Only 10 Sci-Fi Shows Are Better Than ‘Stranger Things’

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Yes, Stranger Things has gotten a lot of hate in the last year due to the very mixed-to-rough reception of its final installment, but Season 5 notwithstanding, the series is still a very strong one. A four-out-of-five success rate is still a very good one, and it's still one of the better science fiction series in the last few years since its release in 2016 (the haters need to relax).

However, no show is perfect, and in such a competitive industry, there will always be people considered better than you. While Stranger Things may be an incredible sci-fi series, there are others that many would say are far better. Whether they are based in a world full of superheroes, space, or even the multiverse itself, the sci-fi television genre includes some iconic projects that are unforgettable and surpass even one of the most popular in recent years.

1 'For All Mankind' (2019–Present)

Everyone loves a good space project, and one of the best around is For All Mankind. This Apple TV series depicts a world similar to the one the audience knows, with one big difference to set it apart: the Soviets made it to the moon first, which, in turn, changes the course of the future as they know it. This pushes the United States and NASA to jump into gear and get their butts moving.

For All Mankind is an interesting show that sets itself apart by depicting an alternate history that genuinely could have happened. This makes everything in the series feel far more tangible and possible than other sci-fi shows. Plus, it's fun and engaging to imagine how the world would have been affected had one slight thing — Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov not passed, shutting down their space program — gone differently in history.

2 'Fallout' (2024–Present)

Lorenzo Sisti / Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC

Based on the extremely popular video game franchise, Fallout had a huge advantage in comparison to other series, due to it already having a huge built-in fanbase that watched it as soon as it came out. This led to an amazing debut. What makes it special is that no audience member is left out of the loop, as this tells a completely new story, not being based on any past game. So, everyone is experiencing this story for the first time together at home on Prime Video.

This show also has some amazing performances from phenomenal actors such as Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, and many more. With these talented individuals driving a well-written story forward, Fallout has become one of the best sci-fi series on television. It's even made people want to play the games for the first time after seeing the series.

3 'One Piece' (2023–Present)

Luffy (Iñaki Godoy), Usopp (Jacob Gibson), and Sanji (Taz Skylar) looking surprised in One Piece Season 2

The anime series that began in 1999, known as One Piece, has become one of the most popular television series of all time. It's a huge commitment, with over 1,000 episodes, which means the one big complaint from people is that it's a gigantic time consumer. There's a retelling of the story that fixes this, though. While it took about 45 episodes to finish the "East Blue" saga in the anime, it only took the Netflix live-action retelling eight. See the appeal of this new show yet?

Those who have seen all of the One Piece anime — or read the manga — consistently say that it's one of the greatest fictional stories ever told. So, for those who yearn to see what the hype is all about, Netflix's One Piece is the way to go. It's condensing the plot down to only the essentials, both in plot and character. It also finds itself making some changes that serve the story extremely well. If the One Piece fans are anything to go by, it sounds like it's only going to keep getting better.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

4 'Scavengers Reign' (2023)

Scavengers Reign is one of the most underrated sci-fi stories of all time. Only getting one season in 2023 (with people begging for another), this show is filled to the brim with things that make a sci-fi story not good, but exceptional. With compelling characters, a unique world filled with fun designs, out-of-this-world concepts, and more, Scavengers Reign is beyond good.

Brought to life by the animation studio Titmouse, Inc., the 12 episodes that came out are gorgeous, thrilling, engrossing, and even moving. The fact that more people didn't see Scavengers Reign, despite how phenomenal it is, is really depressing. It was a big failure on HBO's part for not putting more marketing towards this, because if they had, this could have been the next big animated series — their own Invincible of sorts.

5 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' (2008–2020)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is another one of those shows that ended before its time and is so good that people campaigned for it to return (à la The Spectacular Spider-Man), and if that isn't proof of how great it is, what is? Star Wars is among the biggest fictional franchises of all time, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an example of why that is.

Taking place between Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, this animated series is an anthology, telling the many stories that occur between the two during the titular "Clone Wars." This show tells some of the best Star Wars stories ever, introduces some amazing characters — like Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) — and recontextualizes the "Prequel Trilogy" in a way that makes them better for it.

6 'Firefly' (2002–2003)

Despite being as famous as he is, one of Nathan Fillion's most recognizable roles comes from an old television series titled Firefly. The cult following that it has amassed over the decades since it's been off the air is profound. This is mainly thanks to how well-written the entire ensemble cast is, their performances, and, in turn, their dynamics.

Firefly has managed to last in the hearts of sci-fi fans for over a whopping 20 years, and that kind of longevity is the definition of not only popularity, but quality as well. Not to mention, everyone loves a good underdog story, and if that's something that viewers are interested in and have a soft spot for, Firefly is the series for them.

7 'Gen V' (2023–Present)

Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau with her right arm and hand stretched out in front of her in Gen V Season 2.

After the success of The Boys on Prime Video, it only made sense that the streaming platform did what it could to continue cashing in on this extremely popular franchise. Taking a much smaller approach in terms of scope of storytelling, Gen V sets itself apart from the original series in a way that makes it feel all the more relatable, compelling, and engaging.

It's got a good cast that all make for a great roster of characters with some very fun and unique abilities, which, once again, helps it stand out in comparison to The Boys. While there are some that believe that the first series got a bit too big for its britches, Gen V keeps things smaller, intimate, and character-driven.

8 'Arcane' (2021–2024)

Jinx (Ella Purnell) and Vi (Haliee Stenifeld) coming face to face during combat in a still from 'Arcane' season 2.

Before Arcane came out, no one would have ever expected one of the biggest television hits to come out of Netflix would be from the gaming franchise League of Legends. However, come 2021, those people would be proven wrong with the big debut of Arcane, one of the most appreciated series that Netflix has ever put out, by far.

The animation is eye-boggling, the action scenes are fluid and fast-paced, and the writing is deep, meaningful, and thrilling. Arcane proves that not only does animation have more than what it takes to stand next to big shows like Stranger Things, but also that it can be vastly better than them, too. Arcane set the standard for 2020s television animation.

9 'Loki' (2021–2023)

Tom Hiddleston as Loki God of Stories looking at peace in Loki.

After his death in Avengers: Infinity War, nobody expected the infamous Loki Laufeyson (Tom Hiddleston) to make a comeback to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, let alone such a successful one. Being part of the first wave of MCU Disney+ shows to hit the platform, Loki had a lot to prove for Marvel Studios and Disney+.

Loki has some of the highest reception for a Marvel product ever. People absolutely adore this series, and for very good reason. How could they make an exceptional show based on a dead character, using a multiversal version who is far behind in character development? Well, Loki managed to do it with grace and profound skill.

10 'Severance' (2022–Present)

Adam Scott as Mark works on his computer in the pilot of 'Severance.'

If there's a television series that has swept the nation and borderline taken it over, it is most definitely Severance. This Apple TV series is beyond popular and, while it may not feature Demogorgons or characters from the Marvel universe, it is a great example of how original and more subtle sci-fi stories can go toe-to-toe with the rest.

As stated, yes, Severance has much more subtle sci-fi elements that allow the world-building to progress in a smooth and natural manner. This opens up more room to develop the characters deeper and build their dynamics. It may not have massive action, but Severance finds more than enough ways to impress audiences with every new episode.