History CosmicHorrorStory / LiveActionTV

** The series heavily implies that [[GreatOffscreenWar the Last Great Time War]] became this by the end. Entire civilizations were rendered extinct or simply [[RetGone wiped from existence]], ''armies'' of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s were created and used as weapons, the Daleks became deranged and maniacal even by [[AbsoluteXenophobe their standards]], the Time Lords were perfectly willing to destroy ''time'' in an attempt to save their own skins, and the Doctor - usually a BadassPacifist who tries to find a solution that won't kill anyone - was so horrified that he ([[JokerImmunity tried to]]) kill off ''everyone involved'' just to contain it.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E8ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]", an episode based off of [[Literature/ItsAGoodLife a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby]], is a crowning example. The premise of the episode is that the town of Peaksville, Ohio is under the rule of Anthony Fremont, a six-year-old with near god-like mental and telepathic powers. Everyone in the whole town has to think happy thoughts and say nice, positive things to him or else he snaps at them by mutating them [[spoiler:(as he does in the case of Dan Hollis, turning him into a jack-in-the-box)]] maiming them, or sending them to a place known only as "the Cornfield." [[spoiler:(Also in the case of Dan Hollis)]] No one is safe in the entire town- not even his own family. Oh, and Peaksville, Ohio isn't even on Earth anymore (or even in this universe for that matter) all thanks to that [[spoiler:terrible, horrible, no-]]good[[spoiler:, very bad]] boy Anthony. [[spoiler:There's a special place in hell for this god-forsaken brat!]]

** "[[Recap/BlackMirrorUSSCallister USS Callister]]" mixes this with a {{Deconstruction}} of VideoGameCrueltyPotential -- if the video game characters are able to pass the Turing test[[note]](in this case they are the sentient digital clones of people who work in the player's office and he abuses them for catharsis)[[/note]] and being tormented every day by a psychopathic player with practically unlimited power, then there is no denying this is the kind of story they live in.

--> '''Legasov''': You are dealing with something that has ''never'' occurred on this planet before.

** There's also the backstory of the Toclafane, who turn out to be [[spoiler:the last remnants of humanity, having discovered that there was no escape from the entropy consuming all existence, and became some kind of terrifying hive mind race of sociopaths in order to hang on just a little longer.]] It's shown that merely seeing where the universe ends up is enough to turn the Master's human wife into a StrawNihilist.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' borders on this at times. While the universe as a whole isn't overtly threatened by any EldritchAbomination, it does show mankind's insignificance in a vast cosmos that is almost entirely unaware of its existence; when it is discovered, the only safe option is to deliberately cut Earth off from the rest of the galaxy[[note]]This is somewhat muddled by one of the most populous and powerful races being a genetically modified HumanSubspecies; it's only Earth and it's people that's a meaningless backwater.[[/note]]. In the event that it hadn't, arguably the most ''optimistic'' possible future for human race was to be colonized by the [[TheEmpire Scarran Imperium]] and used for casual sex by Scarran officers on shore leave- the next generation of humans being almost entirely comprised of Scarran hybrids. For good measure, the Uncharted Territories alone are populated by countless varieties of nightmarish creatures and [[HumanoidAbomination impossible beings]], most of them extremely hostile or at the very least antagonistic towards other races. Worse still, the nearest things to gods in this setting (be they {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s or truly godlike EnergyBeings) are amoral and uninterested in anything outside their sphere of influence- ''at best''; at worst, they're murderous kill-crazy bastards who are actually empowered by mass-slaughter. And tellingly enough, Crichton's final victory was only possible thanks to the sponsorship of one of the ''least'' selfish group of entities from beyond reality. This gets a flat out parody in one episode, where the eldritch tentacled horror from beyond space and time they encountered was essentially just trying to [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace help them get their car out of a ditch]]
* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' is a surprising but undeniable example. [[spoiler:Every single person who has ever lived for the past five ''centuries'' has gone to Hell. Why? Because the beings responsible for determining who goes where have paid so little attention to the world that they haven't realized their system is wildly out of date. Humanity isn't being condemned for kicks or any personal reason - they're being sent to Hell because the beings in charge ''don't give a damn.'' The protagonists have to ''force'' them to see what's going on in order to correct this injustice. And ''then'' they have to convince them to try and fix the system instead of hitting a literal ResetButton and hoping humanity turns out better next time.]]
* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' turns into one of these in the second half when it's revealed that [[TheStarscream Blood Stalk]] [[spoiler: is an alien lifeform that at full power has the ability to create black holes with but a thought and has destroyed countless civilizations. And the only reason why he didn't destroy Earth immediately after reaching such power levels (aside from the fact that he's a sociopath he loves seeing the PunyEarthling struggle) is because he wants to unlock FasterThanLightTravel, which would allow him to destroy ''the universe'' in record time.]]
** Earlier than that, we had ''Series/KamenRiderGaim''. Which, incidentally, was written by [[Creator/GenUrobuchi the same person]] that gave us the above-mentioned ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. Partway through, [[spoiler:the mysterious forest dimension of Helheim is revealed to be the ruined remnants of an alien world that was consumed by Helheim itself, poisoning the soil for all but its own plants. Plants that bear Helheim's [[ArtifactOfAttraction hypnotically-delicious fruit]], which transforms anyone or anything that eats them into a monstrous [[MonsterOfTheWeek Inves]], which in turn results in DeathOfPersonality for the eater. Worse is that Helheim is spreading from planet to planet, and its infestation of Earth gets worse as time rolls on. Takatora states that Earth only has about ten years before Helheim swallows it completely]].
* ''Series/SapphireAndSteel'' took place in a universe threatened by formless evils. The (presumably) non-human "Elements" Steel and occasionally even the more sympathetic Sapphire, could, on occasion [[HumanoidAbomination seem alien themselves]].

-->'''Death''': "This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. ''Very old''. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you."
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''
** "It's a Good Life", an episode based off of a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby is a crowning example. The premise of the episode is that the town of Peaksville, Ohio is under the rule of Anthony Fremont, a six-year-old with near god-like mental and telepathic powers. Everyone in the whole town has to think happy thoughts and say nice, positive things to him or else he snaps at them by mutating them [[spoiler:(as he does in the case of Dan Hollis, turning him into a jack-in-the-box)]] maiming them, or sending them to a place known only as "the Cornfield." [[spoiler:(Also in the case of Dan Hollis)]] No one is safe in the entire town- not even his own family. Oh, and Peaksville, Ohio isn't even on Earth anymore (or even in this universe for that matter) all thanks to that [[spoiler:terrible,]] [[spoiler:horrible,]] [[spoiler:no-]]good[[spoiler:, very bad]] boy Anthony. [[spoiler: There's a special place in hell for this god-forsaken brat!]]
** "And When The Sky Was Opened" is another example. Two astronauts, Forbes and Gart, fly a prototype X-20 aircraft into space, then disappear from radar for 24 hours, only to crash in the Mojave desert. They all seem to be fine, aside from the fact that there ''were'' three of them. Forbes went with the other member of their crew, Harrington, to a bar, [[RetGone where he inexplicably disappeared and nobody but Forbes seems to remember him]]. As Forbes goes looking around for some evidence of what happened, he starts to speculate that maybe someone or something made a mistake, and their flight wasn't meant to return to earth. [[spoiler: By the end, he, Gart, and the X-20 all vanish as well. Nobody knows why, and nobody ever will.]]

** especially in the second season with the gradual reveal that under a quiet and reasonably cheerful town it turns out there are mysterious otherworldly beings, including one who delights in possessing people's bodies and committing brutal murders, though he is found and apparently defeated [[spoiler:until he possesses Cooper's body in the season finale]]. Then of course there's [[EldritchLocation The Black Lodge]].
** Its sequel ''The Return'' goes way beyond that as is implied in the finale, that despite whatever leaps the main character has achieved in understanding such otherworldly phenomena, true understanding is beyond any human grasp or control.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': ''"USS Callister"'' mixes this with a {{Deconstruction}} of VideoGameCrueltyPotential - if the video game characters are able to pass the Turing test[[note]](in this case they are the sentient digital clones of people who work in the player's office and he abuses them for catharsis)[[/note]] and being tormented every day by a psychopathic player with practically unlimited power, then there is no denying this is the kind of story they live in.
** Episode ''"White Christmas"'' could be considered one, working with YearInsideHourOutside.

** It's sequel ''The Return'' goes way beyond that as is implied in the finale, that despite whatever leaps the main character has achieved in understanding such otherworldly phenomena, true understanding is beyond any human grasp or control.

* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' can almost be considered an actual RealLife version of a Cosmic Horror Story. The show is a bleak five-episode miniseries dramatizing the worst nuclear accident in history, and a major theme is the lack of control humans have over the unimaginably powerful and destructive forces of nuclear energy and radiation. Characters scramble to try and contain the accident as it threatens to bring about the deaths of millions of people in Europe while incomprehensible horrors erupt around them and kill hundreds, if not thousands of their comrades. The environment is left forever altered, with the half-life of some of the dangerous elements released by the accident being tens of thousands of years long. If you were to go over the criteria atop this page, the only one you would firmly be able to answer 'no' to is the literal indescribable nature of the disaster.

** "It's a Good Life", an episode based off of a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby is a crowning example. The premise of the episode is that the town of Peaksville, Ohio is under the rule of Anthony Fremont, a six-year-old with near god-like mental and telepathic powers. Everyone in the whole town has to think happy thoughts and say nice, positive things to him or else he snaps at them by mutating them [[spoiler:(as he does in the case of Dan Hollis, turning him into a jack-in-the-box)]] maiming them, or sending them to a place known only as "the Cornfield." [[spoiler:(Also in the case of Dan Hollis)]] No one is safe in the entire town- not even his own family. Oh, and Peaksville, Ohio isn't even on Earth anymore (or even in this universe for that matter) all thanks to good old Anthony. My, what a good boy!