By Cady Drell. With the recent plethora of great prestige television, even the most obsessive viewer could be forgiven for not tuning into everything. There are noted corners of the televerse where brilliant, well-written and expertly-acted shows go unwatched, despite universal acknowledgment that we all should be watching neglected gems like The Americans and Masters of Sex.
But for every great series that launches a thousand pleading think pieces, there are five like it that don't get weekly wrap-ups and clever ad campaigns. Whether it's because they're on at odd hours, they're mid-season replacements, they've just been overshadowed on their respective networks by splashier shows, or they're simply too wacky or avant-garde for primetime, the nuggets in this mixed bag surely must appeal to someone β they just haven't found their legion of fans yet.
We've compiled 10 examples of weird, under-the-radar and awesome-in-their-own-way series that you've almost assuredly never heard of but should definitely be tuning into. And if you've already discovered and dug deep into these demented-to-deliriously-good treasures nestled way down the cable dial and in one case, via an online streaming service , congratulations: we salute your pioneering spirit. Disclaimer: All shows listed had a season, either earlier this year or currently airing, and have been renewed or left open-ended regarding subsequent future seasons.
None of them have been cancelled at the time of writing. If you guessed any of them, you're wrong. They're all honest-to-god shows, and Amish Mafia is the one with the strangest premise by far β and yes, that includes Vanilla Ice's surrealist DIY Network project in which he "learns the lost art of hand craftsmanship. It's been renewed for a fourth season, but even if this isn't the Amish series you reward with your viewership, you should jump on this TV trend's horse-and-buggy bandwagon now.
Interestingly, the plot of this Cinemax drama bisects the topics of both the Amish and the mafia β with completely different results than Amish Mafia. The odds of that being the case are pretty remarkable. Renewed for a third season earlier this year, it's a story about an ex-con who takes the identity of a dead sheriff and hides out from a crime boss in Amish country, all the while fighting but also committing crime and trying to win back the heart of the woman he scorned while in prison.
