I’ve long been a fan of fantasy and sci-fi TV shows, and although I don’t have time to watch as many as I would like (I guess I’m reading too many books!) if a good one comes along I’m liable to get addicted. For example, I recently finished watching the first season of Westworld and had to force myself not devote all my waking hours bingeing on it. The experience had me trying to remember which other fantasy and science fiction shows had a similar effect. After some thinking, I’ve narrowed it down to the five I like most:
1. Westworld
I only recently watched the first season of this show but it truly blew me away. There was just so much suspense and mystery and tension in this show, so many moral conundrums, and so many twists and turns and reveals, that it had me on the edge of my seat. There was literally a point where it really felt like my brain was hurting just trying to figure things out – but in a good way! It also had that slightly creepy Groundhog Day style repetitive/looping quality, which I love.
2. Game of Thrones
Well, it had to be on here didn’t it? Although I adore this show, it’s not in the top spot because it does annoy me on occasion (never enough to stop me watching though!). Still, its fascinating characters, epic stories, shocking reveals, and massive scope make it darn addictive… and I confess, the title sequence and theme still have me totally enchanted.
3. Jessica Jones
This was by far my favourite of the TV shows Marvel has been bringing out. I feel like this one really did new and interesting things with the superhero genre, giving the heroine an all-powerful, sadistic villain that I was truly afraid of, and making Jessica far from the usual noble, all-powerful, personality-less superhero I’m so used to seeing. It was suspenseful from the very first episode, horrifying, thrilling and just generally awesome.
4. Merlin
Maybe it’s because it’s in the tradition of shows like Hercules and Xena that I loved as a kid, but this show really enchanted me. Something about Merlin and the way he always has to keep his magic a secret made this really addictive. Also, it was just a feel good unthreatening kind of series, which is not a common thing nowadays. I hated the ending… but hey, I enjoyed the rest of it so much I can’t dismiss it just because of that.
5. Supernatural
I know this show is totally cheesy and geeky, and a tad ridiculous, but I think that’s why I love it. If you’ve been watching it since the beginning, it’s full of in-jokes, self-referential fun and funny, quirky characters that you fall in love with. It starts to feel like an old friend… and while it rarely has me on the edge of my seat with suspense the way other shows do, I enjoy watching it. I’m a particular fan of Caz, played by Misha Collins.
A Nostalgic Shout-Out
While I didn’t include them on the list, I have a lot of TV shows I remember loving in the 90s and early 2000s. I haven’t seen them in years and pretty much the only thing I can remember about them is that I loved them at the time I watched them. It seemed wrong to add them into the above list and rank them with more recent shows, but also wrong not to mention them at all, so here they are:
- Charmed
- Stargate SG-1
- Sliders
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- The X-Files
- The Secret World of Alex Mack
- Now and Again
- Dark Angel
_________
Those are my all-time favourite fantasy and sci-fi series from the ones I’ve seen so far. I hope to add more shows to my list in the near future, as it seems plenty of great new series are being released right now, and there are several recent shows I haven’t yet had a chance to sample.
What do you think? Are you a fan of any of the above, or do have any favourite shows you’d recommend that aren’t on my list? Feel free to comment below!
Thoughts on Fantasy 
I’ve watched Merlin and I’m a massive Game of Thrones fan! You have good taste.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! My brother often teases me about my taste (mostly in music though), so it’s nice to get a compliment on it for a change 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such a great post!! Westworld has me intrigued- I really want to watch that at some point! And I’m a huge fan of Game of Thrones!!! And Merlin is one of my all-time favourite series- I absolutely loved it and was so sad when it was cancelled. Jessica Jones is good too- agree that it ended up being my favourite Marvel tv show!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! We obviously like many of the same shows 🙂 I highly recommend Westworld – it’s so addictive and intriguing and has me completely hooked. I can’t wait for the next season of it and of course, of Game of Thrones! Your weekly GoT episode reviews were great btw, I hope they will continue next season too? And wasn’t that so disappointing when Merlin got cancelled – they said that was how they always meant to end it but it just felt so abrupt and unsatisfactory that I didn’t quite believe them 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome! Yes!! 🙂 Ahh that’s brilliant!! I hadn’t heard of it till a couple of weeks ago and now I’m hearing so many good things about it! Very excited!! Aww thank you very much!!! Hopefully!! As long as I’m watching it, I’ll try to do reviews!! Yeah that’s why I was disappointed- there were so many things I was looking forward to and so many things that I hoped they’d do with the series, but they just crammed everything into one last season and it ended
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh that’s good you’ll likely continue the GoT reviews, I look forward to reading them! And I hope you like Westworld!! And yes with Merlin it did really all feel crammed in in that last season – after the slow build of the rest of the series and all the various set-ups I expected them to spend more time paying everything off and bringing it to an epic conclusion, but no such luck 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you- I’m glad you think so! I’m sure I will 🙂 and yes- it was a real shame- cos it just ended so fast
LikeLiked by 1 person
The guys who made Xena and Hercules made another show some years back based on the Sword of Truth book series by Terry Goodkind. I was called “Legend of the Seeker.” It was a pretty good show, very reminiscent of Xena, but with visual and storytelling updates. It only lasted a couple seasons, but I liked it. If you like hard sci-fi, “The Expanse” is a great show. One of the best traditional SF shows to come out in some time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes I heard about Legend of the Seeker – my problem is I’ve been burned by quite a few shows that got cancelled after 1 or 2 seasons (eg ‘V’) just after they’d hooked me meaning I never got to see a real resolution, thus I’m hesitant to start any if I know they have been or might be cancelled early. The Expanse sounds really promising though – I glimpsed the poster on Netflix and it intrigued me, so now you mention it I’m thinking I’ll have to watch it soon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Seeker died way too early.
LikeLike
I just got hooked on Sense8. Also, check out The OA, and Man in the High Castle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never heard of Sense8 or The OA but I’m intrigued – I’ll check them out! A friend also tells me Man in the High Castle is great so I’ve been thinking of watching it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Our family has very fond memories of Eureka and Warehouse 13.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I totally agree on the GoT theme tune! I never ever skip it because I love it so much – even though it is ridiculously long haha! It’s so epic. Nice post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Yeah the intro is ridiculously long but so good, I also never skip it – sets the epic mood before the episode even starts!
LikeLike
I have all Stargate episodes. Sci-Fi is my favorite genre in books. I have about 1500 Sci-Fi books written in French. I have read them twice. My favorite Sci-Fi series is Perry Rhodan – world biggest series. It is popular in Germany and France, also translated into many languages.
If Perry Rhodan is unknown to You, then Wikipedia helps, in German best info.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never seen merlin but the rest were great shows!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t seen Westworld but love the rest of the shows you listed. I admit I’m ebbing in interest with Supernatural but will probably stick with it to the end, it peaked around season 5 for me. I loved Merlin, so sad they didn’t finish it better!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh well I highly recommend Westworld then! (it can be a bit brutal/full-on… but then I guess GoT can too). My interest is also ebbing with Supernatural actually, it really did peak and then started to get a bit repetitive/not as good after that – now I watch it more for the sense of familiarity and the in jokes than anything else 🙂 And yes it’s so sad they finished Merlin like that!!! I was loving it and I just couldn’t believe that last episode finished that way 😦
LikeLike
I’m surprised there is no Star Trek or firefly on your list.
LikeLike
Believe it or not I didn’t know about Firefly when it was running – I only heard of it when several people mentioned it in comments on this other post about discontinued fantasy series – sound like it was much loved and felled too soon! I love the new Star Trek movies, but I’ve only seen a few of the original TV episodes – I liked the ones I saw but for some reason never decided to watch more. Maybe the sheer number of them was too intimidating.
LikeLike
Saw Merlin after it was over. Loved it. I would add Stargate Atlantis. I like it a lot. I can watch GoT over and over and am dreading the end. I like Killjoys. It has that blend of humor and seriousness like Stargate did.
LikeLike
Yes Stargate was great, and I’m also dreading but also excited for the end of GoT… it’s just frustrating that we have to wait till 2019. I guess it gives me time to do a rewatch of the whole series 🙂 I’ve never seen the Killjoys – just looked it up though and it looks really intriguing!
LikeLike
I really like the choices of your favourite fantasy TV series and is almost similar to my top favourites. But I was just wondering why you find Game of Thrones annoying? I would really like to know from another perspective about this show.
These are some great suggestions and would I love to give Westworld a watch! There are also some shows I would like to recommend to you also which is Once Upon A Time and Shadowhunters.
Once Upon A Time is an American fantasy adventure drama. It is about a family of fairy-tale characters living in the real world. It is a very amusing show and a binge worth.
Shadowhunters is an American supernatural drama. It is a very mysterious show which is one of the reasons which will keep you watching. Since you liked The Supernatural, I highly recommend you to give this a try.
I enjoyed reading this post as I am a big fan of fantasy TV series as well. It is helpful for me as I received a great list of shows I must watch. I recommend you as well to give Once Upon A Time and Shadowhunters a watch!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can definitely recommend Westworld, especially since we share a similar taste in shows – it’s one of my favourites (the first season is particularly amazing, I watched it twice and liked it both times). And I’ve never seen Once Upon a Time or Shadowhunters but I’ll add them to my to watch list, they sound great!
As for Game of Thrones, I guess the main things that annoyed me were scenes that felt gratuitously shocking rather than necessary to the story (e.g. lots of focus on Theon’s torture and becoming a eunuch, or the Jamie & Cersei rape scene that didn’t feel like it made sense for either of the characters). I mean, it’s a grim world so I expect some of that, but occasionally I felt they overdid it. Also in the final season things felt a bit rushed – the characters were suddenly travelling from one end of Westeros to the other in no time at all, and the way they tied up everything in the final episode felt too quickly and neatly done. However, on the whole I still love the show – I rewatched all the previous seasons before the final one and there are so many fantastic moments and characters!
LikeLike