3 television shows that actually qualify as science fiction

Archer

I mean, come on. This is pretty obvious. Archer is an animated spy show that centers itself on a borderline alcoholic agent and his crew of fellow spies as they go on outlandish adventures throughout the seasons. The dynamics change throughout the course of the show, like Archer and company becoming drug runners and private investigators. Eventually spending three seasons doing soft reboots, like putting the group on a tropical island as adventurers or in outer space as the most incompetent astronauts ever.

When the series isn’t darting back to the turn of the 20th century thanks to a coma, it routinely features clones, fully functioning cyborgs, trips to the deepest parts of the ocean, trips to outer space, an attempt to colonize Mars and high tech spy equipment that may or may not exist yet.

Archer’s chief rival for most of the series is a man named Barry that eventually becomes an android with a vendetta against Archer. The series is filled with outlandish nonsense like this, be it grappling hooks, cybernetics, or just random gadgetry in so many cars.

The series Archer sees the fantastic H.Jon Benjamin (of Bob’s Burgers) voice Sterling Archer, allowing for some of the most fantastic comedy in all of television. In one bit, Benjamin’s two animated shows (Archer/Bob’s Burgers) are able to do an amazing crossover that finds Sterling Archer himself living the life of Bob from Bob’s Burgers. It’s a fleeting gag but it works.

The show’s more comedy than science fiction but it’s impossible to do the series well without its huge influence of science fiction tropes and non-existent technology.

Including but not limited to the best running bit in the show; the Krieger clones.