One of the Greatest Sci-Fi Shows of the 21st Century Is Finally on Streaming — and It’s Worth the Binge

Since 1959, when The Twilight Zone first took the world by storm, TV audiences have been obsessed with sci-fi shows. Of course, science-fiction had been around long before Rod Serling‘s hit show became a major CBS hit, running for five seasons and a total of 156 episodes.

In 2025 alone, sci-fi fans were treated to new seasons of Apple TV’s hit dystopian office dramedy, Severance, Lucasfilm’s brilliant spy drama, Andor, and the first episodes of Prime Video’s post-apocalyptic video game adaptation, Fallout. On top of that, Apple released the first season of Murderbot, based on The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and the wildly expensive FX/Hulu series, Alien: Earth, from Fargo creator, Noah Hawley.

And that’s not all! Netflix’s mega-hit, Stranger Things, will wrap up its fifth and final season this year. Screwball SiFi comedy, Resident Alien, also aired its final episodes in 2025. Apple’s Pluribus, from The X-Files writer and producer, Vince Gilligan, is also wrapping up its first season this week. In other words, while there is a great deal of demand for sci-fi, there is no shortage of supply. Still, fans are always looking for the next best thing, and sometimes it’s better to look to the past. Now, after a long hiatus, one of the best sci-fi series of all time is finally available to stream on Hulu.

‘Fringe’ Is a Successor to ‘Lost’ and ‘The X-Files’

Just as J.J. Abrams‘ hit series Lost began winding down, another paranormal sci-fi series from the prolific producer and director was spinning up its gears. Fringe, which aired its first episode on September 9, 2008, was a collaborative effort between Abrams and future Star Trek overseer, Alex Kurtzman. The duo teamed up with Kurztman’s Transformers co-writer, Roberto Orci, to co-create the Fox TV series.

Jeff Pinkner, who had previously worked on Alias and Lost, and had co-wrote the script for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Kurtzman and Orci, took over as showrunner. He was joined by J.H. Wyman as co-showrunner in Season 2. Obviously, Abrams and Kurtzman have become more controversial since Fringe was airing, having taken major roles in Star Wars and Star Trek respectively. But unlike these beloved properties, this series was an entirely original idea.

Fringe follows the investigations of the Fringe Division, a special branch of the FBI tasked with tackling mysterious, inexplicable and sometimes terrifying phenomena, experimental technologies and otherworldly occurrences — basically the dream job for The X-Files’ Fox Mulder (David Duchovny).

The show stars Anna Torv (The Last of Us) as FBI Special Agent, Olivia Dunham, Lance Reddick (The Wire) as Fringe Division chief, Phillip Broyles, John Noble (Severance) as brilliant-but-troubled scientist, Dr. Walter Bishop, and Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek) as Bishop’s son, Peter. Like The X-Files, Fringe blends procedural “mystery of the week” type episodes with a larger, evolving plot that spans the entire five seasons for a total of exactly 100 episodes. That’s just 21 fewer than Lost, though not even half as many as The X-Files aired. This was back when television seasons had upwards of twenty episodes each, and this was the case for Fringe until its final season, which had just 13.

The shorter season was a compromise between Fox and Warner Bros. Television, giving the showrunners a chance to wrap up the story for fans, Warner Bros. a better chance at future syndication, and Fox a lower budget for the fifth season after four seasons of losses. Fringe struggled to find mainstream viewership for the entirety of its run, especially after its move to the “Friday night death slot,” in Season 3, where it faced stiff competition from Supernatural, a popular series with a similar audience.

Nevertheless, in the years since the series finale aired in January 2013, Fringe has steadily gained a cult following, with many fans likening it to Lost, The X-Files and other sci-fi mainstays.

Why ‘Fringe’ Remains A Timeless Classic

The fact that Fringe was able to wrap up its many storylines so well, even in a truncated (and perhaps slightly rushed) final season, is one reason it remains such an enduring sci-fi classic twelve years after the show came to a close. The series finale — ‘An Enemy of Fate’— is widely regarded as a near-perfect episode, and a satisfying sendoff for the show’s characters. In this respect, it beats out Lost and its controversial and divisive finale. Obviously, it’s impossible to discuss specifics without getting into heavy spoiler territory, but the show manages to weave each of its various character arcs together into an emotionally powerful, intimate, and bittersweet final episode.

Another reason that Fringe endures is its overarching story, which grew from a procedural “mystery/monster of the week” style story into something much more epic, with some genuinely fascinating takes on the idea of parallel universes, quantum entanglements, divergent timelines, plenty of clever twists and turns, and some of TV’s most compelling villains in the form of The Observers. The fact that the show was able to combine these big sci-fi ideas with equally hefty emotional stakes, made it even more compelling.

Finally, the careful planning that went into the script makes this one of the more coherent sci-fi series out there. Where Lost fumbled on many of its longer arcs, Fringe planted clues early on — and most of these paid off in the end, making it incredibly satisfying not just on your first viewing, but on any later re-watches where you’re bound to notice details you missed. Fringe took big creative risks, and some were divisive at the time, but these — combined with the emotional beats — ultimately led to its place in sci-fi’s pantheon of great and memorable shows. That it stuck the landing is a cherry on top.

You can watch all five seasons of Fringe now on Hulu and Disney+.