Looking for dark sci-fi or fantasy TV suggestions

verslibre wrote: Logan wrote: I actually really like the original Battlestar Galactica despite the cheesiness. It's not as obviously cheesy as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (but that's also more tongue-in-cheek, silly entertainment and was never as serious as the original BG).   I even rather liked Galactica 1980, even though it was pretty terrible. I was pretty critical of the re-imagined version when it came out (I was part of a sci-fi forum at the time), but I grew to really like it. I didn't finish watching the spin-off Caprica.   The first season of Buck Rogers is fun stuff. It's cheesy as hell, and unabashedly so. The main draw's the surplus of babes they stocked the show with. Episode titles like "Planet of the Slave Girls" and "Planet of the Amazon Women" tell you exactly what the showrunners had in mind. "Space Vampire" features a delicious performance by Erin Gray, the sort she likely never repeated in her career.  The second season was AWFUL.

Those episodes were fun, but all of those titles would have been improved with the word "Lesbian" in them. It being a family friendly show, I don't suppose that "Planet of the Lesbian Slave Girls", "Planet of the Lesbian Amazon Women", and "Space Lesbian Vampire" would have gone down well, or be made at all.

The second season was awful on the whole, but I rather liked it. A story like in the episode "The Crystals" could have worked well for the original Star Trek, I think. Good idea for a story, but it was pretty badly and cheaply executed. The "The Golden Man" was one that I liked as a kid, but I now see as so ineptly handled. Since we didn't get Christopher Lee in "Space Vampire", at least having him as Scaramanga ("The Man with the Golden Gun and Superfluous Third Nipple") dueling off against "the Golden Man" would have been something....

^

You definitely have a point... and they have four between them.   

wiz_d_kidd wrote: Slow burning indeed! My wife and I watched the first three episodes, and the nay-sayers were right -- it was slow. Painfully slow. It's like the director told everyone to slow their delivery, then pause between dialog lines, and then double or triple the length of their pauses. Twenty minutes of a simple story line were stretched out to an hour. On a positive note, the cinematography, acting, and production were fine. Writing and directing? Not so much.

 

I don't have Netflix currently, I will get it again soon, but I liked Black Spot and Into the Night looks interesting. My eldest child has been asking me to reinstate Netflix due to wanting to watch, sort of play, Bandersnatch again.

Tomorrow, by the way, will be the Westworld season three finale. I hardly expect anything anywhere near as great as season one's finale,but hopefully it will be an "interesting" episode. Interesting being something that I've found lacking this season. On another note, I still have last season of Doctor Who PVRed and I plan to finally watch that. The Jodie/Chibnall years have been a challenge to me. I loved Capaldi and Moffat, so they were going to be really tough acts to follow.

Logan wrote: I don't have Netflix currently, I will get it again soon, but I liked Black Spot and Into the Night looks interesting. My eldest child has been asking me to reinstate Netflix due to wanting to watch, sort of play, Bandersnatch again. Tomorrow, by the way, will be the Westworld season three finale. I hardly expect anything anywhere near as great as season one's finale,but hopefully it will be an "interesting" episode. Interesting being something that I've found lacking this season. On another note, I still have last season of Doctor Who PVRed and I plan to finally watch that. The Jodie/Chibnall years have been a challenge to me. I loved Capaldi and Moffat, so they were going to be really tough acts to follow.

 

verslibre wrote: Argo2112 wrote: This is probably old news by now but I just started the reboot of Battlestar Galactia with Edward James Olmos.  I was reluctant to try it because the original was so cheesy but this version is much improved. Solid cast, good writing, dark storylines. Definitely recommend it.    Loved it. Watched it when it was new, both the initial "miniseries" (it's really a 3-hour movie) and the regular series.  That's how you do a reboot. You keep enough of the initial concept and build a whole new narrative around it. I like '70s Galactica, too. Anyone who says you cannot like both the old series and the reboot, tell them to come talk to me.  Don't miss the standalone movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor. It ties in, as does The Plan (which isn't as good). The prequel series Blood and Chrome was good, too. It chronicles Adama's early career. However, Caprica didn't do it for me. That wasn't necessary.

I also started watching Snowpiercer.....Connelly is ok but the show seems predictable and a bit underwhelming.

Longmire is not available on Netflix UK and far too expensive to stream elsewhere. Good recommendation though as I like the 'Western' genre. Godless was one of my favourite things on Netflix ever.

I missed out on Deadwood for some reason although I love Ian McShane. Yep I will get round to that at some point assuming that it's still available.

Dark Science Fact - The lockdown allowed me to get to see Chernobyl at last. I'm a Physics Teacher, so I knew all the facts, but the way they created such a dark, emotional story was very impressive. Slight parallels with the Covid-19 spread at times too.