26. Pushing Daisies
Justin Stephens/ABC
2007-09, ABC
What It’s About: Ned (Lee Pace) is a mild-mannered, socially awkward chap with two amazing talents: He makes awesome pies, and he can resurrect the dead with a touch. But with another touch, Ned can rescind that second-chance life…which is why he can never lay a finger on his best pal and one true love, Charlotte (Anna Friel), whom he reanimates after she’s killed. With gruff private detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), the pair solve murders in a world of opulent whimsy that invariably finds ways to let Kristin Chenoweth’s lovelorn waitress Olive Snook sing a song.
Why It’s Cult: The heightened artifice of it all — the ornate storybook production, the mile-a-minute screwball banter, Harry Potter reader Jim Dale’s narration — polarized audiences into love-it/hate-it camps. Those who love it swear by its imaginative depiction of a romance defined by relational, not sexual, intimacy. Those who hate it think that it’s like watching a long, annoying Splenda commercial.
Secret Handshake: You can recite the rules of Ned’s power by heart. —Jeff Jensen[/nextpage][nextpage]
25. Archer
FX
2009-present, FX
What It’s About: A James Bond spoof set in a spy agency populated entirely by degenerate narcissists, led by Sterling Archer, a caddish superspy with severe Freudian issues.
Why It’s Cult: With a brilliant voice cast that includes H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, and Arrested Development matriarch Jessica Walter, the animated series is a vicious delight. It masterfully melds spy satire with rapid-fire jokes that reference everything from Burt Reynolds to Bartleby, the Scrivener (”Not a big Melville crowd here, huh? He’s not an easy read”). The peculiar mixture seems to come directly from the brain of creator Adam Reed, who also worked on cult oddities Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo.
Secret Handshake: You regularly try to work ”danger zone” into a conversation. —Darren Franich[/nextpage][nextpage]
24. Better Off Ted
Bob D’Amico/ABC
2009-10, ABC
What It’s About: Amiable single dad Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) and his life as a research-and-development exec at the powerful megacorporation Veridian Dynamics, where he matches wits with company womanbot Veronica (Portia de Rossi), flirts with co-worker Linda (Andrea Anders), and indulges a pair of scientists, Phil (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem (Malcolm Barrett), who develop technologies like a cure for baldness (which also happens to grow hair on every surface it touches).
Why It’s Cult: Ted blended zany pep with a sly satire of corporate America — when employees are set to be fired, in lieu of a gentle conversation with HR, a SWAT-like ”Extraction Team” packs up their office and hunts them down. (Also, the company’s new automatic-lighting-system sensors don’t recognize black people.) The building chatter from TV critics wasn’t enough to save the low-rated show from cancellation, a fact that’s brought to you by the emotion ”sadness.”
Secret Handshake: ”Deal with it.” —Dan Snierson[/nextpage][nextpage]
23. Farscape
23. Farscape
1999-2003, Syfy
What It’s About: American astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) accidentally flies into another universe, where he leads a band of rebels on a sentient ship while fighting an army of baddies called Peacekeepers and a black-leather-clad wormhole obsessive named Scorpius.
Why It’s Cult: If the wisecracking puppets didn’t make it cult, the sexy silver and blue alien babes surely did. Farscape was also one of the trippiest space sagas ever, with portions of some episodes taking place in Crichton’s subconscious.
Secret Handshake: Before Battlestar Galactica popularized frak as geek slang, there was Farscape‘s very liberal use of frell. As in ”Why did you frelling copy us?” —Dalton Ross
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22. Party Down
Starz
2009-10, Starz
What It’s About: Six Hollywood wannabes slum it as food caterers to the Los Angeles elite, enduring the agonies and absurdities of waiting for that Big Break while serving the spoiled A-holes who’ve already made it.
Why It’s Cult: The smart, drily funny series (co-created by Paul Rudd) featured a dream-team roster of comedy actors — Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally, for starters. The premise took us to a new party each week, so every episode had the opportunity to bring new talent to the show’s proverbial (and actual) table. But the offbeat writing shone brightest in the smaller moments, when the gang was just sitting around a kitchen and bickering to pass the time.
Secret Handshake: ”Are we having fun yet?” —Ray Rahman
(Excerpt) Read More at: EW.com[/nextpage]