Obscure because it comes from my country but
Kim’s convenience is an amazing show. Like fucking incredible! Netflix had a the diffusion right for a time but I don’t know if they have it anymore, exactly like the next suggestion (this one is in French)
Série Noire where two writers tried to write a crime story and get embroiled with the … gay mafia. Personally I prefer Les invincibles
Not obsucure (still consider one of the pioneers in New Waves documentaries) but I cannot help myself, Pierre Perrault’s Shimmering Beast and Pour la Suite du Monde (for the next world, the link have English subtitles) where he investigates what it is to be Québécois, to be human in the modernity
Technically a remake of the 2013 UK show of the same name, but I had never seen or heard of it - so I went into the US version blind and I absolutely loved it.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (2016)
Similar to the above, a UK TV show preceded this one; both based on a Douglas Adam’s (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) novel series.
I loved Utopia so much, We just came across it and couldn’t stop until it was over.
The soundtrack by Cristobal Tapai de Veer is pretty great too and was a big part of what made it so memorable to me.
Better off ted deserved more than what it got.
I knew if I scrolled long enough I’d find this show mentioned. As someone who works in the biological sciences, I recommend this show to my coworkers all the time.
Mr Robot. It did well but I don’t know anyone that’s seen it.
I always think of google as Evil Corp because of that show.
I’ve seen the first and the first half of the second, the second kill it for me however
Seasons 3 and 4 are amazing, and the last episode has an amazing twist.
I’d just skip past season 2 if you don’t like it.
I’ll do my best to watch them all. Just convince a friend to watch it with me. Ha!
The Shield is an amazing, gritty series about The Strike Team, a special unit in an LA police department. The writing is tight, the story threads are engaging, and the end of every episode makes you want to immediately start another one just to see how it all plays out. It was seven seasons long, and they all connect from the first episode to the last one.
It’s on Hulu in the US, and well worth the watch.
It was seven seasons long, and they all connect from the first episode to the last one.
That finale, so well done, so unjust 🤌🧑🍳😘
One of the most gripping episodes of television ever.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: '80s BBC horror drama satire from the early '00s, and I think it used to be more popular but has fallen out of the zeitgeist just based on its age, space ghost: coast to coast.
I think it was a satire less of BBC horror drama and more of author-branded spooky anthology series like The Ray Bradbury Theater and Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. But done by someone who’s part terrible horror author like Shaun Hutson, part terrible 80s action movie hero. (Full disclosure, I would read Hutson schlock like Slugs etc as a kid in the 80s.)
But that’s just my tuppence.
Started rewatching it last month, saving the last episode.
I think it’s going to get more attention now because it’s finally been released on streaming (Peacock in the US IIRC).
I’ve still never seen the spin-off, Man to Man with Dean Learner
I think the choice of a hospital in particular may have been influenced by the 1994 show Riget, directed by Lars von Trier, which was brought to English-speaking countries under the name The Kingdom (not to be confused with the 2014 show about MMA fighters someone else mentioned in a thread here). It’s a horror show set in a hospital, and also kind of a soap opera, and also it’s kind of supposed to be funny sometimes? That show…I guess I felt like it tried very hard, but also that conspicuous effort isn’t a good look for something that’s supposed to be unsettling. Which is kinda the feeling that Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place takes the piss out of so effectively. I dunno, maybe it’s my imagination, but I can’t help but see them as connected.
I think you’re right, it reminded me of watching Dark Shadows and other similarly written and shot old soap opera reruns with my grandma. But it’s really closer to the horror anthology single creator style like the influences you mentioned. There’s an in-character commentary track too that’s pretty good
That show was a hoot. I couldn’t get into Garth’s recent novels though. ☹️
Loved Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
Scavengers Reign
Fantastic show. Too bad we won’t get a 2nd season.
Dead Like Me
On that note, Pushing Daisies.
Came here for Pushing Daisies. Whenever I see Lee Pace on Foundation I call him Emperor Pie Maker.
First time seeing him in the marvel movies was really funny as well.
Farscape is a classic
It was truly special. The characters had real, believable motives and flaws and they grew with every season, while trying to survive in a gloriously chaotic universe.
chef!
the secret life of machines
clerks the animated series
miranda
Chef! 👍
I feel like Black Books was very underrated. A drunken Irish misanthrope runs a bookshop with an idiot for a sidekick
Galavant, at least the first season, the second season wasn’t as good. It’s fun. It’s hilarious. It’s a musical.
UGH I STILL MISS THAT SHOW
The finale where they knew they had no money left was also really cool. One of my favorites.
The Magicians (2016): It often gets pitched as “Hogwarts for adults” because it features a magic college/university, but honestly that is just the initial backdrop and a massive undersell.
It is the rare show where the creators were seemingly handed a blank cheque to be as creative as they want to be, and they make full use of that in more ways than I can list here (but which definitely includes both the magic system itself, and the hilarious nonchalance towards the consequences of magic being a reality); yet all the while, they stay true and fiercely loyal to their characters, who are all deeply flawed, but which you can’t help but want to see succeed; plus they managed to write genuinely great humor.
The best summary of the show comes from one of the characters themselves: “Magic doesn’t come from talent. It comes from pain.”
Be warned: the first few episodes, and possibly the first season, are the weakest and roughest of the bunch, which probably really hampered viewership. They do still manage to find their own tone, but it’s nothing compared to seasons 3-5.
I think it’s based on a book, so the series creators might’ve been less creative than you think, but an interesting watch nonetheless
At least one of the book writers once mentioned how the show was more creative than they were. They were really impressed with how the keys were used.
It is, and I read them. The series creators were very faithful to the general feeling and atmosphere of the books, but most of the plotlines and character beats are show-only. Makes for two very different (but both good!) stories.
The audiobooks gave a real sense of loneliness and not fitting in/trying to find a place.
I loved them but probably will never revisit them.
Was reading the text like that too? I ask because I rarely read actual novels anymore and wonder how much the narration colored it for me.
That’s a pretty apt description, I’d say! Getting everything you ever wanted and still feeling like you don’t belong and cannot be happy.
IDK if you’ve seen the show, but if not: that’s definitely still a big theme there, but while it is never dropped completely, it is alleviated somewhat because the characters grow closer as a group than they did in the books. Can highly recommend both.
Damn this thread about to make my “Watch Later” list twice as long
Mission Hill. It was 90s era animated sitcom that was taken off the air before the first season finished, resulting in the last few episodes never getting animated.
Today it stands as a really engaging period piece, and if you ever wanted to see Spongebob (Tom Kenny) as a flamboyant gay man or a violent teenage ne’er-do-well it’s well worth the seven or so episodes.
Great show. Too bad the revival didn’t happen
