Author Topic: TV Shows (Read 63902 times)

Shale · « **on:** March 30, 2008, 09:07:42 PM »

I know not many people here watch TV regularly, but there's no reason those of us who do can't have a topic instead of shoehorning things into the Movies thread every so often.

So, what are you watching at the moment?

I'm keeping up with:

Torchwood - The X-Files-ish spinoff of Doctor Who, for those of you who aren't Yakko. The second season's been consistently okay but nothing special, which is kind of disappointing after the first, which had some really shitty episodes but also some pretty awesome ones.

Doctor Who - Okay, not right now, but the fourth (thirtieth, whatever) season is due to start a week from yesterday; close enough. It's the best SF on TV at the moment, and is assured at least one or two absolutely classic episodes every season because Steven Moffat is awesome.

Reaper - Just started this a couple of weeks ago, and have torn through all 13 episodes since then. Kick-ass. Imagine Kevin Smith recreating Ghost Rider in his own image. Great writing, awesome supporting cast.

I've been following House religiously since Season 2 and will resume whenever it's supposed to come back from hiatus. The writing's been on a decline lately but the title character still rules.

And finally, OK fanservice, frightening as that sounds: I picked up the complete set of Buffy last week, since it was (a) cheap and (b) written by Joss Whedon, and have begun making my way through that; six episodes into the first season right now. Not bad.

Grefter · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2008, 09:56:30 PM »

Buffy really picks up around Season 3 as well Shale. Ignore the OK factor, it really is pretty sweet.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2008, 10:23:24 PM »

This season I watch:

Heroes: Enjoyable, if fluffy.
Chuck: Awesome show. Still fluffy, but well written and very entertaining.
Journeyman: Curses! This was cancelled. NBC Monday night was awesome when these shows were all in a block. This may have been my favorite, and it was really picking up a lot of steam near the end.
30 Rock/The Office/Scrubs: Bad me. I watch these at work on Thursday after everyone leaves...not like my boss would care anyways.

Shale, what are you watching Reaper on? I know I looked into full episodes on the CW site a few months ago, and they didn't even have 1. Wanted to watch this show, but it conflicted with some of the few other shows I was watching at the time.

Shale · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2008, 10:30:31 PM »

I'm torrenting it. I'd watch it on regular CW if I got CW, but I don't; TV reception out here blows and basic cable isn't much better.

Journeyman was awesome, yeah. By far the best show I saw last fall, with Heroes and House in decline, and it's a damn shame they canned it.

Sierra · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2008, 12:40:59 AM »

Only show I watch right now is Lost. Which, I still maintain, has some of the best writing and character work on TV. Gripes about a meandering central plot will be summarily ignored, as that's a secondary concern to me...which is not to say it's not important! And at least they've got better about actually answering (some) questions. It's abundantly clear from the fourth season episodes that some people do get off the island, at the least.

Watched the first season of Heroes after it came out on DVD. Entertaining fluff, but I'm not interested enough to watch the second season (which apparently got really bad, really fast).

Otherwise? Uh. I stopped watching Simpsons like six years ago because it stopped being funny.

Captain K. · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2008, 12:53:36 AM »

Only show I make time to see is the Simpsons. I know most of the DL doesn't like it, but it's been funny enough for me, and this season has been even better than normal.

DVD collections I've watched recently:
Heroes season 1: on disc 5. Pretty good.
Harvey Birdman season 3: watched the first disc, still need to watch the second.
Drawn Together season 2: still awesome. South Park wishes it was this funny.

Otter · « **Reply #6 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:10:57 AM »

TV shows! You ask "What've you been watching lately" but I might as well just list all the shows I've watched.

- Scrubs is pretty much the first one I ever got interested in, it is hilarious. Moreso in earlier seasons, but the fact that it stayed so strong for like five freaking seasons (and didn't decline much, really, from what I've seen of the sixth so far) says a lot.

- Arrested Development. Just recently got around to watching all the episodes in order actually. It is extreme win.

- Heroes, I've seen a season of plus a few eps of the second season, which seems notably worse. I'll probably catch up someday, the first season was entertaining.

- I saw a season of Dexter. It was pretty good! Nobody I know has ever talked to me about this show.

- Peep Show. British comedy. Awful, awful black humor, naturally I love it.

- What haven't I mentioned? Uh, Firefly I guess, that's hardly current talk but hey. Also non-current, I've seen episodes from that swiftly-canceled show Freaks and Geeks and they're hilarious. Should get the rest of that sometime.

Guess that's basically it, unless I start going back to Looney Tunes stuff I watched as a kid. Weren't those Road Runner cartoons awesome? They totally were! And so were the Animaniacs!

EDIT: It occurs to me that none of this stuff is from actually seeing it on TV. Friends' DVDs or torrents and such are the way to go.

BaconForTheSoul · « **Reply #7 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:21:53 AM »

Big Bang Theory: Awesome, smart ass nerds + random hot chick = comedy

Heroes: Season 1 ruled, Season 2 was okay, director basically said he realized he made mistakes and plans on fixing them, so hopefully Season 3 or 2.5 or whatever the fuck they're on is good.

House: Aside from House pulling random shit out of his ass on a regular basis, good show

Boston Legal: Denny Crane!

Scrubs: Yeah, seen season 1-3, most of 4-6, and all of 7 so far. Still an awesome show

Veronica Mars: Roomate bought all 3 seasons, first 2 seasons are pure win, onto season 3 now.

Those are what I actually pay attention to, anything else I'll only watch if I'm bored and its on.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:46:29 AM »

Quote from: Shale on March 30, 2008, 10:30:31 PM

I'm torrenting it. I'd watch it on regular CW if I got CW, but I don't; TV reception out here blows and basic cable isn't much better.

Journeyman was awesome, yeah. By far the best show I saw last fall, with Heroes and House in decline, and it's a damn shame they canned it.

I found it shocking that they actually bothered to show all the episodes though. I thought it would be yanked off the air after 4 at most. At least NBC let the filmed episodes all run.

DomaDragoon · « **Reply #9 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:56:30 AM »

As far as what I've been watching while it's actually on TV (as opposed to DVDs), it's pretty much just the Simpsons and Two and a Half Men, and that's when I'm babysitting. Charlie Sheen is yay.

DVDs? Batman: TAS and season 1 of Mission: Impossible.

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #10 on:** March 31, 2008, 04:34:52 AM »

~We need more love in here for Reaper. It's a seriously well written show that I fear for the future success of. I really wish I knew what secret phrase I could throw at you guys that would make you more likely to watch it.

~House is House. I miss Chase, because he was awesome and dreamy. Kutner is pretty fun, though. New season = wash.

~I watch Two and a Half Men from time to time. Excellent traditional comedy. Not much more to say.

~Watch a lot of repeats of Frasier. I dunno. I really like this style of show.

~And then there was the Venture Bros. Excellent cartoon series with a constantly expanding mythology that, so far, fits together snugly. The characters are remarkably fleshed out and seem to only be gaining depth. I think it returns to new episodes in JUNE, and I look forward to it every day.

~I watch Bones, which is a really frustrating show that seems to not realize what it wants to be. It jumps from hokey campy nerd-lust to "Good lord, son!" dramatic at the drop of a hat. Needs to have 100% less people dissolved in bathtubs. Otherwise, it can be a load of fun.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #11 on:** March 31, 2008, 05:32:36 AM »

Venture Brothers- Awesome, awesome, awesome show. Totally rocking sendup of shows like Johnny Quest, the Hardy Boys, etc. I actually know the guy who plays Dean Venture. He did a lot of voice work for CPM. Hella nice guy.

Eureka- Surprised and saddened that Shale didn't mention this. Premise is kinda corny, but the writing is awesome and funny. The acting is actually very good too for a cable series. Colin Ferguson has the comedic timing of a god.

Arrested Development- Also got done watching everything in order. Great show. This show does not make fun of Andy Griffith in any way. I can't stress that enough.

South Park- After the utter win that was last season, this season's been kinda disappointing. They're trying too hard. The last ep was pretty good, but they went overboard on the Heavy Metal references.

Heroes- Waiting, hoping. Adam Monroe was the only good thing in Season 2. Know what this show needs? William Shatner as William Shatner. His power? Being William Shatner. His superhuman charisma actually being superhuman.

Space: Above and Beyond- Also started rewatching this. Better TV sci-fi than Firefly. Yeah, you heard me. Starts off slightly corny and is hamstringed by 1995 special effects, but it was amazingly good for it's time and settles into an amazing war series. Who Watches the Birds? is one of the best episodes of television ever.

Shale · « **Reply #12 on:** March 31, 2008, 05:35:27 AM »

Eureka's not running for another three months or so, although people who haven't already been introduced to it definitely need to watch the first two seasons. The writing is quality and Colin Ferguson is, as has been mentioned, the man. (So is Taggart. Taggart rules.)

And speaking of which, the latest episode of Reaper guest-stars Erica Cerra. Watch iiiiiit.

BaconForTheSoul · « **Reply #13 on:** March 31, 2008, 06:31:02 AM »

Eureka is that Sci-Fi moving with the super smart town right? Saw season 1 of it and thought it was pretty cool, but never seemed to remember when it was on. I will say I felt like a total douche when I found out his hot daughter was like 15... although I know they purposely made her look older early on.

Grefter · « **Reply #14 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:39:05 PM »

Space: Above and Beyond is totally not better than Firefly. Firefly is the reason to keep breathing. Not that Space is actually bad in spite of all logic it is pretty cool. In space Australian dollar is king.

Venture Brothers - I am not watching this, but have season 1 on DVD and ahve had for ages, just chiming in the this is awesome and go watch it Otter.

The Might Boosh - This is fucking awesome. It is where the Old Greg clip came from. Old Greg is not the most surreal thing in the show. It is pure unadulterated awesome for like the opposite reasons to Venture Brothers but they are both brilliant.

Scrap Heap Challenge - The only Television I actually watch because it is on around dinner, which is thankfully replacing the god aweful current affairs programs that used to be watched. As an added bonus it is actuallly good stuff. They get 2 teams of friends from workplaces with engineering experience, give them an expert to advise and help, free run of a scrap heap and have to make ghetto things to compete and see who wins. Noteworthy things so far have been a boat made out of half a horse float going against a hydrofoil that weighed 2 tons (!!!!!!), tunelling machines to dig through a few feet of concrete and then to dig through reinforced concrete, snow mobiles. One time on a show I missed they apparently made a "gatling" gun as my familly referred to it, probably some kind of automatic belt fed home brew fire arm but still fucking impressive given they have 12 hours to work in and machining a gun barrel is pretty crazy precise (they lost apparently because they used up the belt or something and had to start manually loading each round, I never did find out what they were doing).

It spits out some interesting engineering and mechanical feats and shows just how rough you can put something together if it only has to last a couple of runs.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #15 on:** March 31, 2008, 03:00:00 PM »

I don't watch TV.

Ok seriously -

* Torchwood - Saw umm ... the creepy alien one, the Night Travellers one and the ... disappearing/missing people one. The latter nearly made my eyes pop out of my head when the girl barged into a room and caught Jack and some guy at it. Pretty interesting stuff so far. I really wanted to watch it ever since it started after enjoying Jack on Dr Who but since tv access is limited where I stay I haven't had the oppurtunity till recently.

* Dr Who - The new series is starting? Awesme.

* Stargate - What? <_< Caught a bit of this when I was able to sneak out the tv the other day. Might see if I can catch some more.

* Bones - New series starting apparently. Never watched it but read the books.

* Reaper - Going to see what I can do about watching this. Not really sure it's my type of thing but if it's for a good cause =/

Cotigo · « **Reply #16 on:** March 31, 2008, 05:14:09 PM »

Venture Brothers - Watch this occasionally. Very good mockery of Johnny Quest and other similar shows.

South Park - Yeah, this season's pretty bad. Last season was good, which is good because otherwise I probably would have stopped watching, but this time... every episode has been outright surrealistic. Cartman and the Diary of Mr. Kitty was funny, at least.

Futurama - Still the funniest damn show on being aired repeatedly on television. Waiting for Comedy Central to finally air more episodes instead of replaying the movie over and over.

Arrested Development - I've probably watched Season 1 from beginning to end 3 times or so now. Need to find out if any of my friends has Season 2 or Season 3 and will let me borrow them. Alternately, there should be a station that plays nothing but Futurama and Arrested Development 24/7. But I'm fairly sure the sheer awesome of such a station would bring about world peace or something like that, and that would be bad.

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2008, 05:42:00 PM »

CT:
My mom and sister read the Reichs books, and they both say that the character is similar in name and occupation only. Otherwise, the show is completely different.

EDIT
And plus three awesome points for actually letting Shale and I bludgeon you into Reaper. THREE WHOLE POINTS.

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #18 on:** March 31, 2008, 07:51:37 PM »

Robot Chicken's pretty much the only show I go out of my way to catch. The mix of snark, audacity, and nostalgia is the draw, and the format generally yields at least one good laugh per episode, which is more than I can say for plenty of other stuff.

I watch reruns of JLU pretty regularly, although they've been on since this summer so I've actually caught it all. Same with Justice League before that. With luck they'll stick Batman Beyond in that time slot soon, because I haven't seen that.

Any and all Futurama hype is obviously approved. Although the next movie needs to come out goddammit.

Strago · « **Reply #19 on:** March 31, 2008, 09:41:36 PM »

Hmm. Yes, okay. Let's see.

Lost: See El Cid's post, really. There's been... a lot of crap on this show (much of Seasons 2 & 3 qualifies, here), but goddamnit if Season 1 wasn't basically pitch-perfect all the way through. I mean, really. Also, Season 4 has been damned solid so far and I'm really psyched to see how things play out when it comes back. Benjamin Linus for the fucking win.

Battlestar Galactica: Am I seriously the only one who watches this? How is that possible? Again, see the caveat I provided for Lost, but reduce the amount of crap by... a pretty large factor, and add somewhat better writing/acting (generally) and much better central storyline focus. Even though a clunker episode comes along here and there, I can basically forgive it all for the Season 2 finale and first four episodes of Season 3. That and all the other amazing stuff the show has done. Plus, it's intelligent sci-fi. Whoda thunk it? Colonel Tigh for the fucking win.

South Park: I've actually really liked this season so far. I don't mind at all when the show gets surreal and bizarre. Or even preachy, as long as it stays funny. I wouldn't consider myself a huge South Park fan (except for maybe Imaginationland), but it's still solid and worth watching. Butters for the fucking win.

Scrubs: Looking forward to the return, even though Season 7 has sucked pretty badly so far. The show really did hit a steep decline starting with Season 6, and they probably should have called it quits there. Oh well. Janitor for the fucking win.

Arrested Development: Haven't actually watched it recently, but yeah. It's hands-down the best comedy ever. Every single character for the fucking win.

Sierra · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2008, 11:57:23 PM »

I actually enjoyed season three a lot, Strago. The Others are such conceited dirtbags, and being immersed in their world gave Jack/Kate/Sawyer plenty of material to bounce of off. Also, points from turning Juliet from "Oh god, creepy bitch must die," to being...well, still creepy, but interesting, if not quite sympathetic (granted, getting the hell away from Ben is a motivation I can totally understand).

Ben Linus hype is totally seconded, of course. Eminently hatable but far too interesting to kill, the guy's so good at being a creepazoid that you start to wonder if he's acting at all.

---

*AD hype goes here*

Shale · « **Reply #21 on:** April 01, 2008, 04:36:52 AM »

Finished season 1 of Buffy today. Pretty impressive on the whole; does a good job with the action/horror atmosphere and, shockingly, I know, the dialogue is frequently awesome. Plots weren't much to write home about, but not enough of a weakness to really hurt things. The Pack/Angel/Puppet Show/Nightmares was a nice sequence of episodes; each one diverged from the cliche enough to keep me interested, with a really amusing twist in Puppet Show's case and plain good execution in the other three.

Edit: Also, this is mainly just a weird coincidence, but the season finale is the second time in three weeks I've heard an undead character say they can't perform CPR because they don't breathe. If you can't exhale, then how the hell are you talking? Ahem.

Grefter · « **Reply #22 on:** April 01, 2008, 10:33:22 AM »

So tonight's Scrap Heap Challenge was fucking nuts. They had people making monowheels, like motoroised ones. That you sit inside the wheel of. Ghetto ones done with 12 hours work. Then they did 3 hundred meter dashes with THEM HAVING TO RIDE IT EACH ONCE and then once around the go cart track. These things looked super fucking scary. Both teams went into it with a fair bit of interest in the design stuff for each of it (Some tunnellers against a group of wrestlers, all Brittish) then when it came to it everyone was scared shitless of the machines they had made.

Ended up with the wrestlers winning by sheer guts when the oppositions rider on the go cart track had a bad start and almost lost control and having the centre mounted part (you know where they freaking SIT) spin around the wheel. Scared the shit out of him and he went slow all around the track. They went into that with a 30 second lead. Wrestler guy just went fucking nuts (this is a guy who freaked a little when he was the first person to ride one of their ghetto ones, there was no practice runs on real ones by the way) and shaved off a bit over 2 minutes from the times, maybe even close to 3 to win.

Just absolutely amazing stuff. I cannot hype this show enough.

Shale · « **Reply #23 on:** April 07, 2008, 04:03:08 AM »

Doctor Who's back! Watch the damned show, people.

First episode of S4 was good but not great, mainly because the alien menace wasn't menacing. Had some very funny moments, though, and then the scene toward the end when...well, if you've seen it you know which one I'm talking about. Not sure how I feel about the changes to Donna yet.

Also, Torchwood had a finale. Way, way, way, way, way the hell better than End of Days, not that that was hard. Don't buy Jack shaking *spoilers* off so easily at the end, but other than that it was a fine episode. Want Season 3 before next year, aargh.

NotMiki · « **Reply #24 on:** April 07, 2008, 05:14:17 AM »

Tv, eh?

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer: in its 33rd season, the only straight TV news worth watching.

Boondocks: Boondocks the comic strip meets Samurai Champloo. What's not to like?

Shin-chan: Best. Dub. Ever.

The Daily Show: yeah.

Also Boston sports.

This TV strike is great! It seems to have weaned my girlfriend off Gray's Anatomy, though I still put up with the constant reruns of Law and Order and CSI she and my housemate seem to like so much.

Show I'd watch if it were still on TV: Get Smart.

News:

Author Topic: TV Shows (Read 63902 times)