A Fan's Guide to the Top Fantasy Series
Fantasy, as a genre, is a bit of a “fuzzy set”. There are so many different things that go into making something “fantastic” that it can be hard to pin down exactly what someone even means by fantasy! For my part, I say “we know it when we see it”. If science fiction is the fiction of the possible or the potential, fantasy is the fiction of the impossible, and there is something in the imagined impossible realities that delights audiences around the world.
I’ve loved fantasy television series ever since I watched Xena: Warrior Princess as a kid, and since then I’ve only grown to love the genre more. Modern series, like The Game of Thrones have helped to popularize the genre as something reasonable for everyone to watch (it actually always was, social stigmas against adults loving fantasy are stupid). But The Game of Thrones is only one type of fantasy fiction and it paints upon a very limited canvas. There is a whole colorful menagerie of great fantasy television out in the storytelling wilderness, and explorers who are willing to be pleasantly surprised just need to step off the beaten path, away from their preconceptions, to find it.
As always, this is not an exhaustive list! Is your favorite series missing? Want to chat about why one of these shows was your favorite? Hit me up in the comments or on social media!