Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Johnny B. Goode
Apr 5, 2004

by Ozma
Ok, I just finished season 2 of Mad Men. I was really pissed off to see Betty step down to Don's level and be a whore. Also, I hope Duck gets loving roasted.

I hate that fucker.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

-Blackadder-
Jan 2, 2007

Game....Blouses.
I was at a really low point and extremely frustrated at having nothing to watch so I decided to give The Vampire Diaries a try thinking it was going to be typical CW trash. I was pleasantly surprised to find it extremely enjoyable. I just binged through the first 10 episodes and I really wish there were more. It doesn't hurt that the main girl is soul-crushingly cute, either. But it's actually really interesting and I would even recommend it.

big shtick energy
May 27, 2004


ufarn posted:

Finished watching season 2 of Chuck at the behest of goons, and ...

... holy loving Christ an atrocity. The first half or third of the season seemed cool enough, but what's with the filler episodes, the rear end-pulls, McGuffins and

You're not supposed to take the plot seriously. The writers seem to forget that sometimes, especially with Sara/Chuck stuff, but the idea is just to accept the ridiculous plotline and enjoy the hilarious antics and ridiculous action.

Ratatozsk
Mar 6, 2007

Had we turned left instead, we may have encountered something like this...
The next series on my Netflix queue was Hill Street Blues, but after 6 episodes, I think my curiosity is satisfied. I love me my cop shows and related procedurals, but this isn't quite cutting it. I knew it wasn't going to be The Wire (which is only sort of a cop show) or The Shield, but I was at least hoping for something that I could enjoy as much as Homicide, which this is not. Much more melodramatic and not so much of the actual crime solving.

So, I guess I'll finish up Homicide and then move onto some of the BBC titles I've seen tossed around in recent discussion, especially since 6 seasons of Wire in the Blood are on Netflix Watch Instantly.

Edited to reduce hatecrime

Ratatozsk fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Nov 22, 2009

Vivek
Jun 27, 2007


Yeah I don't think it's called "Homocide".

Ape Agitator
Feb 19, 2004

Soylent Green is Monkeys
College Slice
Edit: Haha ^ ^ ^

Ratatozsk posted:

The next series on my Netflix queue was Hill Street Blues, but after 6 episodes, I think my curiosity is satisfied. I love me my cop shows and related procedurals, but this isn't quite cutting it. I knew it wasn't going to be The Wire (which is only sort of a cop show) or The Shield, but I was at least hoping for something that I could enjoy as much as Homocide, which this is not. Much more melodramatic and not so much of the actual crime solving.

It's very much like watching St Elsewhere and expecting it to be a cousin to House. The threads are there but it's really just a different slice of television evolution.

oldfan
Jul 22, 2007

"Mathewson pitched against Cincinnati yesterday. Another way of putting it is that Cincinnati lost a game of baseball."

ufarn posted:

As aforementioned, if anyone has the scoop, I'd like to know.

Pretty sure the consensus is the exact opposite, that the second half of the second season of Chuck was far better than anything they'd done previously. Starting with the Christmas episode the entire thing is very tight in building to the finale, with only a few unrelated random villain of the week plots.

You're not supposed to take the particulars of the storylines themselves seriously. The show is about being funny, cool music, blowing stuff up, and the character relationships. One of the reasons NBC has had trouble marketing Chuck is because it has a little bit of a bunch of different genres - a spy/sci-fi romantic dramedy? - and the creators haven't given in and turned it into a procedural or a soap just to make it easier. If you need a show that's just one thing, it's probably not for you.

By the way, the Chuck/Sarah romantic storyline has already progressed far more in essentially a season and a half than Booth/Bones has in four and a half.

ufarn
May 30, 2009

jeffersonlives posted:

Pretty sure the consensus is the exact opposite, that the second half of the second season of Chuck was far better than anything they'd done previously. Starting with the Christmas episode the entire thing is very tight in building to the finale, with only a few unrelated random villain of the week plots.

You're not supposed to take the particulars of the storylines themselves seriously. The show is about being funny, cool music, blowing stuff up, and the character relationships. One of the reasons NBC has had trouble marketing Chuck is because it has a little bit of a bunch of different genres - a spy/sci-fi romantic dramedy? - and the creators haven't given in and turned it into a procedural or a soap just to make it easier. If you need a show that's just one thing, it's probably not for you.

By the way, the Chuck/Sarah romantic storyline has already progressed far more in essentially a season and a half than Booth/Bones has in four and a half.
I don't want to take the storylines seriously, and it's not implausible that the writers don't, like you say, but the writers haven't been sprucing the season up with comic relief like you would expect. In Buffy or Angel you would usually not give a drat about the (endgame) villains and such, because they were merely blatant plot devices, which the dialogue often meta-discussed (or because it became evident that it just isn't Whedon's forte). The overall plots (the villains and conspiracies) don't matter, but the character interplay is also a plot of its own; it's actually what the show comes down to. As for the funny, I found that it lacked that a lot too; sure, it often resorts to the usual formula "stay in the car; Chuck screams in a high pitch and ends up hanging from somewhere or offing a villain by accident; Casey groans; Chuck is not sure about whom to trust; Chuck eavesdrops on Sarah and discovers something construed as betrayal; Chuck and Sarah are about to ... but are interrupted" - I don't know if it feels formulaic or procedural, but it rubbed me the wrong way. They did do fairly alright with the Buymore crew, though, but it didn't quite balance out the other lacks for me.

I'd like a show that is a lot of things, but if Chuck is, it's in a way that it is basically about nothing. I understand that there has to be some intermezzos and episodes whose purpose are merely to be funny, which I am entirely alright with (I wouldn't mind going a full season without an endgame villain and plot device), but the quality or effort of the writing was too subpar compared to the last season from what I felt.

tl;dr: Good writing surprising and feels original, and I felt that it stood out as formulaic, cliché and filler-y too much of the time.

On another note, why do they recycle the background music; the "sad moment between Chuck and Sarah" music is dreadful, and now it's drilled in my head.

As for what's coming (season 3 spoiler-ish), the future of Chuck and Sarah's relationship (or whatever the hell it is) is even more abstruse and downright weird than ever before, without going into detail.

The length of my post shouldn't be regarded as me sperging about the series, but I'm just trying to find out why season 2 annoyed me. I'm not entirely sure yet.

EDIT: I am never writing a post on a forum past 1 AM ever again.

ufarn fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Nov 22, 2009

cant wait to post!!
Nov 7, 2009

by T. Finn
Been binging through Deadwood Season 1. This is shaping up to be the best TV show ever, for me. Even beating out The Wire which I thought wasn't possible before this. I have no idea why I skipped out on this before. Holy hell.

rogue wave
Jul 12, 2005

I GOT CRABBY ABOUT PHONE GAMING
Chuck is admittedly silly, but it's fun as hell :colbert:

If you can't understand why it's awesome you probably take your television too seriously.

Johnny B. Goode
Apr 5, 2004

by Ozma
Holy loving Christ the lawnmower scene in Mad Men season 3.

I almost shot milk out of my nose. God drat that was hilarious. They need to have that level of dark humor more often.

Whip Slagcheek
Sep 21, 2008

Finally
The Gasoline And Dynamite
Will Light The Sky
For The Night


I've been binging through Kings on Hulu this past week and all I can say is: why the gently caress is this canceled?

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Whip Slagcheek posted:

I've been binging through Kings on Hulu this past week and all I can say is: why the gently caress is this canceled?

The only people excited about it were Deadwood fans, and unfortunately that's not a lot of people. I also think the show was probably really expensive. It had a really cool cinematic look to it.

oldfan
Jul 22, 2007

"Mathewson pitched against Cincinnati yesterday. Another way of putting it is that Cincinnati lost a game of baseball."

Whip Slagcheek posted:

I've been binging through Kings on Hulu this past week and all I can say is: why the gently caress is this canceled?

NBC kneecapped it last spring scheduling-wise by making a late flip with Southland (gee, that worked well for everyone), then ran the worst show launch campaign in the history of television. So it didn't find an audience within the first couple weeks, and they banished it to Saturday and then summer very quickly.

Whip Slagcheek
Sep 21, 2008

Finally
The Gasoline And Dynamite
Will Light The Sky
For The Night


Mu Zeta posted:

The only people excited about it were Deadwood fans, and unfortunately that's not a lot of people. I also think the show was probably really expensive. It had a really cool cinematic look to it.

It does feel very cinematic. The premiere alone had to be extraordinarily expensive.

jeffersonlives posted:

NBC kneecapped it last spring scheduling-wise by making a late flip with Southland (gee, that worked well for everyone), then ran the worst show launch campaign in the history of television. So it didn't find an audience within the first couple weeks, and they banished it to Saturday and then summer very quickly.


I remember there being a few commercials about it on NBC leading upto the premiere, but then they fell off a cliff. My awareness of it came from SA.

oldfan
Jul 22, 2007

"Mathewson pitched against Cincinnati yesterday. Another way of putting it is that Cincinnati lost a game of baseball."

Whip Slagcheek posted:

I remember there being a few commercials about it on NBC leading upto the premiere, but then they fell off a cliff. My awareness of it came from SA.

The commercials were themed around "WHAT IF AMERICA HAD A KING?" and ignored the entire premise of the thing, which was the story of Saul and David if it took place in 2009. They could have gotten a lot of religious types to watch if they'd have only let them know the show existed.

toomanyninjas
Feb 10, 2005

DOGOLD, I WANT YOU TO CALL AN AM-BOO-LANCE AND WHEN THEY GET HUR I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM TO
KEEP SMILING!
A lot of people in this thread have been bemoaning the excessive cost of DVD boxsets, but have you ever thought about checking out your local library? That's where I get most of mine.

Ape Agitator
Feb 19, 2004

Soylent Green is Monkeys
College Slice

toomanyninjas posted:

A lot of people in this thread have been bemoaning the excessive cost of DVD boxsets, but have you ever thought about checking out your local library? That's where I get most of mine.

I definitely support this idea. Libraries are a fantastic source of TV series and at worst you'll have to have a bit of patience as they bring in a season from another library in their network.

Ratatozsk
Mar 6, 2007

Had we turned left instead, we may have encountered something like this...

toomanyninjas posted:

A lot of people in this thread have been bemoaning the excessive cost of DVD boxsets, but have you ever thought about checking out your local library? That's where I get most of mine.

Though I agree in priciple, it depends on the size and catalog of your local library. Last place I lived, the library was open for a total of roughly 12 hours a week and had a DVD library of about 50 disks. And it was not the smallest branch of the system.

toomanyninjas
Feb 10, 2005

DOGOLD, I WANT YOU TO CALL AN AM-BOO-LANCE AND WHEN THEY GET HUR I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM TO
KEEP SMILING!

Ratatozsk posted:

Small library

That's valid, I've just never lived somewhere where it was an issue. I was pretty surprised, though, at the selection I had when I lived in southern West Virginia. The county system where I live now is pretty awesome and has a bunch of great stuff I didn't expect them to have; I have to imagine there's some nerd like me sitting in the library's central ordering office "Hey, 'Jeeves and Wooster!' Ten copies on the way!"

Now pardon me while I go watch season one of "Forever Knight" until my "Burn Notice" DVDs arrive from one of the other branches!

FSLink
Nov 6, 2009
Been binging through DVDs of seasons 1-5 of House. I've always wanted to see the show but I dislike watching shows in the middle of their run.
Really loving it, currently at the beginning of season 5 now. :) For me the show really shines with House's and Wilson's interactions throughout the series. And I'm really glad that they changed the show up a bit at the beginning of season 4. I liked the old cast, but binging through the first 3 seasons, the formulaic nature of the show became more obvious.
And season 4's finale was pretty chilling to watch.

Virtuality
Mar 21, 2008

by T. Finn
Holy crap. There were two seasons of a This American Life TV show. I watched it all in one sitting.

Man crush on Ira Glass. :gay:

fox
Oct 28, 2003
King of Aus
Just finished rewatching seasons 1 and 2 of Chuck. I have to admit it's one of my favourite shows of all time. Just started watching Entourage at a friends recomendation, i wish i had checked it out sooner. What is the general consensus of the show here?

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Fun and breezy show with zero substance. It does start to feel stale in the later seasons.

ONE YEAR LATER
Apr 13, 2004

Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!
Oven Wrangler
It's Sex in the City for dudes.

Colonel Taint
Mar 14, 2004


I've been binging on a bunch of HBO lately. It started when I found season 1 of The Wire on DVD at my library and figured I'd give it a go - I never saw any of this show on TV. I'm glad I got the DVD set though because I never would have been able to get into the show on TV given it's somewhat slow pacing. I spent all of last week getting through the entire series. That show definitely had its moments, especially in the later episodes of each season when poo poo started to get resolved. Overall the only complaint I have about the show is the intro sequence and song. I guess it's not too bad when watched once a week, but after a few episodes in a row I was happy to be able to fast forward through that. It was really an excellent show all around.

Yesterday and today I watched season 1 of Six Feet Under. I felt it was worth the watch, but I don't think I'm going to be watching the rest of the series.

I'm looking for more drama type TV. I tried getting into The Sopranos, but I've never really been a fan of the italian mob or guido bullshit.

I'm gonna give Deadwood a shot tomorrow.

Colonel Taint fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Nov 25, 2009

Rapsey
Sep 29, 2005
Try Friday Night Lights. Great acting, music, directing, story and deep character development. It's got everything.

The Duke
May 19, 2004

The Angel from my Nightmare

SintaxError posted:

I'm looking for more drama type TV. I tried getting into The Sopranos, but I've never really been a fan of the italian mob or guido bullshit.

Give The Sopranos another shot. It's not entirely about "mob bullshit" and is actually quite artistic and profound as it goes on.

Dassiell
Apr 3, 2009

SintaxError posted:

Overall the only complaint I have about the show is the intro sequence and song.

Same thing for Dexter, I can't stand that intro anymore.

Dassiell fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Nov 25, 2009

TheJrab
Jul 4, 2007

by Fistgrrl

SintaxError posted:

Overall the only complaint I have about the show is the intro sequence and song.

what in the hell is wrong with you, this song is amazing. they even do a tom waits cover in season two for white people :(

I just hopped on the Office train and I've been watching The Wire with a friend of mine, it's pacing is correctly described as "slow" but it does snowball. I also just attempted to catch up on 30-rock, then got through a few episodes and quit (I dont know what rubs me the wrong way about it, just always feels a little off)

Also, I watched the entirety of the venture brothers before its latest season aired, now I must be going back to that thread, I think there is a debate about three frames of animation which suggest a huge foreshadowing plot point I need to get in on

Colonel Taint
Mar 14, 2004


Ha. It was the season 2 song that did me in.

Not really getting into Deadwood at the moment. Maybe I'll give The Sopranos another shot.

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre

SintaxError posted:


Not really getting into Deadwood at the moment. Maybe I'll give The Sopranos another shot.

I watched all of DEadwood and it was like a 3 season long series of blueballs. I was just waiting for Bulock to just start shooting people and it never happened.

Harmonica
May 18, 2004

il cinema è la vita e viceversa
Thanks to everyone in this thread I guess I'll be checking out Friday Night Lights. I saw the movie way back when and thought it was fantastic, but I got turned off by the show because I thought it was going to be another American highschool drama-llama type series. Despite my American-football playing friend constantly earwigging me about how awesome it was.

Started watching Brotherhood the other day for the first time and it's pretty unexpectedly great. Hope it continues in the same vein.

SintaxError posted:

Yesterday and today I watched season 1 of Six Feet Under. I felt it was worth the watch, but I don't think I'm going to be watching the rest of the series.

The first season is good television, but Six Feet improves massively as it (hurr) finds its feet and the characters start to become more nuanced and entertaining. From the start of season two onwards it's really solidly awesome. I don't think it really works watching it over the course of a few days, though, because it's quite heavy and intense.

I think Deadwood is amazing, Sopranos much less so, but YMMV. It's definitely not a gangsterism thing, the show is largely about family and the psychology of relationships, business, etc, with a healthy dosage of exploration of depression and paranoia (what HBO show would be without this?!)

If you haven't heard of it, try In Treatment.. deserves mentioning in the same breath as all the other HBO great shows, and it's getting a new season next year. In terms of intimate dramas I don't think there's anything quite as compelling (definite binge material!)

Harmonica fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Nov 28, 2009

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Season two of Six Feet Under is incredible. If you like the first season, you'll LOVE the second, and things start to get really hosed up and bizarre, while still maintaining some humor. Season 3/4/5 just get more and more heartbreaking and depressing.

Friday Night Lights is also my current favorite show.

Gnatmano
Feb 8, 2006

ugh
I just watched I, Claudius in two days. I read it back in school at some point, and the adaptation was great. Brian Blessed raging at his daughter's various lovers was amazing, and so was the scene where Claudius has a seizure and sees the shades of his family. George Baker did a great job in the potentially dullest role of Tiberius.

I rarely like TV dramas, but it was just perfect in every way; I think I prefer the theatrical flavor of I, Claudius to more recent TV drama. I can't believe I had not heard of it before.

Mitthrawnuruodo
Apr 10, 2007

You have no fucking idea how hungry I am

Gnatmano posted:

I rarely like TV dramas, but it was just perfect in every way; I think I prefer the theatrical flavor of I, Claudius to more recent TV drama. I can't believe I had not heard of it before.

There's a reason why I, Claudius is the example given whenever anyone makes the "TV isn't what it used to be" point. It's not only flawless in the live aspect of the production (acting, writing, direction) and convincing in the technical aspect, of course it's known for being explicit and unflinching.

But the point about that is, unlike a lot of modern dramas which trade on raunchy or graphic elements, I, Claudius just included it because it was an aspect of the material like anything else. I think that sense of un-self-consciousness is part of what makes it so great.

Rabbit Hill
Mar 11, 2009

God knows what lives in me in place of me.
Grimey Drawer

Ape Agitator posted:

Don't you dare give in to temptation because watching the series unfurl with no idea of the destination is one of the greatest parts of it. The whole thing is so on edge and take no prisoners that you're :ohdear: the entire time.
As of 20 minutes ago, I am all caught up and ready to go for the finale on Tuesday. :ohdear: + :sweatdrop: x 10000000000

You know, it was fairly good at first, but the early first season certainly did not give away that it was about to become the greatest poo poo on television. These last 3-4 episodes have been ELECTRIFYING and I think having to sit through commercial breaks next week is going to kill me.

The writing and the acting are phenomenal. The best thing about it, though, is how unpredictable it is. Seriously, thank you for telling me to stay out of the SOA thread because being spoiled would have ruined it.

My one complaint is that the (spoilering this to be safe)Irish accents are inconsistent in origin/location (the good ones sound like Dublin accents when they're supposed to be Northern) and quality. But that's a tiny detail that I know is hard to do, and everything else is perfect.

Ingram
Oct 18, 2006

"Do you know how rare it is to find a girl who genuinely honest-to-god absolutely loves it up the arse?"

Rabbit Hill posted:

I just started season 1 of Sons of Anarchy and I'm addicted. It is SO HARD to stay out of the Season 2 thread, though.

I started Season 1 last night, just finished watching episode 5 then (Brutal ending).

After Season 1 though I'm hoping to watch either The West Wing S1 D1 or Life S1 D1, I hired these discs from the local rental store to try out.

At the rate I'm watching SoA however, I'll most likely finish S1 today!

Ape Agitator
Feb 19, 2004

Soylent Green is Monkeys
College Slice

Gnatmano posted:

I just watched I, Claudius in two days. I read it back in school at some point, and the adaptation was great. Brian Blessed raging at his daughter's various lovers was amazing, and so was the scene where Claudius has a seizure and sees the shades of his family. George Baker did a great job in the potentially dullest role of Tiberius.

I rarely like TV dramas, but it was just perfect in every way; I think I prefer the theatrical flavor of I, Claudius to more recent TV drama. I can't believe I had not heard of it before.

I almost gave up on this after three episodes. I'm really glad I didn't because it settled in and became great but those were rough hours early on. I don't know if it was the BBCness of it all or what but I found those early hours really unengaging. After I finished it I tried popping in that first disc again and it still didn't work for me.

Still, it was worth persevering because it was very well acted and entertaining. It certainly nailed the tragedy of the whole ordeal and some of the characterizations were very memorable. Some devious bastards in this one.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Yoshifan823
Feb 19, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
Purchased the first 4 seasons of The Office on Black Friday, and about halfway through Season 2, it's really awesome. Not quite as good as Arrested Development, which is the measuring stick for sitcoms/comedies as far as I'm concerned, but it's definitely on par with HIMYM and 30 Rock, which means it's awesome.

Man, NBC Thursday nights are gonna rock once I catch up with Office.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply