The best science fiction shows are those that are challenging and rewarding in equal measure, and that describes Y: The Last Man, which takes place in the aftermath of an event that kills every creature with a Y chromosome, leaving Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand. This post-apocalyptic series explores serious questions, particularly centering on the role of gender in constructing society.
Those who want to watch similarly themed shows are in luck, for there are quite a few other series out there that use science fiction to explore society’s great fears and desires.
Foundation (2021-) - Available on Apple TV+
Those who enjoy Y for its exploration of societal collapse will enjoy Foundation, the new series from Apple TV+, which focuses on a group of scholars attempting to preserve civilizational knowledge in the face of an impending collapse of society.
The series ponders what individuals can or should do in the event that the collapse of all of civilization is understood to be inevitable and whether, in fact, it is possible to do anything at all rather than try to make it as bearable as possible.
La Brea (2021-) - Available on Peacock
One of the more unique series to have emerged in the 2021 television season is La Brea which, like Y, focuses on a strange event that radically reshapes the lives of the people that it touches.
In this case, it’s a giant sinkhole that separates a family, one of which is plunged into a primordial world where they struggle to survive. La Brea forces viewers to contend with the reality that the world that they inhabit might not be as stable as they’d like to believe.
Raised By Wolves (2020-) - Available on HBO Max
HBO's Raised by Wolves, like Y, uses a post-apocalyptic narrative to explore some of the questions that have repeatedly vexed human civilizations. In this case, however, the action takes place on a distant planet, where two androids are tasked with raising a group of human children away from the religious conflicts that destroyed almost all life on Earth.
It’s a haunting series, with some stellar performances and hidden details, and it demonstrates just how compelling, and disturbing, science fiction at its best can be.
The Boys (2019-) - Available on Amazon Prime
Even though superheroes are usually depicted as being heroes, The Boys takes a more cynical and bleak approach to the genre. In this world, superheroes are actually bought and paid for by a giant corporation and, as a result, the series becomes something of a social commentary, both on how superheroes are imagined in popular culture but also how such representations are part of a larger problem with corporations.
The series is therefore a good fit for those who enjoyed the commentary aspect of Y.
The Stand (2020-2021) - Available on Paramount+
Stephen King’s The Stand remains one of the canonical novels exploring the power of a pandemic to completely reshape human civilization.
Like Y, which shows the lengths to which humans will go to survive even when the odds are stacked against them, The Stand follows the survivors of a pandemic who not only have to contend with the collapse of civilization but also with the malevolent being known as Randall Flagg, who is the very embodiment of evil. In this universe, it’s not only humanity that has to survive; it’s goodness itself.
The Strain (2014-2017) - Available on Hulu
FX’s The Strain took a new look at the perennially popular figure of the vampire, stripping away the romantic and leaving behind the uglier aspects of this monster. In this universe, vampires infect others through a parasite, and while many become simple predators, others retain some element of their human consciousness.
Those who enjoyed Y for the way that it explored the collapse of civilization will also find much to enjoy about The Strain, which similarly explores what happens when humanity finds itself confronted with a creature that it is almost impossible to defeat. In addition, it has some truly frightening scenes.
See (2019-) - Available on Apple TV+
One of the best things about science fiction, particularly the post-apocalyptic kind, is that it can take a hypothetical situation and use that to explore aspects of contemporary society. While Y explores gender, See, which is available from Apple TV+, interrogates the centrality of vision to so many elements of human civilization.
In this future world, almost all people are born blind, leaving those who have vision as pariahs and potential dangers to civilization itself. It’s a fascinating exploration of how humanity has made vision central to its societal organization.
The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-) - Available on Hulu
Before Y explored what it would be like if men went extinct, The Handmaid’s Tale offered a bleak vision of the future, in which women have been reduced to their reproductive capacities. Hulu’s series is at times quite devastating, featuring some very sad deaths, but as it goes on it offers a guardedly optimistic portrait of the ability of even the most ruthlessly subjugated of people to rise up against those that have enslaved them.
Now in its fourth season (and renewed for a fifth), the series’ protagonist Offred continues to fight against the forces of oppression.
Lovecraft Country (2020) - Available on HBO Max
One of the main narrative threads of Y is Yorick’s journey through a country that has been left reeling from the extinction of so many people, and a similar road-trip pattern emerges in Lovecraft Country.
Like all good series of this type, Lovecraft Country holds up a mirror to American society, revealing the deep structural racism that plagued the 1950s in particular but which remains a potent force in American society. And, because it is in part based on the work of noted horror writer HP Lovecraft, it also explores the horrifying nature of the supernatural.
Sweet Tooth (2021) - Available on Netflix
Unsurprisingly, given the enormous impact of the current pandemic, there have been quite a few great post-apocalyptic TV shows, and both Y and Sweet Tooth cover some of the same territory. In Netflix’s Sweet Tooth, a virus has eradicated much of humanity, while at the same time human-animal hybrids have emerged.
The series focuses on one such creature, Gus, as he sets out to find his mother. It has some surprising moments of optimism, and it uses Gus’s story to interrogate broader themes of what it means to be human in the modern world.