Dollhouse doesn't make the best first impression but it pays off by the end.
Overlooked/underrated sci-fi/fantasy TV series
- Thread starter eyeresist
- Start date
Heh, I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but your description is so much better, so thanks for thatHad a feeling you'd be listing it anyway.
I think its just the two of us who love this show. I haven't been able to convince anyone else to even give it a try.
I think its just the two of us who love this show. I haven't been able to convince anyone else to even give it a try.
Yeah, certainly feels underrated. I haven't been able to convince anyone either. Well, there's my Sister, but I also sent her the 4th season DVD when I realized she couldn't get it through Hulu.
I really enjoyed Legend of the Seeker and was disappointed that it didn't get a third season, but it absolutely would not have been better received after Game of Thrones came out. The low budget and numerous flaws would have been even more apparent next to HBO's masterpiece. I doubt it would have even gotten a second season.
The reason I think Legend of the Seeker would've been better-received after the premiere of Game of Thrones is that, in success, GoT made Fantasy-based/novel-based TV popular, as did the success of Pretty Little Liars.
Primeval (2007-2011): Sort of an ITV rival to Doctor Who and Torchwood but slightly more grounded in reality than DW. Basically time portals open in Britain allowing prehistoric creatures through. If you like dinosaurs and light-heart sci-fi you'll probably enjoy it. There was also a darker Canadian spin-off that only lasted one season.
Surface (2005): Whoever cancelled this must be thrown to the bloodworms. A highly serialized show following different groups of characters as they react to mysterious threats from the sea. If you don't mind watching a show knowing it has no ending then I'd recommend it.
Now and Again: (1999): Another good show cancelled too soon. A man killed in an accident has his brain removed and put in an almost super human artificial body as part of a secret project. What made it so good was that it focused more on the character relationships than the action and stunts, although it's probably also why it was cancelled.
Surface (2005): Whoever cancelled this must be thrown to the bloodworms. A highly serialized show following different groups of characters as they react to mysterious threats from the sea. If you don't mind watching a show knowing it has no ending then I'd recommend it.
Now and Again: (1999): Another good show cancelled too soon. A man killed in an accident has his brain removed and put in an almost super human artificial body as part of a secret project. What made it so good was that it focused more on the character relationships than the action and stunts, although it's probably also why it was cancelled.
I'm going to cheat a bit and talk about Star Trek Voyager, which really doesn't get enough love or exposure from Trek fans but more than deserves to. For all its perceived flaws, the series does many more things right, IMO, blending both the episodic and serialized approaches to Star Trek together to create a show that, IMO, is, on the whole, almost on par with DS9 and slightly better than TNG.
While we're in the Star Trek stratosphere, I've got to mention Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. I absolutely love(d) this show, which felt like a precursor to Firefly, Stargate Atlantis, and The Expanse and a spiritual sequel to TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Battlestar Galactica (the original series more than the reimagining).
Another show I love(d) that doesn't/never did get much appreciation is Highlander: The Raven. It was hard for me to connect with its parent series, but this spinoff of Highlander: The Series had me hooked from the first time I saw it. Amanda was much more interesting to me than either Connor or Quentin, and the idea of what was basically a Police Procedural set in the world of Highlander was just cool. It's a shame it only lasted one season, because I personally think it was the best of the Highlander TV incarnations.
While we're in the Star Trek stratosphere, I've got to mention Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. I absolutely love(d) this show, which felt like a precursor to Firefly, Stargate Atlantis, and The Expanse and a spiritual sequel to TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Battlestar Galactica (the original series more than the reimagining).
Another show I love(d) that doesn't/never did get much appreciation is Highlander: The Raven. It was hard for me to connect with its parent series, but this spinoff of Highlander: The Series had me hooked from the first time I saw it. Amanda was much more interesting to me than either Connor or Quentin, and the idea of what was basically a Police Procedural set in the world of Highlander was just cool. It's a shame it only lasted one season, because I personally think it was the best of the Highlander TV incarnations.
Stargate Universe (2009): A mixed crew of civilian and military personnel inadvertently find themselves rocketing through the universe on an ancient alien ship they can't stop or control. Along the way they find hostile worlds and truly alien creatures. There's conflict between the military and the civilians and they have to scrape to get supplies. It's not perfect but it goes further with that harsh universe than any other science fiction show I can think of.
I don't think it being part of the Stargate franchise did it any favors. People who might have appreciated what the show was doing may have been turned off by it being part of an overextended franchise. People who did enjoy the Stargate TV shows didn't get the casual amiable show they expected nor the gates and mythology, Stargate Command and so on.
I don't think it being part of the Stargate franchise did it any favors. People who might have appreciated what the show was doing may have been turned off by it being part of an overextended franchise. People who did enjoy the Stargate TV shows didn't get the casual amiable show they expected nor the gates and mythology, Stargate Command and so on.
While we're on the subject of Stargate, am I the only person who feels like Stargate: Atlantis, despite lasting 5 seasons, didn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves/deserved?
I think it's an all-round better series than Stargate SG-1, with a more cohesive overall narrative and a broader ensemble feel (SG-1 felt at times too much like the "O'Neill and Carter Show", even after O'Neill left).
I think it's an all-round better series than Stargate SG-1, with a more cohesive overall narrative and a broader ensemble feel (SG-1 felt at times too much like the "O'Neill and Carter Show", even after O'Neill left).
SGU my fav
I think you are yes. In my opinion 5 seasons is about 4 and a half too many seasons for SGA. Easily my least favourite of the SG iterations. What I wouldn't do to have had 5 seasons of SGU instead.
Actually, I agree with you. Especially the first season, where the Atlantis expedition was cut off from Earth and forced to rely only on themselves.
IMHO, the authors should preserve this situation, i.e. making any contact with Earth sporadic and irregular - so the expedition would be forced to rely on themselves and local allies&resources, not on the "Earth battlecruisers would come and solve everything".
I'll second that one. PRIMEVAL was a lot of fun, at least in its first few season. Not sure I ever caught the later seasons after Syfy stopped running it.
I really enjoyed all three of these shows.
Now and Again was my introduction to Dennis Haysbert and Eric Close, who both went on to bigger more successful shows, 24 and Without A Trace respectively.
Another two that I really enjoyed that I don't hear much about anymore are Invasion and Reaper.
Invasion was a one season only show which followed the residents of a town in Florida after a hurricane leads to the appearance of glowing creatures in the water and people start acting weird. It's kind of an Invasion of the Body Snatcher type story. I'm still frustrated because it eneded on a big cliffhanger with a second hurricane and the possible arrival of even more of the creatures.
Reaper follows a slacker who is forced to work for The Devil capturing souls that have escaped from hell. It's a lot of goofy fun. As it went on it started to introduce some interesting twists and was setting up a big arc just as it ended.
I saw Invasion (have it on dvd - but it's been a while). I think here it aired at the same time as Surface, but I didn't see that one.
Reaper seemed to be shuffled around timeslots too much here
Reaper seemed to be shuffled around timeslots too much here
Invasion and Surface aired at the same time (along with Threshold) and their serial stories paid off in some cool endings but didn't grab people for whatever reason. I remember posting here during Invasion complaining that nothing seemed to happen. I don't know if that was a fault of the series or this viewer but by the end I was disappointed that we didn't get a second season of Invasion and Surface.
I remember thinking it was funny that Invasion and Surface both started at the same time, and both dealt with strange creatures in the water. Do you guys remember if they gave a definitive answer as to what the Invasion creatures were? The fact that they fell from the sky would make you think they'r aliens, but I could easily seen them throwing some kind of twist in there.
The first six episodes of this show are, frankly, sublime, mental genius. Jonas & Josh Pate (who later went on to create Surface, which I have also seen on this thread) had a really distinct and unique brand of humour that didn't just tickle me, but, frankly, caused my laughter to turn into pain. They also employed every cinematic trick in the book to make their universe as ridiculous and amazing as possible. Sadly, they fell out with the production company and from episode 7 onwards they were no more. Oddly, Ron D Moore (DS9, BSG) took over the mantle as a consulting producer, but he couldn't "right" the ship in favour of what the Company wanted and the whole thing just turned into a pastiche of what the Pate brothers crafted in those first brilliant, insane 6 episodes.
Such premise, such a loss.
Another show that just popped into the brain that might float some people's boat - Brimstone - 11 episodes of well crafted "mission of the week" mayhem as a dead cop, sent back from Hell, hunts down 113 escaped souls in payment for his own. Worth it alone for John Glover as "The Devil".
Hugo - This has, as per usual, descended into the "Cut too short" Thread, no?
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