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Not without competition, Apple TV has made itself the streaming home for some of the best science fiction on television, including high-concept gems like Severance, For All Mankind, Foundation, Pluribus, and Dark Matter, based on the Blake Crouch bestseller and just back for a second season.
Starring Joel Edgerton, the show finds a college physics professor abducted from his own timeline by a masked man who is quickly revealed to be…himself—a version of him from another, grimmer universe. This multiversal doppelgänger knows which life he’d prefer, and wants his other self out of the way so that he can take over. It’s a real trip, and if you’re looking for more of the same, here are 10 other series offering similar heady thrills to stream next.
Russian Doll (2019 – 2022)
For high-concept sci-fi with very personal stakes, you can’t do much better than Russian Doll. Natasha Lyonne plays software engineer Nadia Vulvokov, who, getting ready to celebrate her 36th birthday, finds herself stuck in a time loop in which she dies over and over on the same night, never able to move forward despite all of her best (and worst) intentions. Nadia’s endless deaths allow her to explore different paths and choices, all on a road to a life lived with greater authenticity. The second season finds Nadia exploring the lives of her mother and grandmother as she becomes, once again, unstuck in time. Funny, cerebral, and genuinely existential, it’s one of my favorite bits of science fiction storytelling of the past decade or so. Stream Russian Doll on Netflix.
Constellation (2024)
Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) is an astronaut aboard the International Space Station who’s left behind by several of her crewmates following a collision and an emergency evacuation. Fortunately, she’s able to repair a Soyuz capsule and return to Earth along with the body of a dead astronaut; less fortunately, her life story and memories don’t really mesh with that of those around her. It’s almost like she came back to a different Earth than the one she left—though, of course, everyone thinks she’s either lying to cover something up, or hit her head a few too many times on reentry. Stream Constellation on Apple TV.
Fringe (2008 – 2013)
The multiverse was still a mind-blowing concept (at least on network TV) back in the aughts, long before Marvel movies went wild with it, and still, no show has ever done it quite as well as Fringe. A smart sci-fi/crime procedural that plays as both a successor to The X-Files and a precursor to Dark Matter, itstars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, and Lance Reddick as a mismatched team involved within a sub-sub-sub-division of the FBI that starts out investigating cases that just don’t make a whole heckuva lot of sense. Before long, it becomes clear that the odd occurrencesare all linked to potentially universe-ending incursions across time and space (not to mention family drama that’s been too long ignored). Stream Fringe on Hulu.
The Lazarus Project (2022 – 2023)
Another procedural-ish show with a cool premise, this British import stars Paapa Essiedu as George, who wakes up on July 1 with the certain knowledge that it’s already been that particular July 1, and that he’s the only one who can remember the previous six months. He learns that he hasn’t entirely lost his mind when he’s contacted by Archie (Anjli Mohindra), an agent of the title’s Lazarus Project, who shares the truth: Time did reset, and the shadowy group was responsible. In extreme circumstances, and following a catastrophe, they’ll wind back the clock (always to July 1) to get more time to fix the problem. An infinitesimally small portion of the population can sense the change, and for George, that results in an unusual job offer. Buy The Lazarus Project from Prime Video.
Dark (2017 – 2020)
A simple-seeming, if disturbing, case of missing children in a German town quickly grows into a conspiracy involving four families over multiple generations. There’s a mystery in the cave system that runs beneath the local nuclear power plant that ties into dark secrets that each family (and the town as a whole) has concelaed for decades. Without spoiling too much, the characters don’t just visit the past metaphorically, but literally, a time-travel element that only adds to the show’s twisting and creepy delights. It was Netflix’s first German import, but don’t let the subtitles steer you away. Stream Dark on Netflix.
Signal (2016 – )
Blending police procedural, mystery, and science fiction, this K-drama remains one of the most-watched in South Korean TV history—enough so that a second season is coming after a wait of nearly 10 years. Police profiler Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) finds a discarded walkie-talkie that connects him with Detective Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong), who disappeared in 2000 but is able to communicate from an earlier time. The two detectives work together across time to solve a cold case—but soon discover that there are disturbing consequences in the present when they fiddle with time. Stream Signal on Netflix.
The Man in the High Castle (2015 – 2019)
From the novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle is a political thriller set (mostly) in an alternate 1960s in which the Axis powers have won World War II, and the United States has been split down the middle, with Japan governing the west and Germany overseeing the east. The title’s “man in the high castle” offers up a propaganda film (or is it?) that presents an alternate view that looks more like the one in our history books. As the show progresses through its four seasons, the parallels to our increasingly fascist-friendly world only grow. Stream The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video and Netflix.
Sense8 (2015 – 2018)
If the theme here is shows with big concepts that still feel grounded and personal, Sense8 fits the bill perfectly. Here, eight strangers from around the world (including Jamie Clayton, Bae Doona, and Tuppence Middleton, with Daryl Hannah, Naveen Andrews, and Freema Agyeman) awaken to discover they have a deep, inexplicable connection. On one level, it means they can share their special abilities when needed. On another, it’s an uplifting call for connection, a recognition of our mutual interconnectedness, and a celebration of difference. Bonus: The show is super queer (and horny)—unsurprising, given it sprung from the minds of the Wachowskis (who co-wrote the episodes with Babylon 5‘s Michael J. Straczynski). Stream Sense8 on Netflix.
Sliders (1995 – 2000)
The tone here is quite different, but it would be an unforgivable slight to leave out the show that was doing the multiverse way before it was cool. There’s an appealing goofiness to this quintessentially ’90s bit of sci-fi, with Jerry O’Connell as Quinn Mallory, who accidentally opens a portal that sends him and a rotating group of companions (including, initially, Jonathan Rhys-Davies) through the multiverse. The device that he invents to get them all home is, inconveniently, an unreliable timer that keeps them stuck wherever they land for…well, however much time the story demands. Over the course of their adventures, they visit worlds where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, where antibiotics were never invented, and where Hillary Clinton is president (I swear!). Increasing serialization involving a whole species of mostly evil Sliders doesn’t really improve things as the show goes on, but it’s still a pretty good time. Stream Sliders on Peacock and Tubi.
Wayward Pines (2015 – 2016)
Though rather different in story and execution, I’m here for the creepy high-concept sci-fi as well as the Blake Crouch of it all, as this one is based on a trilogy of novels from the writer of Dark Matter. Matt Dillon plays a Secret Service agent investigating the disappearances of two fellow agents in the Idaho town of Wayward Pines. Things go awry pretty much immediately, and he wakes up from a car accident to find one of the agents (Carla Gugino), who’s also his ex, having settled down in the seemingly idyllic community—and 12 years older than when he last saw her a few weeks earlier. Even more dramatically, the local sheriff (Terrence Howard) enforces a strict “no one ever leaves” policy, on pain of death. The mysteries pile up from there. Stream Wayward Pines on Hulu.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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