Are you one of those people who don’t get people’s obsession with sci-fi TV shows and somehow can’t seem to connect with all the ahead-of-time ideas and technologies while keeping a track of the plot and find it a little too put-up? Well, it’s probably because you’ve been watching all the wrong shows. Here’s a list of sci-fi shows that aren’t as cliché as other sci-fi TV shows and are sure to keep you hooked to the screens!
Black Mirror
This show has an anthological format and it explores worst case scenarios that might occur as a result of technology taking over people’s lives. Every episode of this show puts the viewer in a pensive zone as each story seems extremely plausible and the presentation is also very convincing. It is a pretty dark series, and one cannot binge watch this show easily. Yet, I feel it is a must-watch for every person out there, because it reveals the ugly side of this ever-growing dependency on technology and social media that prevails in this epoch.
Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty is an animated series wherein Rick is a sociopath and a scientist who works on new inventions in his daughter’s garage. His grandson, Morty, is his partner-in-crime and the victim of all his weird experiments. Every episode revolves around their adventures together and how the whole family has to suffer the consequences of Rick’s antics. It also explores the rapport that the family members have with one another, and gives the audience a few “aww” moments every now and then. It is an extremely fun show to watch and it exceeds your imagination.
Stranger Things
This show is set in the 1980s and puts forth the idea of the existence of a parallel universe. All the actors have given amazing performances in this show and the story of the show feels like a rom-com movie in the 1980s along with a lot of sci-fi plot twists involving some secret organization’s experiments to test the limits of the powers of a human brain and a bunch of kids trying to fight it and save their friend from monsters of another universe. It manages to engage the audience and keep them enthralled until the very end.
Altered Carbon
With only a single season out so far, this show has intrigued the audience a lot. It shows a future world where human bodies are mere interchangeable vessels and death is impermanent. The idea of this show seems very similar to the idea of reincarnation, and the added suspense of a death mystery that the protagonist is resurrected to help solve makes it a thoroughly enjoyable show.
Sense 8
This show has a very unusual concept wherein 8 individuals across the world are connected to one another by certain shared visions and abilities. I have just recently started watching this show and haven’t finished it as yet, but the plot so far seems promising. With 8 sensates across the world working towards the same mission, and the way the show interconnects their lives, the story never makes the show seem dull. This show has released only 2 seasons so far and the season finale is going to be coming in June this year, so if you’re in the mood for a short sci-fi TV series to binge, this show surely won’t disappoint.
Utopia
This show has a total of only 12 episodes, so again it’s another perfect show for a short binge. It’s a British show wherein a group of people meet online and discover a bizarre manuscript which has predicted disasters of the prior century. Along with surviving the wrath of being tracked down by a merciless organization, they need to stop the disasters from the book from happening. It also talks about the current existing issues like overpopulation, and the suspense of this show is captivating.
Orphan Black
This sci-fi thriller presents a story based on cloning and its effects on personal identity. Sarah Manning, a con artist, finds herself assuming the role and identity of Beth Childs after she commits suicide. Soon later, she finds out that Beth wasn’t a mere doppelganger but a clone and that there are several others like herself and Beth across Europe and North America and are all a result of an illegal human cloning experiment by organizations that are trying to control the creation of human life. Her struggles to dealing with these discoveries and trying to keep herself and her daughter safe and sane and growing through all these struggles are shown with the help of a lot of unexpected twists, turns and revelations.
The OA
After a 7 year long disappearance, Prairie returns home. She now calls herself ‘the OA’ and has regained her sight despite being blind before her disappearance. Her resurfacing out of nowhere after all these years and her refusal to talk about what happened with her in that time span keeps people wondering whether she’s actually dangerous. The show slowly reveals her life story and how there might be other people who have gone missing in another dimension and require to be rescued by her.
The Twilight Zone
This is a show which was released in 1959 and was attempted to be recreated a couple of times again in later times with the same name. It is a series of unrelated stories, wherein each episode ends with an unexpected twist and has a moral of sorts. The creator of this show, Rod Sterling, got immense fame and acknowledgement owing to the success of this show. The classic endings of each episode struck a chord with the audience and made the show really engaging.
Westworld
This show seems to me like Jurassic Park with a twist. It is set in the future where Westworld is an amusement park where humans interact with automatons to get all their desires fulfilled. These automatons or “hosts” are incapable of causing any harm to the guests and hence the guests can engage in any activities, even murder if they wish to, without being scared of any kind of harmful retaliation from these hosts. All this goes haywire when these automatons start malfunctioning.
Firefly
This show has a total of only 14 episodes. This show is set in the year 2517 and it takes place on various planets and moons. The central characters of this show are a crew of renegades who live in a spaceship called Serenity and call it home. These characters just want to survive but are faced with new challenges at every other step in life. In spite of the short duration of this series, it has a large fan base and it surely is attention-grabbing.
