8 Sci-Fi Shows That Change Your Perception Of Reality

Some of the best sci-fi shows and movies out there are not merely one-dimensional portrayals of futuristic technology and alien worlds. Instead, they hold the power to completely alter the viewer’s perception of reality and prompt them to see the world differently. The Matrix is perhaps the perfect example of this, as the movie’s title has become a metaphor for hidden real-world systems and constructed lies.

Then there are movies like Arrival that make viewers question their perception of time. They encourage audiences to look beyond their linear understanding of the past, the present, and the future and question whether all three could exist at once. Christopher Nolan’s Inception is perhaps another great example. The movie blurs the lines between dreams and reality until the viewer is forced to ask what is even real.

Even on the small screen, some of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time do not reduce their vision to predicting a potential future. They attempt to immerse audiences in their ambitious takes on time travel, dualism, determinism, free will, and a myriad of other fascinating ideas and themes. Some shows achieve this so brilliantly that you are not the same after watching them for your perception of reality has changed.

8

Pantheon (2022-2023)

Boasting a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, Pantheon is a two-season sci-fi masterpiece that makes viewers ask many questions surrounding the nature of memories and how they affect consciousness. It makes one wonder if memories, identity, and emotions are treated as mere data patterns, could they be replicated and even deleted for good?

The Simulation hypothesis has been the premise of many sci-fi shows in the past. While most use it as a “cop out” to dismiss the otherwise impossible developments of their stories, Pantheon expands its vision far beyond conventional shows. It goes on a cosmic scale to explore how, if digital minds can build their own virtual worlds down to subatomic precision, the distinction between a “base reality” and a high-fidelity simulation completely disappears.

These are only a few of the many ambitious sci-fi ideas Pantheon puts forward to keep viewers on their toes throughout its two-season runtime. The show even tells a complete story that stays with a viewer long after the credits start rolling.

7

Mr. Robot (2015-2019)

From its opening moments, Mr. Robot throws a viewer into the unreliable narration of main character Elliot. The show’s pilot itself features several sequences that are nothing but imagined scenarios in the protagonist’s head. With these scenes, the show perfectly establishes that one cannot trust what they are seeing.

As it unfolds, Mr. Robot tells a post-cyberpunk story about alienation and unchecked corporate power. It dismantles how financial systems, debt, corporate conglomerates, and consumer habits quietly drive human behavior and keep the masses compliant by giving them an illusion of choice.

Some of its more hard-hitting moments really force the viewer to look beyond their day-to-day routines and wonder if, like Elliot, they are trying to hide from a harsh reality they cannot face.

6

Legion (2017-2019)

Suzanne Tenner / FX

By presenting its protagonist’s schizophrenia and godlike psychic powers as indistinguishable, the series asks terrifying questions about how we define mental illness and completely dismisses non-standard mental experiences. It is also packed with many philosophical monologs that break down how subjective truths surrounding everything from money to morality only exist because people collectively believe in them.

Even its portrayal of human memory highlights how one cannot expect their recollection of an event to be a reliable record of objective history. Memory in itself can be corrupted, evolved, or even removed. All in all, Legion is perhaps the perfect show for viewers who really wish to understand how our realities are shaped less by the objective truths of the world around us and more by how we perceive things.

5

Severance (2022-)

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Apple TV’s Severance cleverly takes the mundane ideal of achieving work-life balance and turns into a dystopian nightmare about corporate control and fractured perception of self. The show presents many characters whose identities have split into two: “innie” and “outie.” Initially, as a viewer, it is hard not to see the “innies” and “outies” as the same people.

However, as the “innies” develop their own distinct identities, even a viewer is forced to wonder if they are a single, unified consciousness. The show even plays with the nature of time by showing how the innies and outies experience distinct timelines. This raises many questions about how much of our lives we end up willingly forfeiting to corporate routine without an active presence.

Even its portrayal of everything from corporate cultism and the illusion of freedom in workplaces is highly relatable. It opens up one’s eyes to the injustices they must be enduring without even realizing it.

4

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)

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The Twilight Zone is among the foundational set of TV shows and movies that established the scope and vision of perception-warping television. Rod Sterling’s anthology can sometimes be a mixed bag because of how many diverse stories it tries to tell. However, in some of its most mind-bending and terrifyingly relatable installments, the series turns ordinary situations into bizarre portrayals of reality and human nature.

By establishing its titular “Twilight Zone” as the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, the show encourages viewers to see the world around them with careful skepticism. It argues that beneath the surface of the mundane world lies an unseen dimension of logic that will pull the rug under you.

If it wasn’t for The Twilight Zone, we probably wouldn’t have had many iconic modern sci-fi shows like Black Mirror, Severance, Lost, and even The X-Files.

3

Devs (2020)

Ranking among some of the most underrated and overlooked modern sci-fi shows, Devs is a one-season wonder created and directed by Alex Garland. The show’s bizarre story unfolds in a world where a powerful quantum computer is able to calculate every physical particle in existence and reconstruct the absolute past and project the exact future.

Although it primarily unfolds more as a murder mystery, it raises many questions about determinism and makes one wonder if we have any control over our future.

The show even dabbles with some high-concept ideas where it contrasts de Broglie–Bohm pilot wave theory with the Many-Worlds interpretation. By doing this, it forces the unsettling realization that somewhere in another parallel branch of reality, a choice you dismissed is potentially playing out.

2

Dark (2017-2020)

With chilling narration, Dark opens its storyline that asks viewers to shed their linear perception of time. “We trust that time is linear,” says the narrator before highlighting how the past, the present, and the future are nothing but endless loops where “everything is connected.” In season 1, Dark is fairly easy to follow as it establishes its two timelines and the Einstein–Rosen bridge/wormhole that connects them.

After season 1, however, the show completely shatters how you see everything from familial relationships to causality. Its characters become their own ancestors while their attempts to change the past often become the very events that create the future they are trying to prevent. Beyond its existential exploration of time travel, Dark also leaves viewers with a lesson of two about dealing with grief and accepting things they cannot control.

1

The OA (2016-2019)

Finding its place among Netflix’s most disappointing TV cancellations, The OA is cleverly deceptive in its first installment. It constantly makes viewers question whether its protagonist is an unreliable narrator of her past trauma surrounding escaping from a mad scientist’s lab or has truly experienced something extraordinary in her pursuit of freedom.

There is something truly spiritual about The OA‘s exploration of death and the cathartic impact of the near-death experiences of its characters. Like its characters, it is hard not to feel an inner shift as it walks through some of its most moving scenes that make death feel less like an ending and more like a doorway to something beautifully complex.

In season 2, the sci-fi show takes an even more ambitious turn before ending its run with one of the most meta and twisted cliffhanger endings. Fans of The OA still hope that the show will return someday with more seasons, and it is not hard not to join them after watching the series on Netflix.