The reason I asked is because I'm hungering for a new sci-fi show - and Fringe has been recommended to me by friends/family several times. But most of them haven't got a critical bone in their body - so it's always with a grain of salt that I follow their advice when it comes to TV series.
I'll steer clear!
There is no new sci-fi show you won't spit on and frankly it's impossible to recommend anything to you as your level of criticism is more extreme than mine (and they say I'm the biggest spitter over here…).
On the page 2 of this thread I've listed many sci-fi shows with a few words about each one, couldn't you just pick any you didn't watch?
I did repeated a few times that there is a newish sci fi masterpiece from New Zealand
This is not my life, but you'll have a hard time to find it. IMO it should be your priority. It should be available on "tvnz on demand" service, but outside of New Zealand... Hardly. Smuggle it somehow or do whatever you can do, just find it. Sell the bloody iPad mini if that's the only way to get this gem.
Another one I recommend usually is
Torchwood, first three seasons. The fourth one is somewhat yucky, but well, series moved from BBC to Starz so let's say it needed to adjust to the new type of audience. This one is available worldwide on many channels and different media.
First three seasons of british series
Misfits are also great, the last, fourth season went into some odd direction and is not as good as ones that precede. Still, I recommend watching it and it should also be available just everywhere.
Lost is series I stopped watching after 3 or 4 first episodes. It was a classic scheme of pulling my nose packed in a different wrapping, and instead of getting me hooked, I became irritated and dumped it. The same goes for series called
Heroes, and recently cancelled SyFy's
Alphas.
One thing more. When I said Fringe got lucky and wasn't cancelled, it was because it's Fox' series. Fox is known for cancelling good stuff and renewing crap series. For whatever reason, Fringe wasn't discontinued and it's good series. Not brilliant, but definetly good and IMO worth watching.