Feel like stepping into a different world for a while? We’ve rounded up 12 of the best sci-fi, supernatural and otherwise otherworldly movies and TV shows for you to enjoy on Netflix over this weekend.
Gizmodo’s weekly Netflix movie night is presented by the new HP Spectre x360. Any way you bend it, the Spectre x360 delivers. With four modes, lightning-fast performance, and impressive battery life, this convertible PC has the best of all worlds and the shortcomings of none.
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Orphan Black
Orphan Black is an amazing concept — one ordinary down-on-her-luck outsider witnesses a suicide of a woman who looks exactly like her, and assumes her life until everything starts to go wrong. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: When Sarah witnesses the suicide of a woman who looks just like her, she assumes the deceased’s identity, her boyfriend and her bank account.
IMDb: A streetwise hustler is pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her.
Heroes
Heroes is one of the best sci-fi supernatural series ever to have been on TV — a band of wildly varying individuals who have to work together to save the world from a multitude of different threats. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: This groundbreaking sci-fi drama intertwines the stories of a disparate group of people who suddenly discover they possess superhuman abilities.
IMDb: The lives of common people, who discover they have superpowers, intertwine in order to save the world from different threats.
Hemlock Grove
Hemlock Grove takes one everyday, white-bread American town, and adds in a heady dose of supernatural horror, including all manner of terrible beasts like werewolves and vampires. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: Secrets are just a part of daily life in the small Pennsylvania town of Hemlock Grove, where the darkest evils hide in plain sight.
IMDb: A teenage girl is brutally murdered, sparking a hunt for her killer. But in a town where everyone hides a secret, will they find the monster among them?
Between
Between has a great premise — how would a town survive with no adults in charge — and is another Originals project co-funded by Netflix, and you’ll be able to follow week by week. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: After a mysterious disease kills every resident over 22 years old, survivors of a town must fend for themselves when the government quarantines them.
IMDb: Between is the story of a town under siege from a mysterious disease that has wiped out everybody except those 21 years old and under.
Daredevil
Daredevil is the classic Marvel superhero, made as part of Netflix’s Originals project — a blind lawyer, noble but flawed and perfectly human, who fights by night to rid his city of crime. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: Blinded as a young boy, Matt Murdock fights injustice by day as a lawyer and by night as the Super Hero Daredevil in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.
IMDb: A blind lawyer, with his other senses superhumanly enhanced, fights crime as a costumed superhero.
Torchwood
Torchwood is a Doctor Who spin-off, and follows an entire team of heroes as they battle other-worldly (and other-timely) villains and supernatural threats attacking our planet. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: This “Doctor Who” spinoff follows the fight against hostile aliens by the Torchwood Institute team, with the enigmatic Capt. Jack Harkness in command.
IMDb: The members of the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization founded by the British Crown, fight to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats.
Sense8
Sense8 takes some getting into — make sure you stick with it through the first two episodes, which are slow — but turns into a mind-bending tale of eight people around the world whose minds suddenly merge inexplicably. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: From the creators of “The Matrix” and “Babylon 5” comes this tense series in which eight people can telepathically experience each other’s lives.
IMDb: A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world’s order.
Misfits
Misfits is a British supernatural TV series that follows a group of five teens struck by lightning and imbued with otherworldly powers while out on community service, and it’s great fun to watch. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: After being sentenced to six weeks of community service, five ne’er-do-well teens discover that a freak storm has given them superpowers.
IMDb: A group of young offenders doing community service get struck by lightning during a storm, and begin to develop superpowers.
The Returned
The Returned has a similar premise to Between, but throws the idea on its head — people aren’t disappearing, but are instead reappearing, un-aged and with no knowledge of their whereabouts. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: Several people come back to their home town in the same week after they’ve been dead for years in this eerie dramatic series.
IMDb: Focuses on a small town that is turned upside down when several local people, who have been long presumed dead suddenly reappear, having not aged and unaware of their own fatality.
Lost
Lost, like Heroes, is an absolute must-watch for its amazing otherworldly and entirely escapist plot — a crashed plane, a deserted island, and supernatural events happening all the while. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: After their plane crashes on a deserted island, a diverse group of people must adapt to their new home and contend with the island’s enigmatic forces.
IMDb: The survivors of a plane crash are forced to work together in order to survive on a seemingly deserted tropical island.
American Horror Story
American Horror Story is scary stuff — keep it away from your kids — but each episode is a rollercoaster ride of supernatural themes and concepts, best enjoyed in a dark room with a big bowl of popcorn. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: Exploring humankind’s unsettling capacity for evil, this darkly twisted drama plays upon the power of supernatural fears and everyday horrors.
IMDb: An anthology series that centers on different characters and locations, including a haunted house, an insane asylum, a witch coven, a freak show and a hotel.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload is one for the kids, especially the ones that loved The Avengers — it follows the team as they fight a bunch of baddies and protect the LEGO cosmic bricks from capture. Watch it now on Netflix.
Netflix: Villainous Loki is amassing an army to conquer Earth! His antics are keeping Spider-Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. busy as they tackle a host of bad guys.
IMDb: When the Silver Surfer and his surfboard are knocked out of the sky, shattering the board in pieces, Nick Fury calls the heroes of the Marvel universe to retrieve “the cosmic bricks”, before any villain, like Loki or Magneto, can take it.
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