Favorite Fantasy TV Series

[JD]

Since we had a thread for our favorite sci-fi series, I thought it might be fun to do one for fantasy too, feel free to include as many or as few as you want
My list in no particular order:
The Magcians
The Originals (These first two are a couple of my all time favorites)
Merlin
Supernatural
Buffy/Angel
Galavant
Grimm
The Legend of Korra
Once Upon a Time
Sleepy Hollow
Special Unit 2
Teen Wolf
True Blood
Witches of East End

 

[Galileo7]

Kolchak:The Night Stalker(1974-75)
Friday The 13th:The Series(1987-1990)
Highlander:The Series(1992-1998)
Fantastic Journey(1976-1977)
Land Of The Lost(1974-1977)
The Batman(2004-2008)
Batman:Gotham Knights(1997-1999)

 

[tomalak301]

I don't know if I've watched a lot of fantasy series. Maybe Doctor Who, which features a phone box time machine and a screw driver that does scans?

Actually I do sometimes get the whole sci fi and fantasy concepts a little confused.

Would Stranger Things be considered a fantasy series? That has a lot of fantastical elements, like upside downs and monsters.

 

[Galileo7]

I don't know if I've watched a lot of fantasy series. Maybe Doctor Who, which features a phone box time machine and a screw driver that does scans?

Actually I do sometimes get the whole sci fi and fantasy concepts a little confused.

Would Stranger Things be considered a fantasy series? That has a lot of fantastical elements, like upside downs and monsters.

Agree, it can be confusing. I always consider it more a fantasy if there is no massive technology involved like spaceships, etc.

 

[Snaploud]

Avatar: the Last Airbender
Being Erica
Joan of Arcadia
Life on Mars (UK)
Supernatural
Angel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sanctuary
The Dead Zone
Game of Thrones
Warehouse 13
Doctor Who
The Flash
The Originals
The Good Place
X-Men: The Animated Series
Superman: The Animated Series
Batman: the Animated Series
Justice League/Justice League Unlimited

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

1. Xena: Warrior Princess
2. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The rest in no order

Charmed
I Dream Of Jeannie
The Vampire Diaries (seasons 1-3)
Galavant
Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Cardcaptors
Wynonna Earp

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I don't think I really watch or have watched any fantasy shows aside from Game of Thrones, Xena, Hercules, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, all of which I enjoyed but I only love Game of Thrones.

I'd argue superhero shows are a subgenre of science-fiction.

Doctor Who (time travel, aliens, regeneration, dimensional space, pocket universes, parallel universes, etc.), The Dead Zone (clairvoyance, precognition), Life on Mars (appearance of time travel, the truth is a major spoiler), and Stranger Things (parallel universe, telekinesis) are all definitely science-fiction.

 

[DigificWriter]

A lot of the shows people have mentioned aren't really Fantasy.

Some of my favorites:
Masters of the Universe
She-Ra: Princess of Power
Rainbow Brite
Thundercats
Jem and the Holograms
Sailor Moon Crystal
The Pirates of Dark Water
Conan the Adventurer
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Sword Art Online
Dungeons and Dragons
Peter Pan and the Pirates
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Game of Thrones
The Shannara Chronicles
Shadowhunters
Lost Girl
Emerald City

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Catweazle
The Changes
Sky
Arthur of the Britons
Children of the Stones
Raven
Robin of Sherwood

 

[Mudd]

Same list. I don't distinguish sffantasy.

 

[JD]

I don't know if I've watched a lot of fantasy series. Maybe Doctor Who, which features a phone box time machine and a screw driver that does scans?

Actually I do sometimes get the whole sci fi and fantasy concepts a little confused.

Would Stranger Things be considered a fantasy series? That has a lot of fantastical elements, like upside downs and monsters.

The way I think of it is magic vs science, if the explanation for how things happen is magic it's fantasy, if it's presented as science, even if it's unrealistic over the top science, it's science fiction. So Doctor Who and Stranger Things, and other stuff mention by other people like The Flash would be science fiction for me.
Star Wars is kind of borderline since it does feature aliens and space ships, but The Force is basically magic.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

The way I think of it is magic vs science, if the explanation for how things happen is magic it's fantasy, if it's presented as science, even if it's unrealistic over the top science, it's science fiction. So Doctor Who and Stranger Things, and other stuff mention by other people like The Flash would be science fiction for me.
Star Wars is kind of borderline since it does feature aliens and space ships, but The Force is basically magic.

No, it's not. The Force has been stripped off of all it's magic (literally and figuratively) when The Phantom Menace introduced Midi-Chloreans. #NeverForget

 

[DigificWriter]

No, it's not. The Force has been stripped off of all it's magic (literally and figuratively) when The Phantom Menace introduced Midi-Chloreans[

This is a blatantly falsified overgeneralization and oversimplification of things.

Also, Star Wars is and always has been Fantasy, being that it's basically King Arthur in space.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

This is a blatantly falsified overgeneralization and oversimplification of things.

Also, Star Wars is and always has been Fantasy, being that it's basically King Arthur in space.

First off, you may not have registered the tongue-in-cheek nature of my post, though I though my using the #NeverForget in this context would have made that obvious. But even so, by the parameters @JD gave as what differentiates SF from Fantasy to him, the subatomic particles which dictate if and how somebody is able to use the Force, clearly pulls it out of the Fantasy category and puts it completely into the SF genre.

Secondly, If SW is King Arthur in space and that makes it Fantasy, then "Babylon 5" as "Lord of the Rings" in space would also be Fantasy. Or even more clear, "Outland", being "High Noon" in space, would be a Western.

 

[DigificWriter]

Babylon 5 draws on the concepts and/or terms of Lord of the Rings, but it has always been described by JMS as being officially and determinedly Science Fiction, whereas Star Wars has always been described by Lucas and others as Space Fantasy in addition to blatantly correlating with the Arthurian Legends on a 1-to-1 level nearly across the board.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I get the feeling this is a pet peeve of yours. But ...

Babylon 5 draws on the concepts and/or terms of Lord of the Rings, but it has always been described by JMS as being officially and determinedly Science Fiction, whereas Star Wars has always been described by Lucas and others as Space Fantasy in addition to blatantly correlating with the Arthurian Legends on a 1-to-1 level nearly across the board.

This is a pretty big claim, considering all the influences that went into SW and also the different versions SW went through from first draft to final movie alone. But even on its face, who is the SW equivalent to Arthur, Morgan Le Fey, Mordred, Guinevere, is Merlin Obi wan or Yoda, what is the SW-version of Camelot, where is the SW Quest for the Holy Grail, who pulls what lightsaber out of a stone to be proclaimed King, ...

I mean, yes, some motives are there, as are LotR motives in B5, but it's not anywhere close to a 1 to 1 correlation.

Sorry, if I'm getting a bit off-topic here.

Btw, @JD , how would you classify something like the Henson Company's "Dinosaurs"?

 

[DrCorby]

Kolchak:The Night Stalker(1974-75)
Highlander:The Series(1992-1998)

I liked these a lot. Some others I thought of:
Twilight Zone (some episodes were more fantastic than science fiction, especially in the later versions)
The Storyteller (from Jim Henson Productions)
Brimstone (it went away quickly, but was fun while it lasted)
Dark Shadows (the remake)
Tales from the Darkside
Xena: Warrior Princess
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

 

[Greg Cox]

Twilight Zone (original)
Dark Shadows (original)
The Night Stalker (original)
Xena: Warrior Princess
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Warehouse 13
The Librarians

 

[JD]

Warehouse 13 is another borderline one for me, it seemed like they tried to give a semi-scientific explanation for what was going on, but it felt more like magic than science.
I just remembered a couple more:
The Storyteller (mentioned by @DrCorby a couple posts back)
Dominion

No, it's not. The Force has been stripped off of all it's magic (literally and figuratively) when The Phantom Menace introduced Midi-Chloreans. #NeverForget

It's still basically magic, even after the Midichloreans. A lot of fantasy stories, like The Dresden Files, tend to give bring realistic science into their magic, but it's still magic, and the stories IMO are still fantasy.

Btw, @JD , how would you classify something like the Henson Company's "Dinosaurs"?

I'm honestly not sure, that is a hard one to classify. As far as I remember, I haven't watched it in ages, other than talking dinosaurs there really wasn't anything else fantastic (as in out of the ordinary, this is a comment on the show's quality) going on.

 

[eschaton]

I don't know if I've watched a lot of fantasy series. Maybe Doctor Who, which features a phone box time machine and a screw driver that does scans?

Actually I do sometimes get the whole sci fi and fantasy concepts a little confused.

Would Stranger Things be considered a fantasy series? That has a lot of fantastical elements, like upside downs and monsters.

It's funny, because the two concepts seem very different to me. I grew up in a "Sci-fi house" with parents who had a lot of the classic sci-fi books from the 50s and 60s, but disparaged fantasy. I was really only exposed to fantasy as a kid from playing Dungeons & Dragons, and didn't really know much of anything about the genre more widely until I was most of the way through college.

I'm still much more of a science fiction fan than a fantasy fan, but I do like Game of Thrones, or did until the last few seasons when it got dumb. Most of the other shows people are mentioning I either haven't seen, or didn't impress me enough to call myself a "fan" (although Xena was entertaining when I was in HS/college, I have no desire to see it again).

I'm not sure if I'd classify things like "paranormal" shows such as Buffy, or comic book shows, as either Sci-fi or fantasy. They're sort of their own thing.