I’ll second Eureka, and to a lesser extent, Warehouse 13, but I would like to throw in Star Gate and even more so, Star Gate Atlantis.
Those are just fun to watch, especially later seasons of Star Gate.
Falling Skies was “barely watchable” at its best.
Of your list:
Once Upon–dreadful fluff
The Messengers–is that the one with 5 or 6 dead people coming back to life? If so, I didn’t make it through the first episodr.
Dark Matter–dum b but fun, but cancelled with no plot resolution.
Lost in Space–i found it pretty poorly written, but others on here liked it m more.
The 4400–really liked this, but also cancelled and unfinished.
Mars–cheesy
Van Helsing–god-awful
The Librarians–extra Cheez-Whiz cheesy
Colony–maybe the best of the list, but cancelled and unfinished.
Traveler’s–surprisingly interesting, and it actually got sort of a resolution .
Another Life–amazingly bad
Altered Carbon–a definite watch
Penny Dreadful–chews the scenery, but fun to watch, plus Eva Green!
Wynona Earp–awful.
Also another plug for Eureka. Fun fun show. Warehouse 13 also fun. Fringe and Counterparts are both must-watch in my estimation. TSCC was excellent. His Dark Materials is HBO–if you have that, it is well done. The Rook is fine. Being Human was good, but unfinished. KIlljoys is a fun romp, and actually gets to finish.
If I think of others I will post.
I’ve had Wynona Earp and Van Helsing pilling up on the dvr for 2 years now, I should just delete them. :(
Wait a gosh darn second. You have a TV show backlog TOO? Which is bigger, your gaming or movie/tv show backlog?
I really liked the Librarians, myself, but I definitely saw the flaws. Very “after school special” feeling to it. If that annoys you, it won’t hold up well.
Some others I don’t see on your list that I enjoyed:
Orphan Black - thriller about clones
12 Monkeys - time travel
Occupied - alternate history of a Russia-occupied Finland, be warned it’s not yet finished
11.22.63 - time travel back to JFK’s assassination
Defiance - apocalyptic future scifi, but be warned it got cancelled so the ending is abrupt
Continuum - time travel thriller, also got cancelled but they had a short final season to wrap it up
Ascension - alternate history space travel mini-series; good enough that I wish they’d made a full series out of the concept
And some anime, if you don’t mind some of the cheesy stuff that comes along with that format:
Orange - time travel, bit of romance, deals with suicide
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - time travel movie
Steins;gate - time travel
Plastic Memories - short future series about end of life for quickly-aging androids
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - one of my favorites, has some of everything: aliens, time travel, psychics, unexplained powers
Maybe these aren’t on the list because you’ve already seen them, but if not, worth checking out.
Same, and I am going to add a big chunk of Once Upon episodes to that list.
Eureka - loved it, but yes it was stupid campy Scifi. I looked forward to new episodes
Warehouse 13 and Haven - Similar appeal, not bad to have on the docket but not something I would wait for.
Dark Matter - Better than Killjoys
Killjoys - Scifi so yay, but wildly uneven and often cringeworthy. I am trying to think of reasons I found this more cringeworthy than something like Dark Matter and failing, but those are my opinions and I stick by them.
Fringe - Season 1 was bad enough I didn’t even start season 2 until both friends and the internet at large told me I had to, and I am glad I did.
Grimm - Not bad at all. I actually binged on it.
His Dark Materials - has had a very strong start, looking forward to the rest.
Wait, there are people who don’t have backlogs for everything? I have “I wanna try this sometime” piles of books, both video and physical games, TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, heck even recipes.
Leave me and my massive entertainment backlog alone @kerzain ! Fine fine since you want to know…
Backlog of Tears
PC side is probably the worst, well over 1100 games I haven’t touched, but will one day! fist in air, I chase the new games when on sale, but still try to pick one or two games every month from a few years back that I haven’t played. Its all about gaming balance!
TV is next up with around 60 seasons of shows between the DVR , seasons I bought on Blu , and DVD boxed sets. I am sorta glad the new shows as of late suck, because I don’t record many new shows anymore.
Movies is probably the group I try to keep on top of the most, I have (checks excel spreadsheet) 38 movies, from the past few years I still want to see. The time commitment of 2 hours a movie helps. As I can get one watch and off the list quickly!
My PS4 backlog is my smallest of all entertainment backlogs, with 9 exclusives I have yet to play and are still in shrink wrap.
Orphan Black is amazing, and I guess it’s technically sci-fi, but I wouldn’t consider it a sci-fi show.
I enjoyed that show also, yep abrupt ending but it sorta was ok.
I might take up this advice one day. I hated the Fringe pilot. I hate shows that are clearly going to string out a mystery for a long time like they were clearly planning to do. I think I caught an episode or two more during season 1 and never went back, and couldn’t understand how people can stand a show like that.
But if the show dramatically gets better, maybe I should skip to season 2 one day. Hmmm.
It doesn’t really string out a mystery, at least not in the usual JJ Abrams/Lindelof sense. It has (after the first season), an ongoing narrative during which things are revealed. And then there are twists which supersede the things that have been revealed. There’s no big final reveal a la Lost.
But the first season is just straight-up wannabe X-Files procedural crap, with even sillier science.
I mean, Orphan Black isn’t spaceships and lasers sci-fi, but the premise is very much in the broader category. Also it’s terrific.
Can highly recommend Dark and Counterpart. Altered Carbon is worthwhile this season but I think the original bits they added to the show (as opposed to adapting from the book) are terrible so I wouldn’t count on later seasons being as good. The Rook I think is meh at best as a standalone show and a fucking terrible adaptation of a much superior novel you should read instead.
I quite enjoyed the first season of Once Upon a Time but I never felt moved to go back to it so I don’t necessarily recommend it. Lucifer is cheesy and I still have no idea why they decided to tie it to a comic that it has almost nothing to do with and is way more interesting than the show’s slightly reheated police procedural. But it’s also pretty entertaining as fluff, if occasionally frustrating due to their refusal to let certain character beats go in a sensible timeframe.
Oooh, thanks for adding the anime recommendations on there. I’ve seen Girl Who Leapt Through Time, that’s a movie. Are the others movies too? I think Steins:Gate is a miniseries based on a game, and I was told to play the game first?
I loved The Librarians. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it knows it and the shows doesn’t take itself seriously. The cast is pretty good. The only person I didn’t like on the show was oddly, the Librarian, Flynn Carson. And plus, Bruce Campbell as Santa Claus!
It’s odd how Eureka and other Sci Fi shows get so much love, but no one else liked the Star Gate Series.
It’s a full series, 20-odd episodes. And it’s based on a visual novel. Is the original visual novel better? probably. but are you actually going to read that?
I liked the movie. :)
Well, if you don’t mind spell O’Neill with 2 L’s, you will love the series. Or won’t. They don’t have a ton in common.
Although, for my money, Atlantis, with it’s space battles, is better then SG-1.
Hahahah, that’s a great point. Who has time for that? Especially to read something long when sitting on an uncomfortable computer chair? No thanks. Anime it is!