Character-Driven Shows in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

A semi-retired couple who work for a clandestine monster hunting agency discover dark family secrets and the truth about their employer after their magically inclined nigh adult kids reawaken a witch bent on revenge.

A mysterious young woman reluctantly uses her gift of talking to the dead to help a veteran LAPD detective and a damaged ex-FBI outsider solve the most unnerving and challenging cases the city encounters.

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a young, athletic, college graduate who was recruited her freshman year as a Secret Agent for SD-6, a top-secret branch of the C.I.A. After a few years, after Sydney confides her lifestyle to her boyfriend, the evil head of SD-6, Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), has him killed. Sydney learns that SD-6 is part of a rogue international agency called the Alliance of 12, out to rule the world. She becomes a double agent, working with the real C.I.A. to bring down SD-6 with the assistance of her handler, Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her estranged father Jack Bristow (Victor Garber), also a double agent. Along the way, Sydney fights various rival agents, rival terrorist groups, and traitors all the while keeping her cloak-and-dagger lifestyle a secret from her friends (season one).

Jason Ritter stars as Sean Walker, a regular guy who launches an investigation into the disappearance of his fiancee. What he doesn't realize is that his probe begins to expose the biggest cover-up in American history. Walker's actions affect a number of strangers, including the newly elected president (Blair Underwood), and the global conspiracy he's uncovered could change the fate of mankind.

If you could make one wish, what would it be? And what would you do to get it? At 666 Park Avenue, all of your dreams and burning desires can come true: wealth, sex, love, power, even revenge. But just be careful what you wish for, because the price you pay...could be your soul. Welcome to The Drake, the premiere apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Owned by the mysterious Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn) and his sexy wife Olivia (Vanessa Williams), The Drake is home to dozens of residents who are unaware they're living in the dark embrace of supernatural forces. They think their dreams are all coming true, only to find they've been lured into making, what feels like, a deal with the Devil. When a young Mid-western couple - Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable) - is hired to manage The Drake, they soon discover that evil, obsession, and manipulation has a home.

The FBI teams up with a formerly-institutionalized scientist - who was performing experiments on the fringe of real science - and his son to investigate weird crimes that are seemingly part of a larger pattern, and may be connected with a global company called Massive Dynamic.

The Mist centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friends and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Housewife and mother

Following the death of a witness in a court case, Dr. Lee Rosen leads a team of "Alphas", (advanced human beings) who have number of special skills that makes them a formidable team. As Rosen mentors them and teaches the team to harness their considerable skills, they begin to realize that there are powerful forces behind the courthouse murder, including one of their own.

The 4400 explores the travails of the 4400 people who all at once returned in a ball of light to Earth; though the returnees had not aged physically, many of them reappeared with dramatic abilities ranging from enhanced reflexes to precognition. NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) is the government agency responsible for keeping track of the returnees and investigating all things related to the 4400.

On his 21st birthday, Sam discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil before birth and he must now be a bounty hunter for the devil until he dies.

Tracks the investigation of a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances surrounding the show-within-a-show.

Investigative reporter Carl Kolchak, who's after his wife's killer, teams up with Perri Reed, Jain McManus, and their boss Tony Vincenzo to investigate strange crimes in Los Angeles that may contain dark supernatural elements.

A shadowy organization uses mind-wiped humans known technically as "actives" and colloquially as "dolls" who are imprinted with false memories and specialized skills for various tasks on behalf of paying clients. When they are not on assignments, they live in an underground "Dollhouse", a facility that protects and provides for their needs, including food, exercise and sleeping pods little bigger than coffins. One of the dolls, a young woman called Echo by her handlers, is slowly becoming aware of herself and what is going on. Meanwhile, at least two different people on the outside are trying to bring down the Dollhouse, one by finding Echo and the other by using her.

When a botched U.S. government experiment turns a group of death row inmates into highly infectious vampires, an orphan girl might be the only person able to stop the ensuing crisis.

Ichabod Crane is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers.

Drama series about a detective who finds he is leading an arduous double life that defies reality. Following a tragic car accident, detective Michael Britten finds himself awake in two separate realities: one where his teen son, Rex, died in the crash and his wife, Hannah, survived and another where Hannah has perished, leaving Michael and Rex to pick up the pieces. In order to keep both of his loved ones alive, Michael begins living in two dueling realities, churning up confusion. In one reality, Michael and his wife debate having another child, while in the other, his son Rex is turning to his tennis coach, Tara, to fill the void from the loss of his mother. Trying to regain some normalcy, Michael returns to solving crimes in both worlds with the help of two different partners, Detective Isaiah "Bird" Freeman and Detective Efrem Vega. Michael is assigned a different case in each reality and quickly discovers that his dual existence is actually a powerful tool. He begins to solve impossible cases by using his two realties to gain unique perspectives and link clues that cross over from world to world. Helping Michael to navigate his two realities are his bureau-assigned therapists Dr. Evans and Dr. Lee. While both therapists work to untangle his two worlds, Michael has no interest in proving either one is false. But when memories of the accident begin to haunt him, he is forced to confront the truth about what really happened the night of the crash.

The story of three unrelated people, who slowly realize that they are dreaming separate parts of a single common dream. Each of them is on a mysterious and highly personal quest - one is searching for his missing girlfriend, one is searching for a lost child, one is looking to cure his catatonic mother - and it is the clues found in their collective dream that come to guide them. The deeper they dig the more they come to realize that their missions touch on stakes that are much larger than their individual agendas.