10 Best Sci-Fi Shows On Prime Video

In its recent years of producing original content, Prime Video has made more of a name as a venue for fantasy television than science fiction. While competitors like Apple TV+ have built out sizable sci-fi catalogs ("Silo," "Foundation," "Severance," etc.), Amazon hung its hat early on "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," which made headlines for its massive budget, along with other fantasy series like "The Wheel of Time" and "The Legend of Vox Machina."

However, that public image obfuscates a large roster of great sci-fi shows. Prime Video has often slacked in the marketing department for its streaming originals, but it has nonetheless put out a number of lesser-known, high-quality series. And, thanks to the extended catalog of older shows available on the platform, sci-fi fans can also catch up on some absolute classics as part of their subscription. These are 10 of the best science fiction shows you can stream on Prime Video right now with a base subscription — not including the many other streaming series available with Amazon's various add-ons.

In the world of original streaming series, 2015 is basically ancient history. "House of Cards," which most would point to as the inception moment for the streaming age, didn't begin until 2013. Two years later, Prime Video made its own splashy entry into the arena with "The Man in the High Castle," an adaptation of the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick.

The story takes place in an alternate history where the Axis powers are victorious in World War II, dividing the United States into two different territories: Imperial Japan dominating the West Coast and Nazi Germany the East. As oppression and mass killings continue into the alternative 1960s, different resistance groups rally to fight back. The show's science-fiction element — the element Dick's writing is most famous for — comes from the titular Man in the High Castle, a mysterious figure who distributes strange newsreels that show possible other realities, including ones in which Germany and Japan lost the war.

An epic in structure, the show features a large roster of characters spread across the former United States and, eventually, to other locations as well. It's a speculative series that takes its dark world quite seriously, showing the evils of Nazi doctrine in full effect through ethnic cleansing, a continuation of the Holocaust, and purging of those dubbed physically or mentally deficient by the regime. Sobering and tense, it's a show designed to weigh on you, but it's also still one of the most compelling original series Amazon has produced even seven years after its conclusion.

Swedish artist and writer Simon Stålenhag is not exactly a household name, which is a shame. The greater shame is that for many, their only interaction with him or his work is likely the 2025 Netflix film "The Electric State." Starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, the movie fails horribly in its supposed attempt to adapt Stålenhag's illustrated science-fiction novel of the same name. A bloated, overly expensive, emotionally vacant film, it pales in comparison to its source material, which details a striking vision of a cyber-apocalypse and a journey across a near-future American wasteland.

Mercifully, there was an earlier adaptation of a different Stålenhag book, which is far, far better and truer to the author's work: "Tales from the Loop." It was released on Prime Video in 2020 and adapted from the 2015 book — more art book than illustrated novel — of the same name. Both take place in rural towns littered with futuristic technology and a strange science facility at their center. In the show, this facility, known as "The Loop," leads to a series of strange encounters and phenomena for the town's inhabitants.

Body swaps, frozen time, strange robots, and more occupy the stories of the show's eight episodes, each of which is largely self-contained. While characters return, and there is a core narrative, the show is better understood in the context of "Black Mirror" or "The Twilight Zone," with every installment focusing on different characters and a new sci-fi premise. The main difference is that unlike those other shows, "Tales from the Loop" is less interested in horror or societal commentary than it is in quiet moments and the human soul. Beautiful and melancholic, it's a show with limited dialogue and powerful visual storytelling, all underscored by an incredible yet delicate soundtrack from Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan.

For years, any halfway decent video game adaptation demanded an asterisk and an explanation, given the genre's fraught history of flops and failures. These days, that legacy has been largely erased, with much credit due to shows like "Castlevania," "The Last of Us," and "Fallout." The quality of Amazon's adaptation of the post-apocalyptic RPG games was a surprise to many. Accurate, well-crafted, and extremely funny, it's a show that balances many different things at once, led by standout performances from Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins. There are plenty of Easter eggs and little nods for fans of the games, but the huge success of the show also speaks to its appeal beyond the franchise's preexisting fanbase.

For TV sci-fi fans, there's a lot that's unique here in terms of tone and aesthetic. More specifically, the show is a blend of alternate history Americana, "Mad Max," and cybernetic Wild West. And with "Fallout" Season 2 wrapping up to critical acclaim and a 3rd season confirmed to be on the way, it's the perfect time to get in for those who haven't yet watched.

Some sci-fi series take a couple episodes to reveal what makes them special. With "Undone," it's clear right from the jump. The Prime Video series, which began in 2019 and released a 2nd season in 2022 — both to high critical praise — looks unlike anything else on the platform, thanks to a unique production approach that blends live-action performance capture, animation, and rotoscoping.

The result is a perfect example of the medium meeting the message. The show's striking, occasionally psychedelic visual style pairs beautifully with its sci-fi story, which follows a young woman named Alma (Rosa Salazar) who develops a strange relationship to time following a car accident. When she begins to have visions of her dead father (Bob Odenkirk), she realizes that his fate isn't exactly what she thought, nor is it necessarily permanent. What follows is a blend of time travel, mystery, and the sort of detailed emotional character study you'd expect from a show created by two people behind "BoJack Horseman."

The performances and the story in "Undone" are quite compelling on their own. But its distinct aesthetic approach elevates it to higher heights and makes it truly unique. It's no wonder that critics and viewers alike found both seasons so incredibly compelling.

The late '90s and early 2000s were a period of transition for TV sci-fi. For a couple of decades before, "Star Trek" was completely dominant thanks to the films set after the original series and the success of "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine." By this point, it had begun to fade as the dominant force, leaving space for new shows to take their shot at the crown. In short order, "Firefly" would define a new era of cult television, and "Battlestar Galactica" would redefine what genre TV could be. But before either, there was "Farscape."

A spaceship show like the original "Star Trek," "Farscape" set itself apart immediately (it's one of many forgotten sci-fi series you should binge on Amazon). The series is produced in part by The Jim Henson Company, and it shows, with alien costumes and creature designs unlike anything else in the genre before or since. It's campy, occasionally schlocky, but also sincere, with the sort of episodic/overarching story blend that had become increasingly popular for genre shows at the turn of the millennium.

Not as many people still talk about "Farscape" today, but it retains a devoted fandom and continues to influence modern sci-fi. "People are always bringing up a million films asking me if they're inspirations," James Gunn once wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding his "Guardians of the Galaxy" films (via Syfy). "In the case of #Farscape it is most definitely YES." The first three seasons of the show are currently available for streaming as part of a base Prime Video subscription.

If you're looking for a good old-fashioned sci-fi Western and you've already rewatched "Firefly" too many times, "Outer Range" is a fantastic, more recent option. A Prime Video original, the show ran for two seasons between 2022 and 2024, with an ensemble cast led by Josh Brolin and Imogen Poots. Unlike the "Cowboy Bebop" model of space cowboy show, Outer Range is much more grounded, almost like a "Yellowstone" spin-off where "Twilight Zone" shenanigans start happening. 

The setup is that a mysterious, voidlike hole appears on the ranch of Royal Abbott (Brolin), leading to a series of increasingly bizarre situations. All of them intertwine with the often dark dramas and dangers surrounding the Abbot family and those around them. The series didn't earn much notice at the time, despite its star-studded cast and strong reviews, which got even better in the show's second (and final) season. "At its best, then, the series only uses the void to imbue its more grounded themes — grief, loneliness, faith, longing — with a palpable eeriness," Caroline Framke wrote for Variety before the Season 1 premiere.

To this day, "The Boys" is probably Prime Video's biggest success story when it comes to original series. The dark superhero show, based on the comics from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, has become a smash hit for the streamer, spawning multiple spin-offs and a massive fanbase. Part of that success is hitting the culture at just the right time — a healthy dose of ultraviolence in the wake of the "Game of Thrones" era, plus superhero skepticism as MCU fatigue had begun to spread amongst the populace. But that's also discrediting how strong the show is on its own.

As is often the case with fantastic genre TV, the success here is more about the performers than the premise itself. Stars like Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Dominique McElligott, Jack Quaid, and Erin Moriarty elevate strong material to higher heights, hammering home the brutal storylines in theatrical fashion. For those few who aren't familiar, the basic premise here is that superheroes are owned by a private corporation and granted powers by a proprietary formula. This leads to a wave of mass corruption within the hero teams, who kill, abuse, and steal with impunity, all as their corporate sponsor pumps out propaganda and merch to declare their greatness to the world. A ragtag band of vigilantes who've been wronged by these heroes set out to take them down a peg, and the plot only gets more expansive and wild from there. It's a great show, but also, not one for the faint of heart. Here there be gore, and worse.

Obviously, this one isn't a Prime Video original. Rather, it's a certified sci-fi TV classic, which is currently available in its 10-season entirety for base-level subscribers to the Prime platform. And it's still well worth the watch many years after it left the air.

Set after the original film, "SG-1" turned the "Stargate" franchise from a promising idea into a sheer titan of the sci-fi genre — a clear successor and competitor to massive TV-based franchises of the past like "Star Trek" and "Doctor Who." While "SG-1" has its own secret government flavor, augmented by a lot of mythical imagery and inspiration for its various alien storylines, it's bingeable in the same way as those shows. There are tons of slow-burn lore and recurring plot threads, but with plenty of downtime for the more procedural elements to play out.

Perhaps the biggest point of appeal for this series in a modern streaming context is the sheer volume of material available to watch. Not to mention the many spin-offs that can be pursued for those who get hooked on the premise. Space mythos and ancient alien portals had an appeal in the late '90s, and they have the same appeal now.

You've likely never heard of 2022's "Night Sky." The eight-episode series came and went so quickly and received so little attention from Amazon, despite being a Prime Video original series. But that might start to surprise you when you see the cast list, headlined by the titanic duo of Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons.

Similar in premise to "Outer Range," the story centers around the discovery of a strange sci-fi phenomenon on otherwise ordinary land. In this case, retired couple Irene (Spacek) and Franklin (Simmons) discover a device in their backyard that transports them to what appears to be an observation chamber overlooking an alien world. Keeping the secret, they use this extra-dimensional space as a simple pleasure in their retirement, venturing there frequently to observe the strange landscape on the other side. When a strange visitor stumbles into their lives, however, things quickly escalate, pushing the couple to seek out answers regarding the strange device.

"Night Sky" is as much a quiet drama about love and old age as it is a sci-fi thriller, and its leading duo lifts what could have been an easily forgettable show far above its base potential. The pacing can be a little uneven throughout, and not every tangent is as compelling as the core story, but this is still a unique science fiction series that's more than worth your time.

The last decade has brought more new sci-fi TV shows than any decade prior, thanks to the influx of funding and explosion in production brought on by the streaming age. And yet, within that very crowded market, many would tell you that "The Expanse" is still the best. Based on the novels by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for co-authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), the show blends epic scale, political intrigue, character drama, and good old-fashioned spaceship sci-fi to create one of the most compelling genre shows of its era.

Set far into the future, "The Expanse" nonetheless maintains a fairly grounded scope in its sci-fi story. The solar system as we know it has been colonized, with different political forces vying for resources and political control, all while the small players get caught in the middle. The show follows the crew of the starship Rocinante as they navigate this fraught political climate.

The show ran for three seasons on Syfy before being canceled. A massive fan campaign pushing for renewal led to Amazon picking the show up for Season 4 and eventually 5 and 6 after having streamed the first three seasons during the Syfy run. The series can currently be watched in its entirety on the streamer, and many would call it the strongest science fiction series available on Prime Video.