Stranger Things Finale Blues? 5 Hidden Netflix Sci-Fi Gems to Binge Next

If the Stranger Things finale left your watchlist looking a little empty, you are not alone. Netflix has a deeper sci-fi bench than it gets credit for, and a few of its best genre swings flew under the radar. If you want shows with big ideas, creepy vibes, or just plain addictive storytelling, these five will scratch the itch.

Five underrated Netflix sci-fi series worth your time

1. Archive 81

   File this under slow-burn dread. An archivist named Dan Turner is hired to restore a batch of scorched VHS tapes and, surprise, the footage drags him into a gnarly mystery involving a woman and a very cursed apartment building. If you liked the uneasy, shadowy corners of Stranger Things, this leans hard into that vibe and keeps twisting the knife.

   Seasons: 1
   Major cast: Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, Evan Jonigkeit
   IMDb: 7.3/10
   Rotten Tomatoes: 87% Tomatometer | 85% Audience

2. The OA

   This one is ambitious in a way most shows would not dare. Prairie Johnson disappears for seven years and comes back with her blindness cured and a story about alternate realities that sounds impossible until it is not. She pulls together a small group to help her navigate what she believes is a path between worlds. It blends sci-fi, spirituality, and raw human emotion in a way that should not work, but somehow does.

   Seasons: 2
   Major cast: Brit Marling, Jason Isaacs, Scott Wilson
   IMDb: 7.8/10
   Rotten Tomatoes: 84% Tomatometer | 83% Audience

3. Alice in Borderland

   Imagine waking up in a near-empty Tokyo where survival depends on beating a series of deadly games that feel part logic puzzle, part nightmare. Arisu, a gamer with more skills than he realizes, gets dropped into this alternate version of the city with his friends and has to think his way out. It is tense, violent, and weirdly moving. Season 3 is out now, and yes, the stakes go up again.

   Seasons: 3
   Major cast: Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Nijiro Murakami
   IMDb: 7.8/10
   Rotten Tomatoes: 78% Tomatometer | 80% Audience

4. Dark

   Dark is the show you watch once for the story, then watch again to catch all the machinery humming underneath. Four families in the town of Winden start searching for a missing child and trip straight into a multi-generational time-travel conspiracy. It plays with fate, free will, and cause-and-effect until your brain begs for a whiteboard. In a good way.

   Seasons: 3
   Major cast: Louis Hofmann, Karoline Eichhorn, Lisa Vicari
   IMDb: 8.7/10
   Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Tomatometer | 94% Audience

5. Travelers

   Time travel with a moral hangover. In the future, humanity is on the brink, so they start sending consciousnesses back into people moments before they die. The goal is to tweak small events and steer history away from catastrophe, but hijacking a life comes with messy consequences. It is propulsive sci-fi that still finds time to ask uncomfortable questions about agency and responsibility.

   Seasons: 3
   Major cast: Eric McCormack, MacKenzie Porter, Reilly Dolman
   IMDb: 8.0/10
   Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Tomatometer | 97% Audience

All five are streaming on Netflix. Which one are you queuing up first?