By Dave B.

​The fifth season of Black Mirror (Netflix) continues the series’ theme of how near-future technology could impact society, and the individuals within it, in both marvelous and horrifying ways. The three, hour-long episodes that make up Season Five cover the technological areas of virtual reality, social media, and brain-mapping/transference. But at its core the show maintains its focus on relationships and how cultural, social, and technological changes don’t necessarily alter what it fundamentally means to be human.

By Dave B. 

​In Rim of the World (Netflix), four of the kids at the Rim of the World Adventure Camp get separated from their group when an alien invasion occurs. The campers encounter a downed space capsule whose sole passenger gives them a literal key that may be the figurative key to saving humankind. If the kids can get it the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is over 80 miles away through both interstellar and homegrown dangers.

By Dave B.

In the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, the Federation faces an unexplained phenomenon that heralds a threat to all life in the galaxy. The crew, with a new captain at the helm, battles across time and space to defeat an enemy that knows the Federation’s strengths and weakness like no other enemy could. The galaxy’s only hope of survival lies with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) finding and reconciling with her brother…Spock. 

By Dave B.

​The Wandering Earth (currently on Netflix) is a Mandarin-language, sci-fi epic, based on the award winning novel by Liu Cixin about humanity’s attempt to move the entire Earth to another solar system due to the sun beginning its final stages of existence several billion years before expected. People have moved to underground cities beneath 10,000 engines that propel the planet through the solar system on its way to the Alpha Centauri solar system. While attempting a slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, a course miscalculation leads half of the Earth’s engines to malfunction. Both on the frozen surface and in a massive space station that guides the way for the planet, people struggle to repair the engines before Jupiter’s gravity causes Earth to collide with the gas giant. 

By Dave B.

Love, Death & Robots, Netflix’s newest sci-fi anthology series, consists of 18 animated shorts that explore topics ranging from courage, sexuality, horror, revenge, and hope. If you imagine a mashup of The Animatrix and Black Mirror, you’d have a pretty good starting point for imagining the format of the series. The stories take place in a variety of settings from the grand cosmos to a freezer in a small kitchen. With episodes ranging in runtime from between six and 17 minutes, the series takes about three hours to get through if one were inclined to binge watch it. 

By Dave B.

While a cyberneticist is rummaging through a huge pile of garbage, he makes an amazing find: the largely disembodied head of Alita, a combat cyborg that is equipped with a human mind and an advanced robotic body. Alita’s innate sense of justice puts her at odds with all of the injustice that exists in her 26th century surroundings. As she uncovers more of her past, she discovers that no matter the era, some enemies will always have to be confronted. 

By Dave B.

​On October 1, 1989, 43 children were born to women who hadn’t been pregnant before that day. An eccentric billionaire purchased seven of these children from women around the world and raised them to be a group of elite superheroes. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) starts off with the death of their billionaire father bringing the estranged and embittered siblings back together for the first time in over a decade. While trying to reconcile their differences, the surviving members of The Umbrella Academy must put aside their grievances and unite in order to prevent the eradication of all life on Earth. 

By Dave B.

In Ghost in the Shell, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is a super-soldier assigned to an elite counterterrorism unit of the Japanese government. Although many people in this near-future version of Tokyo have cybernetic enhancements, Major is unique: she has a human brain in a completely manufactured robotic body. When senior employees at Hanka Robotics (the corporation that created her body) begin being assassinated, Major must discover who the killer is while uncovering the mystery of her own origins. 

By Dave B.

In Transformers: The Last Knight (2017, currently on Amazon Prime) the Earth is being inundated with wave after wave of Transformers falling from space, prompting the governments of the planet to form a task force that hunts down and destroys the machines. Meanwhile, Optimus Prime makes his way back to his wrecked homeworld of Cybertron where he encounters his creator. In order to restore his home, Optimus commits himself to the destruction of Earth. But his creator hides a deeper secret, one that goes to the root of the Transformers’ long interactions with our planet. 

By Dave B.

The Colony (2013, currently on Hulu) takes place nearly two decades after attempts to geoengineer away the problem of climate change has rendered the Earth nearly uninhabitable. Constant snow and arctic temperatures have forced humanity’s few remaining survivors to live in underground colonies. When one of the colonies transmits an ominous SOS, its nearest neighbor sends out a rescue party. But their attempt to be a good neighbor brings mortal danger to their doorstep and forces the austerity induced tensions within their compound to come to a head.