Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: '80s BBC horror drama satire from the early '00s, and I think it used to be more popular but has fallen out of the zeitgeist just based on its age, space ghost: coast to coast.
I think it was a satire less of BBC horror drama and more of author-branded spooky anthology series like The Ray Bradbury Theater and Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. But done by someone who’s part terrible horror author like Shaun Hutson, part terrible 80s action movie hero. (Full disclosure, I would read Hutson schlock like Slugs etc as a kid in the 80s.)
But that’s just my tuppence.
Started rewatching it last month, saving the last episode.
I think it’s going to get more attention now because it’s finally been released on streaming (Peacock in the US IIRC).
I’ve still never seen the spin-off, Man to Man with Dean Learner
I think you’re right, it reminded me of watching Dark Shadows and other similarly written and shot old soap opera reruns with my grandma. But it’s really closer to the horror anthology single creator style like the influences you mentioned. There’s an in-character commentary track too that’s pretty good
I think the choice of a hospital in particular may have been influenced by the 1994 show Riget, directed by Lars von Trier, which was brought to English-speaking countries under the name The Kingdom (not to be confused with the 2014 show about MMA fighters someone else mentioned in a thread here). It’s a horror show set in a hospital, and also kind of a soap opera, and also it’s kind of supposed to be funny sometimes? That show…I guess I felt like it tried very hard, but also that conspicuous effort isn’t a good look for something that’s supposed to be unsettling. Which is kinda the feeling that Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place takes the piss out of so effectively. I dunno, maybe it’s my imagination, but I can’t help but see them as connected.
I just discovered this one for the first time myself. It is the apotheosis of stupid TV, pitch perfect in so many ways.
Loved Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
I feel like Black Books was very underrated. A drunken Irish misanthrope runs a bookshop with an idiot for a sidekick
Tbf idk that Mannie was ever an idiot
Naive and well-meaning but not stupid
It’s not his fault, he’s got Dave’s syndrome
The Shield is an amazing, gritty series about The Strike Team, a special unit in an LA police department. The writing is tight, the story threads are engaging, and the end of every episode makes you want to immediately start another one just to see how it all plays out. It was seven seasons long, and they all connect from the first episode to the last one.
It’s on Hulu in the US, and well worth the watch.
It was seven seasons long, and they all connect from the first episode to the last one.
That finale, so well done, so unjust 🤌🧑🍳😘
One of the most gripping episodes of television ever.
We recently watched, overlapping, The Shield and The Commish. The contrast between Chiklis’s two roles was astounding!
Dead Like Me
On that note, Pushing Daisies.
Scavengers Reign
I liked “the colony”, but apparently I was the only person to do so.
Mabye you’d like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(TV_series)
Thanks. I like the synopsis already!
I loved the first season but the 2nd was rough.
Great show!
Utopia (Brittish version), interesting cinematography vis-a-vis colour usage, quirky soundtrack and amazing dialogue. Not sure if this counts as obscure though.
I definitely think it counts. I watched it back in the day and even I routinely forget of its existence (only just remembered again thanks to your comment).
Firefly
OK, OK, I know it’s not obscure or forgotten, but why has nobody done something similar since?
Literally my first thought when I opened this thread.
You talk about it as if it was revolutionary. The concept is a defined genre. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan, but the concepts are not revolutionary at all. What makes the series great is the plots, writing, casting and acting. Oh, and you have the mix of frontier/tech in many current series, like Andor or Foundation, for example.
I didn’t mean to suggest it was original or revolutionary. But despite that, there hasn’t really been another series with that vibe since.
I liked Dark Matter a lot, and I think there were some similarities.
But they were very different.
Yes, I enjoyed that, true. But it wasn’t at the same level as Firefly.
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Misfits. I went back and watched the entire thing again a couple of years ago and it was still so funny. I’m not sure it could get made in today’s world, it was so delightfully mean and rude.
Asbo X-Men was a lot of fun, Robert Sheehan was really good in it
I really liked his replacement, Joe Gilgun, as well. Those two carried the show, their characters were massive dickheads but you couldn’t help but laugh at their constant bullying and manipulative behaviour.
I was gonna mention Misfits. I enjoyed they show, but the quality dropped after they finish the time travel loop storyline.
The drop off wasn’t as bad as I remembered when I went back and watched it (I actually thought some of the later seasons were the funniest) but the departures of key cast members definitely derailed the superhero storyline they were building up.
Obscure because it comes from my country but
Kim’s convenience is an amazing show. Like fucking incredible! Netflix had a the diffusion right for a time but I don’t know if they have it anymore, exactly like the next suggestion (this one is in French)
Série Noire where two writers tried to write a crime story and get embroiled with the … gay mafia. Personally I prefer Les invincibles
Not obsucure (still consider one of the pioneers in New Waves documentaries) but I cannot help myself, Pierre Perrault’s Shimmering Beast and Pour la Suite du Monde (for the next world, the link have English subtitles) where he investigates what it is to be Québécois, to be human in the modernity
The Magicians (2016): It often gets pitched as “Hogwarts for adults” because it features a magic college/university, but honestly that is just the initial backdrop and a massive undersell.
It is the rare show where the creators were seemingly handed a blank cheque to be as creative as they want to be, and they make full use of that in more ways than I can list here (but which definitely includes both the magic system itself, and the hilarious nonchalance towards the consequences of magic being a reality); yet all the while, they stay true and fiercely loyal to their characters, who are all deeply flawed, but which you can’t help but want to see succeed; plus they managed to write genuinely great humor.
The best summary of the show comes from one of the characters themselves: “Magic doesn’t come from talent. It comes from pain.”
Be warned: the first few episodes, and possibly the first season, are the weakest and roughest of the bunch, which probably really hampered viewership. They do still manage to find their own tone, but it’s nothing compared to seasons 3-5.
I think it’s based on a book, so the series creators might’ve been less creative than you think, but an interesting watch nonetheless
It is, and I read them. The series creators were very faithful to the general feeling and atmosphere of the books, but most of the plotlines and character beats are show-only. Makes for two very different (but both good!) stories.
The audiobooks gave a real sense of loneliness and not fitting in/trying to find a place.
I loved them but probably will never revisit them.
Was reading the text like that too? I ask because I rarely read actual novels anymore and wonder how much the narration colored it for me.
That’s a pretty apt description, I’d say! Getting everything you ever wanted and still feeling like you don’t belong and cannot be happy.
IDK if you’ve seen the show, but if not: that’s definitely still a big theme there, but while it is never dropped completely, it is alleviated somewhat because the characters grow closer as a group than they did in the books. Can highly recommend both.
Wilfred 😍 both US and og Australian
Farscape is a classic
It was truly special. The characters had real, believable motives and flaws and they grew with every season, while trying to survive in a gloriously chaotic universe.
Penny dreadful - https://youtu.be/YFXHfEqMcis
Amazing story
Common side effects was good. Its on adult swim so maybe not that obscure but I don’t see it talked a whole lot about. Older things would be police story and hill street blues which because they don’t rely on special effects have aged well. Its interesting to watch things like cop shows from the 70’s and 80’s as while they might not show exact reality of cops form the time its just amazing to see how we expected cops to behave compared to now.
