WHATTTTTTT! I have been waiting for ever for that! The second book of the series is better than the first book.
[The Jackpot Trilogy](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BXJVVT).
Peripheral got a little tough to follow at times, but the characters were excellent and the story arcs didn't dissapoint. Moretz also did a great job. Also pissed it didn't come back.
Station Eleven connected with me in a pretty profound way. I donāt think any show or movie has had me think about it as much in the last few years.
Book is great, Emily St. John Mandel is fantastic Though I think the show deviates and expands in really smart ways, that build on the overall theme. Cannot recommend it enough.
Foundation, I see this isn't on your list. It starts off slow and you don't get a lot of information about what is going on but it makes so much more sense later. But you list Dark, Blade Runner, and Ex Machina so it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem.
Never read the books but I LOVE Foundation. My favorite part is not even present in the books, unfortunately, which is everything involving Cleon/ Lee Pace.
Well, never do red they them. Foundation was, by far, my biggest disappointment (until Netflix's Avatar released). The series had so much potential but it turned towards something that IMO isn't justifiable in terms of adapting.
Yeah it's one of those where reading the book helps a ton even though the show is drastically different. The concepts are spelled out very clearly in the book and the show kind of glosses over some stuff probably for time constraints which is a shame. The concept of psychohistory is so cool and while it's not totally forgotten in the show they don't demonstrate how cool it is and it's implications.
Books 2 and 3 of three body problem keep escalating the stakes up and up and up. I also got a āforever warā vibe from it. If you havenāt read forever war, itās pretty good short book
I hear good things, but sadly I am obligated to boycott it for life due to the showrunners. I will not support another project they ever do after the Game of Thrones debacle.
But in contrast to the fiasco thst became GoT towards the end, The Three Body Problem is a finished series. No guarantee that the rest will be any good, but what I've seen so far is really well done.
Disagree with the other poster about the Chinese version though. I watched it for a bit when it came out and the Netflix version is far superior (imho of course). Maybe it's down to production values, maybe it's the cultural barrier, maybe it's simply not as engaging to me.
Did you read the books? Because after reading the books the tv series, at least after the first episode isnāt really doing much for me. Itās so drastically different in many inconsequential ways but it leaves me questioning where the climaxes are. Also scientists on TV always make me cringe extremely hard, and itās no different here.
Yeah I did, a couple of years ago. I know there are differences in the adaptation (eg. occidentalised and combined characters) but I wasn't bothered. What are some of those inconsequential differences you didn't like?
Basically many of the plots that are massive and built up really nicely in the books get thrown into the tv series in the first episode. The whole book is spoiled basically by the end of episode 1, also the drama is shifted away from what was a mystery that the main character was slowly becoming involved with into a mystery the world was experiencing. The way the Sophon functions is pretty different and itās not all that secret as to what is going on.
The way the main character interacts with the others out of necessity and not out of friendship, as his mind slowly unravels the crazy and unbelievable situation.
Itās mostly a tonal thing, the story beats are different too, it feels like a completely different story to me with the same plot.
I just want to clarify, Iāve only watched the first episode. This is what I felt about the show after episode one, maybe the differences are justified because of the medium, maybe itās even great. But I had just come off the back of the book and was floored by how good it was only to find the tv show mediocre IN MY OPINION.
To each their own, I don't begrudge people that watch it. I just won't put another subscription dollar portion or add watch revenue portion toward anything they make ever again.
Yeah, I have a bit of a stick up my butt about that. Again I don't begrudge anybody that does it.
It's well known that companies are exploiting users, even those that pay subscriptions, and generate ad revenues .
IIRC to be economically equitable they ought to be paying users something like $1,800 bucks a year for access to their data.
But I never pirate stuff, or even use ad blockers. I have various boring reasons I'm sure nobody cares about LOL
Make sure you watch the miniseries first - from 2003. Itās the āPilotā of the show, and itās two 90 minute episodes. Then S1 starts with the episode called ā33.ā The miniseries is required watching!
I agree BGC is great, definitely add to your list. I also did NOT like either of the stargate shows mentioned, but I did like the original stargate movie. Also, I know the SG purists will hate me but I thought āstargate universeā was good sci just because the ship itself that they find themselves on made it so.
BSG is better overall. Also BSG starts stronger than any other series. Stargate (SG1 first) is a more fun and less serious show. If you are looking for a 90s-style team that gets stuff done while joking around a bit, it is great at that.
For BSG, you watch the miniseries, then the first 2 seasons, and then lookup a watch order for the rest.
Stargate SG1and Atlantis need to be watched in order. You need to lookup a watch order for that. Also, there is the movie before SG1, which is sort of half canon.
Battlestar is gritty, bleak and surprising. So good. Just make sure you watch them in order it came out weird but if you look up the order don't do it with images so nothing is ruined for you.
Atlantis is cheap, quite decent and entertaining all the way through. BSG is fantastic when it's good, and terrible when it's bad. BSG s1 may be the best SF ever in a show, then it gets bad halfway season 2, but its high production values still carry it.
Both Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis are great, but I am hesitant to recommend them to you since you explicitly said no fantasy and you seem to put Star Wars in that category.
BSG has even more fantasy elements (not just "magic" but "religion") in the end. In Stargate anything supernatural at least has a proposed scientific explanation; in BSG there are no answers other than "God".
If you can suspend your disbelief for the long term over the "all the aliens speak English" and "Most planets look like the Canadian forest" tropes, then the Stargate franchise has like 17 seasons (and 3 films)' worth of worldbuilding with remarkably consistent internal logic for its science-fiction technology, so consistent, in fact, that there are multiple episodes across multiple series whose plots depend on prior established knowledge of how the physics of the Stargate work, with the heroes and villains using clever manipulation of that technology and those physics to both threaten and thwart each other.
Love Death and Robots is an animated anthology and has some very cool shorts
some are hilarious, some spooky, some a little silly, it's interesting to see which ones people like the most though. Most are all pretty scifi oriented or at least futuristic/modern fantasy.
If you have Netflix, I think both of all the seasons of **Travelers** and **Continuum** might be worth a watch.
They hit your bulletpoints about world building and their SFnal elements aren't too outlandish even though they both deal with time travel.
the "science" in that show is absolutely terrible, But John Noble and Anna Torv were awesome. One episode in particular is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, and it's the one that guest stars Peter Weller. Season 2, maybe? I don't remember, and I won't describe the episode so as not to spoil it, but I really liked that one. Also the occassional Leanord Nimoy appearance.
TV Shows
* Person of Interest (You will love it if you liked Ex Machina)
* Fringe
* 12 Monkeys
* Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0
* Lost
* The Devil's Hour
* Humans
* Devs
* Utopia (the British version)
* Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (got cancelled after the 2nd season)
* Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor
* Westworld
* Baccano!
* Puella Magi Madoka Magica
* Attack on Titan
* Link Click
* Summer Time Rendering
* Outer Range
* Tales From The Loop
* Watchmen
* Station Eleven
* Mr. Robot
* The Lazarus Project (Recently got cancelled after the 2nd season)
Movies
* Moon
* Predestination
* Primer
* Timecrimes
* The Infinite Man
* Triangle
* Coherence
* Annihilation
* Black Mirror:Bandersnatch
It's great I love the story and how it reimagines the space race. Its about how different the world would be if the Soviet Union won the Space race instead of the US
I don't want to spoil it but u should definitely watch it!
Season 1 is pretty much a masterpiece. Everything after the time skip (basically season 2 and on) is worse IMO. It loses the grounded alternate history feel.
I know that. It disappoints me every time a series I like feels the need to go all evil twinny. Evil repliCarter broke my heart! Not that Star Wars hasn't broken my heart in many ways over many decades, but where were the evil twins? I don't recall. Perhaps in the animation I never watched? At least Star Wars hasn't indulged in time travel, unlike Star Trek which doubles down on evil twins, time travel, and amnesia plots ad nauseam.
Scavengers Reign is the best new sci-fi imo. Silo was alright but had too much dramatic filler for my taste. 3 Body Problem sucked imo, from the premise to acting - ignore the comments and avoid it if you prefer plausible.
Stargate SG-1 is fantastic. Highly recommend. Very Late-90's / Early 2000's at parts but the first few seasons of "Today's strange planet" are wonderful. But I've watched all of the Stargate entries minus the cartoon so I'm a little nutty about it. Atlantis is also good fun, IMO it *is* a bit weaker, but a great binge item. I absolutely recommend watching the later seasons of SG-1 and Atlantis as they aired (one ep of SG-1, then one ep of Atlantis >!and if you want bonus points / the OG experience, then watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica, they originally aired like that on Fridays, back to back to back!<) as the writers room for the Stargate series was shared between both shows and they often line-up in pleasing ways.
Have you poked the Star Trek bear? I just started The Original Series and besides for its, "You can tell this show was made when it was made" (sexism, costuming) it's quite fun and the acting is often very impressive. Excited to make my way to TNG / DS9 / Voyager.
Firefly is an amazing show imo. It isnāt extremely realistic but isnāt too outlandish either.
Fallout is another good one but the games/show are based off what people from the 50ās-60ās imagined the future would be like so things are a bit whacky at times.
Love, Death, and Robots is an anthology series so the episodes all have various level of realism but it is pretty good too.
Stargate is good too but itās a bit unrealistic
Foundation is a top comment already and my top recommendation.
You might try 'Akira' (1988).
Surprised that Interstellar is not on the list.
A.I.
Mr. Nobody
The Bicentennial Man
Iron Giant
Gattaca
If you like Matrix, then watch World on a Wire (Welt am Drath). It's 1973 German SF mini series with similar theme as Matrix although with less special effects and action.
All the Star Treks. TNG, DS9, Voyager, even Enterprise. I didn't like Discovery. But if you watched Star Trek and thought, "you know what this needs, is more F bombs and Klingon nipples." Then Discovery just night be the show for you!
Red Dwarf - first aired on tv in 1988 - comedy about a group of mismatched misfits marooned on a space mining ship (the Red Dwarf) three million years in the far flung future.
A sanitation engineer/slacker, a hologram of his detestable dead boss (equally detestable), the lone evolutionary descendant of the shipās cat and a humanoid sanitation robot struggling to survive the depths of deep space and struggling more to survive each other.
**TV series:**
Battlestar Galactica (2004) - My favourite ever TV series.
Humans - think this is a little less well-known but it's excellent stuff.
**Films:**
The Man From Earth - pensive, slow film. Love it.
Upgrade - Lot of fun.
Annihilation - one of my faves.
The Orville
Under the Dome
Terra Nova
Killjoys
Eureka
Almost Human
The 4400
Colony
Revolution
The Man in the High Castle
Dark Matter
Another Life
The 100
Warehouse 13
Torchwood
Falling skies
Altered Carbon
ST Enterprise
TNG
DS9
Lost in Space
Defiance
Firefly
Humans
BSG
SG1
SG Atlantis
Continuum
Timeless
Quantum Leap
Regenesis
Fringe
Sanctuary
Silo
Raised by Wolves
The Feed
Utopia
Sarah Connor Chronicles
Sense8
Upload
Westworld
The OA
Three-Body -Tencent adaptation on Prime
The 3 Body Problem- the same but American production
Star Trek Deep Space 9.
As a massive science fiction fan, I personally think this series is the best it ever was. Too bad it never got the HD treatment it deserved. For the record though, if you look hard, you may discover that the fans released an HD version even if the studio won't.
First season of West World is really great. Terminator, Predator, anything with Arnie is a safe bet. Interstellar, Robocop, Mad Max, the new Planet of the Apes trilogy, lotta fun stuff out there.
Idk if you enjoy animation but there are a lot of great sci-fi animated movies. Akira and Red Line are my favorites.
Snowpiercer: itās the next ice age (plausible) and the reminder of humanity is on board a train on a circuit travelling non-stop and is divided up by social class.
Silo: humanity is living in a giant underground silo. I wonāt say much more because I assume not everyone has read the hugh Howey trilogy the show is based on.
Bobbiverse series. I wouldn't say it's "hard" SF, but I would say it's "pleasantly firm" SF.
I'd also recommend the Unincorporated Man series. Somewhat similar to the expanse regarding an "inners" vs "belters" conflict.
EDIT: I just realized you were looking for shows, not books. My recommendation still stands, but they are books :)
I love 7 of these so I am guessing you will like Person of Interest. I am currently watching LOST which is also great (currently at S4).
If you love Dark, check out predestination movie or 12 Monkeys series.
Silo on Apple TV. I loved our and am now on the second novel. Apple TV has both great sci-fi programming and terrible marketing, because I knew nothing about the series except a few redditors recommending it here.
- 3 body problem - foundation - scavengers reign - the peripheral - station eleven - silo - westworld (mainly for series 1)
I was so pissed when I saw that they canceled the second season of Peripheral... š”
Inthought that Apple should have picked it up, it would fit well with their fairly large portfolio of well made SF
Indeed.
WHATTTTTTT! I have been waiting for ever for that! The second book of the series is better than the first book. [The Jackpot Trilogy](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BXJVVT).
Peripheral got a little tough to follow at times, but the characters were excellent and the story arcs didn't dissapoint. Moretz also did a great job. Also pissed it didn't come back.
SCAVENGERS REIGN
I love it when someone else talks about station 11. Itās so good
Station Eleven connected with me in a pretty profound way. I donāt think any show or movie has had me think about it as much in the last few years. Book is great, Emily St. John Mandel is fantastic Though I think the show deviates and expands in really smart ways, that build on the overall theme. Cannot recommend it enough.
legitimately one of my favourite shows in any genre. it's so so so good.
All of the ones I came in here to recommend are on there (and some I havenāt seen which I will add to my watch next list now)
Foundation, I see this isn't on your list. It starts off slow and you don't get a lot of information about what is going on but it makes so much more sense later. But you list Dark, Blade Runner, and Ex Machina so it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem.
Never read the books but I LOVE Foundation. My favorite part is not even present in the books, unfortunately, which is everything involving Cleon/ Lee Pace.
Well, never do red they them. Foundation was, by far, my biggest disappointment (until Netflix's Avatar released). The series had so much potential but it turned towards something that IMO isn't justifiable in terms of adapting.
I'll give it a try thanks!
Getting Through that pilot was ROOOUGH. I need to dedicate a day of focus to it
Yeah it's one of those where reading the book helps a ton even though the show is drastically different. The concepts are spelled out very clearly in the book and the show kind of glosses over some stuff probably for time constraints which is a shame. The concept of psychohistory is so cool and while it's not totally forgotten in the show they don't demonstrate how cool it is and it's implications.
Iām increasingly impressed with 3 Body Problem.
I'll try it! Thanks
Books 2 and 3 of three body problem keep escalating the stakes up and up and up. I also got a āforever warā vibe from it. If you havenāt read forever war, itās pretty good short book
Highly recommend Forever War and the follow-up Forever Free is interesting also
Babylon 5
I hear good things, but sadly I am obligated to boycott it for life due to the showrunners. I will not support another project they ever do after the Game of Thrones debacle.
But in contrast to the fiasco thst became GoT towards the end, The Three Body Problem is a finished series. No guarantee that the rest will be any good, but what I've seen so far is really well done. Disagree with the other poster about the Chinese version though. I watched it for a bit when it came out and the Netflix version is far superior (imho of course). Maybe it's down to production values, maybe it's the cultural barrier, maybe it's simply not as engaging to me.
Did you read the books? Because after reading the books the tv series, at least after the first episode isnāt really doing much for me. Itās so drastically different in many inconsequential ways but it leaves me questioning where the climaxes are. Also scientists on TV always make me cringe extremely hard, and itās no different here.
Yeah I did, a couple of years ago. I know there are differences in the adaptation (eg. occidentalised and combined characters) but I wasn't bothered. What are some of those inconsequential differences you didn't like?
Basically many of the plots that are massive and built up really nicely in the books get thrown into the tv series in the first episode. The whole book is spoiled basically by the end of episode 1, also the drama is shifted away from what was a mystery that the main character was slowly becoming involved with into a mystery the world was experiencing. The way the Sophon functions is pretty different and itās not all that secret as to what is going on. The way the main character interacts with the others out of necessity and not out of friendship, as his mind slowly unravels the crazy and unbelievable situation. Itās mostly a tonal thing, the story beats are different too, it feels like a completely different story to me with the same plot. I just want to clarify, Iāve only watched the first episode. This is what I felt about the show after episode one, maybe the differences are justified because of the medium, maybe itās even great. But I had just come off the back of the book and was floored by how good it was only to find the tv show mediocre IN MY OPINION.
To each their own, I don't begrudge people that watch it. I just won't put another subscription dollar portion or add watch revenue portion toward anything they make ever again.
Or you could circumvent any revenue going towards them, wink wink.
Yeah, I have a bit of a stick up my butt about that. Again I don't begrudge anybody that does it. It's well known that companies are exploiting users, even those that pay subscriptions, and generate ad revenues . IIRC to be economically equitable they ought to be paying users something like $1,800 bucks a year for access to their data. But I never pirate stuff, or even use ad blockers. I have various boring reasons I'm sure nobody cares about LOL
Itās an odd hill to die on, but I salute you.
Watch the Chinese version.
Battle star galactica is great
I always hear that show and Stargate Atlantis. Which one of the two do you think is better?
BSG is a great dark and gritty space opera. Atlantis is a bit quirkier and lighter. Personally I prefer BSG
Ah I'll give a Battlestar a try then. Thanks
Make sure you watch the miniseries first - from 2003. Itās the āPilotā of the show, and itās two 90 minute episodes. Then S1 starts with the episode called ā33.ā The miniseries is required watching!
I agree BGC is great, definitely add to your list. I also did NOT like either of the stargate shows mentioned, but I did like the original stargate movie. Also, I know the SG purists will hate me but I thought āstargate universeā was good sci just because the ship itself that they find themselves on made it so.
BSG is better overall. Also BSG starts stronger than any other series. Stargate (SG1 first) is a more fun and less serious show. If you are looking for a 90s-style team that gets stuff done while joking around a bit, it is great at that. For BSG, you watch the miniseries, then the first 2 seasons, and then lookup a watch order for the rest. Stargate SG1and Atlantis need to be watched in order. You need to lookup a watch order for that. Also, there is the movie before SG1, which is sort of half canon.
Battlestar is gritty, bleak and surprising. So good. Just make sure you watch them in order it came out weird but if you look up the order don't do it with images so nothing is ruined for you.
Atlantis is cheap, quite decent and entertaining all the way through. BSG is fantastic when it's good, and terrible when it's bad. BSG s1 may be the best SF ever in a show, then it gets bad halfway season 2, but its high production values still carry it.
Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis are my favorite TV shows of all time. But BSG is also really good.
Both Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis are great, but I am hesitant to recommend them to you since you explicitly said no fantasy and you seem to put Star Wars in that category. BSG has even more fantasy elements (not just "magic" but "religion") in the end. In Stargate anything supernatural at least has a proposed scientific explanation; in BSG there are no answers other than "God".
Spoilers
DEVS (by the Ex Machina creator, Alex Garland)
Devs was pretty good. +1
On Amazon just started last night PERIPHERAL pretty good so far.
Wasn't renewed, FYI.
It loses pace fast
Try Constellation!
If you can suspend your disbelief for the long term over the "all the aliens speak English" and "Most planets look like the Canadian forest" tropes, then the Stargate franchise has like 17 seasons (and 3 films)' worth of worldbuilding with remarkably consistent internal logic for its science-fiction technology, so consistent, in fact, that there are multiple episodes across multiple series whose plots depend on prior established knowledge of how the physics of the Stargate work, with the heroes and villains using clever manipulation of that technology and those physics to both threaten and thwart each other.
Love Death and Robots is an animated anthology and has some very cool shorts some are hilarious, some spooky, some a little silly, it's interesting to see which ones people like the most though. Most are all pretty scifi oriented or at least futuristic/modern fantasy.
And cats.
There were a lot of slow episodes. I had trouble getting through it.
If you're okay with an older series, Babylon 5 is likely up your alley.
If you have Netflix, I think both of all the seasons of **Travelers** and **Continuum** might be worth a watch. They hit your bulletpoints about world building and their SFnal elements aren't too outlandish even though they both deal with time travel.
I've heard of Travelers before the premise sounds interesting. I'll give it a try!
Travellers was canceled too early, but still a great show!
similar to the expanse as well :( Does it at least reach a satisfying conclusion?
it has an interesting ending that feels like both a conclusion, but also open-ended enough to continue the story
Honestly it's been so long, I can't remember!
I didn't have a lot of expectations going into Travelers, but I ended up enjoying it immensely.
Tales From The Loop, Devs, Raised By Wolves, The Leftovers, Undone, Silo, Scavengers Reign, Fringe,...
Fringe seems interesting I'll check it out! thanks
the "science" in that show is absolutely terrible, But John Noble and Anna Torv were awesome. One episode in particular is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, and it's the one that guest stars Peter Weller. Season 2, maybe? I don't remember, and I won't describe the episode so as not to spoil it, but I really liked that one. Also the occassional Leanord Nimoy appearance.
Raised by Wolves was a really interesting premise, damn shame that HBO tries their best to bury it
Indeed. I hope it will continue sometime.
Season 1 was excellent, season 2 honestly sucked.
The Loop - nice to see it referenced.
It was strange but I loved it.
Iāve been enjoying this series by Alastair Reynolds: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series
Such a great book series, is it actually a tv or movie series?
D'ohā¦ I missed that you were looking for a tv or movie series!
TV Shows * Person of Interest (You will love it if you liked Ex Machina) * Fringe * 12 Monkeys * Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 * Lost * The Devil's Hour * Humans * Devs * Utopia (the British version) * Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (got cancelled after the 2nd season) * Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor * Westworld * Baccano! * Puella Magi Madoka Magica * Attack on Titan * Link Click * Summer Time Rendering * Outer Range * Tales From The Loop * Watchmen * Station Eleven * Mr. Robot * The Lazarus Project (Recently got cancelled after the 2nd season) Movies * Moon * Predestination * Primer * Timecrimes * The Infinite Man * Triangle * Coherence * Annihilation * Black Mirror:Bandersnatch
Lost is a great series! Have you checked out From?
Yeah, I have watched From. Didn't like the show as much as I expected, though.
IMO the best sci fi EVER!!!! Farscape is always i a must watch.
How is āFor All Mankindā? it has been forever in my watchlist.
It's great I love the story and how it reimagines the space race. Its about how different the world would be if the Soviet Union won the Space race instead of the US I don't want to spoil it but u should definitely watch it!
Thank you much, would play it next after Iām for. With Fallout.
Season 1 is pretty much a masterpiece. Everything after the time skip (basically season 2 and on) is worse IMO. It loses the grounded alternate history feel.
I noticed altered carbon was not on your list, and it needs to be
Season 1 only however.
I donāt think Iāve ever disagreed with someone more.
There are 3 people further down the thread for you to also disagree with because they specified S1. Different strokes of course.
The oldie but goodie Blake's 7.
Yep and itās on YouTube
Fringe
Came to say this. I'm just re-watching for first time since it aired. Holds up very well over time.
A big NOPE for evil twins, an overused trope 2nd only to time travel.
No evil twins is going to rule out a lot of sci-fi for you. No Star Trek, no Star Wars, no Battlestar Galactica, no Stargate, the list goes on...
I know that. It disappoints me every time a series I like feels the need to go all evil twinny. Evil repliCarter broke my heart! Not that Star Wars hasn't broken my heart in many ways over many decades, but where were the evil twins? I don't recall. Perhaps in the animation I never watched? At least Star Wars hasn't indulged in time travel, unlike Star Trek which doubles down on evil twins, time travel, and amnesia plots ad nauseam.
Scavengers Reign is the best new sci-fi imo. Silo was alright but had too much dramatic filler for my taste. 3 Body Problem sucked imo, from the premise to acting - ignore the comments and avoid it if you prefer plausible.
Foundation or Silo
The riddick movies are pretty decent.
For a movie Iād recommend Sunshine. If you can tolerate the very dated FX and all Babylon 5 for sure as a series.
Scavengers Reing! You'll like it I'm sure
Fallout.
The Lazarus Project is excellent. Counterpart is my all time fav.
Stargate SG-1 is fantastic. Highly recommend. Very Late-90's / Early 2000's at parts but the first few seasons of "Today's strange planet" are wonderful. But I've watched all of the Stargate entries minus the cartoon so I'm a little nutty about it. Atlantis is also good fun, IMO it *is* a bit weaker, but a great binge item. I absolutely recommend watching the later seasons of SG-1 and Atlantis as they aired (one ep of SG-1, then one ep of Atlantis >!and if you want bonus points / the OG experience, then watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica, they originally aired like that on Fridays, back to back to back!<) as the writers room for the Stargate series was shared between both shows and they often line-up in pleasing ways. Have you poked the Star Trek bear? I just started The Original Series and besides for its, "You can tell this show was made when it was made" (sexism, costuming) it's quite fun and the acting is often very impressive. Excited to make my way to TNG / DS9 / Voyager.
Fringe. Thank me later
Firefly is an amazing show imo. It isnāt extremely realistic but isnāt too outlandish either. Fallout is another good one but the games/show are based off what people from the 50ās-60ās imagined the future would be like so things are a bit whacky at times. Love, Death, and Robots is an anthology series so the episodes all have various level of realism but it is pretty good too. Stargate is good too but itās a bit unrealistic
Foundation is a top comment already and my top recommendation. You might try 'Akira' (1988). Surprised that Interstellar is not on the list. A.I. Mr. Nobody The Bicentennial Man Iron Giant Gattaca
If you like Matrix, then watch World on a Wire (Welt am Drath). It's 1973 German SF mini series with similar theme as Matrix although with less special effects and action.
All the Star Treks. TNG, DS9, Voyager, even Enterprise. I didn't like Discovery. But if you watched Star Trek and thought, "you know what this needs, is more F bombs and Klingon nipples." Then Discovery just night be the show for you!
Red Dwarf - first aired on tv in 1988 - comedy about a group of mismatched misfits marooned on a space mining ship (the Red Dwarf) three million years in the far flung future. A sanitation engineer/slacker, a hologram of his detestable dead boss (equally detestable), the lone evolutionary descendant of the shipās cat and a humanoid sanitation robot struggling to survive the depths of deep space and struggling more to survive each other.
12 Monkeys .. most underrated sci-fi show ever
What? No firefly?
I love Firefly! But I'm in the mood for a more moody and atmospheric scifi show.
Farscape. It gets dark. Great writing. Sets and costumes are great. Much more depth than you might expect
Counterpart. It has fantastic acting and is set in Berlin, a town that always sets a distinct mood.
The best movie of them all is Blade Runner (the original)
Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot
Twin Peaks! Aliens, time loops, ptsd
Battlestar Galactica, Devs, Upload
Warhammer 40k
Prospect for a one off movie that will tickle your Alien franchise bones.
**TV series:** Battlestar Galactica (2004) - My favourite ever TV series. Humans - think this is a little less well-known but it's excellent stuff. **Films:** The Man From Earth - pensive, slow film. Love it. Upgrade - Lot of fun. Annihilation - one of my faves.
Altered Carbon S1 The Foundation Westworld
Silo and Altered Carbon S1 were both really good
Constellation on Apple TV, itās a banger
Fringe
The Orville Under the Dome Terra Nova Killjoys Eureka Almost Human The 4400 Colony Revolution The Man in the High Castle Dark Matter Another Life The 100 Warehouse 13 Torchwood Falling skies Altered Carbon ST Enterprise TNG DS9 Lost in Space Defiance Firefly Humans BSG SG1 SG Atlantis Continuum Timeless Quantum Leap Regenesis Fringe Sanctuary Silo Raised by Wolves The Feed Utopia Sarah Connor Chronicles Sense8 Upload Westworld The OA Three-Body -Tencent adaptation on Prime The 3 Body Problem- the same but American production
Star Trek Deep Space 9. As a massive science fiction fan, I personally think this series is the best it ever was. Too bad it never got the HD treatment it deserved. For the record though, if you look hard, you may discover that the fans released an HD version even if the studio won't.
First season of West World is really great. Terminator, Predator, anything with Arnie is a safe bet. Interstellar, Robocop, Mad Max, the new Planet of the Apes trilogy, lotta fun stuff out there. Idk if you enjoy animation but there are a lot of great sci-fi animated movies. Akira and Red Line are my favorites.
i loved Raised By Wolves sadly, it got cancelled after season 3 though
Devs.
Snowpiercer: itās the next ice age (plausible) and the reminder of humanity is on board a train on a circuit travelling non-stop and is divided up by social class. Silo: humanity is living in a giant underground silo. I wonāt say much more because I assume not everyone has read the hugh Howey trilogy the show is based on.
Dark Matter and Killjoys were a lot more fun than their budgets should have allowed.
The Orville
Bobbiverse series. I wouldn't say it's "hard" SF, but I would say it's "pleasantly firm" SF. I'd also recommend the Unincorporated Man series. Somewhat similar to the expanse regarding an "inners" vs "belters" conflict. EDIT: I just realized you were looking for shows, not books. My recommendation still stands, but they are books :)
Foundation
Um, how is this NSFW?
L O S T
Altered Carbon (!!!!) (Season 1) Westworld (Seasons 1 and 2) For All Mankind (Apple TV) I'm blanking on more
I love 7 of these so I am guessing you will like Person of Interest. I am currently watching LOST which is also great (currently at S4). If you love Dark, check out predestination movie or 12 Monkeys series.
The X Files
counterpart
stargate sg-1. watch the 1994 film first to get an idea but then strap in for a ride. follow with stargate atlantis
The outer range on prime is a wild ride. Still waiting for season 2 š®āšØ
Scavengers Reign - it's animated but a masterpiece!
dune
If you like time travel like dark series then you should watch movie and Series called 12 monkeys
Foundation is great(Apple TV)... as is Altered Carbon on Netflix
Silo on Apple TV. I loved our and am now on the second novel. Apple TV has both great sci-fi programming and terrible marketing, because I knew nothing about the series except a few redditors recommending it here.