Television series

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

A prequel told entirely in puppetry, this series rebuilds the world of Jim Henson's 1982 film with staggering craft — animatronic Gelfling, towering Skeksis, and landscapes carved from real materials rather than pixels. It's a genuine epic: political conspiracy, ecological horror, and coming-of-age rebellion, aimed at adults who loved fantasy as children. Gorgeous, unhurried, occasionally properly frightening. Not for anyone allergic to puppets or slow burns.

TVMaze rating7.4

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Pan's Labyrinth2006

The closest tonal cousin: a dark fairy tale with astonishing practical creature design, a child protagonist against monstrous authority, and no interest in softening its horrors for anyone.

But It's genuinely upsetting in places, and the ending offers no comfortable resolution.

Pan's Labyrinth poster

His Dark Materials2019

Another richly built fantasy world with young heroes uncovering a conspiracy that threatens everything, told with the same seriousness and scale across multiple seasons.

But Heavier on theology and philosophy than Age of Resistance, which can slow the momentum.

His Dark Materials poster

Labyrinth1986

Henson's own creature workshop at full tilt, with Bowie as a goblin king and puppetry that still holds up as pure tactile wonder.

But Much lighter and campier — a fairy tale, not an epic, and the plot is thin by comparison.

Labyrinth poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Watership Down1978

Same structural engine as Age of Resistance — small creatures against an existential threat to their whole world — but pushed into a register the puppet show never dares.

An animated film about rabbits that is, unaccountably, one of the most harrowing things ever marketed to children — genocide, tyranny, and a doomed warren fleeing to survive.

But It traumatized a generation for a reason; the violence is sudden and the tone never winks.

Watership Down poster
More like this (8)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001

The template for practical-effects fantasy done at maximum scale — a quest, a doomed world, and craftsmanship obsessive enough to match anything Age of Resistance attempts.

But Three hours long, and its influence is so total the beats may feel familiar rather than fresh.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring poster

Willow1988

Puppets, prosthetics, and a scrappy found-family quest through a fantasy world under threat — funnier and scrappier than the show, but built from the same DNA.

But Dated effects and a lighter tone mean it can feel slight next to the show's grandeur.

Willow poster

Avatar: The Last Airbender2005

A trio of young people uncover the truth behind an oppressive regime and go to war with it — same bones, animated, and unexpectedly devastating in places.

But It's a kids' show in form, so the register is gentler even when the ideas are dark.

Avatar: The Last Airbender poster

The NeverEnding Story1984

Practical creature effects from the same pre-CGI era, a world literally dying from neglect, and a strange melancholy that lingers long after the credits.

But Slower and more dreamlike than plot-driven — it wanders where the show marches.

The NeverEnding Story poster

Carnival Row2019

A political fantasy fable about persecuted fae creatures, mixing practical prosthetics with digital work, and just as invested in the machinery of oppression.

But Noir plotting and romance elements pull focus from the world-building at times.

Carnival Row poster

Shadow and Bone2021

Young outsiders discover a magical threat to their world and get pulled into rebellion — brisker and glossier, a good chaser if you want more plot, less puppetry.

But Considerably less handmade and atmospheric — a different, shinier kind of fantasy entirely.

Shadow and Bone poster

Andor2022

Both are stories about how resistance actually starts — slowly, among the compromised and the frightened — told with unusual patience for the genre.

A quiet rebellion against an empire that grinds down anyone in its path, built with the same patience and moral seriousness — just swap Skeksis for fascists and puppets for spaceships.

But Cold, procedural, and deliberately unglamorous — nothing here plays like a fairy tale.

Andor poster

Jim Henson Idea Man2024no page yet

Explains exactly why Age of Resistance exists: Henson spent decades fighting the idea that puppetry should only be safe, and this traces that fight to its source.

A documentary on the man behind the puppets, tracing how a children's entertainer kept insisting on darkness, death, and difficulty in his work — this show is his posthumous argument, finished.

But It's a biography, not a story with a plot — no monsters, no quest, just a life.

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