What is the last Television series you watched?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes!

[KK 3,307]

4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

I watched it for a few seasons, but I dunno...kinda lost interest.

 

This was the case for me. Just didn't seem like something worth the effort of keeping up with. It's one of those sitcoms you'd be fine with playing on the TV in the background while you're doing something else or just need to shut everything off for a bit, but definitely not something I was actively interested in returning every week to.

 

Pity about the lack of interest in Community though. It really is something special, if you stick through it. One of those shows where you really care for its characters, which you can't really say often for a lot of sitcoms. This only goes for the first 3 seasons though. While Harmon's return was decent, it never really recovered after the abysmal season 4.

[publicist 4,643]

57 minutes ago, Quintus said:

My mainstream foreign sitcom list is probably something like this

 

 

Except for 'Trailer Park Boys' and Larry David, i'm awfully disappointed in you.

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

Frasier is great!

[mstrox 6,637]

HONEY I HEAR THE BLUES A CALLIN TOSSED SALAD AND SCRAMBLED EGGS

[publicist 4,643]

There are quite a lot of respectable US shows - which all too often ran far too long - but listing stuff like 'Friends' is just an obligation. The offbeat choices i found more concern-worthy. For a brit, no less...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

A brit who generally dislikes TV from his own lands.

[publicist 4,643]

He shall endure german tv!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

*shudder*

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

 

[publicist 4,643]

Much more poignant:

 

 

[nightscape94 965]

Finished up Bosch season 2 earlier in the week.  Extremely solid outing and even better than the 1st season.  Probably one of the better shows on that garners so little fanfare.  It's a nice procedural that doesn't get too caught up in insane plot points which gives it an air of authenticity and realism.  There are things in here that a weaker show would latch onto, but this show is too smart to fall for.

 

Watched the first 3 episodes of House of Cards season 4 and it's already miles ahead of season 3.  Although the show has always felt a bit too scripted, season 4 feels like an overall return to quality after a completely humdrum and poorly conceived 3rd season.  It's much more engaging and I'm glad to see Goodwin's character making a reappearance.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Big Bang Theory is too overproduced and obvious for my liking. Never been one to tolerate laugh-track sitcoms. That 70s Show and Seinfeld are the only ones that come to mind. I much prefer something like Louie to anything on the network cable stations.

[Quintus 5,399]

Big Bang is filmed in front of a large studio audience. 

 

12 hours ago, publicist said:

There are quite a lot of respectable US shows - which all too often ran far too long - but listing stuff like 'Friends' is just an obligation. The offbeat choices i found more concern-worthy. For a brit, no less...

 

Friends was an obligation, I admit. I couldn't think of anything else to make up 5, because I generally don't know or haven't watched many American/foreign sitcoms. I hate How I Met Your Mother, didn't find Charlie Sheen's show all that amusing and I certainly don't love Raymond. What would you recommend? Particularly in the offbeat area. Father Ted was another obligation... 

 

What a shame Alan Partridge, Del Boy, Hyacinth Bucket and Basil Fawlty weren't overseas imports for me, right? My lists would have been much easier to make. 

 

11 hours ago, Stefancos said:

A brit who generally dislikes TV from his own lands.

 

British sci-fi, mainly. Because it only ever looks and feels like TV. 

[publicist 4,643]

Most network tv comedy series from the US i find tedious (too broad, or in recent times, too gross). 

 

Off the cuff (leaving out the ancient stuff like Fawlty or Blackadder): Louis CK, Curb, Episodes, Ambassadors, Peep Show, Thick of It, Black Books, Rev, Skins, Office, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, W1A, Detectorists-

 

don't know, there was some stuff i just didn't follow up on because of a lack of time but these are some that stayed with me. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,488]

15 hours ago, Quintus said:

My mainstream foreign sitcom list is probably something like this:

 

1. Cheers

2. Frasier

3. The Big Bang Theory

4. Will and Grace

5. Friends

 

Offbeat:

 

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm

2. Trailer Park Boys

3. South Park 

4. Arrested Development 

5. Father Ted 

 

The Simpsons would have featured highly one time, but it overstayed its welcome which imo greatly undermined its prestige.

 

 

What about older shows? Do you have any love for M*A*S*H, Lee?

[Brónach 1,301]

I can't think of a single sitcom-like show I would feel like following these days.

[A24 4,322]

It's like John Cleese said, after a while you know all the gags.

[Quintus 5,399]

6 hours ago, publicist said:

Most network tv comedy series from the US i find tedious (too broad, or in recent times, too gross). 

 

Off the cuff (leaving out the ancient stuff like Fawlty or Blackadder): Louis CK, Curb, Episodes, Ambassadors, Peep Show, Thick of It, Black Books, Rev, Skins, Office, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, W1A, Detectorists-

 

don't know, there was some stuff i just didn't follow up on because of a lack of time but these are some that stayed with me. 

 

Plenty of foreign to you but native to me ones in there, hence my difficulty getting 5 foreign (to UK) ones together. 

 

I don't like Peep Show though. Black Books was just okay, some of the time. 

 

Skins though? Fuck me pub, WTF?! I don't even know you anymore.  

 

4 hours ago, Richard said:

 

What about older shows? Do you have any love for M*A*S*H, Lee?

 

I always had to go up to bed just as it was starting. I'm 38... 

[publicist 4,643]

3 hours ago, Quintus said:

I don't like Peep Show though. Black Books was just okay, some of the time. 

 

Skins though? Fuck me pub, WTF?! I don't even know you anymore.  

 

I could say the same to the brit who doesn't like PS. But Skins...there were so many perfectly awful teen shows (i freelanced for a production company here in Babelsberg at the time and their formats for youngsters were atrocious) and 'Skins' managed to rise above that with vengeance. I quite liked the youngish actors, too.

 

Also 'Misfits' (UK version); probably not the greatest thing in the world but it had Nathan. It's an especially hard genre ( i only remember 'Wonder Years' and 'Parker Lewis' as US counterparts) and so much more hard to pull off than putting Larry David in a laundry where you start laughing without him doing anything.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It's Hollyoaks a sitcom?

It feels like it should be.

[Quintus 5,399]

Misfits. 

 

*shudder*

[publicist 4,643]

You listed 'Friends' at your top spot. That's a shudder, and certainly a much more piercing one.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Friends is great!

[Sweeping Strings 2,342]

1 hour ago, Stefancos said:

It's Hollyoaks a sitcom?

It feels like it should be.

Nah, it's a soap. The only difference is that the misery is happening to (generally) younger and prettier people than on Eastenders, Coronation Street etc.  

[Quintus 5,399]

14 hours ago, publicist said:

You listed 'Friends' at your top spot. That's a shudder, and certainly a much more piercing one.

 

It isn't a contest, pubster dear. 

[publicist 4,643]

Oh yes, you made it one.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

How did he do that?

[Brónach 1,301]

I liked Friends back when I saw most of it, but now I don't care about it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

23 minutes ago, Brónach said:

I liked Friends back when I saw most of it, but now I don't care about it.

 

....fine by me!!

[Brónach 1,301]

I spared you a longer, more obnoxious comment!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thank you!

[Jay 37,249]

11.22.63 1x01 The Rabbit Hole

 

We signed up for a free month of Hulu last night jsut to check out this show, and I'm glad we did.  There's a ton of shows to watch on that service!  Not sure if it will be worth the price when the free month ends, but we'll see!  Anyway:

 

This show (Actually an 8-part miniseries, not an ongoing thing) is good!  James Franco stars as a teacher in Maine who goes back in time to try to stop JFK's assassination.  Yep!  Sounds crazy but the pilot actually does a pretty good job of getting you on board with the premise (as the diner owner has to get Franco on board).  The diner owner is played by Chris Cooper, who is fantastic in the role.  He had found a portal in his diner's closest years ago that transports anyone who enters to the same point in time in 1960 every time, and has been using it for a few reasons (I loved that he used it as an unlimited resource of 1960s meat he could buy from a local butcher and use to sell cheap hamburgers, but primarily to try to find out who killed JFK and if he could stop it.  Cooper had learned that any change he makes in the past (such as carving initials on a tree) carries through to the present, but the next time he goes in all those changes are immediately undone the next time he returns.

 

At the start of an episode he pops in and when he returns in 2 minutes, 2 years had passed for him, and he's dying of cancer.  He explains to Franco the entire situation and soon Franco is going into the portal on his own.  Basically in 15 minutes, the show is already plowing full steam ahead into the main story, but it worked.

 

The coolest part of the show is that while Franco is back in time, the past is actively fighting him.  Meaning that the more he changes things, the most the past tries to correct itself (or seemingly, just kill him).  For example a car crashes into a phone booth he was trying to call his dad from, a chandelier almost falls on him as he's tracking a known associate of Lee Harvey Oswald, etc.  These scenes were well done, especially the little touches like him being surrounded by people who say "you shouldn't be here!" (including one seemingly dead body who wakes up to tell him that).

 

The first episode sets up a lot of mysteries I want to see through to the end, as well as the main plot.  Plus it will be great to see Chris Cooper every week.  We're hooked and looking forward to episode 2!

 

 

EDIT TO ADD: Oh!  One thing I wanted to bring up was:  I guess you just have to assume Franco is somewhat of a dumb guy, because he makes view obvious and crucial mistakes this episode, I'd say!  Like for example:  After the whole situation with the gambling, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T HE IMMEDIATELY RESET ONCE HE GOT THE MONEY!!!   Instead, he drove his BRIGHT YELLOW car through town to stay at a hotel with the car parked right outside his room.  Duh!  Just reset!   You get to bring the $3500 with you, then back again, and now you don't have to gamble at all your second time in there!
 

And then: WHY THROW YOUR PHONE INTO THE RIVER!?!  Yes, I get there's no way to use any internet or GPS features, but there's so much more he could do with it, starting with, I dunno, SURVEILLANCE?  Like he could take pics of the guys he follows and use it to record conversations.  Also, instead of bringing the ONLY COPY of all of Chris Cooper's notes with him, he could have just taken a picture of every page and left the physical copy behind.  Then it wouldn't have burned up in the fire!

 

Anyways, like I said, you just have to go with it and if you do its easy to enjoy the rest of the show

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I bought both seasons of Dollhouse on BD. Looking forward to seeing it.

[Jay 37,249]

If you were confused by Serenity, you won't be able to follow Dollhouse at all

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

We'll see.

 

I could follow 12 Monkeys just fine.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I don't think the characters even knew what was going on in Dollhouse. 

[A24 4,322]

That's that Whedon show without any jokes, right? Never seen it, even though I've read many times it's reminiscent of Blade Runner.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Paper Hearts (The X-Files, Season 4 episode 10)

 

Written by Vince Gilligan and with Tom Noonan in great form as a creepy serial killer this is apparently one of the best regarded episodes of the series.

I liked the idea of an alternate explanation for the disappearance of Mulder's sister. But the episode does kinda live and die by the likelihood of Samatha being kidnapped by a serial killer rather then aliens. And strangely enough, at this point in the series the alien abduction story is more convincing.

Carter and co generally tried to keep the mythology and monster of the week episodes separate, but there have been many instances where the original abduction story has been stated as factual, even going so far as having several cloned version of Mulder's sister.

The episode ignores all of that, because if it didnt, there would literally be no story.

 

Well written, well acted, excellent score, but ultimately didnt work for me.

[nightscape94 965]

I always felt it was a bit of a missed opportunity to end and explain in devastating fashion the Sam Mulder story line.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

They couldn't have done that at that point though.

 

It is an interesting idea, nonetheless 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The show got super dark on Season 4.

[nightscape94 965]

Well, had to email Fox Connect about season 8 of The X-Files.  There's a crushed black problem effecting the entire season and now I need replacement discs.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

That dissuades me from buying the big box set...

[nightscape94 965]

Now that I've finished off House of Cards season 4, DD season 2, Bosch season 2, and The Sopranos, all recently, I've decided to switch gears and go with some anime.

 

Knights of Sidonia

 

[A24 4,322]

Homeland S5: Easily the weakest season of Homeland ever ... but still watchable (just occasionally throw a foam brick at the screen and you're fine again).

 

 

And  it also features everyone's favorite SS officer from Verhoeven's Black Book (the part that Rutger Hauer wanted but didn't get):

 

 

Alex

[nightscape94 965]

Finished up Knights of Sidonia season 1 and I'm onto season 2.  I'm not a connoisseur on anime in general, let alone the huge sub-genre of mecha anime, but it felt like a quality show.  I enjoyed it.

[KK 3,307]

You're still watching that crap Alex?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Surely its Golden Age viewing?

 

My sister loves it!

[KK 3,307]

Hardly! The first season had potential for it to be, and then it just kept going downhill. I stopped after the 3rd season I think. Surprised the show is still running!