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Top Tens – TV: Top 10 TV Series (Complete and Revised 2026)

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Yes – it’s an Emmy!

 

Exactly what it says on the tin – my Top 10 TV Series.

Well, perhaps not quite exactly as my Top 10 TV Series list is easily my most fluid top ten.

That is because TV series suck – at some point or other, usually when ending or in their final season but sometimes simply not being able to match the quality of their standout first season. That’s right, I went there, but I’ve been betrayed too many times now to pretend otherwise – first Game of Thrones and then Stranger Things, to name only the big names or higher profile series.

And that’s if I make the ending. Many, perhaps most, simply miss the mark for me at the outset. Those that do hit the mark generally fall away quickly or don’t have an enduring (or consistent) quality – or they endure too long, sadly waning until they limp into their final season, and even if they end on their own terms (or perhaps especially if they end on their own terms), they don’t end in a satisfying way. Stranger Things wasn’t quite so bad as the archetypal example, for me as it was for so many others, of Game of Thrones, in which the failure to stick the proverbial landing – or dare I say it, King’s Landing (heh) – in the final season left a bitter taste that filtered back throughout the series or at least its later seasons.

Even when a TV series does endure in quality or finish with a satisfying conclusion, they can often just become dated – particularly for fantasy & SF TV series, reliant as they are on technology for special effects, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer perhaps being the archetypal example.

Hence, I have resolved these issues in two ways.

Firstly, I tend to have a high turnover for shuffling entries into my special mentions, particularly as series conclude or wane, with so few entries having the consistent or enduring quality to rank in the top ten itself – or remain there.

Secondly, I’ve given up on trying to maintain separate genre lists for fantasy & SF TV series or comedy TV series – with the notable exception of my separate Top 10 Animated TV Series, as those are more enduring. Hence, if it’s live action – whether fantasy or SF, comedy or otherwise – I rank it all in one top ten list. As a general rule of thumb, with the exception of a few series that endure in my esteem – or my re-watch list – after finishing, entries in my top ten list are series that are either presently screening (as in they have ongoing or upcoming seasons) or that I persist in wanting to revisit or see through to the end.

This is distinct from my top ten lists for films, where I do maintain separate lists for different genres. I know you can make similar complaints for film franchises, particularly in fantasy and SF, as I do for TV series, but it just seems easier to compartmentalize the good films from the bad films. Of course, individual films tend to be more self-contained, while TV series tend to have an ongoing narrative from season to season – such that a bad conclusion in the later or final seasons can sour the narrative in earlier seasons.

That said, I will mark entries as fantasy / SF or comedy. Also, occasionally fantasy or SF elements pop up in my non-genre TV series, which I’ll also note in entries. Also, almost every TV series has comedic elements or at least the odd gag – after all, one could classify almost every narrative work by the comedy-tragedy dichotomy of classical Greek drama – so I’ll note thoese as well.

Anyway, these are my Top 10 TV Series.

 

 

 

 

(10) FANTASY & SF: THE ETERNAUT

(NETFLIX 2025 – PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

Argentinian SF TV series on Netflix scored my wildcard tenth place entry for best of 2025 with its first season in that year. This one surprised me, particularly as I heard about it in the most roundabout way – I would not have picked it otherwise, or picked that I found it as intriguing as I did.

It starts with an intriguing premise – a post-apocalyptic scenario of a toxic snowstorm (where the snow is instantaneous lethal to the touch) of unknown geographic extent, potentially global, combined with an EMP effect and only gets more intriguing from there, as it is only the start of something worse. Much worse – with each twist making it worse dropped in cliffhangers, including the season finale.

Bonus points for being based on a comic – obviously an Argentinian one to reflect its origin.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

One of two fantasy or SF series in my top ten TV series (as opposed to special mentions), post-apocalyptic SF to be exact. As post-apocalyptic SF, there’s not many comedic elements.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

Netflix promotional art

 

(9) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN

(NETFLIX 2024-PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

“Everything you want from a Guy Ritchie caper”.

 

My usual wildcard tenth place entry for best of the present or previous year – in this case, The Gentlemen as best TV series in 2024. (Disclaimer – I have yet to see Shogun, which from what I heard might well have eclipsed The Gentlemen for this spot).

The Gentlemen is a spin-off created by Guy Ritchie for Netflix from his 2019 film of that name. By spin-off, I don’t mean a spin-off from a character or characters in the film, or even the plot, but the premise of the film of English aristocratic estates fallen on hard times and seeking a reversal of fortune by high times instead, by growing cannabis on a plantation scale.

Like the film, it profits from a charismatic cast with good chemistry – and the usual Ritchie narrative twists or gags, such as that chicken suit from the standout (black) comedy scene of the series.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Not really – Ritchie tends to steer clear of fantasy or SF elements, except perhaps for a certain comedic surrealism.

Speaking of which…

 

COMEDY

 

The works of Ritchie tend to be action-comedies – and The Gentlemen is no exception, albeit Ritchie’s comedy tends to be black, character-driven, and dry.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

(8) BEEF

(NETFLIX 2023-PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

Beef was my favorite (non-genre) TV series of 2023 (and hence former wildcard tenth place entry as best of 2023).

It’s a series by Korean-American showrunner Lee Sung Jin, featuring an Asian-American cast led by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong – and is virtually a parable or fable of the all-consuming, self-destructive nature of vengeance as its two star-crossed leads escalate a feud originating from random road rage into a roaring rampage of revenge. And oh boy – that leads to some very dark place indeed.

Originally a mini-series, there’s a second season on the way – but by way of anthology series, with a new cast to a similar premise.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Not really – except for some literally toxic trippy moments

 

COMEDY

 

Yes, indeed – dark comedy

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(7) BARRY

(2018-2023: SEASONS 1-4)

 

Its unprepossessing title belies just how much this series rocks as dark comedy and drama, named for its protagonist, a Marine sniper veteran from the war in Afghanistan turned hitman now seeking to take a much more bizarre turn into something completely different…acting. That happens after he stumbles into a theatric acting class of laughably bad amateur actors while stalking his latest hit in Los Angeles, a fitness instructor having an affair with a Chechen mafia kingpin.

Unfortunately for Barry, he’s a good hitman – with a stone-cold combat-honed talent – but not so good an actor. Even worse, his career as a hitman is not so easy to quit – or in the words of the third Godfather film, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” – as it constantly throws out its tentacles to ensnare his best efforts to escape it. Not least by his former associates – his slimy “agent” Monroe Fuches (masterfully played by Stephen Root) – and by his former client (and fanboy), Chechen mafia lieutenant NoHo Hank (hilariously played by Anthony Harrigan).

Bill Hader absolutely, dare I say it, kills it with his performance as the titular protagonist – showing his dramatic chops as well as his comic roots, particularly in the penultimate episode of the first season which won him an Emmy, as he showcased all his character’s emotional turmoil as Barry delivers a single line in his bit part in Macbeth with breathtaking intensity.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

Not really much fantasy or SF – but I could well have classed the series as comedy for its dark comedy.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

*

 

 

(6) FARGO

(NETFLIX 2014-2024: SEASONS 1-5)

 

What can I say? Given how highly I rank the Coen brothers – Joel and Ethan Coen – in my top 10 Films, it was only to be expected that I would rank this TV series based on their film of the same name highly. Although the Coen brothers only take the role of executive producers, the creator and primary writer is Legion’s Noah Hawley, who seamlessly adapts their cinematic style to the TV screen – so much so that it is essentially Coen Brothers The Series. It’s an anthology series, with each season as self-contained storyline and new set of characters at different points of time in the wider Fargo-verse in Minnesota and the Dakotas, although each season “retains similar themes and tropes that ultimately keep them connected” (and just enough trademark Coen fantasy or surreal elements)

The first season remains my favorite as it follows insurance salesman Lester Nygaard – played by Martin Freeman in a distinct turn from his more characteristic nice-guy roles – descent into his heart of darkness after shady ‘fixer’ Lorne Malvo – played by Billy Bob Thornton with more than a hint of the actual devil about him (not to mention No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh) – influences him to stop absorbing the disappointment of his mundane life and start lashing out against those who belittle him. (And how!)

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Characteristically for the Coen brothers, there’s more than a touch of surreal fantasy or SF – as noted above, Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo has more than a hint of supernatural devil about him in Season 1, while there’s recurring UFO visitation in Season 2.

 

COMEDY

 

Even more characteristically for the Coen brothers, it could well be classified as comedy – albeit black or dark comedy.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(3) FANTASY & SF: FROM

(2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

An American SF horror series with labyrinthine twists – the closest comparison is usually with Lost, “as an improved second attempt at Lost” or “what if Lost got a healthy injection of horror”. I understand the comparison to Lost extends to Lost actor Harold Perrineau having a similar role in From, where he is the sheriff and de facto mayor of the town. Now that I think about it, the comparison extends to their titles as four letter words (with o as the vowel). Fortunately, I never saw Lost so I came in clean to this series with no such comparison.

The basic premise is introduced in the very first episode – while on a road trip, the Matthews family find themselves trapped in a “strange small town in middle America”. The town traps those who enter, as the Matthews family find that any attempt to drive away or back the way they came simply has them circling back to the town, in some sort of weird dimensional loop. It also is an eldritch location, drawing people in from different locations throughout the United States.

Worse, you don’t want to be outside – or inside without the protection of a mysterious amulet – at night. The town is literally nightmarish, stalked at night by mysterious shapeshifting but humanoid creatures that kill anyone they find and as gruesomely as possible, as we see in the very first opening scene.

And that’s just getting started…

 

FANTASY OR SF

 

One of two fantasy or SF genre series presently in my top ten. Elements of it have a distinct fantasy or supernatural feel to it but I ultimately lean towards it having an extradimensional SF tone. Not surprisingly for a series in which the fantasy or SF has distinct horror elements, there’s no real comedic elements.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(4) IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA

(2005 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-17+)

 

The Gang gets ranked in my Top 10 TV Series!

TV comedies tend to rely on unsympathetic comedy protagonists or outright comedic sociopaths, although for best effect they tend to limit this, typically to a single standout character. However, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia takes this to the extreme with the main cast – the titular “Gang” of its episode titles – consisting entirely of unsympathetic comedy protagonists or outright comedic sociopaths. Seriously, they’re all terrible people. The only real question is which is the worst. Spoiler alert – it’s Dennis. D.E.N.N.I.S.

Indeed, it is hard to find the member of the Gang that is the least terrible person. Perhaps Charlie, because you get the sense that much of his terrible character is a result of his profound intellectual limitations or psychological problems. Or perhaps Deandra or “Sweet Dee”, Dennis’ twin sister, because you get the sense that she occasionally has better moral impulses, but is dragged down by the rest of the Gang. Or perhaps Mac, because you get the sense that much of his terrible character comes from his repression. The original Gang of four in the first season became the Gang of five we all love to hate with the introduction of Danny De Vito as Dennis and Dee’s father Frank, who is almost as much an unredeemed terrible person as Dennis.

Together, they (barely) run Paddy’s Pub, a South Philadelphia Irish-themed bar, although that really serves as their venue for their hare-brained schemes or misadventures.

 

COMEDY

 

One of two comedy series ranked in my top ten. (No fantasy or SF elements, except perhaps in the absurdism of its comedy – and it’s hard to imagine its sociopathic cast existing in reality, let alone in some sort of harmony together).

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

 

 

 

(3) BREAKING BAD

(2008-2014: SEASONS 1-5+)

 

“I am the one who knocks!”

This needs no introduction – just say the name.

A neo-Western crime drama – or Macbeth makes meth. In this case, Macbeth is mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White, who takes one hell of a left turn in Albuquerque to rise to the throne as a drug kinpin. However, his three witches are not so much a literal trio of fates spouting prophecies of the throne, but more metaphorical fate and grim prophecy in the form of a diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer, that threatens to destroy his family’s financial future. And his Lady Macbeth is also more metaphorical – although many would be happy to cast his wife Skyler in that role more literally – as not so much his equally ambitious and power-hungry wife pushing him to become king through crime, but the opportunity he sees while on a ride-along with his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader. After seeing a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, escape a drug bust through dumb luck, he sees a potential opportunity to entrap Jesse with a proposition to use his chemical expertise and Jesse’s drug connections to manufacture crystal meth and make them both rich. And after that, like Macbeth, one bloody footprint leads to another as the pair find themselves entangled by the worst kind of attention from both local drug pushers and law enforcement – and even more so toll it takes from their lives, loves and psyches.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

Not really much fantasy or SF – but surprising quite a lot of black comedy, although not predominant enough that anyone would call it a comedy.

 

HONORABLE MENTION: BETTER CALL SAUL

(2015-2022: SEASONS 1-6)

 

Honorable mention within this entry goes to this spinoff featuring one of the more interesting side characters from Breaking Bad, the dodgy lawyer Saul Goodman, and his origin story of how he fell to idealism to become the character we know.

It has one of my favorite openings in any first episode in any series.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

*

*

(2) BLACKADDER

(1983 – 1989: SEASONS 1-4+)

 

“I have a cunning plan”

“A tastefully vicious” comedy series centered on various generations (or incarnations) of the quintessentially English Blackadder family through history or more precisely, its recurring family member consistently named Edmund Blackadder, played by Rowan Atkinson. Each Blackadder is similarly saddled throughout history with recurring generations or incarnations of family known only by Baldrick (or perhaps Sod-off Baldrick), as his manservant – or more precisely his dogsbody, in pretty much every derogatory connotation of the term.

As for Edmund Blackadder himself, I’ll quote TV Tropes – “a cynical, snide, and outright caustic British nobleman (he’d be a Deadpan Snarker if he could just stop sneering) who never seems to succeed at most of his schemes, but never quite loses either (except usually at the end, where he dies horribly or wins spectacularly)…His typical foil is a classic Upper-Class Twit of far higher social station than his own, whom he is forced to serve hand and foot”.

A word of caution – I’d definitely recommend not starting with the first season, set in England during a somewhat alternate history of The War of the Roses. Written by Rowan Atkinson and Rowan Curtis, with Edmund in his highest ranking social position as prince, second in line to the throne (and hoping to claim it), it featured Atkinson playing Blackadder closer to the comic buffoonery of Atkinson’s subsequent Mr Bean character, albeit with some devious hints of cunning. Perhaps more jarringly, it features Baldrick as his more clever servant, whose cunning plans are actually…cunning. Accordingly, I’d recommend starting with Season 2 and watching through to Season 4, before trying out Season 1.

Season 2 (and thereafter through to the final season or Season 4) saw the substitution of Ben Elton for Atkinson as writer and the rest is, dare I say it, history – with Edmund Blackadder emerging as the magnificent bastard we all know and love. Season 2 featured “the dashing but impulsive Lord Blackadder” as a nobleman in Queen Elizabeth’s court, hoping to win her favor or at least avoid her capricious vapidity. Interestingly, the further seasons continued to see a decline in Blackadder’s social fortune – with Season 3 featuring “the cool and ruthless E. Blackadder Esq” as butler to Prince George in Regency England, hoping to win fame and fortune (and aptly, as the most evil incarnation of Blackadder, succeeding by unexpected twist) and Season 4 featuring “the weary, rather less evil but more witty and intelligent Captain Blackadder”, hoping to survive the trenches of the First World War. Elton’s writing saw “a greater emphasis on clever dialogue, running gags, and historical subversion” and the series become a comedy institution – as well as through its stars Atkinson and Tony Robinson (as Baldrick), “whose comic instincts combine to produce some of the most delightfully snarky wit that has ever been seen on television”.

 

COMEDY

 

The second of two comedy series in my top ten – still my favorite comedy series of all time and enduring as my second favorite TV series. No fantasy or SF elements, except for comedic purposes.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

*

 

(1) DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – LIFE

(1979-2008)

 

When you peel back the layers of my mind to the deepest part of my psyche, you will find it narrated by David Attenborough. The man is one of my personal heroes – indeed, he transcends mere heroism to become legend. And he is responsible for my enduring love of natural history and television nature documentaries – with his Life series, particularly the series that started it all, Life on Earth, at the heart of it all. (His books, adapted from his scripts for the series, feature equally as prominently at the peak of my Top 10 Science & Philosophy Books). Indeed, he taught me to see everything as part of the story – nay, grand narrative – of life on earth. It would not be exaggerating to say that Life on Earth is essentially my bible.

David Attenborough himself needs no introduction – in the words of TV Tropes, “a British broadcaster and naturalist, most famous as a nature documentary producer and narrator, long fondly stereotyped and much mimicked for his hushed yet enthusiastic delivery” (similar perhaps to what I like to call the whispered menace of Clint Eastwood) “and ability to find (and make) any plant or animal interesting”. And I would add not just interesting but compelling in his ability to make me think about them in ways I had never imagined previously. And further – “he has long been THE face and voice of natural history, having created what can safely be called the definitive—and usually technically groundbreaking—series of television nature documentaries, spanning all parts of the globe and every type of living creature (yes, including humans)”.

For me, it is his epic Life series that is his definitive work – beginning with 1979’s Life on Earth and continued through 2008 with The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer, The Private Life of Plants, The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood.

Although his Life series is unequalled, it doesn’t really matter to me if any of the other series he’s narrated as is his work as such (in terms of its writing) as long as he’s narrating them (and they’re produced by the BBC) – they’re all awesome in production and quality.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

None of the former and little of the latter – it is nature documentary after all.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

*

*

TOP 10 TV SERIES (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

(1) DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – LIFE

(2) COMEDY: BLACKADDER

(3) BREAKING BAD

 

You know the line – if David Attenborough’s Life series and Blackadder are my Old Testament of TV series, then Breaking Bad is my New Testament.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) COMEDY: IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA

(5) FANTASY / SF: FROM

(6) COEN BROS – FARGO

(7) BARRY

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(8) BEEF

(9) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2025

 

(10) FANTASY / SF: THE ETERNAUT

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Animated TV Series (Complete & Revised 2026)

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Iconic image of two of the most iconic animated characters – Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner

 

TOP 10 ANIMATED TV SERIES

 

I’ll be blunt – my favorite TV series are always animated TV series. It was that way when I was a child, watching animated series for children, and now it is that way as an adult, watching animated series for adults.

Hence, my top animated TV series would also tend to be my top TV series in general – as well as ones that I can (and do) watch repeatedly. I look forward to new series or seasons of my favorite series. And whatever the animated series, whether for children or adults, I’ll usually enjoy checking it out, at least for an episode or so.

That said, my Top 10 Animated TV list is more fluid than most of my top ten lists. The top one or two entries may be set in stone, at least for the foreseeable future, but there tends to be a high turnover of entries below them as I tend to turn older series (or series that have run past my enduring interest in them) into special mentions and replace them with newer series at a high rate.

Note also that while I dabble in anime on occasion, it’s nowhere near the extent to which I watch ‘western’ animation on TV – so I keep anime TV series in their own separate lists.

 

 

Netflix promotional poster art

 

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL

(NETFLIX 2025: SEASON 1)

 

 

“This hotel has a dark history, Ms. Freeling. Murders, suicides, disappearances. Before it was a hotel, this was an asylum. Before that, a prison. Before that, a different asylum! Evil is drawn to this place, and legends say these grounds hold one of the six gates to hell.”

I usually reserve my tenth place in my top ten lists as a wildcard entry for the best entry from the present or previous year – that is, in the case of TV series, a series with its first season in the present or previous year.

There were a couple of contenders for animated TV series with its first season in 2025. I considered Creature Commandos for this entry but as at this time I’ve only seen the first three episodes – in the limited time that they were available free on Youtube, so the wildcard winner was this series which premiered on Netflix in 2025.

I mean, the horror genre just screams out for comedic parody or satire skewering its tropes and I’ve always had a soft spot for the latter, such as the Halloween specials on The Simpsons – still arguably the best and most enduring episodes of that series (which features in my special mentions). Sometimes the genre even does it to itself but more usually it’s done by animated TV series like this.

Although I’d never quite thought about how many ghost or horror stories are set in, well, haunted hotels, before I was prompted by this series. Of course, the most famous or archetypal is Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining – the most obvious source of inspiration and reference for this series, not least in the name of the hotel as The Undervale mirroring that of The Overlook in the Shining.

Indeed, haunted hotels tend to be fantasy kitchen sinks for horror – that is, the trope in TV Tropes as a punning quip on throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. In the case of haunted hotels, the whole hotel seems to be a hellmouth for haunting or evil supernatural forces, and not just a haunted single room or so.

And that’s pretty much the premise of Haunted Hotel, but with the comedic twist that the ghosts can’t actually do anything threatening being, you know, ghosts – except financially, as the female protagonist struggles to make a business out of the hotel she inherited from her deceased brother, who is foremost among the hotel’s ghosts and in fairness tries to be helpful. You’d think that an actual haunted hotel would be a thriving attraction, particularly when the ghosts can’t hurt you – although there are some supernatural entities other than ghosts that can be threatening.

As per the precis on TV Tropes (without the voice cast names) – “The series follows Katherine, a single mother who inherited a hotel called the Undervale in upstate New York from her late brother Nathan, and is now stuck trying to turn a profit from a hotel filled with ghosts, demons, poltergeists, and pretty much any spooky weirdos you can imagine. Thankfully (or not) Nathan’s ghost has been added to the hauntings of the hotel, providing some dubious assistance. Meanwhile, Katherine’s hormone-addled 13-year old son Ben and scheming, magically savvy daughter Esther adjust to living in the hotel, along with Abaddon, an ancient demon possessing a little boy from the 18th century.”

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

Promotional poster art

 

 

(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI
(NETFLIX 2023 – PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

Who doesn’t like a roaring rampage of revenge?

I liked it as film with Kill Bill. I liked it as (live action) TV series with My Name. And I like it here as animated TV series with Blue Eye Samurai.

So now I have a holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge. Well, those and John Wick, but John Wick is more my Hail Mary (or Ave Maria) of roaring rampages of revenge. (And yes – that’s a somewhat lapsed Catholic joke about squeezing in a fourth person when you already have three people in a trinity, particularly when that fourth person has their own complicated mythos going on).

Kill Bill even used the phrase – its protagonist Bride stating that she “went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a roaring rampage of revenge” (which Tarantino characteristically borrowed from the tagline to a 1972 film Bury Me an Angel).

Interestingly, all my holy trinity are either east Asian (My Name is Korean) or a fusion of east Asian and Western popular culture. Japanese and Korean film or TV are growing influences in Western popular culture – and they certainly do roaring rampages of revenge well.

This animated series is set in the seventeenth century Japanese shogunate that had isolated itself from the world, in what is called the Edo period, albeit a somewhat alternate historical version given some of the plot details or events.

That makes life even more difficult for our protagonist, the titular blue eye samurai – whose blue eyes immediately mark mixed-race ancestry. That’s on top of another problem for the protagonist in sixteenth century Japanese society, which is something of a spoiler, albeit one easy to guess by the voice (and voice actor) and soon revealed in any event.

Which makes for yet another interesting characteristic of my holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge – the sex of their protagonist. It’s also interesting to compare the different sources for the roaring rampage of revenge in each case – the Bride is seeking to avenge herself on her ex-lover, the protagonist in My Name is seeking to avenge her father, and the Blue Eye Samurai is seeking to avenge herself on her father.

Its standout feature – consistently noted by reviewers – is “its breathtaking animation quality” and never more so than for its exquisitely crafted fight scenes. Our Blue Eye Samurai is almost supernaturally skilled with a blade (consistent with just a hint of fantasy to the series) but does take a beating from time to time. It’s not just the fight scenes – it’s the visual attention to detail with character and background design.

It’s also not just the visual quality, as important as that is to animation. It has a compelling storyline, with twists and turns, as well as immersion into its setting. And it’s not just the Blue Eye Samurai whose story is engaging – almost every other character, major and minor, including the adversaries or antagonists, are also engaging or intriguing, boosted by the stellar voice cast.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

Season 1 promotional art

 

 

(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(PRIME 2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“We’re Vox Machina – we f**k sh*t up!”

Yes – it’s Dungeons & Dragons, the animated adaptation of the first campaign of Critical Role, a weekly web video of voice actors playing the game. And it would seem surprisingly effective condensing the story out of what is presumably much messier game play. Let’s just say the alignments tend towards chaotic

So yes – it features its ensemble cast as a classic D & D adventuring party: ax-crazy goliath barbarian Grog, insecure half-elf druid Keyleth, aristocratic human gunslinger Percy, brash gnome cleric Pike, snarky half-elf twins ranger Vex and rogue Vax, and of course everyone’s favorite lecherous comic relief, gnome bard Scanlon.

Because everyone loves bards! Does anyone not play bards as lovable sex maniacs? I’m pretty sure it’s a class feature

The first season also featured a superb antagonist necromancer-vampire duo in Sylas and Delilah Blackwood, the latter voiced by Grey DeLisle, who always does good villainess voice.

And again – Rings of Power take note this is how you do it…

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

Promotional art for the series, similar to the opening title credits

 

 

 

(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES

(2020-2025: SEASONS 1-6)

 

“Planet Shlorp was a perfect utopia… until the asteroid hit. 100 adults and their replicants were given a pupa and escaped into space, searching for new and uninhabited worlds. We crash landed on Earth stranding us on an already overpopulated planet. That’s right, I’ve been talking the whole time, I’m the one holding the Pupa, my name’s Korvo. This is my show. Bollocks! I just dropped the Pupa! Ugh, this is ridiculous! I hate Earth, it’s a horrible home! People are stupid and confusing…”

I’ve been able to catch this series now it’s on Netflix (except for the final sixth season) – essentially Rick & Morty crossed with Third Rock from the Sun, with epic fantasy drama thrown in the segments involving “the Wall”. That’s particularly so as voice actor Justin Roiland essentially replayed Rick as the leading alien Korvo, although he was replaced by Dan Steven as voice actor for…reasons. I’m a fan of Dan Stevens so I didn’t mind, particularly as they explain it in series by their recurring gag of “SF stuff””.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

Yes – it’s that girl from The Witness, one of the episodes from the first season.

 

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(NETFLIX 2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)

 

“Heavy Metal for millennials”

Love, Death, and Robots is an adult – very adult (or perhaps adolescent) – experimental animated SF and fantasy anthology series on Netflix produced by Tim Miller and David Fincher.

And it is very much an anthology series – consisting of stand-alone or self-contained episodes, usually 10-20 minutes (with the occasional shorter episodes) and produced by different casts and crews in different styles. It’s genre-bending (and blending) between science fiction, fantasy and horror, although leaning towards science fiction (particularly cyberpunk) – hence the robots of the title. Episodes tend toward the themes of – well – love, death and robots, albeit the former two are very broad (and often leaning more towards sex and violence). Most of them are adaptions of short stories from notable SF (or fantasy) writers – including Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Alastair Reynolds and Joe Lansdale.

And the tagline comes from its – ah – heavy influence or inspiration from the comic / magazine Heavy Metal, which highlighted original science fiction stories and art, mixed in with erotica, and the “raunchy, absurd 1981 film of the same name which took viewers a step beyond science fiction.”

As an anthology, it’s something of a mixed bag, but there’s bound to be something you like by way of “a striking or exciting style of animation” or “a genuinely shocking twist”.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Season 1 promotional poster art

 

(5) PRIMAL
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

 

Spear and Fang – a Neanderthal and his tyrannosaur. Or is that a tyrannosaur and her Neanderthal?

Those names – Spear and Fang – are never given in the episodes themselves, which are a marvel of mute mood, only in the titles or credits. Mute in that Spear, our Neanderthal protagonist, does not speak any language as such – although he can be very vocal in grunts or bellows and is otherwise extremely expressive in face and body language. Fang, the tyrannosaur is no slouch in expression either. Primal’s creator, Genndy Tartakovksy, is famous for being light on dialog in his work, but in Primal he has achieved an animated masterpiece with no dialog.

The unlikely but powerful bond between Spear and Fang is the beating heart of the series – unlikely in that it arises in very particular circumstances and endures beyond them, but of course in the context of our world where they are tens of million years apart. It soon becomes apparent that, while the creatures of Primal seem drawn (heh) from models in our own, that this is not our world as we knew it – as the waning age of dinosaurs seemingly overlaps much more with the rising age of mammals. And oh boy – how they are drawn, with lush beautiful animation particularly for its creatures and their landscapes, as well as evocative music or sound.

The world of Primal diverges even more from our own as it becomes an increasingly fantastic setting, dramatically so from episode 4 Terror Under the Blood Red Moon or episode 5 Rage of the Ape Men (with its heartbreaking cliffhanger climax).

In my opinion, this leads to the three episodes that are my personal highlights of the first season – with Spear and Fang facing off against, and typically having little choice but to flee from, their most dangerous and fantastic opponents in sequences of genuine horror or terror. A plague zombie dinosaur in episode 7 Plague of Madness, dark magic in episode 8 Coven of the Damned, and a mysterious invisible creature that seemingly kills for sport in episode 9 The Night Feeder.

However, the most dramatic change of all occurs in its final episode of the first season, when the world of Primal changes radically again to something very different from all preceding episodes – as we see in the second season.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

Scene from first episode Season 1

 

 

(4) HARLEY QUINN
(2019-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-5+)

 

“No way! It’s got comedy, action, incredibly gratuitous violence, and unlike that Deadpool cartoon, it’s actually coming out!”

Now this is how you do Harley Quinn! (Well that and The Suicide Squad film – the one by James Gunn in 2021, not the other one).

Harley Quinn has split off from the Joker and aspires to become the criminal queenpin of Gotham with best friend Poison Ivy and a motley crew of henchmen – Doctor Psycho, Clayface and King Shark. Of course, setting out to become queenpin isn’t going to be easy – but it does make for a fun f-bomb-dropping adult animated series that is by turns “crude, raunchy, violent and completely shameless about all of it”, not to mention a blackly comic parody of the DC comics and cinematic universes.

Add in a stellar voice cast (led by Kaley Cuoco, who voices Harley Quinn to perfection matched only by Margot Robbie in hot pants) and you’ve got a winning formula, particularly in its “grasp of what makes its titular antiheroine so beloved”. As per Caroline Framke of Variety – “Most importantly, Harley gets to be an entire person all her own, as heartbreakingly naive as she is wickedly strange and funny”. It also demonstrates that she’s more than just eye candy – although she plays that to her advantage – but also surprisingly effective in combat and crime with her gymnastic ability, as well as smart and indeed insightful into her own state of mind (when she chooses to be).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

 

 

Season 1 promotional art

 

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(PRIME 2021 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!”

Beware the Superman!

It often seems that the deconstruction of superheroes – particularly along the lines of the trope beware the superman – is more popular these days than the more straightforward narratives of them as heroic figures.

Certainly that seems to be the case for two of the most popular series on Amazon Prime – live-action series The Boys, and this animated series, each adapted from a comic of the same name. In the case of Invincible, it was adapted from a comic series that ran from 2003 to 2018, by none other than Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead fame – although I prefer Invincible, both for the comic and its adaptation. For that matter, I tend to prefer Invincible to The Boys for the breadth and depth of its superhero universe, which features a more DC or Marvel style universe with aliens, parallel dimensions and supernatural beings – although usually with a twist in the tropes.

We are introduced to the titular superhero as Mark Grayson, pretty much your typical high school student, except that he is the son of Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet – and just maturing into his own superhero powers, inherited from his father.

And that’s where things start to get complicated, as he quickly learns there is much more to this world than meets the eye – with some jaw-dropping twists and turns along the way, particularly concerning his own father – including a season finale montage which indicates things are just starting to heat up for Invincible.

The animated adaptation has an all-star voice cast, most notably with J.K. Simmons as its Superman character, Omni-Man (or Nolan Grayson as he is in his everyday suburban life).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

Season 2 promotional art

 

 

(2) RICK AND MORTY
(2013 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-8+)

 

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!! It’s fine! Everything is fine! There’s an infinite number of realities, Morty! And a few dozen of those, I got lucky and turned everything back to normal! I just had to find one of those realities in which we also happen to both die around this time. Now we can just slip into the place of our dead selves in this reality, and everything’ll be fine. We’re not skipping a beat, Morty. Now help me with these bodies”.

As its second place entry indicates, Rick & Morty is the best animated series bar one, ever since its premiere in 2013 – “If you haven’t watched Rick and Morty, a cartoon about the adventures of a mad scientist and his hapless grandson, teleport to the nearest screen and shove every episode into your eyes as soon as possible.”

Rick and Morty was inspired by Back to the Future, if Doc Brown was a caustic alcoholic sociopath and Marty his ever more progressively traumatized grandson – and instead of travelling through time, they hop dimensions throughout the multiverse. It plays with, parodies, satirizes, subverts and deconstructs tropes across the range of popular science fiction and fantasy.

The focus is of course on the titular characters (both of whom voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) and their bizarre misadventures – as mad scientist (and maternal grandfather) Rick Sanchez constantly pulls Morty Smith, a hapless high school student (whom Roiland voices with the perfect distressed wail), and increasingly, Morty’s older sister Summer, out of their normal lives to go on abstract trips across the multiverse for purposes that are never usually expressed. However, the rest of the Smith family is also comedy gold – particularly Morty’s harried and insecure father Jerry (perfectly voiced by Chris Parnell), who is also increasingly (and often unwillingly) dragged into the duo’s adventures. As such, the general formula consists of the juxtaposition of two conflicting scenarios – the intergalactic or interdimensional adventures of the eponymous duo, intercut with family drama. (Co-creator Dan Harmon has referred to it as a cross between The Simpsons and Futurama, balancing family life with heavy science fiction). At the center of it all is Rick, who drinks and behaves like a jerk most of the time – although he has saved the Earth at least once by getting schwifty.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

Promotional art referencing perhaps the titular protagonist’s most iconic phrase (ahem – phrasing!)

 

 

(1) ARCHER
(2009 – 2023: SEASONS 1-14)

 

“Every single noun and verb in that sentence totally arouses me!”

Indeed, as does every episode of my favorite animated TV series Archer, still running strong from its debut in 2009. Although perhaps a more descriptive tagline might be that used by TV Tropes from this exchange between the titular character, Sterling Mallory Archer (codenamed Duchess) and his mother:

“Most secret agents don’t tell every harlot from here to Hanoi that they are a secret agent!”

“Then why be one?”

Aptly described as James Bond meets Arrested Development, the series is about the title protagonist, a dysfunctional spy, working for a dysfunctional spy agency headed by his mother, in which virtually everyone and everything is dysfunctional. Even the time setting of the series is dysfunctional – it is “comically anachronistic, deliberately mixing technology, clothing styles and historical backdrops of different decades”, not to mention the Soviet Union. (“How are you a superpower?”):

“What year is this?”
“I know, right?”

Archer has a reputation, certainly in his own mind, as the world’s most dangerous spy – and he might well be, but for his negligence or incompetence fuelled by one of his many vices and his tendency to remain oblivious to everything but himself. “His primary interest in the job is the opportunity to enjoy a jet-setting lifestyle full of sex, alcohol, thrills, lacrosse, fast cars, designer clothing, and spy gadgets” – hence, my adoption of him as my spirit animal. (After all, who doesn’t want to go on a cobra whiskey bender in Thailand?)

However, he is proficient in field work or stereotypical spy skills – weapons (including an uncanny ability to keep track of every shot fired), combat and driving – although in large part this is driven by the complete lack of any sense of his own mortality or ability to take situations seriously (accompanied by a childlike or adolescent delight in them).

Archer is one of the few (or perhaps only) animated series I recommend to people who are not otherwise a fan of animated series, because in style (including its realistic art style) resembles a live action series – indeed, with a few cosmetic changes, it could be a live-action series. (Well, if only H. Jon Benjamin resembled the appearance of Archer as well as providing his voice – man, I love his voice!). It certainly is a series that improves with watching it (in sequence) over time – as TV Tropes notes, the series’ humor “relies heavily on call backs and running gags alongside a large ensemble cast”, many of whom are recurring and as much a source of character humor as Archer himself.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

 

TV – ANIMATION: TOP 10 (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

(1) ARCHER
(2) RICK & MORTY

If Archer is my Old Testament of TV animation, Rick and Morty is my New Testament.

And as an exception to the rule of the highly fluid nature of my TV top tens, Archer has good prospects of enduring in top spot (and my interest) beyond its peak quality and final Season 14, particularly as it’s a series I rewatch with pleasure. After all, Archer is my spirit animal!

 

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(4) HARLEY QUINN
(5) PRIMAL

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES
(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER – BEST OF 2025)

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series (Complete Top 10)

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Poster art for Archer Season 10, titled Archer:1999 – a reference to the 1975-1977 SF TV series Space: 1999 (and hence a nod to the anachronistic retro vibe of Archer’s main continuity)

 

Sigh. My Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series may be the most fluid of all my top ten lists.

Many, perhaps most, simply miss the mark for me at the outset. Those that do hit the mark generally fall away quickly or don’t have an enduring quality – or they endure too long, waning until they limp into their final season and fail to stick the landing. The recent archetypal example, for me as it was for so many others, was Game of Thrones, in which the failure to stick the proverbial landing – or dare I say it, King’s Landing (heh) – in the final season left a bitter taste that filtered back throughout the series or at least its later seasons.

Hence, I tend to have a high turnover for shuffling or ranking entries into my special mentions, with so few entries having the consistent or enduring quality to rank in the top ten itself – or remain there. And to be honest, most of my present entries are pretty shaky.

In fairness to myself, there’s also my separate Top 10 Animated TV Series, in which my entries are somewhat more enduring – and animation by its nature tends to be fantasy or SF. Indeed, all but the top entry in my present top ten are clearly fantasy or SF, and the top entry (Archer) has so many substantial SF elements as to be borderline SF. (One season was outright SF – the one I use for my feature image – and there’s a reasonable argument for the other seasons as alternate history given their anachronistic timeline and divergence from our own world in which they are nominally set.)

Like my Top 10 Fantasy & SF Films, my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series leans predominantly towards SF. I’ve ranked four entries  as fantasy although the distinction between SF and fantasy seems far fuzzier in most of the other entries than it does for SF films. As I did for films, I will note each entry as fantasy or SF, but with a section (Fantasy or SF?) for the fuzziness of the distinction.

It’s also interesting how much supernatural or SF horror features in my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series, as well as how many superhero comics adaptations – both of which I will note in each entry.  Half of the entries, including the top two entries, clearly fall within the horror genre (with arguable horror elements in the others) – and an entry is an adaptation from superhero comics, albeit far removed from the A-list characters of comics.

Anyway, these are my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series.

 

 

Amazon Prime promotional poster art for Fallout

 

(10) SF: FALLOUT

(2024: SEASON 1+)

 

Yes, I’m running with this series and its 2024 debut on Amazon Prime as my wildcard tenth place entry as best of 2024.

For one thing, there wasn’t much else I saw by way of debut fantasy or SF TV series to outrank it in 2024. For another, as flawed as it was, it was fun, even if that fun was carried by its lead Ella Purnell (who, as voice actress for Jinx in Netflix’s Arcane really seems to be having a banger year or years recently on television) as well as the always reliable Walter Goggins as the Ghoul (also having a banger year or so in television as voice actor for Cecil in Prime’s Invincible). The two of them pairing up was the highlight of the series.

Yes, it’s cheesy, but then so are the games from which it is adapted and you could hardly expect high art from it. It’s your standard post-apocalyptic wasteland, albeit from nuclear war between the United States and China in an alternative twenty-first century with retro-futuristic 50s chic.

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Classic post-apocalyptic SF – after a nuclear war in an alternate history timeline to boot. Of course, post-apocalyptic SF can often have elements of fantasy

 

HORROR

 

And more often, elements of horror – as here, notably with the ghouls.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2024

 

 

 

 

(9) FANTASY: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

(2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2+)

 

For six seasons, Game of Thrones reigned supreme in my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series, albeit the first four seasons set the gold standard while the fifth and sixth season started to show signs of silver or bronze wearing through.

Then came the seventh season in which it slipped from its supreme reign – but even worse, its eighth and final season, in which it definitely did not stick its Kings Landing, or perhaps, stuck it somewhere winter never comes and painfully at that. I don’t think it’s overstating just how bad this season was to state that it undid all the previous seasons – perhaps not to the point of erasing it from my memory but at least to shuffling it off into my special mentions instead for fond reminiscence of its golden seasons.

And there I thought Westeros and the world of Game of Thrones would remain, to be politely passed over for new fantasy fare.

So imagine my surprise that just when I thought I was out, the prequel series, House of the Dragon – or Hot D for short – pulled me back in. The first season seemed a return to the quality of the early seasons of Game of Thrones – or at least seasons 5-6.

In fairness, quality fantasy fare is hard to come by on screen – which is why my top tens for cinematic or television fantasy & SF is predominated by SF. For some reason – or indeed a number of reasons – directors and producers just seem to adapt SF better than fantasy to the screen, albeit usually with fantastic elements rather cold hard SF.

Also in fairness – once bitten, twice shy. I still have that taste in my mouth from Season 8 of Game of Thrones, particularly as I know that’s how it all ends up, even this prequel series set nearly 200 years earlier – and season 2 showed some signs of sagging or treading water.

But so far so good with that classic Westeros territory – wars of succession and civil wars. Also dragons – only more of them and bigger. And casting an Australian girl as the young Rhaenyra Targaryen, even if they then time jump to another actress for her as one of the two rival claimants for the throne (for the Blacks against the Greens, named for their house colors).

I’m at least in it for the next season.

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

The most fantasy of my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series. No SF to be seen!

 

HORROR

 

Perhaps some elements but not as many as the original Game of Thrones series, with its wights and White Walkers…

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Netflix promotional poster art

 

 

(8) FANTASY (HORROR): SWEET HOME

(2020 – 2024: SEASONS 1-3)

 

Monster apocalypse!

Adapted from a webtoon, apocalyptic horror hits South Korea, as people turn into monsters inside and outside an apartment building – with the second and third season expanding the setting from the original building, as well as featuring the remnants of the army and government studying the monsters in hope of finding a cure.

It’s distinct from a zombie apocalypse – as while the transformations have symptoms of onset, the transformations themselves are not contagious and don’t have the qualities of viral infection of your standard zombie apocalypse. Also, the monster transformations are metaphysical or even karmic in nature, usually reflecting some character trait in the person being transformed. Hence, some monsters are more monstrous than others, in appearance or in morality.

I mean, the first episode sets the tone with the series protagonist hears his neighbor complaining she’s hungry as she eats his ramen (ransacked from the package delivery outside his door) – and her cat.

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Unlike a zombie apocalypse which usually is more SF than fantasy, the monster apocalypse is a little too metaphysical for SF and so I’ve ranked it as fantasy. However, it still retains some SF trappings, for being set in the contemporary world with the government or military trying to study the monsters for a possible cure.

 

HORROR

 

What part of monster apocalypse did you miss? You can pretty much rank it as straight-up horror.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Netflix promotional poster art

 

(7) FANTASY: GIRL FROM NOWHERE

(2018 – 2021: SEASONS 1-2)

 

A little like my previous entry Sweet Home – in that I’ve found myself dipping into east Asian fantasy televsion series…you know, in the absence of consistency of enduring quality (or in some cases initial quality) in Western fantasy television series.

I’ve only dipped into this Thai series on Netflix just a little, but enough to find it intriguing. It prompts to mind Japanese anime (or live-action adaptation) in its staple school setting – one wonders why an apparently immortal supernatural being spends her time hanging around high schools as one of their students but why not, I suppose?

That supernatural being is the titular trickster Girl from Nowhere, who seems to delight in serving up karma with a side of mind-screw to wrongdoers – made even better by her beaming smile in her guise of how nice she is helping them to their own self-destruction.

Funnily enough, it prompts to mind one of my special mentions, the forgotten gem of American Gothic, where Sheriff Buck played a similar role but more in the way of deals with the devil (with himself as the devil of course).

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Fantasy obviously – dark fantasy. Although it would be interesting as an SF variant of Nanno as a telepathic alien – or perhaps AI?

 

HORROR

 

More than a few horror elements – although perhaps in the sense that the creeping doom of tragic drama has always reminded me of horror.

 

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

(6) FANTASY (HORROR): THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

(2018: SEASON 1. Yes – I’m only counting the first season. It’s an anthology series anyway)

 

As the title indicates, it is an adaptation based loosely on the book of the same name by Shirley Jackson.

It is psychological and supernatural horror, working effectively as both. The supernatural horror – the ghosts of the titular haunting and house itself – are certainly chilling, particularly as the director placed ghostly figures in the margins or peripheral angles of scenes (notably involving the stairs). You often didn’t see them, at least directly, but they were still there, squirming in your subconscious mind to unnerve or disturb you. The ghosts that you do see are unnerving enough, from the titular ghost in the very first episode, “Steven Sees a Ghost” – and from there on in, it’s a white-knuckled ride of suspense and creeping fear. And then there’s the psychological horror of a broken family of broken people, not to mention the occasional existential horror of life itself (such as that speech – you know the one, thank you Theo).

The plot revolves around the Crain family – Hugh and Olivia with their five children – moving into Hill House twenty-six years previously, with the parents intending to renovate it for sale, but the House – and its, ah, family – have their own hungry plans. And to paraphrase my poetic musings elsewhere – the Crain family came back from the black abyss, but they did not come all the way back (or all come back), and worse, they brought it back with them (and left part of themselves or their family behind). The story flips between the past and the present, as the family struggles with the aftermath – and that the House is still hungry for those who escaped it.

And then there’s that red room…

The only flaw for me was the ending, which was somewhat divisive for audiences in its tonal shift – although some have speculated a much darker twist in it.

And yes – I’m only counting the first season. It had a second season, retooled into an anthology series with the second season as an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw (and other works by Henry James). It arguably had a third season, an adaptation by creator Mike Flanagan of the Fall of the House of Usher (and other works by Edgar Allen Poe). However, they just haven’t had the same magic for me as this first season.

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Dark fantasy – like all good ghost stories.

 

HORROR

 

Well, obviously – indeed, the entry in my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series that is the most readily characterized as horror.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

(5) SF (HORROR): THE STRAIN
(2014-2017: SEASONS 1-4)

 

It’s a vampire apocalypse in a box!

A vampire horror series that portrays vampires as the blood-sucking parasitic abominations they are. (Yes – I have fantastic racism against vampires. Stake them all in the sun, I say. Except hot vampire girls, of course. And there’s none of those in this series). In this case, vampirism is spread by the worm-like parasites that crawl from their bodies, one of which was depicted burrowing into an eye in an infamous promotional poster. (It’s reminiscent of the Lovecraftian vampire parasite things in the pulpy Necroscope book series by Brian Lumley).

It’s a welcome relief from the sexy (or worse, sparkly) vampires of True Blood (or worse, Twilight) and most vampires in popular culture these days – the vampires in The Strain are distinctly unsexy vile abominations of extreme body horror. It’s hard to be sexy when your (male) genitalia have atrophied and dropped off, while your excretory organs have fused together into a cloaca. Eww!

The series is the brainchild of Guillermo de Toro (yes, THAT Guillermo de Toro) and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name (albeit one originally conceived as a story line for a television series). The series opens with CDC medical staff called to an airliner in which everyone appears to have succumbed to a mysterious viral infection or disease. Or at least, so the authorities surmise – instead, it is worse. Much worse.

Soon, New York finds itself battling for its very existence against an ancient enemy with humanity itself at stake (heh).

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

I actually hesitated over the genre classification of this one between fantasy or SF – let’s face it, it’s primarily horror and rivals The Haunting of Hill House as the most distinctively horror series in my top ten.

While it evokes the supernatural dark fantasy or horror of the Dracula novel in a number of points, notably in its opening scene and mystery basically as a modern version of Dracula coming to England, its depiction of vampires and vampirism is essentially more the SF trope of the Virus akin to the zombie apocalypse. It’s not just vampirism as viral infection of course – it’s also Lovecraftian parasitic infection to boot.

 

HORROR

 

Well, obviously.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

(4) SF: BLACK MIRROR
(2011 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-6+)

*

Black Mirror – the cyberpunk Twilight Zone of the twenty-first century!

Okay, that cyberpunk label may be overstating it, but it certainly is a series of dark and satirical twists in the tale of the unanticipated or unintended consequences of technology and social media in modern society – or, in the words of series creator Charlie Brooker, “the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.”

It is an anthology series with no continuity between episodes – each episode has a different cast, a different setting or even a different reality, so you don’t have to watch them in order. Personally, I’d recommend starting with the later seasons and working your way backwards – particularly as the very first episode doesn’t extrapolate so much on technology or social media and can be a little confronting (although unforgettable – let’s just say you won’t feel about pork the same way again).

As for the premise and title of the series, it’s back to Charlie Brooker:

“If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The ‘black mirror’ of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.”

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

SF, as per its title premise – among the least fantasy of my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series.

 

HORROR

 

As is typical for dystopian SF, it has a few borderline horror elements.

 

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(3) SF (COMICS): PEACEMAKER

(2022: SEASON 1)

 

“I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women and children I have to kill to get it”

I mean, the opening credits sequence alone would earn a place in my top ten. And Eagly too of course.

Peacemaker was introduced – on screen at least – in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in 2019 (the good Suicide Squad film, not the bad one), along with his credo for “peace” quoted above.

I wouldn’t have guessed that out of all the characters in that film, Peacemaker would be the one to get his own spin-off TV series, also directed by James Gunn – but it totally works, as Gunn brings his blackly comic signature style from the film to the TV series, with added hair metal flair.

Of course, it helps that the titular anti-hero protagonist is having something of a crisis of faith, not least the whole-heartedness of his credo – notably including guilt and remorse over its casualties, one in particular. And we get to see his traumatic origin, particularly at the hands of his father – played with vile relish by Robert Patrick.

Once again, Peacemaker finds himself being used as a tool – or weapon – by Task Force X, against an invasion by mysterious entities known as Butterflies, prompting Peacemaker to compare it to Operation Starfish in The Suicide Squad.

And it’s not just Peacemaker’s show – the other characters, particularly the other members of Task Force X, bring their A-game as well. My personal favorite is the cheerfully sociopathic Vigilante, although I’m not sure how faithfully his screen incarnation is adapted from the comics.

And yes – this is the one entry that is an adaptation from superhero comics, albeit lesser known characters from DC Comics (including those it acquired from Charlton Comics, notably Peacemaker himself).

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

I’m going with the genre classification of SF – after all, it does involve an alien invasion (and Gunn tends to lean more into the SF side of comics when adapting their properties). However, like most comics or works adapted from them, it’s the distinctly softer kind of SF.

 

HORROR

 

Gunn has roots in SF horror back to his film Slither and it often shows in his works – as here, where there are distinct SF horror elements in the Butterfly alien invasion. I’d argue it has elements of SF horror, but in the usual style of superhero comics and played more for black comedy.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(2) SF (HORROR): FROM

(2022 – PRESENT: 3 SEASONS+)

 

An American SF horror series with labyrinthine twists – the closest comparison is usually with Lost, “as an improved second attempt at Lost” or “what if Lost got a healthy injection of horror”. I understand the comparison to Lost extends to Lost actor Harold Perrineau having a similar role in From, where he is the sheriff and de facto mayor of the town. Now that I think about it, the comparison extends to their titles as four letter words (with o as the vowel). Fortunately, I never saw Lost so I came in clean to this series with no such comparison.

The basic premise is introduced in the very first episode – while on a road trip, the Matthews family find themselves trapped in a “strange small town in middle America”. The town traps those who enter, as the Matthews family find that any attempt to drive away or back the way they came simply has them circling back to the town, in some sort of weird dimensional loop. It also is an eldritch location, drawing people in from different locations throughout the United States.

Worse, you don’t want to be outside – or inside without the protection of a mysterious amulet – at night. The town is literally nightmarish, stalked at night by mysterious shapeshifting but humanoid creatures that kill anyone they find and as gruesomely as possible, as we see in the very first opening scene.

And that’s just getting started…

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

One of the hardest genre classifications in my Top 10 Fantasy or SF TV series – elements of it have a distinct fantasy or supernatural feel to it, but I ultimately leaned towards it having an extradimensional SF tone.

 

HORROR

 

Did you not see the SF horror reference in my opening line? It could readily be classified as SF horror – one of the clearest such entries in my top ten.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

 

 

(1) SF (HORROR): STRANGER THINGS
(2016 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4+)

 

I assume this Netflix series needs little introduction – but my top spot does illustrate my preamble that my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series may be the most fluid of all my top ten lists. Even my other top ten TV lists are not quite as fluid, with more enduring first place entries. The problem for me is that many or most fantasy or SF TV series simply miss the mark at the outset – and those that do hit it are inconsistent or lack enduring quality.

For a long time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my top spot for fantasy or SF TV series, until I ultimately had to shuffle it off to special mention from recognition that while its writing quality and my nostalgia for it endured, it simply could not hold up against the production quality of contemporary TV series. Game of Thrones replaced it – for its first four to six seasons – before the calamity of its two final seasons befell it, particularly that final season.

And so Stranger Things rose to top spot, albeit precariously so, with my second top spot From looking hungrily towards it. However, it too absolutely hit the mark in its debut season but was inconsistent in its second and third season even if I still liked it – before bouncing back to hit the mark again in Season 4.

In the meantime, what’s not to love for fantasy and SF fans?

Eleven! The Upside Down! The Demogorgon and Mind Flayer! Steve Harrington’s magnificent hair (and its secret)!

More broadly, 1980’s nostalgia and pop culture references aplenty! Psychokinetic girls (reminiscent of Charlie, not to mention her adversary, the Shop, in one of my favorite Stephen King novels, Firestarter). Extradimensional alien invasion – evoking Alien and Aliens in Seasons 1 and 2 respectively with more than a touch of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, particularly when it evokes The Thing in Season 3. Mysterious government agencies to rival the nastier versions of men in black (with their black helicopters) – so that’s what the Department of Energy does?

And of course there’s all those Dungeons and Dragons references for this fantasy fan – “I’m our Paladin, Will’s our Cleric, Dustin’s our Bard, Lucas is our Ranger, and El’s our Mage”.

To quote Wikipedia, series creators the Duffer brothers “developed the series as a mix of investigative drama alongside supernatural elements with childlike sensibilities, establishing its time frame in the 1980s and creating a homage to pop culture of that decade. Several themes and directorial aspects were inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King, among others”. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s, the first season focuses on the investigation into the disappearance of a young boy amid supernatural or rather paranormal events centered on the nearby Hawkins National Laboratory – and the subsequent seasons are even, ah, more upside downier, with the fourth season as the most upside downiest yet with its cliffhanger ending.

On the other hand, I can suspend disbelief in the Demogorgon and Upside Down – but no one ever made it that far in the Dragon’s Lair videogame…

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

One of the harder series to classify from my top ten – it might readily have been classified as fantasy but I ultimately classified it as SF. It just doesn’t have the vibe of fantasy as it much more evokes the ambience of SF, even if of a more paranormal kind.

 

HORROR

 

The horror elements predominate to the extent that I have classified it as SF horror.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT UPSIDE DOWN TIER?)

 

 

 

 

TL; DR TIER LIST

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

(1) SF (HORROR): STRANGER THINGS (2016 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4+)

(2) SF (HORROR): FROM (2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

If Stranger Things is my Old Testament of fantasy & SF TV series, then From is my New Testament

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(3) SF (COMICS): PEACEMAKER (2022)

(4) SF: BLACK MIRROR (2011-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-6+)

(5) SF (HORROR): THE STRAIN (2014-2017: SEASONS 1-4)

 

B-TIER (HIGH-TIER)

 

(6) FANTASY (HORROR):  THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018)

(7) FANTASY: GIRL FROM NOWHERE (2018-2021: SEASONS 1-2)

(8) FANTASY (HORROR): SWEET HOME (2020-2024: SEASONS 1-3)

(9) FANTASY: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2+)

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2024

 

(10) SF: FALLOUT (2022: SEASON 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV (1) SF (Horror): Stranger Things

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(1) SF (HORROR): STRANGER THINGS
(2016 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4+)

 

I assume this Netflix series needs little introduction – but my top spot does illustrate my preamble that my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series may be the most fluid of all my top ten lists. Even my other top ten TV lists are not quite as fluid, with more enduring first place entries. The problem for me is that many or most fantasy or SF TV series simply miss the mark at the outset – and those that do hit it are inconsistent or lack enduring quality.

For a long time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my top spot for fantasy or SF TV series, until I ultimately had to shuffle it off to special mention from recognition that while its writing quality and my nostalgia for it endured, it simply could not hold up against the production quality of contemporary TV series. Game of Thrones replaced it – for its first four to six seasons – before the calamity of its two final seasons befell it, particularly that final season.

And so Stranger Things rose to top spot, albeit precariously so, with my second top spot From looking hungrily towards it. However, it too absolutely hit the mark in its debut season but was inconsistent in its second and third season even if I still liked it – before bouncing back to hit the mark again in Season 4.

In the meantime, what’s not to love for fantasy and SF fans?

Eleven! The Upside Down! The Demogorgon and Mind Flayer! Steve Harrington’s magnificent hair (and its secret)!

More broadly, 1980’s nostalgia and pop culture references aplenty! Psychokinetic girls (reminiscent of Charlie, not to mention her adversary, the Shop, in one of my favorite Stephen King novels, Firestarter). Extradimensional alien invasion – evoking Alien and Aliens in Seasons 1 and 2 respectively with more than a touch of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, particularly when it evokes The Thing in Season 3. Mysterious government agencies to rival the nastier versions of men in black (with their black helicopters) – so that’s what the Department of Energy does?

And of course there’s all those Dungeons and Dragons references for this fantasy fan – “I’m our Paladin, Will’s our Cleric, Dustin’s our Bard, Lucas is our Ranger, and El’s our Mage”.

To quote Wikipedia, series creators the Duffer brothers “developed the series as a mix of investigative drama alongside supernatural elements with childlike sensibilities, establishing its time frame in the 1980s and creating a homage to pop culture of that decade. Several themes and directorial aspects were inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King, among others”. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s, the first season focuses on the investigation into the disappearance of a young boy amid supernatural or rather paranormal events centered on the nearby Hawkins National Laboratory – and the subsequent seasons are even, ah, more upside downier, with the fourth season as the most upside downiest yet with its cliffhanger ending.

On the other hand, I can suspend disbelief in the Demogorgon and Upside Down – but no one ever made it that far in the Dragon’s Lair videogame…

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

One of the harder series to classify from my top ten – it might readily have been classified as fantasy but I ultimately classified it as SF. It just doesn’t have the vibe of fantasy as it much more evokes the ambience of SF, even if of a more paranormal kind.

 

HORROR

 

The horror elements predominate to the extent that I have classified it as SF horror.

 

RATING:
S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT UPSIDE DOWN TIER?)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series (2) SF: From

Posted on by

 

 

(2) SF (HORROR): FROM

(2022 – PRESENT: 3 SEASONS+)

 

An American SF horror series with labyrinthine twists – the closest comparison is usually with Lost, “as an improved second attempt at Lost” or “what if Lost got a healthy injection of horror”. I understand the comparison to Lost extends to Lost actor Harold Perrineau having a similar role in From, where he is the sheriff and de facto mayor of the town. Now that I think about it, the comparison extends to their titles as four letter words (with o as the vowel). Fortunately, I never saw Lost so I came in clean to this series with no such comparison.

The basic premise is introduced in the very first episode – while on a road trip, the Matthews family find themselves trapped in a “strange small town in middle America”. The town traps those who enter, as the Matthews family find that any attempt to drive away or back the way they came simply has them circling back to the town, in some sort of weird dimensional loop. It also is an eldritch location, drawing people in from different locations throughout the United States.

Worse, you don’t want to be outside – or inside without the protection of a mysterious amulet – at night. The town is literally nightmarish, stalked at night by mysterious shapeshifting but humanoid creatures that kill anyone they find and as gruesomely as possible, as we see in the very first opening scene.

And that’s just getting started…

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

One of the hardest genre classifications in my Top 10 Fantasy or SF TV series – elements of it have a distinct fantasy or supernatural feel to it, but I ultimately leaned towards it having an extradimensional SF tone.

 

HORROR

 

Did you not see the SF horror reference in my opening line? It could readily be classified as SF horror – one of the clearest such entries in my top ten.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series (3) SF: Peacemaker

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(3) SF: PEACEMAKER

(2022: SEASON 1)

 

“I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women and children I have to kill to get it”

I mean, the opening credits sequence alone would earn a place in my top ten. And Eagly too of course.

Peacemaker was introduced – on screen at least – in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in 2019 (the good Suicide Squad film, not the bad one), along with his credo for “peace” quoted above.

I wouldn’t have guessed that out of all the characters in that film, Peacemaker would be the one to get his own spin-off TV series, also directed by James Gunn – but it totally works, as Gunn brings his blackly comic signature style from the film to the TV series, with added hair metal flair.

Of course, it helps that the titular anti-hero protagonist is having something of a crisis of faith, not least the whole-heartedness of his credo – notably including guilt and remorse over its casualties, one in particular. And we get to see his traumatic origin, particularly at the hands of his father – played with vile relish by Robert Patrick.

Once again, Peacemaker finds himself being used as a tool – or weapon – by Task Force X, against an invasion by mysterious entities known as Butterflies, prompting Peacemaker to compare it to Operation Starfish in The Suicide Squad.

And it’s not just Peacemaker’s show – the other characters, particularly the other members of Task Force X, bring their A-game as well. My personal favorite is the cheerfully sociopathic Vigilante, although I’m not sure how faithfully his screen incarnation is adapted from the comics

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

I’m going with the genre classification of SF – after all, it does involve an alien invasion (and Gunn tends to lean more into the SF side of comics when adapting their properties). However, like most comics or works adapted from them, it’s the distinctly softer kind of SF.

 

HORROR

 

Gunn has roots in SF horror back to his film Slither and it often shows in his works – as here, where there are distinct SF horror elements in the Butterfly alien invasion.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV: (4) SF: The Strain

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(4) SF: THE STRAIN
(2014-2017: SEASONS 1-4)

It’s a vampire apocalypse in a box!

A vampire horror series that portrays vampires as the blood-sucking parasitic abominations they are. (Yes – I have fantastic racism against vampires. Stake them all in the sun, I say. Except hot vampire girls, of course. And there’s none of those in this series). In this case, vampirism is spread by the worm-like parasites that crawl from their bodies, one of which was depicted burrowing into an eye in an infamous promotional poster. (It’s reminiscent of the Lovecraftian vampire parasite things in the pulpy Necroscope book series by Brian Lumley).

It’s a welcome relief from the sexy (or worse, sparkly) vampires of True Blood (or worse, Twilight) and most vampires in popular culture these days – the vampires in The Strain are distinctly unsexy vile abominations of extreme body horror. It’s hard to be sexy when your (male) genitalia have atrophied and dropped off, while your excretory organs have fused together into a cloaca. Eww!

The series is the brainchild of Guillermo de Toro (yes, THAT Guillermo de Toro) and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name (albeit one originally conceived as a story line for a television series). The series opens with CDC medical staff called to an airliner in which everyone appears to have succumbed to a mysterious viral infection or disease. Or at least, so the authorities surmise – instead, it is worse. Much worse.

Soon, New York finds itself battling for its very existence against an ancient enemy with humanity itself at stake (heh).

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

I actually hesitated over the genre classification of this one between fantasy or SF – let’s face it, it’s primarily horror and rivals The Haunting of Hill House as the most distinctively horror series in my top ten.

While it evokes the supernatural dark fantasy or horror of the Dracula novel in a number of points, notably in its opening scene and mystery basically as a modern version of Dracula coming to England, its depiction of vampires and vampirism is essentially more the SF trope of the Virus akin to the zombie apocalypse. It’s not just vampirism as viral infection of course – it’s also Lovecraftian parasitic infection to boot.

 

HORROR

 

Well, obviously.

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series (5) Fantasy: The Haunting of Hill House

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(5) FANTASY: THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

(2018: SEASON 1. Yes – I’m only counting the first season. It’s an anthology series anyway)

As the title indicates, it is an adaptation based loosely on the book of the same name by Shirley Jackson.

It is psychological and supernatural horror, working effectively as both. The supernatural horror – the ghosts of the titular haunting and house itself – are certainly chilling, particularly as the director placed ghostly figures in the margins or peripheral angles of scenes (notably involving the stairs). You often didn’t see them, at least directly, but they were still there, squirming in your subconscious mind to unnerve or disturb you. The ghosts that you do see are unnerving enough, from the titular ghost in the very first episode, “Steven Sees a Ghost” – and from there on in, it’s a white-knuckled ride of suspense and creeping fear. And then there’s the psychological horror of a broken family of broken people, not to mention the occasional existential horror of life itself (such as that speech – you know the one, thank you Theo).

The plot revolves around the Crain family – Hugh and Olivia with their five children – moving into Hill House twenty-six years previously, with the parents intending to renovate it for sale, but the House – and its, ah, family – have their own hungry plans. And to paraphrase my poetic musings elsewhere – the Crain family came back from the black abyss, but they did not come all the way back (or all come back), and worse, they brought it back with them (and left part of themselves or their family behind). The story flips between the past and the present, as the family struggles with the aftermath – and that the House is still hungry for those who escaped it.

And then there’s that red room…

The only flaw for me was the ending, which was somewhat divisive for audiences in its tonal shift – although some have speculated a much darker twist in it.

And yes – I’m only counting the first season. It had a second season, retooled into an anthology series with the second season as an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw (and other works by Henry James). It arguably had a third season, an adaptation by creator Mike Flanagan of the Fall of the House of Usher (and other works by Edgar Allen Poe). However, they just haven’t had the same magic for me as this first season.

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Dark fantasy – like all good ghost stories.

 

HORROR

 

Well, obviously – indeed, the entry in my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series that is the most readily characterized as horror.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV (6) SF: Black Mirror

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(6) SF: BLACK MIRROR
(2011 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-6)

*

Black Mirror – the cyberpunk Twilight Zone of the twenty-first century!

Okay, that cyberpunk label may be overstating it, but it certainly is a series of dark and satirical twists in the tale of the unanticipated or unintended consequences of technology and social media in modern society – or, in the words of series creator Charlie Brooker, “the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.”

It is an anthology series with no continuity between episodes – each episode has a different cast, a different setting or even a different reality, so you don’t have to watch them in order. Personally, I’d recommend starting with the later seasons and working your way backwards – particularly as the very first episode doesn’t extrapolate so much on technology or social media and can be a little confronting (although unforgettable – let’s just say you won’t feel about pork the same way again).

As for the premise and title of the series, it’s back to Charlie Brooker:

“If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The ‘black mirror’ of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.”

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

SF, as per its title premise – among the least fantasy of my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series.

 

HORROR

 

As is typical for dystopian SF, it has a few borderline horror elements.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH-TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series (7) Fantasy: Girl from Nowhere

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Netflix promotional poster art

 

(7) FANTASY: GIRL FROM NOWHERE

(2018 – 2021: SEASONS 1-2)

 

A little like my previous entry Sweet Home – in that I’ve found myself dipping into east Asian fantasy televsion series…you know, in the absence of consistency of enduring quality (or in some cases initial quality) in Western fantasy television series.

I’ve only dipped into this Thai series on Netflix just a little, but enough to find it intriguing. It prompts to mind Japanese anime (or live-action adaptation) in its staple school setting – one wonders why an apparently immortal supernatural being spends her time hanging around high schools as one of their students but why not, I suppose?

That supernatural being is the titular trickster Girl from Nowhere, who seems to delight in serving up karma with a side of mind-screw to wrongdoers – made even better by her beaming smile in her guise of how nice she is helping them to their own self-destruction.

Funnily enough, it prompts to mind one of my special mentions, the forgotten gem of American Gothic, where Sheriff Buck played a similar role but more in the way of deals with the devil (with himself as the devil of course).

 

FANTASY OR SF?

 

Fantasy obviously – dark fantasy. Although it would be interesting as an SF variant of Nanno as a telepathic alien – or perhaps AI?

 

HORROR

 

More than a few horror elements – although perhaps in the sense that the creeping doom of tragic drama has always reminded me of horror.

 

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)