No wrong answers. Could be a game show, docu-series, fiction, sci-fi, anything that didn’t make it but should have.
Spaced (1999–2001).
I’m genuinely curious how well known or underrated this one is.
Along with the mighty boosh (which is very… different) it is required viewing.
I really liked a sitcom called Detectorists (2014-2017) from and with Mackenzie Crook. Ran for three seasons. Not many people know about this show here in the Netherlands. I hoped it had stayed on for longer.
The Detectorists is one of those shows that those who love it, LOVE IT, and those who don’t have never heard of it.
It’s genuinely one of the loveliest, most beautiful TV shows I’ve ever watched. It’s a truly happy space to be in, with almost no mean-spirited jokes.
I’m so glad someone mentioned this show. It was lovely!
Great show
an absolute gem!
calm, beautiful, funny!
I really, genuinely, have always loved Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. It’s got a reputation of being lowest-common-denominator toilet humour, which… it always was. And it had a lot of problems, the worst being that three fifths of the original cast had quit by the end.
But it also had an awful lot of heart. A totally different writing style to any other sitcom I’ve seen. An amazing dedication to silly wordplay. They were constantly trying new things (two public votes, two musical episodes, a horror episode, and a live episode). And there were some genuinely great performances, particularly from Natalie Casey (who carried the heart of the show in later seasons), and, weirdly, Beverley Callard.
Even when it did totally fall apart towards the end, they brought in new cast members and somehow managed to make it feel like a return to form.
Also The Murder Game, a BBC crime-scene investigation reality show that I desperately want the right TV executive to hear about so they can reboot it. 😬
best answer, the others so far mainly seem to be just lesser known rather than actually underrated
I always felt Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace deserves more recognition.
I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards.
It’s actually a work of art how meticulously they achieve the low budget 80’s B-horror aesthetic; acting, direction, cinematography, editing… everything. The random jump cuts (cemetery shotgun, lol), amateur framing, disjointed voiceovers, walking to nowhere at the end of a scene, or entering a scene for far too long, a Tombstone blowing in the wind.
It’s extremely difficult to intentionally make it all so shit while being so fucking funny. Perfection. Oh, and no fucking canned laughter!
The reason they only did one series is that everything you describe is much more expensive than doing it properly. It was the most expensive show Channel 4 had ever done to that point.
Also has a special place as the start of both Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry’s careers! Came out in January 2004 and they wouldn’t be seen on the Mighty Boosh until later that same year in May.
It’s amazing and I think about it often!
Absolutely!!
It has its flaws, but I quote The IT crowd almost weekly
Good morning, that’s a nice tnetennba.
I’m disabled.
Leg disabled!
And how did it happen, if you don’t mind me asking?
Acid.
I think that’s one of the best episodes in the history of TV.
A fire? At a Sea Parks ?
Sir, the police are here.
They would like to speak to you about some irregularities in the pension fund.
Black Books was great.
The little book of calm!
best depiction of a choleric autist so far
Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe/Newswipe shows.
A lot of people missed those back in the day and they missed them as the origin of the voice of our generation: Philomena Cunk. I really miss her compatriot Barry Shitpeas.
Also Charlie Brooker’s police procedural sendup A Touch of Cloth starring John Hannah is similarly criminally underrated.
Just imho Brooker’s comedy is way better than his dark scifi of Black Mirror.
Touching, Cloth.
We’re going to lose face, Cloth.
I shall find this squad’s duty register, and have you cut from the same, Cloth.
“I want that report on my table first thing tomorrow morning, Cloth”
“But sir-”
“On my table, Cloth!”
Dead Set was a bit of fun too
Absolutely! Screen Wipe was outstanding. Black Mirror is fine
Are you being served, it was a great sitcom
Arr you free?
Underrated though? It’s firmly in the hall of fame
I enjoyed Being Human. Not normally into the vampires and werewolves thing but I enjoyed it.
It’s a nice show, I enjoyed it too. And I surprised the trio appeared as a household while playing the Sims 3.
The misfits. A show about a group of working class juvenile delinquents who suddenly get random super powers.
Ughhhh my husband and I used to LOVE this show when it was airing.
Went off the rails a bit towards the end though.
I still shout “Save me Barry!” from time to time.
The young ones
Loved the bands on there!
That introduced me to Motorhead and then to full on grindcore
That’s what I love about summer.
Tea on the lawn.
Fuck me, good pull. Extremely underrated!
That’s what I love about summer.
Tea on the lawn.
Summer’s a bummer.
Time team. That shit was amazing. It went on for like 20+ years and EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. it was fascinating. The closest thing we have now is josh gates’ expedition unknown, which is really hit and miss. Recently it’s been so picky about things they’re likely to hit on that some seasons only have 4-6 episodes. He tries to make the finds to be to big. Time team found all kinds of fantastic things because they were just looking for historical significance, not mountains of treasure. But they always found treasures of some kind. That was a really great, fascinating show.
I’m also a really big fan of top gear.
Now we’re going down to the bottom field where Barry and Lucia believe they’ve found a wall.
Yeah, but guess what? They found a wall! It always felt so much better than like supernatural shows where they’re like “we totally found evidence” yeah, sure ya did. “No, we did, see this spec of dust? That’s a ghost”. Alright, but did ya find a floor or nails? Show me the gpr.
You might be interested in the Time Team Classics channel on YouTube. (link)
I feel like this about another C4 program of that era - Grand Designs.
Gone on for years now, but it just seeing how these people underestimate what they are getting into and will then just throw extra fuel on the pressure fire “just started renovating this massive listed barn that’s 90% falling down and has no actual foundations, time to have a baby! Oh and you’re also self employed and going to manage the project yourself and do some of the building yourself you say?”
"To sum it up, how financially crippled are you and how many mortgages do you now have 😂 " .
Kevin McCloud is basically taking the piss out of you for the whole show.
It will be weird when it’s not on anymore.
It’s still going!
Time team?!? Or top gear? Cause I’ve seen the new top gear and it’s… Meh.
No, new Time Team!
It’s not the original crew (mostly) but still really good.
Seriously? I hadn’t seen anything newer than 2014 or so! Is it exclusively BBC? Cause usually I saw it on random public access and Amazon.
Time team was Channel 4. Not sure how they sell it abroad.
Time Team was for Channel 4, but since they cancelled it they’ve done occasional privateer episodes on YouTube.
I’m gonna say Broadchurch. I don’t think it was unpopular, but I have to look it up every time to remember the name. It features a past and future Doctor (as in, Dr Who). David Tennant was a Doctor before he was on Broadchurch, and Jodie Whittaker was a Doctor after. She plays a mum whose child goes missing, and he’s the inspector sent to her remote (?) village to investigate. That’s the first season. The second season deals with the town’s issues with the bad guy from the first season, and I forget what the third season’s about, but it’s all good.
They made an American one, and some of the same people were in it, but it only lasted one season. So I’d say go with the British one.
I also appreciated Torchwood. It’s an adult sci-fi series set in the Dr Who universe, and it had its ups and downs (mostly downs), but it was generally worth watching. Unfortunately, the lead actor had a bad habit of pulling his pecker out backstage to prank his coworkers and he got canceled for it. Nobody said he ever abused them or that he pulled it out in public, it was just schoolboy antics backstage, but it was enough. Not defending him, I’m just saying he’s not a nonce or a public menace. He just has a problem with boundaries. So, while I don’t dislike him as an actor, being a viewer, I fully understand why people don’t want to work with him anymore. Torchwood has continued as audiobooks, I think, or maybe something like a podcast where they act out roles? They call it something else, like an audio drama or something. So I’m not sure if there are actual books they’re reading from or just a script that isn’t available in print, the audio recordings being the only medium. There were also a couple games as I recall, but nothing good. A less problematic and more straightforward series (albeit, American) is Warehouse 13. Same thing. Shadowy organisation collects alien relics and stores them for the government. Hijinks ensue. W13 was fun at first, but really didn’t go anywhere. (Also, it was on Syfy, if that tells you anything — as in, the network couldn’t be arsed to spell “sci-fi” properly and they cared about as much about how to make good sci-fi as they did about spelling it properly.)
I lived literally 100m from the church in Broadchurch. Jodie Whittaker and Olivia Coleman’s houses were just around the corner. We lived there while they were filming the third season, so it was kinda cool to see some of the local businesses dressed up as sets.
It was a proper headfuck to watch the show, and see people walk round a familiar corner, only to suddenly be in a town in Dorset, where the rest of the filming took place.
I know the feeling. I’ve watched a couple things set in my hometown. The continuity errors are a trip.
“Fun” fact: Syfy originally was spelled correctly. Then they implemented this terrible rebranding. Though now that I think about it, had probably more to do with improving outcomes of trademark protection as Syfy isn’t a regular word. It was probably hard to go after others infringing on “Sci-fi” since that is a common word. Same probably goes for the “Trvl” channel.
The score to Broadchurch is also great!
I forgot about Look Around You. Classic stuff.
Look Around You is great! I remember stumbling on it at 3am as a teen and being so bewildered about what the fuck I was watching!
The Thick of It
A show regarding a random UK ministry and the random cluster fuck off politics. The 12th Doctor is an enforcer from the PM’s office with a prolific use of profanity.
The writer ended up creating Veep in the USA.
