Television series

The Imperfects

Name: The Imperfects
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 2022
Cast: Italia Ricci, Rhianna Jagpal, Iñaki Godoy, Morgan Taylor Campbell, Kyra Zagorsky

Science fiction

Three friends accidentally become monsters after a botched gene therapy and hunt their creator for a cure. It's a pulpy sci-fi drama about body horror, friendship under pressure, and what it means to feel human when you're not. Pitch-dark but earnest, for people who want stakes and strangeness without losing sight of the characters underneath.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like your genre fiction with messy, lonely characters, where a high-concept premise becomes a stand-in for identity, guilt and the question of what a person still owes the people they used to be.

Skip it if you want sci-fi as the main event; here the premise springs a grim, sometimes ugly mood, and the body horror can sit closer to discomfort than thrills.

What it asks of you: Ten episodes of roughly forty-three minutes each, one season, with a brooding pace that lingers on grief and tension between scenes rather than rushing toward the next reveal.

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

If you liked this

Orphan Black2013

A masterclass in playing multiple versions of yourself while unraveling a conspiracy about human experimentation. If you loved the body-horror premise and high-concept stakes of The Imperfects, this will consume you.

But The plotting gets deliberately convoluted in the middle seasons, and some threads never pay off as cleanly as they promised. Also a lot to track.

Doom Patrol2019

Misfits with grotesque powers band together against a powerful enemy. It's visually inventive, funny when it needs to be, and genuinely moving about isolation and self-acceptance.

But The tone lurches wildly—sometimes too indie, sometimes too grim—and it asks a lot of patience in episode two. Also cancelled after two seasons.

Resident Evil2022

Biotech horror that splits between past and present, watching a family get destroyed by corporate science and viral infection. Beautiful cinematography, genuine scares, and infected creatures that feel threatening rather than silly.

But It's substantially grimmer than The Imperfects, with less humour and more body decay. If you want lighter, this will feel relentless.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Imperfects

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raw2017

Both examine what happens when your body becomes a threat to your identity and your safety. The monster isn't external punishment—it's your own biology making you a stranger to yourself.

A vegetarian girl develops a cannibalistic hunger after tasting raw meat during hazing. It's visceral body-horror cinema that's also a profound coming-of-age story about desire and your body betraying you—exquisite and deeply unsettling.

But This is not an exaggeration: people walk out. The gore is stylised but frequent, and it doesn't look away from scenes of pure consumption. Absolutely not light viewing.

Fringe2008

A team of scientists and outsiders investigate impossible phenomena caused by alternate universes and illegal experiments. Funny, strange, character-driven, and genuinely innovative week to week.

But The first season meanders while it finds its voice, and the mythology becomes absurdly baroque by the end. Requires real commitment.

Helix2014

Scientists investigate a biotech conspiracy in an isolated Arctic lab while a plague spreads and things get progressively weirder. Claustrophobic, bonkers, and it doesn't waste time getting to the weird stuff.

But It gets so convoluted that even fans debate what actually happened. Also suffers from low-budget limitations that show badly in the third season.

Altered Carbon2018

Noir-sci-fi about consciousness, bodies, and identity in a world where minds can be transferred. Stunning production design and a propulsive mystery that actually goes somewhere.

But The second season drops the protagonist and tone for something bleaker and more fragmented. The first season is self-contained enough that many stop after one.

The Midnight Club2022

Ten strangers in a hospice start dying in impossible ways while an older version of one of them narrates. Genre-hopping, genuinely creepy, and surprisingly tender about connection before the end.

But The anthology structure means characters shift focus constantly. And the final reveal divides people sharply on whether it earned the pivot it attempts.

Penny Dreadful2014

Gothic monsters from Victorian literature converge in a story about damnation, addiction, and survival. Lush, literary, and genuinely unsettling. Strong ensemble cast delivering meaty dialogue.

But Slow in the way that's either atmospheric or sluggish depending on mood. And its ending is deliberately ambiguous in a way that frustrates as often as it satisfies.

Hemlock Grove2013

Werewolves, vampires, and rural decay in upstate New York. Cheap-looking but weird enough to be memorable, with genuine shocks and a cast that commits to the absurdity.

But It's genuinely cheap-looking in ways that undercut the horror. And the mythology contradicts itself so often you stop trying to make sense of it.

Archive2020

Both ask the same question: how hard would you fight to stay human when the alternative is easier? Both pit desperation against ethics in a small group.

A man uses AI technology to resurrect his dead wife, and it works too well. Quietly devastating sci-fi that thinks deeply about consciousness, consent, and whether resurrection is mercy or cruelty. Minimal cast, maximum impact.

But It's slow and dialogue-sparse in a way that requires active engagement. And it refuses to comfort you with easy answers about whether the technology is good or bad.

The Platform2019

Like The Imperfects, it's about ordinary people transformed by a system that sees them as expendable. Both feature protagonists forced into alliance by circumstances, hunting for power that might save them.

A man wakes in a vertical prison where food is distributed from top to bottom—the higher floors eat well, the lower ones starve. Claustrophobic sci-fi parable that's actually about complicity and systemic cruelty. Shocking and elegantly constructed.

But It's relentlessly bleak with minimal character arcs—the point is the system, not individual redemption. And the brutality includes starvation and violence in ways that feel designed to disgust you.