Sci-Fi Series on Netflix With Consistently Strong Runs From Start to Finish

Netflix viewers know the feeling. You’re hooked on a series, and then the quality drops, or the whole thing gets canceled without warning. Even if the show recovers later or another streamer picks it up, the bad stretch colors the experience. Stranger Things declined sharply after season 3 and never fully bounced back. The OA ended on a cliffhanger that Netflix never resolved after it pulled the plug.

Some shows avoid that trap. You can move from episode to episode without dreading the slow parts. Here are the sci-fi series on Netflix that hold up from start to finish, counted down from ten to one.

10. 11.22.63

Based on the Stephen King book, 11.22.63 is an eight-episode miniseries about a time traveler trying to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Jake Epping (James Franco) is an ordinary English teacher handed the mission. He makes all kinds of mistakes in the past, including getting too attached to the people he meets there.

The show blends classic sci-fi ideas with one of the best-known moments in American history, which gives its events and characters a sense of dread. One of its best touches is Jake’s feeling that time itself is “pushing back” on his actions. It’s as though what’s about to happen is supposed to happen, and his mission may be hopeless.

9. Maniac

Maniac is a Netflix original miniseries created by Patrick Somerville of The Leftovers. It’s based on a Norwegian series from 2015. The darkly comedic story follows two strangers, played by Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, who both have severe mental disorders. Each volunteers for a medical trial of an experimental treatment that promises to cure every disorder.

Across 10 episodes, the show covers a three-day drug trial in which the two characters drift into fantasies that are sometimes shared. Some are domestic, like the two of them as a married couple. Others are otherworldly, like Stone’s character landing in an elf fantasy epic. Maniac is weird and trippy, but it also resonates, because at heart it’s about self-acceptance.

8. Bodies

Bodies is based on a DC graphic novel by Si Spencer, and its concept is a strong one. The story unfolds in four different years: 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053. In each, the same dead body turns up in the same spot in London. The show follows all four investigations, and they eventually become intertwined.

The series takes classic sci-fi tropes, especially time travel, and mixes them with film noir-style detective work. Its eight episodes demand close attention because the storyline gets dense. The payoff is rewarding, and the show makes excellent use of its unusual premise.

7. The Tick (2016)

Two live-action series based on The Tick are on Netflix right now, and both are consistently funny. The Tick is a big, dumb superhero with super strength and nigh-invulnerability. His sidekick is Arthur, a weak, cowardly average human with a moth-themed flying suit that looks more like a bunny.

The superhero parody began in the late 1980s as a comic book. Technically, he was a newsletter mascot first and got his own comic afterward. Then The Tick became a very clever cartoon in the 1990s, which led to the two live-action shows.

The first stars Seinfeld‘s Patrick Warburton as the Big Blue Bug of Justice. It’s a sharply written, sitcom-like series about the moments between The Tick’s adventures, when he’s relaxing in a diner with Arthur and his superhero friends. Fox canceled it after just nine episodes. It’s a hidden gem, partly because Warburton was born to play the role.

The second series began on Amazon in 2016 and ran for two seasons and 22 episodes. It’s even better than the first. This time the focus shifts to Arthur (Griffin Newman), who becomes a deeper, more three-dimensional person with plenty of issues and insecurities. The Tick (Peter Serafinowicz) is still the same big, dumb blue guy who breaks things by accident because he doesn’t know his own strength. Both series are excellent, but if you only pick one, go with the second. Each of its seasons tells a consistent, funny story with a lot of heart.

6. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

Isn’t that the Jurassic World kids’ show? Yes. I had low expectations too, since it’s a Netflix show for kids built on one of my favorite movie franchises. Then I watched it and came away impressed.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a group of kids on Isla Nublar during the events of Jurassic World and well afterward. They’re attending a kids’ camp on the island. When dinosaurs break out and chaos erupts, the two camp counselors in charge are forced onto an evacuation boat, and the kids are left behind. They have to survive until they can find a way off the island.

The show shows real care in fitting into the existing Jurassic Park and Jurassic World lore. Henry Wu (BD Wong) is a villain of sorts in the newer Jurassic World movies, but they never dig into it much. Camp Cretaceous does, and it becomes one of the show’s best recurring storylines. It also gives attention to dinosaurs the main films neglected, like Ankylosaurus and Carnotaurus. The series ran five seasons and 50 episodes and stays consistent throughout. It’s a good deal better than a few of the Jurassic movies.

5. Pantheon

Pantheon premiered on AMC and moved to Prime Video for its second and final season. It’s set in a world where two rival technology companies, Logorhythms and Alliance Telecom, are making breakthroughs in uploading minds into a virtual world. The show mostly follows three leads with different ties to the two companies.

• Maddie Kim (Katie Chang) is a bullied teenager who learns her dead father isn’t really dead. Logorhythms uploaded him.
• Caspian Keyes (Paul Dano) is a 17-year-old computer genius who discovers that his whole life has been a lie, set up by Logorhythms for a special purpose.
• Vinod Chanda (Raza Jaffrey) is an engineer whom Alliance Telecom uploaded against his will. He now lives in the virtual world.

The show explores ideas similar to The Matrix, with its contrast between virtual and real worlds. Its antagonists feel far more relevant to our own time, though. Instead of machines, the villains are ruthless, uncaring CEOs behind the new technology, and they have no regard for the people they hurt in the name of discovery.

The show is also a visual marvel, especially in the mind-bending virtual world where the uploaded characters live. Over its 16 tightly crafted episodes, it never loses sight of the real-world stakes.

4. Cassandra

Cassandra is another tech thriller, with a very different flavor. In this German horror series, a family moves into the very first smart home, built in the 1970s. Its AI features lie dormant at first. Then the tech-savvy son activates the system and brings Cassandra to life, a robot woman with 1970s aesthetics. Over time her behavior grows stranger and more manipulative, and the family realizes she is far more than a handy house appliance.

Benjamin Gutsche created the six-episode series. It’s a slow burn that plants its seeds methodically before they pay off in huge revelations and horrifying results.

3. Dark

Another German sci-fi import worth your time is Dark, a three-season, 26-episode thriller created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. It follows four families in a small German town as they look into a local child’s disappearance. The trail leads to a time-travel conspiracy that reaches back and forward by several generations.

The stakes grow enormously from season to season. A simple missing-person story balloons into potentially world-ending consequences. Even so, the show keeps hold of its characters’ humanity as its premise expands, which is a rare feat.

2. Resident Alien

Who doesn’t love Alan Tudyk? He voiced K-2SO in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and played the pilot Wash on Firefly. He’s talented and likable, and he puts all that charm to work across the four seasons and 44 episodes of Resident Alien.

Resident Alien is a sci-fi comedy about an alien sent to Earth to destroy the human race for the planet’s own good. He crash-lands in Colorado by accident and kills a local doctor. He then takes the doctor’s identity and tries to work out how to carry out his mission. Gradually he starts to wonder whether killing the humans is the right thing to do.

The show is sweet, funny and stars Alan Tudyk. What more could you need?

1. Pluto

Pluto is an eight-episode anime miniseries based on the manga by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. The manga itself draws on the Astro Boy franchise, specifically the “The Greatest Robot on Earth” arc. The story is set in a future where robots are commonplace and a handful of them can cause mass destruction. A robot detective investigates a series of deaths that could be the first time in eight years that one of his kind has killed a human.

The plot reveals a sprawling conspiracy and dredges up the traumas of war. Pluto is a meticulous noir wrapped in stunning sci-fi visuals, and it’s perfect from beginning to end.

Source: Polygon