# If there was a brand new Fantasy TV show



## The Big Peat (Feb 24, 2020)

What would you want it to look like?

Got curious about this idea because most Fantasy TV talk seems to revolve around "What series do you want adapted", "Who would you cast as X" etc.etc. And I feel like that's kind of a shame as there's a ton of stuff you could do with a brand new page.

So if there was a brand new Fantasy TV show, what would you like it to look like? What storylines and territory would you want it to cover? Any writers you'd want associated with such a project? Etc.etc.

Me, I think

a) The genre doesn't have much Portal Fiction at the moment and the difference between our world and a secondary is something the screen can really give an extra dimension.
b) I'd love to see some Fantasy shot in some of the more out-there locales around - jungle, desert, what not.
c) I'd love to see some genre-bending shown off to a wider scale - most of the series getting made are pretty standard trad fantasy, and I love trad fantasy, but why not show some fantasy with more of a mystery or war bent?

What does everybody else think?


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## .matthew. (Feb 24, 2020)

For settings, I'd quite like to see a well made alt-history one. Maybe something based in ancient Egypt or Aztec south America. 

Storyline I guess I'd like to see something a bit more uplifting than the more modern stuff. It doesn't have to be traditional fantasy but I think we'd all enjoy a little brightness to balance out the grimdark.


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## CupofJoe (Feb 24, 2020)

Something along the lines of an anthology show. A different story and setting every week. 
Get a few big names to write for it but most of them should be less well know.
Go international. Write, produce and film abroad. What stories would come out of sub-Saharan Africa, south East Asia, the Middle East?
If possible I'd like to see it done with an extended cast so you got to see the same actors in different roles over the show. Not the same actors every programme, just a pool to delve into. One of the things I dislike about [some] modern TV is that as soon as you see Actor X then you know they are the victim, hero, villain, love interest [delete as appropriate].


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## Overread (Feb 24, 2020)

Adventure. 

I think that fantasy has over the last few major releases, lost the sense of adventure. It's all about epic wars and huge story arcs and saving the world. I think it would be good to get a series that focuses on adventuring. Where you might save a princess, but you won't save the kingdom; where you battle against hardship and are left begging on the streets for coppers at the end etc... Adventuring also leaves itself open to a greater degree of travel which can blend in some elements of what Joe and Matthew say above. 

You can have a huge variety of characters and settings if your core "party" is adventuring. They can spend some months fighting around the open plains as they travel across fantasy Mongolia; then step into fantasy China for a spell. Hitch a ride on a boat and travel the high seas to Albion then get washed to a desert island after a battle with a vast sea serpent. 

If they really want they could weave some major story into the background; but I find good old adventuring works best when you don't do that. If anything when they try and do that the adventurer can lose its sense of adventuring and questing and exploration of the world.


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## nixie (Feb 24, 2020)

Not sure how appealing it would be to others but I'd like something a long the lines of an older person who feels life has bypassed them,  gone from young too feeling they're spiraling into old age without the middle part.
They can't see a worthwhile future, when suddenly they're drawn into a portal world where adventure a possibilities are endless.


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## Guttersnipe (Mar 3, 2020)

One with some sort of "body-hopping" would be cool, like in Quantum Leap or DC's Deadman. Make it a mystery and I'd definitely watch it. Or maybe a detective with psychometry. Also, it would be great to see a darkly humorous fantasy show, not that they're not out there. A psychoanalyst who lays ghosts by helping them rather than hunting them.


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## Rodders (Mar 3, 2020)

I miss the old “Ship of the week” style shows.

Apart from that, I do really enjoy a good old apocalyptic setting.


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## olive (Mar 7, 2020)

Something funny, witty and indie, dealing with small people. With actors looking like real people.

(Then I thought of Changing Planes by Le Guin. I love that book. Then I felt the horror of what might happen to it.)


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## thaddeus6th (Mar 8, 2020)

The Grey Death - Bubonic plague meets zombie apocalypse in 14th century England.

On the deserts front, that reminds me of something I heard a while ago about a Middle Eastern (maybe Iranian) game being developed based on the era of the First Crusade or perhaps earlier.


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## .matthew. (Mar 9, 2020)

thaddeus6th said:


> The Grey Death - Bubonic plague meets zombie apocalypse in 14th century England.



I think... while it's not England, there is one like that. It's fairly newish, I think it's Korean, and pretty much that plot (but with martial arts).


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## Ray Zdybrow (Mar 9, 2020)

Something with King Dmitri of Brekstania, "aided" by Grand Vizier Kuminz, holding back floods and plague in a divided kingdom. Meanwhile, the malcontents quarrel as they seek to choose a champion.


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## Vladd67 (Mar 9, 2020)

.matthew. said:


> I think... while it's not England, there is one like that. It's fairly newish, I think it's Korean, and pretty much that plot (but with martial arts).


I believe that is a series called Kingdom that is on Netflix here in the UK. I have actually got it listed to watch but haven’t got around to it yet, and now I see series 2 starts on Friday so maybe I will give a go this week.


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## thaddeus6th (Mar 9, 2020)

Matthew, that sounds pretty cool


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## BAYLOR (Mar 9, 2020)

I would like to see a fantasy series set in the world the Hyborian Age of Conan the Barbarian bu,t not necessarily be  about Conan .


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