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Utilizing violence and gore tastefully but effectively in sci-fi TV shows can be difficult, as there needs to be a balance between the intense action scenes and the character-driven breaks in the tension. However, one of the most fun parts of contemporary television is how much can be achieved in creating graphic violence through both practical and CGI effects. While blood-soaked thrillers aren't for all audiences, they're extraordinarily fun, and these TV shows hit home for viewers who love seeing a story's beats expressed through visceral chills. Understanding that gore is for both serious and comedic effects is crucial.
There are recent sci-fi shows that didn't deserve to be canceled that provided plenty of graphic action sequences that kept viewers on the edge of their seats throughout the episodes. When introducing intense violence, a series usually takes one of two routes. Either the sudden gore is shocking and punctuates a particularly devastating scene, or there's so much violence the characters and audience become desensitized to it. The second type often comments on the nature of how gore is treated so differently today because of the way media and television have evolved.
10 Kingdom (2019–2020)
This period zombie thriller brings the blood and guts
Based on the webtoon The Kingdom of the Gods, Kingdom is a 2019 South Korean historical drama-horror series created for Netflix. Lee Chang, the crown prince of a fictional interpretation of 16th-century Korea, is forced to stand in for his ailing father as a plague begins to ravage their homeland, all while fighting off would-be-usurpers to the throne.
Cast Ju Ji-Hoon , Ryu Seung-ryong , Kim Sang-Ho , Kim Sung-kyun , Bae Doo-na , Kim Hye-jun
Release Date January 25, 2019
Seasons 2
Writers Kim Eun-hee
Directors Kim Seong-hun , Park In-je
Blending elements of the period piece genre with sci-fi and horror, Kingdom has a little bit of everything, making it appeal to all audiences. One of the best parts of Kingdom is that it provides just as much interpersonal drama and political intrigue as it does gore, striking a compelling balance. While it's fair to say that there are plenty of TV shows that tackle the zombie genre well, Kingdom is doing so in a unique way and justifies its violence.
The political and social metaphors that zombie stories are a stand-in for are at the forefront of Kingdom , as the dichotomy between the working class and the elite members of society is stressed throughout the show.
The political and social metaphors that zombie stories are a stand-in for are at the forefront of Kingdom, as the dichotomy between the working class and the elite members of society is stressed throughout the show. This makes it interesting to see how and why particular violence and suffering are imparted to certain groups. Each of the characters is vividly realized and enthralling to watch as they battle both the dead and living alike and attempt to carve out a place for themselves in the new world.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Kingdom (2019–2020) | 98% | 92% |
9 From (2022–Present)
Forced isolation drives people to do terrible things in From
In a nightmarish town that traps all who enter, residents struggle to survive while uncovering the town's dark secrets. As they seek a way out, they must contend with terrifying creatures that emerge at night, threatening their lives and sanity. The Matthews family, new arrivals, must quickly adapt to survive the horrors within the town.
Cast Harold Perrineau , Catalina Sandino Moreno , Eion Bailey , David Alpay , Elizabeth Saunders , Shaun Majumder , Scott McCord , Ricky He , Chloe Van Landschoot , Pegah Ghafoori , Corteon Moore , Hannah Cheramy , Simon Webster , Avery Konrad , Paul Zinno
Release Date February 20, 2022
Seasons 3
Streaming Service(s) MGM+
Writers John Griffin , Jeff Pinkner
Directors Jack Bender , Brad Turner
Creator(s) John Griffin
Like most of the bloodiest additions to the genre, From isn't just a sci-fi show; it also includes plenty of horror. Harold Perrineau leads From as Boyd Stevens, the man who takes it upon himself to lead the town after the residents discover it's impossible to leave. This sets the stage for a compelling survival series that interrogates the nature of civilization and looks at what happens to people when the veneer of society crumbles.
Of course, it doesn't take long for people to come into conflict and start taking out their frustrations and darkest impulses on each other. Due to their fear, anxiety, and desire to carve out a place for themselves in the new world order, people turn to violence and cruelty in From. Even as the residents try to form a structure for government and safety, they can't help trying to escape the town and fight tooth and nail due to opposing ideologies.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
From (2022–Present) | 96% | 82% |
8 The Last Of Us (2023–Present)
A gritty drama based on the hit video game series
The Last Of Us is a television adaptation of the acclaimed video game, set in a post-apocalyptic world where a smuggler named Joel (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), across the ravaged United States. Along their journey, they must confront various threats from both infected creatures and hostile human factions. The show is produced by HBO and created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Release Date January 15, 2023
Seasons 1
Network HBO Max
Writers Neil Druckmann , Craig Mazin
Directors Craig Mazin
Showrunner Craig Mazin
It will be interesting to see where The Last of Us season 2 takes the characters and whether the series will follow the video game it's based on as closely as season 1 does. The sci-fi drama quickly became a hit for HBO after it premiered in 2023, as it connected with audiences who were familiar with the games and successfully brought in new viewers. The performances from Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie are a large piece of why The Last of Us works so well.
While the zombie-like infection is terrifying enough, it's the human combat that's the most visceral in The Last of Us .
From the beginning of the series, it's clear that Joel is a fierce protector and a competent fighter who will do anything to survive. He soon imparts this protectiveness on Ellie, who he comes to see as a daughter and will do anything to keep alive. Joel has to fight off both the people infected with the Cordyceps virus and the uninfected who have become isolated from humanity to survive. While the zombie-like infection is terrifying enough, it's the human combat that's the most visceral in The Last of Us.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
The Last of Us (2023–Present) | 96% | 88% |
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7 Foundation (2021–Present)
One of the best and most underrated sci-fi shows airing today
Isaac Asimov's novel series is brought to life in Foundation, a television adaptation of the epic sci-fi saga created for Apple TV+ but deviates somewhat from the original source material. The show follows a group of exiled humans that find themselves as the last chance to save the Galactic Empire - from itself.
Release Date September 24, 2021
Seasons 2
Streaming Service(s) Apple TV+
Writers Isaac Asimov
Directors Rupert Sanders
Based on the Foundation book series by Isaac Asimov, Foundation takes the basis of Asimov's work and creates a narrative better suited for television that connects with a variety of audiences. Lee Pace, Jared Harris, and Lou Llobell lead the cast as three of the most important people in the universe who will direct the course of human history. The many complex time jumps and plot twists throughout Foundation make it difficult to follow at times, but it's well worth it for the incredible fight sequences.
It's incredible that Apple TV's Foundation adapted Asimov's books so well, as the source material is notoriously complex and layered. However, the action scenes are a part of the series that are universally engaging and understandable. There's a particularly famous scene of Pace's character fighting in the nude in season 2, which gained popularity for its fight choreography, but that's hardly the most gory moment in the show. Many instances of intense injury and galaxy-bending battles are featured throughout Foundation.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Foundation (2021–Present) | 86% | 71% |
6 The Walking Dead (2010–2022)
Whether violence from the walkers or other humans, The Walking Dead delivers
Based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series, developed for television by Frank Darabont, follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead. The Walking Dead lasted for eleven seasons and spawned several spinoff shows, such as Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Release Date October 31, 2010
Seasons 11
Directors Greg Nicotero
Showrunner Frank Darabont , Angela Kang , Scott M. Gimple , Glen Mazzara
This long-running zombie TV show is one of the most popular series of the 21st century and has incurred multiple spinoff shows for a reason. Based on the beloved comic book series of the same name, The Walking Dead uses its violent tone effectively, as it makes the audience adore the characters and care deeply about their fate before brutally killing them off. The Walking Dead makes it clear from the beginning that no one is safe, even the protagonists and fan-favorite characters.
Since they live in a post-apocalyptic world, the characters are all expert fighters and have signature styles and weapons that make them unique.
The Walking Dead isn't just a classic sci-fi series but also an awesome action show with fast-paced fight scenes. Since they live in a post-apocalyptic world, the characters are all expert fighters and have signature styles and weapons that make them unique. The same goes for the terrible villains, who haunt the central figures just as much as the walkers. This makes for a ceaseless amount of tension and continuous forward momentum, so The Walking Dead never grows stale.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score |
The Walking Dead (2010–2022) | 79% | 78% |
5 Black Mirror (2011–Present)
A revolutionary anthology series that changed the sci-fi landscape
Black Mirror is a sci-fi anthology TV series that shows the dark side of life and technology. The series was created by Charlie Brooker, with the first season premiering on British Channel 4 in 2011. Black Mirror is notable for its dark, satirical edge that provides social commentary, particularly in continuously evolving technology. Each episode has a different cast, location, and even reality as it further explores the themes of technological advancement and its potential positives and repercussions of overreliance on it.
Release Date December 4, 2011
Seasons 5
Directors Charlie Brooker
Showrunner Charlie Brooker
Black Mirror was revolutionary at the time that it premiered in 2011. Though its anthology format and social commentary drew comparisons to The Twilight Zone, it was unlike anything else ever seen on TV. Each episode is unafraid to be grotesque, upsetting, and deeply interrogative of the social order, making the viewer question their own complicity in the developing world of technology. Though the universes in Black Mirror are different from our own, they hit a little too close to home.
Many great actors have graced the episodes of Black Mirror, transporting themselves into parallel worlds and being plagued by some truly terrifying characters and imagery. Though many episodes of Black Mirror stop at being unsettling, some go much further and tell the kind of stories that give you nightmares. These are often accompanied by graphic and intense violence that must be looked away from but is too compelling to turn off.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Black Mirror (2011–Present) | 83% | 80% |
4 Alice In Borderland (2020–Present)
This survival thriller is based on a beloved manga series
Alice in Borderland, a Japanese sci-fi thriller television series, follows Ryohei Arisu and his friends as they navigate an eerily deserted Tokyo. Compelled to compete in deadly games to survive, they uncover increasingly complex and perilous challenges. Adapted from Haro Aso's manga series, the show explores themes of survival, strategy, and the human condition under extreme pressure. Directed by Shinsuke Sato, the series combines intense action with psychological depth.
Cast Kento Yamazaki , Tao Tsuchiya , Nijirô Murakami , Ayaka Miyoshi , Aya Asahina , Dori Sakurada , Yūki Morinaga , Keita Machida , Sho Aoyagi , Nobuaki Kaneko , Riisa Naka , Yūtarō Watanabe , Kina Yazaki , Tsuyoshi Abe , Yūhei Ōuchida , Shuntarō Yanagi , Ayame Misaki , Mizuki Yoshida , Tomohisa Yamashita , Ryōhei Shima , Alisa Urahama , Eishin Hayashida , Eita Okuno , Hayato Isomura , Katsuya Maiguma , Kai Inowaki , Honami Sato , Yuzuki Akiyama , Yūsaku Mori , Yuri Tsunematsu , Ayumi Tanida , Chihiro Yamamoto , Aina Yamada , Jun Hashimoto
Release Date December 10, 2020
Seasons 2
Creator(s) Yoshiki Watanabe , Yasuko Kuramitsu
Game-centered survival shows that touch upon the effects of reality TV and the social impacts of competition. The series follows Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya as Ryōhei Arisu and Yuzuha Usagi, two players who get transported into the game and work together to survive. Alice in Borderland begins with the central characters transported into an empty city where they're coerced into taking part in viciously brutal games where the stakes are life and death. This leads to many conflicts between players and ruthless attempts to win no matter what.
Every episode of the series is filled with tangible danger and terror, making it impossible to stop watching.
There are many things that must happen in Alice in Borderland season 3, as the series left on a series-altering cliffhanger at the end of season 2. After two seasons of almost every game and possibility the show could imagine, it will be intriguing to see where Alice in Borderland goes from here and how the story will be able to raise the stakes from the earlier installments. Every episode of the series is filled with tangible danger and terror, making it impossible to stop watching.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Alice in Borderland (2020–Present) | 86% | 91% |
3 Love, Death & Robots (2019–Present)
Animation is a worthy medium for this intense show
Love, Death & Robots is an animated dark-comedy anthology series created for Netflix that springs from the creative minds of the sci-fi animated film, Heavy Metal. Each episode of the show follows a new story created by different animation and directorial crews as they explore at least one of the three titular themes.
Release Date March 15, 2019
Seasons 3
Writers Tim Miller , Philip Gelatt
Directors Gabriele Pennacchioli , Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Creator(s) Tim Miller
How much visceral blood and violence appears in Love, Death & Robots depends on the episode. This anthology series uses different animation styles and storytelling techniques for each installment of the show, and some episodes have almost no violence at all. However, there are overwhelmingly many more that use the flexibility of animation to explore new territory of action and can push the limits of physics and realism within the medium. More often than not, this is played out through violent and intense moments onscreen.
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Love, Death & Robots has received some criticism for prioritizing style and gore over substance in some of the more vivid depictions of brutality. However, as the seasons have progressed, the series has only grown in critical and audience acclaim, using its roughness as a means to engage with deeper conversations about the nature of violence and the serious emotional themes it grapples with. What the next volume of Love, Death & Robots holds will have to explore even more taboo and divisive storylines.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Love, Death & Robots | 86% | 82% |
2 Dark (2017–2020)
A tightly-packed series with time-bending storylines
Netflix's Dark is a sci-fi thriller that follows the populace of a German town on the search for a missing child that quickly spins into a time-traveling journey into the heart of a conspiracy. The show's core follows four different families and follows them through different generations after they discover a wormhole near the local nuclear power plant.
Cast Tamar Pelzig , Louis Hofmann , Moritz Jahn , Stephan Kampwirth , Christian Hutcherson , Karoline Eichhorn , Andreas Pietschmann , Maja Schöne , Deborah Kaufmann , Oliver Masucci , Jordis Triebel , Peter Benedict
Release Date December 1, 2017
Seasons 3
Network Netflix
Writers Jantje Friese
Directors Jantje Friese
Showrunner Jantje Friese
The Netflix original series Dark lives up to its name in every aspect, as the characters in this thriller story are put through their paces and see some disturbing things throughout their journeys. An enduring part of the series is how well it sets up the violence and builds tension, leaving the audience terrified about what new development is around the corner. For a show with significant gore, it's surprisingly slow-paced, but this lends itself to the atmosphere of the project.
Much of the violence seen in Dark is tragic and upsetting, as the show doesn't play the gore for laughs but for the shock factor.
Time travel is a large part of the story in Dark, and this ties into the overarching themes of generational trauma and how secrets passed down can fester and affect generations in the future. Much of the violence seen in Dark is tragic and upsetting, as the show doesn't play the gore for laughs but for the shock factor. However, this has cemented the drama as one of the most boundary-pushing and complex offerings on the streaming service.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Dark (2017–2020) | 95% | 94% |
1 Fallout (2024–Present)
This video game adaptation quickly rose to the top of 2024's best TV shows
Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is a drama series set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The series follows the survivors of the human race in an alternate 1950s timeline, where nuclear war laid waste to the Earth, spawning large irradiated areas and mutated humans who now roam the planet.
Release Date April 10, 2024
Seasons 1
Writers Lisa Joy , Jonathan Nolan
Showrunner Lisa Joy , Jonathan Nolan
Creator(s) Graham Wagner , Geneva Robertson-Dworet
Fallout was an immediate hit for Prime Video, and it's no wonder, considering the production value and expert execution of the show. The popularity of video game adaptations has been on the rise, and Fallout exemplifies how to follow the heart and thematic tone of the games while developing an original story. One of the most important aspects of the games that the show retains is the fast-paced and graphic fight sequences.
The blending of the post-apocalyptic and sci-fi genres is almost always a recipe for success, and this was overwhelmingly the case with Fallout. Each character brings a unique fighting style to the table, and the conceit of the world allows for innovative action that doesn't grow repetitive as the episodes progress. One of the most memorable parts of Fallout is seeing the development of Lucy (Ella Purnell), who becomes progressively more willing to be as brutal as the world around her.
Series | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
Fallout (2024–Present) | 94% | 90% |
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