Author Topic: TV Shows (Read 63786 times)

Grefter · « **Reply #150 on:** June 28, 2009, 02:26:12 PM »

Dexter was scarring? Bones creeps me out more than Dexter.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #151 on:** June 28, 2009, 03:16:03 PM »

Are you talking about the characters or the shows?

Grefter · « **Reply #152 on:** June 28, 2009, 10:47:55 PM »

Both.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #153 on:** June 29, 2009, 12:19:06 AM »

While I don't quite get the Bones creepiness...

I had only watched the first episode of Dexter when I posted, and it's a well-preserved visceral reaction. After having watched about 8 episodes now, I'm feeling desensitized to the sociopath-as-hero concept which disturbed me in that 'creeping horror' way.

I'm a fan of cheesy horror movies, but Dexter (the series) is more subtle. It's a well-made series from what I've seen, though there's definitely a part of me that has a problem getting behind the idea of 'rooting' for the sociopathic serial killer. The first episode is particularly scarring because the writers are trying very hard to induce that balance of disgust and likeableness in the title character.

NotMiki · « **Reply #154 on:** June 29, 2009, 12:38:27 AM »

Dexter is one of a very few shows that actually benefits from being narrated by the main character.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #155 on:** June 29, 2009, 02:23:18 AM »

You make a good point, I remember it worked pretty well in Dead Like Me, but I'm struggling to think of any other examples where it helped the show very much.

Shale · « **Reply #156 on:** June 29, 2009, 02:27:15 AM »

Scrubs.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #157 on:** June 29, 2009, 11:25:46 AM »

Quote from: Shale on June 29, 2009, 02:27:15 AM

Scrubs.

I need to watch that, I hear good things. And more importantly, the only bad things I hear aren't really that bad.

Grefter · « **Reply #158 on:** June 29, 2009, 02:35:14 PM »

On the other hand, Scrubs is at it's best when the person narrating it isn't JD.

Shale · « **Reply #159 on:** July 01, 2009, 11:02:16 PM »

I picked up the first two seasons of Animaniacs today. Plot? Actors? Who needs 'em.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #160 on:** July 01, 2009, 11:42:38 PM »

Quote from: Shale on July 01, 2009, 11:02:16 PM

I picked up the first two seasons of Animaniacs today. Plot? Actors? Who needs 'em.

...

I want that. ;_;

NotMiki · « **Reply #161 on:** July 02, 2009, 04:50:51 AM »

Quote from: Shale on July 01, 2009, 11:02:16 PM

I picked up the first two seasons of Animaniacs today. Plot? Actors? Who needs 'em.

I bought that for my brother for his birthday. Looking forward to watching it.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #162 on:** July 03, 2009, 05:46:08 PM »

This year's Twilight Zone marathon is only the 1980's TV series.

I am very, very, VERY angry.

superaielman · « **Reply #163 on:** July 03, 2009, 05:51:52 PM »

There was a 1980's twilight zone?

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #164 on:** July 03, 2009, 05:56:48 PM »

Yes. Mid-80's. It was bad, mostly ironic for the sake of being ironic and with none of the wit that the old series had. The 2000 revival was... alright. Some good stuff in there, but the 80's one was just bad.

Shale · « **Reply #165 on:** July 04, 2009, 11:36:23 PM »

Finished the second season of Supernatural. I like the single-episode stories, but it gets really, really annoying how the Winchesters lose about 80 points of IQ whenever the story arc comes into play. Innocent people die left and right around them (both genders, contrary to the initial impression), but as soon as the innocent has a recurring credit they'd rather let the forces of hell overrun the world than lose somebody on their side. Yeah, the meta-reason is obvious, but they completely failed at working it into the story.

Edit: Also, I like how their big victory so far has been to shut a barn door after about a million cows walked through it.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #166 on:** July 06, 2009, 12:51:55 AM »

Quote from: Shale on July 04, 2009, 11:36:23 PM

Finished the second season of Supernatural. I like the single-episode stories, but it gets really, really annoying how the Winchesters lose about 80 points of IQ whenever the story arc comes into play. Innocent people die left and right around them (both genders, contrary to the initial impression), but as soon as the innocent has a recurring credit they'd rather let the forces of hell overrun the world than lose somebody on their side. Yeah, the meta-reason is obvious, but they completely failed at working it into the story.

Edit: Also, I like how their big victory so far has been to shut a barn door after about a million cows walked through it.

I always got the impression that Supernatural was less about them being 'Big Damn Heroes' and more about watching them get more and more fucked up with each passing case.

...And even more important than even that is that each episode feels like a bad horror movie, which is the reason I've enjoyed it. Best episode I've seen so far has to be the one where they stop a haunting on a Hollywood set for a horror movie. It was wonderfully self-aware.

Shale · « **Reply #167 on:** July 06, 2009, 01:13:56 AM »

Well, yeah

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on July 06, 2009, 12:51:55 AM

I always got the impression that Supernatural was less about them being 'Big Damn Heroes' and more about watching them get more and more fucked up with each passing case.

Well, yeah, but when they have the opportunity to be...not Big Damn Heroes, really, since a BDH moment doesn't generally involve shooting your own father in the heart, but heroes of some sort, and instead just stand there looking angsty until the villains get what they want, that's annoying.

Quote

...And even more important than even that is that each episode feels like a bad horror movie, which is the reason I've enjoyed it. Best episode I've seen so far has to be the one where they stop a haunting on a Hollywood set for a horror movie. It was wonderfully self-aware.

Oh, agreed. I did say I like the stand-alone stories.

Shale · « **Reply #168 on:** July 22, 2009, 12:41:04 AM »

I'm also rewatching all of Babylon 5 because it's been a decade since it finished and I was 10 years old when it started, so I figured I probably missed or have forgotten some of the finer points. All of season 1, for instance. Just heard Delenn say "If you value your lives, be somewhere else," which is still one of the best Big Damn Heroes moments (speaking of which) in all of television.

Other stuff....the writing's as sharp, and the characters as good, as I remember. Ivanova is particularly awesome, and they handled the Sinclair/Sheridan transition pretty damn well, given the retarded constraints the network put on them. The weakest part of the third season, which is otherwise a superb arc, is the lack of development for Clark. I'm perfectly willing to believe a person like that exists, but give me a reason why. Is he a xenophobe who really believes what he's saying? A megalomaniac? Machiavellian? Just plain nuts? He's had maybe three minutes of screen time in the entire series and they didn't even try to answer those questions before making him a major villain.

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #169 on:** July 22, 2009, 08:05:21 AM »

I have given thought to watching Bab 5 since JMS was one of my favorite Spider-Man writers ever, (and I've followed Spidey for a long time, and read at least the first decade of spidey-stories, too. I still need to read the late 70s and all of the 80s, though.)

For a non-fan, how well has this aged, would you think?

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #170 on:** July 22, 2009, 08:44:40 AM »

The writing is quite good. The CGI is goddamn laughable, and the sets are pretty hit and miss. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas are probably the best duo I can think of, which totally offsets that, however.

Shale · « **Reply #171 on:** July 22, 2009, 01:26:23 PM »

Pretty much that. If you have any tolerance for blatantly dated visuals in the name of plot and characters, give it a shot. It's not like it'll cost you anything to try out (yay Hulu).

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #172 on:** July 25, 2009, 05:57:54 AM »

Speaking of Hulu, they just put Spaced on it. Good stuff, for certain. Has something for everyone, including man on androgynous manlady for the Nius. Also, a subversive who trained a dog to smell people worth over a quarter million pounds and attack them.

Otter · « **Reply #173 on:** July 31, 2009, 09:55:23 AM »

Hell's Kitchen: a British man screams at people for forty minutes. This really wouldn't be compelling if I didn't like British accents so much.

Dexter: I actually don't think they went nearly far enough with this. Before long Dexter has pretty much just turned into a good guy; his victims are all unambiguously, unsympathetically evil so it's way too easy to root for him. The show tries too hard to make me like him, to the point where the show engineers a convoluted way for someone else to kill a guy he obviously needs to kill, just because that guy was really likable too and it'd just be too much for Dexter's image if he did the job himself. I'm talking about events near the end of season 2, by the way, as I haven't gotten to season 3 yet. I'll probably continue with it anyway, it's certainly not bad, but I'd really prefer it if the show got back to dwelling on what an evil, insane person Dexter is. This is starting to feel like the show where the lone vigilante does what the process of law can't, instead of the show where a murder-obsessed lunatic performs ritual killings for reasons that only make sense in his own internal universe.

24: Speaking of vigilantes, I am partway through the first season and only eight years late. Judging by all that I've heard, I was expecting a Marty Stu in Jack, but that's mostly averted, I think, or if it isn't then I'm prepared to accept it because Kiefer Sutherland sells it. Like Spider-Man, he will ultimately come out on top but he's a desperate, exhausted, overpowered mess all the way there and that does a lot to keep him from being annoying. Jack's smarmy superior, Mason, is pretty great too.

EDIT: Haha, I love Drazen's plan in the season finale. "We need to trick Jack Bauer into being absolutely livid with blind rage towards us so that he'll come after our lives. After that, things should be pretty good."

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #174 on:** July 31, 2009, 11:11:15 AM »

I finished the first 3 seasons of Buffy on Hulu and have since moved on to Angel because there is no more Buffy.

GOD, I wish there was more Buffy. The show was more than a little superior to Angel, and it had the presence of the compelling Xander Harris.

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Author Topic: TV Shows (Read 63786 times)