Prime Video‘s sci-fi collection is ever-growing, meaning there are several shows in the genre you may have missed. There are many Prime Video shows audiences should watch once, at least, specifically in the sci-fi genre. Big shows like The Boys and Invincible, despite being superhero-based, employ sci-fi elements.
Then there are some that embody the best that sci-fi television has to offer. Even recently, Prime Video’s sci-fi show Lazarus offered thrills in the supernatural realm. Evidently, many of Prime Video’s binge-worthy shows exist within the world of science fiction, but not all of them received the credit they deserved.
Here are eight genuinely good sci-fi shows that offer different sides of the genre that may have been missed throughout their time on the Prime Video service.
Upload
Upload is a sci-fi show starring Robbie Amell as Nathan, a recently deceased computer engineering graduate who is uploaded to the digital afterlife known as Lakeview. Upload‘s viewership was never terrible, but it was never one of Prime Video’s big hitters, either. As such, audiences may have missed this intriguing take on modern technology.
Upload features a great cast, genuinely funny comedic moments, but also a sense of seriousness and sincerity in the exploration of human lives. How it ties all that to the world of technology, from its deep dive into the ever-prevalent artificial intelligence debate to the overall presentation of Lakeview as a digital afterlife, makes Upload a seriously underrated, easy-to-watch sci-fi show.
Undone
Undone, much like Upload, looks at the concept of death through a sci-fi lens. After being in a car accident. Rosa Salazar’s Alma discovers she can bend time. Driven by an apparition of her dead father, she begins looking into the mysterious circumstances of his death.
Undone, using its sci-fi trappings, is a trippy, surreal, but intensely human look at death and generational trauma. It is also highly funny, offsetting its more dramatic moments, all with beautiful rotoscoping animation. For all of this, Undone received immense critical acclaim, yet did not go down as one of Prime Video’s most popular shows.
Sadly, Undone is not on the level of The Boys, Invincible, Fallout, or any of Prime Video’s other more well-known sci-fi entries. As one of the better shows that has been missed, Undone is certainly worth a watch.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical
The Boys has been repeatedly mentioned as what is perhaps Prime Video’s most popular original sci-fi show. Gen V, its spin-off, holds the same popularity. The Boys Presents: Diabolical, however, does not. The animated spin-off parodies several sci-fi/superhero tropes, arguably leaning more into the sci-fi elements by exploring things away from The Boys’ main continuity.
Despite that, The Boys Presents: Diabolical did not receive strong enough viewing numbers to warrant a second season. The show is still worth watching, though, for its comedic and sometimes dramatic stories, its engagement with the world of more grounded sci-fi superheroics, and how it ties to one of Prime Video’s bigger hitters.
The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle, a sci-fi series exploring a reality in which the Axis powers won World War II, is an interesting case. The first season of the show had incredibly high viewership numbers, but subsequent seasons saw dwindling returns. This did not reduce the acclaim the show received, but it certainly meant that the show is now rarely mentioned among Prime Video’s best sci-fi outings.
For this reason, The Man in the High Castle can certainly be regarded as a show missed by many. Despite being mostly set in the alternate history genre, elements like The Man in the High Castle‘s exploration of alternate timelines also infuse it with sci-fi. The consistent quality it was regarded with is enough to prove that The Man in the High Castle was an overlooked Prime Video sci-fi great.
The Power
The Power took the world of superheroes and added a distinctly feminist twist to it. The show’s more grounded exploration of gender politics using a genre as fantastical as superheroes rendered it a sci-fi show, all while proving it had a lot to say dramatically.
Sadly, The Power was canceled after its first season due to low viewership numbers. Therefore, the show is undoubtedly one that many missed. Despite not having a definitive continuation, The Power season 1 is worth watching to see how it explores a great deal of societal issues with a fun, dramatic, science-fiction twist.
Tales from the Loop
Tales from the Loop is a loosely connected anthology series that explores many facets of humanity using sci-fi tropes. From time travel and alternate dimensions to robots, cyborgs, body swaps, and more, Tales from the Loop is distinctly sci-fi in a sometimes bleak, oftentimes nostalgic, always human way.
Tales from the Loop has not had a continuation, however, and is not a sci-fi Prime Video show that would be recommended by many, despite its acclaim. A reason for this could be the conflicting emotions it raises. Yes, Tales from the Loop is feel-good in some ways, but its unique viewpoint, thanks to being based on an art book by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, leaves it feeling slightly strange.
For this primary reason, Tales from the Loop did not receive the popularity it needed to become a Prime Video sci-fi show in the public eye.
The Twilight Zone
Prime Video’s Twilight Zone reboot from filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Marco Ramirez is most often associated with horror and the supernatural, though several episodes employ sci-fi aspects. However, the show was canceled after two seasons for poor viewership and dwindling critical reception.
Whenever The Twilight Zone is mentioned today, oftentimes people think about the original show from the 1960s. The original series had a much bigger cultural impact than the 2019 reboot, with the latter failing to escape its status as exactly that.
Most reboots try to break free of previously established franchises and stand on their own. The Twilight Zone‘s failure to do so contributed to it being more overlooked than it should be for its intriguing supernatural and sci-fi explorations, rendering it a sci-fi outing from Prime Video that is often missed.
The Expanse
The Expanse is a popular show, but it is not as popular as sci-fi behemoths from franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek, despite being better than just about everything in either. The Expanse is a true sci-fi, an epic space opera, that deals with human politics amid an alien, space-faring background.
All of this renders it one of the best sci-fi shows in recent times, but The Expanse was canceled on two different occasions. First, it was canceled by Syfy after three seasons for low viewership numbers that didn’t offset its high budget, before being canceled by Prime Video after a further three seasons for the same reasons.
The viewership did not warrant seasons 7, 8, or 9, based on the three remaining books from the series on which it is based, being renewed. This caused The Expanse to end after season 6, which, regardless of the cult following and strong critical reception, causes it to go down as one of Prime Video‘s forgotten gems that most general audiences missed.
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September 7, 2006
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alpha house
