World Television Day: What to Watch, part two

Continuing the series on television series, part 1 of which you would have already read (if not, read it now), we bring to you a list of obscure TV shows which you ought to watch.

Most obscure: There are TV shows that everyone knows, and then there those that almost nobody knows (or they know it, but just don't wanna admit because of reasons):

1. John Doe: A man is picked up on sea by a fishing boat. He is buck-naked, colour-blind, suffers from catastrophic claustrophobia and major amnesia. He also holds the sum-total of all human knowledge and is probably being hunted by a shadow society. He is John Doe.

The series has long been loved by fans for its use of procedural elements, which all somehow are intertwined with the overarching plot arc for John Doe. The show's cancellation is perhaps one of the great criminal acts of TV.

2. Fringe: This somewhat also qualifies for longest-running TV shows, but what the heck.

An F.B.I. agent is forced to work with an institutionalised scientist and his son to rationalise a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

What follows is a long series of science, drama, more science, spirituality, alternate universes and revelations with enough power to shatter relations we thought were real. Fringe is undoubtedly one for the science fiction geeks among us, but it has enough that non-geeks can also enjoy the series, and it doesn't overstay its welcome, either.

3. Chuck: When a twenty-something computer geek inadvertently downloads critical government secrets into his brain, the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. assign two agents to protect him, and exploit such knowledge, turning his life upside down.

Think a spy thriller (kind of like James Bond, just not the same), with a lot of humour and endearing characters, and you get Chuck. Can't get simpler than that, really.

4. Dollhouse:

A futuristic laboratory has erased the identities of lost young people, and now imprints them with the temporary identities they need to fulfil assignments for clients.

Of course, nothing ever goes well in a world where memory manipulation is the central plot pivot, and inevitably things go bad when certain "Dolls" start recovering memories that aren't there anymore, having thoughts they shouldn't and doing things they shouldn't, and the employees of the lab start questioning if what they're doing is the right thing at all.

It's all just a dark game where people get hurt and killed, and no one really is what they were a day ago.

5. Firefly:

Five hundred years into the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.

Part space opera, part science fiction, wholly invigorating and thoroughly enjoyable, Firefly has a rather deep lore for a series that was axed so easily (another unforgiveable act in TV). In just 14 episodes, Joss Whedon managed to introduce us to some of TV’s funniest characters, a massive world (or rather massive worlds), build tangible relations between them all, and give us some of the most vile villains on television.