When it comes to entertainment, 2025 has been a big year, particularly for television. Over the past 12 months, the small screen has given audiences some incredible series that cover just about every possible genre with some shows being brand new while others were eagerly awaited new seasons of beloved favorites. There was certainly no shortage of things to watch this year, and much of what was available was truly great.
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This is especially true when it comes to sci-fi. Sci-fi has been a hugely popular entertainment genre for some time, but it’s really been thriving in terms of television. 2025 saw quite a few new series and continuations come to screens, but even among all of the shows to choose from, there are a few sci-fi series that were new this year that stand out as the absolute best. From alien invasions to sentient robots, sci-fi television had some great stories in 2025. Here are the best of the best, ranked.
5) Alien: Earth
The first television series in the Alien franchise, Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth is a prequel of sorts to Ridley Scott’s 1979 film. Set in 2120, the series has a central premise of humanity’s pursuit of immortality via cyborgs, synthetics, and hybrids (synthetic bodies with transferred human consciousness). However, when deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on earth, a young hybrid named Wendy and a group of others discovers something that may be the biggest threat humanity has ever faced.
A unique approach to the Alien world, the series is a strong addition to the overall lore while also functioning to in some ways reimagine the long-lasting franchise. While the series is not without some flaws and a few uneven points, it manages to be both perfectly gory and very philosophical. Many have called it the most Alien thing in the Alien franchise in years — which is high praise.
4) Murderbot
Based on Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries book series and starring Alexander Skarsgard, Noma Dumezweni, and David Dastmalchian, Murderbot follows a security robot (Skarsgard) who goes rogue and gains free will, naming himself Murderbot. He ends up reluctantly joining a mission to protect scientists on a dangerous planet in his efforts to stay hidden even though all he really wants to do is binge soap operas. Somehow, Murderbot is just like all of us: both annoyed by and also drawn to humanity.
The series is hilarious, which makes it a little unusual in the sci-fi space. It was a standout for how it deals with the overall concept of human and AI relations and Skarsgard’s performance in particular was considered a major standout by critics and fans alike.
3) The Eternaut
Based on an Argentine science fiction comic from the late 1950s, In The Eternaut, a mysterious snowfall occurs suddenly in Buenos Aires and kills nearly the entire population leaving only a few thousand survivors, including Juan Salvo. As they struggle to continue to survive in the aftermath of the mysterious snowfall, they discover that it was just the start of an attack by extraterrestrial invaders.
Combining various subgenres including disaster thriller and alien invasion in its sci-fi, The Eternaut delivers a chilling and terrifying story. It’s been praised for its excellent pacing, great characters and performances, and has been praised as an adaptation that really does right by its source material at almost every turn. It’s a deeply compelling — if not scary — watch.
2) Pluribus
Probably the newest addition to this list, Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus is easily not only one of the best sci-fi series of 2025, but one of the best television series of the year as well. Starring Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus centers around Carol Sturka (Seehorn), an author who is one of a handful of people on Earth who manage to not be caught up in an extraterrestrial virus that causes the rest of humanity to become a part of a happy, peaceful hive mind. Notably misanthropic, Carol is determined to find a way to not only resisted being brought into the hive mind but also reverse what’s been done.
The show is a black comedy, but it explores some very serious themes, including ideas of individual identity and whether it’s better to be part of something perfect but largely homogenized and mindless or free and flawed. It’s creative, interesting, and very thought-provoking — and even with the first season having just concluded we already want more.
1) Cassandra
With a 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, Cassandra might be the one sci-fi series on this list that you’ve probably never heard of but stands out as a truly great series to make its debut this year. The German sci-fi horror thriller follows a family who moves into a 1970s smart home that has been unoccupied for 50 years and find Cassandra, the house’s domestic AI, reawakened and things quickly become very creepy — and threatening.
Cassandra is a lot of genres rolled into one. You have sci-fi, you have slasher horror, you even have pride drama. It’s an incredibly well-made series, with some truly disturbing storytelling as it serves as both a commentary and critique on artificial intelligence as well as family. There are some interesting twists to the series that are best left unspoiled, but it’s an incredible watch.
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