Updated September 1, 2023 2.1K votes 747 voters 65.9K views
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Over 700 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Underrated TV Shows With Major Stars That Somehow Fell Through The Cracks
Voting Rules
Vote up the series that are underrated despite having A-list actors in the leading roles.
What do Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts, Sylvester Stallone, Daniel Radcliffe, and Anthony Mackie have in common? Apart from being household names nearly everyone knows, they've also all popped up in TV shows. It isn't unusual to see movie stars make the jump to TV in the modern era, but it can be strange to see the leap come without major fanfare or buzz - especially when the series is above average.
Hollywood has no rhyme or reason, though. After all, who could predict that a show about zombies, where people walk around endlessly for entire episodes, would air for 11 seasons and receive countless spin-offs? So, let's take a step back and explore the super-underrated TV series that boast high-profile names in their cast. And don't forget to vote up your favorites!
Gone are the days when Daniel Radcliffe is remembered exclusively as Harry Potter. He has done more than enough since then to establish himself as a performer who isn't simply a boy wizard. However, Miracle Workers might be his most ambitious set of work yet.
The anthology comedy series is based on the expansive work of writer and producer Simon Rich, and each season has a different premise - think a lighter, less serious version of American Horror Story. Radcliffe appears across all four seasons, playing everything from an angel to a road warrior. Who says this man can't do it all?
Who doesn't love a good psychological thriller? As a child star, Dakota Fanning developed experience in the genre by appearing in the creepy 2005 film Hide and Seek alongside Robert DeNiro. As an adult, she leapt back into cerebral eeriness with The Alienist, which debuted in 2018 and aired for two seasons.
Set in 1896 New York, The Alienist is about a serial killer with a disturbing pattern of behavior. Blending fact and fiction, Theodore Roosevelt is the police commissioner and asks for the help of three individuals - a controversial psychologist, a newspaper cartoonist, and a police secretary - to privately investigate the case.
Fanning portrays Sara Howard, the police secretary and first woman hired by the New York Police Department. She turns in a tour de force performance as the unyielding Howard, who refuses to let the sexism of that era's society drag her down.
In The Lion King, Mufasa tells Simba that everything the light touches is their kingdom. He's wrong - it belongs to Sylvester Stallone. As Sly's fans would assert: it's the movie icon's world, and we're all living in it. As if dominating action cinema for decades weren't enough, he's now turned his focus to TV and Tulsa King.
The comedy-tinged crime drama dropped in 2022 and sees Stallone playing Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a Mafia capo who served 25 years behind bars and is now a free man. He goes to Tulsa, OK, to set up new operations for mob business and quickly realizes much has changed since he last ruled the roost (and nothing really happens in Tulsa). Expectedly, Stallone delights as the tough-as-nails-with-a-heart-of-gold Manfredi.
Orlando Bloom certainly holds a torch for the fantasy genre, judging by his work in The Lord of the Rings film franchise and the Amazon Prime Video series Carnival Row. The quirky show debuted in 2019 and saw Bloom portray an inspector named Rycroft Philostrate who teamed up with his former flame, the faerie Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne), to solve all sorts of magical murders and mysteries.
Carnival Row only had two seasons, but it absorbed the audience with its deep world building and layered characters. "Carnival Row will draw viewers in with its complex characters, timely parallels to current events, and a universe rich with detail and history," wrote Collier Jennings, a reviewer for But Why Tho?
Remember those few years in the early 2000s when everyone and their dog cast Clive Owen as the next James Bond because of his action-packed turn as “The Driver” in BMW's high-octane short film series The Hire? While he might not have gotten the chance to shake and stir as 007, he hasn't done too badly for himself as a major star.
In 2014, Owen decided to give TV a whirl in Steven Soderbergh's medical period drama The Knick. He portrayed protagonist Dr. John W. "Thack" Thackery in a show fictionalizing the events at New York's Knickerbocker Hospital in the early 20th century. Thackery is a compelling character, as he is highly skilled at his day job of being a surgeon, but also deals with major addiction problems that threaten to tear apart his life. The Knick aired for two seasons, and those who watched the show became dedicated fans.
Based on Richard K. Morgan's sci-fi novel Altered Carbon, the first season of Netflix's cyberpunk series of the same name features Joel Kinnaman as the host body for Takeshi "Tak" Kovacs in a futuristic murder-mystery story where body hopping is possible and death no longer exists. For the second season, Anthony Mackie replaces Kinnaman as Kovacs, while the timeline fast-forwards 30 years.
Despite the positive critical reception and outrageous visuals, Altered Carbon never turned into a global hit for Netflix. Regardless, the general consensus is that Mackie is an upgrade to Kinnaman on the show. As Callum Crumlish, a senior entertainment reporter for Express wrote:
It’s no secret Mackie is a Hollywood veteran, but this is the first time he has had eight hours of screen time to stretch his legs as one character - and he is fantastic.
