Barring Game of Thrones, has there been any Veeky Forums-approved fantasy on TV recently?
I watched two episodes of Shannara Chronicles because someone recommended it to me, but it's a real shitshow. It whacks you around the head with so much teen drama you wouldn't be able to get into the tired, derivative fantasy aspect of the show even if you tried.
My girlfriend got me to watch that show. She loves teen drama stuff for some reason. It starts to pick up a bit later on. The surprise is just as cliche as generic fantasy, but it's not a wholly Tolkienesque fantasy world. The teen drama tones down a bit too, I actually liked it quite a bit by the end of the season.
Jace Morales
>Game of Thrones >Veeky Forums approved
Caleb Hernandez
This is the part where I get to say that your opinions aren't those of Veeky Forums, right?
Also fuck you because your waifu is shit, your edition sucks, and that you deserve every ring-stain on your table.
Caleb Morales
>you deserve every ring-stain on your table
Luke Campbell
I like it, it's honestly not too bad and the costumes are pretty baller.
That said, I hate the Rover girl with an undying passion, she is literally the dickass thief, and every decision she makes piles more shit on the actually good characters.
Justin Brooks
The Magicians has a decent villain but good god are all the characters unlikeable. It's like a very poor writer saw Harry Potter, sneered at the concept of people generally being decent beings, and set out to remove every iota of basic goodness. Only he couldn't write very well, so you get an awkward, angsty mess.
When people aren't moping (rare), it can be enjoyable, but I rolled my eyes a lot. Also, the show's pacing is garbage.
Dominic Lopez
>I hate the Rover girl with an undying passion At least she's kind of nice to look at.
Gavin Harris
>you deserve every ring-stain on your table Now that's just over the line.
Well shit, I'm french myself and had no idea this existed.
Better than I expected desu, a lot less terrible than a lot of french shows.
Brody Stewart
Had a good kek at the fat french godfather.
Cameron Carter
Is Into The Borderlands any good, Veeky Forums?
Henry Martin
For some more modern settings, if you're ok with watching something that was on a few years ago, Fringe definitely works. It's probably too easy to learn some of the twists in the series but i'll refrain from giving them away here.
It deals with a joint effort by the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. To investigate a series of paranormal or fringe science related caees that all are seemingly related. If that sounds like X-Files, they actually refer to the X-Files as an homage in at least one episode... but it's not a sequel. The nice thing is that, unlike X-Files, questions actually get answered in Fringe. As much as I enjoyed the show, I have to admit that the last season is my least favorite but it does definitely tie things up by the conclusion.
I'm actually running a game based on Fringe using episode guides to write adventures.
Aaron Scott
Ice Fantasy my niner is the greatest bit of literature and camara work to be on Netflix, with such amazing original characters as "Murmaid princess" and the Tiger Monster fight scene is better than the entire IP Man series combined.
11/10 I entirely recommend the greatest thing to come out of since the opium wars.
Brody Peterson
Here's a list. I'm sure it doesn't cover everything. But still.
Historical shows Vikings Musketeers Borgia The Borgias Tudors Medicine Last Kindgom The Roman Empire Etc
Urban Fantasy The Librarians Lucifer Constantine The Originals? The Magicians (on my watch list, haven't seen it yet>
SciFi Timeless The Expanse
Anime Grimgar Drifters
Ian Jackson
>Last Kindgom That series just comes across as the BBC trying to cash in on the success of Vikings.
Brandon Wright
Maybe. It's not the best one in the list, but it was decent nonetheless.
Librarians is a really entertaining campy Veeky Forums urban fantasy show.
Hudson Lopez
>The Magicians Just watch out, it's easy to get fatigued with this one, since every main character is an angsty twat of some sort or other, like Harry Potter meets Holden Caulfield.
People like to complain about things not getting carried over from the books in TV adaptations, but that's one of the things I wish the show had dropped.
Nathan Ward
>Librarians is a really entertaining campy Veeky Forums urban fantasy show. Campy is right, but it's entertaining enough. Not gold-standard TV by any means, but I haven't got bored with it yet.
I can already tell the series is utter shit but my dick don't care
Asher Gomez
While not fantastic, there's always shadowhunters, which is technically modern urban fantasy.
As for older stuff, there's a lot. Here's a list of ones I enjoyed, of the top of my head. Rome, Buffy, Angel, Fringe, Andromeda, Firefly, Farscape, Continuum, Frequency, log horizon, full metal alchemist.
Not a unique list by any stretch, but if you haven't seen something on it, you should check and see if it's something you might be interested in.
I didn't forget Rome. Rome is not current nor recent. Rome is over a decade old.
Luis Cooper
The TV movies they're based on are also campy urban fantasy fun, and very Indiana Jones inspired.
William Foster
Don't forget Legend of the Seeker and Record of Lodoss War.
Hunter Anderson
That show is so weird. It has simultaneously an amazing budget and no budget at all!
It's costuming and props department is very well funded, it's scenes and sets suffer from the same CGI back-dropping as "Sky captain and the world of tomorrow", and the action/fight scenes feel so.... Poor. Average at the VERY best. And, more than once by a bunch, I KNOW i've heard the music they use somewhere else....
Nolan Hernandez
>Leaving out Marco Polo
It's a little goofy but Benedict Wong steals the show.
Just go in understanding it's a work of pure fiction borrowing a few historical names and places.
Christopher Gonzalez
Westworld, maybe
Leo Gutierrez
>you deserve every ring-stain on your table
John Martin
Its kind of interesting with its post-apocalyptic, feudal, 1920s-ish gangster crime-family kung fu warband mashup, but I only vaguely watched 4-5 episodes on in the background.
I really liked Fringe, because it didn't fall into the X-files trap of introducing everything and the kitchensink and then ignoring it to maintain a status quo. It always made me happy when they dusted off some MacGuffin from any earlier episode to deal with the weirdness of the week. It was also pretty good at reinventing itself season to season. It could definitely have been tighter.
I like 12 Monkeys, couple too many filler episodes in the first seven, and they drop the momentum in the season 2 finale when they banked on getting a third.
I started watching syfy's trashy Aftermath series and its so bad, and so bonkers I ended up marathoning the first season. Its not good. Its shit. I just wanted that to be clear. Its half apocalyptic survival story, half-Brady-Bunch-tier family shenanigans, if the Brady Bunch remorselessly killed folks at the slightest provocation. Having watched the nebulous mystery of two seasons of the Leftovers, Aftermath's first episode was refreshing. In the first 15 minutes, there's storms, earthquakes, rains of snakes and fish and cars, missing teens, demon-smoke possessions, Anne Heche, flying kidnappers, Cross-lite crazies, also you better believe there's meteors by episode end. And that's just episode one. Characters essentially kill a guy for being rude at the dinner table. Characters are introduced and killed off seemingly at random. Characters miss three square meals and suddenly become hardened psychos like season six of the Walking Dead. There's no comeuppance for anything the family do... and they're all various shades of That Guy. If you wanted somebody to deadpan the line: "I prefer to call them Aswangs" almost out of nowhere, then this is the show you've been waiting for.
Logan Diaz
Haven't seen those yet. Good?
It wasn't that good.
Michael Torres
The show is pretty bad on a lot of levels. Not completely unwatchable but just relentlessly average. The thing that really bugs me is the number of modern artifacts they literally trip over in every episode. Stuff that couldn't possibly have survived 3,000 years and multiple wars and natural disasters
Nathaniel Adams
I'm of the opinion that the vast, VAST majority of modern television is unwatchable cringeworthy garbage, and anything remotely "fantasy" related lives on the far edge of "shit". If I had to guess, it's probably based on the fact that most of it is based on young adult books intended for tween girls, but it's a genre that has been picked up by women as far as into their early thirties I've found.
It's just an easy cop-out. Take a vaguely interesting premise for a setting to use as a hook, fill it with generic young adult literature characters, have nothing of value happen, refuse to explore the hook or premise in any meaningful way.
In all honesty I just want my girlfriend to stop telling me about the specific, boring plotpoints of her stupid show about fae courts or vampire hunters or whatever the fuck it is. It's just pretty boy show #46602, this guy is gay, this one has known the female protagonist longer than the other boy that she flipflops between. Her mom is evil. There's a magic mcguffin that requires people to be married or strip or kiss. Fuck off.
Alexander Bennett
I like the idea of world that looks like a generic D&D setting but is actually a post-apocalyptic world where the various fantasy races descended from humans. Kind of like if you dropped a big fuck off nuke in Shadowrun.
But The Shannara Chronicles does nothing with that idea other than window dressing. The dull story of bland princess on a destiny quest and a hunky boy who needs to choose which hot girl to bang does nothing with that one cool idea.
Christian Fisher
The books were way better about that. The implications that Shannara-land was future earth were pretty subtle. But I guess they decided "Lol, this is how we shall make ourselves unique!" so they just fucking ran with the post-apocalyptic angle. It's not the worst decision they made, but it's not the one good decision they made either. THAT was not starting with Lord of the R... I mean Lord of... Lord... Sword of Shannara. I mean Lord of the Rings.
Easton Parker
Taboo started off pretty promising with the weird implied occult angle. Felt like a much less overt, more grimy Dishonored. But then episodes 3 was boring and 4 went full modern television edgelord syndrome.
I watch Reign, which could be considered at least tangentially Veeky Forums do to its focus on court politics and the like. It's a CW show so it's sort of terrible but entertaining.
Also, it has Megan Follows and Craig Parker chewing scenery at Star Trek levels which is great.
Watched the whole season. I didn't think it was shit but it was pretty meh. The only good elements were the surprisingly decent effects (although I think they spent too much of their budget on scenery and not enough on extras because the elven 'army' ends up being like twenty people), the qt elf girl and that episode where the human colony finds an episode of Star Trek and thinks it's actual human history (and that Spock is a filthy elf).
Also, both Gimli and Crassus were criminally underused.
She was also one of the worst actresses I've ever seen in any sort of professional productions.
I have a love/hate relationship with this show. When it was on it was ON and the characters and production values where fantastic. However, I really got to hate how the writers insisted on not only including the soldier bros in every major historical event of the era but actually made them the cause of most of them. It felt like fanfiction and a disservice to an otherwise compelling show set against a historical background.
Dominic Scott
There was only one episode made of this, right?
Aaron Bell
Aye
Bentley Lee
>and that episode where the human colony finds an episode of Star Trek and thinks it's actual human history (and that Spock is a filthy elf).
is this another "the fantasy world is post-apocalyptic earth" scenario or did they use extradimensional travel or what
Leo Myers
Funny, I found the books to be the same way.
Angel Davis
No it's post-apocalyptic. It really is the only interesting thing the show has going for it.
Dominic Taylor
The former.
Gavin Ward
Yeah that show was bad, I'm gonna read the book though, maybe it's just a bad adaptation. I can see potential.
Adam Butler
Now I feel old.
David Moore
lame
Jose Hernandez
You can't be mad at a show that casts Bruce Campbell as Santa Claus
Camden Wright
Whenever I see some french cartoon I remember Le parfum de l'invisible and expect everyone clothes to fall off. This looks good though!
Julian Richardson
>you deserve every ring-stain on your table
Angel Rivera
This show got me so mad because the elf girl was a whore.
Jaxon Roberts
Fucking loved Fringe, actually. Abrams' best show.
Noah Gomez
>I actually liked it quite a bit by the end of the season. I made 5 episodes before I stopped watching it. That's 4.1 more than average.
Luke Thompson
Problem is, "recent" means "in the last 10 years" for me. My to watch list is so long and my free time is so limited that I usually just tap out and watch something /comfy/ that I've seen 10 times already than anything new.
Grayson Flores
The books aren't significantly better, but the plot is slightly more coherent.
The elevator pitch is "what if Hogwarts was a college in upstate New York" and the result is "Ok, so like, you have a Voldemort and the 'heroes' are like...ambiguous at best."
The TV show has the advantage of spectacularly hot girls everywhere. I think I'd give it the nod.
Hudson Collins
...
Matthew Reed
>Veeky Forums-approved fantasy on TV Wizards of Aus, was on TV in Australia but is all also on youtube. Think something similar to that Veeky Forums screenshot about the party ignoring the lich and fighting for gay rights then being shocked that everything goes to shit but insert wizard rights in our modern world instead.
Luis Gomez
Ah. Yeah, to me, recent means new episodes in the past 3 (maybe 4) years.
Galavant, mate. It's great. That is, if you can handle silly musicals
Zachary Cruz
I liked the book a bunch when I was younger. It would probably disappoint me
Wyatt Gutierrez
>SciFi
Continuum. A time travel show that isn't Dr Who or absolute steaming garbage. Actions have consequences, the timeline fucks back, it gets into some of the great ethical and moral quandries. Canadian as apologizing, last season gets a little blah, but great through and through.
Julian Jones
I thought the first book was pretty decent. Never read the second and third. The first half of the first book was definitely the strongest bit. A lot of the drama in the second half was pretty shit, and the book had bizarre amount of power creep, which was weird to experience in something written like lit fic.
Landon Moore
Is Galavant officially ded or is it still up in the air?
legend of the seeker is based off of the book series by terry badkind
Tyler Torres
Now I HAVE to watch this
Mason Richardson
Surprised I haven't seen Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell posted already.
A pair of magicians in early 19th century Britain bring back British magic. They fight Napoleon, dick around with the Fair Folk (or at least one of them), etc. Good show.
Asher Cooper
That's the same girl from Pan's Labyrinth. That makes me feel fuggin' old
Ayden Ward
I think I have 3-4 episodes to go, I'm enjoying it.
Anthony Reyes
God I couldn't stand that book. I guess I just didn't "get" it or something but I gave up after the first 300 pages of dinner parties and boring as shit characters
Parker Wright
First couple seasons of Supernatural weren't bad. Played out like a WoD campaign, guys fighting spooky ghosts and stuff. Jumped the shark pretty bad later on, and fuck me sideways if I can figure out what's going on now with it.
Tyler Allen
>That's the same girl from Pan's Labyrinth
Holy SHIT, I did not realize that.
I guess her acting just sucks in Shannara because she can't into english well.
Joshua Gonzalez
I find her unbelievably attractive, and lord help me I think the accent is adorable.
Christian Hernandez
user from , here. Yeah, I saw her in Shannara and I was like, "I know those lips" and looked her up in IMDB... and immediately felt depressed
James Lopez
Yup, officially cancelled now, even though its second season was so much better than the first one
Joshua Cook
Only watched the first 30 minutes of this shitshow. And I usually don't even have high standards when it comes to these kind of shows. What the actual fuck.
>CHUCK IT IN ME GASH Gets me every time, but it sure as shit isn't an aussie dialect.
David Jenkins
What a shame
Wyatt Sanders
Because its written as a serialized story from the 19th century. You're supposed to read it in small bursts.
Justin Rivera
F
Austin Parker
Legend of the Seeker is ok. Record of Lodoss War is pretty good. Anime based off the creator's own D&D game set in Forgotten Realms (had to change the names of a lot of stuff for legal reasons, but its VERY obviously Forgotten Realms inspired).
Dominic Powell
To be fair I'm pretty sure Shannara is the series that did that trope first.
Angel Jones
>Abrams' best show.
That's not a terribly high bar to meet. Just saying.
Josiah Baker
>First couple seasons of Supernatural weren't bad.
They were OK at best. Great ideas, but it ticked me off how little they actually showed.
>"Hey, let me tell you about this epic war between heaven and hell!" >Show's literally none of it, just has characters talk about it.
That and the fact that the writers needed to remind the viewer like 5 times every episode that Sam and Dean were brothers. That way people didn't get confused and think they were gay lovers (which isn't too far off).
Aiden Brown
>First couple seasons of Supernatural weren't bad. Ugh. First couple seasons are scarcely watchable. It starts to get decent around season 3, then it's good until the end of season 5. After that it's got ups and downs as the writers experiment with different ideas.
Jumped the shark pretty bad later on, and fuck me sideways if I can figure out what's going on now with it.
Caleb Kelly
>your opinions aren't those of Veeky Forums, right Exactly. Just beceuse you like shit doesnt mean Veeky Forums does too.
More to the point, got, specially the tv version has always been a point of contention here so saying its Veeky Forums aproved is retarded.
Christian Wilson
>The surprise is just as cliche as generic fantasy Are you talking about the fact that they're in the future, because it's not a surprise if you've read pretty much any of the books.
In middle school when I read a couple I thought it was pretty cool because it was the first time I had encountered it.
Ryan Gonzalez
Am I the only one who doesn't like post-apocalyptic fantasy?
I don't get why, I would say it feels cliche, but I realize that Shannara was probably the first series in fantasy to do this.
Asher Jenkins
>and that you deserve every ring-stain on your table. That was a little too far, man. They're still fellow fa/tg/entlemen.
Jayden Wood
If web series count, might I suggest Tabletop?
You might find Wil Wheaton hard to sit through, but it's undoubtedly Veeky Forums related and I've seen more than a few games I'd either like to try, or indeed did try because it looked fun on the show.
Charles Barnes
This post kinda speaks to my soul desu. I'm a little less pessimistic than you, though