--- title: "Action & Adventure series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/genre/action-and-adventure" region: "US" total: 63 shown: 60 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Action & Adventure series An action series asks us to come back next week for another chase, so the chase has to be worth more than the catch. What we score is the person doing the running: whether we mind when they stop for breath, and whether each episode's danger changes them or simply resets them. The good ones spend their money on faces rather than explosions. Our shelf leans towards the 2000s and towards series that are really police dramas or science fiction in a hurry, which suits us; a fight is only as tense as the argument behind it. Start with [Andor](/tv/andor) (86), a political thriller that takes its time and repays it; [Spiral](/tv/spiral) (86), eight series of French police work and one of the great television detectives; and [Callan](/tv/callan) (86), with Edward Woodward as a killer who questions his orders. After those, [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine](/tv/star-trek-deep-space-nine) shows what a franchise can do once it stops moving and starts thinking. For US. 63 titles; 60 listed here. Add `?region=XX` for another country. - [*Legends*](https://film.one/tv/legends.md) — 2026 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Crime · on Netflix *Legends* earns its tension through a strong cast and the risks of undercover work. Neil Forsyth’s six-part thriller is worth the concentration, though crowded plotting and an excess of solemnity sometimes make it harder work than necessary. - [*Lord of the Flies*](https://film.one/tv/lord-of-the-flies.md) — 2026 · Fi1m 82 · TV-MA · 58m · Drama/Action & Adventure · on Netflix Marc Munden and Jack Thorne make *Lord of the Flies* frightening again, with a young cast that makes its cruelty hard to bear. Four episodes stretch the material, but this is an adaptation worth making time for. - [*A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms*](https://film.one/tv/a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms.md) — 2026 · Fi1m 73 · TV-MA · Drama/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on HBO Max Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell make this small-scale fantasy good company. The friendship is worth following, even when the story stretches thin and the humour turns needlessly coarse. - [*Star Trek: Starfleet Academy*](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-starfleet-academy.md) — 2026 · Fi1m 76 · TV-14 · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Paramount+ Holly Hunter steadies a warm, occasionally awkward *Star Trek* school drama whose young ensemble deserves more equal attention. The familiar adolescent troubles mostly earn their place beside the diplomacy, though some visual effects need work. - [*Daredevil: Born Again*](https://film.one/tv/daredevil-born-again.md) — 2025 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · Drama/Action & Adventure · on Disney+, Hulu Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio make *Daredevil: Born Again* worth returning to, with fights that still hurt to watch. Familiar plotting and uneven pacing keep this capable crime series from becoming anything more surprising. - [*Fallout*](https://film.one/tv/fallout.md) — 2024 · Fi1m 80 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on Amazon Prime Video Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins give *Fallout* people worth following through its grotesque wasteland. It is funny, carefully made television, with a wandering plot that sometimes tests the goodwill its cast has earned. - [*Andor*](https://film.one/tv/andor.md) — 2022 · Fi1m 86 · TV-14 · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Disney+ *Andor* is a gripping political thriller built around ordinary lives under the Empire. Its patience pays off in performances and places worth caring about, though the opening takes too long to find its shape. - [*The Lazarus Project*](https://film.one/tv/the-lazarus-project.md) — 2022 · Fi1m 78 · TV-MA · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Drama *The Lazarus Project* is a good science-fiction thriller with an unusually persuasive lead in Paapa Essiedu. Its complicated plotting and familiar espionage business can be wearing, but the decisions behind its time resets give it something worth arguing about. - [*Squid Game*](https://film.one/tv/squid-game.md) — 2021 · Fi1m 81 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Mystery · on Netflix Hwang Dong-hyuk’s deadly competition drama earns its shocks through the desperation of its players and the cruelty of its children’s games. The speeches can be blunt, but the fear and fellow feeling are hard to shake. - [*INVINCIBLE*](https://film.one/tv/invincible-2021.md) — 2021 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · Animation/Drama · on Amazon Prime Video Robert Kirkman adapts his own comic into a bloody animated series about a boy whose father is the strongest hero on Earth. The talking scenes look cheap and the fights do not, and Sandra Oh and J.K. Simmons make the family worth caring about. - [*Gangs of London*](https://film.one/tv/gangs-of-london.md) — 2020 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · 1h 00m · Action & Adventure/Drama · on Amazon Prime Video, AMC+ *Gangs of London* earns its place through inventive fights and Sope Dirisu’s commanding presence. The gangland plotting is less persuasive, and the relentless brutality makes this a recommendation for action enthusiasts with strong stomachs. - [*Outer Banks*](https://film.one/tv/outer-banks.md) — 2020 · Fi1m 72 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Mystery · on Netflix *Outer Banks* is an enjoyable teenage treasure hunt with an appealing ensemble and plenty of coastal sunshine. The plotting needs indulgence, but the friendships give us a reason to keep following the search. - [*The Witcher*](https://film.one/tv/the-witcher.md) — 2019 · Fi1m 61 · TV-MA · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Drama · on Netflix Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books has a first-rate Geralt in Henry Cavill, a bard worth the trip and a first season that hides its own structure. The seasons after it grow the map and lose the man. - [*The Mandalorian*](https://film.one/tv/the-mandalorian.md) — 2019 · Fi1m 76 · TV-14 · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Disney+ Jon Favreau’s space western makes good television out of bounty hunting, brisk action and a welcome sense of humour. The masked lead remains underwritten, but these frontier adventures have enough character elsewhere to earn their place in an evening. - [*The Boys*](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md) — 2019 · Fi1m 72 · TV-MA · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Amazon Prime Video Eric Kripke’s adaptation of Garth Ennis’s comic puts superheroes on a corporate payroll and lets them behave accordingly. Antony Starr’s Homelander is a great television monster; the show around him is cruder than it is clever, and it runs long. - [*The Handmaid's Tale*](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale.md) — 2017 · Fi1m 75 · TV-MA · Drama/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on Hulu For ten episodes this is as frightening as anything television has done with tyranny, built on Elisabeth Moss’s face and Ane Crabtree’s red cloaks. Over six seasons the series keeps hurting June and letting her up again, and the repetition dulls it. - [*Legion*](https://film.one/tv/legion.md) — 2017 · Fi1m 77 · TV-MA · 50m · Action & Adventure/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on Hulu Noah Hawley’s X-Men series is the strangest thing anyone has made from a comic, and its first eight episodes are among the best television made from one. The nineteen that follow do not know when to stop. Watch the first run; decide for yourself after that. - [*Stranger Things*](https://film.one/tv/stranger-things.md) — 2016 · Fi1m 77 · TV-14 · Action & Adventure/Mystery · on Netflix The first eight episodes are a well-built small-town horror story: children who can act, a two-note synthesiser score that does half the work, and Winona Ryder holding nothing back. The later runs get bigger, and not always in the right places. - [*Marvel's Daredevil*](https://film.one/tv/marvels-daredevil.md) — 2015 · Fi1m 78 · TV-MA · Crime/Drama · on Disney+ The first season is a proper crime drama with a superhero in it, carried by Charlie Cox’s bruised decency and Vincent D’Onofrio’s soft-voiced Fisk. It is also thirteen hours for a story that needed ten, and every season since has had the same trouble. - [*Penny Dreadful*](https://film.one/tv/penny-dreadful.md) — 2014 · Fi1m 76 · TV-MA · 1h 00m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Drama · on Paramount+ John Logan’s gathering of Victorian monsters takes every one of them seriously, and Eva Green is remarkable as the medium at its centre. It moves slowly and it is sometimes daft, but it is made with more care than pulp usually gets. - [*Rick and Morty*](https://film.one/tv/rick-and-morty.md) — 2013 · Fi1m 78 · TV-MA · Animation/Comedy · on HBO Max, Hulu Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s comedy about a drunk genius and his frightened grandson is fast, cruel and at first as clever as anything on television. Later it grows fond of its own reflection, but the good episodes earn an evening. - [*Attack on Titan*](https://film.one/tv/attack-on-titan.md) — 2013 · Fi1m 83 · TV-MA · Animation/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on Crunchyroll, Hulu An anime about teenagers fighting man-eating giants grows, over four seasons and 87 episodes, into something larger and much bleaker. It is loud, sometimes exhausting, and for most of its run it is superb. - [*Vikings*](https://film.one/tv/vikings.md) — 2013 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Drama · on Netflix Michael Hirst’s historical drama is worth following for its battles, its countryside and Travis Fimmel. The dialogue can be painfully blunt, but the performances give the fighting enough human consequence to keep us interested. - [*Utopia*](https://film.one/tv/utopia.md) — 2013 · Fi1m 83 · TV-MA · 50m · Mystery/Drama · on BritBox Dennis Kelly’s conspiracy thriller is one of the strangest-looking things British television has made: flat, bright, acid yellow, and scored with breathing. It is cruel, funny and gripping across its first six episodes, and rather less sure of itself across the second six. - [*Gravity Falls*](https://film.one/tv/gravity-falls.md) — 2012 · Fi1m 84 · TV-Y7 · Action & Adventure/Animation · on Disney+ Alex Hirsch’s two series about twins spending a summer in a strange Oregon town are funnier, odder and better built than a children’s cartoon has any need to be. The first run takes a while to find its shape. Stay with it. - [*Person of Interest*](https://film.one/tv/person-of-interest.md) — 2011 · Fi1m 78 · TV-14 · Action & Adventure/Crime · on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Jonathan Nolan’s surveillance thriller starts as a tidy case-of-the-week procedural and turns, over five seasons, into something stranger and better about a machine that watches everyone. Michael Emerson is the reason to stay; the formula is the reason some will not. - [*Game of Thrones*](https://film.one/tv/game-of-thrones.md) — 2011 · Fi1m 82 · TV-MA · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Drama · on HBO Max The biggest thing television has attempted, and for six seasons close to the best of it: a political drama in armour, with a cast that has no weak link. The last thirteen episodes hurry, and it shows, but not enough to keep you away. - [*The Walking Dead*](https://film.one/tv/the-walking-dead.md) — 2010 · Fi1m 68 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Drama · on Netflix Frank Darabont’s opening six episodes are among the best horror television we have seen: patient, sunlit and properly frightening. What followed ran eleven seasons and 177 episodes, and the quality wandered as widely as its characters. Start at the beginning, and be prepared to stop. - [*Hawaii Five-0*](https://film.one/tv/hawaii-five-0.md) — 2010 · Fi1m 65 · TV-14 · 42m · Crime/Drama · on Netflix, Paramount+, The Roku Channel An agreeable cast and brisk action make *Hawaii Five-0* decent, undemanding company. The caveat is the partnership at its centre: what begins as comic friction too often becomes two men refusing to stop talking. - [*The Pacific*](https://film.one/tv/the-pacific.md) — 2010 · Fi1m 74 · TV-MA · Drama/Action & Adventure · on HBO Max Bruce McKenna’s ten-part follow-up to *Band of Brothers* is bleaker, harder to follow and less easy to love, and for three episodes we struggled to tell the Marines apart. Stay with it: from the midpoint it is a fine, punishing piece of work. - [*Dollhouse*](https://film.one/tv/dollhouse.md) — 2009 · Fi1m 66 · TV-14 · 44m · Action & Adventure/Drama Joss Whedon’s series about people rented out with borrowed minds is slow, cautious and slightly embarrassed of itself for five episodes; then it finds its nerve, and the second season is close to the show he meant to make. Stay with it. - [*Generation Kill*](https://film.one/tv/generation-kill.md) — 2008 · Fi1m 84 · TV-MA · War & Politics/Drama · on HBO Max David Simon and Ed Burns make the Marines’ boredom, banter and confusion into absorbing television. The dense military language can be exhausting, but the performances and attention to ordinary detail reward the effort. - [*Ashes to Ashes*](https://film.one/tv/ashes-to-ashes.md) — 2008 · Fi1m 64 · TV-14 · 1h 00m · Crime/Sci-Fi & Fantasy · on Amazon Prime Video, BritBox, The Roku Channel, Tubi The sequel to *Life on Mars* moves to 1981 London with a psychologist who knows she is in a coma. It is louder, prettier and sillier than its parent, coasts on Glenister for a series and a half, and then finds its nerve. - [*Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles*](https://film.one/tv/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles.md) — 2008 · Fi1m 77 · TV-14 · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Drama *Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles* earns its place through Lena Headey’s troubled, protective mother. The action is engaging, but the family drama gives us a reason to stay through some unnecessarily tangled storytelling. - [*Chuck*](https://film.one/tv/chuck.md) — 2007 · Fi1m 73 · TV-14 · 43m · Action & Adventure/Comedy Josh Schwartz’s spy comedy runs on charm and on a formula it never quite trusts itself to break. The formula wears thin by the third season; the charm does not, and Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin are worth the five seasons. - [*Torchwood*](https://film.one/tv/torchwood.md) — 2006 · Fi1m 73 · TV-MA · 45m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure Russell T Davies’s adult Doctor Who spin-off spends its first series insisting how grown-up it is, then becomes so in its third, five episodes as bleak as anything British television has managed. The rest is patchier than its admirers say. - [*Spiral*](https://film.one/tv/spiral.md) — 2005 · Fi1m 86 · 48m · Action & Adventure/Crime Eight series of French police and courtroom drama, and it earns nearly all of them. Caroline Proust’s Laure Berthaud is one of the great television detectives; the plots knot too tightly and the first run is stiff, but start anyway. - [*Prison Break*](https://film.one/tv/prison-break.md) — 2005 · Fi1m 68 · TV-14 · Action & Adventure/Crime · on Hulu The first season of Paul Scheuring’s series is as tight and daft a thriller as we have seen on television, and Wentworth Miller holds it together with a stare. The four seasons that follow keep running and never find anywhere worth arriving. - [*Rome*](https://film.one/tv/rome.md) — 2005 · Fi1m 82 · TV-MA · Action & Adventure/Drama · on HBO Max Ray Stevenson gives *Rome* the warmth it needs to make its brutal ancient society worth spending time in. We recommend it, provided an uneven opening and plentiful cruelty do not put you off. - [*Doctor Who*](https://film.one/tv/doctor-who-2005.md) — 2005 · Fi1m 78 · TV-PG · Action & Adventure/Drama · on AMC+ Russell T Davies’s revival of the BBC’s time traveller gave Britain back a programme it had not known it missed. Across thirteen series the peaks are as high as anything on television and the troughs are real; start at the start. - [*Battlestar Galactica*](https://film.one/tv/battlestar-galactica.md) — 2004 · Fi1m 83 · TV-14 · 44m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Paramount+ This dark science-fiction series earns its seriousness through tense storytelling and an ensemble led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. We recommend it, with a warning: its persistent gloom can become wearing. - [*Lost*](https://film.one/tv/lost.md) — 2004 · Fi1m 81 · TV-14 · Mystery/Action & Adventure · on Hulu *Lost* makes survival frightening and strangers worth caring about, with an ensemble strong enough to carry its more wayward storytelling. The mysteries compel, though the habit of postponing answers can become wearing. - [*Garth Marenghi's Darkplace*](https://film.one/tv/garth-marenghis-darkplace.md) — 2004 · Fi1m 83 · 30m · Comedy/Mystery · on Amazon Prime Video Holness and Ayoade’s spoof of a lost 1980s horror serial gets every detail of bad television right, and six half-hours is exactly the right dose. It is one joke, but the joke has been built to last, and it has. - [*NCIS*](https://film.one/tv/ncis.md) — 2003 · Fi1m 66 · TV-14 · Crime/Drama · on Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Pluto TV Bellisario and McGill’s naval procedural has run for more than two decades on a formula that has not changed and a cast that has changed almost entirely. The plots are frequently absurd. The people are not, and that is why it lasts. - [*Firefly*](https://film.one/tv/firefly.md) — 2002 · Fi1m 83 · TV-14 · Drama/Action & Adventure · on Hulu Joss Whedon’s science-fiction Western is funny, warm and carried by a cast worth spending time with. The dialogue can spoil a serious moment with an easy joke, but we recommend it warmly. - [*Spooks*](https://film.one/tv/spooks.md) — 2002 · Fi1m 77 · TV-14 · 1h 00m · Drama/Action & Adventure · on Amazon Prime Video, BritBox, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Tubi David Wolstencroft’s MI5 series is fast, glossy and, in its early years, colder and crueller than the surface suggests. It ran for ten series and should have stopped after five, but the first few remain some of the sharpest thriller television Britain has made. - [*The Shield*](https://film.one/tv/the-shield.md) — 2002 · Fi1m 84 · TV-MA · 45m · Crime/Drama · on Hulu Shawn Ryan’s police drama is tense, sharply acted and occasionally too insistent on its roughness. Michael Chiklis gives it a compelling centre, while a strong ensemble rewards the commitment beyond the lead performance. - [*24*](https://film.one/tv/24.md) — 2001 · Fi1m 78 · TV-14 · 45m · Action & Adventure/Drama · on Hulu The first season is as tense as anything television has managed: one day, one hour an episode, a phone that never rings at a good time. The later days repeat the trick with less conviction, but Kiefer Sutherland holds them together. - [*Smallville*](https://film.one/tv/smallville.md) — 2001 · Fi1m 66 · TV-14 · 43m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Hulu Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s Superman-without-the-suit is warm, handsome and better acted than it needed to be, chiefly by Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover as the Luthors. It is also 216 episodes long, and about a third of them are the same episode. - [*Alias*](https://film.one/tv/alias.md) — 2001 · Fi1m 74 · TV-14 · 43m · Action & Adventure/Drama · on Disney+ Jennifer Garner runs, kicks and lies her way through a spy series that is brisk fun for two series and a tangle after that. Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin give it a spine the plots do not always deserve. Worth your evening if the genre is yours. - [*Farscape*](https://film.one/tv/farscape.md) — 1999 · Fi1m 82 · TV-14 · 1h 00m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Tubi *Farscape* takes time to settle, but its strange creatures and difficult company earn our affection. The early melodrama and ageing effects are real obstacles; the increasingly involved relationships make this space adventure worth the patience. - [*Xena: Warrior Princess*](https://film.one/tv/xena-warrior-princess.md) — 1995 · Fi1m 74 · TV-PG · 44m · Drama/Action & Adventure · on The Roku Channel Lucy Lawless plays a warlord trying to be good and Renée O’Connor the village girl who will not leave her alone, and for six seasons the show is loud, silly and far more sincere than its wigs suggest. Come for the fights; stay for the friendship. - [*Babylon 5*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-5.md) — 1994 · Fi1m 74 · TV-PG · 45m · Drama/Sci-Fi & Fantasy *Babylon 5* is worth the patience it demands of science-fiction viewers. Its long story gives personal grudges room to become absorbing drama, though a stiff opening and overemphatic dialogue make the first stretch harder work than it should be. - [*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-deep-space-nine.md) — 1993 · Fi1m 85 · TV-PG · 45m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Paramount+ The Star Trek that stayed in one place is the one that grew up. Two slow seasons and some poor Ferengi comedy stand in the way, but once its neighbours start pressing in, this is the best drama the franchise has made. - [*The Storyteller*](https://film.one/tv/the-storyteller.md) — 1988 · Fi1m 82 · TV-Y7 · 25m · Action & Adventure/Family · on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, The Roku Channel Jim Henson’s folk-tale series is absorbing, unsettling family television, with John Hurt an excellent narrator. Its elaborate puppetry rewards close attention, though the solemn tone can make short tales feel heavier than they need to. - [*Star Trek: The Next Generation*](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-the-next-generation.md) — 1987 · Fi1m 84 · TV-PG · 45m · Sci-Fi & Fantasy/Action & Adventure · on Paramount+ Gene Roddenberry’s science-fiction series makes intelligence and decency worth watching, with Patrick Stewart giving its optimism conviction. The solemnity can be wearing, but the ensemble supplies enough warmth to make the difficult conversations matter. - [*Dempsey and Makepeace*](https://film.one/tv/dempsey-and-makepeace.md) — 1985 · Fi1m 76 · 50m · Action & Adventure/Drama Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber make this police partnership worth watching. The friction is predictable and the crime-solving seldom surprises, but their comic timing gives the familiar setup enough life for an agreeable evening. - [*The Sweeney*](https://film.one/tv/the-sweeney.md) — 1975 · Fi1m 84 · TV-PG · 1h 00m · Action & Adventure/Drama · on BritBox John Thaw and Dennis Waterman make *The Sweeney* forceful, funny crime television, helped by its drab London locations. The violence has weight; the programme is sometimes too fond of the men inflicting it. - [*Callan*](https://film.one/tv/callan.md) — 1967 · Fi1m 86 · 50m · Action & Adventure/Drama Edward Woodward makes *Callan* a sharp, absorbing thriller about a killer who questions his orders. The dialogue and Russell Hunter’s Lonely keep the gloom from becoming oppressive, though the moodiness occasionally wears thin. - [*Mission: Impossible*](https://film.one/tv/mission-impossible-1966.md) — 1966 · Fi1m 82 · TV-14 · Action & Adventure/Crime · on Paramount+ Bruce Geller’s caper series makes disguises, teamwork and carefully arranged deception absorbing television. We recommend it for the ingenuity and the cast’s composure, though the formula becomes easier to see with repeated viewing. Next page: https://film.one/tv/genre/action-and-adventure.md?page=2 --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/genre/action-and-adventure