Hulu's 8-Part Time Travel Masterpiece Makes Back To The Future Look Small

Published Sep 15, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. Back to the Future is one of the best time travel stories of all time, but it must be said that Hulu’s eight-part time travel masterpiece makes Marty McFly’s adventures look small. The sci-fi genre is especially popular on TV, as it gives plenty of creative freedom and can blend with other genres to make way for interesting and engaging stories. The world of sci-fi has plenty of topics it can cover – from paranormal events (like The X-Files) to adventures in space (Star Trek and many others) and disturbing futures (Black Mirror) – but one often addressed is time travel. Time travel is one of the most popular topics in sci-fi movies and TV shows, and with good reason, as it’s guaranteed to pique the audience’s curiosity. However, time travel is a very tricky topic as there aren’t established rules about it, which gives plenty of freedom to writers but can also lead to messy and confusing rules. Back to the Future is widely regarded as the best time travel movie and story as it made it easy to follow and understand, but Hulu has a sci-fi show that went above and beyond. In 2020, Hulu released Devs, a sci-fi thriller miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. With just eight episodes, Devs quickly positioned itself as one of the best sci-fi TV shows of all time, as well as one of the smartest TV shows ever made. At the time of writing, Devs has an 82% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its concept, themes, cinematography, and complexity, and, to be fair, its use of time and time travel makes even Back to the Future look small. Devs Has A Unique Approach To Time Devs introduces the audience to Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno), a software engineer working for Amaya, a quantum computing company led by Forest (Nick Offerman). After her boyfriend and co-worker Sergei dies following his transfer to Amaya’s secretive quantum computing team, Lily decides to investigate what truly happened to him, what happens in that secretive team, and what Forest’s plans with Amaya really are. Despite the risks and dangers of her investigation, Lily eventually finds out what’s really happening at Amaya: Forest has been developing an ultra-powerful quantum computer through which he will be able to project past events and predict the future. Forest has two goals with this project, one being to prove determinism, the philosophical concept that all events are predetermined, and thus there’s no such thing as free will. The other is a personal reason, as Forest’s daughter, Amaya, and his wife died in a car accident, and he has struggled to cope with a life without them. Through the Devs machine, Forest hopes to look backwards in time and create a living simulation of Amaya. Devs approaches time through a deterministic lens, through which Forest intends to predict the future, as everything is a consequence of the past and there’s no free will. Devs doesn’t see its characters going back in time in modified cars, spaceships, or special machines created by scientists, and instead has a more realistic yet complex approach to it through a machine that can project past and future events but without the direct involvement of those witnessing. Devs can be confusing at first, but it’s a fascinating ride. Despite Its Complexity, Devs Is A Must-Watch Sci-Fi Show For Everyone Due to its themes, Devs can be hard to follow at times, but ultimately, its core message and concept are clear, and it will surely leave viewers with a lot to think about after the show’s over. Devs is more than a sci-fi show, as it addresses philosophical topics, actual science, a generous dose of drama, and a mystery that the audience solves alongside Lily. Devs not only gives a twist to time travel stories by approaching the topic in a different, more philosophical and scientific way, but also by showing the real complexities and moral challenges of it, accompanied by a realistic, and perhaps to some more pessimistic, outlook on the topic. Devs brilliantly tells a complete story and presents its main concept and themes in just eight episodes, making it one of the most fascinating sci-fi binge-watches there are. Unfortunately, Devs has become one of the most underrated and lesser-known sci-fi shows of the decade, but it’s never too late to watch it for the first time or revisit it, as its themes, concept, and message haven’t aged.