What are the best TV SFF series you've watched in 2021?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

What the title says and why

[Allan]

To knock out the obvious one, Game of Thrones. While the rushed final season was generally reviled, this series had people talking about it after every Sunday night episode. Ned Stark's untimely death shocked everyone and set a new standard for killing major characters. Not to mention the Red and Purple Weddings. I had read the first four books before the series came out and was already a GRRM fan, so I was an early fan. It did not disappoint with regard to the books, at least until it passed them in time.

[Rebecca]

It's hard for me to remember what I watched in 2020 vs 2021 so they are all here.

@Alan - GOT was quite the show, and addictive when I first started watching it. I had to stop after the 3rd season because I was having nightmares envisioning I was one of the characters 😳

I really liked The Expanse (which I finished watching this year), the first few episodes weren't great but it really grew on me.

I also loved The Good Place (not sure when I finished watching that), so funny and inventive.

The Mandalorian was good fun and beautiful but every episode followed a similar arc and for that it wasn't my favorite.

I also watched the Magicians this year...binged the entire series in two days. I'm really not sure if I loved it but I was obviously hooked and found the final season to be quite impactful.

I can't recall when I watched The Witcher, but that was right up my ally as well. Excited to check out the next season soon!

I'm not a huge TV watcher but with COVID I had a lot of down time stuck at home. I'm actually pretty impressed with this list above but I don't think 2022 will be as prolific.

[Allan]

GoT was intense for sure. Most of the time I was watching new episodes, so one at a time wasn’t too bad. But when I watched Breaking Bad, we were watching two episodes at a time, and it was so intense I was having nightmares.

The Expanse - another one where I read the books first, and I thought they did a pretty credible job of getting the story across. I’ve wondered how watchers who hadn’t read the books would perceive the different branches of the story.

I’m a Star Trek fan from way back. Not sure I watched it when the episodes were first aired, but when it was syndicated and broadcast daily, everyone I knew watched it. In college, everyone came back from class and relaxed for an hour watching it in groups. And it had recognized SF authors like Harlan Ellison & David Gerrold writing stories for it (Ellison’s was controversial - he disowned the final product). Next Generation wound up even better with some high quality writing, though I don’t think book authors joined in. Other Star Trek series haven’t grabbed me, although Deep Space Nine had its moments, as did Voyager.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Locke and Key was the best. Starting the second season now.

And for older series, The Almightly Johnsons, which I am rewatching now on Peacock. Unfortunately, some ads

[Kristenelle]

I don’t think I remember everything I watch this year, but Wandavision and Infinity Train were both great!

[Kalin]

I'm going all in on this! I keep track with a spreadsheet the same way I do for books & reading, so I know exactly what I've watched and also strictly schedule how many episodes I'm "allowed" to watch each week (anti-bingeing strategy). I also don't watch more than 1 season of a show in a calendar year, so for older shows like Man in the High Castle or Person of Interest, I finished a season and am now waiting until 2022 to continue.

Ranking lowest to highest from what I watched in 2021:

26. Avenue 5, Season 1 (2020), HBO
A light-hearted comedy set on a cruise spaceship, starring Hugh Laurie. I found it profoundly unfunny and kind of hard to get through even though the episodes are short. It's been renewed for season 2 but I'm not that interested.

25. Amazing Stories, Season 1 (2020), Amazon Prime
A short anthology series of 5 episodes, it's a remake of a previous series by Steven Speilberg. The episodes were not very compelling and seemed geared towards a young audience ("family friendly"), which isn't my cup of tea.

24. Into the Night, Season 2 (2021), Netflix
This show has very little SF appeal, it's mostly a thriller, and it's not very engaging at that. The coolest thing about it is that it's probably the most international show I've ever seen, with four or five languages spoken (and lots of subtitles).

23. Solos, Season 1 (2021), Amazon Prime
Solos is a short anthology series whose gimmick is that each episode is essentially a "solo act," with some pretty big name actors involved. The scenes are fairly short at 20-30 minutes, and have some interesting SF concepts, but ultimately it's not that engaging.

22. Marvel's Jessica Jones, Season 3 (2019; finale), Netflix
I'm really sick of Marvel, this was the only Marvel series I watched this year, mostly because I wanted to finish JJ's storyline, not that there is any meaningful conclusion here. It was okay but nothing special.

21. Devs, Miniseries (2020), FX
A high-concept artificial intelligence miniseries created by Alex Garland (director of Ex Machina, Annihilation ,etc.). This series moved sooooooooo slooooooow, was overstuffed with pretentious dialogue, and characters I could not care about. This show definitely aimed high, but did not hit the mark.

20. Osmosis, Season 1 (2019; cancelled), Netflix
A French Netflix series where a startup is launching a beta-test of its new technology Osmosis, which matches users with their soulmate. There were some interesting ideas here but I mostly wasn't that engaged with it and used the show to practice my French but otherwise wouldn't recommend it unless you're bored.

19. Alien Worlds, Miniseries? (2020), Netflix
This is a short, 4-episode "docufiction" series. Half the show is a real-world nature documentary exploring conditions of life on earth and the other half extrapolates principles of life sciences and evolution to imagine what kind of natural life and ecosystems might be possible on exoplanets in other solar systems. A really intriguing concept, basically non-fiction sci-fi, I think the speculative portions of this series were brought down by the overuse of the same visuals again and again - I wish they'd had more budget to diversify the CGI scenes a bit.

18. Love, Death & Robots, Season 2 (2021), Netflix
The first season was excellent, but this animated anthology series didn't have the same spark for me in the second season. Fewer episodes, shorter episodes, and somewhat monotonous in that they were mostly dark and edgy/cyberpunk, where there was real diversity in the last season. It's a quick watch though, like reading an issue of an SF mag or anthology.

17. Y: The Last Man, Season 1 (2021; cancelled), FX/Hulu
Based on the cult comic book Y: the Last Man, this series was a real mess in its execution. The narrative choices and dialogue really beat viewers over the head with 2021 American political hot topics, in a way that really wasn't interesting. It didn't do enough to stand out from other post-apocalyptic shows, which wasn't such an oversaturated genre when the comic was released and gained its popularity. Since it's been cancelled, I wouldn't recommend watching since there is no payoff.

16. Tales from the Loop, Miniseries (2020), Amazon Prime
This is a slow, thoughtful, really beautiful series set in a small town where a (HIGHLY) experimental physics research center is based. But it is really slow and definitely not for everyone. Some of the scenes are beautiful and some of the episodes are really touching. There is a lot of unresolved mystery surrounding the fantastical elements of the show, but it seems a prevailing theme is how people cope with the mysteries of life in general. I feel like it was maybe intended to have a season 2 if it was successful but didn't capture a large enough audience so was turned into "miniseries." Basically similar Amazing Stories but much, much better.

15. Castlevania, Season 4 (2021; finale), Netflix
The final season of this animated dark fantasy/horror/vampire series was a pretty satisfying conclusion with lots of action, bloodshed, magic twists, etc. The pacing of the earlier seasons was one of my biggest gripes with it, but I think Season 4 was a decent sendoff.

14. The Mandalorian, Season 2 (2020), Disney+
In general I'm skeptical of all things Disney, not big on the expanded Star Wars universe, and avoiding Marvel altogether like I mentioned above. My partner and I enjoyed season 1 of this show though, and Season 2 is fun. There was too much emphasis on narrative payoffs being about character cameos from elsewhere in the SW universe, so as my partner and I were watching I was like "this is supposed to be a major character from some SW cartoon." "okay, cool I guess." If you're not a committed Star Wars person, those episodes didn't have nearly as much impact. It was okay, but I don't think it deserved 2 Hugo nominations.

13. Biohackers, Season 1 (2020), Netflix
A German Netflix series about gene hacking and the ethics of bioengineering, it's part SF part thriller. It's short, fun, I think the protagonist was easy to root for, but it wasn't the most original story. It has a second season that I will definitely watch, and encourage others to give it a shot to incorporate some international works of SF television in your viewing.

12. The Wheel of Time, Season 1 (2021), Amazon
I am sorely tempted to drop this much lower in my ranking, because of how deeply I hated the season finale, which honestly has burnt out my remaining hope that the story will be well-adapted. But between the garbage pilot and the trash finale, there were some solid episodes with moments even promising greatness. It was fun enough, but I don't think it's good, and I don't think it'll get better from here.

11. Cowboy Bebop, Season 1 (2021, cancelled), Netflix
It's a shame this was cancelled. It's not a perfect adaptation, but (with the exception of every scene following the villain) it's a lot of fun. The Spike-Jet chemistry is amazing, the jokes are funny, Ein is cute as hell, the worldbuilding is really neat.

10. The Man in the High Castle, Season 1 (2015), Amazon Prime
This was Amazon's first scripted series, one I've been meaning to watch forever but wanted to read Philip K. Dick's book first -- and I finally did during our catch-up month back in the winter so I watched the first season. I was actually kind of dreading it because I don't know how much Nazism I can handle, and it was really painful to get through at times but I think the worldbuilding they did was pretty great. Grimdark for sure, not easy to stomach, but fuck Nazis, I'm curious where the expanded world and story will go for 3 more seasons.

9. Person of Interest, Season 3 (2013-14), CBS
For those who don't know it, P.o.I. is probably one of the last big success stories for SF television coming from network TV. Networks tend to produce pretty shitty shows. Person of Interest definitely follows a network model, with case of the week episodes, but Season 3 is where the story really shifted into a serial long-form arc, which I imagine will carry through into the final seasons. It's a comfort watch for sure, but begins to explore more and more complex ethical questions around artificial intelligence, surveillance, and freedom. It's also the oldest season of TV I watched this year.

8. The Expanse, Season 5 (2020), Amazon Prime
BELTA LOWDA! BELTA LOWDA! I love this show. Season 5 was not my favourite; too much torture porn of Naomi while she's held in captivity by her ex and her son. Marco Inaros is incredibly annoying. But I love the Expanse, this show is canon for me over the books, I'm sad it only has one season left, but I am ALL IN.

7. The Boys, Season 1 (2019), Amazon Prime
Another grimdark series, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle it, but a show were the superheroes are actually pretty evil and corporate America capitalizes on superpowers is a winning concept with me. Like the original Watchmen. This season was WILD. It has problems, but it was a lot of fun. Creepy, bloody, tense. Worth a watch.

6. RWBY, Season 8 (2020-21), Rooster Teeth
I've been a RWBY fan for awhile, since it was available on Netflix as two season-length movies. It's an internet animated fantasy series that starts off following in the "magical boarding school" subgenre, but it's evolved a lot over the years: gods and monsters, good vs. evil, unstoppable villains. It's always been fun but Season 8 was the best season in years.

5. The Umbrella Academy. Season 2 (2020), Netflix
Except for this and The Boys, I'm kind of done with superheroes at this point. but The Umbrella Academy is tons of fun, with great characters and a great sense of humour, soooo much dysfunctionality. I watched it originally because it was nominated for Dramatic Presentation in the Aurora Awards. It's won the Aurora two years in a row now. It's not at all grimdark like The Boys, so it's a very different kind of superhero show and that works for me.

4. See, Season 1 (2019), Apple
This show has a strange premise as a "primitive" post-apocalyptic series where after the remnants of human survive a plague, they are all left blind. The show depicts a world where all of society has been structured to some extent around blindness. I was very skeptical but gave it a shot and the worldbuilding, dialogue, and adventure narrative are all top notch.

3. Made for Love, Season 1 (2021), HBO Max
A short comedy series that, unlike Avenue 5, was actually really funny! The protagonist flees an abusive relationship after her billionaire boyfriend installs a prototype "mutual surveillance" technology in her head. The performances by Cristin Milloti and Billy Magnussen are just phenomenal.

2. Foundation, Season 1 (2021), Apple
I was skeptical, I'm not hugely invested in Isaac Asimov. This series took his ideas and ran away with them, and I'd argue surpassing them in a lot of ways. It's a gorgeous space opera with many layers and had me hooked from the end of episode 2. I'm all in on this one, highly recommend for us SF lovers.

1. For All Mankind, Season 1 (2020), Apple
By all accounts I've read, Season 2 is a masterpiece and a huge step up from Season 1. That's saying something, because Season 1 is already fucking incredible. It's an alternate history in which the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon in the space race, which means the space race got more priority and kept going and going instead of petering out. There is a lot of character drama and period piece style storytelling. I wasn't sure in the first episode, but the "Nixon's Girls" episode had me 100% invested: it was basically an on-screen version of The Calculating Stars. WAAAATCH THIIIIIS.

[Kalin]

... I need a blog.

[Antti]

Wow, great work! This was really nice list that gave me many ideas what to watch, should I get the urge to binge TV during the holiday season.

[Rebecca]

Wow, sooo impressive, I love your intense tracking Kalin 😂 and agree with Antti - your top 5 will serve as my to-be-watched list.

[TomK2]

too busy googling all the shows mentioned so far to type my list!

But my short list has Foundation as number 1, and The Expanse as number 2.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kalin wrote: "... I need a blog."

You do! :)

A great list, i watched only a few plus trailers on tube

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kalin wrote: "For All Mankind"

There was a joke in the USSR.
The US landed men on the Moon. The Politburo meeting to discuss this. Brezhnev speaks: “Comrades! The Americans have landed on the moon! We must surpass their achievements – and I have decided how we will do this. Since they have landed on the moon, we will go to the sun!” After a stunned silence, one raises his hand: “But Comrade Brezhnev, that would be very… hot. Our spacecraft will melt.” Brezhnev turns on the scientist and looks down his prominent nose. “Of course, Comrade, but I have already thought of that and factored a solution into my plan: we will fly at night!”

[Jemppu]

Oleksandr wrote: "Kalin wrote: "For All Mankind"

There was a joke in the USSR.
The US landed men on the Moon. The Politburo meeting to discuss this. Brezhnev speaks: “Comrades! The Americans have landed on the moo..."

You have just made me for the first time appreciate something I once read perhaps from a joke book; triggered this revelation that something I've never considered to be much beyond idle waste of time, is in fact a piece of this history of passed on 'folklore'.

[Jemppu]

And to contribute something for the actual topic: Loki, Y:the Last Man, and currently Hawkeye (which, I suppose, qualifies loosely as SF still, as much as it tries to be grounded) come to mind at this instance.

Kalin's list includes some completely new to me titles: must check them out to see if any of them spark viewing fancy.

[Allan]

Old joke, but it works well in a USSR context!

I don’t have that much time to watch TV but I’ll definitely use Kalin’s list as a guide when I need something new. Now that the Great British Baking Show is over for the year.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Kalin wrote: "

17. Osmosis, Season 1 (2019; cancelled), Netflix
A French Netflix series . . . Osmosis, which matches users with their soulmate. There were some interesting ideas . . . but otherwise wouldn't recommend it unless you're bored.

I agree this was very slow. Also, the English dubbing did not match the English subtitles, which is really hard to deal with. I could not finish the season.

15. Love, Death & Robots, Season 2 (2021), Netflix
The first season was excellent, but this animated anthology series didn't have the same spark for me in the second season.

True that the 2d season was not as good, but still worth it. You don't need to watch them in order.

13. Tales from the Loop, Miniseries (2020), Amazon Prime
This is a slow, thoughtful, really beautiful series set in a small town where a (HIGHLY) experimental physics research center is based. But it is really slow . . .

I absolutely agree with all of this, but I was fascinated.

12. Castlevania, Season 4 (2021; finale), Netflix
The final season of this animated dark fantasy/horror/vampire series was a pretty satisfying conclusion with lots of action, bloodshed, magic twists, etc. The pacing of the earlier seasons was one of my biggest gripes with it, but I think Season 4 was a decent sendoff.

Am watching in a buddy watch and have completed season2. Agree pacing sucks, and being unfamiliar with the video game <??> I was pretty confused at first until somebody told me it had been a video game. Some episodes are great, but many are meh.

9. The Man in the High Castle, Season 1 (2015), Amazon Prime
This was Amazon's first scripted series, one I've been meaning to watch forever but wanted to read Philip K. Dick's book first --

I hated this and could not watch it. I could not read the book straight through, either--I skipped through it a lot--though I have tried twice to actually read it. Don't bother with either the series or the book, IMHO. Some times Philip K is great, and other times, too much for me.

8. Person of Interest, Season 3 (2013-14), CBS
For those who don't know it, P.o.I. is probably one of the last big success stories for SF television coming from network TV.

I had to think what this one was because my husband and I always called it "The Ben Show" as we found the name so generic we could never remember it. (One of the main characters was "Ben" on Lost.) We watched it when it first aired and really liked it a lot.

7. The Expanse, Season 5 (2020), Amazon Prime
BELTA LOWDA! BELTA LOWDA! I love this show.

I was really confused by this show when I originally tried to watch it, and my husband definitely didn't like it. But now that I have read the first three Leviathan books, I am anxious to try again. Thanks for the good review! It's helpful

6. The Boys, Season 1 (2019), Amazon Prime
Another grimdark series, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle it, but a show were the superheroes are actually pretty evil and corporate America capitalizes on superpowers is a winning concept with me. Like the original Watchmen. This season was WILD. It has problems, but it was a lot of fun. Creepy, bloody, tense. Worth a watch.

Does anybody know what happened to season 3? It was supposed to out in November. My husband quit watching it, but I kept on even though I hated all the characters. It was addiction. And Season three has my boy Jensen Ackles in it, which I really want to see.

4. The Umbrella Academy. Season 2 (2020), Netflix
Except for this and The Boys, I'm kind of done with superheroes at this point. but The Umbrella Academy is tons of fun,

I have failed to get through season 1 because everytime I start to watch I get annoyed because it seemed like they had so much more they could have done before everything went whacko. Give me a while to get immersed in the world before you mess everything up, please. I expect I will watch it eventually, though.

Cowboy Bebop--I was able to watch about 5 minutes before I quit.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Kalin, re superhero shows, you might try Jupiter's Legacy on Netflix. It's pretty good, and I hope it gets a second season.

Also, my husband and I just finish Shadow and Bone. It was pretty good. Not as good as The Wheel of Time, though. I really hate that they are only coming out every Friday. I would have waited for them all to be out if I had realized.

[Kalin]

Kateblue wrote: "Kalin wrote: "

13. Tales from the Loop, Miniseries (2020), Amazon Prime
This is a slow, thoughtful, really beautiful series set in a small town where a (HIGHLY) experimental physics research center is based. But it is really slow . . .

I absolutely agree with all of this, but I was fascinated. "

I'm glad you liked it! Looking back over my list, if there's any show that I think maybe I ranked too low and should be moved up, it's Tales from the Loop.

Kateblue wrote: "

Cowboy Bebop--I was able to watch about 5 minutes before I quit."

I'm enjoying it a lot, but the original is one my all time favourite animes. I feel like the show has really captured the spirit of the original, in all its weirdness. I don't think the opening scene was the strongest.

Kateblue wrote: "Kalin, re superhero shows, you might try Jupiter's Legacy on Netflix. It's pretty good, and I hope it gets a second season.

Also, my husband and I just finish Shadow and Bone. It was pretty good."

Jupiter's Legacy was cancelled pretty soon after its release. Apparently no one watched it. I haven't given it a shot, it's definitely a victim of my superhero fatigue. (I've heard it's very similar to The Boys in that the superheroes are really anti-heroes or outright villains.) I did pick up some ebook versions of the comics though so I might eventually try those.

I haven't really considered trying Shadow and Bone. The source material is too YA for me, and the series itself seemed pretty YA from the trailers. Ditto for Locke & Key.

[Kalin]

Kateblue wrote: "re: The Boys

Does anybody know what happened to season 3? It was supposed to out in November. "

I don't know where you heard that, but as far as I know it has no announced release date, it's still TBA.

[Kristenelle]

Kalin, what is your reasoning for not binging? That is my preferred way to watch shows since I tend to forget stuff and be less emotionally invested when I space out my episodes or seasons.

[Kalin]

A variety of interrelated reasons:

1) I don't feel good when I binge TV. I've had problems letting tech get in the way of taking care of myself and I don't find binge-watching to be healthy for me. I've created a schedule to limit the amount of TV I can consume in a year (it's pretty generous though, since the list above is ONLY for SFF). It also helps me prioritize, rather than hate-watch something awful or watch lots of something because I'm bored and tired.

2) I don't like it when shows over rely on cliffhanger storytelling to keep me invested.

3) Streaming platforms like Netflix assess shows' performance based on binge-watching, which I don't like, so I don't want to participate in it. Netflix kind of expects to drop a season and have viewers finish it that weekend; I intentionally take 3 months. It's showing a different kind of support to shows I'm a fan of.

4) TV is released in episodically for a reason, many stories are told with breaks intended, even though a lot of streaming services have turned a lot of their writing into "12 hour movies."

5) Some really excellent series are made better by watching in smaller chunks and digesting rather than plowing through the whole thing quickly. Some are great for bingeing, but some heavier or slow-burn shows (like Better Call Saul, or Dark, or Mr. Robot) reward taking your time and processing. Right now I'm watching and LOVING the new Netflix series Maid, but it's hard and painful to watch and I can only do it one episode every week, or even just half an episode.

6) I'm a data nerd and I like tracking this stuff, the same way I do for books. I've got a spreadsheet where I rank my favourites each year and for nothing other than personal preference, I don't like ranking two seasons of the same show in one year.

[Ed]

I'm not subscribed to many services and don't have cable tv, so I get most of my shows from NetFlix or YouTube.

This year I enjoyed Witcher, though I grew tired of Geralt's grunting voice.

I enjoyed the first season of Avatar the Last Airbender, but haven't gone further in it.

While I enjoyed "The Boys" first season, I couldn't get interested in the second one. Too many backstories to keep track of. (That is the same reason I stopped Game of Thrones after a few seasons.)

Love, Death & Robots, Season 2 was less interesting than season 1.

While I don't have any specific stories to recommend, I have enjoyed many short films on the Dust channel. It is ad-supported rather than subscription, and the ads can be annoying. But I've found many good shorts there.
https://watchdust.com/watch/

I've watched 5 of the 6 films based (sometimes loosly) on Stanislaw Lem stories presented this year on Mubi. (One of the 6, Hospital of Transfiguration, is not SF, but is good.)
https://mubi.com/specials/stanislaw-lem

[Ed]

I can hardly believe I forgot to mention "Squid Game". I was totally entertained by that.

[TomK2]

I completely forgot about Tales From The Loop. I watched it over several months. It was just weird enough to keep me going back, but not captivating enough for me to watch a bunch in a row.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

TomK2 wrote: "I completely forgot about Tales From The Loop. I watched it over several months. It was just weird enough to keep me going back, but not captivating enough for me to watch a bunch in a row."

Exactly!

[Rebecca]

TomK2 wrote: "I completely forgot about Tales From The Loop. I watched it over several months. It was just weird enough to keep me going back, but not captivating enough for me to watch a bunch in a row."

Me too! But I don't think I finished the series, I maybe watched 3 episodes.

[Ed]

Kalin wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "re: The Boys

Does anybody know what happened to season 3? ..."

Don't know. But there are also plans for 2 spin-offs. One is an anthology of animated works.
https://gizmodo.com/the-boys-iverse-e...

[Rebecca]

I'm really tempted to read The Expanse books but I've already watched the show...I probably won't read them because 1) I already have too many books to read, 2) things may have been spoiled already, and 3) I generally like to read before I watch (but didn't know then were books when I started watching). What do y'all recommend? Thoughts?

[Allan]

My opinion is that it would be worth it to read at least the first two or three. Leviathan Wakes is excellent and the next couple flesh it out. You can decide from there if you want to continue!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Rebecca, I liked the books much better than the show. I have only read the first three, though

[Kristenelle]

Kalin wrote: "A variety of interrelated reasons:

1) I don't feel good when I binge TV. I've had problems letting tech get in the way of taking care of myself and I don't find binge-watching to be healthy for me..."

Thanks for explaining all that! I can't relate to any of it, but it makes sense. :)

[Ed]

I also really enjoyed "Space Force", an SF comedy.

[Kristenelle]

Ed wrote: "I also really enjoyed "Space Force", an SF comedy."

Oh yeah, me too! I forgot about that one.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Ed wrote: "I also really enjoyed "Space Force", an SF comedy."

I watched the first couple of these and abandoned it. Not for me, although I know lots of people loved it. I tried to get my husband to watch it, but it will take another rec from a stranger to get him to try it. I think he will love it.

[Kalin]

I updated my list for the shows I've completed since writing the original post.

TL;DR additions:

24. Into the Night
23. Solos
12. The Wheel of Time
11. Cowboy Bebop
4. See

Of the most recent, See is the one I'd really recommend people give a shot. It's quite different.

[Ed]

Where can one see "See" ?

[Kalin]

It's an AppleTV streaming series.
Same as For All Mankind and Foundation, both of which I recommend highly. Apple's content development is really on fire right now. It's a shame their streaming platform is at best mediocre (I don't have a device they stream to except my laptop, which I don't watch anything on).

[Ed]

I'm watching "Lost in Space" season 3 now and enjoying it. It feels strange watching the kids grow up. I think the youngest kid grew at least one foot taller between seasons 2 and 3.

[Gabi]

Year's at an end, I watched exactly 1 series this year. So this is my best :D. The Wheel of Times.

[Rebecca]

Gabi wrote: "Year's at an end, I watched exactly 1 series this year. So this is my best :D. The Wheel of Times."

Well I am glad you enjoyed it Gabi. I just finished the series on Amazon (after finishingThe Dragon Reborn) and the editing and storylines still make me cringe a bit. I get that the Matt actor pulled out before the final few episodes were shot and its COVID, but with so much money pouring into this show I would have expected better post production. I also hear that the director wanted an additional two episodes and I think that may have made the difference - allowing the characters to develop deeper relationships and explain more of the world (my partner stoped watching after episode 3 he was so lost and uninterested). I think having read the books before was a good move, but I also kept getting stuck on what was different. Anyhoooo, I'll keep watching (which is what Amazon really cares about) while hoping things improve!

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Rebecca wrote: "I think having read the books before was a good move, but I also kept getting stuck on what was different."

It seems we are in the age of fanservice - I hear a lot that both TV series and movies are aimed are people who are deep into it - WoT, Witcher, Spider-man

[Nooilforpacifists]

Anyone else seen the Netflix Japenglish adaptation of Heinlein’s “Door Into Summer”? Very odd. Took almost all of the sweetness out of the story, made the lead character (the Dan B. Davis character) a barely 20-something boy, played by a terrible actor.

[Gabi]

Oleksandr wrote: "It seems we are in the age of fanservice - I hear a lot that both TV series and movies are aimed are people who are deep into it - WoT, Witcher, Spider-man"

My partner, who has not the slightest idea of the books, watched WoT with me and loved it. And I'm chatting to a lot of watchers over on Twitter who love the show without knowing the books. So it does also work for the uninitiated.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Gabi wrote: "So it does also work for the uninitiated"

Glad to hear that!

[Ed]

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "Anyone else seen the Netflix Japenglish adaptation of Heinlein’s “Door Into Summer”? ..."

I didn't know about it. It sounds like you are not a fan, though.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Gabi wrote: . . . who love the show without knowing the books. So it does also work for the uninitiated

That would be me.

But which one is the one that dropped out, you said his name was Matt? I quit after 4 episodes to wait for the rest to come out, but I was always having trouble with those 4 guys from the original town. I never did get their names straight.

Please tell me the names of these guys, so when I start in again, I can figure out who is who:
1) guy who came into town with his dad
2) guy with two little kids (girls)
3) guy who was a blacksmith
4) guy who I can't remember anything about right now.

Thank you!

[Kalin]

Kateblue wrote: "
1) guy who came into town with his dad
2) guy with two little kids (girls)
3) guy who was a blacksmith
4) guy who I can't remember anything about right now. "

1) Rand Al'Thor
2) Mat Cauthon (they are his sisters)
3) Perrin Aybara
4) ... Lan?

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Kalin wrote:
1) Rand Al'Thor
2) Mat Cauthon (they are his sisters)
3) Perrin Aybara
4) ... Lan?"

Thanks! I was planning on watching the rest of season 1 today.

I also recently watched all 4 seasons of Being Human (american) because I got AMC plus for about 25 bucks for a year. Boy, their website sucks! I really like that series, though. It's not brand new. Really like it.

I'm rewatching "The Almighty Johnsons" on Peacock off and on. It's maybe my favorite TV series of all time because of the premise, the characters and it's funny, too. HIGHLY recommend, even though there are a few ads on the free Peacock channel. I have noted it has been rated low on some streaming channels, but I think maybe it might be rated low just because of its cavalier approach to religion.

Shadow and Bone did have young characters in it, but it wasn't too YA, really. Whoever said they didn't try it because of that . . . you might try the first episode to see. And Locke and Key? I don't care if the characters are young, it has GREAT world building and action, even if they are kids. Seriously, you should try it.

Enough for now!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Does anybody here like Supernatural? It's one of my favorites, particularly the first 5 seasons, but no one really talks about it here