Over 600 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of 18 Great Shows That Have Been Overlooked In The Era Of Peak TV
Voting Rules
Vote up the great TV series that have been overlooked and underappreciated because there are just too many watchable shows these days.
According to FX Content Research, there were 559 seasons of TV released in 2021 across all platforms – a number that has been growing year in and year out for some time. Even the most dedicated viewer might only have the time to watch a fraction of those shows, which means there is plenty of great TV slipping through the cracks. Eventually, people are going to catch up or finish all the current shows they're juggling and they'll need something new, but maybe don't want to just jump to the "It" show of the moment. All the shows on this list are viable options worth catching up on.
Due to the deluge of excellent, well-produced shows in the last decade, these shows never quite got the rabid audiences they deserved but the quality of their stories is better than most of the "big" shows currently airing, There's a little bit of everything, so vote up the underrated gems and help some hopeful viewer find their next binge.
Why It's Great: Person of Interest follows a reclusive billionaire genius named Finch (Michael Emerson) and former CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) as they use an AI simply called "The Machine" to stop crimes before they can occur. The CBS show starts slow and plays more as a procedural than anything else for the first season. but a sturdy framework of greatness was always there. The show became something truly special when it shed much of the procedural trappings and became a paranoid thriller fixated on artificial intelligence and other potentially sinister scientific achievements lingering just around the next bend of real life.
Actors: Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson, Kevin Chapman, Sarah Shahi, Amy Acker
Why It's Great: Human cloning is a science fiction concept that seems like it could spring into reality at just about any moment, which can make viewing Orphan Black a real rollercoaster. While the content and subject matter of the show are explored smartly, the real pull of the series is the masterclass performance put in by lead Tatiana Maslany. Though she finally earned herself an Emmy nod for the final season, after watching her play numerous members of the Clone Club uniquely and often spending scene after scene acting opposite herself as various clones, it'll be clear she should have been getting awards love for the entire run of the series.
Actors: Tatiana Maslany, Jordan Gavaris, Kevin Hanchard, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Ari Millen
Why It's Great: The beauty of an anthology show is that you're never bored because there's always something new just around the corner. That goes doubly so for the Tim Miller and David Fincher animated series Love, Death + Robots. Some episodes are adaptations of short fiction while others are wholly unique, self-contained tales, with content ranging from hilarious to heartfelt and more than a couple that are vulgar and violent. The fun hook for this series is that each episode in the series has its own unique animation style so each episode - whether it's four minutes or 30 minutes long - feels like something entirely its own from top to bottom.
Actors: Hayley McLaughlin, Helen Sadler, Stefan Kapicic
Why It's Great: For fans of Lost who miss the mysteries and characters of the Island, Yellowjackets has arrived to fill a similar void. The show follows a high school girl's soccer team after their plane crashes in the woods and they're forced to learn to survive as they slowly begin to turn on each other. With a structure like Lost, half the show takes place in the woods in the early '90s, while the rest follow a handful of the surviving girls (played by powerhouses like Melanie Lynsky, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis) who have grown up and are struggling with the things they had to do while stranded. Yellowjackets demands full attention as an episode is playing out, and each lingers in the mind long after the credits.
Actors: Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell
Why It's Great: The Americans is one of the most intricately plotted series ever made. The show is about a pair of Soviet spies (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) carrying out their duties in the height of the Cold War while also living and raising a family in suburban Washington, DC - across the street from a federal agent, no less - and not a single moment of the series is unimportant. To call the show a slow burn is to do it a disservice because even in the quietest moments Rhys and Russell have riveting chemistry. The show builds momentum with every frame, and by the time you reach the fourth season you'll feel the ride shift and suddenly, it's an almost overwhelming rollercoaster to the bottom.
Why It's Great: Serving as one part historical fiction and one part Treasure Island prequel, Black Sails combines the politics faced by real-world pirates with the origin story of fictional legend Long John Silver. The series is a rare case in which each season is better than the last, and it all builds toward one of the best series finales of the 2010s. That, coupled with the fact that the show often rivals juggernauts like Game of Thrones in expensive production quality, should be more than enough for people to start their quick binge of Starz's best original series.
Actors: Toby Stephens, Hannah New, Luke Arnold, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Tom Hopper
