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What is the last Television series you watched?


Jay

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We're currently watching Homeland and House and will soon start with The Apprentice which I only just found out is on again over here.

And I'm watching Once Upon a Time myself (not my brother's thing).

Everything else on TV seems to be complete crap. We watched two episodes of Alcatraz and labelled it the worst show in years, and the trailer for Touch made me laugh out loud for about 15 seconds.

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Alcatraz is alright. The scoring is terrific and there are some good moments in every episode. Once Upon A Time is better though

We watched the Touch pilot and it was very meh. Didn't compel us to keep watching at all

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Black Adder: I had forgotten how funny this show is. Rowan Atkinson's performance as the ever sarcastic, caustic and scheming Edmund Blackadder through the ages of history has aged well in my eyes and his witty and sharp banter is the central element of the comedy which is supported by a great cast of actors. The first season differs markedly from the rest since the character of Blackadder was not yet refined into the one he is on the later seasons, but is more of a Mr. Bean type of bungler and as a consequence not quite as funny as the rest. Brian Blessed is just outrageous in the 1st season, his mere presence humorous all by itself. The man is ridiculously larger than life and clearly knows it.

You can see how the characters and the writing developed throughout and became more witty and linguistically playful as they went on. The supporting cast of Tony Robinson as Baldrick, Stephen Fry in several roles, Miranda Richardson as the Queenie, Hugh Laurie as Prince George and Tim McInnerny as Percy offer a good and funny foil to Atkinson's personality. McInnerny's Percy and Tony Robinson's Baldrick are just marvellous in their thankless task of being Blackadder's punching bags, eliciting humor and sympathy at the same time. Richardson's Elisabeth is just like a 6-year old girl, full of the same childish yet murderous spirit an all-powerful ruler might have and much of her humor springs from this absurd combination. Laurie reprises his comedic mannerisms here and Fry plays quite reservedly humorous people apart from the roaringly outrageous Duke of Wellington in season 3 and eccentric General Melchett in season 4.

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Yeah it is rather clunky in the first season, the whole production clearly not quite sure where the series should be heading. When Richard Curtis and Ben Elton started writing together for later seasons the quality became higher by the season.

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Re-watched some selected episodes from Lost. Mostly the last season.

It holds up very well. From the perspective of two years the whole story makes a lot more sense. I think when it all ended back then, many people over-reacted, which was to be expected.

Karol

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Re-watched some selected episodes from Lost. Mostly the last season.

It holds up very well. From the perspective of two years the whole story makes a lot more sense. I think when it all ended back then, many people over-reacted, which was to be expected.

Karol

I think most of the disappointed people wanted the final season to end in a massive backstory/mythology exposition where everything would be explained and tied together with a nice bow on top. I can't deny that some of the directions the show went during its run were a bit silly but in the end I was quite satisfied with it.
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I think that you can divide the audience into two groups: those who are obsessed who watched it as a mystery show and those who watched it for its genre playfulness. I'm in that second group. I wasn't as much concerned how it's all going to end, but rather enjoyed the ride. Which, I find, is the best thing to enjoy pretty much anything in life.

Karol

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I think that you can divide the audience into two groups: those who are obsessed who watched it as a mystery show and those who watched it for its genre playfulness. I'm in that second group. I wasn't as much concerned how it's all going to end, but rather enjoyed the ride. Which, I find, is the best thing to enjoy pretty much anything in life.

Karol

I for one would have loved for John Cleese to suddenly appear out of the bushes in the final episode with a card board chart in his hand and started to matter-of-factly explain everything, for 1½ hours straight. Now that would have been a corker of a finale!
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Yeah it is rather clunky in the first season, the whole production clearly not quite sure where the series should be heading. When Richard Curtis and Ben Elton started writing together for later seasons the quality became higher by the season.

It wasn't so much that the 'quality' became higher, but the radically changed concept torpedoed it through the roof. The first series has its snickers, but they clearly point to the later season's qualities:

Percy: You know, they do say that the Infanta's eyes are more beautiful than the famous Stone of Galveston.

Edmund: Mm! ... What?

Percy: The famous Stone of Galveston, My Lord.

Edmund: And what's that, exactly?

Percy: Well, it's a famous blue stone, and it comes ... from Galveston.

Edmund: I see. And what about it?

Percy: Well, My Lord, the Infanta's eyes are bluer than it, for a start.

Edmund: I see. And have you ever seen this stone?

Percy: (nods) No, not as such, My Lord, but I know a couple of people who have, and they say it's very very blue indeed.

Edmund: And have these people seen the Infanta's eyes?

Percy: No, I shouldn't think so, My Lord.

Edmund: And neither have you, presumably.

Percy: No, My Lord.

Edmund: So, what you're telling me, Percy, is that something you have never seen is slightly less blue than something else you have never seen.

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The biggest and most succesfull aspect of the later series is that Blackadder became the only character somewhat aware of the situation he was in and the idiots with which he had surrounded himself.

The Blackadder from series 1 is as clueless as the rest of the cast.

It has Brian Blessed, screaming from the top of his lungs, so it's not all bad...

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There are definitely inklings of things to come on the first season of Blackadder. But as I said above the character is more like Mr. Bean in the first season and the idea of the sarcastic and intelligent man solidified for the 2nd season.

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I've seen one or two episodes of the first season of Blackadder and remember liking them.

We watched the third season (Prince Regent) while in France last month and loved it. There's no question that it's an absolute classic of TV.

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HBO has decided it will no longer film scenes involving horse races for their prestigious series Luck (created by David 'Deadwood' Milch and Michael Mann) due to the death of 3 horses.

Dennis-Farina-and-Dustin--007.jpg

Alex

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Well, apparently it wasn't the big hit HBO had expected so ... Too bad but it's not the only quality show these days. I still got Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones to look forward to.

And I'm sorry, Jason, but up till now Big Love S3 doesn't disappoint at all.

Alex - who's gonna watch Luck in spite of its cancellation of a second season.

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who's gonna watch Luck in spite of its cancellation of a second season.

Word on the street is that they're moving the location to Virginia for a different kind of animal competition, and Michael Vick will be joining the cast for the second season.

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If it gets a proper ending I'll watch it. I won't waste my time with shows that are abruptly cut short due to falling ratings etc. None of those Heroes, Jericho time-wasters.

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I don't see how a so-called proper closing is more important than 1000 or 1500 minutes of brilliant TV making. That doesn't make any sense to me at all, Quint. I certainly can't call Deadwood, Carnivale or Rome a waste of my time. In fact, I enjoyed them immensely before they prematurely shut them down. So yes, if Luck will give me 500 minutes of pleasure, if it contains enough great scenes/moments throughout the season, then I will be very happy viewer. In the end, it's not the ending of the journey that I will remember, but all the moments that lead up to it.

Alex

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Alright, I'm gonna blab about the comedies atm :P

Anyone watch Community? The show came back on Thursday, I've forgotten how hilarious the show is. Not to mention, the music is great too (not for the particular episode, but the whole show in general).

Also, I really liked the Office this time around. I really think its picking up.

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If I'm going to invest my precious evening time into a show which is based around an overarching storyline, I expect a resolution at the end of it; I want the writers vision to come to full fruition. I don't care how good it is - it's not worth it if halfway through the door is suddenly slammed shut.

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Twin Peaks is frequently kitsch; the visuals are by far the weakest element of the production. That show is a great, no, the perfect example of what makes superior tv: characters & writing. That's isn't to say it isn't well filmed - because it is. But people certainly don't remember Twin Peaks for its photography.

Speaking of which, I'm up to the penultimate episode! It finally picked up again last episode, after completely nose-diving into rambling soap opera territory for about four episodes. Almost broke it it did. But everything before is magic. About twenty five none-stop episodes of masterful tv heaven.

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If I'm going to invest my precious evening time into a show which is based around an overarching storyline, I expect a resolution at the end of it; I want the writers vision to come to full fruition. I don't care how good it is - it's not worth it if halfway through the door is suddenly slammed shut.

There's story to Community, and the show is back from its hiatus, so I don't think the problem applies.

I'm rewatching the Dungeons and Dragons episode. I love the parody here! And the LOTR style music is pretty awesome too! :P

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Freaks and Geeks

don't know if it ever aired in sweden (probably would've been too young to watch it anyway). great cast, surprisingly addictive and the ending was absolutely brilliant.

love this scene!

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Story isn't important. it's the way it's the story is told, the visuals.

You mean 'style'. Absolutely, it's very important. Style brings home, conveys and communicates the content. If it's all about the story then why bother? Of course, the story is usually responsible for the foundation and the basic structure, so that's important as well, but story means nothing without great artistic vision. In the end, all the elements must work in a complementary manner.

Alex

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If it gets a proper ending I'll watch it. I won't waste my time with shows that are abruptly cut short due to falling ratings etc. None of those Heroes, Jericho time-wasters.

The first season of Jericho was great TV. It ends on a massive cliffhanger, but by that point all of the wonderful character stuff had been told, and it came down to inter-town rivalry. It's definitely worth watching if you want to go out on a high.

Homeland is continuing to impress - we have four episodes left of season 1, and there are so many cliches that the writers are avoiding, which gives the whole thing a much more believable feeling. The characters are also memorable and I don't think there's a bad performance anywhere.

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But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

I'm not sure Alex realised Steef was being wry in his replies to me ;)

If it gets a proper ending I'll watch it. I won't waste my time with shows that are abruptly cut short due to falling ratings etc. None of those Heroes, Jericho time-wasters.

The first season of Jericho was great TV. It ends on a massive cliffhanger, but by that point all of the wonderful character stuff had been told, and it came down to inter-town rivalry. It's definitely worth watching if you want to go out on a high.

It's on Netflix actually. After watching Fire Walk With Me I may give it another go (I watched the pilot at the time).

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The Walking Dead finale was gory, exicting, action packed, frustrating.

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I missed the first fifteen minutes because I muted the tube to answer an important call. By the time we catch up with Rick to see if this new swordsperson is worth all the fuss, an entire baseball season will have come and gone, summer will be history, and we will probably be stuck in another war.

Season 3 can take its sweet time getting here.

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But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

Yes, but even though I didn't really exclude it, it is often less attributed to the filmmaker.

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