The New Sci-Fi Thriller Series You Can Watch Without Netflix

Using the concept of the observer effect to drive the plot forward, Constellation is a wild journey through space, time, and the human mind that will warrant repeat watches because there is so much storytelling to unpack across the series’ first season.

Constellation starts out on the International Space Station (ISS), and centers on Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace), an astronaut working for the European Space Agency. When the ISS is struck by a foreign object, which turns out to be the corpse of a female USSR astronaut, a crew member named Paul is killed, and the remaining three crew members board onto a Soyuz MS spacecraft to return to Earth.

Jo stays on board the ISS to repair the other docked spacecraft before heading back to Earth herself.

Paul (William Catlett), who was experimenting with the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) on the ISS, is left behind with Jo, who hallucinates that he’s still alive while she’s trying to figure out how to get back home.

Jo also has several episodes in which she blacks out and loses track of long stretches of time while on board the ISS. Through flash-forward sequences, Constellation reveals that when Jo returns to Earth, her memories of her family aren’t quite lining up with how they’re acting upon her arrival.

Through its intentionally disjointed narrative, Constellation tells an unsettling story of mistaken identity. Jo is given medication to help calm her mind and unpack what actually happened while on board the ISS. Henry (Jonathan Banks) has reason to believe that the CAL opened a pathway to another universe, causing duplicate versions of themselves to exist at the same time.

Constellation premiered on February 21, 2024, and was met with mostly positive reviews. Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks were praised for their performances in this ambitious science-fiction series, which garnered a 71 percent critical score against an audiences score of 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite its strong lead performances, the series was criticized for falling apart on the narrative front, as its non-linear storytelling made for a profoundly confusing viewing experience.

Critics have likened Peter Harness’ Constellation to the works of Phillip K. Dick (Total Recall), but were quick to point out that the story does get weighed down by its lofty premise as season 1 progresses.

As of this writing, there haven’t been any announcements about Constellation getting picked up for a second season.

If you like your science fiction slow-burning and convoluted, you can stream Constellation on Apple TV+ and witness the world-building for yourself. But be warned: The series is contradictory by nature, and you’ll find yourself scrolling through Reddit for hours looking for answers to the many questions that you’ll most certainly have upon season 1’s conclusion.