This is a follow-up to an archival post I put up when I was blogging previously, Five Favorite Science Fiction TV Shows. Read that one first if you haven’t seen it before! Listed in that posting were: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Doctor Who, Firefly/Serenity, and Battlestar Galactica (2oo4). In hindsight I have to say Firefly takes the award for my favorite sci-fi show ever. But here are three more of my husband’s and my favorite science-fiction shows!
As with the last list, I have to issue the disclaimer that these are shows written for adults, and some may have inappropriate material, bad language, or violence. Please don’t simply trust my recommendation – use your own judgment and keep a remote handy in case you need to skip a scene. I recommend things based on my personal opinion of their merit, not their flaws, but every show does have flaws. 🙂
I’m starting with 6 since the other article listed 5!
6. Heroes
Some individuals, it is true, are more special. This is natural selection. It begins as a single individual born or hatched like every other member of their species. Anonymous. Seemingly ordinary. Except they’re not. – Mohinder
As the quote indicates, the superhero theory in this show is deeply rooted in macroevolution. But you don’t have to believe in evolution to enjoy the story! It’s the tale of superheroes discovering their powers, much like X-Men and other superhero tales. And they all react to their newfound abilities differently. Some use it for personal fun or scientific discovery. Some, like the lovable Hiro, are convinced of their destiny to better the world. Some use it for horrid, self-serving evil.
This show has some great pros to me and some cons. The pros: riveting story, humor, realistic, compelling characters. The cons: the last season or two took a big nosedive, in my opinion. The writing went rapidly downhill, and what once was fantastic character development slid into a sludge of “characters doing whatever the writers need to keep the story interesting”. They start doing weird things. They flip-flop between good and evil erratically. And the ending was…kind of lame. So, I’d say – definitely try out this show! But if you start getting bored or unconvinced, don’t be ashamed to get out while the getting’s good. Writing this is making me want to watch it again, though…
7. Fringe
Olivia: “Have you done this before?”
Walter: “I have used this technique to extricate information from a corpse once. You can do that if they haven’t been dead longer than six hours.”
Peter (sarcastically): “Right, ’cause after six hours, that’s when they’re really dead.”
Whew, this show runs the gamut. It’s a detective show. It’s a show about parallel universes. It’s a show about weird pseudo-science. It’s a dystopian show. It has romance. It has horror. It has humor. It’s brilliant and bizarre and just plain weird! It follows an FBI agent as she works with a (sort of insane) scientist to investigate unexplainable phenomena. Most of their cases are based in actual pseudo-science, just taken to an extreme sci-fi level. As the series continues the universe sort of unravels, multiple parallel universes open up, and they end up in the future, fighting world domination by a mysterious group of bald, spiffily-dressed men. It sounds completely bizarre, because it is. It’s also gripping and very addictive!
Disclaimers: I have not seen every single episode myself, and some were a little darker and closer to the horror genre than I like…icky murders, etc. Don’t watch it if you’re sensitive to disturbing images or creepy stuff. Christopher was the bigger fan of this one, but after I got hooked on it I insisted on watching it with him. He keeps trying to find shows he can watch on his own when I’m busy, but I always glom onto them – sorry, dear. 😀
Continuing in the category of “Shows my Husband Tried and Then I Wouldn’t Let Him Watch Them Alone”, we also have…
8. Continuum
2077. My time, my city, my family. When terrorists killed thousands of innocents, they were condemned to die. They had other plans. A time travel device sent us all back 65 years. I want to get home, but I can’t be sure what I will return to if history is changed. Their plan? To corrupt and control the present in order to win the future. What they didn’t plan on…was me. – Kiera’s voiceover in the opening sequence
That voiceover provides a nice summary of the show’s plot! (“Sent us all back” refers to the terrorists and Kiera, not the entire world. That confused me the first time I watched it!)
This is a fantastic show. Christopher and I gobbled up the first two seasons we could stream online for free (we don’t have cable), and we are anxiously awaiting more. Continuum has some interesting social and cultural commentary going on, and a strong protagonist who grapples with fascinating moral dilemmas (like, “If I may never get back to my future time, and my husband’s not even born yet here, am I still married?” and “What if I endanger the future by my actions to save the world in the present?”). It has a fast-paced, gripping plot that makes it hard to watch just one or two episodes at a time. It’s full of neat futuristic technology and time-travel theory – always a plus in our books! It’s also very clean, although, as soon as I said aloud, “Hey, this show is so clean!” there was an inappropriate scene in the next episode we watched. Of course. 😛 I could be remembering wrong, but I don’t believe there were many more like it.
*
Fringe and Heroes are complete shows (although Heroes may have a sequel in production, I hear – yay!), and all their seasons can be streamed for free online with Netflix or Amazon Prime, if you subscribe to those services. The two completed seasons of Continuum can be found on Netflix streaming, also. Happy science-fiction discovery!
What are your favorite science-fiction (and other speculative genre!) shows? Why?
Yay for Heroes! The first 1 1/2 seasons are great! I’ve never been able to get into Continuum because I can’t take the intensity of the main character. Maybe they need a better actress? But seeing your post, maybe I should give it a second chance? I also love Flash Forward and I think that has elements of Sci-Fi, right?
Yes, I totally thought of including FlashForward! That show was such a great ride. It just has such a bum ending though…in the end I decided to leave it off the list.
I agree, Kiera is intense an an almost off-putting way, kind of like Katniss. The show is really compelling, though.
Stargate is my favorite, for sure! Atlantis isn’t as good as the original series, but the original, once you get past the first half of season one, is great!