There’s nothing quite like fantasy on TV, because it lets you dive into entire parallel worlds across many seasons and countless episodes. And if there’s one thing the genre does well, it’s promising huge universes. The problem is when a show only delivers half of that and still manages to trip over itself along the way. It’s easy to name a few series that actually started strong, with a solid concept, but then completely fell apart due to pure inconsistency, lack of creativity, messy storytelling, or just that desperate need to feel epic without doing the basic work of building strong characters and a story that holds together. And that’s when you’re left thinking the show could’ve been so much better if it had just fixed a few obvious issues.
So, here are some fantasy shows that should be remade from the ground up just to finally get it right. They had everything they needed to become genre-defining, but they never seemed to understand what they were actually supposed to be doing.
5) The Order
image courtesy of netflix
When it comes to fantasy, it already draws people in; when it’s urban fantasy, it’s even better. The Order fit that genre perfectly, had all the right ingredients in its hands, and looked like it could’ve been a great show. However, it completely fumbled the execution because it never decided what it actually wanted to be. The plot follows Jack Morton (Jake Manley), who joins a secret magic society in college and ends up caught in the middle of a war between werewolves and sorcerers. It’s a pretty original concept, and it actually worked in Season 1. But after that, the show starts spiraling to the point where it can’t even tell if it wants to be dark or just a supernatural campus drama.
Overall, the characters end up feeling shallow, the relationships lean into clichés, and the mythology (which could’ve been genuinely fun to explore) gets pushed aside in favor of storylines that really weren’t worth the focus. The Order basically wastes what it gets right. That’s why a remake that keeps the core foundation introduced early on, while giving the characters stronger motivations and the story a more coherent direction, could make the show way more entertaining and, honestly, even competitive with other modern fantasy series.
4) Cursed
image courtesy of netflix
Either you’ve never even heard of Cursed, or if you have, it was probably because of the negative reviews. The show tries to take the Arthurian legend and turn it into something more feminist and modern by putting Nimue (Katherine Langford) at the center of the story. And that part works, since the idea of showing her journey as a young woman shaped by suffering on her way to becoming the Lady of the Lake has real potential. But the show seriously drops the ball when it comes to pacing, writing, and character development. Aesthetically, it looks pretty interesting, but the actual story doesn’t keep up, with a plot that drags way too much.
Cursed is the kind of fantasy story that needs strong dramatic choices, since it’s obvious that many of its moments were thrown in just to fill a pre-set episode count. Because of that, the Nimue we get never becomes complex, and the whole story loses its impact. It could work so much better if it dropped the clichés and leaned into the political, strategic, and epic side of the story. The lead character deserves to feel like someone who moves the world around her, not just someone always stuck in a personal crisis. And with the right approach, it would have a much better chance of actually being powerful.
3) American Gods
image courtesy of starz
Underrated, because it started off amazing. As an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel, American Gods came out swinging with surreal visuals, built-in social commentary, and really good characters right from the beginning. The story revolves around gods living in modern-day America, with Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), an ex-convict, becoming the bodyguard of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and traveling across the country to recruit forgotten old deities to fight against the rising power of new ones. It’s a fantastic setup and, just like The Order, Season 1 is genuinely great — but after that, it’s all downhill. The pacing falls apart, and several character arcs end up poorly handled or left unresolved.
Unfortunately, American Gods also dealt with behind-the-scenes issues that only made things worse, including showrunner shake-ups, shifts in creative direction, and random writing choices. So, what once felt epic turned messy and frustrating for a lot of people. To truly work, the show would need a much more stable creative vision, consistent storytelling across seasons, and real respect for the book’s surreal tone and cultural depth. With that kind of approach, it could’ve actually become what the source material promised: dense, weird, and much more talked about.
2) Carnival Row
image courtesy of prime video
Just like Cursed, some people could actually see the potential in Carnival Row, mostly because it wasn’t the kind of fantasy series you usually find on TV. Its world is visually impressive, and while it tries to be a neo-Victorian fantasy full of politics, prejudice, and mystery, it centers on a detective investigating crimes tied to magical creatures — that’s an intriguing premise for fantasy fans. But even in Season 1, things weren’t exactly great when it came to pacing and cohesion. The show does a solid job with worldbuilding and social commentary, but beyond that, it’s honestly hard to fully defend.
The biggest issue is that the story gets lost in subplots that go nowhere, the supporting characters feel pointless, and a lot of the resolutions don’t really land. You might enjoy certain moments here and there, but the narrative never actually pulls you in. Plus, it only gets worse in Season 2. Carnival Row would need a much tighter script, clearer priorities when it comes to character focus, and a smarter use of its universe to explore its conflicts, because being visually pretty and occasionally tense isn’t enough. It had everything it needed to be a great adult fantasy series.
1) The Shannara Chronicles
image courtesy of mtv
You know that kind of show that seems like it totally understands the essence of fantasy and builds up your expectations like it’s about to be something huge, but then you sit down to watch it and end up disappointed? The Shannara Chronicles is exactly that. It had everything it needed to be great, especially since it was based on Terry Brooks’ well-known books, complete with massive settings and a high-stakes magical conflict. The story follows Amberle (Poppy Drayton), Eretria (Ivana Baquero), and Wil (Austin Butler) as they try to save the world from a supernatural threat in a post-apocalyptic future where technology has been replaced by magic, and races like elves and trolls coexist alongside humans.
Its biggest, most unforgivable problem? It sacrificed all of that in favor of teenage melodrama. Because of that, you end up with a shallow narrative full of clichés, wildly inconsistent pacing, a strong mythology that’s basically ignored, and barely anything that feels epic. Out of all fantasy shows, The Shannara Chronicles might be the one that most deserved to be remade, with more focus, depth, complexity, characters that actually make sense within the scale of the story, arcs that pay off, and, most importantly, respect for the original material. This is one of those cases where an awesome story was completely wasted.
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