By Dave B.

White Chamber (2019, currently on Netflix) takes place in a near-future version of the United Kingdom that has declared martial law and is being opposed by a rebel group known as the United Kingdom Liberation Party. The film begins with a woman in a featureless white box undergoing physical and psychological torture for unknown reasons. As the movie progresses we learn that all is not as it seems, and that morality can often be a relative concept. 

By Dave B.

​Another Life (Netflix) takes place at some indeterminate point in a future that has a mix between extremely advanced and surprisingly contemporary technology. When a mysterious alien artifact lands on Earth and begins emitting a signal towards a distant star, the United States government sends a crewed mission to the signal’s destination in the hope of discovering if the aliens have benign or nefarious motives. During the journey, the ship, captained by Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackoff) encounters nearly every obstacle imaginable. But the fate of the human race rests in their hands and they won’t be deterred. 

By Dave B. 

​In The Predator (2018, currently on HBO), a ragtag group of soldiers with some significant emotional issues, battle the legendary alien threat and their own government. Through a bewildering array of locales, the group uses their combat skills to stay one step ahead of their foes while attempting to acquire a mysterious gift from an erstwhile enemy and save a kid. The stakes: the future of the humanity itself.

By Dave B.

In I Am Mother (Netflix), humanity has been wiped out after a devastating war against their robot creations. In one remote facility, a robot (Mother) tasked with caring for and preserving human life begins to fulfill its programming by restarting the human race. She raises a child (named Daughter) from infancy up to her teenage years and everything is going smoothly until a mysterious stranger (Hilary Swank) arrives at the lab, desperate for help. Daughter, having been taught that the outside environment is toxic and that humanity is extinct, seeks to bond with the new arrival. But she soon discovers that her idyllic existence is not what it seems and Mother has been hiding horrifying truth’s from her. 

By Dave B.

​In the third season of Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things, the gang is growing up and romantic relationships test their bonds of friendship. Meanwhile, a secret Russian experiment threatens to unleash the Mind Flayer upon the world. Can the Hawkins crew re-forge their bonds in time to save their town and the world?

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.