However, sci-fi shows aren’t always an easy sell for mainstream audiences. For one thing, their complex fictional universes tend to require a lot of exposition and world-building, which can get in the way of a fast-paced, snappy story. For another, truly immersive sci-fi shows tend to require expensive special effects, which can make them less likely to be renewed.
Netflix’s Dark Crystal: The Age Of Resistance Of One Of Streaming’s Great Sci-Fi Shows
This may explain why Netflix’s best Game of Thrones replacement, and one of the streaming service’s best sci-fi shows more broadly, only lasted one ten-episode season. A prequel to Jim Henson’s 1982 movie The Dark Crystal, 2019’s Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance starred Anya Taylor-Joy, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Taron Egerton as three young Gelflings.
An elvish race whose disparate clans must unite to rebel against their oppressive rulers, the Skeksis, the Gelflings are tasked with saving their planet, Thra, from imminent destruction. Egerton’s Rian, Emmanuel’s Diet, and Taylor-Joy’s Brea discover that their seemingly benevolent but secretly ruthless rulers, the Skeksis, are plotting Thra’s destruction via The Darkening, a planet-wide blight.
However, convincing their fellow Gelflings to unite against the Thra proves to be a challenge for Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance’s young heroes, as the Skeksis have intentionally divided their clans to conquer them. Like the best stories in the Game of Thrones universe, the show creates an immersive world, but only introduces viewers to a small slice of it.
Netflix’s Sci-Fi TV Output Hasn’t Yet Topped Dark Crystal: The Age Of Resistance
Both Game of Thrones and Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance began by introducing a vast existential threat to the world of their heroes, whether it is the Darkening in this spinoff or the White Walkers in Game of Thrones. However, both shows then zoom in on a few choice characters and their story to make these big-picture threats feel real.
It would have been easy for Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance to end up feeling like a formulaic slice of fantasy sci-fi if the show’s ten episodes didn’t make the culture and society of the Gelflings feel so real. However, by making Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance’s protagonists so compelling, the short-lived show became one of Netflix’s best sci-fi series yet.