Vote now: Bingewatch Award for Best Sci-Fi TV Series of the 2010s
The 2010s delivered a rich run of science fiction on television, from post-apocalyptic survival stories to time-bending mysteries and space operas that stretched across multiple seasons. Fans now look back at that decade with the benefit of completed arcs and clear endings rather than open questions about what might come next.
That perspective sharpens the conversation around the Bingewatch Award for Best Sci-Fi TV Series of the 2010s. The nominees still range from 3% to Westworld, and the vote offers a chance to recognize the shows that shaped how audiences think about the genre today.
Every entry on the list carries a distinct voice, whether through international perspectives, bold experiments with form, or fan campaigns that kept certain titles alive after network decisions. The final tally will reflect which series left the strongest mark once the decade closed.
Legacy of 2010s Sci-Fi on Modern Streaming
The Expanse and Stranger Things both helped push space opera and nostalgia-driven storytelling into the center of 2020s programming. Their visual scale and serialized plotting set expectations for what prestige science fiction could look like on streaming platforms.
Netflix’s early investment in international productions such as 3% also opened doors for global originals that followed. The success of those Brazilian episodes showed that science fiction could travel across languages and still land with wide audiences.
Those patterns continue to influence commissioning choices. Platforms now routinely greenlight large-scale genre projects with built-in international appeal, a direct extension of the groundwork laid between 2010 and 2019.
Representation Breakthroughs in 2010s Sci-Fi
The 100 triggered one of the decade’s most visible conversations about queer representation after the death of Lexa. The resulting discourse helped launch ClexaCon and pushed writers’ rooms to examine how they handled LGBTQ+ characters.
Sense8 and Shadowhunters received consistent praise for inclusive casting and storylines that treated diverse identities as part of the world rather than special episodes. Both series folded those elements into ongoing plots without isolating them from the larger narrative.
The ripple effects appear in later productions that cite these shows as reference points. Writers and showrunners now treat representation as a baseline expectation instead of an add-on.
Unresolved Mysteries and Fan Theories That Endured
Dark’s intricate knot of family connections and time travel still generates detailed breakdowns years after the finale. Viewers continue to map the origin world and the sacrifices that closed the loop.
The OA’s alternate dimensions and its interactive elements keep attracting cult attention. The series ended without a third season, yet the existing episodes remain popular for their willingness to treat mystery as an invitation rather than a puzzle to solve on screen.
These lingering discussions show how certain 2010s titles reward repeat viewing. Their structures encourage fans to treat the shows like ongoing texts even after production stops.
From Cancellation to Revival: Fan Power in Sci-Fi
The Expanse became the clearest success story when Amazon rescued the series after Syfy ended its run. Six seasons later, the show delivered a full adaptation of the book series with an emotionally satisfying close.
Sense8 received a feature-length conclusion after Netflix canceled the series, giving the cluster one last story. The wrap-up movie addressed major threads while acknowledging how much more the premise could have explored.
Other titles, such as Dark Matter and Colony, did not receive similar reprieves. Their endings stand as reminders that fan campaigns succeed only when platforms see a clear path to profitability.
The 100 wrapped after seven seasons in September 2020, and all episodes later moved to Pluto TV. Altered Carbon concluded with its second season in 2020 after Netflix cited production costs. Dark reached a full resolution in its third season finale, “The Paradise,” which untied the time-travel knot through an origin-world sacrifice. The Expanse ended with season six in January 2022 after adapting Babylon’s Ashes. Stranger Things delivered its fifth and final season across three volumes in late 2025, cementing its status as a global phenomenon. Westworld finished after four seasons in 2022, with the final episode leaving humanity’s fate open while the creative team explored other outlets for the story. Doctor Who maintained its generational reach through Jodie Whittaker’s era and into Ncuti Gatwa’s run. The Umbrella Academy closed with a six-episode fourth season in August 2024 that wrapped the family dynamics and apocalypse thread.
These completed runs give the 2010s list a settled quality. Voters can now weigh each series against its full body of work rather than speculation about what might have followed. The award therefore functions as both a retrospective and a record of which stories continue to resonate once the decade itself becomes history.
