10 Sci-Fi Sleeper Hits That Got So Much Better After Season 1

Published Sep 19, 2026, 6:02 AM EDT

Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel.

A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated.

Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point.

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Throughout the years, many of history's best science fiction shows have been instant success stories, showing just how immensely popular this genre has always been on the small screen. Many other great sci-fi shows, however, have been sleeper hits which may have started out quieter, subtler, and with relatively lower ratings; but as their run continued, they became hugely popular.

Remarkably often, the way a sci-fi show becomes a sleeper hit is by getting better as its seasons go on. Indeed, it's tough to really nail everything in the first season of a sci-fi series, and as a result, it's usually when you're patient with a show in this genre that you start getting better and better episodes as the seasons go on. From classics like Stargate SG-1 to modern sleeper hits like Killjoys, these are shows which prove that good things come to those who wait.

10 'Killjoys' (2015–2019)

Image via SYFY

The last few years have delivered several of the most entertaining space operas the small screen has ever seen, and the Canadian adventure drama Killjoys is most certainly among the best TV space operas of the century so far. Its ratings started out as relatively modest, but still stable enough for it to reach a natural conclusion after five seasons rather than be prematurely canceled. As a result, it was able to grow a dedicated cult following as it went on.

It definitely helped that after a first season that felt like more of an episodic, "monster of the week" kind of bounty-hunting series, Killjoys grew far more focused and profound during its second season. Even though today it can be considered one of those groundbreaking sci-fi shows people forgot, its cult status is arguably a huge part of its unique charm.

9 'Continuum' (2012–2015)

Image via Diyah Pera; Syfy; Everett Collection

As if any more proof were needed that Canadian sci-fi television can be absolutely exceptional, there's also Continuum, one of the most criminally forgotten sci-fi shows in recent memory. When it premiered on Canada's Showcase, its pilot became the network's highest-rated single episode ever. When Syfy took the show to the US, Continuum slowly started cementing its status as a bona fide modern cult classic.

Season one follows more of an episodic "case of the week" procedural format, more than compelling enough to hook any fan of sci-fi crime dramas; but it's what comes after that really made Continuum a hit to begin with. As the lore and mythologies become more complex, the story becomes more serialized, and the characters acquire whole new levels of depth, the series only keeps growing more engaging.

8 'The 100' (2014–2020)

Image via The CW

During the 2010s, the dystopian YA genre was all the rage across American film and television, and from that wave came the CW's The 100, an adaptation of the novel series by Kass Morgan. What critics initially dismissed as a somewhat generic and melodramatic YA drama capitalizing on the genre craze of the era soon started subverting expectations. Soon enough, The 100 was a massive success.

One of those obscure sci-fi shows that became cult classics, The 100 was wise enough to grow up and mature alongside its audience. While season one can at times feel quite juvenile, the series grows darker, more morally nuanced, and more brutal as it goes on. As the writers kept focusing on high-stakes plot lines and more layered character arcs, The 100 had nowhere to go but up.

7 'Travelers' (2016–2018)

Image via Netflix

The Canadian-American series Travelers continues to hold the approval of a whopping 100% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and the best part is that that's a perfectly well-deserved score. Made with a relatively modest budget and very little marketing, the series started growing into more and more of a cult classic purely through exceptional word-of-mouth throughout the years following its cancellation.

How could it not have? One of the very few sci-fi shows that get time travel right, Travelers was so impeccably written across the entirety of its run that it arguably deserves even more love than it tends to receive nowadays. Great though the series' first season may be, it can be a little slow at times. With season two rapidly raising the stakes and pushing the pacing forward, Travelers becomes all the more irresistible of a modern underrated gem.

6 '12 Monkeys' (2015–2018)

Image via Syfy

There are a few shows out there that are only four seasons long but are absolutely perfect. Syfy's 12 Monkeys is undoubtedly one of those shows. Inspired by Terry Gilliam's '90s cult classic time travel film Twelve Monkeys, this is another one of the best-written time travel series that the small screen has seen in several years. Many initially perceived it as a cheap imitation of the movie, but as it got better, it began garnering more and more critical acclaim.

Anyone who's actually seen 12 Monkeys—and anyone who loves time travel sci-fi absolutely should—will find that remarkably unsurprising. Though the first season may feel like an overstretched prologue at certain points, things only get better from there. Tightly plotted, huge in scope, and full of phenomenally written characters, it's proof that time travel really can work flawlessly on the small screen just as well as it can on the big screen.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

• You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
• You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
• You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
• The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

• You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
• You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
• You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
• In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

• You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
• In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
• You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
• In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

• Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
• You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
• Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
• In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

• You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
• You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
• You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
• In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

5 'Orphan Black' (2013–2017)

Image via BBC America

Fans of Canadian sci-fi television, rejoice, for there is another masterful sleeper hit in town. It's the dramatic thriller Orphan Black, starring Tatiana Maslany in one of the most powerful and commanding lead performances the sci-fi genre has seen at any point during the 21st century. The show debuted on smaller networks with relatively modest ratings, but thanks to great word-of-mouth and enthusiastic fans, it started building a level of momentum that turned it into a universally celebrated cult classic.

Season one is absolutely incredible and should be more than enough to get anyone instantly hooked, and that great debut season is part of why Orphan Black is one of the best thriller shows to rewatch. But as the mystery keeps unraveling and the plot twists keep arriving in droves, the series only keeps getting more entertaining and harder to stop watching.

4 'Stargate SG-1' (1997–2007)

Image via MGM Television

Back in 1994, Roland Emmerich's Stargate film was a major sleeper hit, grossing nearly $200 million dollars worldwide on a modest budget and following negative early test screenings. It should be only fitting that its television continuation, Stargate SG-1, was also a sleeper hit. It began its run with somewhat quiet ratings, but it quickly built a loyal fanbase that fiercely followed it throughout its 10-year tenure on air.

Considering that it's one of the best military sci-fi shows of all time, that should come as no surprise, but that wasn't always the case. Some point to the show's first season as a somewhat slow start, but as the lore and character dynamics deepen throughout seasons two and three, Stargate SG-1 becomes downright addictive. You don't get to hit 10 seasons without maintaining this tremendous level of quality.

3 'The Expanse' (2015–2022)

Image via Syfy Network

Based on the novel series by James S. A. Corey (the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), The Expanse is generally regarded not just as one of the most scientifically realistic sci-fi shows of the last few years, but even one of the very best. It kept growing and growing in popularity to the point that when Syfy canceled it after three seasons, fan backlash was so tremendous that it got Amazon to revive the show for another three seasons, helping ratings to spike significantly.

The result? One of the most perfect sci-fi shows of the last 25 years, even if patiently getting through a slow-burning first season that's mostly focused on establishing the tone and world-building may feel a bit chore-like to some. After The Expanse picks up steam, however, it never lets up, delivering one of the most complex and high-quality sci-fi shows the world has ever seen.

2 'Babylon 5' (1994–1998)

Image via PTEN

In an almost unprecedented move for American broadcast television at the time, Babylon 5 told a far more serialized story than the medium had ever seen before, structuring itself like a sort of novel for television where each of its five pre-planned seasons would serve as a new chapter of the story. It wasn't love at first sight, but word of mouth and early Internet fandom allowed the series to garner enough of a cult following to reach its natural conclusion.

What we got as a result was one of those classic sci-fi shows better than most new series, a true '90s classic which only keeps getting better and more entertaining with age. Its first season feels slightly more episodic and rougher around the edges, but viewers patient enough to get to season two will be treated to one of the most riveting serialized narratives sci-fi television has ever seen.

1 'Dark' (2017–2020)

Image via Netflix

Netflix's first-ever attempt at a German-language series was Dark, and it just so happens that it's still remembered as one of those Netflix sci-fi shows where every episode's a masterpiece. Since its first few episodes are such slow-burners and people didn't initially know what it was all about, they initially dismissed it as some sort of German twist on Stranger Things. Soon enough, though, Dark proved to be one of the best time travel shows streaming had ever produced.

The first few episodes do, indeed, feel quite slow even on rewatch. But as soon as things really kick off, Dark becomes absolutely engrossing. By the time you get to season two, challenging though the show may be, it also becomes impossible to stop watching. All thanks to word of mouth and online communities, Dark became one of the most universally praised sci-fi shows of the 21st century so far.

Dark