Overlooked/underrated sci-fi/fantasy TV series

The title character being the least interesting one on the show probably didn't help thing out, nor did being on Spike. Krista was basically the star and the most nuanced character.

 

i always really liked The Invaders.

 

Yes, the character of Blade shows the difficulty of putting an action hero who says little and admits no weaknesses into a TV series. They did go into his background in an interesting way, showing his childhood and the gang he later ran with. Also, his dad was Shaft!

The series did show Blade felt responsible for Krista, and her brother before that (though of course he acted uncaring). I think he had other "agents" too, and I think if they'd gone to a second season they might have looked a bit more at Blade as spymaster, gathering intelligence from different sources and manipulating the Houses from behind the scenes.

I do think the guy in the series was more convincing than Snipes in the movies, who always seemed to be playing the "movie star" version of the character.

 

Being Erica (2009 to 2011) - A Canadian production that mixes time travel, self-help therapy, comedy and drama into one package. Meet Erica Strange, a Bridget Jones-like woman in her thirties whose life is in shambles. That is, until she meets a time traveling therapist called Doctor Tom Wrexlar who promises to change her life for the better... by sending her back in time to fix past regrets.



I know, the premise sounds weird and wonky. However, this show has a lot of heart and has rightly earned a place as the best sci-fi show I have ever seen.

 

Wow...I remember that series! It was fun and had the potential to continue for awhile. Seems like it aired such a long time ago--I guess it was, since it made its debut in 1999.

Ahhh, another series that was interesting, but largely forgotten.

 

Dark Skies - I really wanna know what happened next.

First thing I saw Jeri Ryan in.

Can't beat a show where Jim Morrison is a side character, and Carl Sagan is in on the conspiracy.

 

if your criteria is that no one saw it, the same holds true for 95% of sci-fi/fantasy shows that aired on a cable network, and most of the shows that aried on broadcast television. Eureka ran for five seasons on its network and had good ratings for that metwork for most of its run. It had a beginning and an end and was discussed during its run. I think the fact that is didn't have much rewach value leads to its failure to generate much buzz after its run ended. That doesn't make it either overlooked or under rated.

 

You didn't like the show. You said that already.

 

Back in the mid 2000's on Saturday mornings here in Seattle one of my local stations aired a series called The Tribe.
It was from New Zealand and it was Lord of the Flies combined with Miri in that all the adults in the world were dead because of a virus leaving the children in charge and the city was divided into tribes, hence the title.
The show ran for five season but they only aired the first one here, even then it was constantly pre-empted with episodes being skipped over.
I've been meaning to track down the DVD in order to watch how the series resolved itself.

 

A recent show that I don't think got enough love was Defying Gravity, the closest TV got to hard sci-fi IMO.

When I was a kid I had a soft spot for The War of the Worlds TV series. I preferred S1 to S2 when I watched it, but when I caught it on DVD a few years ago, I felt the other way around. And around the same late spot on TV was a 1-series-wonder that I adored in the Knight Rider vein called The Highwayman.



Yeah, that is Tim Russ... I'd love a legit DVD release. Some guy sells the show edited off VHS rips (I think it's the TV equivalent of public domain now)

EDIT: I'm also currently rewatching this...



It's a tech thriller series from the mid-nineties made by the BBC. It was all over the place in its four years, but it had some great moments.

 

I never said I didn't like it. I said "I enjoyed it once but really had no interest in seeing it again." I watched and enjoyed the entire run, but had no interest in watching it a second time.

 

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: The "limited series" spinoff of Once Upon a Time that introduced Jafar, Alice, the White Rabbit, Will Scarlett, and Cinderella's stepsister Anastasia and built on the bits of Wonderland-related mythology that its parent series had touched upon. The fourth season of Once was supposed to follow up on the series, but they clearly couldn't get the people that they needed to have involved to come back for whatever reason, which resulted in a tepid response to the return of the Will Scarlett character.

Caprica: The first attempt at a spinoff of the new Battlestar Galactica, the show never got a fair shake ratings-wise and wasn't renewed, which is a shame because there were some seriously bold things planned for its second season.

Dollhouse: The second Joss Whedon project commissioned by FOX, and, IMO, the best thing he's done to date (and I say this as a HUGE Browncoat), the show really deserves to be appreciated more because of the themes it explores and the performances that Eliza Dushku delivers on an episode-by-episode basis.

Legend of the Seeker: This series, based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth novel series, was released, IMO, a couple of years too early, which is a shame because if it had come out after Game of Thrones, I'm confident that it would still be on the air, not only because of its storytelling, but also because of its cast.

 

I'm always surprised when people call B5 or Farscape "old graphics." Farscape was probably among the more innovative when it came to designing visual effects, especially creates.

My daughters thoroughly enjoy Mako Mermaids and H20. I personally don't like H20 but that might be more due to the characters than anything else. Mako Mermaids, on the other hand, really builds up the lore and design an interesting world.

As for overlooked S/F, what comes to my mind is "The Invisible Man" which introduces a modern, biological, take on the concept of invisibility. The show centers around Darian Fawkes, allowing himself to become an experiment for his brother's invisibility gland. When his brother is killed, Darien works for "The Agency" to do black ops level government work.

I liked this show a lot, and it came out when Farscape and Stargate did, though it lack the staying power. Definitely worth watching once to see some interesting concepts explored.

 

Heh, I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but your description is so much better, so thanks for that Had a feeling you'd be listing it anyway.

 

I miss Better off Ted so much!

 

A lot of viewers were turned away by how the series used Blade but the series did OK in the ratings (for where it aired). Unfortunately, too many of the viewers were women and Spike was at the height of their "network for men" bit. David Goyer was one of the producers and he and others were involved with the fans/forums at the time so that's not speculation but from the horse's mouth. Blade: The Series was a bit ahead of the curve with the interaction with the showrunners and being a basic cable series with more graphic language/nudity/violence than on the networks. It may have fared better had it been done in the current tv landscape.

 

The company loves its money. If they could, they would go to strip clubs and throw naked women at money

 

I mourn the loss of Caprica and Dollhouse.

 

I actually liked Caprica better than BSG. I don't know if Dollhouse would really be overlooked or underrated, it did last two seasons and I remember it having a pretty big online presence when it was airing. I still see people referring to it on here quite a bit even now.

The bits and pieces I've seen of Mako Mermaids do look pretty interesting, I definitely plan on checking it out after I finished H2O.

I actually checked out the pilot for that a while back on either Hulu or Netflix, and it did seem pretty good. I meant to keep going but ended up getting distracted by other shows.

 

@JD: Trust me, Dollhouse is criminally overlooked and vastly underrated. It's the least-mentioned/least-heralded of Joss Whedon's work, even though, as I outlined, it deals with themes and concepts that none of his other series do, and even though it features the best acting work Eliza Dushku has ever done (as well as a phenomenal supporting cast from top to bottom).