarah Manning happens to witness the suicide of police detective Beth Childs – a woman who could be her twin… or doppelgänger? Surely there’s nothing sci-fi going on there! After assuming Beth’s identity, Sarah discovers that she’s actually part of an entire network of clones – each of whom has adopted a radically different life with one thing in common: someone is trying to kill them. A cerebral sci-fi thriller, the series is held together by the monumental performance of Tatiana Maslany – who plays half the show’s characters. She’s so convincing that I swear the producers must have cloned her themselves.
Firefly
A modern classic, Firefly is a short lived and well loved sci-fi about a spaceship crew with an antagonistic relationship to authority. A space western with all the charm of Cowboy Bebop (the anime, not the live action) the plot follows the Serenity‘s captain Malcom “Mal” Reynolds as he attempts to hold his found family crew together in a lawless universe. As the series progresses, the crew members’ often checkered pasts are explored – giving context to why this team of opposites has formed such tight bonds. Ex-rebel soldiers, lab created psychics, macho mercenaries who love their mothers – the Serenity takes all kinds. Thrilling, witty, and utterly devastating, Firefly is a titan of the genre.
Westworld
Inspired by a 1973 pulp sci-fi classic of the same name, Westworld is set in a near future where the rich can pay for the privilege of cosplaying as cowboys and outlaws in a real-life video game, at the expense of the androids that serve the world’s NPCS. For a hefty sum, the wealthy can enter “Westworld,” an Old West themed amusement park that allows you to play out your inner gunslingin’ desires. You can save the damsel, or tie her to the train tracks while twiddling your mustache. “She’s a robot,” the amusement park’s creators say, “she doesn’t care one way or the other.” But when the designated damsel Dolores gets tired of being abused at the hands of Westworld’s guests, she decides to strap on the shooting iron herself and become the deadly gunslinger they’ve been pretending to be. A gritty, violent sci-fi Western about robots vs rich people? Sign me up.
The Expanse
Inspired by an acclaimed series of sci-fi novels, The Expanse is set hundreds of years in the future – the Solar System has been colonized, and an uneasy peace exists between planetary superpowers Earth and Mars, and the loose confederation of human settlements in the Asteroid Belt. That uneasy peace is toppled after the ice mining ship Canterbury accidentally stumbles across secret Martian technology, sparking conflict throughout the system. While the stakes are cosmic in scope, the plot is grounded by the found family relationships on the Rocinante – made up of the Canterbury‘s surviving crew. How do you contend with interstellar war, extraterrestrial threats, and megacorp menace? Easy, you don’t do it alone.
Futurama
Like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy decades before, Futurama‘s creators took a look at sci-fi and asked “what if this genre stopped taking itself so seriously?” Like a baby star in a nebula cradle, shining sci-fi sitcom greatness was born. From the minds that brought us The Simpsons comes the story of Phillip J. Fry, a dimwitted pizza boy who accidentally becomes cryogenically frozen while making a New Year’s Eve delivery in 1999. After reawakening the year 3000, Fry is taken in by a spaceship delivery crew consisting of a mad scientist, a cigar chomping robot, a one eyed mutant, and an alien medic whose doctorate degree is in Art History. One of the funniest shows ever conceived, Futurama parodies the 21st century through a far future lens. Assisted suicide telephone booths, extraterrestrial soda corporations, mind control T.V. stations (all glory to the Hypnotoad!) – it’s all there.
Battlestar Galactica
One of the most successful reboots ever made, Battlestar Galactic took a 70’s cult T.V. series and turned it into 21st century pop culture phenomenon. Picking up where the 2003 miniseries left off, Battlestar Galactic focuses on the last remnants of humanity – sequestered into a starship fleet after their home system was nuked by sentient space robots. The fleet is spearheaded by Battlestar Galactica, an old and powerful warship that will someday lead humanity to its lost, last colony: Earth. A titanic space opera, the series chronicles the war between humanity and the Cylons – a conflict that is interceded by a “God” that appears to watch over both civilizations, whispering to both to end the cycle of suffering. Massive in scope and equally intimate, Battlestar Galactica is a spiritual odyssey the realm of genre-greats like Dan Simmons’ novel Hyperion.
Black Mirror
Named after the appearance of the soul-sucking rectangle that we all keep in our pockets, Black Mirror is a grimdark sci-fi series dripping with 21st century cynicism. An anthology series about the many ways the future can go wrong, the series reflects the dark realities of the modern era back at us. Far from a feel good watch, the show tackles the reality warping nature of social media, the gamification of capitalist society, the morally dubious ways that humanity could attempt to cheat aging and death – and so much more. Deeply disturbing and darkly funny, Black Mirror is a sci-fi satire that will make you think twice about the world of tomorrow. Are we creating a future that is actually sustainable for all humans? For only for a lucky few? Or for no one at all?
Lost
One of the most influential TV series of all time, Lost‘s reputation precedes it. Emotionally devastating, famously enigmatic, infinitely re-watchable – it’s simply one of the greatest shows ever. The plot centers around the crash survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, who find themselves stranded on a (seemingly) uninhabited tropical island. As the passengers struggle to survive the hostile natural world, they discover a hostile supernatural world lurking beneath. Smoke monsters, creepy cultists, polar bears woefully far from the Arctic – this island is full of unexplainable mysteries. Culminating in one of the most hotly debated final seasons ever aired, Lost cemented its legacy as one of the most confusing, compelling and culturally significant shows ever made.
Severance
Shaping up to be a modern classic, Severance put a sci-fi spin on a mundane reality: the nine to five job. A ubiquitous aspect of modern society, everyday people have been forced to “circle back,” “get the ball rolling,” and write “finds you well” emails as their souls are slowly sucked from their bodies. But what if there was a way to escape the grind? With the help of the “severance” procedure, now there is! By splitting the brain into two parts, the employees of Lumen are now able to keep their work lives and their personal lives separate – splitting themselves into distinct “at work” and “at home” personalities. What serves as salvation for the “at home” personality quickly becomes damnation for the “at work” personality, as the working employees of Lumen never get a break. If you were stuck in a labyrinthian office building, held captive by a capitalist cult, and told nothing of the outside world, you’d probably start plotting rebellion in the break room too. Part social commentary, part corporate America satire, part cerebral sci-fi thriller, Severance is working quite a few different jobs at once.
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