Twenty-five sci-fi and fantasy shows worth watching in 2020

Avenue 5 — Airing now

First out of the gate is a new sci-fi comedy from Veep creator Armando Iannucci. Avenue 5 follows the mishaps aboard a luxury space cruise ship that gets knocked off its plotted flight path, extending its journey back to Earth by roughly three years. And since it’s packed full of rich, entitled patrons, a staff that has no clue what to do in a crisis, and a captain who is more of a figurehead than a stalwart hero (Hugh Laurie of House fame), the snark is strong right out of the gate.

To date, we’re three episodes into Avenue 5, and thus far it has been riot. This is a lighter show — at just over 30 minutes, its episodes are easy to digest and fun. This is not the dark, grim space of shows like The Expanse or Battlestar Galactica, but rather something more akin to the imagined space of the ‘60s, where spacefarers wore outfits even more colorful and ridiculous than the aliens they encountered.

It looks like Star Trek, has the DNA of Veep, and a budget that fits right in with any of the other big shows in the HBO catalog. If you’re feeling sick over the lack of The Orville in your life about now, then HBO’s peddling a cure you might want to take a look at.

Avenue 5 airs Sunday nights at 10 pm on HBO.