We’re living in a golden age of fantasy television. From the time-traveling romantasy saga of Outlander to the delightfully surreal comedy of Adventure Time, these are the greatest fantasy shows of the past decade-and-a-half.
The Magicians
At first glance, The Magicians might just sound like a Harry Potter ripoff. Much like the Lev Grossman book trilogy it’s adapted from, it takes place in a supernatural school where students with magical powers are trained to become magicians. But, despite its Harry Potter-lite premise, it’s completely its own thing.
The Magicians goes to much darker places than Harry Potter, which more accurately reflects the horrors of the adolescent experience. It combines dazzling special effects with inventive storytelling to create one of the best fantasy shows of all time.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Over the past 15 years, as Disney has acquired Lucasfilm and started milking the cash cow for all it’s worth, we’ve gotten an exhaustive succession of live-action Star Wars shows. Some have been promising, like The Mandalorian; some have been forgettable, like Ahsoka; and some have been outright disappointing, like The Acolyte.
The best Star Wars show of the Disney era has been Andor (by far), but Andor moved away from the saga’s fantastical elements to tell a more grounded, politically charged spy story. Skeleton Crew is an underrated gem, and it leans into those fantastical elements in full force. With its Goonies-inspired story of a ragtag group of kids embarking on a dangerous pirate adventure, Skeleton Crew is peak Star Wars.
Outlander
Based on Diana Gabaldon’s books, Outlander is a curious mix of genres incorporating fantasy, historical fiction, time travel, and romance. Caitríona Balfe stars as Claire Randall, an ex-World War II military nurse in 1945 who suddenly finds herself whisked back in time to 1743.
While stuck in the past, she falls in love with a handsome Highland warrior and gets swept up in the Jacobite rising. It’s essentially Time After Time meets Highlander, and it’s exactly as much fun as that sounds.
The Wheel Of Time
Adapted from Robert Jordan’s book series, The Wheel of Time is pure high fantasy. It revolves around hard fantastical concepts like “The One Power,” “The Dark One,” and “The Dragon,” a highly skilled channeler who’s responsible for “The Breaking of the World.” His prophesized reincarnation, the Dragon Reborn, will either save the world from the Dark One or break it all over again.
All this stuff is like catnip for fantasy nerds. The show has a sprawling ensemble cast led by the great Rosamund Pike.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
While Game of Thrones’ first spinoff, House of the Dragon, was a mixed bag, its second spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, was a home run. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has revitalized the franchise.
Where House of the Dragon faltered when it tried to go big and match the blockbuster spectacle of Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms succeeded when it went small and focused on heart, humor, and humanity. This isn’t an epic saga about kings warring over a throne; it’s a low-stakes buddy story about a lowborn hedge knight and his cheeky little squire.
Stranger Things
Although Stranger Things went downhill by the end, abandoning its original sci-fi horror roots in favor of a CGI-laden, Marvel-style superhero epic, the good far outweighs the bad. The show’s first season is a modern TV masterpiece bringing a unique concoction of cinematic influences to the small screen.
From the second season on, Stranger Things became very hit-and-miss. Some seasons were a let-down, like season 3, but some managed to live up to the promise of the first, like season 4. Overall, Stranger Things has been a cultural phenomenon that, for better or worse, will go down in TV history.
Gravity Falls
Alex Hirsch’s absurdist cartoon Gravity Falls is basically Twin Peaks for kids. It revolves around a twin brother and sister as they spend a summer in the titular town with their great-uncle. As they soon discover that the town is host to all kinds of paranormal mysteries, they team up to solve them.
A good fantasy series needs a writer with a vivid imagination, and Hirsch has that in spades. Gravity Falls is shamelessly weird, delightfully unpredictable, and an absolute blast.
His Dark Materials
The first attempt to adapt Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books for the screen was a mixed bag. The 2007 movie The Golden Compass was a moderate box office success, but critics were underwhelmed, feeling that it lacked the bite of its source material and failed to make up for it with VFX spectacle.
The TV adaptation, written by Adolescence’s Jack Thorne, was much more faithful to the source material, and therefore a much more engaging viewing experience. His Dark Materials modernizes the books, but doesn’t dilute their controversial anti-religious themes.
Game Of Thrones
Although it spectacularly fumbled its ending, Game of Thrones is still, on the whole, one of the greatest fantasy TV shows ever made. It brought the genre into the mainstream and proved that fantasy stories weren’t just for diehard fantasy fans.
By telling universal human stories about loss and betrayal in a medieval fantasy setting, Game of Thrones invited casual audiences to give the world of dragons and magic a chance. At the height of its powers, Game of Thrones wasn’t just the best fantasy show on the air; it was one of the greatest TV shows on the air, period.
Adventure Time
Adventure Time technically premiered in 2010, just over 15 years ago. But the majority of its run took place in this list’s timeframe, and it’s been the best fantasy show out there for just as long. Adventure Time puts a surreal, lighthearted twist on all the familiar fantasy tropes.
It has wizards and princesses and forbidden lands, but at its core, it’s just a sweet and endearing buddy comedy. It follows the adventures of two adoptive brothers — a human named Finn and his superpowered dog, Jake — as they navigate this strange, fantastical world.