There are plenty of sci-fi series on Netflix, both in the abundance of genre-leaning Netflix originals and productions by others that have ended up on the platform, of all its content there are hundreds of series or miniseries that belong to, or could be labeled as, “science fiction”an overwhelming amount that we can try to compress into the essentials and must-haves.
The boundaries of science fiction as a genre have become more subjective over timeand while series like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Archivo 81’ have more terror than the genre to deal with, and than most, others play to be more speculative like ‘Black Mirror’ or ‘Maniac’, while utopian fictions like ‘Altered Carbon’ enters the realm of fantasy, like the space opera that changed everything, ‘Star Trek’, which is still foundational. To choose them, the possibilities have been reduced until reaching the truly essential and essential ones. There is no specific order of selection.
Essential science fiction series on Netflix
If you are interested in this list you may want to try to find some science fiction series on other platforms, or if you’re interested in something shorter, you can watch some of the best science fiction movies in history, or if it’s too old for you, you can just search for those released in the 21st century, or even just the ones that narrow down to the 2010-2019 decade, or if you don’t want to leave Neflix, you can find some movies here.
Love, Death & Robots (2019-)
Created by Tim Miller | Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Nancy Linari, Emily O’Brien, Joe Dempsie, Ike Amadi, Nolan North, Fred Tatasciore, Peter Franzén, Jennifer Hale.
An animated series of various science fiction stories with elements of love or sex, death and/or robots, and sometimes a combination of all three. From androids roaming a post-apocalyptic Earth, to a monster fighting ring, an ancient civilization in a couple’s fridge, artists from the future who only wear a shade of blue, werewolf soldiers…’Love Death + Robots’ is a varied collection of bloody, beautiful or humorous stories. They are not always worth it but they surprise.
Review of Love, Death & Robots by Mikel Zorrilla
Available on Netflix
Dark (2017-2019)
Created by Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese | Cast: Louis Hofmann, Julika Jenkins, Andreas Pietschmann, Maja Schöne, Lisa Vicari, Lisa Kreuzer, Dietrich Hollinderbäumer, etc.
‘Dark’ is a German time-travel thriller that centers on four families whose dark past quickly begins to be revealed when a handful of children in their small town begin to disappear. The marketing that dubbed it “the German Stranger Things” , because it was about missing persons and partially set in the ’80s, but that comparison didn’t make much sense when it was revealed a quite disturbing series with dense space-time crossroads.
Review of Dark S01, by Noelius
Available on Netflix
Black Mirror (2011-)
Created by Charlie Brooker | Cast: Elisabeth Mss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, etc.
Charlie Brooker’s anthology turned the current technosocial phenomenon into topics ranging from hashtags to fake news to take them to the extreme while asking if human nature can co-exist with him. Part satire, part alarmist prophecy, the series presents a bleak and often terrifying vision of the future. Paranoia, some good ideas and irregular seasons for a midway Netflix signing.
Review of Black Mirror by Kiko Vega
Available on Netflix
Manic (2017)
Created by Cary Fukunaga | Cast: Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Justin Theroux, etc.
In a mysterious alternate present, there is a drug clinical trial in which its participants swallow a series of alphabetic pills to supposedly resolve their past traumas. Jonah Hill and Emma Stone did their own ‘Forget Me’ in this Netflix original, which deals with the challenges of living with mental illnessthrough a wildly creative sci-fi dreamscape in an adventure from the minds of Cary Joji Fukunaga and Patrick Somerville of ‘The Leftovers’, no less.
Review of Maniac by John Tones
Available on Netflix
Archive 81 (Archive 81, 2022-)
Created by Rebecca Sonnenshine | Cast: Dina Shihabi, Mamoudou Athie, Ariana Neal, Evan Jonigkeit, Martin Donovan, etc.
A Netflix original gem that gets an addictive compendium of analog horror, cults and occultism with the stamp of the best James Wan, here only as a producer. An adaptation of the “found audio” podcast of the same name, about an archivist who must restore the tapes on the investigation of a strange 1994 building. nor bloody outbursts but with all the ingredients to get carried away and become obsessed with its protagonist.
Review of Archive 81 by Jorge Loser
Available on Netflix
Stranger Things (2016-)
Created by The Duffer Brothers | Cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, etc.
A celebration of the 80s based on filmic references in style and history and a good dose of themes of the era, from other dimensions, crazy monsters, Russian conspiracy plots and pop culture references. The terrifying factor is important and, at times, quite gory, but it’s the friendships and coming-of-age stories, relationships, and family ties that really make ‘Stranger Things’ become Netflix’s flagship. .
Review of Stranger Things by Jorge Loser
Available on Netflix
Sense8 (2015-2018)
Created by Wachowski Sisters, J. Michael Straczynski | Cast: Jamie Clayton, Naveen Andrews, Doona Bae, Miguel Angel Silvestre, Tina Desai.
The creators of ‘The Matrix’ conceived this exciting science fiction series from a very original premise: when eight strangers from around the world discover they have an inevitable connection, they must learn to work together as a secret organization hunts them down to restore order to humanity. A global adventure with stories that revolve around identity politics and minorities once represented in the genre.
Review of Sense 8 by JUAN LUIS CAVIARO
Available on Netflix
Altered Carbon (2018-2020)
Created by Laeta Kalogridis | Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Martha Higareda, James Purefoy, Katie Stuart, Dichen Lachman.
Adapted from Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 novel of the same name, the series follows a 22nd-century mercenary (Joel Kinnamann in season 1, Anthony Mackie in season 2) hired to solve the murder of a highly influential aristocrat and the ensuing power struggle in a future where the rich can’t really die; their consciousnesses are uploaded to the cloud and downloaded into new bodies. A world without death, with action, amazing images inspired by ‘Blade Runner’ and an intrigue with reflections similar to HBO’s ‘Westworld’.
Review of Altered Carbon by Sergio Benítez
Available on Netflix
The OA (2016-2018)
Created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij | Cast: Brit Marling, Emory Cohen, Jason Isaacs, Patrick Gibson, Ian Alexander, Will Brill.
Prairie is a blind woman who returns to society after years in captivity and quickly starts a group with some troubled teens but doesn’t realize where she came from, with memories from beyond the unknown, from the threshold of a world never seen, strange memories of Russia, experiments and clues to keep going around the Internet. Unfortunately it was canceled too soon.
Review of The OA by Marina Such
Available on Netflix
Star Trek (1966)
Created by Gene Roddenberry | Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, deForest Kelley, etc.
The adventures of a small spaceship exploring the galaxy since the 1960s they have become a worldwide cultural phenomenon that has had millions of viewers. A multi-million dollar franchise spanning eight television series, 13 movies, countless books, comics, magazines, and video games; but it all started here, a less naïve than it seems minimalist and colorful sci-fi series with the irresistible attraction of William Shatner’s charismatic Captain James T. Kirk.
All series from worst to best by Nacho MG
Available on Netflix
OAT Studios (2021)
Created by Neill Blomkamp | Cast: Sharlto Copley, Alec Gillis, Jason Cope, Sigourney Weaver, Eugene Khumbanyiwa.
OATS studios is not a conventional series, but rather an experiment by the director of ‘District 9’, almost like a Reel showing his work and his studio’s ability to design and resolve impressive special effects. There are many small almost anecdotal samples, but the three main episodes, ‘Zygote’, ‘Rakka’ and ‘The military base’, are an incredible concretion of monsters, violence and mixture of science fiction horror that praises James Cameron, John Carpenter and the John McTiernan of ‘Predator’ above all things. One of the best things Blomkamp has done in his career, paradoxically.
Review of the Zygote episode by Jorge Loser
Available on Netflix