By
Tom Russell
Published 6 minutes ago
Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering all things Classic TV from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi.
Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the Classic TV team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time.
Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check.
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Weirdness is practically a prerequisite for sci-fi TV shows, as the genre only truly thrives when it’s aware of the odd, uncanny, or bizarre sides of its ideas. However, some series don’t simply acknowledge the strangeness lurking around the edges of their big concepts. they sprint toward it at full speed.
These bizarre sci-fi shows carve out identities built entirely around embracing the surreal. While shows like Severance have reignited audiences’ appetite for boundary-pushing genre storytelling, they represent only the most visible layer of a much stranger legacy.
Dig just a little deeper and the landscape of sci-fi reveals a treasure trove of series so bold, so peculiar, and so mind-boggling that it’s hard to believe they ever made it past a pitch meeting. The strangest sci-fi shows don’t start out normal before drifting into oddness; they begin with a wild premise and escalate from there.
Their concepts are so strange that revisiting them today raises questions about how they survived studio scrutiny in an industry famously risk-averse. These weird sci-fi shows aren’t simply inventive; they’re outright bewildering, and their existence is a testament to creative teams fully committed to the bizarre.
People Of Earth (2016-2017)
Workplace Comedy Meets Alien Overlords
People Of Earth makes a strong argument that weird sci-fi TV shows don’t need massive spectacle to feel truly out there. The premise of the TBS series centers on journalist Ozzie Graham (Wyatt Cenac), who visits a rural support group for alleged alien abductees. What begins as a quirky human-interest assignment transforms into a high-concept sci-fi comedy where nearly every wild claim turns out to be surprisingly legitimate.
The show’s commitment to blending heartfelt character arcs with unapologetically bizarre lore is what sets People Of Earth apart from other sci-fi shows about aliens. From awkward reptilians to bureaucratic Greys, extraterrestrials are presented with a level of mundane relatability that only heightens the absurdity. The result is a series that grounds its most outlandish concepts in ordinary emotional struggles, somehow making its weirdness hit even harder.
What’s most unbelievable is that a show where the aliens behave like office coworkers and the abductees treat cosmic encounters like minor life inconveniences is so watchable. Yet People Of Earth makes this deeply strange tone work through sharp writing and sincere performances. Its oddness is never the punchline, and therein lies its success.
By fully embracing the bizarre from minute one, People Of Earth proves that even the most unconventional sci-fi setup can support compelling storytelling. It’s a small-scale comedic marvel that thrives precisely because it leans so hard into its eccentricities.
The Greatest American Hero (1981-1983)
A Teacher Gets A Superhero Suit From Aliens But Promptly Loses The Instruction Manual,
Long before genre TV embraced big, polished superhero narratives, The Greatest American Hero delivered one of the most surreal blends of sci-fi, comedy, and earnest crime-fighting ever broadcast. The series follows mild-mannered teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt), who receives a superpowered suit from extraterrestrials, but loses the instruction manual almost immediately. What follows is a show built entirely on chaotic trial and error.
The absurdity of a man fumbling through flight, strength, invisibility, and telekinesis with zero understanding of how any of it works shouldn’t sustain an entire series, yet somehow it does. The Greatest American Hero’s central joke, that the world’s most powerful being has no idea how to use his powers, becomes an oddly charming foundation for one of TV’s most unpredictable sci-fi adventures.
Even stranger is that the show doesn’t shy away from earnestness. Paired with FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp), Ralph navigates weekly crises that blend grounded crime plots with extraterrestrial absurdities. The tone is constantly shifting, creating a kind of narrative whiplash that’s weirdly compelling.
In retrospect, it’s hard to understand how a network like ABC approved a superhero comedy built on slapstick, cosmic intervention, and serious crime stories. Still, its bizarre tonal cocktail is exactly what makes The Greatest American Hero unforgettable. It’s a relic of sci-fi TV history that thrived by being utterly unlike anything else.
Guardians Of Justice (2022)
A Chaotic Multimedia Superhero Deconstruction Set 40 years After The Death Of Robo Hitler
Guardians Of Justice is the kind of show that feels like it shouldn’t exist; a genre-exploding experiment that blends animation, live action, stop-motion, graphic-novel panels, and video-game aesthetics into one frenetic package. Helmed by creator Adi Shankar, the series reimagines superhero mythology through a hyper-stylized, aggressively weird sci-fi lens.
The story centers on the mysterious death of superhero Marvelous Man (Will Yun Lee), which spirals into a conspiracy-laden power struggle led by Knight Hawk (Diamond Dallas Page). The alternate history setting starts 40 years after the end of WW3, when Marvelous Man defeated Robo-Hitler, and the plot only gets wilder from there.
What’s most baffling is how this mash-up of tones - grim deconstruction, pulpy satire, retro nostalgia, and cosmic melodrama - somehow holds together. Guardians of Justice feels like flipping through channels during an apocalypse, yet it never loses track of its overarching narrative. It commits to its wild format shifts with such confidence that the madness becomes part of its identity.
Even by Netflix’s risk-taking sci-fi standards when optioning out-there shows, it’s eyebrow-raising that a mainstream studio greenlit something this experimental. It’s not merely unconventional; it rejects the idea of consistency altogether. Guardians Of Justice stands as proof that sci-fi storytelling can be built from pure stylistic chaos and still deliver something strangely compelling.
Cleopatra 2525 (2000-2001)
A Cryogenically Frozen Exotic Dancer Wakes Up In A Dystopian Future Ruled By Flying Robot Overlords
Among the many weird sci-fi TV shows of the early 2000s, Cleopatra 2525 stands apart as a masterclass in unapologetic absurdity. The series begins with Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky), an exotic dancer from the early 21st century who undergoes plastic surgery and awakens half a millennium later. She’s quickly introduced to a future where humanity hides underground from killer airborne robots called Baileys.
The show wastes no time turning this premise into a high-energy action series as Cleopatra teams up with resistance fighters Hel (Gina Torres) and Sarge (Victoria Pratt). The trio’s chemistry is infectious, and Cleopatra 2525 fully embraces pulp sci-fi tropes with a straight face, which only heightens its oddness.
Stylistically speaking, Cleopatra 2525 looks and feels like a fever dream assembled from every futuristic idea available at the time: neon-lit tunnels, cybernetic villains, dystopian rebellion, and gravity-defying combat. Its low-budget charm somehow enhances its bizarre tone, giving the entire series a surreal, hyper-stylized identity.
The fact that multiple networks opted into a syndicated show built around a resurrected dancer helping save humanity from floating murder machines may be Cleopatra 2525’s strangest accomplishment. It’s wildly uneven, endlessly chaotic, and yet incredibly entertaining, a case study in how bold weirdness can become unforgettable TV.
Chicken Nugget (2024)
A Woman Mysteriously Transforms Into A Literal Chicken Nugget
Even in today’s era of experimental television, Chicken Nugget pushes the limits of what audiences expect from sci-fi storytelling. The utterly unbelievable K-Drama begins with Min-ah (Kim Yoo-jung), who enters a mysterious machine and is inexplicably transformed into a chicken nugget. Her father, Seon-man (Ryu Seung-ryong), and her admirer, Baek-joong (Ahn Jae-hong), embark on a mission to reverse the transformation, which quickly spirals into chaos.
What sounds like a one-joke premise becomes an astonishingly ambitious sci-fi adventure. Chicken Nugget blends slapstick comedy with time travel, corporate conspiracies, and oddball worldbuilding. Every episode becomes stranger, layering new twists that somehow escalate the absurdity even further.
Part of Chicken Nugget’s brilliance is its total sincerity. The emotional stakes remain surprisingly heartfelt despite the bizarre setup, and the characters’ unwavering determination grounds the surreal story. This earnestness allows the show to balance wild humor with genuine pathos.
It’s genuinely astonishing that a high-production sci-fi TV show about a woman turning into fast food even exists, let alone that it’s actually good. Yet Chicken Nugget transforms its bizarre premise into a uniquely compelling narrative, pushing weirdness to its limit while proving that even the most unhinged concept can become riveting television.
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