Best Fantasy TV Series
Where there have been quite a few good and successful fantasy movies, fantasy television as a genre has never been as popular as for example the science fiction genre, which had great and long running series like Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Stargate. On the other hand, there have been some good fantasy TV series and the future is looking quite bright.
I have created a list of what I believe to be the possible contenders for the title of best fantasy television series. It is a short list; however, I have good hope that around this time next year, a new contender will be around…
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were television series shown in the second half of the nineties. As discussed in an earlier post I prefer Xena above Hercules, but both series had a certain vibe that made them very entertaining and interesting to watch. They portray the classic Greek myths in a modern style: lots of action while at the same time witty and not too serious. It is feel good action fantasy for the masses. However, the series had their downsides. Episodes and story lines were not always that good and they also contained a lot of morality.
Read more about Hercules and Xena.
Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel
Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel were two contemporary fantasy series, both revolving around a group of people, lead by the vampire slayer Buffy and vampire-turned-good Angel, fighting evil in the form of vampires and other supernatural creatures. Angel started out as a character in Buffy the vampire slayer and got his own spin-off series after a couple of seasons. Both series were action packed but also contained a lot of humor. The series were shown between 1997 and 2004.
Read more about Buffy and Angel.
True Blood
Produced by HBO, True Blood is a currently running television series about the co-existence of vampires and humans in a small town in Louisiana. Vampires and people now live together and interact as sort of equals due to the creation of synthetic blood. The series is quite action packed and graphic but also contains a fair bit of humor. True Blood is very popular and has good ratings so I expect the series to be around for some time to come.
Read more about True Blood.
Legend of the Seeker
Legend of the Seeker is a television series loosely based on The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It tells the classical story of a boy who is destined to face evil enemies with incredible powers. Of course he gets help from an old wizard and a beautiful girl.
Although personally I am not a big fan of the series, it is pretty well made and at least entertaining to watch. The series started in 2008 and should have been given a change to develop but has been cancelled after season 2, early 2010.
Read more about Legend of the Seeker.
Merlin
Produced by the BBC, Merlin tells the classic story of Arthur and the knights of the round table. However, it centers around Merlin in his younger years (in the series Merlin is about the same age as Arthur). The series is focused on a relatively young audience. It contains humor, has good story lines and in general also good acting performances.
The effects are somewhat poorly done but then again, that is not what the series is about. It is an entertaining, light-hearted series that does contain quite a bit of morality.
Other fantasy TV (mini) series
Several other fantasy series came to mind when creating this list but none of them brought back such vivid memories that I feel the need to consider these series in much detail.
Nonetheless, worth mentioning are following series, which do show the broad range of different fantasy genres explored in television series:
- Moonlight
- The Earthsee miniseries
- Highlander
- Bewitched
- The Beastmaster
New kid on the block: Game of Thrones
Approved for production by HBO in March 2010, I have good hopes that Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice & Fire, will become this list’s clear number one. Game of Thrones will be based on a great fantasy series and will have the intention of becoming a serious television series with much attention to quality and focused completely at adults. This will be quite unlike any other fantasy television series produced so far. I can only hope that the anticipation will not become so high that it will result in disappointment but after the first season it looks like Game of Thrones has more than delivered!
First Game of Thrones review.
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Of course there have been many other fantasy television series and I am open to suggestions. So please let me know when you believe there are fantasy television series that should definitely be included in this list!
April 14th, 2013 at 10:30
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is the best Tv show ever!!!
December 12th, 2012 at 15:12
Camelot (with Jamie Campbell Bower, Eva Greene and Joseph Fiennes) should definitly be on this list. Next to vampire diaries, secret cirlce, supernatural and once upon a time
October 18th, 2012 at 23:55
I think Once Upon A Time and the vampire diaries should be up there ranked 1 and 2
October 4th, 2012 at 19:18
I agree, Supernatural should be on this list, no doubt. I also agree about Legend of the Seeker. Season 2 was even better than Season 1, and since it was loosely based on Goodkind’s books (who officially endorsed the series), there was still plenty of story to tell. Evidently, the reason it was canceled had nothing to do with poor ratings and everything to do with one of the investors going bankrupt. Since coming out on Netflix, it has gained a huge audience, as this series was never properly promoted and many had not even heard of it until it came out on streaming video. Also, it was given a horrible time slot. There is a huge momentum by fans to bring this series back.
September 26th, 2012 at 10:14
Once Upon a Time should totally be here!!!!! I love that show!
July 6th, 2012 at 12:16
Supernatural!!!! Vampire Diaries
April 27th, 2012 at 18:39
other shows:
ring of nibelungs “mini series “also out on dvd”
the 10th kingdom “mini series 8h or so”
March 21st, 2012 at 10:08
you have to put Charmed on this list!
March 1st, 2012 at 18:05
Misfots is an excellent watch too!
August 26th, 2011 at 16:37
Lost Girl, a Canadian series, is very good, if you haven’t see it, take the time out to do so!
August 12th, 2011 at 01:46
You gotta put Avatar on this list, it really should be number one.
May 8th, 2011 at 23:06
what are some good action/adventure/fantesy tv series i cant seem to find any on netflix and the legand of the seeker got canceled that made me mad. i don’t like vampires or the paranormal
July 7th, 2010 at 14:22
Hi M.,
Thanks for this extensive comment and also your comments on some of the other pages!
I will look into your suggestions and get back to you.
July 5th, 2010 at 00:51
Thank you for the list of television shows. Focus on Fantasy seems like a good resource; I have not come across it before.
You might also enjoy the following series, most of which fall into the contemporary and/or urban genres of fantasy. I listed them in roughly chronological order. I liked them for different reasons and marked some of my favorites — ranked one to three stars, with ‘***’ being both a favorite & a quality show. Also, there is a fairly extensive list on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fantasy_television_programs .
TV Series:
1. **Faerie Tale Theatre (1982-1987, Showtime, 27 episodes) – fairy tales
2. *The Storyteller (1988, 13 episodes) – folk tales & Jim Henson
3. Kindred: The Embraced (1996, Fox, 8 episodes) – vampires/drama/soap/camp
4. *Early Edition (1996-2000, CBS, 90 episodes) – contemporary
5. Brimstone (1998-1999, Fox, 13 episodes) – demons, dark/urban fantasy
6. Charmed (1998-2006, WB, 178 episodes) – witches, contemporary
7. *The Others (2000, NBC, 13 episodes) – paranormal/psychics
8. Dead Like Me (2003-2004, Showtime, 29 episodes) – grim reaping, contemporary
9. ***Carnivale (2003-2005, HBO, 24 episodes) – paranormal/dark/historical, Good vs. Evil, Dust Bowl
10. ***Wonderfalls (2004, Fox, 13 episodes) – divine intervention, a young woman talks to animal figurines, contemporary
11. The Dresden Files (2007, SyFy, 12 episodes) – wizard/PI, urban
12. *Blood Ties (2007, Canada, 22 episodes) – vampires/PI, urban
13. Pushing Daisies (2007-2009, ABC, 22 episodes) – raising the dead, contemporary/light fantasy
14. *Being Human (current, BBC, 14 episodes) – a vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf share a flat
15. Misfits (current, E4, 6 episodes) – paranormal/superheroes (Skins meets Heroes), urban
TV Miniseries/Movies:
1. Neverwhere (1996, BBC) – urban/dark fantasy
2. *Merlin (1998) – high fantasy/historical
3. The Mists of Avalon (2001, TNT) – high fantasy/historical
4. Legend of Earthsea (2004, SyFy) – high fantasy
5. ***Hogfather (2006, SkyOne) – high/light fantasy
6. The Colour of Magic (2008, Sky One) – high/light fantasy
Dresden, BT, Avalon, CoM, Hogfather, Earthsea & Neverwhere are based on novels by Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Neil Gaiman. Witchblade and Kindred are respectively based on comic books and a role-playing game.