Television series

Brave New World

Name: Brave New World
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 2020
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Nina Sosanya, Kylie Bunbury

Dystopian sci-fi

Peacock's adaptation of Huxley's dystopian classic reimagines a chemically pacified future where stability comes at the cost of individuality, freedom, and truth. Visually sumptuous and morally unsettling, it leans into sensuality and body horror alongside philosophical unease. For viewers hungry for science fiction that questions what we're willing to sacrifice for comfort.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love dystopias that interrogate pleasure and conformity as much as they chase plot, and you don't mind a story that asks you to sit with its ideas.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast-moving thriller, because this is a leisurely, talky show where the big ideas often outrun the momentum and the tone stays cool and clinical.

What it asks of you: Nine episodes of roughly 48 minutes, a short commitment that rewards steady attention; the pace is measured and the mood stays quietly unsettling throughout.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Handmaid's Tale2017

A serialized dystopia that builds dread through intimate character arcs while interrogating how totalitarian systems exploit the body and identity. Equally committed to both spectacle and moral argument.

But Relentlessly bleak and graphic in ways that can feel punishing rather than purposeful. The first season is brilliant; later seasons test patience.

Altered Carbon2018

Cyberpunk noir about consciousness transplanted into new bodies, wrestling with immortality, inequality, and what makes a self. Visually distinctive and genuinely inventive about its central premise.

But The plot gets tangled by season two and the world-building sometimes overwhelms character. Harder sci-fi than Brave New World, less emotionally grounded.

The Giver2014

Another Huxley-adjacent adaptation about a perfect society stripped of color, choice, and memory. Quieter and more intimate than Brave New World, with surprising emotional depth about the cost of enforced contentment.

But Low-key and introspective where you might want urgency. The ending feels gentler than the material deserves, which some find moving and others find evasive.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Brave New World

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both explore manufactured worlds designed to satisfy desire while erasing authentic experience; both suggest the price of that escape is the loss of self.

Charlie Kaufman's baroque mindbender about a theater director building an exact replica of New York inside a warehouse—a world so complete it becomes inescapable. Like Brave New World, it's about constructed realities that seduce us into preferring them to truth.

But Deliberately disorienting and difficult. The narrative loops back on itself until the distinction between real and artificial collapses, which is the point but also genuinely exhausting.

Westworld2016

A playground built to satisfy every desire, undone when the artificial inhabitants begin to develop consciousness and rebellion. Intellectually ambitious, visually lavish, and obsessed with the same questions about autonomy and authenticity.

But The second and third seasons lose the plot while getting increasingly convoluted. What makes the first season special—clarity married to mystery—dissolves into self-indulgent complexity.

Never Let Me Go2010

A quiet, devastating meditation on a society that has normalized the unthinkable. Understated where Brave New World is baroque, but equally concerned with how systems make atrocity feel ordinary.

But Almost nothing happens in conventional plot terms. The power is in what's unsaid, which demands a patient, reflective viewer. Can feel slow to those wanting momentum.

Equilibrium2002

A fascist future where emotion itself is criminalized and citizens are medicated into obedience. More pulpy action-thriller than philosophical meditation, but genuinely inventive about visualizing enforced numbness.

But The tone wavers between serious dystopia and B-movie bombast. Christian Bale's deadpan delivery works, but the film sometimes seems to wink at itself rather than commit.

Children of Men2006

A masterpiece of dystopian cinema: a near-future where humanity has lost the ability to reproduce and society is collapsing. Formally brilliant and brutally humanistic, every shot matters.

But Bleak almost beyond measure, with violence that doesn't glamorize itself. The long, unbroken takes that make it formally brilliant can also be exhausting.

Parable of the Sower

Based on Octavia Butler's novel, it centers a Black woman's survival and leadership in a near-future America fragmenting into chaos and violence. Socially urgent and character-driven in ways that feel prophetic.

But The pacing is deliberately slow and the world is actively hostile. Some find that rigor necessary; others find it punishing as entertainment.

Gnomeo & Juliet2011

A garden-gnome retelling of Romeo and Juliet in a pastel, manufactured world where everything is perfect and color-coded. So deliberately artificial it almost comments on the artificiality itself.

But It's a children's film, and a fairly slight one. The meta-commentary on prescribed happiness is accidental rather than intentional.

The Platform2019

Both examine systems that maintain peace through accepting horror as inevitable; both ask what you'd compromise to stay comfortable within them.

A Spanish sci-fi horror about a vertical prison where food is distributed on a descending platform—a naked metaphor for class, consumption, and complicity. Grotesque and furious where Brave New World is seductive.

But Graphic body horror and scenes of cannibalism. The metaphor is deliberate and unsubtle. Some find that clarity powerful; others find it unimaginative allegory.