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Rubicon (2010), it's a proper spy thriller based on intelligence analysts as opposed to field agents.
Unfortunately it got canned early, but I loved the story and writing, I have a feeling the show was a little too close to home, but that's a whole other conspiracy theory...
I can't recommend "Better Off Ted" enough to people looking for something smart and witty.
The Veridian Dynamics commercials alone would justify this show's existence. Not that it needs it. It stands on its own merits.
A friend of mine recommended the show to me and I loved it. It was literally cancelled the next day.
If you ever take the opportunity to watch these 13 episodes, be sure to read the "planned episodes" section afterwards to see how cursed the world is for Fox not having learned their lesson with having cancelled Firefly too soon.
A 20-something Niagara Falls souvenir-shop worker finds her life is changed forever when inanimate animal figures - toys, cartoon images etc. - begin talking to her. Their cryptic messages set into motion a chain of events that invariably lead her into the lives of others.
The Night Shift (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A6turvaktin), an Icelandic sitcom about the staff of a service station - at least at first. It’s pretty deadpan like the Office or I’m Alan Partridge, and their situation just gets more dire and funnier as the series progress. It got a UK DVD release thanks to the BBC, and I just learned there is a movie too.
I've been really loving the British show Taskmaster.
Basically you take a bunch of comedians and have them perform various inane tasks. Some of my favourites are:drive this barge down a canal and spear 5 rubber dinghies with a lance attached to the barge. Fastest wins. Or draw the rainbow with the correct colours. In the dark. There's often some tricks in these tasks and watching the contestants figure out their own way to solve the task is the best part of the show.
BRACE! BRACE!
Taskmaster has been my go-to happy show for the last several months. It's so good.
🌳🧙♂️!
After watching every Taskmaster season so far, I’ve moved onto Would I Lie To You, plenty of compilations on YouTube but full episodes are paced better, can’t recommend it enough. Although it’s a panel show so not as varied as Taskmaster, but some similar comedians & panelist’s & some funny stories to enjoy…
I discovered cats does countdown during the pandemic and holy shit, a show with anagrams, math problems, and comedians? It’s perfect
I have a bad radar for what is "Well known" so we'll see how this goes...
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was weird, wonderful, and deeply touching. Great performance from Elijah Wood.
Maniac is by the director of True Detective, and its a fucking surreal (literal) drug trip of a show that earns a high spot on the "Holy shit, Jonah Hill is a great actor?!" list.
SAS: Rogue Heroes is a bonkers fun historical drama that feels like a Guy Ritchie movie, and yet is somehow often understating the insanity of the real events. By the creators of Peaky Blinders.
Too Old To Die Young is a collaboration between legendary director Nicholas Winding Refn (Driver, Only God Forgives, Neon Demon, Valhalla Rising) and legendary comics writer Ed Brubaker (Daredevil, Captain America, Sleeper, Criminal). You either have no idea why you should give a fuck about that, or you desperately need to go change your pants right now and are seriously worried that the erection is going to last more than four hours. If you're the latter person, yes, it's everything you're hoping; unbelievably slow paced, weird, dark, contemplative, surreal, and brutally violent. This is NWR in full bore "They gave me too much budget and too much runtime and by God I intend to abuse the fuck out of both" mode. Watch it while high.
Danger 5. It's an Australian tv show that had two seasons. It's a surreal, screwball comedy about a ragtag team whose mission every episode is to kill Hitler.
If you want to see a TV show that has Nazis, dinosaurs, cigarette commercials, and a talking bald Eagle, then this is your show.
It's good for a Sensible Chuckle.
The bit with the Italian submarine crew being stereotypically obsessed with coffee is gold.
Can confirm. I've also seen Danger 5. Nothing quite like it, except for maybe their other projects.
And, of course as always, kill Hitler. 🦅
This show is funny as shit. I love it.
Better off Ted.
That scene where they are trying to have a meeting about developing a bomb with Ted's daughter in the room may be one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my lifetime.
Definitely this
The Knick
Idk if it's "lesser known" exactly but it's a comfort show that I can have on in the background at all times: Psych.
It's got a specific pacing and humor that tickles my brain just right. They will let some of the funniest jokes you have ever heard just fly right by if you aren't paying attention.
Not super complicated or deep thinking. Just cheesy fun.
It’s a show that gets funnier each time you watch as you get more and more of their references.
I can always rely on someone recommending this show in these threads. Still my favorite show of all time
"I don't lose things. I place things in locations which later elude me." Has become part of my normal vocabulary.
My dad thought it was so funny that it got him to watch the show and now it's one of his favorite shows too.
If you like Psych I'd recommend High Potential. Very similar but stars Kaitlin Olson (from it's alway Sunny) as a single mom with high IQ helping the police.
I used to love Psych but, after binging a season or two, it was too "one note" for me and couldn't keep my interest. Similarly, for High Potential, it couldn't keep my attention once I found out that it's almost another take on Psych's formula.
Pushing Daisies: Brian Fuller ran show from the mid aughts. Lee Pace plays a man who can bring the dead back to life if he touches them provided he never touches them again. He is a pie maker that helps a friend out with his detective agency. His bff from childhood and eventual love interest was the little girl who lived next door he touched her once to bring her back...
Moonlighting- This isn't that obscure. It's a show about a former supermodel played by Cybill Sheppard who is facing economic disaster as her managers stole all her money. The only thing she has left is a detective agency ran by David Addison a rabble rouser and ner do well played by Bruce Willis. It's a procedural detective show with some incredible talent on screen. It finally hot streaming a few years back.
Moonlighting is the greatest!
Pushing daises is fantastic
The good place
The day of the jackal
The good place is such a great show! I want to rewatched it but I'm waiting for a while yet so that it can have some of the original impact again.
Showrunner Michael Schur wrote a book about the philosophy research they did for the show.
The audiobook has the full cast doing bits, sketches and explainers
Not sure if Black Sails is not well known. The fact that Patriot ended after 2 seasons makes me think it's not well known since it was a truly great show.
EDIT: Patriot ends fine. You can see where it could have continued but where stops isn't an issue
Scavenger's Reign
Common Side Effects (still airing)
Dark Matter (SciFi show with similar storytelling to Firefly IMO)
Poker Face
Twisted Metal (especially if you played the games)
Shut Eye
Scavenger's Reign was unbelievably good. If I had unlimited money, I would get that show more seasons.
I grew up on twisted metals games. The show was better than it should have been!
Been enjoying Resident Alien recently.
Lexx is just ... great. yeah that's the word.
The word I'd use is "quaint"
Black Spot (original title: Zone Blanche)
It's about a village in a rural wooded area in France that has a tight-knit isolated community, no cell phone coverage, and 6x the national average murder rate.
Mr. Inbetween
Tremé
eta:
The Corner (predecessor to The Wire (not prequel))
My man. Let's add Peep Show and the list is excellent.
Jericho (2006) is a post-apocalyptic drama about a town sheltered from a nuclear catastrophe in the US. Shows it's age in a few spots but still a great watch.
I actually am curious how many others here remember Portal. Even when it was on the air, I never met anyone (IRL or online) that watched it.
Review with Forrest McNeil, it's based off an Aussie show of the same name that I keep meaning to check out; starts off slow but builds to get pretty wild. I really enjoyed it.
And then, from somewhere deep and previously unknown, there sprang a reserve of fortitude and courage.
Or was it resignation?
Or fatalism?
Or nihilism?
Or perhaps I simply understood, from the darkest corner of my soul, that these pancakes couldn't kill me because I was already dead..
Folks, I have no more desire to get through the rest of my life than I did to eat those pancakes.
But I ate them.
And the knowledge that I can keep going when all seems lost... that's a great thing to acquire.
Eating thirty pancakes, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The American version (which I assume you are referencing) is just called Review, the Australian version is called Review with Myles Barlow. Fun fact, the final "caller" in the series finale of the American version is Myles Barlow.