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What are your favourite TV shows that you feel are great and yet extremely underrated, little-known, little-talked-about, under the radar, obscure, etc.? 

I've read a lot of positive posts online about Halt and Catch Fire, will have to check it out as I have literally never even heard of it before. Has anyone watched it? It's supposed to be a Mad Men-like drama about the PC and Internet industry in the 1980s/early 1990s.

 

Anyway, my top picks:

Upload (Prime Video) - takes place in the near future, where people can choose to upload themselves into a virtual afterlife after their death (for a lot of money of course, and it of course comes with in-app purchases, ad bots and ratings). Both funny and serious, satirical and silly at times, but has a lot of depth to it, too. Two seasons are available, Season 3 is in the works.

Dark Winds (AMC) - crime/psychological thriller/mystery based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novel series, starring Zahn McClarnon. A murder mystery of sorts, with several interconnected events completing one big story. Season 2 is being filmed now.

Warrior (HBO Max) - one of the best TV shows in recent years, and a must-watch imo. A gritty, brutal, action-packed crime drama based on an original screenplay by Bruce Lee and made by creators of Banshee. Takes place in late 1870s San Francisco during the gang wars in Chinatown. Great characters and acting, strong storyline, beautiful cinematography, great action scenes and fights choreography. Two seasons are available, Season 3 has finished filming already.

Reservation Dogs (FX) - a dark comedy by Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo, following the lives of four troubled teenagers in a Native American reservation who dream to escape to California. Unconventional humour, characters, and storytelling. The four young actors are fantastic, and Zahn McClarnon is in there too, playing a very unusual role. Two seasons are out, and the show has been renewed for Season 3.

Wayne (YouTube Premium/Prime Video) - probably my most favourite obscure show. 100% rating on RT, 8.4 on IMDB, and yet very few people have seen it or even heard about it. Dark and violent coming-of-age comedy about a troubled teen who goes on a road trip with his new crush to get back the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am that was stolen from his father before he died. It was originally on YouTube Premium, and got screwed after Season 1 as YouTube stopped making original shows, but it got picked up by Prime, so hopefully, there will be Season 2 at some point...

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Great thread!

Penny Dreadful - A dark thriller period piece mixing vampires and werewolves and origin storys of Frankenstein, Dorian Gray among others. Staring Eva Green, Josh Hartnett and Timothy Dalton. One of my favourite series, ran for 3 seasons but midway through the third it pivots as they cancelled it and hurried a kind of resolution to the main story. Up until that it was fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough but fair warning quite creepy and quite dark. 

Mr Robot - I always remember seeing this on some of the top lists for shows for years but noone really ever talked about it. I still dont know why. Its enthralling from start to finish with all the twists and turns. Rami Malek in the lead is amazing, he plays the lead; an anti social, keyboard warrior, vigilante type hacker that ends up going after the big bank corperation running the world.

Hannibal - Josh just made a thread for this the other day. Fantastic series and as great as Hopkins was portraying the character Mads Mikkelsen is Hannibal imo. Its dark, its gritty and it has a just as great a character played by Hugh Dancy as his co star. Much like Penny Dreadful In the final season it was cancelled and rushed towards an ending - albeit a little more satisfying then the former. It definitely pushed the boundaries for what they could get away with on cable tv but if you have the stomach for it give it a try. Kind of like Mr Robot it was critically acclaimed upon release but faded in the background and got very poor reviews for some reason before seeing somewhat of a resurgence in viewership when it was all over. 

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1 hour ago, Viva la FCB said:

Mr Robot - I always remember seeing this on some of the top lists for shows for years but noone really ever talked about it. I still dont know why. Its enthralling from start to finish with all the twists and turns. Rami Malek in the lead is amazing, he plays the lead; an anti social, keyboard warrior, vigilante type hacker that ends up going after the big bank corperation running the world.

I tried hard to like it, but stopped watching at some point in Season 2. Just couldn't handle the whole psycho stuff...

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3 hours ago, nudge said:

What are your favourite TV shows that you feel are great and yet extremely underrated, little-known, little-talked-about, under the radar, obscure, etc.? 

I've read a lot of positive posts online about Halt and Catch Fire, will have to check it out as I have literally never even heard of it before. Has anyone watched it? It's supposed to be a Mad Men-like drama about the PC and Internet industry in the 1980s/early 1990s.

 

Anyway, my top picks:

Upload (Prime Video) - takes place in the near future, where people can choose to upload themselves into a virtual afterlife after their death (for a lot of money of course, and it of course comes with in-app purchases, ad bots and ratings). Both funny and serious, satirical and silly at times, but has a lot of depth to it, too. Two seasons are available, Season 3 is in the works.

Dark Winds (AMC) - crime/psychological thriller/mystery based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novel series, starring Zahn McClarnon. A murder mystery of sorts, with several interconnected events completing one big story. Season 2 is being filmed now.

Warrior (HBO Max) - one of the best TV shows in recent years, and a must-watch imo. A gritty, brutal, action-packed crime drama based on an original screenplay by Bruce Lee and made by creators of Banshee. Takes place in late 1870s San Francisco during the gang wars in Chinatown. Great characters and acting, strong storyline, beautiful cinematography, great action scenes and fights choreography. Two seasons are available, Season 3 has finished filming already.

Reservation Dogs (FX) - a dark comedy by Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo, following the lives of four troubled teenagers in a Native American reservation who dream to escape to California. Unconventional humour, characters, and storytelling. The four young actors are fantastic, and Zahn McClarnon is in there too, playing a very unusual role. Two seasons are out, and the show has been renewed for Season 3.

Wayne (YouTube Premium/Prime Video) - probably my most favourite obscure show. 100% rating on RT, 8.4 on IMDB, and yet very few people have seen it or even heard about it. Dark and violent coming-of-age comedy about a troubled teen who goes on a road trip with his new crush to get back the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am that was stolen from his father before he died. It was originally on YouTube Premium, and got screwed after Season 1 as YouTube stopped making original shows, but it got picked up by Prime, so hopefully, there will be Season 2 at some point...

7 seconds on Netflix.

Banshee which can be watched on Sky Atlantis.

 

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24 minutes ago, Tommy said:

I don't think Mr. Robot is a hidden Gem though. It was a hugely popular success. 

Maybe its a regional thing? I never saw any advertising here, it was never pushed and from what I saw about when looking into it they described it as massive critical acclaim upon release but alot of negative ratings and the viewership numbers tanked and only got worse throughout the seasons. I do see it on nearly every top show list etc but noone talks about it? and I still see it as massively underwatched? maybe its just me.

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11 minutes ago, Viva la FCB said:

Maybe its a regional thing? I never saw any advertising here, it was never pushed and from what I saw about when looking into it they described it as massive critical acclaim upon release but alot of negative ratings and the viewership numbers tanked and only got worse throughout the seasons. I do see it on nearly every top show list etc but noone talks about it? and I still see it as massively underwatched? maybe its just me.

How was it rated initially? I remember watching the first season around a month after it came out on Prime. I went on IMDB and the rating was nearly 9 which is quite high. 

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15 minutes ago, MUFC said:

How was it rated initially? I remember watching the first season around a month after it came out on Prime. I went on IMDB and the rating was nearly 9 which is quite high. 

Pretty sure its rated quite high still which is why you see it on most top tv shows lists but I dont equate that to be little talked about and underwatched?  Either way its my opinion and you all can disagree if you'd like :D

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I think Mr Robot was always a bit of a niche show and while it got good ratings and is well-known in certain circles (i.e. online forums, reddit, etc.), I don't think it truly reached general audience. I would compare it with other shows of superb quality and pretty high profile, such as The Expanse or Black Sails, which also have a pretty devoted following and good ratings, but only a fraction of general public watched it. All of those were also marketed pretty poorly, to be honest.

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55 minutes ago, MUFC said:

Banshee which can be watched on Sky Atlantis.

If you liked Banshee, you absolutely must watch Warrior (see my first post). It comes from the same creators, and is even better.

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19 minutes ago, nudge said:

I think Mr Robot was always a bit of a niche show and while it got good ratings and is well-known in certain circles (i.e. online forums, reddit, etc.), I don't think it truly reached general audience. I would compare it with other shows of superb quality and pretty high profile, such as The Expanse or Black Sails, which also have a pretty devoted following and good ratings, but only a fraction of general public watched it. All of those were also marketed pretty poorly, to be honest.

The voice of reason has spoken. My thoughts exactly, and those are great comparables!

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41 minutes ago, nudge said:

If you liked Banshee, you absolutely must watch Warrior (see my first post). It comes from the same creators, and is even better.

Banshee is number 1 on my all time list of series. Never felt such an attachment/affiliation to a series in my life.

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Oh and there's another one I completely forgot - The North Water (BBC). A dark and twisted story about a disgraced doctor joining a whaling ship on course to the Arctic in late 1850s. Starring Jack O'Connell, Stephen Graham and Collin Farrell, who is absolutely amazing in this. Just a miniseries, should have gotten by far more attention and praise. It's like The Terror, but without any supernatural elements. Just pure, gritty horrors of reality. 

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 Catherine Cookson's films are feature-length adaptations of her most famous books.

Nearly always centered around the Victorian era and they are great, it's the wife that put me onto them as she has read a few of her books.

Spoiler

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On 05/01/2023 at 21:59, nudge said:

Oh and there's another one I completely forgot - The North Water (BBC). A dark and twisted story about a disgraced doctor joining a whaling ship on course to the Arctic in late 1850s. Starring Jack O'Connell, Stephen Graham and Collin Farrell, who is absolutely amazing in this. Just a miniseries, should have gotten by far more attention and praise. It's like The Terror, but without any supernatural elements. Just pure, gritty horrors of reality. 

Oh yea. I had this on my radar for a while and than completely forgot about it. I need to watch it. 

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10 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Oh yea. I had this on my radar for a while and than completely forgot about it. I need to watch it. 

It's really, really good! I went in with low expectations, but was captivated from the very first episode. All the actors did a stellar job, Collin Farrell was particularly great.

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Two more oldies that sprung to my mind were a western series, Little House on the Prairie which run from 1974 until 1982, and The Waltons which run from 1972 until 1981.

The wife loved watching Little House on the Prairie and if they show it again she will watch it, The Waltons did my head in really as they always showed it on a Sunday afternoon, and the end bit where they are all in bed and start saying their goodnights to each other...O.o

I just ended up watching the show though with the wife as there were some great storylines plus watching John Boy growing up, I would annoy Liz, though when she went to bed and I was still watching tv I kept yelling out "Good Night Lizzie..."    xD

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Save Me & Save Me Too on Sky. Written and starred by Lennie James. James plays a "down and outer" in south east London who suddenly finds out his estranged daughter has gone missing, the show pretty much follows on from there. Genuinely one of the best shows I've ever watched, the writing is superb, edge of the seat stuff and James plays the role of a happy go lucky, deeply flawed London geezer to a tee.

It will finish with a 3rd series so no need to worry about endlessly trying to catch up, or worrying that it will go on too long.

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15 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Little House on the Prairie which run from 1974 until 1982

Damn I fucking hated that show, and I still watched most of it xD All those Ingalls kids were annoying af, and pretty much every adult character was an unlikeable dickhead. 

I remember the re-runs aired at the same time as Dr Quinn Medicine Woman in the 90s, and that was more of my kind of a cheesy western show xD 

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1 hour ago, nudge said:

Dr Quinn Medicine Woman 

Aye, I watched that and loved it, another one the wife watched mainly was Highway to Heaven, I would fall asleep watching that about some angel that was sent to earth to help people out starring Michael Landon from the Bonanza western series as Little Joe Cartright, I watched Bonanza and I loved the opening bit tune, another western I watched and loved it was The High Chaparral

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