TV Shows

[Cmdr_King]

Wait, Metroid looks for realism in comedy?  That's, like, mutally exclusive.  Entirely misses the point of the genre (or, indeed, the medium, but that's beside the point.)

*watches mostly reruns of things, wanders away from conversation*

[Shale]

Crappy-workplace comedy is funny largely because it rings true with the audience. If you haven't been in the situations it parodies, there's not much to laugh at.

[Hunter Sopko]

Probably why you dislike Scrubs too.  Scrubs is the most true-to-life medical show (that was) on TV.  Physicians have a MASSIVE dislike of House, Grey's Anatomy, etc. 

Yes, people actually do act like that in real life in the medical world.  It's very, very realistic.

Ironically, my aunt, who is a nurse at Mass General, HATES Scrubs. She thinks it's disrespectful. Loves the other procedural medical shows though.

[metroid composite]

Wait, Metroid looks for realism in comedy?  That's, like, mutally exclusive.  Entirely misses the point of the genre

Actually a huge part of the genre is relateability.  Generally you need to be able to process jokes in under 3 seconds or they're not funny.

Show a 7-year-old a stand-up comedian doing sex jokes, and they won't find it funny, and may be a bit traumatized.  Not that you couldn't explain the joke to the 7-year-old but they may not even want to know the explanation, and simply find the fact that adults act this way disturbing.  (Actually that's a pretty good summary of my reaction to the office).

As for realism, yeah, seeing as the only comedy I didn't list as low-tier is Family Guy (which tends to focus around a talking baby and a talking dog) I don't think you can blame me of seeking that in comedy.  Though...come to think of it I like the Daily Show too--that might count as realistic! >_>

[Cmdr_King]

Not the same thing.  Realistic is a situation that has or you could easily imagine happening to you in real life.  Comedy depends on taking that same situation and either taking it to ridiculous, over the top heights or having the situation happen similarly, but having character react in a sort of "what everyone WISHES they could do in that situation" manner.  While bad things happening to people can be sorta funny in a guilty-pleasure way, it's equally likely to induce sympathy ("Ouch, done that, that sucks man").  By making it ridiculous, you bypass the sympathetic response.  It's no longer plausible enough to invoke sympathy, yet relatable enough to maintain Willing Suspension of Disbelief and make logical sense to the viewer.

(You don't of course have to actually leave the bounds of reality to achieve a feel of over-the-top, since naturally reality can be stranger than fiction.)

[Grefter]

Watch Black Books.  It is God.  I am going to see Dylan Moran this month doing some stand up actually (Watch Dylan Moran acts as well).

The Office is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, that is what Ricky Jervais does though.  The American version is fucking horrible and rapes it to death though.  Creepy and awkward of Jervais just comes off as overt disgusting bullying in the US release.  Also what the fuck you do a DIRECT COPY OF THE SHOW THAT IS IN THE ENGLISH FUCKING LANGUAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.

[Dhyerwolf]

I watch: Chuck, Heroes (Only because it's on after Chuck), Reaper, The Office, 30 Rock, Dollhouse, and sometimes Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Chuck is a consistently amusing show, and I really hope it comes back (Stupid Jay Leno and stupid NBC programming decisions), although I felt the season finale wrapped it up enough so that I at least won't be completely crushed if it doesn't.

The Dollhouse finale was kind of ass, and despite there being a million questions the show could still answer, they already dropped the ball on something kind of easy. Alpha was massive fail, and I came up with a better character in about 10 seconds.

SCC had an awesome finale, and although I don't always catch it, I'd love to see it come back though. The rating imply otherwise though.

[Cotigo]

Watch Black Books.  It is God.  I am going to see Dylan Moran this month doing some stand up actually (Watch Dylan Moran acts as well).

THAT'S the fucking show.  Black Books.  Yes.  It is good.

EDIT: 

That's Black Books.

Oh also that.

The Office is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, that is what Ricky Jervais does though.  The American version is fucking horrible and rapes it to death though.  Creepy and awkward of Jervais just comes off as overt disgusting bullying in the US release.  Also what the fuck you do a DIRECT COPY OF THE SHOW THAT IS IN THE ENGLISH FUCKING LANGUAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.

Honestly, I don't get this.  The British version is great but the American version is hilarious as well.  Probably has something to do with the gap between British humor and American humor, or something.  Or you only watched something from the first season where the show was too busy trying to copy the British show before they realized it was funnier to go for a different sort of awkward.

[Grefter]

Or you only watched something from the first season where the show was too busy trying to copy the British show before they realized it was funnier to go for a different sort of awkward.

That would be it, because unless I have missed something they shitcanned it after the first season down here on free to air beecauuuuse, first season was fucking horrible.  You only get one season before I stop caring.

[Cotigo]

I don't know if you can access it, but Hulu.com has the episodes on there.  I think it's only accessible in the US though because of bureaucratic retardation; I know I couldn't watch anything on while I was in England.  Anyway, if you can access it I'd recommend checking out a later season or something.  At least "The Dinner Party" or whatever it was called.  Season 4 or something.

[superaielman]

Vegas- Seen almost the entire series just by osmosis, since dad watches it all the time. It had pretty good production values and was entertaining enough fluff.

Been watching Mythbusters. Haven't sat down and watched any episodic TV since playmakers went off the air several years ago. I do want to watch Burn notice though.

[metroid composite]

Oh people are reminding me of other shows I've seen.

Mythbusters: watched with Laggy and Asdla.  Excellent show.

Chuck: file under the decent to pretty good range.

[OblivionKnight]

Since I'm in Japan I'm a whole season behind on Supernatural, but at someone's (maybe it was OK's?) suggestion, I found the DVDs for rent at the local video store.

I'm really getting into it. The early episodes feel like homages to bad horror flicks, and the cast plays with this pretty blatantly. Much appreciated. Apart from the weekly horror-movie episodic plots, there's a very Joss Whedon-esque main plot tying it all together. It wasn't until the third season that this underlying plot really got me 'excited about what happens next' instead of just simply enjoying the atmosphere of each episode on its own.

Highlights? Sam and Dean's dynamic works well and really developes later on. Fun to watch. Also, Dean in general is oozing with badass tropes, and it somehow works with his character and works into the plot and the general theme of 'Hunters are each their own unique snowflake of psycho'. (Yes, that's a theme.)

Midway through Season 3 and hoping that it doesn't end on -too- big of a cliffhanger as the 4th season isn't out in Japan...

-Djinn

Yeah, that was me.  I think I'm (was?) the only Supernatural fan here.  I'm really, really looking forward to tomorrow night - it's set itself up for something big, and Kripke hasn't disappointed yet.  The over-arching plot picks up a lot in season 4 - huge amounts.  There's the plot during season 1 of trying to find the father and learning about the origins of the family disaster, but there's a bigger one that's been revealed now in the 3rd season that you're on.  It spirals a lot during season 4.  If the 4th season is out on DVD, I can loan it to you at DL Con. 

As for the cliffhanger...eh.  It is and isn't a cliffhanger.  You'll see. 

Really looking forward to see what the end of season 4 will do for season 5, the last season of the series.  Damn, lots of good shows ending ;_;

[AndrewRogue]

Andrew's Season Finale Analysis

House: Depends almost entirely on what they end up doing with it. The episode itself was fairly standard fare, until they decided to go with the all out mind screw. I will admit a degree of indecision about whether or not the twist was a cheat. The season finale episode itself had plenty of hints about it, but whether or not the previous episode had hints to make it more viable remains a question.

Psych: Great episode that really fell flat at the end. It really felt like they wanted to do a longer episode, which is a shame, because the entire build up was fanfuckingtastic.

Burn Notice: Awesome all around. It did everything really well.

[Captain K.]

Been watching Deadliest Warrior.  Comes on Spike on Tuesday nights.  Takes two warrior cultures (Vikings versus Samurai, American Green Berets versus Russian Spetsnaz, etc.) and pits their weaponry against medical dummies and computer simulations.  Amusing just to see how much damage these things can cause.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Yeah, that was me.  I think I'm (was?) the only Supernatural fan here.  I'm really, really looking forward to tomorrow night - it's set itself up for something big, and Kripke hasn't disappointed yet.  The over-arching plot picks up a lot in season 4 - huge amounts.  There's the plot during season 1 of trying to find the father and learning about the origins of the family disaster, but there's a bigger one that's been revealed now in the 3rd season that you're on.  It spirals a lot during season 4.  If the 4th season is out on DVD, I can loan it to you at DL Con. 

As for the cliffhanger...eh.  It is and isn't a cliffhanger.  You'll see. 

Really looking forward to see what the end of season 4 will do for season 5, the last season of the series.  Damn, lots of good shows ending ;_;

Definitely a "was" there, I'm really enjoying the series. Surprisingly enough, it's popular in Japan, too. I figured it must have had -some- amount of popularity here since it was available for rent, but when I started telling my classes about it, I got a lot of "I love that show!" reactions.

The first of such conversations actually occurred with my Japanese tutor.
"Hey, I gotta tell you about this awesome new American TV show I saw recently! It's a ghost-hunter series called Supernatural, it's about these two brothe-"
"Supernatural?! Really?!"
"Uh, yeah... have you heard of it?"
*pulls out her cellphone and shows me that her background is Sam looking kickass*
"The older brother's my favorite, but I like this picture of Sam!"
Me: >.>;;

And I had spent a few minutes mentally preparing how to describe the series in Japanese, too! ;_;

-DJ

[Grefter]

Expose (Yourself to) them to Black Books.  Or try Life On Mars.  Something really outlandish.

[OblivionKnight]

...well, all I can say about Season 4 is that it ends on a massive (though stylish) cliffhanger.

Otherwise, I saw the character twist about halfway through the episode.  I was expecting it to happen, but it worked nicely.  This will be an interesting catch-up in Season 5.  Can't wait to see it.

Also, definitely prefer Katie Cassidy over Genevieve Cortese for Ruby.  Oh well.  I think Katie Cassidy's look and voice fit her more. 

[OblivionKnight]

Ok, I feel like ranting a bit on Supernatural thus far.

SPOILER WARNING...though only 2 of us actually care about it here >_>





First off, Ruby had to have the most anti-climactic death in the series thus far.  Wow, that was...pathetic.  She's arguably one of the strongest, most influential demons, and...yeah.  Not her best showing >_>

Ok, so... Ruby turning traitor.  I like the interesting parallels here.  We're led to believe that there really are good demons in Season 3.  This also seems like it's holding true as we continue through Season 4, when the angels are introduced.  Castiel, Uriel, Zachariah, Anna...all with very different motives.  Uriel supports Lucifer, Zachariah cryptically states that he's running the angels for his own agenda via trickery, Anna threw away her angelic nature due to the lack of free will and general assholery of the hierarchy of angels, and Castiel joins the humans after he sees that the difference between angels, demons, and humans is much thinner than he's lead to believe.

So this really supports the fact that Ruby might be true to her initial statement that she's really helping the brothers.  I mean, if angels can display such variable attitudes, why can't demons? 

Well, apparently demons are purely evil.  Or not necessarily evil, but at least more united in their agenda than the angels.  Lilith and Ruby ran the Winchesters for a loop - Lilith's recent "let's make a deal" seemed to drive home the thought that killing her was the right idea.  Nicely done deception, demons.

So the entire purpose of everything was influenced by Azazel - create special children to open the gate for Lilith, break the seals, then kill her to release Lucifer. 

Honestly, I think I'm rooting for Lucifer at the moment >_>  Outside of Castiel and Anna (the latter of whom might be gone for good ;_;), the angels are generally assholes.  I mean seriously, engineering his escape just to have a chance at beating him for good and beginning the war of hell on earth?  Dicks.  I have the funny feeling that there is going to be HUGE problems in Heaven - and the angels will be getting their asses kicked.  >_> 

Once again, I feel the need to reiterate that Katie Cassidy > Genevive Cortese for Ruby.  The bitchy look of Cassidy > Genevive's nicer look...although the nicer look seemed a lot more unnerving to begin with this season.

Predictions for Season 5 (the last season)?  Castiel will be back after kicking some archangel ass (3rd most popular character after the brothers?  Yeah...).  The angels will have some huge problems, and probably regret doing what they did.  Zachariah in particular is going to get raped.  Anna...I would hope she returns.  I'm interested to see what Lucy looks like.  Bobby will surely have a role to play, and maybe we'll see Jo, Ellen, and some of the others in the next season.  Either way, looks promising.

[Dhyerwolf]

Oh, right, I also watch Legend of the Seeker from time to time. Based on the ever beloved writings of Terry Goodkind! Luckily, they have no issues straying from the source material, although the actual episodes generally tend to follow some part of the book, just with heavy rewriting. Today's episode, which was quite excellent, was made by mixing up parts of book 1 and book 7 or 8. I'll admit, part of the draw is watching something I read come to life when it would otherwise seem impractical (Speaking of, I'll be very happy if the Song of Ice and Fire series works out).

[DjinnAndTonic]

Ok, I feel like ranting a bit on Supernatural thus far.

SPOILER WARNING...though only 2 of us actually care about it here >_>

This is like the only series I -don't- want to be spoiled on... Damn you, OK. You've made a post only *I* can appreciate, but since I'm a full season behind, I can't actually read it.

This is some kind of multiple-person triple fail...

[OblivionKnight]

I felt like ranting in public, give me a break >_>

And hey, Grefter sometimes reads spoilers, so maybe he'll see it!

[NotMiki]

ugh.  hate Supernatural.  so.  much.

[Grefter]

I don't care about Supernatural and therefore have not read your spoilers.

Spoil something good next time OK.  Watch all of Ashes to Ashes and talk about it to spoil me on something.

[Shale]

Dollhouse got renewed! This is unexpected and awesome.