Some of the best sci-fi shows to ever air take place entirely on Earth. While space and science fiction go hand-in-hand like wizards and fantasy and ghosts and horror, science fiction does not have to involve space at all and still be planted in the genre. Sci-fi is a wide umbrella, and some people want a more… down-to-Earth take on it.
For a series to be included on this list, the show must take place entirely on Earth. It doesn’t matter which version of Earth, and alternate versions of Earth are fair game. Worlds created by humans on Earth are fair game, but dimensions that can’t be confirmed to be on Earth, such as the Hellmouth in Buffy, are not.
Dollhouse (2009-2010)
Dollhouse is centered on a corporation that runs underground establishments known as “Dollhouses” that program humans as “Actives”. These Actives are humans who have volunteered to surrender their personalities for numerous pre-programmed ones that allow clients to use the Actives for whatever they wish.
The series follows one Active in particular, Echo (Eliza Dushku), who operates out of Los Angeles, California. Unlike other Actives, Echo retains some of her memories between personality wipes. Dollhouse asks intriguing questions about autonomy and consciousness that are slowly expanded upon as Echo learns more and more.
Utopia (2013-2014)
Arby holding a gun to someon’s head in the British action show Utopia
Utopia is a British thriller drama that ran for two seasons on Channel 4 and follows a community of comic fans who are readers of The Utopia Experiment, a fictional graphic novel that appears to have predicted several disastrous epidemics. When news of a sequel is leaked, four members of the online community meet to stop something terrible from happening.
When they find a manuscript of the sequel novel, a mysterious organization known as The Network seeks to upend their lives. In over their heads, the group gets a leg up when they meet Jessica Hyde (Fiona O’Shaughnessy), who has been dealing with this shady cabal since she was young.
Humans (2015-2018)
Humans is based on the Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, which explores themes of artificial intelligence, robots, and free will, a common question raised when it comes to androids. Set in an alternate version of modern-day Britain, Humans follows the members of the Hawkins family who purchase a discount “Synth”.
A Synth is a domestic robot, programmed to be docile and subservient, but nearly indistinguishable from humans. This Synth, Anita (Gemma Chan), is actually hiding a conscious Synth named Mia Elster. Humans explores every modern science fiction question you can think of and does so without feeling like it’s overloaded.
Better Off Ted (2009-2010)
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Better Off Ted (2009-2010)
Better Off Ted stars Jay Harrington as Ted Crisp, an overworked, single father who is the head of research and development at Veridian Dynamics, a stereotypically evil megacorporation that has created things like killer pandas and weaponized pumpkins. It’s supposed to be ridiculous.
Ted and many of his coworkers are fully aware of how evil their company is and make tiny efforts every day to stop truly awful things from happening. Better Off Ted plays with the TV art form, frequently breaking the fourth wall and interrupting the action with mock commercials for Veridian Dynamics products.
Black Mirror (2016-2022)
Cristin Milioti as Cole with her arms crossed in Black Mirror season 7 episode 6 USS Callister Into Infinity
Black Mirror, the haunting, creepy, horrifying, and darkly funny British anthology series, shines a light on a world that’s only a few degrees shifted from our own. It’s crucial that the series takes place on Earth for the meaning of its many messages to truly sink in.
Sometimes the show plays a trick, convincing the viewer or the characters that we are in some different universe, only for it to be revealed that we are in a fabricated environment. It’s a series with an episode for everyone, and it may hit a bit too close to some who love their tech too much.
Fringe (2008-2013)
Fringe is a sci-fi show that entirely hinges on the idea of parallel universes, but those parallel universes are still versions of Earth, making this Lost follow-up a show that still adheres to the rules of the list. Made by J.J. Abrams just as he started to wrap up his work on Lost, Fringe is also a jam-packed mystery box.
The series begins as a sci-fi procedural, following the newly formed Fringe Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation responsible for investigating crimes and occurrences related to fringe science theories. Wildly ambitious, Fringe went from an exciting mystery-of-the-week series to a complex adventure many seasons in the making.
Devs (2020)
Devs is a must-watch TV miniseries created by Alex Garland whose name alone should let you know that you’re in for a probing, philosophical, unnerving, sci-fi treat. The director of Ex Machina and Annihilation made his only TV series in 2020 for FX, titled Devs and starring Sonoya Mizuno as Lily Chan.
The eight-episode series follows Lily, a software engineer who works for Amaya, a computing company run by the enigmatic Forest (Nick Offerman). Lily uncovers a conspiracy involving the death of her boyfriend and his involvement in the “Devs” team at Amaya, leading her down a path filled with questions of free will wrapped in Silicon Valley tech speak.
Orphan Black (2013-2017)
Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black
Orphan Black stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, one of several genetically identical human clones. In the world of Orphan Black, which is Earth, cloning is possible, but also illegal, and Sarah comes to realize that she is just one result of an illegal cloning experiment that someone is trying to clean up.
Maslany ends up playing multiple versions of the same character, making them all distinct and feel like they’ve been raised in different environments. It’s a sharply written series that balances the gravity of its story with the humor and excitement of its core conceit for maximum, impactful effect.
Westworld (2016-2022)
Based on the 1973 film of the same name by Michael Crichton, Westworld is a four-season science fiction series that takes place in the near future on Earth. Science has progressed to the point where engineers have created “Hosts”, biomechanical androids indistinguishable from real humans.
What no one was able to predict was that these Hosts would one day gain sentience and begin to question why they were built and why they have to obey their creators. The series gets a bad rap for its cancellation and seemingly overly complex story, but viewers who give it a try will find something incredible in it.
The X-Files (1993-2018)
8/10
Release Date
1993 – 2018-00-00
Network
FOX
Showrunner
Chris Carter
The X-Files frequently features extraterrestrial creatures and organisms arriving on Earth and other monsters of unknown origin making their presence known, but we’re never actually taken off Earth in the series. In fact, for most of the series, every case could be explained away by Dana Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) scientific skepticism.
The series is a sci-fi procedural starring FBI Agents Scully and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), an ardent supernaturalist who believes in everything that Scully is suspicious of. The X-Files is consistently ranked as one of the best sci-fi shows of all time and a hugely influential series as well.