10 Incredible TV Shows That Everyone Thought Would Be Terrible
Did anyone have high hopes for a Karate Kid sequel series that debuted on YouTube?
For a studio to greenlight any new television series is a major decision.
Millions of dollars can be on the line (sometimes billions) on whether a show succeeds so a studio will not give it the thumbs up unless they're firm it'll be a hit. Of course, some shows sound great on paper but don't come together in practice. I mean, look at Space Force. (Actually, don't - you're not missing much.)
However, there are some soaps or dramas that sound terrible to the point where you can't understand why a studio greenlit them in the first place. There's all sorts of reasons why a series sounds like it's doomed to fail.
Maybe it has a boring premise. Maybe it's an adaptation of an outdated franchise. Maybe it's a remake that nobody wanted. The reception can be very frosty when a new serial is announced, causing people to write it off before a single episode has aired.
But every once in a while, a disregarded program proves the naysayers wrong. Even if it originally came across as a cash-grab or a pointless reboot, there are some series that are better than they have any right to be.
10. Castlevania
Until recently, adapting a video game into... well… anything, tended to end abysmally. Adapting the best games like Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, and Assassin’s Creed into films and TV shows was met with disaster and ridicule.
So when a Castlevania cartoon was announced for Netflix, gamers couldn't for the life of them figure out why. The gothic-horror was a big hit in the 1990s but has devolved into a lacklustre series in recent years. Its last platform game, Lord of Shadows 2, was among the worst entries in the vampire-themed franchise. Because Castlevania had become somewhat of a relic, it seemed non-sensical to adapt into an animated show.
And yet, Castlevania is possibly the greatest video game TV adaptation ever. The series sinks its fangs into the game's complex lore to forge a compelling story, driven by one of the most compelling depictions of Dracula ever seen. The Transylvanian count is humanised so well, you can't help empathise with him despite his murderous intent.
Some performances are flat but the fluid action and well-written characters more than make up for it. Even though it doesn't focus on Dracula as much recently, Season 4 still can't come soon enough.