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30 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Shows Streaming on Netflix [Spring 2021]

30 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Shows Streaming on Netflix [Spring 2021]

We all need some escapism in our lives, and there’s nothing better to turn to than Netflix. From award-winning masterpieces to family-friendly entertainment and everything in between, Netflix makes it easy to throw on a classic movie or show no matter where you are.

From superheroes to medieval tales, science-fiction and fantasy make for some of the best escapism you’ll find in entertainment today, and long-form shows help to expand on universes unknown. Whether you’re a binge-watcher or love to take your time with your favorite TV shows, here’s a sampling of the best that Netflix has to offer in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. These are thirty of the best fantasy, sci-fi, and epic fiction you can catch this winter on Netflix. When you’re done reading our list below, you also might want to check out our list of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix.

The OA

The OA

By Zal Batmanglij

star 7.8/10

by IMDb Rating

After being struck blind as a child during a near-death experience, Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) is raised by a Midwestern couple (Scott Wilson and Alice Krige)–until she mysteriously disappears for 7 years. When she returns she can see–but she can’t, or won’t, tell anyone how she got her sight back or where she’s been. She enlists a group from the neighborhood, consisting of a teacher and four high school students, to participate in an experiment that can’t be described without serious spoilers. I will say that she wasn’t just missing for seven years–she was abducted by Hap (Jason Isaacs), a doctor who was experimenting on people who had lived through near-death experiences. As the season unfolds, the crazy story reels you in with slow-moving suspense that mostly pays off. Two seasons aired, but the show was cancelled in 2019.

Arrow

Arrow

By Greg Berlanti

star 7.5/10

by IMDb Rating
Sense8

Sense8

By J. Michael Straczynski

star 8.2/10

by IMDb Rating
Stranger Things

Stranger Things

By Matt Duffer

star 8.7/10

by IMDb Rating
Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones

By Melissa Rosenberg

star 7.9/10

by IMDb Rating
The 100

The 100

By Jason Rothenberg

star 7.6/10

by IMDb Rating
Black Mirror

Black Mirror

By Charlie Brooker

star 8.8/10

by IMDb Rating
The Originals

The Originals

By Julie Plec

star 8.3/10

by IMDb Rating

The Mikaelsons move to New Orleans and form an alliance with local witches in an effort to rule the city once again in Julie Plec’s The Vampire Diaries spinoff. Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) is the original vampire-werewolf hybrid who, along with his brother and sister, Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (Claire Holt), returns to his home city of New Orleans after being exiled for a century. Also appearing in the French Quarter is pregnant werewolf Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), searching for clues to her family history. Klaus’ rival and protégé is Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), the vampire who has taken over as leader in Klaus’ absence.

Zoo

Zoo

By

star 6.6/10

by IMDb Rating

When animal species all over the world begin attacking humans, controversial zoologist Jackson Oz (James Wolk) tries to discover the cause of the sudden change. Zoo was created by Josh Appelbaum and is based on the novel by James Patterson. Jackson Oz and Abraham Kenyatta are African Safari guides who begin to notice animals are acting strangely. In Los Angeles, halfway around the world, animal attacks are also on the rise. In addition, house cats are disappearing. A reporter, Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly) believes a corporation called Reisden Global is to blame. She teams up with a veterinary pathologist, Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke) to figure out what’s happening. This is a fast-moving show with a global scale, with the characters always in peril. To make the animal attacks convincing, CGI takes a backseat to the use of real animals. Zoo is definitely worth watching.

iZombie

iZombie

By Diane Ruggiero-Wright

star 7.8/10

by IMDb Rating

Liv, medical student-turned-zombie (Rose McIver), gets a job in a morgue, where the dead bodies are aplenty. As she tries to retain her humanity, finds she has an uncanny new gift for solving crimes. Many of the bodies at the morgue are murder victims, and Liv gets clues to what happened as she eats their brains. She puts the insight to good use and helps the police department solve crimes. iZombie makes for relatively lighthearted, refreshing zombie fun. All five seasons are streaming.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation

By Gene Roddenberry

star 8.7/10

by IMDb Rating

Star Trek as a franchise has now seen six distinct live-action series aired on television and the web (Discovery recently ended its first season and has been renewed for a second) and thirteen feature films (with a planned fourteenth from director Quentin Tarantino sometime in the future), and somehow, The Next Generation is still considered the crown jewel in the entire franchise. Though the first season of TNG is a slow start, the series eventually became acclaimed by critics around the country for its take on human problems in a science-fiction setting. Starring Patrick Stewart (X-Men, the Royal Shakespeare Company) and an ensemble cast (including LeVar Burton and a young Wil Wheaton), the show uses the original ideas behind Star Trek and helps bring them into a new decade, complete with improved effects and sets and better acting. The show won 19 Emmy awards during its run, and remains the only syndicated show to be nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon

By Laeta Kalogridis

star 7.9/10

by IMDb Rating
Lost in Space

Lost in Space

By Irwin Allen

star 7.3/10

by IMDb Rating
The Innocents

The Innocents

By Jack Clayton

star 7.8/10

by IMDb Rating
The Good Place

The Good Place

By Michael Schur

star 8.2/10

by IMDb Rating
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By Pedro Aguilera

star 7.3/10

by IMDb Rating
Disenchantment

Disenchantment

By Matt Groening

star 7.2/10

by IMDb Rating

From Matt Groening, the series creator behind The Simpsons and Futurama, comes his third original animated series—this time, set in the past. Disenchantment is an animated comedy set in the wonders of the Middle Ages. The series, which premiered in August of this year with a 10 episode first season, follows Bean, an irresponsible and alcoholic princess of the kingdom of Dreamland who constantly gets herself in trouble with her father, the king. With an all-star voice cast including Abbi Jacobson, Nat Faxon, Eric Andre, and Futurama alumni John DiMaggio, Billy West, David Herman, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice LaMarche, the series is absolutely worth seeking out—especially if you’re more into the plot-heavy elements of Futurama. Both parts of the first season are streaming.

The Dragon Prince

The Dragon Prince

By Aaron Ehasz

star 8.4/10

by IMDb Rating

tomato 100%

by RottenTomatoes

From Aaron Ehasz, the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Justin Richmond, the director of Uncharted 3, comes The Dragon Prince, an original fantasy tale designed to fill the same void of comedy and action for families designed 15 years ago by Avatar. Set in a fantasy world where humans and elves battle it out in war, the story begins when the elves attempt to murder the human king Harrow and his heir, the young prince Ezran, in revenge for the human murder of the dragon king and his egg. When the young elf Rayla, along with Ezran and Callum, discover the dragon king’s egg wasn’t destroyed, they attempt to return the egg to the dragons to prevent war, only to be challenged by Viren, a mage who is intent on starting a war with the elves. Despite a controversial animation style, the show proved to be popular, and three seasons are currently streaming.

The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy

By Steve Blackman

star 7.9/10

by IMDb Rating
Based on the graphic novel series by Gerard Way, former lead singer of My Chemical Romance, The Umbrella Academy tells the story of a group of seven infants adopted from a group of 43, inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy on a single day in 1989. Billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves takes the children and creates the Umbrella Academy, preparing his “children” to save the world. In their teenage years, though, the family fractures and the team disbands. Fast forward to the present time, when the six surviving members of the clan reunite upon the news of Hargreeves’ passing. They work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father’s death, but divergent personalities and abilities again pull the estranged family apart, and a global apocalypse is another imminent threat. Two seasons are now streaming.
The Flash

The Flash

By Greg Berlanti

star 7.6/10

by IMDb Rating

Often considered one of the best of The CW’s Arrowverse shows, The Flash was the second DC show created by Greg Berlanti and his team of writers, following the success of Arrow. The show has a lighter tone than its older sibling, using The Flash’s humor to its advantage to tell the story of how Barry Allen became The Flash. Glee‘s Grant Gustin stars as Allen, a forensics expert who is struck by lightning following an explosion in the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. When he awakens following a nine-month coma, he discovers he can move at a superhuman speed, and becomes the superhero known as The Flash. The first two seasons were critically-acclaimed upon release; the third season also received positive reviews, albeit slightly lesser thanks to a messy multiple-universe plot. The first six seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.

Legends of Tomorrow

Legends of Tomorrow

By

star 6.8/10

by IMDb Rating

Would you be surprised if we told you that the best DC show airing on The CW right now wasn’t Arrow, or The Flash, or even SupergirlLegends of Tomorrow premiered to mixed-but-positive reviews, with the series taking some B-level and C-level superheroes from the world of DC, including Firestorm, Atom, Hawkgirl and Hawkman, and Rip Turner. The series begins when Rip Turner, a time master, goes rogue following the murder of his family by Vandal Savage, a criminal and supervillain. Determined to stop the murder of his loved ones, he assembles a team from throughout time in order to save the world. The series is a bit more lighthearted than its contemporaries, and following positive remarks for the first two seasons, season three received critical acclaim for its sense of adventure, fun, and heroism. All five seasons are currently streaming.

Ash vs Evil Dead

Ash vs Evil Dead

By Ivan Raimi

star 8.4/10

by IMDb Rating

A sequel to Sam Raimi’s original low-budget horror films, Ash vs. Evil Dead is a horror-comedy in the style of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell returns from those films as the titular Ash Williams, now working as a middle-aged stock boy at Value Stop. Though he’s spent nearly thirty years drifting from town to town trying to escape his past, the evil of the Necronomicon—the book that releases all hell in the original trilogy—continues to haunt him. Unable to destroy the book, he’s become the caretaker, trying his best to ensure that it never falls into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, it seems the evil dead has yet to rest. Sam Raimi co-created the series with his brother Ivan and producer Tom Spezialy, and the Starz series still retains the same dark combination of humor and horror the films had. Any fans of Evil Dead will need to check out the show on Netflix. All three seasons are streaming.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

By Jeffrey Addiss

star 8.4/10

by IMDb Rating

Not many expected the Jim Henson Company to return to their late creator’s dark fantasy cult-classic The Dark Crystal, but suffice to say, when a prequel series was announced for Netflix, it was a reason to get excited. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is set on the planet Thra prior to the events of the original film and follows three Gelfings—Rian, Brea, and Deet—as they inspire a rebellion against the Skeksis after discovering the horrifying secret they keep hidden from the citizens of Thra. Featuring the voice talent of Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nathalie Emmanuel, in addition to the puppetry talent of those at the Jim Henson Company, this is a Netflix original that is not to be missed.

The Witcher

The Witcher

By Lauren Schmidt

star 8.2/10

by IMDb Rating
William Sattelberg

Mar 2, 2021

William has been with TechJunkie since 2017, writing about smartphones, games, streaming media, and anything else that technology touches in our current age. He also works as a video producer, writing and recording scripts for our video team and editing videos for TechJunkie's YouTube channel. William graduated from SUNY Fredonia in 2016 with a degree in Video Production, and lives in Buffalo, NY.

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