10 Best Sci-Fi TV Shows Of The 2010s
Science-Fiction has come a long way...
Science-fiction is one of the oldest genres in storytelling. Dating as far back as the 1800s with novels by Jules Verne and Mary Shelley, mankind has always been obsessed with the wonders of the imagination and otherworldly concepts.
With the advent of the television in the 1920s, science-fiction programming began to gain vast attention. The earliest most influential sci-fi TV shows of the mid-1900s include Tales of Tomorrow from 1951 and The Twilight Zone in 1959.
As technology prevailed and the popularity of TV soared, the science-fiction genre reached new heights. Shows such as Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek (1966) and Batman (1966) have each become a cultural phenomenon.
Over time, science-fiction has arguably become the most popular TV genre. From Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Red Dwarf (1988) and Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) to The X-Files (1993) and Babylon 5 (1994), and to Battlestar Galactica (2004), Lost (2004), and Heroes (2006).
Science-fiction TV shows include everything from space exploration and time travel to superhero powers and supernatural discoveries.
Now, in a time of endless TV entertainment, it's time to look at the best sci-fi TV shows from 2010 onward.
10. The Man In The High Castle
One of Amazon Prime Video's earliest original series, The Man in the High Castle was released in 2015. It ran for four seasons until its conclusion in 2019. Based on the classic 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick, the series depicts a post-World War II dystopia in which the Nazi party claimed victory.
America is divided between Germany and Japan, and the American people are forced to live under the new regime of the Axis powers. The series follows Juliana Crain, a San Francisco native, who discovers mysterious films created by The Man in the High Castle.
These films reveal an insight into parallel worlds where reality has differed, including one like ours where the Nazis were defeated. Juliana Crain then begins to spark a rebellion as she aims to contact these other worlds and escape her reality.
The Man in the High Castle is an interesting insight into what could have been. The show starts off strong as it slowly reveals the mystery of the films, but, admittedly, it takes too long to truly get to the mind-blowing science-fiction elements as the middle seasons begin to falter.
However, when the show does focus on its time traveling premise, it is one of the best sci-fi shows of recent years. Just be prepared to grind through repetitive, and largely meaningless, character development.