Underrated/Lesser Known TV Series

[Beebopn]

Lately, I've begun watching a TV series called "Legend of the Seeker", and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. I would have never heard of it if my friend hadn't told me about it. This got me thinking, what other quality TV series are out there that aren't as widely known, or that are underrated? Three that come to my mind for me are:

Legend of the Seeker (1 complete season, another coming later in the year)
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire (Six episode mini-series for now, kind of like a lesser Monty Python, which is still a big compliment)
NUMB3RS (5 seasons, detective/crime solving using math)

So, any other shows come to your mind?

 

[Yoruichi_]

Reboot, awesome cgi tv show used to be on Diggit UK tv sunday morning like 10-12 years ago

 

[GodsOneMistake]

I loved Krod Mandoon, but people really hated on it...

Most of my friends have never heard about Penn & Tellers' Bullshit.... which is a really good show in my opinion.

 

[El Poncho]

Krod Mandoon was awesome.

 

[Agent Larkin]

Over here in Ireland NCIS is pretty unknown. Take a guess how I feel about that.

 

[Antlers]

NCIS is not unknown in Ireland! FX all the way.

 

[ghalkhsdkssakgh]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Not sure how well known it is, but it's an excellent series (even if the animation's crap and the episodes are about 10 minutes each)

 

[Anachronism]

If I were anywhere else I would say Firefly. Obviously everyone here has heard of it, but you would be stunned how few people in the real world have. It's really quite depressing.

There was a series on a few years back called "Over There" that I really liked. It was a drama series about soldiers in the Iraq War; I was the only person I knew watching it; and it only ran for one series because of low ratings. That was a real shame, in my opinion, because I thought it was really good. Admittedly, the series ended really well and another one might not have been such a good idea, but I still think it's a pity that so few people have heard of it.

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire (Six episode mini-series for now, kind of like a lesser Monty Python, which is still a big compliment)

While I'd quite like to see Krod Mandoon, it still amazes me that so many people think that a TV series being compared to Monty Python is a good thing. It's become so ridiculously idolized over the years; people forget that, for every good sketch, there were 10 monumentally awful ones.

 

[Yoruichi_]

I agree, very few people I know have heard of firefly, let alone seen it, damn them for cancelling it

 

[LordSnakeEyes]

CHUCK, I don't care how much recognition it gets, it's not enough.

 

[Miss_M]

Modern Toss. Check it out on 4OD. It's just a really sweary, crudely animated cartoon sketch show. Classic characters include Mr Tourettes, the French sign writer, and Space Arguement, about two astronauts on the moon ("How the fuck did you tread dog shit on the carpet?!") I can't find the words to do it justice. If you have a bizarre, rude and childish sense of humour, you'll love it.

 

[Magnatek]

Reboot, awesome cgi tv show used to be on Diggit UK tv sunday morning like 10-12 years ago

Over in America, this was on the WB (Warner Bros.) Kids network in about the same time frame. I wonder if there's a connection.

 

[Outamyhead]

Millennium was a damn good show, same guy that did X files, but the show made sense, best story of the series I believe was season two, the two parts were called Roosters and Serpents I believe?

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Firefly, one of the best Sci-fi series I've ever seen. So many peope I know haven't ever heard of it, and yet every person I show it to seems to end up loving it. Seriously underrated I think.

 

[Casual Shinji]

MTV's Downtown.
The most awesome dailoge who've ever heard.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'd drop another vote for:
Bullshit
Krod Mandoon (Which sadly probably won't get recommisioned as it's expensive to make and people can't vote on it to throw money at the TV, so we'll get another reality show instead - still, that complaint applies to probably every show that appears in this thread)
and Modern Toss.

I remember a Big Brother style show I actually enjoyed tho, 'Kings of Comedy', where they took two groups of comics, young new talent fresh to the circuit, and old style club comedians from the 70s, and made em live together and perform on stage with a different theme each night.
It's amazing that people would prefer to watch a group of no hope talentless airheads in Big Brother, than essentially the same show but with interesting, talented, funny people.

Having said that, comedians generally are smart, and have a lot of respect for each other, so there's not the constant bitching you get in BB.

Fairly well known here, but still pretty small I'd say, was Screenwipe, a TV show about TV, hosted by Charlie Brooker, and as well as mocking the stranger shows on worldwide TV, he'd go behind the scenes, and pick apart the creation of TV, such as writing, how a show gets commissioned, how reality TV gets edited to make heroes and villains, etc.

And now, just to make this post even more rambling, some more one shot recommendations...

Smoking Room - a bit like 'The office' but better imo. All shot in one room.
15 Storeys High - Sean Lock's sitcom, strangely gloomy and gloomily strange yet still damn funny.
That's My Bush - the South Park guys' parody of US sitcoms, setting George Bush as the typical 'man of the house', with the house being the Whitehouse, what was missed by so many, was that it was mainly targeting lazy typical sitcoms, not Bush himself.
Manstrokewoman - an excellent sketch show on the theme of man/woman interaction.
Snuff Box - a very dark comedy about two hangmen, which veers of into plain wierdness.
The Late Edition - UK's attempt at a 'Daily Show' I enjoyed it, but didn't get much publicity.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Dear God. Someone actually likes Legend of the Seeker. I think a little bit of my already sparse faith in humanity has died a little.

I'm going with Kid Notorious. It was an animated series on Comedy Central around 2000 or 2001, I can't remember exactly, but it was brilliant. Unfortunately, it was never renewed. Even more unfortunately, no one has bothered to put it on DVD. I don't get it. They keep renewing Reno 911! long after it stopped being funny, but they don't bother to make another season of Kid Notorious. It's almost as bad as Legend of the Seeker getting renewed for another season.

 

[molester jester]

Well if you are not British you probably havent heard of

1. Spaced
2. Black Books
3. Peep Show
4. Life On Mars

Life On Mars and Peep Show both have american versions however i advise you to watch the British versions as they are far better.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

The Mighty Boosh, I would say. Up until it came to Adult Swim.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Quick question to Americans, do you find UK shows inpenetrable and in need of subtitles?

because I feel most US Stations are just wasting big piles of money buying the rights to shows and remaking them, when they've been made. Are Americans so patriotic that they can't bear to watch non americans being funny? OF course not, I know you guys are smart, its more that somehow they only ever select idiots for focus groups.

I'm with Marcus Brigstocke's theory, that the problem with focus groups and public opinion, is that you're only getting the opinion of people who can't even avoid someone standing in a mall with a clipboard! Do you really want to risk the millions involved in making a TV series, based on that guys opinion?

I'll admit the US office is good, but the vast majority of remakes are godawful, and I'm including stuff we've remade from the US versions too.

(I excuse the Late Edition, our version of the Daily Show, because it kind of HAS to be remade to include UK news.)