What are some lesser-known obscure TV series that went under the radar, that you would recommend?
What are some lesser-known obscure TV series that went under the radar, that you would recommend?
What are some lesser-known obscure TV series that went under the radar, that you would recommend?
Better Off Ted
I forget the name of it, but you might enjoy the show rob lowe is currently doing on Netflix can't remember the name
Edit Unstable is the name of the show
Haven't seen these mentioned yet:
Fringe
Killjoys
Patriot. On Amazon prime. Dark comedy. CIA and government ineptitude.
Honestly, great show. I don't know what I expected, but it was so much better.
Hell yeah
Being Erica
Forever Knight
La femme Nikita (Peta Wilson version)
Space above and Beyond
Sliders
Doraleus and Associates (web series)
Dr Horribles Singalong Blog (is this okay for this list?)
Due South
Celebrity Deathmatch
Ask a Ninja (early YouTube channel)
Oh man, Ask a Ninja just unlocked a core memory that I had buried. What a perfect example of early Internet comedy.
Space above and beyond died too young. It was such an awesome scifi show with some really mind blowing good episodes
I would disagree with due south and being Erica but to each own.
Danger 5. Greatest Australian comedy of all time. https://youtu.be/0Z09bNgSeMI
This was hilarious. Every episode final ending somewhat the same way 👌
The trailer sold me on it, downloading now
It's so good. I watch it once a year
Kim's Convenience
Seconded
The Leftovers - 2% of the worlds population just vanishes. Enough to freak people out but not cause the complete collapse of civilization.
The Endgame - High class criminal commits crimes by way of getting herself arrested. There's only 1 season. Ignore the last ~10 minutes of the last episode and the story wraps up fine.
Counterpart - Mid-level bureaucrat finds out there's a doorway to a parallel dimension with whom the world's been in a secret cold war
If you like Severence, you really need to see Dollhouse. Only 2 seasons, complete story. Slow start, but it doesn't go where you expect, it's a complete story, and Dichen Lachman (Gemma Scout) plays basically the same role.
I feel like the end of season 2 got wonky because they found out they were getting cancelled. They did make it work with the little time they had left.
Corner Gas, brilliant comedy about a tiny Saskatchewan town set around a gas station that is connected to a diner and the oddball people that live there.
You'll come for the quaint setting, stay for the Jackass screaming Oscar.
Raised by Wolves. It was killed by HBO around the time of the discovery merger thing, but was a fully written (creator originally wrote it as a book, and then made it into a screenplay) and unique show. Produced by and has some directing from Ridley Scott.
The show follows two androids, Mother and Father, raising a human child alone on a desolate planet after fleeing a dying earth controlled by hi-tech zealots. This new home might be far more related to them than they realize, and maybe not always so desolate. It blends mysticism and sci-fi in a really fun way, and I will never not be angry I don't get to see how it ends.
It was pretty decent deffo worth a watch
I hope the rest of this story gets told at some point. It would make a good graphic novel.
The Patriot on amazon is one of my favourite tv shows of all time. Tragically cancelled but each episode is outstanding. Nobody's seen it!
Mr Inbetween
Because I've never met anyone else who ever watched it and I haven't been able to pirate it:
An action/comedy police procedural about a unit of the Chicago PD that manages cryptids (called "Links" in the show). A little bit like a terrestrial MIB.
Galavant
Mighty boosh
Red dwarf
Misfits
I guess in this case obscure differs a lot geographically, but I definitely know places where they are almost completely unknown.
🎶blah blah blah blah GALAVANT!🎶
And if you like galavant, Psych!
Easy now, fuzzy little man-peach, hmm? You ever drunk Bailey's from a shoe?
I see you, and raise you:
Blood. Blood. BLOOD. Blood.
Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place
Now that’s an obscure gem and suddenly I want to hear that 80s synth song from Matt Berry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO-ZGP68-3w
These don’t seem obscure to me but most folks I know have never heard of them:
What We Do in the Shadows
Sealab 2021
Parks and Rec
Party Down
Freaks and Geeks
Venture Bros
If you liked what we do in the shadows...
Wellington Paranormal - it's about the police tasked with investigating all the dumb shit that goes on in what we do in the shadows. Gold.
Do you live in Serbia or something?
Sealab 2021 is classic Adult Swim. Same with Venture Bros. Love them both!
Party Down is great. I also realized I've been sleeping on the 3rd season revival.
https://www.polygon.com/23610906/party-down-revival-season-3-how-to-watch-starz
Are we having fun yet.
I know like 3 people that have seen party down and 2 of them watched it with me.
Comrade Detective
Fictional 1980s Romanian buddy-cop propaganda tv show promoting Soviet communism - filmed in 2017. Dubbed into English with voices including:
Channing Tatum Joseph Gordon-Levitt Nick Offerman Jenny Slate Jason Mantzoukas John DiMaggio
It’s fucking amazing
Reaper was a really brilliant, easy-watching action/comedy show akin to Chuck. It's centered around a young man whose family has sold his soul to the devil, and now he must fulfill the contract by hunting down souls that have escaped from hell.
It features the typical "monster of the week" premise, along with a longer story arc across the seasons and has a rather fun mythology and world building. Ray Wise puts in a phenomenal performance as the devil, and I remember the show having a pretty genuine and surprisingly wholesome sense of humour.
Sadly its momentum got interrupted by the writers strike, and its second season was shortened and then cancelled. I still highly recommend it.
I always mention this one, but The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
It's got Bruce Campbell in it (Army of darkness) And he plays a cowboy as the lead character where he goes on wacky steampunk-filled hijinks and adventures through the Old West.
it came out in the early 90s and you can watch it for free on tubiTV.
Fun fact, a lot of the old timey western movies used a particular set and the Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was the last show to use that set.
When they finished it was torn down.
Another fun fact, you've heard the theme song.
It's now used in the Olympics when America plays.
It's a fucking amazing show.
I think that was the first show I watched that got cancelled and I was waiting for the next season wondering what the fuck happened.
I still remember my favorite character from that show: Bowler.
LORD Bowler.
Unfortunately not available on Tubi right now
Lexx, a show about a giant dragonfly spaceship that destroys planets and the creepy cowardly idiot who somehow lucked into becoming the single person in the two universes that it obeys. And an undead assassin-warrior-poet. And a woman who survived a botched "love slave" transformation. And a weird robot head.
It's outrageously strange and strangely horny and hornily gross. Highly recommend if you like weird TV.
Lexx resulted in my marriage (at a lan bash, we're all sharing the ol' yar har haar me maties, a certain young gentleman browses the wares, goes "holy shit Lexx, who has all of Lexx i must find this person" and 20 years later we have matching rings, a house and cats. )
Actually just finished snagging the 1080 rip, makes my dvd boxset look like poo
Lexx is brimming with campy nonsense!
But it has moments when an actor delivers a heartfelt performance that tells a meaningful story.
And then those moments are followed by a robot with a saw arm chasing some folks through a cardboard maze before a planet gets blown up.
I loved Lexx. It was one of those weird science fiction series that were popping up in the 90s as a response to the success of ST: TNG and Battlestar Gallactica. I haven't watched it in decades, I have to go find it.
Wonderfalls
Pushing Daisies
Dead like me
Reaper
Truth Seakers
I was trying to remember the name of Reaper the other day, thanks! Loved the guy who played The Devil.
Really any Brian Fuller show
The pie maker is happy to be included
Paul Reuben's cameo in Pushing Daisies is a lovely part of an even lovelier show.
Flash Foward was an interesting series, sadly it end on a major cliffhanger and was never continued.
Brickleberry
You're The Worst
-- A dark comedy / romantic comedy that centers on two toxic, self-destructive people who fall in love and attempt a relationship. --
Absolutely amazing TV show by Stephen Falk. Criminally underrated. It is my favorite show of all time. It should be available to stream on Hulu, otherwise pirating it may be the only way to watch it.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3228420/
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
-- A bright, wonderful and adorable show (animated by Dreamworks) that follows 13-year-old Kipo navigating a post-apocalyptic world full of evolved animals with human-level intelligence, and making friends along the way. --
This is a family-friendly show that took me about 7 episodes to get hooked. I am so glad I stuck with it! Made by Radford Sechrist and Bill Wolkoff. It's on Netflix. It also had a small DVD release that may be difficult to find.
Ha, I was wondering if that's where you got your handle
Indeed!
I didn't know it was a school
The soundtrack alone is worth it
Yeah IMO both shows have amazing music!
Otherworld.
Dead Like Me
It was pretty much all over the place but I liked the tone and premise. IMO, I really doubt anyone would've been able to make that kind of story work any more than the original folks did but yeah. I don't think the writing was that good but I liked the cast. That alone would've sold me. Also maybe throw in the fact that I found the show while I was kind of starting out on my own during college and so in ways, I related to the main person. Yada yada yada.
Just don't watch the movie that followed the series. It's not worth it.
I rediscovered this again recently. I watched it when it was new a long while back, and had totally forgotten about it until seeing it pop up while browsing MAX.
I did not see Herman's Head mentioned. I've only met one other person that remembers it. Not great in a change-your-doors-of-perception for life, but a fun sitcom from the early '90s.
Spaced
Early Simon Pegg / Nick Frost / Edgar Wright collaboration, sitcom style.
I think you are right in the sense that this may be under the radar now, but this was a big hit at the time. Made the careers of all the people you list, plus Jessica Hynes. Fantastic show.
You might enjoy Black Books, if you haven't seen it. Another one is The Royle Family.
Loved Black Books, thanks I'll check out Royle!
Scavenger's Reign and Pantheon
LOVED Pantheon it's one of my top shows easily
Scavengers Reign is great.
I hope you have watched Common Side Effects. Joseph Bennett (co-creator) is also the co-creator of Scavengers Reign. It's excellent. Mike Judge is also EP and voices some roles. It was renewed for a second season last week in advance of the season finale, which aired Sunday night.
I'm in season 2 of Pantheon. It's quite good.
Wow how could I forget Common Side Effects?? I'm happy it's getting a second season but sad Scavengers Reign wasn't so lucky :( something tells me CSE is going to hit mainstream popularity though.
I love Joe Bennett's (what I call) "American Chibi" style soooooo much. Such weird big heads and little bodies but it works so well.
Bennett also illustrated Joe Pera's bathroom book. "A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape"
https://www.amazon.com/Bathroom-People-Pooping-Peeing-Escape/dp/1250782694
I really enjoyed Scavenger's Reign. Never heard of Pantheon, but if you mention both in the same sentence I'm intrigued!
Edit: It was already on my watchlist
Get ready for a little existential crisis after watching Pantheon (at least that's what happened to me). I loved it!
Mrs. Davis
Dirk Gently’s Detective Agency
Space: Above & Beyond
Earth 2
Lucy: Daughter of the Devil
Final Space
The Lone Gunmen
The Maxx
The Oblongs
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose
The Regime
The Secret Life of Machines
ETA: if you want a more recent one, Deli Boys is pretty great
Cancelling Space: Above and Beyond was tragic. With a couple more seasons it could have become an enduring cult classic. If it has been made later, it would have thrived in the streaming era.
Both Dirks. The BBC was a little closer to the books but both are great. And if we're going in an Elijah direction, the US version of Wilfred.
Mrs. Davis is one of my favorite shows period. That was a masterpiece.
I used to have nearly all The Maxx comic books, and gave them away to a friend when I moved across country.
Of those I’ve only seen Dirk Gently and Maxx. The later was cool to young me, but the former I just can’t get into. It feels too over the top random, like they’re forcing it too hard. Too bad, Dirk’s books are my favorite from Adams.
I second Dirk Gently. Amazing show.
The Lost Room.
Not sure where you can find it, though.
Torrents for it are around
My grandma got that for me on DVD ages ago. The first few episodes are rough, but it's really gripping by the end.
Monkey Dust. BBC show from the late 00''s that went ~3 seasons. Animated sketch comedy that was ostensibly British but wasn't SO British that Americans wouldn't get it. Example sketch-
I absolutely love Monkey Dust. Binged all of it in college and recently subjected my wife to it.
It aged depressingly well.
Mr Inbetween is an excellent Aussie show. Haven't found anything else that captures our culture so well.
Not sure where the bar sits for obscure / under the radar. There's plenty of more popular shows I normally recommend.
Keeping it less known I guess:
Sense8 - slow start but cool concept
The goes wrong show - brilliant little piece of British theatre humour. Some great recurring gags
And second another commenter's recommendation of you're the worst as a good laugh.
For Americans lloking for these shows-
Mr Inbetween is an excellent Aussie show. Haven’t found anything else that captures our culture so well.
This is on Hulu/FX
Sense8 - slow start but cool concept
Netflix owns this world wide
The goes wrong show - brilliant little piece of British theatre humour. Some great recurring gags
I believe this is prime video in the states
And second another commenter’s recommendation of you’re the worst as a good laugh.
Also on FX and it’s the best Rom-Com next to Prime Video’s “Catastrophe”
Sliders
you have to whisper it
Lol i did that just before i saw your comment
Great show, pity it ended with the ep Exodus pt II
Utopia - The UK version though, fuck the American remake.
Monkey Dust - Obscure UK animation.
Utopia was so wild. I'm ready for a nice little show with silly people having a bit of fun, and suddenly I'm up to my neck in total insanity.
Monkey Dust is great is you're cool with black humor - well, humour!!!
Utopia was too violent for my taste. Not really thrilled with hearing children shot even if it’s offscreen. Gave up after that episode.
Aye, that scene probably caused quite a stir at Ofcom.
Probably a contributing factor to the third season getting axed
Dark
I feel like a surprising number of people know about this show, but I suspect because it's German it doesn't get the same attention - there was a period where Dark seemed popular in my circles, though.
One of the best modern series I have seen. Incredibly compelling, mysterious, and they manage to wrap it up in a thoughtful way. It's a must see if you like sci-fi.
Great show with a complex story. Wouldn't recommend it to everyone though.
Others have already recommended Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, and Galavant. All are worth another mention.
I'm surprised only one other person mentioned Final Space. At first glance you might think, "Oh, it's just a Rick and Morty knock off." You'd be wrong. It's much more Futurama in tone than it is Rick and Morty. I'm not afraid to admit Final Space is the only cartoon I've watched as a grown man that made me cry. On multiple occasions. It hits you right in the feels, hard.
Station Eleven
It's absolutely criminal how little attention HBO gave this show. It wasn't even brought to Europe, so you can't watch it legally over here. But IMHO it's one of the best TV shows of the past few years, and it's a complete story so no cliffhangers. It's also one of the rare cases of a show being better than the book it was based on, and the book was already a bestseller.
I love it. Have watched it three times. Cried during the last episode the first time I saw it. The book was pretty good, but I agree on the show being better.
There have been a veritable ton of amazing shows from Adult Swim that flew under the radar. My three favorite are:
Dream Corp was my favourite, sad it didn't continue. Early Mark Proksch is fucken gold.
"On The Air"
The Magicians
Yeah, gutsy writing... Enjoyed it for sure
The Knick
This tv show is awesome. I want to give your post a million upvotes
I don't see Dame Judy Dench's masterpiece "As Time Goes By" mentioned often.
It's about a love affair between the acclaimed author of "My Time in Kenya", and his publisher.
(This summary is intentionally reductive to the point of absurdity. But trust me, it's quite good.)
If we are going to talk about shows with Geoffrey Palmer, I recommend “Butterflies” — a BBC production by Carla Lane. It’s a dramedy about a housewife with two teenage boys and a husband (Palmer), but she has a flirtation with another man. She has to make a decision about how she is going to move forward.
How about two with Rosa Salazar?
Undone on Amazon Prime, a trippy psychological show about a girl (Salazar) exploring the link to her present and her dead father (Bob Odenkirk). It's rotoscoped to add to the trippiness
Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix, where an aspiring writer gets her career ruined by a director when she turns down his sexual advances. She makes a deal with a witch to get revenge
Undone was great.
oo, Brand New Cherry Flavor was fun
The Almighty Johnsons
Cleverman
Haven
Charlie Jade
Lost Room
Earth2
Two unique shows cancelled after two seasons. Both have qualities I've not seen in other shows. The Knick has a unique atmosphere that makes it really appealing along with a brilliant soundtrack that you would never expect from a period drama. Tokyo Vice's story telling is uniquely a mix of English and Japanese and blends the two so naturally. The acting in both shows is superb and I wish we had more.
Border Line - British mockumentary that follows airport security forces. Even though The Office was British originally, this feels like they took they the US' Office and put their spin on that. There's definitely a Michael, a Dwight, a Pam and Jim etc. It's pretty fucking funny, but unfortunately they only made 2 seasons before it got canceled.
I can't seem to even find it any more, I really enjoyed it!
Got you fam: https://sflix.to/tv/free-borderline-hd-29761
Just make sure you have an adblocker enabled first haha, but otherwise that site is the mecca for all rare old finds like that. Enjoy amigo!
Probably only lesser known depending on age but I always like Due South.
One of my favorites. Love Gordon Pinsent as his dad.
Now im thinking about Power Play. I would love it if Shoresy made a reference to the show Power Play at somepoint if they havent already
Thank you kindly.
ZeroZeroZero is a great crime mini series about the drugs trade. Stellar cast.
It depends so much on one's tastes... But
I don't think you can call Firefly "lesser-known" or "obscure" ...
Travelers was good and honestly I'd love a reboot that continues the story. It's literally designed for it
I’m not sure if it is obscure, but I had never heard of it. Husband and I have been watching SyFy’s Channel Zero and love it.
The first season freaked me out so much I never got around to watching the following seasons. I hear they are even better though. Maybe someday I'll get around to it.
We finished season three yesterday and it is still a show where I’ll watch a season in one day because I’ve just got to know what happens. I agree, they’re pretty creepy.