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Looking for Opinions on a Bunch of SFF SHow

JD

JD

Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Lately I've been looking around on some of the different streaming services, and I found a whole bunch of SFF shows that I either watched a long time ago was curious to try again, or ones I've heard of but never seen, and I was curious what you guys thought of them.
Never Seen:
TUbi
  • Forever Knight
  • Alien Nation
  • Fantasy Island (1998 series)
  • Dark Shadows
  • Beastmaster
Netflix
  • Warrior Nun
  • Wu Assassins
  • The Order
  • Tidelands
Amazon Prime
  • Beowulf
  • Truth Seekers
  • Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World
Hulu
  • Fantasy Island (New Series)
  • Motherland: Fort Salem
  • Solar Opposites
 
Of those, definitely Alien Nation. Should have run for years - not my opinion, but the hindsight of the network boss who cancelled it.
Truthseekers is worth a watch.
 
JD said:
Would watching the Alien Nation movie help me follow the show?
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no you can watch the show without having seen the movie.

there is on episode that references events of the movie with Gary Graham cut in replacing James Caan but the narrative explains the events for people who hadn’t seen the movie.
 
Beastmaster and The Lost World were part of that 90s wave of syndicated adventure shows that came in the wake of Hercules and Xena. The Lost World probably being on the better end relatively speaking but I found Beastmaster to be a bore back in the day. Depends on your tolerance and love of 90s schlock where shows are always colorful and breezy and star lots of attractive people but probably wouldn't win many awards.

Dark Shadows is fun if you can remember it's a soap opera and accept that. If you start from the beginning of the Barnabas era it's a pretty good story for a while and atmospheric but being a soap there's a LOT of episodes though only a half-hour. Vampires, witches, mad science, time travel and more.
 
Mr. Adventure said:
Dark Shadows is fun if you can remember it's a soap opera and accept that. If you start from the beginning of the Barnabas era it's a pretty good story for a while and atmospheric but being a soap there's a LOT of episodes though only a half-hour. Vampires, witches, mad science, time travel and more.
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There was a prime-time remake of Dark Shadows that came out in 1991 with Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins. It only ran for twelve episodes.

The original soap opera series has the distinction of being the only soap of the era to have all its episodes preserved, save one (episode 1219). A fan had recorded the audio of that episode and a recreation was made using still photos. Due to a grueling five-shows-a-week schedule and the high cost of video editing, the majority of the shots were done in a single take. Flubbed lines, cameras/crew/boom mics visible, set pieces collapsing, and malfunctioning props were all left in with the belief that it would only be shown once. The show developed a nickname of Mic Shadows.
 
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Solar Opposites is a lot like Rick and Morty, it's .ore famous show from the same creator. It's decent, but not as funny as Rick and Morty. I'd say it's worth a watch.

There were a ton of The Lost World TV adaptations after The Lost World: Jurassic Park came out, thanks to it being public
domain and trying to hop on the the movies coattails (edit: out of curiosity I went on IMDB and 7 The Lost World adaptations popped up in that time period). They were all cheap and cheesy, but generally entertaining in their own way. The longest running one was a syndicated show that lasted 2 seasons, starring Jennifer O'Dell in very little clothing. Is that the one you're talking about? I liked it when I was a teenager, but, again, I was a teenager and it starred Jennifer O'Dell in very little clothing. That was my main purpose for watching it.

1998 Fantasy Island - again, I was a teen when I watched it, but I liked it at the time. I was disappointed when it was cancelled. I remember it having a bit of a dark edge (not outright horror like the movie from a year or two ago) and that it had intriguing lore.

Beastmaster, I thought was junk. Another cheapo syndicated show coasting on the success of Hercules & Xena and vaguely recognizable IP
 
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As for some of the Netflix shows:

The first few episodes of the The Order were decent at building the mystery and world of the series. It kind of filled that Vampire Diaries niche. The characters were fun and interesting. There was a fair amount of humor that poked fun at the genre as well. By the time the second season came around, I couldn't figure out if the show had become an intentional parody or not--serious drop in quality, and I only finished the series because it was the pandemic and not much else was coming out.

Warrior Nun, on the other hand, was well done with talented acting all round. Beautiful shooting locations as well. I recommend it, especially if you liked Buffy TVS. It is kind of like Buffy finds herself in a Dan Brown novel. I'm not familiar with the source material so I can't say how faithful and adaptation it is. Oh, and there is a great hook for the second season at the end of the first series of episodes--so I am glad it is coming back.
 
The only ones I can comment on are Alien Nation and Forever Knight, both of which I watched back in the day and probably haven't seen either since the 20th Century! I really enjoyed both though and felt both were above average for the time, though that maybe wasn't saying much given how bereft of great genre TV we were outside of Trek.

Alien Nation was possibly a bit on the nose in it's allegories but I remember it being a really enjoyable show, only ran for one season unfortunately.

Forever Knight was excellent, three seasons but I definitely didn't see the third, and not sure if I saw all the second. At the time I sourced a lot of sci-fi via VHS taped of the telly versions shipped over from the States and then copied and sold at comic marts. The lead was great, as was his partner and the villain LaCroix was the superb Nigel Bennett. It's very much a proto Angel, a vampire trying to reclaim his humanity and do good while falling foul of his fellow vamps, including the man who sired him. I'm sure Whedon would claim he knew nothing about it, much as he'd never heard of Blakes 7 or Joe 90 :p

Bit random but I actually still own a soundtrack album for FK!
 
Just the shows I know...
TUbi
  • Alien Nation - one of the best sci fi shows of its time. Brilliant social commentary viewed from the perspective of outsiders - going in both directions.
  • Dark Shadows - the 90s prime time show? Short and soapy/melodramatic, but great fun. The 60s soap opera? Well, there are, like, thousands of episodes, but again, it was fun if you're a horror fan.
Netflix
  • Warrior Nun - I'm going to use the word brilliant again. VERY likeable actress in the lead, and you really root for her.
    EDIT - after reading the thread, I realize the location shooting does indeed warrant a mention - beautiful, beautiful locations in Spain and Morocco.
  • Wu Assassins - I started watching because I love Katheryn Winnick, I stopped watching because the show is pretty stupid.
Amazon Prime
  • Beowulf - Didn't do anything for me. Watched the first episode and bailed. I liked The Last Kingdom and Vikings much more. If you like the sorcery aspect added to the historical aspect, I heartily recommend "Brittania" on Amazon - set during the Claudian invasion of Britain in 43AD, with Druidic mysteries and magic thrown in, and very likeable (and hateable) characters.
 
Of the ones mentioned, the only ones I can definitely recall watching are Alien Nation, Warrior Nun and Wu Assassins.

(I've probably seen The Lost World, but don't particularly recall it. Forever Knight, I'm somewhat familiar with, but haven't seen).

I recall Alien Nation being a fairly solid entertaining show.

Warrior Nun was fairly good (though I preferred the second half of the season and am looking forward to the next)

Wu Assassins, I don't remember much of (So I guess I liked it enough to watch all of the first season, but hasn't stuck with me).
 
Forbin said:
  • Beowulf - Didn't do anything for me. Watched the first episode and bailed. I liked The Last Kingdom and Vikings much more. If you like the sorcery aspect added to the historical aspect, I heartily recommend "Brittania" on Amazon - set during the Claudian invasion of Britain in 43AD, with Druidic mysteries and magic thrown in, and very likeable (and hateable) characters.
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I watched the first season of Britannia and really enjoyed it, but I haven't gotten around to Season 2 yet. I'm a little disappointed that Kelly Reilly and Ian McDiarmid didn't come for Season 2. And before anybody says anything, yes I am aware Kelly Reilly is in Yellowstone, but I haven't watched it yet.
 
Wu Assassins was a lot of fun, good actors, good cinematography, reasonably coherent plot, great martial arts. I only saw one season, not sure if there were more, I took an extended Netflix break.
 
  • Forever Knight - started with a pretty good TV movie starring Rick Springfield. I watched the show once in awhile but didn't get hooked enough to follow it closely.
  • Alien Nation - One of the best shows on TV at the time. The series ended on a cliffhanger and fans demanded, and got, a TV movie to properly end it.
  • Warrior Nun - SO much better than I expected!
  • Motherland: Fort Salem - I really like this show! They've done some really interesting and unexpected things. It's an alternate universe where witches helped the US win the Revolutionary War. Ever since, witches have been the US military and every witch has to serve. The show follows 3 recruits.
 
Forever Knight: if you liked Highlander you might like this. It had the same "immortal has flashbacks to previous life situations to solve modern day crimes/problems" feel to it. I mean, it was cheesy but kinda fun.

Alien Nation: ngl i kinda loved Alien Nation. If you've seen the movie, it attempted to expand on the world created there. I thought it was a fascinating storyline and there was plenty too explore in a tv series. It was gone too soon.

Warrior Nun: I watched this and can barely remember the plot. Not bad but not memorable.

Tidelands: lots of sex. That's neither here nor there, but the plots mostly felt like a lot of thinly veiled excuses for sexy sex on the screen. I got bored and stopped watching.

Truth Seekers: Don't watch this. It's so good that afterwards you will be as heartbroken as I was that there won't be another season. This was probably the most fun thing I watched during lockdown times. Malcolm McDowell is a global treasure.

Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World: if you mean the tv series, if you liked Hercules or Xena or The Adventures of Jules Verne or any of those types of shows, give this a watch. I was obsessed with this show, it was so fun!
 
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