5 sci-fi shows more unsettling and philosophical than Westworld

All the best works of science fiction make us think. What will the future be like? How is technology changing the shape of our lives? What is the nature of consciousness? Westworld hit on all three of these buttons. The HBO show was set in the near future when human beings have created human-like androids nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The action takes place in a theme park where human visitors interact with these robotic “hosts” to play out fantasy scenarios, before the hosts inevitably gain consciousness and turn against their human creators.

Unfortunately, Westworld was just one of many sci-fi shows canceled before it could deliver a proper ending, but if you’re looking for other sci-fi series that make you question the nature of reality, you have options.

Altered Carbon

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Resleeved but not forgotten

Westworld questions what it means to be human in a world where robots may be the superior species. Altered Carbon, a short-lived Netflix show that deserves more love, also asks the big questions about humanity, but the details are different: in this version of the future, people can transfer their consciousnesses in and out of different bodies, effectively making it possible to become immortal…if you have enough money.

The main character is Takeshi Kovacs, the last known member of a rebel group that many years ago rose up against this world’s global government. Kovacs is played by Joel Kinnaman in the first season and by Anthony Mackie in the second, which is the kind of thing you can get away with if your show is about a reality where people hop bodies on the regular.

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Altered Carbon was canceled after two seasons, but the main storyline was more or less resolved, so you won’t feel like the rug is pulled out from under you when you’re through. It’s very much worth watching today in all its cyberpunk glory.

Release Date: 2018 – 2019
Showrunner: Anthony Mackie
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis

Black Mirror

33 episodes of technological nightmare fuel

If you’re interested in thoughtful sci-fi, odds are that you’ve at least heard of Black Mirror. This is the anthology sci-fi show of our age, a series where every single episode tells a unique story about how technology may change the world, and a lot of it is very unsettling. “White Christmas” looks at how advanced technology can be used for voyeurism, “Nosedive” is set in a world where your rating on a social media site determines how good a life you can lead, and “Be Right Back” revolves around a woman who constructs an AI version of her boyfriend after the real article dies in a car crash. Some of these stories feel far-fetched, and some of them feel ripped from the headlines.

You never know what you’re going to get with an episode of Black Mirror, but you may well think differently when you’re done watching it. There are also some lighter episodes in there to help break up all the bleakness, like the Star Trek send-up “USS Callister.” With technology developing at a stupendous clip in our own world, expect Black Mirror to remain relevant for a long time to come.

Release Date: December 4, 2011
Network: Channel 4, Netflix
Showrunner: Charlie Brooker
Directors: Owen Harris, Toby Haynes, James Hawes, David Slade, Carl Tibbetts, Ally Pankiw, Bryn Higgins, Dan Trachtenberg, Euros Lyn, Jodie Foster, Joe Wright, John Hillcoat, Sam Miller, Tim Van Patten, Uta Briesewitz, Colm McCarthy, Jakob Verbruggen, James Watkins, John Crowley, Otto Bathurst, Anne Sewitsky, Brian Welsh
Writers: Jesse Armstrong

Cristin Milioti

Nanette Cole
Milanka Brooks

Elena Tulaska
Paul G. Raymond

Kabir Dudani

Devs

The Matrix, if it were slow and scary

Back to underrated shows, Devs is a Hulu miniseries you can and should absorb the whole of in one weekend. It’s about a young software engineer (Sonoya Mizuno) whose boyfriend dies shortly after joining the Devs team at Amaya, the tech company where they both work. The Devs team is working on a quantum computer that can… well, I don’t want to spoil it, but I’ll say that with our ability to use AI to simulate the real world getting more sophisticated by the day, what the team is working on doesn’t seem like too big a stretch, even though it would change everything about the way we think about reality. In fact, a lot of sci-fi feels like that these days.

Devs is a slow, deliberate show with very creepy vibes and a giant philosophical question at its center: if a digital world can become so sophisticated that it’s indistinguishable from our actual reality, is there really a difference? Mull that over when you’re done.

Release Date: 2020 – 2020-00-00
Network: FX
Showrunner: Alex Garland
Directors: Alex Garland
Writers: Alex Garland

Stephen McKinley Henderson

Raised by Wolves

You won’t know what you just watched, and you’ll love every minute of it

While Devs is very focused on exploring one big idea, Raised by Wolves throws a whole lot at the wall and is happy to just see what sticks. The show is set on the planet Kepler-22b, where a pair of androids known only as Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim) are raising a group of human children, the Earth having been devastated in a religious war. There’s also an ancient android known as Grandmother (Selina Jones) who may be responsible for devolving human beings into bestial sea creatures, a giant flying serpent who may be Mother’s child, and more religious symbolism than you can shake a thurible at.

Raised by Wolves is thoughtful, scary, action-packed, and weird beyond measure. Unfortunately, this is another series canceled before its time; there are only two seasons, and unlike Altered Carbon, the show feels unfinished. But it’s still worth watching for the novelty factor alone.

Release Date: 2020 – 2021
Network: HBO Max
Showrunner: Aaron Guzikowski
Directors: Ridley Scott
Writers: Aaron Guzikowski

Severance

Get in on the ground floor

Severance is another popular show, but if you’re looking for unsettling sci-fi that makes you think, there are few shows that do it better.

Severance is set in a weird sideways version of our world (or maybe the future, it’s unclear at this point) where a company called Lumon has invented technology that can sever the self; folks who get “severed” essentially have two people living in their head, but only one is in control of the body at a time and neither remembers what the other has done when they’re not in the driver’s seat. Lumon is selling the procedure as a way for people to never have to experience the grind of work; you can simply send your severed self to your job and just enjoy your downtime. But it’s hinted that they have designs far greater than that.

Severance is two seasons deep and picking up steam. It’s looking like it could become one of the defining TV shows of the 2020s, so it’s best to start getting obsessed now.

Release Date: February 17, 2022
Network: Apple TV
Showrunner: Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

Tramell Tillman

Seth Milchick

Whither Westworld?

Westworld was canceled in 2022, literally the year before generative AI became a major talking point. It’s true that the show had lost some of its power and coherence over the years, but it seemed like terrible timing that a show about robots taking over the world ended mere months before everyone started worrying about AI replacing human jobs. I wonder what Westworld could have contributed to the conversation had it gone through with its planned fifth and final season.

That said, I expect a lot of other sci-fi shows to pick up the slack and get our brains turning. Writers certainly have enough material to work with nowadays.