Television series
Extant
Halle Berry plays an astronaut struggling to reintegrate after a transformative year in space—only to discover something extraordinary happened during her mission. This sci-fi thriller weaves domestic tension with existential dread as her past and an AI-saturated future collide. Best for viewers who want speculative ideas with genuine emotional stakes.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy science fiction that begins with a strained homecoming and lets its cosmic questions seep into a family's kitchen table one slow, uneasy scene at a time.
Skip it if you want a brisk, genre-first thriller, since its early episodes linger on domestic friction and the mystery warms up slowly.
What it asks of you: Hour-long episodes, two seasons, and a patient pace: it asks you to sit with quiet family scenes and small clues, and rewards lingering over speed.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The OA2016
A missing woman returns with inexplicable abilities and fragmented memories. Like Extant, it braids intimate family mystery with dimension-bending sci-fi that asks what we're willing to believe about ourselves.
But The plotting becomes genuinely baroque by season two, and it was cancelled on a cliffhanger. Commitment required.
Manifest2018
A plane reappears after five years, passengers unchanged, unleashing supernatural mysteries that spiral outward. Same DNA as Extant: returned traveller, fractured reality, and a mythology that deepens with each episode.
But The early seasons are stronger than later ones, and network TV pacing can feel baggy if you're used to streaming dramas.
Dark2017
German sci-fi that treats time travel and family trauma with absolute seriousness. Complex, propulsive, and genuinely unafraid to make things worse before they improve. Extant fans will appreciate the structural audacity.
But It's dense. You will want to rewatch sections. Subtitles required for English speakers.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Extant
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Solaris1972
Both use the astronaut's homecoming as a way to ask whether the person who returns is the same person who left. Space doesn't just change location; it rewires identity.
Tarkovsky's meditation on an astronaut's return from a space station orbiting an alien ocean. Pure cinema about memory, love, and whether connection survives transformation. The same emotional devastation as Extant's core, but entirely serious.
But It is very long and very slow. Nearly three hours of images and silences. No plot in the conventional sense—it's philosophy enacted.
More like this (8)
Arrival2016
A linguist contacts aliens and discovers language reshapes consciousness itself. Like Extant, it's a serious sci-fi film about what space does to the human mind, with a finale that rewires everything.
But It's contemplative rather than propulsive. If you want plot momentum over reflection, you'll find it slow.
Westworld2016
Androids gain consciousness in a theme park, their awakening mirroring Molly's own fractured identity. Ambitious, visually stunning, and obsessed with what makes us human versus what we build.
But Season one is brilliant; seasons that followed disappointed many. Start with caution if you hate unfinished storytelling.
Orphan Black2013
A woman discovers she's a clone in a vast genetic conspiracy. Tatiana Maslany is extraordinary, and like Extant, it's a thriller that cares deeply about identity and what you owe the people you love.
But It's Canadian TV from 2013, so early seasons look it. And the science gets increasingly hand-wavy as it goes.
The Expanse2015
Hard sci-fi about humans fracturing across the solar system. Political intrigue, genuine scientific grounding, and characters whose space experience alienates them from Earth. Extant's existential core lives here too.
But Season one is slow-burn setup. If you need immediate action, give it three episodes before deciding.
Fringe2008
A brilliant woman investigates impossible phenomena while conspiracy spirals around her. Procedural on the surface, but it builds toward mythology that questions the nature of identity and parallel worlds.
But Five seasons is a commitment, and the quality dips in the middle. The final season is excellent but very serialized.
Counterpart2017
A diplomat discovers a parallel world where his doppelgänger exists. It uses the double as metaphor for identity fracture the way Extant uses space—intimate, paranoid, and philosophically strange.
But Cancelled after two seasons. The conclusion feels abrupt, though not entirely unsatisfying.
Raised by Wolves2020
Both dramatize the impossible question: what do you owe someone you created? For Extant it's about the AI child; here it's inverted—androids raising humans.
Two androids raise children on a hostile alien planet while religious mythology and sci-fi collide catastrophically. Visually inventive, structurally wild, and brutally committed to asking whether artificial consciousness can parent.
But It's graphically violent and sexually explicit. HBO prestige sci-fi in temperament. Also cancelled after two seasons, though with more narrative closure.
Under the Skin2014
Like Extant, it's about returning (or arriving) transformed, moving through human spaces as an outsider. But where Extant dramatizes that alienation psychologically, this film makes it visceral and strange.
Scarlett Johansson as an alien in human form luring men in Scotland. Minimal dialogue, maximum unease. It's sci-fi as pure sensory experience about alienation—what it means to move through a world you don't belong to.
But It is deliberately opaque and slow. Some will find it pretentious. It's also deeply unsettling and, in places, difficult to watch.
People
Cast
Writing
- Mickey FisherCreator
Production
- Halle BerryCo-Executive Producer
- Adam RodinCo-Producer
- Brooklyn WeaverExecutive Producer
- Darryl FrankExecutive Producer
- Greg WalkerExecutive Producer
- Justin FalveyExecutive Producer
- Mickey FisherExecutive Producer
- Steven SpielbergExecutive Producer