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.
Science fiction can be one of the most exciting genres to watch on the small screen—and when consumed in heavy doses, it can be even more thrilling. Some sci-fi shows are a bit too long and too episodic to comfortably binge-watch, but others are far more taut and serialized, making them the perfect series to consume in several binge sessions.
This goes all the way from groundbreaking classics like Babylon 5to modern pop culture sensations like Stranger Things. These sci-fi shows tell stories that are exciting over the course of seasons, so well-made that they make every fan want to watch the whole thing in one sitting. Whether it's possible to finish the show over the course of one weekend, one week, or over a month, what's beyond debate is that these sci-fi shows demand to be binge-watched.
10
'Babylon 5' (1993–1998)
There are sci-fi shows that rewrite the genre's rules, and then, there's Babylon 5. What this show did was beyond revolutionary. More serialized series were entirely unconventional for American broadcast television at the time, and Babylon 5 was conceived as a novel for television. Throughout a pre-planned five-season story arc, every episode served as a chapter in the story, and television science fiction would never be the same again.
Sci-fi shows from before Babylon 5's release aren't usually the kind that your good ol' regular viewer would want to binge-watch, but with its more serialized format, this show made itself perfect for such viewing habits, which has allowed it to remain timeless 28 years after its conclusion. Visually delightful, occasionally campy, and awfully exciting, it's required viewing for all sci-fi fans.
9
'Dark' (2017–2020)
Netflix's first-ever German-language series, Dark, is by no means an easy watch. It's a thriller so dense, so twisty, and so mind-bending that you practically need a notebook by your side at all times while watching it. But for those willing to take constant notes to keep track of everything and everyone, it should prove to be one of the most fascinating genre series of the last few years.
Though it's definitely intellectually challenging, Dark is also so perfectly-written that it's hard to finish an episode and just call it a day. More likely, true sci-fi fans will immediately want to move on to the next one—and will more than likely be absolutely enthralled by it. That goes on all the way to one of the best sci-fi show finales of the last 10 years, which is the perfect way of bringing such an addictive series to an end.
8
'Stranger Things' (2016–2025)
Stranger Things is, by a pretty decent margin, Netflix's most successful original show to date. It's hardly a surprise: every season lands among the most expensive in TV history (the fifth being the third most expensive season of television ever), and you can always tell that each penny of that budget went into all the right places. Nostalgic, perfectly-cast, visually stunning, and done with a delightful retro aesthetic, it's a wonderful tribute to the movies, TV shows, and pop culture of the '80s.
It's one of those sci-fi TV shows that are almost masterpieces, but even in spite of its shortcomings—chiefly, perhaps, its disappointing final season—, Stranger Things is highly bingeable and terribly exciting from start to finish. Its excellently-written character arcs, its imaginative world-building, and its entertaining story are all best consumed in as few sittings as possible.
7
'The Mandalorian' (2019–Present)
Before 2019, the television dimension of the Star Warsuniverse had been limited exclusively to animation. That era had produced several excellent shows, but it was time for the franchise to take the next top. That year, it did: The Mandalorianbecame the first-ever live-action Star Wars series, and underwhelming third season notwithstanding, it immediately became one of fans' favorite modern entries in the franchise.
Though The Mandalorian sometimes leans more toward the episodic side, its narrative is nevertheless serialized enough to make it surprisingly addictive. Full of memorable moments, jaw-dropping visuals, and several of the best Star Wars TV show characters, it's a thrilling watch not only for Star Wars fans but also for those who love space adventures and sci-fi Westerns.
COLLIDER.
Collider · Quiz
Collider Exclusive · TV Medicine QuizWhich Fictional Hospital Would You Work Best In?The Pitt · ER · Grey's Anatomy · House · Scrubs
Five hospitals. Five completely different ways medicine goes sideways on television — brutal, chaotic, romantic, brilliant, and ridiculous. Only one of them is the ward your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out exactly where you belong.
🚨The Pitt
🏥ER
💉Grey's Anatomy
🔬House
🩺Scrubs
QUESTION 1 / 10APPROACH
01
A critical patient comes through the door. What's your first instinct?Medicine under pressure reveals who you actually are.
QUESTION 2 / 10MOTIVATION
02
Why did you go into medicine in the first place?The honest answer says more about you than the one you'd give in an interview.
QUESTION 3 / 10COLLEAGUES
03
What do you actually want from the people you work with?Who you want beside you under pressure is who you are.
QUESTION 4 / 10PRESSURE
04
How do you actually perform under extreme pressure?The worst shifts reveal things about you that the good ones never will.
QUESTION 5 / 10LOSS
05
You lose a patient you fought hard to save. How do you carry it?Every doctor who's worked a long shift has had to answer this question.
QUESTION 6 / 10STYLE
06
How would your colleagues describe the way you work?Your reputation on the floor is usually more accurate than your self-image.
QUESTION 7 / 10RULES
07
How do you feel about hospital protocol and procedure?Every institution has rules. What you do with them is a choice.
QUESTION 8 / 10SPECIALISM
08
What kind of medical work do you find most compelling?What draws your attention when you walk through those doors matters.
QUESTION 9 / 10TOLL
09
What does this job cost you personally?Nobody works in medicine without paying a price. What's yours?
QUESTION 10 / 10PURPOSE
10
At the end of a long shift, what keeps you coming back?The answer to this question is the most honest thing about you.
Your Assignment Has Been MadeYou Belong In…
Your answers have pointed to one fictional hospital above all others. This is the ward your instincts, your temperament, and your particular brand of dysfunction were built for.
PITTSBURGH TRAUMA MEDICAL CENTER
The Pitt
You are built for the most unsparing version of emergency medicine television has ever shown. The Pitt doesn't romanticise the work — it puts you inside a single fifteen-hour shift and doesn't let you look away. You are someone who needs their work to be real, who finds meaning not in the drama surrounding medicine but in medicine itself, and who has made peace with the fact that this job will take from you constantly and give back in ways that are harder to name. You don't need the chaos to be aestheticised. You need it to be honest. Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is exactly that — and you would not want to be anywhere else.
COUNTY GENERAL HOSPITAL, CHICAGO
ER
You are the person who keeps the whole floor running — not the most brilliant in the room, but possibly the most essential. County General is built on the shoulders of people who show up, do the work, absorb the losses, and come back the next day without requiring the job to be anything other than what it is. You care deeply about patients as individual human beings, you believe in the system even when it fails you, and you understand that emergency medicine at its core is about holding the line between order and chaos for just long enough. ER is television about endurance, and you have it.
GREY SLOAN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, SEATTLE
Grey's Anatomy
You came to medicine with your whole self — your ambition, your emotions, your relationships, your history — and you have never quite managed to leave any of it at the door. Grey Sloan is a hospital where the personal and the professional are permanently, chaotically entangled, and where that entanglement produces both the greatest disasters and the most remarkable saves. You are someone who feels things fully, who forms deep attachments to the people you work with, and who understands that the most extraordinary medicine often happens at the intersection of clinical skill and profound human connection. It's messy here. You would not have it any other way.
PRINCETON-PLAINSBORO TEACHING HOSPITAL, NJ
House
You are drawn to the problem above everything else. Not the patient as a person — though you are capable of caring, even if you'd deny it — but the case as a puzzle, the symptom that doesn't fit, the diagnosis hiding underneath the obvious one. Princeton-Plainsboro is a hospital that exists to house one extraordinary, impossible mind, and everyone around that mind is there because they are smart enough and stubborn enough to keep up. You work best when the stakes are highest, when the standard answer is wrong, and when the only way forward is to think harder than everyone else in the room. That is exactly what you would do here.
SACRED HEART HOSPITAL, CALIFORNIA
Scrubs
You understand that medicine is tragic and absurd in almost equal measure, and that the only sane response is to hold both of those things at the same time. Sacred Heart is a hospital where the laughter and the grief are genuinely inseparable — where a terrible joke can get you through a terrible moment, and where the most ridiculous people are also, on their best days, remarkably good doctors. You are warm, self-aware, and funnier than most people in your field. You lean on the people around you and you let them lean back. Scrubs is a show about learning to become someone worthy of the job — and you are still very much in the middle of that process, which is exactly right.
6
'12 Monkeys' (2015–2018)
Back in 1995, Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame made Twelve Monkeys, one of the most mind-twisting sci-fi cult classics of the '90s. When a Syfy TV series adaptation of the movie was announced, fans didn't know what to expect. After all, how can you possibly turn one of the '90s' best sci-fi classics into a show worthy of the legacy of its source material? In the end, though, 12 Monkeysturned out better than anyone could have expected.
It's one of the most underrated time travel shows ever, with masterfully tight writing that never allows plot holes (a common problem for this particular subgenre of sci-fi) to become an issue. That makes it abundantly easy to binge-watch, and the deeply emotional character development and fast-paced action make such binge sessions as exciting as Gilliam's '90s classic.
5
'Arcane' (2021–2024)
For the longest time, video game adaptations on both the small and big screens didn't exactly have a great track record. In recent years, that has changed dramatically. But even then, who could have predicted that a show based on League of Legends would turn out to be the single highest-rated video game adaptation on IMDb? Such is the magic of Netflix's Arcane.
LoL fans are bound to be delighted by the series, but even those who are familiar with nothing but the game's title will easily fall in love with Arcane's richly intricate world-building, character work, and plot. It's one of the best fantasy shows to binge-watch in one week, with just two fast-paced and exquisitely creative seasons to get through. The animation is gorgeous, the music is excellent, and every action scene is an irresistible adrenaline rush.
4
'Andor' (2022–2025)
There's a strong argument to be made that not since the '80s has the Star Wars franchise been better than Andor. This is one of the most ambitious sci-fi shows of all time, as well as one of the most relevant in these tumultuous times of social and political turbulence. Tony Gilroy achieved something truly special here: Without any Jedi, Sith, or even lightsabers, he brought Star Wars all the way back to its roots, delivering a hard-hitting story that condemns fascism and authoritarian power.
But aside from being politically sharp and thematically complex, Andor is constantly exciting and absolutely addictive. Moments of fast-paced action and suspense are well-balanced with scenes of quieter world-building and more contemplative character work, making for an enthralling two-season sci-fi series that all fans of the genre will want to watch all the way through in a single week.
3
'Severance' (2022–Present)
Every decade gets a heavily serialized and mysterious sci-fi thriller that seems to have everyone and their grandmother watching and talking about it. People in the 2000s had Lost, and people this decade get Severance. It's a fascinating mystery box show through and through, and also one of the heaviest thriller shows that have been made in recent years.
That heaviness comes from complex thematic intricacies that make Severance's quirky sense of humor and often surreal mysteriousness all the more exciting to watch. Every time the show grants viewers an answer, it brings up another two or three questions, and that's the perfect way of keeping the series so addictive that it's hard to finally put down the remote and turn off the TV.
2
'Black Mirror' (2011–Present)
What began as a relatively small and niche series on the British network, Channel 4, soon transformed into a huge pop culture sensation after Netflix acquired it. It's Black Mirror, of course, the spiritual successor to Rod Serling's The Twilight Zonein virtually every way. It's one of the heaviest sci-fi shows of all time, thanks to the often disturbingly believable way in which it explores the dark side of modern technology.
Black Mirror never feels fatalistic, though, but rather genuinely concerned with how humanity interacts with the many technological advancements that would have seemed like pure science fiction during Rod Serling's time. As an anthology show, it's not serialized at all, but since almost every episode is as fascinating, well-made, and well-acted as the last, it's a series as exciting and binge-worthy as any other.
1
'The Expanse' (2015–2022)
Often praised as the most scientifically realistic sci-fi show in recent years, The Expansedelighted both fans of James S. A. Corey's novels and fans of the genre in general over the course of six thrilling seasons. After a slow-burning introductory season that can sometimes feel a bit tedious to get through, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby's creation quickly becomes one of the most entertaining science fiction shows of all time.
The world-building is highly detailed and absolutely fascinating, making the show feel lived-in and remarkably real. That's largely what contributes to making this not only one of the most rewatchable sci-fi shows ever, but also one of the most bingeable. Complex character arcs, fascinating mysteries, and satisfying payoffs all make The Expanse a must-see for all fans of sci-fi.