In general, the best stories don’t have an upper age limit, and this fact has been traditionally recognised in fantasy more than most genres. The Hobbit, the Chronicles of Narnia, His Dark Materials — they were all published as children’s books, and the all-ages phenomenon of Harry Potter put kids’ books and films firmly on adult reading/watching lists.
Over the decades, I’ve watched plenty of children’s TV series, both as a kid and later, but that eventually tailed off — until The Sarah Jane Adventures came along. The for-younger-viewers companion of Doctor Who (my favourite TV show since I watched the first episode at nine), I found it excellent, rarely if ever dumbing down for the kids.
So I gradually started looking for other children’s and young adult* fantasy and SF shows to watch. I’ve seen a number in recent years (some OK, some good, some excellent), so this is a round-up of a representative selection. On the whole, I’ve concentrated on the zone at which children’s and YA interface, rather than shows for younger children or for older young adults.
Wolfblood
After The Sarah Jane Adventures, Wolfblood was the show that got me really enthusiastic about younger fantasy TV. This is a werewolf story, with the difference that no-one changes into wolf-like monsters. They change into actual wolves — loyal, fun-loving and far more afraid of us than we are of them.
The story follows a group of teenage wolfbloods and their friends, trying to cope with school, romance and other teenage affairs, while keeping their secret. Although occasionally falling into silliness, for the most part it does a great job of exploring the moral, social and emotional dilemmas this raises, as well as crucial issues about the relationship between civilisation and nature.
I did feel the standard dropped slightly after series 2, when the original main character left, and then against after series 3, when it largely had a change of cast, but the show remained well worth watching. The final resolution, at the end of series 5, was a little unrealistically fast, but still satisfying.
Theodosia
The teenage daughter of Edwardian Egyptologists accidentally acquires magical powers and has to use them, helped by her brother and friends, to save the world by fighting sinister cults and evil gods. That’s got to be great. Well, it is, but…
Theodosia is huge fun, but it’s also extremely frustrating. It’s made with no regard at all for the period it’s set in. Everyone speaks in modern slang, and Theodosia and her friends not only don’t behave like Edwardian kids, but aren’t treated like them either. And then there’s the “Egyptian princess” who claims to be descended from the pharaohs and knows all about worshipping the ancient gods — even though the ruling family at the time were Muslims of Albanian descent.
So does that matter? Well, it’s unlikely the target audience would notice any of this, but in a way that’s the problem — it’s misinforming them. Still, Theodosia is enjoyable to watch, if you can ignore these flaws.
The Bureau of Magical Things
This is an Australian show, following the now-standard trope of a magical world (here largely elves and fairies) hiding in plain sight among the ordinary world of humans. In the usual way, an outsider finds she has powers and gets a crash course in the magical world, helped by a group of kids her own age who welcome her with varied levels of enthusiasm.
There’s nothing particularly original here, but it’s engaging, the story builds well, and the acting is OK, without being award-winning. There were just two series, and the second had a pretty much definitive ending, with a resolution rather reminiscent of Wolfblood, but stretching the credulity rather more.
The Sparticle Mystery & The Cul de Sac
Every so often, two films or TV shows will turn up around the same time, taking the same basic idea and running with it in different directions. This happened with these two shows, which I watched close together in time.
The idea both used isn’t at all new — kids find that every adult has disappeared, and they have to learn to manage on their own. In The Sparticle Mystery, this turns out to be due to a scientific experiment gone wrong. The main kids are a mixed bag of all ages (for a wide age-range appeal?) who are trying to find out what’s happened and how to reverse it.
The show has its appeal, but it does have shortcomings, too. The acting is variable, and the situations grow more improbable over the three series. Most of all, it moves its goalposts onto a totally different pitch. We start out in solidly SF territory, but by the end the solution to the scientific dilemma proves to be ancient Celtic magic. Now, I love ancient Celtic magic as much as anyone, but not when it turns up unbidden in SF.
The Cul de Sac, on the other hand, is a New Zealand show with a much harder edge and no inconsistencies I noticed. Here, the kids not only have to struggle to survive against a far more serious threat than any in The Sparticle Mystery, but they’re also menaced by a daily “wave” that disintegrates anyone caught outside when it passes.
The explanation here is much more bizarre and intriguing than in The Sparticle Mystery, and I’d rate it as a much better show — though I suspect that may be partly because it’s aimed at a slightly older audience. It finishes with both a resolution and a tease for a possible sequel, though that hasn’t happened.
World’s End
This is a curious, atmospheric SF show, where a group of teenagers are gathered in a remote Scottish castle run by an unofficial collection of military and scientific personnel (many of them the young people’s parents) and discover they all have doubles. The kids eventually discover an ambitious plan to counter a threat to Earth.
The science in World’s End stretches the credulity a long way, the acting is patchy, and one or two characters threaten to tip over into caricature, but the story is still compelling. Unfortunately, although series 1 finishes with not one but two major cliffhangers, no series 2 has materialised, and many of the original cast would be far too old by now.
Paper Girls
Another show annoyingly cancelled after series 1, Paper Girls is the only US show in this collection — probably more to do with access than quality. It starts out as if it’s going to be a Stranger Things clone, with four twelve-year-old 1980s girls having their world turned upside-down by a bizarre event.
After that, however, it goes its own way into a time-travel story. The girls get caught up in a future civil war over the control of time-travel technology and whisked to various points between the 80s and now, in the course of which most of them meet their older selves.
I found it excellent, and the reviews I saw were mainly very positive, which makes it even more aggravating to be left permanently on a cliffhanger. The only negative comments I saw were the usual suspects whinging about “woke casting” — i.e. daring to include characters who weren’t white and straight.
Heirs of the Night
Based on a German novel, Heirs of the Night was made by a group of companies from various European countries, although the default language is English. Set in the late 19th century, this is a story about ancient vampire clans battling against both fanatical vampire-hunters and Dracula attempting to gain control over both the vampire and human worlds.
Unsurprisingly, the key to defeating both is a teenage vampire girl who is the Chosen One. The young vampires who are the main characters are well drawn, and the story’s exciting, even though the “good” vampires seem rather unrealistically harmless. Oh well, at least they don’t sparkle.
Silverpoint
I started watching Silverpoint without any high expectations. A group of kids exploring in the woods find a mysterious alien artefact… yawn. In fact, I got very quickly sucked in, and it’s probably my second favourite of the shows I’ve highlighted here, narrowly behind Wolfblood.
Both the four principals and the various supporting characters are well drawn and well acted, and the story quickly became compulsive. There are plenty of surprising twists and turns, including one mid-season flip in series 2 that I genuinely didn’t see coming.
Series 2 came out last year and ended with the promise of more to come. With IMDb scores of 8 or 9 for most episodes, I’m hoping that means we’ll be getting series 3 later this year.
There are other shows I could mention, but hopefully you may be encouraged to check out some of these. Certainly, if you have access to BBC iPlayer, I’d recommend anyone who loves SFF to check out Wolfblood and Silverpoint, at the very least.
Of course, I’m not suggesting all TV should be kids’ stuff, even great kids’ stuff. I enjoy grittier shows as much as anyone, and I’m eagerly looking forward to the new series of Stranger Things and The Witcher, among others. But, just as there shouldn’t be any problem about enjoying both the Harry Potter books and A Song of Ice and Fire, the best fantasy and SF TV for younger people can provide plenty of enjoyment for adults, too.
* I find the boundaries between both children and YA, and YA and adult, extremely vague. Perhaps that’s partly because there wasn’t such a thing as a YA category when I was a young adult.
The Fantasy Worlds of Nyki Blatchley 