Looking for dark sci-fi or fantasy TV suggestions

I also recommend American Gods...which is done for the season.

^ I enjoyed American Gods, and I'm a fan of Neil Gaiman, I have yet to see season two.

dr wu23 wrote: I think Westworld has run it's course.....it didn't look like the trailer even had anything to with Westworld itself. Unless it is set in one of those created tourist worlds I probably won't be watching. Sadly I no longer have Net flix and I'm not sure I want to pay for Mirror and Stranger Things since I am already paying up the arse for cable via Comcast. I'm currently watching A Discovery of Witches....not too bad....I could do without the romance between the head vampire and head witch but the cast is good and the plots are decent with decent effects.

My guess would be that it will have some stuff that happens on the island of the theme park (and some flashbacks to earlier theme park times) and a lot that happens in the "real world". It does make it look like a very different show.

The first season was easily my favourite overall, but I enjoyed last season, and will watch season three in 2020 if able. Personally, I'm happy to see the locations and times shift. An aspect that I liked most about Westworld was its sense of mystery, and for me I'm okay wherever it take place as long as there are interesting characters and plot, with some mindf***ery.

I don't think I've heard of A Discovery of Witches.

Edited by Logan - May 21 2019 at 15:43

dr wu23 wrote: Discovery of Witches.....Harry Potter for adults....some sexy scenes etc.. :)

Sounds good to me.

The should do a sexy adult Harry Potter spin-off called Dobby Does Dallas.

Just happened to check Netflix for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and I saw they have a new proper trailer for that prequel series based on The Dark Crystal (a favourite film of mine).



The series will be be coming to Netflix on August 30, 2019.

Just to mention that The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance dropped yesterday, and frankly I stayed up most of the night binging the ten episodes. It's more faithful to the film than I thought during the opening narration that this prequel would be (big fan of the original), and I also enjoyed it much more than I thought I would from the first several minutes. In fact, I stopped watching it about three minutes in because I felt that the exposition didn't bode well for the series, and because it caused me to think that the show might be less faithful to the original than it was. Even with the original when I saw it as a kid, I would have rather not have had the opening narration, as it's a very visual film, I felt that that spoiled some sense of mystery, and I guess I was already familiar with the "Show, don't tell" idea in filmmaking (I wanted to be dropped right into the world without explanation and figure things out as best I could as it progressed). That said, this being a family and children's show, one can expect exposition.

I loved the show, even if it might have seemed too Game of Thrones meets Lord of the Rings films meets Avatar meets, of course as it should be, the original The Dark Crystal in style for me (I wanted it to evoke the atmosphere of the original Dark Crystal as much as possible). I love Game of Thrones, especially early seasons, and love the Lord of the Rings novels (not a fan of the films). I really enjoyed it (I would have liked some changes, especially in the final episode) and expect another season. It's definitely been modernised in various ways, as one could expect.

I'm sure it was very influenced by Game of Thrones. A problem I have with some Netlix series is that they often lack originality and seem designed by committee to me, and even designed by algorithms rather than feeling auteur. Watching this, I was not wanting originality as I wanted something that was faithful to the spirit of The Dark Crystal film, and I do think it worked as a successful collaboration between many. It was lovingly crafted, seems like little expense was spared, it's epic, and obviously a huge amount of work went into it.

I'd definitely recommend it to those generally into fantasy, and to fans of the original film. They've put a huge amount of work into it, and it is beautiful and quite wondrous, and I would go so far as to call it remarkable. As expected, it can be dark (well, it is The Dark Crystal).

By the way, old news, but a Labyrinth (that Henson film with Bowie) sequel film (not a remake) has been in the works for quite some time, but I was never as big on Labyrinth as on The Dark Crystal. Apparently the people who proposed doing the Dark Crystal series had pitched a 10 episode Labyrinth Netflix series that operated as a kind of sequel to the film at first, but a film was already in the works I've heard, and Netflix shot them down on that. Maybe, since I put the film in the same kind of boat, they'll do a Neverending Story series at some time (If I were able to adapt an 80's children's film for Netflix or TV, then I'd do Time Bandits).

Mentioned on the last page, but I still recommend the Korean period-zombie series "Kingdom" which is on Netflix (gorgeous).

An interesting one I saw recently on Netflix is the Taiwanese anthology series "Til Death Do Us Part". It's rather hit and miss for me, and I found it a little too predictable at times, and for me it's not up there with other anthology series such as Inside No. 9, Black Mirror, let alone classic ones such as The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales of the Unexpected, Night Gallery, Tales From the Darkside, Tales From the Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock' Presents etc., but it's interesting.

EDIT: Had intended to mention this, one I watched on Netflix and found very good is Dark, which is described as a German sci-fi thriller. I'm happy that more people are getting exposed to and used to sub-titles and seeing more shows and films from around the world. I've been big on watching subtitled films since I saw Das Boot in the cinema.

Edited by Logan - August 31 2019 at 17:07

^ Sounds interesting.

My brother, who lives in Australia, has been visiting to help take care of my ill mother, and he has an Amazon Prime account (I used to too, and plan to again).

dr wu23 wrote: Still watching Stranger Things on Netflix......... I kind of liked American Gods....but I didn't read the book. I also like Blacklist which is more about crime but Spader is excellent. I'm also watching two other things:  Ghost Wars and  just finished Preacher.

I've been watching Preacher (an Amazon Prime show) and loving it, and started on a superhero one (also carried by Amazon Prime) called The Boys (sort of superhero show). And it's time I watched more American Gods. By the way, I like Blacklist too and also find Spader excellent.

Like getting into Game of Thrones, I'm late to the party in terms of Preacher (one of the supporting characters was in a much loved by me superpowers show called Misfits, which I have mentioned in this thread).

The trailer for Preacher, season one.



I also want to watch Good Omens very much. I have yet to read the novel (I am a fan of both Gaiman and Pratchett). There was a BBC radio Good Omens series which I enjoyed on the BBC iPlayer radio app not long ago (was re-broadcast in July and is no longer available there as those programs tend to only be available for 30 days).

Kind of old news now, but here is trailer for season three of Westworld:

*

* Note the use of Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" from Dark Side of the Moon for the trailer.

There is so much good stuff to stream on various services. I'll subscribe to HBO again when Westworld comes out. I'm thinking of stopping Netflix for a while (subscribed to it constantly for several years) and subscribing to some other services.

EDIT: So I watched plenty of Good Omens over the weekend (still have some episodes left to go), and enjoyed it very much.

Edited by Logan - September 11 2019 at 16:45

^ I currently don't have Netflix....but probably will rejoin....some good shows on there.