Some people may think that a movie or TV show needs to be pretty old in order for it to be considered a cult classic. But that simply isn’t true. Acult classic needsto have vibes that appeal to some but not everyone, feel like they’re going to be appreciated in the future and won’t become dated or irrelevant, and have something memorable about them, even if it’s just one character. Cult classics are things that some people swear by, while others either don’t even know they exist or just dismiss them.
These are movies and TV series that aren’t award winners and might’vebeen box office flops, but they appeal to a certain demographic for one reason or another. Plenty of shows from the2010sare already cult classics or are on their way to becoming cult classics. A faction of people adored them, while others overlooked them.
Any of these cult classics from the 2010s might do the trick for those interested in finding a new show to stream.
10’Adventure Time' (2010 - 2018)
Adventure Time
Adventure Timeran for a long time on Cartoon Network, posting 10 seasons worth of episodes over a seven-year span. While that may seem like too long of a time for a cult classic, the show was niche, as it was a cartoon that aired on a cable network that not everyone has.Adventure Timeepisodes are only 11 minutes long, making them easy to digest and fun for people of all ages to enjoy.
The show follows a boy named Finn and his best friend, his dog Jake. Jake is a bit unique in that he can change his shape and his size whenever he wants. This proves to be useful, as the pair live in the Land of Ooo after the Mushroom War, which was an apocalyptic event that made the world the way it is over a thousand years prior. The show features wizards, princesses, vampires, robots, andmore eternal beings. It’s a brief trip into a Dungeons & Dragons-like world anytime the show is on.
9’Rectify' (2013 - 2016)
A heavy show with a redemptive theme,Rectifyaired for four seasons on SundanceTV. The show followed Daniel Holden, a man recently released from prison after spending 19 years on death row due to a wrongful conviction. The series was lauded for its performances, particularly by Aden Young, who played Daniel, Abigail Spencer, who played his sister Amantha, and Clayne Crawford, who played his stepbrother. J. Smith-Cameron, years before her run onSuccession, played Daniel’s mother.
The show looked at guilt, the American penal system, and what it’s like tore-incorporate oneself back into society. This series not only looked at what happened to the people involved with the crime but also provided a larger-scale view of the judicial system, keeping tabs on prosecutors, judges, and more. Another series from a niche channel, it’s an engrossing series worth the time.
8’Stan Against Evil' (2016 - 2018)
Stan Against Evil
Stan Against Evil,a horror comedy that aired on IFC Network, starred John C. McGinley as the titular Stan. Stan was the former sheriff of Willard’s Mill, New Hampshire, a town that was built where a famous witch burning took place. The town is haunted by demons, ghouls, ghosts, spirits, and dark entities. Stan teams up with the new sheriff Evie, played by Janet Varney, and her deputy, played by Nate Mooney. Stan’s daughter Denise, played by Deborah Baker Jr., helps out with cases as well.
Each episode focuses on a new creature that’s haunting some part of Willard’s Mill. Stan likes to use brute force and anger to combat the entities. Denise tries to use her knowledge of the occult while Evie is figuring things out gradually like the audience. The show is a true horror comedy that is campy and fun, with aterrific turn from McGinley, who can’t seem to be bothered by any of the things going on around him until they get in his way of relaxing.
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7’The OA' (2016 - 2019)
Creative partners Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij have created some interesting projects together, all of which have an eerie or science-fiction-like feel.The EastandSound of My Voiceare the two films the pair have worked on together while their most recent outing,A Murder at the End of The Worldfeatured an all-star castand ran on Hulu.The OAis a series on Netflix that only lasted two seasons, but fans ofThe OAlet other people know they are fans ofThe OA. It was unique, strange, wild, and riveting, at least to the people who watched it.
The OAfollows Marling as Prairie Johnson, a woman who reappears after going missing for seven years and claims she is the “original angel” or OA. She returns being able to see, having previously been blind before disappearing. She claims to be able to go to another dimension to help others that have gone missing. The show features famous costars and guest stars like Zendaya, Jason Isaacs, Emory Cohen, Vincent Kartheiser, Phyllis Smith, and Kingsley Ben-Adir. Critics and fans lauded it, as it has an 84% critics score and 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
6’Penny Dreadful' (2014 - 2016)
Penny Dreadful
Penny Dreadfulbrought back gothic horror in a big way for Showtime during its three-season run. The show is set in Victorian England and introduces famous literary characters into the story as creatures and entities that the show’s stars have to contend with. Eva Green plays Vanessa Ives, the enigmatic star of the show. The show costarred Timothy Dalton, Josh Hartnett, Harry Treadaway, Billie Piper, Rory Kinnear, Reeve Carney, Helen McCrory, Patti Lupone, and Wes Studi.
Some of the literary characters in the series include Dorian Gray, Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s monster, Lily Frankenstein, Abraham Van Helsing,Mina Harker, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The show is dark and mysterious, and all of the characters fit that setting.
5’Hannibal' (2013 - 2015)
It’s hard to take a well-known story or a well-known character and remake it so that it feels brand new. That’s exactly what Bryan Fuller did withHannibal, which aired on NBC from 2013 to 2015. One of the darkest shows to ever land on network television, Hannibal starred Mads Mikkelsen as the titular psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The show is not a sequel tothe most famous work with Dr. Lecterin it,The Silence of the Lambs, but instead pulls from elements ofRed Dragon,Hannibal, andHannibal Rising.
The show focuses on Dr. Lecter’s relationship with FBI criminal profiler Will Graham, played by Hugh Dancy. The two work together to chase serial killers throughout the three seasons. Laurence Fishburne stars as Jack Crawford, the head of Behavioral Sciences at the FBI who recruits Graham to joins his team. The three stars of the show are magnificent, all matching the previous iterations of the characters and, in some cases, elevating them. The show features some disgustingly shocking scenes that aren’t meant for squeamish viewers. But this gory and violent series is stylistically stunning to look at.
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4’Banshee' (2013 - 2016)
Before he became known worldwideas Homelander inThe Boys, Antony Starr starred for four seasons inBanshee, which aired on Cinemax. Starr played an ex-con who assumes the identity of Lucas Hood, the incoming sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania. Starr’s character, freshly out of prison, looks to avoid some of his past life by taking on this role as the town’s sheriff. With that, he struggles to balance his new role and his old ways.
This action thriller series features a mafia element that gives it someThe Sopranosvibes. Ben Cross, Ivana Miličević, Frankie Faison, Hoon Lee, Ulrich Thomsen, and Rus Blackwell costar in the series. The show was well-respected amongst audiences and critics, earning a 90% critics score and a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
3’Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' (2015 - 2019)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Crazy Ex-Girlfriendis a musical series on The CW for four seasons from 2015 to 2019. Rachel Bloom created the show and starred as Rachel Bunch, a lawyer who uproots her New York life to move to a small town in California after a chance encounter with her ex-boyfriend. The show follows Rachel trying to figure out her life while also trying not to seem crazy for making such an impulsive decision.
Theshow features musical numbersand imaginative set designs. It costars Vincent Rodriguez III, Donna Lynne Champlin, Pete Gardner, Vella Lovell, Gabrielle Ruiz, David Hull, and Scott Michael Foster. It’s a lighthearted show that dives into some more serious issues like depression, anxiety, suicide, and personality disorder.
2’The Knick' (2014 - 2015)
Another entry from Cinemax,The Knickstars Clive Owen as Dr. John W. Thackery, the chief surgeon at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City. Set in 1900, it follows Thackery’s balance of aiming to advance medical science with a fierce drug addiction. The series ran from 2014 to 2015 and costarred André Holland as Dr. Algernon Edwards, the Black assistant chief surgeon of The Knick, who must deal with racial inequality and prove his skills on a daily basis.
The show also features Jeremy Bobb, Juliet Rylance, Eve Hewson, Michael Angarano, Chris Sullivan, Cara Seymour, Eric Johnson, and David Fierro. Steven Soderbergh fully shot, directed, and edited the series, giving it even more weight. The period drama was praised for its style, performances, and directing.
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1’Review' (2014 - 2017)
Taking a delightful premise and making it incredibly funny,Reviewon Comedy Central stars Andy Daly as a TV series host who reviewed life. He would take suggestions from the audience on life experiences, take part in them, and then give them a rating out of 0 to 5 stars. Daly’s Forrest MacNeil would do just about anything, much to the chagrin of his wife played by Jessica St. Clair. His cohost is A.J. Gibbs, played by Megan Stevenson, who happily goes along with Forrest’s escapades.
Some of the hilarious reviews Forrest had to do were eating 15 pancakes, sleeping with a celebrity, being at a sex party, being Irish, and having an imaginary friend. Daly is pitch-perfect as MacNeil, never letting anything get in the way of his job. The show would put him in absurd situations that always turned out horribly for the host. It’s amasterpiece of comedythat should be better appreciated.
