Netflix Streaming Options If You Love Space

Imagine if The Office was in space. That’s essentially what you get with Space Force, which also inherently has The Office DNA since Steve Carrell stars and created the series along with The Office US creator Greg Daniels. The series focuses on the newest branch of the US Armed Forces, known as the United States Space Force, working to get people on the moon by 2024.

The series was generally well-reviewed and had a great cast, but was canceled after two seasons — making it the perfect workplace comedy for a quick binge-watch on Netflix. Along with Carrell, the series starred John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Jimmy O. Yang, Don Lake, and numerous guest stars. If you like your space-related content to have plenty of comedy, this might be the right choice for you.

Speaking of space comedies, Netflix is also currently streaming one of the best satires of all time — Starship Troopers. In fact, Starship Troopers was such an effective satire that many people completely missed that it was supposed to be satirical and criticized it for promoting fascism, with some critics even going so far as accusing director Paul Verhoeven and Ed Neumeier of being Nazi sympathizers. People who had seen RoboCop would have already known that Verhoeven knows how to do satire, but it flew over heads when Starship Troopers came out in 1997.

The film saw the Earth’s world military exploring and colonizing outer space, only to discover an alien species that triggers an interstellar war. The film starred Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside. Although the film was maligned upon its release, it has become a cult classic and is worth checking out on Netflix.

If you’re talking about films and shows about space exploration, it’s impossible not to think of the seminal sci-franchise Star Trek. While most of the Star Trek franchise has been relegated to the Paramount+ streaming platform, you can check out the first two films from JJ Abrams’ Kelvin timeline on Netflix. While the reaction amongst Trekkies to these films is a bit divisive, the 2009 film that kicked off the Kelvin timeline is solid and has been generally well-received.

Star Trek follows the crew of the USS Enterprise, including James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), as they battle a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), who threatens the safety of the United Federation of Planets. As always, you can expect Star Trek to have some solid space action and exploration, and this film is no exception. If you end up enjoying it, you can also check out the contentious sequel Star Trek Into Darkness on Netflix.

If you’re someone who prefers the real thing when it comes to space content, then there’s nothing better than an immaculately produced documentary. This is exactly what you’ll get with the Netflix documentary series Our Universe, which combines wildlife footage from our planet with visual effects depicting the incredible forces of the cosmos that have formed our planet and driven the natural world. It’s visually stunning and informative, so it doesn’t really get much better than that.

If you’re a fan of other documentaries like Our Planet, then the Earth and space documentary Our Universe will also be right up your alley. While the esteemed David Attenborough doesn’t narrate this documentary as he usually does, they went with an equally esteemed alternative by choosing Morgan Freeman to narrate it. It’s hard to imagine a more calming experience than the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman narrating the creation of our planet and the universe at large.

Finally, the unknown mystery of space obviously inspires wonder and awe, but it also undeniably inspires fear. So, we had to throw a horror movie in this list somewhere, and one of the best ones Netflix has to offer is The Cloverfield Paradox, which is the third, tangentially connected film to the Cloverfield franchise. While your results may vary with this film (don’t expect a space horror at the level of Alien), it still captures the terror and mystery that space can conjure in the imagination.

The Cloverfield Paradox follows a group of astronauts on a space station who attempt to solve Earth’s energy crisis with a particle accelerator, only for the planet to suddenly disappear. The film is connected to the original Cloverfield found-footage style film, so it’s also worth checking out if you’re invested in the franchise. The cast is solid, too, and includes Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi.