4 Cult 2016 Sci-fi Shows That Turn 10 This Year, With a Combined 206 Episodes

It doesn’t feel like it, but 2016 was ten years ago. In those ten years, the television landscape has changed quite a bit for science fiction entertainment. Many series have started and ended. Long-running series like Supernatural, which began in 2005, have come to an end. The hit series Stranger Things premiered on Netflix in 2016 and ended in 2025. The beloved series The X-Files also returned that year, doing two more seasons before concluding again, and now a reboot by Ryan Coogler is in post-production. Science fiction remains just as popular now as it was then, if not more so.

As popular as science fiction is, the television business can be fickle. Sometimes a series will be a hit like Stranger Things or The X-Files, while other times they struggle to gain footing and become cult classics later. A cult classic is a film or series that has low viewership when it first premieres but gains popularity later. James Cameron’s sole television series Dark Angel (2000) and Joss Whedon’s Firefly (2002) are great examples of that. Both series have cult followings that love to sing their praises, and the fandom has only grown in the years since they were in the air. 2016’s sci-fi launches certainly were not immune to this phenomenon. Here are four cult classic sci-fi shows turning ten this year.

4.) Frequency

Frequency was a mystery science fiction drama that aired on The CW for one season from October 2016 to January 2017. It was developed for TV by Jeremy Carver and inspired by a film of the same name released in 2000. In the series, New York Police Department Detective Raimy Sullivan (Peyton List) discovers that she can talk with her presently deceased father, Frank (Riley Smith), alive in 1996 from her time in 2016. This is enabled through the use of his old ham radio, a type of amateur radio used for non-commercial communication. Raimy talks to her father across time, attempting to save his life and solve a decades-old serial killer case. But in doing so, a butterfly effect is created that alters the course of history.

The freshman season of Frequency ran for just thirteen episodes. Unfortunately, viewership was low, so the series was cancelled after only one season. It was cancelled in January, but The CW granted the series one last epilogue episode that aired in May of 2017 to wrap up the series. In the epilogue, the radio was repaired after sustaining damage in the finale, and an update was given about the serial killer case that was investigated throughout the season. The cliffhanger is resolved, and the story gets a happy, though potentially disastrous ending given the complexities of time travel. Though the audience was small at the time, Frequency maintains a dedicated following that continues to see some growth with the series being available on streaming. The series can be viewed for free with ads on Tubi.

3.) Timeless

Airing at the same time as Frequency but on separate days of the week, Timeless is another cult classic series involving time travel. After an intelligence asset turned terrorist stole a time machine, a team of experts had to be assembled to capture the thief and retrieve the machine. The team is comprised of a history professor, a United States Army Delta Force Master Sergeant, and an engineer programmer. They travel through a different time period in each episode, slowly uncovering the details behind the thief’s plot to use the machine to rewrite history, and doing so in ways connected to each member of the team. With new time periods each episode, the series had a slight anthology feel to it, despite having an overarching narrative.

Boasting a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Timeless ran for 28 episodes. The series had an unconventional history. Following the first season finale, the series was cancelled by NBC. Three days later, NBC reversed its decision and renewed the series for a further ten episodes following negotiations with Sony Pictures Television. When season two failed to meet the network’s viewership expectations, the series was cancelled again. The following month, NBC greenlit a two-part finale to wrap up the series. While it was low ratings that led to the series multiple cancellations, those who were fans of Timeless at the time have continued to sing its praises. The series has also continued to find new fans on streaming, as it is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.

2.) 11.22.63

Continuing with time travel, the science fiction miniseries 11.22.63 was released in February of 2016. It was based on a novel of the same name by Stephen King. Jake Epping, played by James Franco, travels back in time to 1960 in an attempt to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred on November 22, 1963. Epping was given three years to track Lee Harvey Oswald and attempt to change the course of history. During that time, Epping began to form an attachment to his new life, one better than the one he left behind. Throughout the season, he faced the struggles that come with spying and trying to fit in to avoid suspicion.

Originally debuting on Hulu, 11.22.63 did well on the service at the time. It received positive reviews and even won a Saturn Award, but it lacked much staying power. The series was removed from Hulu in 2024 without explanation. It then went to Tubi, where it was streaming for free, but left there as well. But there was thankfully enough audience demand that, earlier this year, Netflix acquired the series and made it available on its platform. Adding it to Netflix increased its popularity and demand. Video-on-demand sales actually surged ahead of the Netflix debut. 11.22.63 became a hit for the streamer, making it to the third spot in its top ten.

1.) Lucifer

Moving on from time travel, though it does play a role in the final season of the series, we have Lucifer. Lucifer is a unique sci-fi urban fantasy police procedural, and probably the only series in which you’ll see all three genres fit together so well. Centered on the Devil himself, Lucifer stars Tom Ellis as the charming Lucifer Morningstar. After leaving Hell, he becomes the owner of a popular Los Angeles nightclub. After a murder happens outside, Lucifer begins consulting with the LAPD to solve crimes. Throughout the course of the series, Lucifer sees more character development than one would ever expect the Devil to have. He falls in love with one of the detectives, Chloe Decker (Lauren German), forms friendships, encounters figures from his biblical past, and even goes to therapy. The series makes Lucifer likable and oddly human, a sharp contrast to his typical portrayals. It’s the most unconventional series on this list, but one with great characters and a great story that audiences have loved since 2016.

Unbeknownst to many, Lucifer is an adaptation of a series of comics put out by DC featuring their version of the famous archangel. It originally premiered on Fox, ran there for three seasons, and then was cancelled in 2018 due to low viewership. One month after Fox pulled the plug, Netflix announced it was acquiring the series and renewing it for a fourth season after a strong fan campaign to save it. The cult classic series thrived on the streamer, going from four million viewers in its third season on Fox to over one billion halfway through the fifth. It ran there until 2021, when the creators of the series concluded their story with the sixth season of the show. This brought it to a total of 93 episodes. Post-conclusion, the popularity of the series has dipped as tends to happen, but it continues to have a dedicated fan base that watches to this day.