Apple TV+ Has Become the Home of Smart Sci-Fi Shows

If you are a fan of resplendent, otherworldly environments, interstellar galaxies, alien races, and all the other wonderful escapist elements within the science fiction genre, then you probably have noticed that you are tuning into one particular streamer much more often these days. AppleTV+ has started to corner the market on not only out-of-this-world space adventures but well-written and cerebral character-driven tales that will leave you both visually dazzled and psychologically stimulated. They have produced fan favorites like Ted Lasso, The Afterparty, The Morning Show, and many others, but over the past several years, they have really focused on bringing some of the smartest sci-fi shows as part of their service.

With notable and well-received entries like Silo, Severance, Foundation, Shining Girls, Invasion, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Noomi Rapace‘s eerie new Gravity meets Twilight Zone thriller Constellation all debuting within the last 24 months, there is no other place to catch revolutionary new sci-fi shows. AppleTV+’s For All Mankind is also coming off four solid and well-received seasons and heading into a fifth in 2025, further establishing itself as the streamer to watch for the more discerning fans of the genre.

Constellation

Jo returns to Earth after a disaster in space and discovers that there are missing pieces in her life, so she sets out to expose the truth about the hidden secrets of space travel and recover what she has lost.

Release Date

February 21, 2024

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Seasons

1

AppleTV+ Is Flexing With Both Established and New Shows

AppleTV+ has never flexed its muscle more in the sci-fi genre than it is right now. With flagship science fiction offerings like Foundation, For All Mankind, Silo, and For All Mankind already firmly established, they are following with a new wave of late 2023 and 2024 shows being greenlit. There is a clear commitment to consistently deliver compelling and intellectual premises that really give your imagination a healthy workout. They are the new gold standard in the genre. There are a lot of shows out there that offer viscerally impactful visuals, what sets current AppleTV+ shows apart from the rest is the focus on its richly developed characters. Right now, no less than six quality science fiction heavy shows are in the midst of their run. The early reviews are in for Constellation, and 2024 looks to be starting with just more of the same high quality content.

After just a handful of episodes dropping, AppleTV+ and Constellation have already shown the same kind of high-brow concept mixed with engaging and rigorously developed player and character arcs within its world. You can have the most aesthetically attractive and nuanced worldbuilding, but it is all relatively meaningless if you don’t give a damn about the individuals in the story. Other characters, like Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), Dr. Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), and Brother Day (Lee Pace) in Foundation give us a reason to emotionally invest ourselves every week. The same can be said of Mitsuki Yamoto (Shioli Kutsuna), Aneesha Malik (Golshifteh Farahani), and Trevante Cole (Shamier Anderson) in Invasion or Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) and Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) in Monarch. All of these players bring something different to the story being told, and they have all been given thorough backstories.

AppleTV+ Excels at Getting the Best Talent

From the writers of the source material to experienced and seasoned showrunners to casting the most talented actors, it all makes such an enormous difference in the final product that ends up on our screens. It all starts with the material that gets written on the page Invasion writer Simon Kinberg is a veteran of the genre with a pedigree that includes a handful of X-Men movies while David Weil has his established bona fides of his own with his successful turn with the show Hunters. For Constellation, veteran producer/director Michelle McLaren, who didn’t create the show but established her bona fides with Breaking Bad, is getting in on the push AppleTV+ is making on thoughtful sci-fi adventures.

Having top-notch actors delivering that material is key as well, and the shows that are propelling AppleTV+ to the forefront of smart sci-fi include gifted performers like Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Rashida Jones, and David Oyelowo who all star in Silo. In Foundation, a combination of known faces like Harris and Pace and up-and-coming talents like Leah Harvey and Lou Llobell make the series tick along at a beautiful pace. Invasion has talent from around the globe in Farahani, Anderson, Barratt, and Kutsuna. Joel Kinnaman leads a talented cast in the parallel reality NASA drama series For All Mankind which has a proven track record after four successful seasons. With the recent addition of top-level performers like Kurt Russell in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Swedish acting royalty Noomi Rapace along with the gritty Jonathan Banks in Constellation, the streamer is staying the course with stellar players.

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AppleTV+ Completely Commits to the Audience and the Project

While other streaming services like Netflix seem to be content with pouring everything into a couple of keystone shows, AppleTV+ has proven over the last four years that they are willing to invest longer term with the audience’s best interest in mind. For every Stranger Things, for instance, Netflix appears to be content with throwing away three or four promising shows after just a single season (see 1899), regardless of whether that show has a promising future or not.

Apple as an organization has always been willing to push the envelope with bigger, better, and more innovative products and that attitude has translated into its media streaming department, including both television and movies. Their model of focusing on a select group of projects to invest in and produce is proving to be more effective than other streamers who have demonstrated a tendency to throw a lot of things at the audience and hope that one of them takes off like The Witcher and Stranger Things. Its commitment to the viewer and the willingness to let the creative forces behind the scenes do their thing is integral. Apple is serious about the research and development that goes into its programming. They’re just doing it better right now, and that has never been more evident than in the smart science fiction that is thriving under its care.

Constellation and the others are currently streaming on AppleTV+ in the U.S.

Watch on AppleTV+