Underrated TV Shows

[Lostie!]

Inspired by the overrated thread recently, I thought I'd do one for the shows people think don't get the attention or appreciation you think they deserve. :hee:

Some that come to mind for me:

Person of Interest
Orphan Black
Ugly Betty
Fringe

Person of Interest especially is a big one for me because it's highly acclaimed nowadays, but I just think it's deserving of a higher level of attention. It was decent when it started but it's evolved into an absolutely brilliant show, something the reviews fortunately reflect.

[Daniel.]

Jaustin

[Lostie!]

With all due respect, can you not?

[Dollface]

Mistresses (US version) it's fab but no-one bloody watches it!! :fist:

[Daniel.]

Are you being serious?

[Dollface]

Jaustin

:laugh2:

[Lostie!]

Are you being serious?

Yes.

[Daniel.]

Messy

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Roswell. It's brilliant! :cheer2:

[Daniel.]

Hollyoaks af

[Natalie.]

The Mindy Project

[Dollface]

Switched at Birth

The Lying Game

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Hollyoaks af

It's still my favourite show. I never miss it.:love:

[LukeB]

Ugly Betty
Geordie Shore

[Dollface]

Brothers & Sisters

[LukeB]

Educating Joey Essex

[Ross.]

Devious Maids. :flutter:

[Liam-]

Eye Candy, it was amazing, but iirc had terrible ratings

[LemonJam]

Kingdom is a very good show and I binge watched it all in 2 days. Would recommend.

IzKkTKOY38Q

[Dollface]

In the Flesh

!!!!!!

[LukeB]

Scream (MTV)

[Christmas Dynasnow]

Early Doors

and that is a proper answer and not all that noughties american trash above^^^

[Jason.]

Rules of Engagement
Malcolm in the Middle
Ugly Betty

[Dollface]

Early Doors

and that is a proper answer and not all that noughties american trash above^^^

:idc: I only watch noughties American trash :smug:

[Jason.]

Scream (MTV)

I still need to check that out.

[Lostie!]

:idc: I only watch noughties American trash :smug:

Apart from a few British shows, same here. :hee:

[Jason.]

Some Girls.

Brilliant BBC3 comedy.

[LukeB]

Some Girls.

Brilliant BBC3 comedy.

I love this show

[Daniel-X]

Two broke girls af

[reece(:]

Basketball Wives LA

[Lostie!]

Some Girls.

Brilliant BBC3 comedy.

Reminds me of another of mine, Him and Her that aired on BBC3. It was hilarious. :love:

[Jason.]

I love this show

Good :clap1:

[LukeB]

Some Girls > Bad Education

[Jason.]

Bad who?

what?

[Dollface]

I hate British tv, can't even remember the last time I watched a Brit programme

[Dollface]

I'm basically American in a British girls body :laugh:

[Jason.]

I'm not sure if this is underrated but I hardly ever hear it mentioned

Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps.

[LukeB]

Bad who?

what?

you have not heard of Bad Education

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Angel. The best spin off ever :clap1:

[Jason.]

you have not heard of Bad Education

lol yeah that was just a disparaging remark cause I don't like Bad Education :laugh:

[Rob!]

Educating Joey Essex

http://i.giflike.com/ZAar29x.gif

[Lostie!]

Angel. The best spin off ever :clap1:

You just reminded me of yet another of mine (becuase of David Boreanaz :hee:).

Bones. :love:

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

You just reminded me of yet another of mine (becuase of David Boreanaz :hee:).

Bones. :love:

Love that show and also Buffy :dance:

[Lostie!]

Love that show and also Buffy :dance:

You watch Bones? :amazed: :clap1:

[Daniel-X]

Will and Grace

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

You watch Bones? :amazed: :clap1:

I've seen some episodes. Good show.

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Another one i love is Bates Motel.

[Firewire]

Shameless US

[Ninastar]

Some Girls
Orphan Black
Any of the Avatar series' (my fave shows of all time tbh)

[LukeB]

Saz from Some Girls is in Fried on BBC3 :lovedup:

[Jason.]

Some Girls


:love:

[LemonJam]

Kingdom is a very good show and I binge watched it all in 2 days. Would recommend.

To add, Danger 5 is amazing, Orphan Black doesn't get the praise it deserves, Futurama is often overlooked when it comes to cartoon comedy.

[Lostie!]

I can't believe I forgot to mention Penny Dreadful in my OP!

[Natalie.]

Reminds me of another of mine, Him and Her that aired on BBC3. It was hilarious. :love:

I loved Him & Her

[Lostie!]

I loved Him & Her

:clap1:

Might need to rewatch them sometime, there aren't too many. I loved Laura, Becky's knobhead of a sister. :laugh:

[Natalie.]

:clap1:

Might need to rewatch them sometime, there aren't too many. I loved Laura, Becky's knobhead of a sister. :laugh:

She was my favourite, what a cow :flutter:

[Christmas Dynasnow]

Will and Grace

this is why i should not click on teenager threads

:facepalm:

[Christmas Dynasnow]

I loved Him & Her

my faith has been restored

:clap1:

[Lostie!]

She was my favourite, what a cow :flutter:

:joker: The type of person you'd HATE in real life but brilliant for a sitcom. I honestly believe she was pure evil but I just loved her. :hee:

this is why i should not click on teenager threads

:facepalm:

Excuse you sir, I'm 23. :hmph:

[Christmas Dynasnow]

:joker: The type of person you'd HATE in real life but brilliant for a sitcom. I honestly believe she was pure evil but I just loved her. :hee:



Excuse you sir, I'm 23. :hmph:

still a baby

:spin:

[Christmas Dynasnow]

becky was a total villain

great tits tho

:clap1:

[Lostie!]

The actress who played Laura is Russell Howard's sister, I was pretty surprised when I found out. :laugh:

[FaLaLaLand]

Arrested Development is underrated in the sense that it should be/have been bigger than what it is/was. Critically acclaimed and so, so original yet it still has quite a niche audience.

It's bloody amazing btw!

[Natalie.]

The actress who played Laura is Russell Howard's sister, I was pretty surprised when I found out. :laugh:

Me too, oh I want to watch it again now :laugh:

[Christmas Dynasnow]

Me too, oh I want to watch it again now :laugh:

great call

[Samuel.]

Rectify

[Shaun]

Beautiful People (one of the best British comedies of all time tbh)
Queer as Folk (just kinda seen as a niche show I guess because of the gays but it was excellent) (only saw the UK version sorry)
Top of the Lake (i know it got rave reviews and awards but absolutely no one I know watched it)
Getting On (same as above)
The Bridge (not quite as revered as the Killing but just as good really) (the original scandi versions obviously I'm not here for the remakes) (except The Tunnel which was nice)

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Arrested Development is underrated in the sense that it should be/have been bigger than what it is/was. Critically acclaimed and so, so original yet it still has quite a niche audience.

It's bloody amazing btw!

It's really very good and so is Everybody loves Raymond.

[Locke.]

Justified and Person of Interest.

Justified really should have swept the Emmys and Golden Globes this year with it being its final season and Breaking Bad no longer being around, yet it didn't get a single nomination. Walton Goggins >>> Everyone that was nominated for Supporting Actor. Luckily Tarantino has noticed that and cast him in his last 2 films.

POI gets overlooked a lot just because of the network it's on, nobody (including myself most of the time) take CBS seriously. It's usually just procedural crap, but POI isn't owned by the network so is different to everything else they air... Which is also why the network treat it like **** and end it despite it getting better ratings than many of their other shows.

Rectify

This too. Aden Young and Abigail Spencer really deserve to at least be nominated.

[Lostie!]

The Bridge (not quite as revered as the Killing but just as good really) (the original scandi versions obviously I'm not here for the remakes) (except The Tunnel which was nice)

Omg yes :clap1:

The second series of The Bridge was phenomenal, the finale is one of my favourite TV episodes. :love:

[Moosething]

Community

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Wentworth Prison. Such a great show :flutter:

[King Gizzard]

Doesn't really count or fit in with this thread but I like Holby

[Lostie!]

Bump to add Black Sails. I'm halfway through the third season atm and it's by far one of the best shows I'm currently watching :clap1: I think it gets less attention unfortunately because it didn't immediately hit its stride in the first season but from season 2 onwards it's been ridiculously good.

Also, The 100 (I assumed I'd mentioned it already). Gets tarred with that typical CW brush but it's so much better than most would expect. I was surprised by how dark it's willing to go and apart from the main protagonist you don't really feel that anyone else is safe which adds to the stakes, I love that it's prepared to defy expectations in big ways. Also got a lot of flack for a particular death last year which I do think was badly executed considering the character but the show is still great regardless of that misstep.

[ChristmasNeeve]

Vikings and Ray Donovan, I mean they aren't underrated in general but hardly anyone on here watches them and they're two of the best Series on the go atm imo

[ChristmasNeeve]

Bump to add Black Sails. I'm halfway through the third season atm and it's by far one of the best shows I'm currently watching :clap1: I think it gets less attention unfortunately because it didn't immediately hit its stride in the first season but from season 2 onwards it's been ridiculously good.

Also, The 100 (I assumed I'd mentioned it already). Gets tarred with that typical CW brush but it's so much better than most would expect. I was surprised by how dark it's willing to go and apart from the main protagonist you don't really feel that anyone else is safe which adds to the stakes, I love that it's prepared to defy expectations in big ways. Also got a lot of flack for a particular death last year which I do think was badly executed considering the character but the show is still great regardless of that misstep.

Meh, i watched that for a while but lost interest fast

[Nicky91]

a few shows of mine got cancelled while i liked them

FlashForward, i got really addicted to this series, and they just cancel it :fist:

The Event, another series i loved, which got cancelled :(

The 4400, i loved this show as well, with all these gifted people :(

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Supernatural, i love it :hee:

[ChristmasNeeve]

Oh one that only went one season and I loved it was My So Called Life

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

My name is Earl was hilarious :laugh:

[Lostie!]

Meh, i watched that for a while but lost interest fast

For how long? It's one of those shows that doesn't showcase the best it has to offer in it's first season, season 2 is one of the best seasons of TV in general I've seen. Season 3 wasn't as good but still better than a lot on TV atm.

As for Vikings, that's frustrated me a fair bit lately with annoying character development and I haven't really found it as interesting as it was in earlier seasons. Black Sails has replaced it as my favourite historical show.

[ChristmasNeeve]

For how long? It's one of those shows that doesn't showcase the best it has to offer in it's first season, season 2 is one of the best seasons of TV in general I've seen. Season 3 wasn't as good but still better than a lot on TV atm.

As for Vikings, that's frustrated me a fair bit lately with annoying character development and I haven't really found it as interesting as it was in earlier seasons. Black Sails has replaced it as my favourite historical show.

I watched most of S1 I think, that's as much as i will really give a show. If it's not holding my interest nearing the end of the first season i give it up tbh

Oh really? I still love it (although I'm 2 episodes behind still)

[Lostie!]

I watched most of S1 I think, that's as much as i will really give a show. If it's not holding my interest nearing the end of the first season i give it up tbh

Oh really? I still love it (although I'm 2 episodes behind still)

Fair enough, I enjoyed season 1 more than most seemed to but a lot of those who didn't even seem to but yeah, it wasn't until the second that most fans really came around so you weren't alone in your feelings :laugh:

And I'm still into Vikings but yeah, the recent development of a couple of characters (Aslaug and Lagertha) has rubbed me up the wrong way and in general I'm just not as hooked as I was earlier. It's still a great show but I think Season 3 was the peak while Season 4 has been a bit of a step down for the most part (but one of the episodes you haven't seen yet was one of the best of the entire show to be fair).

[user104658]

Also, The 100 (I assumed I'd mentioned it already). Gets tarred with that typical CW brush but it's so much better than most would expect. I was surprised by how dark it's willing to go and apart from the main protagonist you don't really feel that anyone else is safe which adds to the stakes, I love that it's prepared to defy expectations in big ways. Also got a lot of flack for a particular death last year which I do think was badly executed considering the character but the show is still great regardless of that misstep.

I think we might be the only 100 fans on here Lostie :joker:. To be fair I find some of the plot lines hit-and-miss, I wasn't a huge fan of the AI stuff in itself, but the episodes themselves are usually highly entertaining regardless :shrug:. The end of S2 was straight up brutal, also... I mean, how many shows have their main character

Essentially commit genocide, including murdering a load of children slowly and painfully, because wants to rescue her buddies :umm2:

I also didn't mind how Lincoln's death was done. A lor of people were disappointed that as one of the strongest fighters on the show, he didn't go down fighting... but I thought that really was the whole point. In the situation they were in, it didn't matter how strong any of them were individually, because they were being oppressed by others who were holding all of the cards.


Supernatural, i love it :hee:

Strongly agree lulz. I genuinely think that it's not what people expect because it's developed this image of being a "teenage girl's show with two pretty male protagonists"... and it HAS had episodes, even full seasons, that are well below par... but it's had nearly 250 episodes spanning 12 seasons so far so that was always going to be the case :shrug:.

But yeah... it's much darker and more graphically violent than I think most people would expect for the reputation it has. Storylines are usually well written (though occasionally misfire) but dialogue is always on point and generally well acted across the board, both main and supporting cast.

I think the main issue it has now is that the early seasons are now a decade+ old and are a bit dated and hard to watch... but at the same time, I don't think a new viewer can jump in at later seasons and enjoy it the same way as someone who has been riding shotgun in the Impala since day one :flutter:.

Also JDM will never really be Negan to me. He'll always be John Winchester...

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/images/thumb/b/b0/DeanSamGhostJohn.jpg/350px-DeanSamGhostJohn.jpg

[user104658]

I watched most of S1 I think, that's as much as i will really give a show. If it's not holding my interest nearing the end of the first season i give it up tbh

I understand that really, a lot of S1 was pretty ropey... being a sucker for anything post-apoc (and there not being many post-apoc shows) kept me interested enough to come back. In S2 it went from being a show that I'd frequently "forget to watch" some weeks and then have to catch up on, to one of the ones I'd really look forward to watching in my weekly download batch (I tend to save up the various shows I watch and binge them all on one day). S3 had some dodgier storylines (light spoiler: there's some AI and Virtual Reality stuff. Some of it works, some of it is slightly lame). And yet I still found myself looking forward to it all the same, so I guess there has to be a reason for that.

It changed a fair bit going into season 2, I think the writers completely changed direction because it wasn't working all that well. Seemed like S1 was going for a lord of the flies type thing with it just being the kids on the ground... then they realised that the adult characters were mostly more interesting, so they just brought the Ark to the ground as well :joker:. The title of the show doesn't actually have anything to do with the content any more :think:... it's not about "The 100"... haha.

[karl100589]

Anybody remember Reaper? Short-lived E4 show about a man who becomes a Demon Hunter thanks to a deal he made with the devil.

[Lostie!]

I think we might be the only 100 fans on here Lostie :joker:. To be fair I find some of the plot lines hit-and-miss, I wasn't a huge fan of the AI stuff in itself, but the episodes themselves are usually highly entertaining regardless :shrug:. The end of S2 was straight up brutal, also... I mean, how many shows have their main character

Essentially commit genocide, including murdering a load of children slowly and painfully, because wants to rescue her buddies :umm2:

I also didn't mind how Lincoln's death was done. A lor of people were disappointed that as one of the strongest fighters on the show, he didn't go down fighting... but I thought that really was the whole point. In the situation they were in, it didn't matter how strong any of them were individually, because they were being oppressed by others who were holding all of the cards.

Natalie loves it too :clap1:

That finale of Season 2 was one of the things that cemented it as a favourite of mine actually. It's one of those situations where you're sure there's gonna be a last minute cop-out to save the day and then there isn't and they go through with it. I loved it (I mean, it was bleak as **** but that's why it was so effective :laugh:) :clap1:

As for the death you mentioned, I honestly think a lot of the anger towards it was carry-over from THAT death a couple of episodes before. People were angry at the show and honestly just wanted to keep hating on it from that point. I do think Lexa's death was a disservice to the character, I don't think Lincoln's was to be honest. At least the bullet was meant for him and he didn't just happen to walk into a room at the wrong time :laugh:

But then at the same time, a character getting a death that feels less than they deserve perfectly fits in with The 100's bleak world. The whole controversy over killing lesbians to further the plot is another matter of course, I wasn't even aware that was an existing issue in TV until the uproar over Lexa.

It's willingness to take out big characters is one of the things I love most about it. I've no interest in a show that tries to present big stakes but then is only prepared to kill insignificant characters nobody has any investment in. What's the point? Especially on the network that gives us a show like The Vampire Diaries that loves to pretend it's making a big move by killing pivotal characters only to bring them back to life in increasingly contrived ways.

I really loved the AI stuff actually, what I didn't really enjoy about season 3 was everything with Pike and Bellamy. Pike just wasn't an interesting villain for me and Bellamy's development was absurd.

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Another show i loved was Roswell. It was fantastic and i still have the dvds. :flutter:

[Amy Jade]

Tru Calling </3

Harper's Island

Melrose Place (remake)

[FaLaLaLand]

Broad City - so, so, so hilarious.

[FaLaLaLand]

My name is Earl was hilarious :laugh:

LOVED My Name is Earl! Joy :love:

[user104658]

It's willingness to take out big characters is one of the things I love most about it. I've no interest in a show that tries to present big stakes but then is only prepared to kill insignificant characters nobody has any investment in. What's the point? Especially on the network that gives us a show like The Vampire Diaries that loves to pretend it's making a big move by killing pivotal characters only to bring them back to life in increasingly contrived ways.


That's one of the main criticisms of Supernatural too and is a fair one... there are really only two main characters, you could argue that there are now three or four (Castiel and Crowley) but the two mains have died repeatedly and always come back, and the latter two are an Angel and a Demon. There's no sense of risk... they will never kill off either of the Winchesters, unless the show is ending. I suppose this is an inevitable problem in a show where there's an established existing afterlife and the characters at this point basically have free range access to both Heaven and Hell :think:.

That said, it's basically a "superhero show" and you could make that criticism of any such show. Central character is never in any real danger (because the show would be over), and the fantasy or sci-fi nature leaves the possibility of resurrection always open for any other character.

[user104658]

Another show i loved was Roswell. It was fantastic and i still have the dvds. :flutter:

It had potential... was cancelled too early to hit any real stride though, sadly.

(Same goes for The 4400, which someone mentioned earlier)


...ffs I really have watched everything :hehe:

[Jamie89]

The Comeback One of my all time favourite shows (maybe my favourite comedy). Valerie Cherish is one of the greatest TV characters of all time :worship:

[Santa's NaughtiNess]

Angel, one of my favourite shows ever. David :lovedup: