Fans of the cyberpunk genre can’t go wrong with these excellent TV shows.
With the resounding success of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Cyberpunk 2077 has enjoyed its share of renewed interest. A lot of players have been flocking back into the game either to fill in the void or consume more of the bittersweet dark chocolate that is the cyberpunk genre. Thankfully, some good cyberpunk stories aren’t just limited to Edgerunners and Cyberpunk 2077.
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There’s a handful of good television shows and series that capture the spirit of the genre that’s gradually rising in popularity. The high-tech, low-life theme glazed with a neon-lit futuristic dystopia is always an interesting backdrop for new stories. These TV shows have explored that notion and made art out of it, meaning they deserve attention. For those looking for anime, do note that this list mostly focuses on Western shows—pure Japanese cyberpunk anime is a topic for another time.
Updated on November 29, 2023, by C.M Edwards: For fiction, it is only natural for humankind to advance forward in technology, engineering, and societal norms. With the Cyberpunk genre of fiction, many times the setting places the world in a hyper-futuristic era that, instead of sending human beings out into space, builds off of the technological advancements possible on Earth. Robotic limbs, enhanced brain computers, all these things, and everything in between make up the possibilities of the Cyberpunk genre and make for incredible storytelling with aspects that seem more in reach than voyaging across the galaxy. Here are more of the best Cyberpunk shows to watch.
17 Blade Runner: Black Lotus
IMDB Score: 6.3
- Release year: 2021
Watch on VRV
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a tie-in and spin-off to the cyberpunk film flag-bearer, Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049. It does follow a different story but is set in the same world and universe as the films. The series starts off with a cliche—an amnesiac named Elle somehow stumbles upon a dystopian Los Angeles.
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She soon finds herself on thin ice after discovering some unprecedented combat abilities and this event opened the cracks that would give her a glimpse into her cloudy past. She must then uncover her identity in a city that mostly wants her dead for some reason. Those who have seen and liked Alita: Battle Angel will find plenty to like here.
16 TekWar
IMDB Score: 6.4
- Release year: 1994
TekWar is another old series, but it features William Shatner, so there’s plenty of star power to carry the show. Shatner’s character, Walter Bascom, is a mysterious rebel who hired a disgraced cop named Jake Cardigan to fight a cyber drug that takes its users into a fantasy world.
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Aiding them are a couple of “cyberpunks” and a computer wiz hellbent on taking down this corporate conspiracy and the government agencies trying to stop them. The show is no slouch either and won a couple of Emmy Awards with several nominations back in its heyday.
15 Total Recall 2070
IMDB Score: 6.8
- Release year: 1999
Total Recall has always been one of the biggest names when it comes to cyberpunk flagbearers. So a Total Recall TV show is always welcome in the genre. It’s quite old, however. Total Recall 2070 was released back in a time when feature-length TV shows didn’t have enough budget or worldwide appeal yet.
This particular story in the Total Recall universe is about detective David Hume whose partner was killed by sentient androids. Hume eventually discovered that his partner’s death wasn’t a faulty robotics accident, but an orchestration involving powerful corporate entities.
14 Aeon Flux
IMDB Score: 7.1
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- Release year: 1991
Watch on MTV
It’s old, but the Aeon Flux animated series is certainly not as campy as other cyberpunk shows back in its time period. That’s because it’s not live-action nor a satirical commentary about where society is headed. Instead, it’s about a more personal story. The animated series follows the attempts of the titular assassin, Aeon Flux, as she fights her ex-lover.
While most cyberpunk settings are based on retro-futuristic renditions of the 1980s, Aeon Flux is unapologetically 1990s in its art style. The art is unabashedly dark and surreal yet realistic enough to feel like a fever dream. Each episode also toys heavily with the concept of cybernetics and high technology.
13 Incorporated
IMDB Score: 7.3
- Release year: 2016
Incorporated is cyberpunk at its infancy stage. It’s set in a world where corporations have unlimited power, making them more authoritative than governments. In a bid to save the woman he loves, Ben Larson went undercover as a worker for the said corporation, Spiga.
Through his cyber know-how and his charm as an undercover junior executive, Ben bit off more than he can chew as he single-handedly takes on an entire megacorporation. It’s not as flashy or as explicit as other cyberpunk media, but the essence is there and the conspiracy and suspense show is worth watching on its own merits.
12 The Peripheral
IMDB Score: 7.6
- Release Year: 2022
- Watch On Amazon Prime
The Peripheral is an Amazon original series that takes place in a time when augmented reality has reached a new level. Many individuals leap into artificial words to escape from the harsh reality of the world.
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Chloe Moretz plays Flynne Fisher, a struggling low-class young woman who comes upon a unique device and becomes tangled in a tragic turn of events that could plunge the world into darkness. With the help of an enigmatic voice seventy years in the future, Flynn must take on the shadows and bring them into the light before it’s too late.
11 Dollhouse
IMDB Score: 7.7
- Release Year: 2009
- Watch On Amazon Prime
A high-end escort service sells the perfect match for wealthy investors by erasing the memories of volunteers and applying synthetic personalities to their brains. These “Dolls” do everything from one-night stands to covert military warfare.
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Things begin to quickly go astray as the top Doll, Echo, played by Eliza Dushku, becomes enthralled in sinister back-door dealings where Dolls are being exploited to seize power and control of the country for a secret benefactor. Echo must take on an unseen force and free her fellow Dolls in hopes of taking back their lives and maybe saving the world in the process.
10 Almost Human
IMDB Score: 7.9
- Release year: 2013
For those who have played Detroit: Become Human and wanted more of that dysfunctional android-human buddy cop action, then Almost Human is almost the same thing. The main character, Karl Urban’s Detective John Kennex has an irrational prejudice against androids.
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Ironically, he was assigned to an android cop partner named Dorian. It’s cyberpunk in theme and style though it’s mostly explored through the eyes of law enforcement which is quite rare an angle for the genre. Sadly, the show was canceled after one season, but at least it had 13 episodes.
9 Humans
IMDB Score: 7.9
- Release Year: 2015
Humans is a series similar to Almost Human or Surrogates starring Bruce Willis. The series is set where robotics have overtaken the world and artificial humans now walk alongside regular human beings and replace them in the marketplace as laborers.
However, an odd occurrence spreads throughout the world and some synthetic humans become sentient. With rising tensions, synthetic humans must fend for their lives as they are both celebrated and rallied against by their own creators. Fans of the hit game, Detroit: Become Human will highly enjoy this series.
8 Altered Carbon
IMDB Score: 7.9
- Release year: 2018
Watch on Netflix
One of the few big-budget live-action cyberpunk TV shows in existence, Altered Carbon is no doubt ambitious. It follows the story of Takeshi Kovacs who finds himself waking up in someone else’s body as some kind of transferred consciousness. He soon finds out that much has changed since his old body died 250 years ago. The elite are functionally immortal and are naturally caught in a web of conspiracies.
Takeshi is caught up in all this maelstrom as both the elite’s toy and investigator, as he tries to solve a murder mystery involving a powerful and immortal man. On top of that, Takeshi has some ghosts from his past life that he must deal with while skirting around his new existence as a private investigator for the rich.
7 Batman Beyond
IMDB Score: 8.1
- Release year: 1999
Watch on HBO Max
Bruce Wayne was bound to grow old and seek a replacement after all that crime fighting. And it turns out the best candidate was a fiery young man named Terry McGinnis in a Gotham that’s well past its gothic phase. Batman Beyond continues that story and is set in the year 2040 after Bruce Wayne retired as Batman.
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The city of Gotham, now caked in futuristic and grimy architecture, is still oozing with crime despite Batman’s best efforts in the past decades. Thus, it’s up to Terry McGinnis to take up the cape and continue the Dark Knight’s legacy as he navigates the mean dystopian streets of Gotham armed with a new, cybernetic Batsuit.
6 Tron Uprising
IMDB Score: 8.2
- Release year: 2012
Watch on Disney+
It had a relatively short run, but that doesn’t mean Tron: Uprising is a lackluster show. For many of the franchise’s fans, it simply lacked the appropriate marketing and advertisements, or Disney simply didn’t find the series interesting enough. In any case, Tron: Uprising has the hallmarks of a true cyberpunk medium.
In the series, a young program named Beck fulfills his destiny to become the next “Tron” or what’s known as the greatest warrior in the computer world of Grid. As a successor to Tron, Beck must continue his rebellion into a full-blown revolution to oppose the tyrants of Grid.
5 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
IMDB Score: 8.3
- Release year: 2022
Watch on Netflix
It’s made by a Japanese studio but Edgerunners is based on the 1988 Cyberpunk tabletop RPG which is similar to Dungeons and Dragons. As such, it features a Westernized view of the dark future of mankind where life holds no value and almost everyone is a struggling cyborg.
At the heart of all the desperation is teenager David Martinez from Night City. Poor David just can’t catch a break from Night City’s absurdity—his mother dies, he gets kicked out, and he has no money left. But his fate took an interesting turn after he came across a military-grade cybernetic implant that offered him a second chance at Night City but at a terribly high cost.
4 Ghost In The Shell: Stand-Alone Complex
IMDB Score: 8.3
- Release Year 2002
- Watch On Amazon Prime
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is the continuation of Motoko Kusanagi, the personality living inside the cyber brain and artificial body of the top operative of a secret government organization. Major Kusanagi combats cyber-warfare, which has become the main avenue of crime with the constant advances made by computer technology.
All the while, The Major struggles with her sense of self, caught in between being almost human and not entirely machine. Terrorists, anti-cybernetic cults, and global hackers must be stopped before Major Kusanagi has a chance to breathe in this action-packed animated series.
3 Westworld Season 3
IMDB Score: 8.5
- Release year: 2020
Watch on HBO
HBO’s Westworld could have easily gone the cyberpunk route with its premise but surprisingly, it took until season 3 for the show to dabble into the genre. The third season notably featured corporate conspiracies, samurai on the street, hacking, and neon—especially neon.
It has all the major hallmarks of cyberpunk media. Of course, to better understand the story, newcomers to the series might as well watch the first two seasons. The HBO series is mostly about the sentience of artificial intelligence as they gradually revolt after eventually realizing the sins of their human masters against them. It was dystopian from the get-go.
2 Samurai Jack
IMDB Score: 8.5
- Release year: 2001
Watch on HBO Max
It starts off as a rather minimalist fantasy tale but as soon as the titular hero gets sent to the future by his nemesis Aku – the shapeshifting master of darkness – Jack encounters all sorts of cyberpunk trademarks. In fact, the first city he comes across is a dystopian cityscape.
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Most of the urban civilizations Jack encounters also appear to be in a dingy cyberpunk setting, which is why he often avoids urban areas in the cartoon. Regardless, a traditional samurai wandering around in a dystopian future in hopes of finding his nemesis in hopes of returning to the past is one heck of a creative pitch.
1 Mr. Robot
IMDB Score: 8.5
- Release year: 2015
Watch on Amazon
A lot of cyberpunk purists will debate that Mr. Robot doesn’t make the cut since it’s not futuristic enough, but apart from that, it wholeheartedly embraces the philosophies of cyberpunk. It’s about a cybersecurity engineer who moonlights as a cyber vigilante or hacker by night and gets recruited by a mysterious hacker group.
Their goal? To take down one of the biggest global corporations in the world. That’s definitely cyberpunk enough, only, it’s set in contemporary times. Mr. Robot also serves as a thought-provoking commentary on corporate greed, the power of information, and the dangers of the internet. It’s cyberpunk in its infancy stage.
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Fuente: successacademy.edu.vn
Categorías: Trend
