Ok I need show recommendations.
What are your favorite sci-fi/fantasy/dystopian/post-apocalyptic shows with good world building?
Bonus if they’re lesser known or older shows because I feel like I’ve exhausted most of what’s on the major streaming platforms.
Firefly/Serenity is pretty good for world building and characters. But it's only one season and a movie. The Stargate series, specifically SG-1 and Atlantis, have pretty good lore, though they're very mid-2000s weekly shows so the world building doesn't get as much attention as the weekly shenanigans until the later seasons. I saw someone in the comments already recommend Star Trek: TNG, which I'll second wholeheartedly and add in Deep Space Nine for afterward.
If world building is your main criteria, I'd tentatively suggest one of the Game of Thrones series. GoT has an almost universally hated ending, and House of the Dragon seems to be falling apart faster that GoT did, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is excellent. It actually has protagonists and it's more optimistic and heroic than the more cynical and bleak GoT and HotD.
Jericho is a really good post-apocalyptic show from the early 2000s. It follows a small Kansas town after a nuclear bomb goes off in a nearby city. They don't know why it happened or how far the attack, if it was an attack, might have gone. The show is mostly about the town, specifically the Greene family, dealing with the fallout (literal and figurative) while holding onto their small town American values. It has one full season and a second, sort of epilogue season that ties up most of the loose ends before the show was canceled, but it's still really good. I rewatch it every few years.
The early 2000s Battlestar Galactica reboot show is also really good. So is Falling Skies, which is another post-apocalyptic show that follows a family as they try to fight back against the aliens that conquered Earth. It has a lot of good people trying to do the right thing and a kind of patriotic through line you don't see anymore. The main character, who's played by Noah Wyle, is a former history teacher who tries to keep the spirit of America alive as much as he can while fighting the aliens. But the world building is very much in the background compared to the fight against the aliens and the personal dramas between the characters.
I'd always recommend Lost. I know people think the ending is confusing but I didn't have any problem with it and I'm not always great at figuring out things in shows that aren't laid out clearly. The Stand mini-series from the 90s is pretty good too. Surprisingly strong Christian themes from something written by Stephen King. Gary Sinise, Rob Lowe, and Molly Ringwald are in it. The newer series from a few years back is terrible though.
I’m gonna toss out some suggestions as well, although I tend to enjoy animated shows more frequently than live-action.
Avatar the Last Airbender has been praised for its worldbuilding for years now, and I definitely agree that it’s worth watching. It is a kids show, and Season 1 especially feels like a Saturday morning cartoon, but its story and characters live up to all the hype. The show tackles plenty of heavy subject matter, but does so in ways that a lot of kids will be familiar with from their own lives. The world feels vast and real in a way many of its imitators have failed to live up to, and it’s full of characters who are just as complex and well developed.
Delicious In Dungeon (or Dungeon Meshi if you prefer) only has one season so far, but a second has been announced. Even if you’re not all that into anime or Dungeons and Dragons, this show’s approach to creature design is very inventive in ways that really add to the fantasy genre, as well as offering both exciting fights and hilarious comedy. It’s especially enjoyable to watch the main party’s wildly different personalities clash as they progress through the titular dungeon, and it only gets more entertaining when they bump into other people while on their quest.
Sym-Bionic Titan, much like Firefly, was tragically cancelled before it could really get into more than episodic adventures, but what we actually got is still incredible. Due to only having twenty episodes, we’re left with a lot more questions than answers, both about what the villains actually want and how the protagonists would defeat them, but the interactions among the main cast are still excellent. It’s a teen drama and a giant mech vs giant monster fight at the same time, and it’s a lot of fun to watch.
I don’t remember Revolution as being an amazing show, but the worldbuilding was pretty interesting, and it was nice to see a post-apocalyptic story where only some people were total assholes, as opposed to the genre standard of everyone being assholes. I liked the familial bond between main characters Charlie and Miles, and the cause of the societal collapse was fairly unique and grounded for the genre. It very much felt like a CW show, which isn’t really surprising considering it was created by the same guy who made Supernatural, and I remember it falling off in Season 2, but I enjoyed it well enough.























