Please help me find a new show to watch! History, just to list a few:
I loved:
Doctor Who
Daredevil
Babylon 5
American Horror Story
Fringe
Supernatural
Cowboy Bebop
I liked:
Farscape
DS 9
Star Trek TNG
Firefly
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Couldn’t finish:
Jessica Jones
Dark Matter
Marco Polo
Hated:
Battlestar Galactica
My favorite shows incorporate some level of sci-fi and fantasy and minimal romance. I don’t like sitcoms much, so please leave them off the list - I am extremely picky.
Jessica Jones was ok but not great. Way too much sex and way too fast. If I must have sex in my shows, I like a slow buildup, not sex-sex-sex, conquests of a stud monkey! every time.
And I don’t like shows about bad people. So I hated Breaking Bad and the like. I don’t want to watch that, there’s enough of that in real life.
Given those parameters, are there any shows out there left for me? Or I have just exhausted all of my options? I know I am picky on shows so I apologize ahead of time.
I’ve read good reviews about The Expanse. Sci-fi and some romance, but not much. I haven’t watched it myself because I’m reading the novel it’s based on.
Regarding horror, I’ve been considering The Strain. I’d love to watch a good vampire story, but I don’t know anyone who’s seen it.
And have you watched Mr. Robot? It’s very well done.
I watched a little bit of Master of None, but I admit I don’t really get what am I watching. I enjoyed it…but I’m not sure what the point is. Which is fine. I mean, a show doesn’t have to have a point.
iZombie looks good, and I added The Expanse and The Strain to my queue. Mr. Robot doesn’t sound interesting at all, but thank you all the same!
Yeah, I love Shameless, but none of the characters have much in the way of redeeming qualities.
You might like Longmire on Netflix. There’s no sci-fi, but there is some Native American mysticism involved. The characters are likable and there are three seasons to catch up on.
Dollhouse was really good…except for Eliza Duskhu. Girl can’t act, but it was necessary she be in every episode. I loved the one guy, what’s his name, the guy who played Victor…Enver Gjokaj. He was amazing. And of course it’s the show that introduced me to Tamoh Penikett.
I have Longmire on my queue but it didn’t strike me as anything special. I’ll go ahead and try it!
Seconding Orphan Black. Lots of fun, great acting and premise and enough sci-fi backbone to keep it twisty-turny.
As for The Expanse, I’ve watched maybe the first four episodes and found it to be very Battlestar Galactica-like, but slower, no AIs, with a neo-noir tone it didn’t use very well. YMMV.
You mentioned Doctor Who, Supernatural and American Horror Story, so how about Torchwood (a Doctor Who spin-off)? The first couple of series/seasons had stand-alone episodes and then the third series/season had five episodes in one arc and was really, really good. The fourth series/season wasn’t as compelling, although it had a bigger budget and that showed.
Another I’d recommend is Being Human, which like Shameless mentioned above, was originally a UK series that was adapted for North America. The plot gimmick; a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost set up household and attempt to live as normally as possible. Sounds weird but it (and actually both the UK original and the US/Canadian adaption) was great.
It’s like the comfort food of TV. The actors work well with each other, the bad guys are bad but not necessarily evil, there’s some drama between the good guys. I love the Longmire books, which are better than the series is.
Are you looking for new stuff or is older also ok? I finished all of Star Trek Voyager and Stargate SG-1 on DVD last year. You may also like them.
More contemporary:
The 100, maybe a bit on the dark side and it’s not great from start, but it gets more interesting towards the end of season 1 and the beginning of 2.
Grimm. Maybe Once Upon a Time, although I’m considering giving up on it because it’s getting rather convoluted. The Expanse got good word of mouth and looks great but the story is slow and all over the place. Early seasons of Castle can be funny in a non-sitcom way and have some romantic tension.
As someone who generally doesn’t like superheroes I liked The Flash (seen most of the first season so far). Person of Interest. A bit procedural in the beginning, but more sci-fiy later on.
Yeah, Mr. Robot came to mind for me, too, but it might fall under the “bad people” stipulation. I don’t know. If you don’t like shows incorporating hard drugs in the storyline, then you should pass on it. Maybe “Black Mirror” with all seven of its episodes? But they’re all stand alone episode with no overarching plot, like a modern “Twighlight Zone.”
