No matter what kind of content you’re hunting for, Netflix has it. And when it comes to sci-fi, the streamer doesn’t skimp on the goods. In fact, there are so many great shows to choose from that it can be genuinely hard to decide what to watch first.
Black Mirror and Stranger Things are always solid choices. But if you want to dig deeper into Netflix’s genre catalog, I’ve got you covered. Whether you’re in the mood for something bleak and dystopian or light-hearted and fun, the streamer has the sci-fi you’re looking for.
I’ve curated a helpful guide to send you on your way to catching some awesome science fiction entertainment. Scroll on for the best Netflix sci-fi TV shows you should be watching. Check back regularly — I’ll be updating this list monthly.
1. The Flash
It feels like ages since the Arrowverse was alive and kicking on The CW. One of my favorite shows from that era is The Flash, which still feels like the finest comic book adaptation of its time. Grant Gustin stars as Barry Allen (also known as The Flash) in the series, which ran for nine seasons. It’s packed with comic book action, emotional stakes, and sharp writing.
2. The Boroughs
The Boroughs is executive-produced by the Duffer Brothers, but this isn’t Stranger Things. Well, there are some similarities — but rather than kids banding together to fight monsters, this show follows seniors who do it. The cast is stacked with genre legends, making clicking play a no-brainer. The series leans into that nostalgic Amblin vibe from the ’80s and takes place at a retirement village in the middle of the desert, where strange things are happening.
3. Falling Skies
Before Noah Wyle returned to the ER to lead HBO’s acclaimed drama The Pitt, he was fighting aliens. No, really. Falling Skies originally aired on TNT, so take that into account when judging the story’s quality across seasons. That said, it’s a fun ride.
4. 11.22.63
11.22.63 premiered on Hulu a decade ago and has resurfaced here. Based on Stephen King’s historical fiction novel, it posits the existence of a doorway that can transport you back in time. What would happen if someone went through it with the goal of saving JFK from assassination? That’s the question King tries to answer. Riveting stuff.
5. Pantheon
Pantheon premiered on AMC in 2022 and disappeared a year later — a shame, because this show is genuinely excellent sci-fi. It takes place in a reality where human consciousness can be uploaded to the cloud. Netflix’s comedy Add tackles similar material, but Pantheon is much darker, exploring hot-button issues like corporate responsibility, immortality, and morality against a backdrop of an unraveling tech conspiracy.
6. Orphan Black
Discussing what Orphan Black is about would immediately put me in spoiler territory. All you really need to know is that this is one of the most thought-provoking, engaging, and original sci-fi shows to hit TV in the last decade. Tatiana Maslany is the highlight; she shows off her acting chops by playing a total of 17 clones here — each with their own mannerisms and accents.
7. Russian Doll
Time loop stories are nothing new in the sci-fi world, but Russian Doll still manages to carve out its own unique space in the genre. Natasha Lyonne stars as a woman who gets caught in a time loop on her 36th birthday — every time she dies, she restarts her day. Themes of trauma, generational pain, and addiction permeate the show, making this far more than a run-of-the-mill comedy.
8. Resident Alien
Resident Alien isn’t a Netflix Original, but its cult-favorite status tells me more people need to be introduced to it. Alan Tudyk stars as an alien living among humans, trying to carry out a world domination mission. The only problem? He sort of likes being human. He’s just not very good at it.
9. I Am Not OK With This
It’s one thing to be a teenager navigating the awkwardness that high school throws at you. Add some newfound superpowers into the mix, and the challenges get even more complicated. Based on Charles Forsman’s graphic novel, the series ran for just one season before being canceled due to COVID restrictions and budgetary concerns.
10. Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams
It’s almost expected that when a new genre anthology series premieres, someone will eventually compare it to The Twilight Zone. That’s exactly what I’ll do with Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams. This seven-episode anthology series leans heavily into horror territory and does so through an Indonesian lens.
11. Devil May Cry
The popular video game series gets the anime treatment in Netflix’s Devil May Cry. The gist: Dante, a charismatic demon hunter, has to hunt demons to save humanity. Power Rangers alum Johnny Yong Bosch voices Dante in this action-packed series co-created by Castlevania and Dredd producer Adi Shankar.
12. Stranger Things
Stranger Things caught on like wildfire when it quietly premiered in 2016. What started as an homage to ’80s cinema — with nods to E.T., Dungeons & Dragons, The Goonies, and Stephen King — has blossomed into a layered, sweeping sci-fi epic. The show follows a group of kids in Hawkins, Indiana, who, after meeting a mysterious girl they call Eleven, discover a dark dimension hiding just beneath their feet. Government cover-ups, demonic creatures, and a cast full of beloved misfits make this a tour-de-force genre series.
13. Eternaut
Netflix’s beautifully shot post-apocalyptic series is the long-awaited adaptation of the beloved Argentine graphic novel El Eternauta, first published in 1957. The story follows Juan Salvo and a group of survivors who make it through a lethal snowfall (the snowflakes literally kill) only to discover the real threat against humanity isn’t a weather anomaly but an alien invasion.
14. Maniac
Emma Stone and Jonah Jonah Hill star in this mind-bending drama from Cary Joji Fukunaga and Patrick Somerville. The ten-episode series follows Annie and Owen as they enter a drug trial for a treatment that can allegedly cure all their problems. As you can probably guess, it doesn’t. Stone and Hill look like they’re having a blast, playing a range of different characters throughout the program. With Sonoya Mizuno, Justin Theroux, and Sally Field rounding out the cast, this is an underappreciated gem.
15. Travelers
Time travel is the secret sauce in this sci-fi series that flew under the radar for many. Led by Will & Grace alum Eric McCormack, the show follows a group of people whose consciousnesses are sent back in time to inhabit various people’s bodies to make humanity better by changing the past. It sounds complicated, but trust me — it isn’t.
16. 3 Body Problem
3 Body Problem was created by Game of Thrones alums David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, alongside The Terror showrunner Alexander Woo, and is based on the Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin. The high-concept sci-fi series connects a watershed moment in 1960s China to the present day, where a group of scientists must face an emerging global threat unlike anything humanity has ever seen.
17. Archive 81
This sci-fi horror series, loosely inspired by the found-footage podcast of the same name, follows a film archivist who restores documentary footage found on a collection of videotapes from 1994. Through his work, he gets pulled into a terrifying mystery surrounding the content on the tapes. Netflix only gave this one season, but it’s still a riveting watch.
18. The Umbrella Academy
Inspired by the comic book created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, the series follows a group of adopted superhero siblings raised to save the world. From time travel to saving humanity from multiple apocalyptic events, the dysfunctional Hargreeves flip expected genre tropes on their heads. It’s quirky, offbeat, hilarious, and poignant.
19. Supacell
Supacell takes the familiar superhero story and flips the script. The series follows four Black people living in South London who suddenly gain superpowers. What connects each of them to their newfound abilities is their families’ histories with sickle cell disease. Using the genre as its story foundation, the show delves into the human drama that plays out among these characters while highlighting relevant cultural issues like racism, human trafficking, and predatory healthcare practices.
20. Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror set the standard for what a modern-day genre anthology series can do. Every story featured across the series — which currently has six seasons and an interactive standalone film — takes place in a near-future world where technology has affected humanity in unprecedented, strange, and horrifying ways. Uplifting to horrific, Black Mirror is a brain worm of a TV show that’ll keep you thinking long after the credits roll.
21. The OA
They broke the mold when they made The OA. The two-season series created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij follows Prairie Johnson, a young blind woman who, after being missing for seven years, returns to her family with her sight restored. Where was she all those years? How can she see? Parallel existence across multiple dimensions — that’s how. That barely scratches the surface of this incredibly original and layered program. Come for the quantum physics, stay for the interpretive dance routines.
22. Dark
Like Stranger Things, Dark kicks off with the inexplicable disappearance of a child. But rather than another version of the Upside Down plaguing the town, the German series dabbles with time travel to explore how a family and community would be affected by the event of a child going missing. A noir slow burn that leans heavily on the horrors of generational trauma, Dark lasted three seasons on Netflix. It will absolutely get under your skin.
23. 1899
1899 was created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar — the same duo who brought Dark to Netflix — and follows a group of passengers on a ship heading to New York at the turn of the century. This is far more than a run-of-the-mill period piece. Once things kick off, the show throws time travel, multiple dimensions, reality simulations, and all kinds of sci-fi craziness at the screen. It didn’t get a season 2, but there’s still plenty of genre goodness to mull over here.
24. Parasyte: The Grey
In Parasyte: The Grey, alien parasites land on Earth and start turning people into shape-shifting monsters. To fight this rising Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style threat, survivors fight back to save humanity and the planet. Inspired by the manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki, this Korean series will please any horror and sci-fi fan.
25. Sense8
Matrix creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski teamed up with Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski to bring Sense8 to Netflix. The supernatural drama follows eight random people from around the world who discover they’re emotionally and mentally linked. Called “sensates,” the group learns from each other as they literally walk in each other’s shoes and take on new and exciting skills. Over two seasons, the show explored timely topics like gender, sexuality, and identity, blending genres like telenovela, K-drama, Bollywood, and Euro-noir as it hops around the globe.
26. Altered Carbon
Based on the book by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon is set in a future where consciousness can be moved from one body to another. Joel Kinnaman stars in season one as ex-soldier Takeshi Kovacs, whose mission to solve a murder evolves into a journey of self-discovery. Season 2 finds Anthony Mackie stepping into the role to further the cyberpunk noir tale.
27. Love, Death + Robots
Mixing various animation styles with live-action, Love, Death + Robots is an anthology like few others. The series dips into a wide selection of standalone stories that explore a world where sentient robots, creatures, and other beings have more humanity than humanity itself.
28. Lost in Space
Using the 1965 series as inspiration, Lost in Space follows the Robinson family on a space mission to colonize a planet as humanity teeters on the brink of collapse. Despite occasional heavy family drama, the show holds up thanks to its sociopolitical conflict, a cool alien robot buddy, and Parker Posey’s deliciously villainous Dr. Smith.
29. Manifest
For its first three seasons, Manifest was an NBC original. After being canceled, Netflix swooped in to revive it. The story follows the passengers of Flight 828, who arrive at their destination five years after initially taking off. The survivors start having premonitions and visions that help them save others from disasters that haven’t happened yet. It’s sort of like Lost and Final Destination had a baby.
30. Alice in Borderland
Based on the manga by Haro Aso, Alice in Borderland follows a group of characters in a parallel version of Tokyo forced to compete in a series of twisted games to stay alive. This battle royale-style thriller will appeal to fans of life-or-death competition titles like Squid Game, The Hunger Games, and Battle Royale.
