10 Most Criminally Forgotten Fantasy Shows, Ranked

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Patti LuPone and Eva Green in the woods looking to the side with suspense in Penny Dreadful Season 2.

Published Feb 1, 2026, 12:40 PM EST

Jessica is a journalist, editor, TCA critic, and multimedia storyteller with a decade of experience covering pop culture, film, TV, women's sports, lifestyle, and more. She earned her degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington with a focus in creative writing before moving to N.Y.C. and getting her start at The Huffington Post. (She still misses those nap pods.) She's covered multiple film festivals, recapped some of your favorite series, worked too many red carpets to count, and even yapped on a podcast or two. When she’s not interviewing your favorite showrunner or ranking Ryan Gosling's best roles for places like UPROXX, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast, and Cosmopolitan, she’s busy being a full-time hype woman to her cat, Finn. You can find her on Bluesky and, sadly, Twitter.

Fantasy TV is full of overhyped dragons and undercooked plots. However, if you do a bit of digging, past the obvious titles, you'll find a few truly brilliant shows that are quietly being ignored. We're here to change that.

From cursed lands to bureaucratic angels to talking armored bears with serious emotional baggage, these shows flew under the radar, got cancelled too soon, or were just too weird for the masses. Buckle up, because these are the shows you should have been watching yesterday.

10 'The Magicians' (2015–2020)

Quentin (Jason Ralph) and Eliot (Hale Appleman) trying to solve their time-defying mosaic in Season 3 of 'The Magicians.'

The Magicians was initially sold as a "grown-up Harry Potter," which, fair enough. It did follow a group of gifted students at an elite magic academy (this time called Brakebills). And it did toy with Chosen One prophecies, sinister conspiracies, and battles of good vs. evil. But this Syfy experiment in adapting Lev Grossman's beloved adult fantasy series was always going to be darker, weirder, and definitely more sexual than anything J.K. Rowling could dream up. Magic doesn't fix problems here, it amplifies them, something the show's main character, Quentin (Jason Ralph) learns pretty quickly.

Musical episodes, heists, god murder, fairy politics – the show is ambitious and messy in the best way. It takes risks with its storytelling, sacrificing fan favorite characters, dreaming up magic systems and physically-demanding spell incantations, and doing it all while introducing a group of weirdos worth following to whichever magical land they end up accidentally ruling next. It's like fantasy on crack, this show, and it deserves more respect… or at least an award for squeezing in more orgies across five seasons than any show in the history of television.

9 'Merlin' (2008–2012)

Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Arthur (Bradley James) looking in the same direction in Merlin.

Merlin takes one look at Arthurian legend and decides the best entry point is not destiny or divine right, but a magically-gifted walking disaster with great cheekbones. The BBC series reimagines Camelot as a place where sorcery is illegal, the future king is a spoiled brat, and the titular wizard is stuck saving Arthur's (Bradley James) life on a near-weekly basis without getting credit (or executed).

There are plenty of epic quests undertaken episodically, but the real draw is that slow-burn bromance, with Colin Morgan and Bradley James turning the Merlin/Arthur dynamic into the show's attention magnet. It's earnest, occasionally cheesy, and far more charming than it has any right to be, a comfort-watch fantasy that doesn't get nearly enough love for how well it sells friendship, fate, and the exhausting labor of protecting a man who absolutely does not deserve it… yet.

8 'Penny Dreadful' (2014–2016)

The cast of Penny Dreadful in historic clothing looking at the camera while on a city street.

If your idea of a good time involves corsets, existential dread, and a raspy-voiced Eva Green panicking over demons and other underworld forces that are out to get her, well then, Penny Dreadful is your show. Set in a lavishly miserable version of Victorian London, the series mashes together iconic Gothic characters like Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, plus an assortment of doomed souls played by names like Josh Hartnett, Billie Piper, and Timothy Dalton, all into one melodramatic nightmare.

Green plays Vanessa Ives, a haunted woman who teams up with explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Dalton) to confront the dark powers threatening her life and his missing daughter. They draw others into their orbit over three seasons as mysteries get solved, and good guys meet tragic ends. It's lush and literate and romantic and really grotesque, which is probably why it's so underrated. It couldn't be pinned down by genre fans or prestige TV lovers back in the day, but maybe it can finally be appreciated by people with more eclectic tastes now.

7 'His Dark Materials' (2019–2022)

Dafne Keen as Lyra looking at a mouse behind a window in His Dark Materials.

HBO's His Dark Materials turned out to be exactly the kind of epic, inventive fantasy you hope for when a network quickly pivots to another literary adaptation to fill its post-Game of Thrones void. The show follows Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), a fiercely curious girl from a world where humans have soul-tied animal companions called daemons, as she uncovers sinister plots and discovers parallel worlds full of witches, armored bears, and mystical particles called Dust. Across three seasons, the series leaned into whimsy, wonder, and high-stakes adventure without ever losing sight of the darker philosophical questions Philip Pullman made central to his books.

The cast was excellent – Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, Andrew Scott, and Lin-Manuel Miranda all pop up at some point – and the story had real stakes, yet never felt overstuffed. Whether you're a diehard fan of the novels or just in it for the talking bears and biblically-coded chaos, His Dark Materials delivers a fully realized, surprisingly mature fantasy world that never earned enough eyes. (Not enough dragons, we guess.)

6 'Xena: Warrior Princess' (1995–2001)

Xena: Warrior Princess wasn't exactly underrated when it aired – it was a breakout hit, running from 1995 to 2001, topping syndicated drama ratings, and outlasting its parent series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. But revisiting it today proves just how fun and refreshing it was as a fantasy show. Xena (Lucy Lawless), a reformed warlord seeking redemption, traveled across a mythic version of Ancient Greece – facing gods, monsters, and ruthless warlords while delivering witty one-liners and performing acrobatic fight sequences that still hold up.

She was rarely alone; her loyal sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) grew from naive village girl to formidable warrior, giving the series its heart and comic relief, while recurring figures like Joxer (Ted Raimi), the lovable screw-up, Ares (Kevin Smith), and the darkly complex Callisto (Hudson Leick), kept the stakes high. The show thrived on its mix of mythology, adventure, humor, and occasional self-aware absurdity, and it broke ground as a women-led action series, all while never taking itself too seriously. For new viewers, it still feels like a bar-setter, the perfect blend of epic fantasy, campy charm, and undeniable badassery.

5 'Wynonna Earp' (2016–2021)

Waverly Earp (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano) holding a gun in 'Wynonna Earp'

The creators of Wynonna Earp knew that the world needed a supernatural Western with a brash heroine who has a love affair with her revolver, a magical weapon named Peacemaker, that sends the ghosts of dead outlaws back to the Hell they came from. They gave us that with Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), a young woman recently released from an insane asylum, carting a ton of baggage and a name steeped in legend. When she discovers that the dead enemies of her great-great-grandfather, lawman Wyatt Earp, are haunting her town of Purgatory, she takes up supernatural arms to send them back to their graves.

There are more credits to sell the show, like the fact that Earp is the kind of feminist hero rarely seen on TV, and the supporting characters feature inclusive, intersectional storylines that more than hit the mark. But really, the action and the witty dialogue really should be enough here.

4 'American Gods' (2017–2021)

Watching American Gods is like sitting through a mythology class while tripping acid. But no, you're not hallucinating a six-foot-something leprechaun, and yes, everything really is covered in that neon glow. Adapted from Neil Gaiman's novel, the Starz series follows Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), an ex-con drawn into a war between the fading "old gods" of myth and the flashy, media-fueled "new gods" of technology, celebrity, and commerce.

Alongside his mysterious and mercurial companion, Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), Shadow navigates a surreal America where ancient deities brawl in roadside diners. Underneath the wild visuals and dark humor, there's a gripping story that doubles as a meditation on belief, identity, and cultural change. But, yeah, there's also a woman who died mid-sex act whose first undertaking post-resurrection is to rip a man's spine out. So really, something for everyone here.

3 'Miracle Workers' (2019–2023)

Geraldine Viswanathan, Daniel Radcliffe and Karan Soni looking shocked in Miracle Workers.

Miracle Workers treats the impending apocalypse like a bureaucratic nightmare fueled by divine incompetence. Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan play angels scrambling to convince a deeply disinterested God (Steve Buscemi, guzzling beer in sweatpants) that humanity is worth saving.

Each season reboots the setting – heavenly office politics, medieval kingdoms, Wild West towns, even plagues – while keeping the same irreverent spirit and sharply funny performances. It's hilarious and surprisingly clever, poking fun at faith, mortality, and the cosmic absurdity of being human. And the show's willingness to treat the divine as both ridiculous and relatable in its first season makes it one of the most consistently entertaining comedy-fantasy experiments on TV in years.

2 'Shadow and Bone' (2021–2023)

Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) and General Kirigan (Ben Barnes) in a room with others in Shadow and Bone.

Shadow and Bone brings Leigh Bardugo's bestselling Grishaverse to life with magic, intrigue, and enough plot twists to keep even book readers guessing. The story follows orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), whose mysterious power could be the key to saving her war-torn world… or dooming it entirely. To survive, she must train as a Grisha, elite magical soldiers with extraordinary abilities, while navigating the Shadow Fold, a terrifying swath of darkness crawling with monsters.

Along the way, Alina encounters a crew of charming criminals, forcing her to figure out who can be trusted and who can't. The show is packed with high-stakes fantasy, political scheming, and a touch of romance (Ben Barnes playing yet another tragic villain); and it's probably the closest fantasy fans are going to get to a Sarah J. Mass-esque onscreen experience for a while.

1 'Emerald City' (2017)

Adria Arjona looking worried in Emerald City.

NBC's Emerald City reimagines the classic Land of Oz through a darker, more adult lens, leaning into the tension and intrigue of the original Grimm-style fairy tales. Dorothy, played by Andor star Adria Arjona, isn't a carefree girl swept away by a tornado; she's a nurse with a mysterious past who lands in Oz under circumstances that hint at destiny, danger, and secrets yet to be revealed.

Familiar characters like the Scarecrow (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Glinda (Joely Richardson), the witches of the East (Florence Kasumba) and West (Ana Ularu), and the Wizard (Vincent D'Onofrio) himself appear, but they're grittier, morally complicated, and draped in some pretty fantastic costumes. There's rich production value and striking cinematography to match too, thanks to director Tarsem Singh. It wasn't perfect, and its run was cut way too short, but Wicked fans, this one's for you.