let's talk about tv shows itt

you guys can talk about other shows, but i wanted to mention that "once upon a time" is sooooooo dorky but the mayor from buffy was on it so that was cool

also bobby draper's therapist is jiminy cricket and he's the world's worst therapist, bobby draper comes in and says "i'm going to go explore a crumbling mine because of fairy tales" and jiminy cricket says "YOU'RE DELUSIONAL, THEY'RE GONNA LOCK YOU UP" and bobby draper cries and runs to the mine and jiminy cricket just has some scotch and doesn't tell anybody.

i watched all of homeland over the weekend, it was fun, mandy patinkin kills it

I saw about 1/3 of ep 2 and in that 20 minutes that kid literally became the most unbearable child actor on the planet

(once upon a time I mean)

also watched the first five eps of boardwalk empire s2

hbo is basically a snuff network now, right

mayor from buffy is in every tv show tbh

is homeland going to make me a defensive crazy muslim girl or do i need to give in or should i just watch band of brothers again?

i think i just answered my own question, actually. lieutenant winters!!!

i recommend just watching how high tbh

or dreamgirls! DREAMGIRLS

my sister is watching/conflicted about Homeland and she says claire danes is a really good actor! can this be true?

lol I was VERY OPINIONATED at points in that Dreamgirls thread

Jesus Dan

you were great! i love that thread.

the acting in homeland is terrific all around, patinkin, obv lt. winters, but yes claire is great! she is kind of playing a grown-up angela chase, sort of

but yeah its sorta islamophobic. it doesnt really engage too much w/ religion or terrorism though, its more about secrets and trust and stuff

i think you could probably watch it without getting too angry muslim girl, its definitely not 24

let me put it this way, watch it

okay! i am sending my crazy muslim girl therapy bills to you fyi.

I keep meaning to watch homeland, the premise intrigues me

its the kind of show thats probably a lot more fun to watch all in a row than once a week because of all the ~~mysteries~~

& i have the sense it is going in an ~~intriguing direction~~ w/r/t its relationship w/ islam in the next couple episodes due to a [SPOILER] that just happened

and cmon yall, claire danes, damian lewis and mandy patinkin? i mean how could you NOT

i feel like there's a weird timebomb in watching homeland & waiting until you feel morally dubious doing so. it's weird seeing it getting written up for being more 'thoughtful' re: terrorism etc, bc yeah it seems to mainly avoid it. i could probably go for more contrarian white-terrorist plotmoves, though, they're always sensible

the funniest thing about it so far is the super half-hearted attempt at using jazz as some kind of 'interesting personality characteristic', as noted by like the presence of some jazz posters in cd's apartment

yeah i keep waiting for them to "explain" the jazz thing but basically theres just one line an episode that telegraphs CLAIRE DANES LOVES JAZZ and then its never further explained. like i thought her dad was maybe a jazz musician or something?

idk it sorta strikes me as one of those prized-character-idiosyncracies born of a tv writer, who stubbornly clings to it & refuses to have it written out as an irrelevance. it's kinda like that spike lee film about a bunch of jazzbos whose passion is made evident by the big blown up framed a love supreme sleeve in their apartment & by their casual whistling of a refrain from a love supreme while moving between scenes. maybe there will be a jazz terrorism plot later in the season *fingers crossed*

the credits to this show are v good, too

oh my god they are soooooooooooo horrible they are just UNBELIEVABLY horrible

no they're good, they have the CLAIRE DANES IN A MAZE bits which aren't so hot but mainly they convey the fractious & dystopian assemblage that is today's multimedia culture, bravo

oh my god no schlump. no.

bill clinton
lonesome bugle
upside down obama
frantic claire danes dialogue excerpt
~showtime~

they are the worst credits in the history of ever

idk it sorta strikes me as one of those prized-character-idiosyncracies born of a tv writer, who stubbornly clings to it & refuses to have it written out as an irrelevance.

this totally explains Maria Bello's hat on Prime Suspect

the NY Times declared yesterday that the sitcom has stopped evolving, so y'all can quit them.

NYT otm, and very late with the news

sitcoms have evolved into police procedurals and gangster series

I want to like each of the last three comments

At least Homeland's opening seq isn't as bad as Rubicon's.

god help me i am still really enjoying american horror story

lol u got caught up

signed, someone caught up on Grimm ;_;

if there has ever been a show on tv that is just str8 shock/filth candy, it is american horror story

AHS is basically just about a bunch of perverted ghosts, right

I have like 3 or 4 boardwalks in the backlog, might save them for my train ride on Friday

last 2 boardwalks have been v good fyi

i really like enlightened also, tho feel like im the only person watching it

tbh I was only half-watching boardwalk empire (most of my time was being directed towards torturing specific ppl in ILX fb chat with damn you autocorrect links) but every time I looked up it seemed like you could rename that show "White People Go Ham"

boardwalk hampire

Enlightened is p interesting since it teeters from a boring dramedy with a more pretentious Greys Anatomy voice over about life, friendship, emotions, blahblah to something actually really astute and ambitious at the same time.

But yeah. Even though I hardly get a laugh out of it, I'm liking all the eps so far save the kayaking trip one.

yah the v.o. & its self-help speak is kinda brutal 2 take. i would bet they thought they needed something light, redeeming to counterbalance the rest of the day-to-day disappointment stuff, which is what they capture p well

did anyone see that latest Mitch Albom TV-movie muckfest? Martin Landau as a dying rabbi?

based on the ratings, I'd wager 'no'.

Boardwalk development at the end of the last ep was brutal, but mostly gutting because I thought that character had a lot of promise.

Yea, the day-to-day struggles are the best part of it, like when she wants to volunteer at the homeless shelter but can't because it didn't pay enough. It's impressive how poignant that was even though you knew from the very start she was going to fail.

so I'm watching fringe – I'm on the season 3 episode where SPOILER AND SHIT – belly possesses olivia or whatever. and i realize that i'm ... beginning to lose interest in the show. does it ever return to its goodness, and is season 4 worth investigating?

did anyone see that latest Mitch Albom TV-movie muckfest? Martin Landau as a dying rabbi?

Oh! I met the producer of that when we dined next to each other in Buenos Aires. He bitched about having to be in Detroit for three months.

Nice guy, though.

according to the twitter someone beloved is coming back to parks & rec for an episode! i won't say who becuz idk spoilers but i'm super-stoked.

so I'm watching fringe – I'm on the season 3 episode where SPOILER AND SHIT – belly possesses olivia or whatever. and i realize that i'm ... beginning to lose interest in the show. does it ever return to its goodness, and is season 4 worth investigating?

― remy bean in exile, Monday, November 28, 2011 5:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

its picked up since that bit for sure, managed to change stuff up in the new season without fucking too much w/ the formula. get the feeling therell be some mid-spring doldrums the way there basically always are w/ sci-fi shows

i got 1 episode into this season of Boardwalk Empire and was like "eh, i wasn't really into this last time." maybe i'll try to catch up but it kinda felt like no matter what crazy stuff happened, i didn't really care. i get shock value fatigue with most edgy cable dramas these days.

Sons Of Anarchy has been REALLY extreme this season, though, i feel like every episode lately has just totally put me through the ringer of just serious shit going down constantly.

you should at least see the bits of Boardwalk Empire that feature stroke victims getting beaten

is it a flashback explaining how paz de la huerta's face got that way?

surprisingly, no

ppl also do fascinating things with wrenches on BW, plus there seems to be a good amount of gratuitous elder abuse

Rubicon opening >>>>>> Homeland opening

hey I'm gonna shamelessly self-promote the Arrested Development commentary podcast that my friend and I have been recording, it's called Hero Squad!

It seems appropriate because this is the TV thread I guess.

watched the first two episodes of Hell on Wheels. The Swede is pretty much awesome

so is it racist?

for sure

I loved the rubicon credits -- thought they were pretty elegantly done and conveyed the right atmosphere. Homeland at its best has touches of rubicon. At its worst it reminds me of AMC's The Killing in terms of what feel like throwaway dead-ends and moodiness for its own sake and twists that really come from nowhere. Really not like either show though. Last episode was pretty good, I thought.

watched the pilot of Homeland last night. mandy patinkin is, indeed, awesome in it.

i think when i saw the pilot i thought he was gonna be the toby zeigler, idk if that's been entirely correct though, his portfolio is a lil more muscular

So I watched New Girl for the first time last night, since a girl I used to take improv classes with had a small role in it. It was better than I thought it might be, but it also felt kind of tame.

thanks dan, watching grimm now.

2 BROKE GIRLS - most like 2 HUGE TITS (and some race jokes)

thanks dan, watching grimm now.

okay lol

they get muslim prayer slightly wrong in Homeland/pedantry. also this show is a huge bummer.

could i make a living consulting with tv shows/movies about how to accurately portray muslims praying y/n?

i guess once i'd done it the first time i'd have put myself out of a job.

Horseshoe, what did you think of Emily Nussbaum's inaugural New Yorker column?

The Rubicon opening music was p nice, and the motion design was also good but it was kind of 'lol connecting-random-shit-together conspiracy theories' which might have been actually what the show was all about..

the most recent episode of homeland kinda sucked :-/

anybody watch The Rachel Maddow Show?

im still watching work of art & enjoy it a lot on the level of a reality show but this is v otm -

“They all reminded me of the people who would be at the dinner party in Beetlejuice.” —Paul F. Tompkins on Work Of Art contestants

the most recent episode of homeland kinda sucked :-/

Yup. OTOH it's kind of impressive that it took them this long to significantly fuck up - first seasons are usually much dodgier.

probs not the right thread, but Terriers is now up on Netflix Instant.

i was just coming here to post that!!! excited to finally watch it!

is it worth the time?

i really like enlightened also, tho feel like im the only person watching it

ive been kinda half watching this while i work on stuff and its def been improving as it goes, to the point where im really excited to watch the episodes properly

it was kinda perfect in the last ep that she finds out what cogentiva does is effeciency tracking shiz

also i love so much the casting of her peripheral coworkers - they dont @ all look like actors i wish i could find screenshots

i also feel like if hbo had tried to put it on sundays ppl would h8 on it so much

is House any good yet?

holy shit community tnite

is it worth the time?

Terriers? Oh hell yes. But be prepared to be devastated when you get to the end and realize there are no more episodes...ever.

Yeah, pretty much. (Unlike most other 1-season wonders, though, it wraps things up quite nicely.)

P&R was pretty light on the laffs tonight, but I guess it was more of a plot-advancing episode.

It's Always Sunny also classic tnite

"Turned out Captain Tom was a junkie!"

yeah tonight's parks & rec was mostly about givin' the shippers what they want. did love the transcriptionist reading all of rob lowe's lines deadpan tho

also joel mchale was on fire on community, i love it when he and shirley have plotlines together

It's Always Sunny also classic tnite

i love when they do the reverse seinfeld thing

holy shit community tnite

YESSSSSSSS

I love it when Shirley is awesome

Just want to jump into this thread to say how jazzed I am about the David Milch/HBO/Faulkner deal.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/11/david-milch-on-william-faulkner-and-his-new-deal-with-hbo.html

Man Luck better be fucking awesome.

Bit over a week til the premiere

realizing that Katherine McPhee is in "Smash" = I am boycotting "Smash"

(I was planning on catching at least one episode for potential roffles but ick no)

would not smash

I thought this was really sharp, in the AV Club's recap of this week's Work of Art:

That’s why the recurring cash prize has become so irritating. It’s a lot less likely that a struggling artist is going to lash out with something subversive when a $25,000 check is being dangled over their heads. Big money is the most ham-fisted way for the show to both manufacture trite suspense and make the artists fall in line -- a gratuitous bully move by producers who are already blessed with a massive degree of control. So, anyway, enough.

Fucking hell! The couples hosting those dinner parties on Top Chef were the worst.

I can only assume that there was some sort of cross-branding with a attempted Real Housewives of Dallas series. Then Andy Cohen saw the housewives and their husbands and said 'Fuck it. These people are disgusting savages,' and killed the series.

"an attempted"

That cigar was fucking gross and if you make salmon with a goat cheese filling, you gotta go home.

i dunno if it's cause i'm single and half the fun from these shows is complaining about the fucking idiots on the screen to your other half or whatever but i officially lost interest in both work of art and top chef this season.

KG's Monologue on Boss killed it tonight: "Whatever station you occupy, others have given you."

in one of the earlier episodes he said "I am a bad man and have done some BAD. FUCKING. THINGS." and i was like on the edge of my seat waiting for him to say that he was a motherfucker with some dark secrets

Zajac's wife got a really good set of lines too. One of the best episodes of the series, I think.

i know this is out of season but i've been watching "bored to death" s2 on dvd and i really like it. it's really low key and low stakes and jason schwartzman is just kinda jason schwartzman-y but ted danson and zach galifiniakis are both really good in it and it makes me laugh. doesn't seem like it gets a lot of attention though.

between bored to death and damages, ted danson is one of my favorite actors right now! haven't seen him on CSI though lol.

I like how the last several posts directly/indirectly refer to--at the end of 2011 no less--actors from "Cheers".

just caught up on Revenge and omg she has a Japanese revenge guru.

on the proper ilx Bored To Death thread we definitely talked about it totally hitting its stride and becoming genuinely funny in s2. s3 has been pretty good too but not up that level. Danson is definitely such a badass these days.

Hahaha

"We want you to penetrate a pig."
"Fuck a pig on television? I won't do it."
"It's trending on Twitter."

That was really good, I thought. (Charlie Brooker's new show Black Mirror btw)

a) the pm wouldn't do it and ii) the public wouldn't want him to. I figure. Not bad though. Liked the upbeat ending - well except for his wife not getting over it. He only agreed to it when her safety was threatened!

Well yes, I mean since 1980 the policy has been that we don't give in to terrorists, not even a little. But the turn in faces between people watching it - in that the laughter turned into revulsion within 5 seconds - was excellently done. And also that an hour later people were still watching it but wondering why they were.

damon wayans jr. is so hilarious on conan right now. "grandma wayans is the one who's responsible for that big-ass avatar tree of wayanses, shoutout to grandma wayans for never using a condom. repeatedly raw doggin'!"

HIMYM pretty whoa tonight.

Warned a friend w/ baby fever (whose little sister just had the first grandkid in the family) not to watch.

yeah really enjoyed that episode, although my wife missed it and when she got home i was like "it was really good but i dunno i'm not gonna explain what happened"

enlightened ep was like an amy & mom origin story; thought the scene btwn ladd & the other older lady in the supermarket was incredible

sarita choudhury showed up on homeland!

yeah the casting on that show is great isnt it

my future wife was eliminated from Work of Art :(

Sons of Anarchy finale fucking sucked - really need to stop giving that show a chance.

i just watched pt. 1 of the finale, probably won't see pt. 2 til next week because FX is the only fucking channel that puts their shows on comcast ondemand a week after airing. i thought the show was pretty awesome most of this season though, so much shit has gone down already that i kind of wouldn't begrudge them for a finale letdown.

i've really enjoyed this season, too. the finale was surprising because it was so slow-paced, and nothing really got tied up (previous seasons they've wrapped almost everything and only left a thread for the following season). is it because they got the go-ahead for the 14th ep late in the filming? pt 1 is def more action-packed.

also here are some links http://watchseries.eu/episode/sons_of_anarchy_s4_e14-131465.html

i think the movpod.net link was reasonable quality

FX is the only fucking channel that puts their shows on comcast ondemand a week after airing.

^^^this is so fucking infuriating, fortunately no one else i know watches american horror story so i dont get spoilered

also the first only(sadface) season of terriers is on netflix instant now and holy shit now i know what all you people were talking about, what an amazing amazing show

attn: max i am totally obsessed with homeland now

halfway through episode 9 DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING

damian lewis is such brilliant casting. so beautiful and by turns so wholesome and evil.

also i think i love clare danes. o_O at me.

the episode from last sunday kind of sucked, but "Representative Brody" got it back on track.

It is lol how they cant give up the jazz thing tho

i'm finally catching up on homeland and getting into it

An interesting analysis of "How I Met Your Mother":

What matters is that the show is structured around a philosophy that is fundamentally this: However your life goes, that's the story of how you ended up where you are, and therefore, every turn your story took, whether sad or happy at the time, is part of how you achieved whatever joy you have.

Much more here:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/12/06/143195693/how-i-met-your-mother-the-optimism-of-inevitability?sc=tw

booze science, i just started watching american horror story too! was drawn in by my love for connie britton

american horror story is just... it may actually be the worst show achievable

seriously

it's so bad yes but i cant stop watching it

and lol Grimm too. i got juked last week cuz the moved it to thursdays. i was way sad about that

american horror story is just... it may actually be the worst show achievable

lol no way

you can't say anything remotely like this unless you've vetted the competition (VIP, Models Inc, MANIMAL, Automan, Passions, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, Horseland, Bakugan Battle Brawlers)

couldn't watch grimm.

american horror story...way more watchable than glee i'd say. it's definitely no homeland.

I mean, even THE CAPE is a better contender for "worst show achievable" than AHS (which admittedly I've only seen two episodes of)

Grimm is hilarious to me because it's basically "what if Law & Order didn't have the 'Law' part and also had evil fairytale creatures in it"

MTV's Good Vibes is by far the worst show 2011 imo

oh is that the surfing cartoon? I haven't seen that yet because the commercials make it seem even less appealing than Ugly Americans

it's like a big johnson t-shirt come to life but less subtle

i tried to watch that becasue the kid had this poster in his room

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qDNkXt1CL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

i thought it might have been i sign from above that this show would be awesome. i watched about 5 min and remembered there is no god

lol

you can't say anything remotely like this unless you've vetted the competition (VIP, Models Inc, MANIMAL, Automan, Passions, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, Horseland, Bakugan Battle Brawlers)

i guess this is true, but i think the difference btw ahs and these shows is that ahs is actually p good (well except the writing) in its component parts, its just assembled seemingly on purpose to be the most terrible it possibly could be?

like passions is/was gloriously wtf but the acting is nowhere near as good as it is on ahs and its much more quickly/cheaply produced, like a two minute stretch of ahs (esp w/o dialogue) can seem like a top teir cable drama but its just so stupid as a whole

attn: max i am totally obsessed with homeland now

― horseshoe, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 2:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

i knew it i kNEW IT i know you too well

lewis is so perfect b/c hes got like the most difficult-to-read face possible. his upper lip looks like upper lips do after dudes who youve only ever seen with mustaches shave their mustaches and you like focus on their upper lip and youre like "its so big"

episode 10 (the damian lewis "backstory") is unfortunately p silly but episode 11 is better (i tink i have those ep #s right...)

i feel like homeland only exists w/in the confines of this thread like it is some conceptually project yall are working on

well it's on showtime so that may as well be true

i guess this is true, but i think the difference btw ahs and these shows is that ahs is actually p good (well except the writing) in its component parts, its just assembled seemingly on purpose to be the most terrible it possibly could be?

haha okay this I can get behind

i only got through 2 eps of AHS but the pilot was one of the most wearyingly misconceived things i've ever seen -- like every horror trope you can imagine with all rhythms and moments of building tension taken out so it's just one wacky WTF after another except not as fun as that sounds

the editing on ahs is so fucked most of the time

the ahs pilot was the worst thing they have done so far, i was pretty much sure that i wasnt bothering to go back, but then i had no internet for a couple of days and it was on demand and now it is too late for me.

i am into homeland atm but i wish it was a little better sketched out at the margins; every peripheral character is such a caricature, like the ASSHOLE FBI AGENTS, or the DIFFICULT DESK BUREAUCRAT AGENTS, or the comedy Saudi diplomat who smirks and says, a ha ha ha ha!, but I have diplomatic immunity!.

like I feel like there being some texture or dimension to those people would make it a better show & deliver some of the 'complexity' it's striving for wrt the convoluted world of intelligence agencies & international relations & stereotypes, &c. stuff like the wire is very genre w/o losing credibility, but homeland can feel a little light in this, too automatic, too many stock characters. i'm really into boss, & think that everyone in it's super well realised - the people like the caregiver at the previous mayor's house, or the people who populate the world of the daughter, &c, they all seem real & are interesting enough to kinda command some attention.

also yes lol at continued generic jazz driving soundtrack efforts

i'm actually in the middle of the brody backstory episode and yes, it is kind of dumb. but whatever i am still obsessed.

lewis is so perfect b/c hes got like the most difficult-to-read face possible. his upper lip looks like upper lips do after dudes who youve only ever seen with mustaches shave their mustaches and you like focus on their upper lip and youre like "its so big"

― max max max max, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 4:27 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

loooooooooooooool yeah and his coloring! it's so "Opie" like that one white supremacist calls him but also so chilling!

i should start watching Boss, too. because of the martin donovan.

i feel like i just said something borderline racist i am fine with redheads with blue eyes fwiw

hes got that "could be creepy, could be charming" vibe down to a science

totes it's funny how he plays like an entirely angelic creature in band of brothers

should start watching Boss, too. because of the martin donovan.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 23:30 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

do it, even just watch the first. i am only four or five in but think it is amazing & p distinctive. donovan is good, idk whether some of that's just that I'm pleased to see him or what

my only previous experience w/ damian lewis was in dreamcatchers when he played the infuriatingly named charachter 'jonesy' who was possessed by aliens so i just think of him as always having this weird distant aura. also i had no idea he was british so that kind of adds another layer of oh that's why there seems to be something 'off' about his performances.

I really liked Life & lewis was great in that too. Was super bummed when it was cancelled.

Also, I think that the court part of l&o is the order part, not the law part. After all, the theme song says "first comes the law, then comes the order".

Finally, this is totally nuts: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2011/12/kyra_sedgwick_in_tnt_s_the_closer_challenging_the_tv_procedural.html

totes it's funny how he plays like an entirely angelic creature in band of brothers

― horseshoe, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 11:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

i don't think i want to watch him do bad things tbh

sterl is right on all three counts.

i had not yet registered on the sandbox until now but i feel moved to post after seeing that eva amurri is back on tv. just as a bit character on 'the new girl' (yes i know), but it looks like they are setting up to keep running 'schmidt at work' plotlines, so maybe they'll keep her around once in a while.

sigh, eva amurri.

I got two episodes into Boss, found it a very silly platform for Grammer's monologues.

american horror story is excellent. every episode it's like they thought, "what would be fucking ridiculous and over the top? deformed insane dwarf ghost chained to a bed in the attic? OH OK"

I got two episodes into Boss, found it a very silly platform for Grammer's monologues.

― Simon H., Thursday, 8 December 2011 06:01 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

huh, really? they haven't seemed to dominate, to me; they happen, sure, but they're almost rattled off. i just love the roaming perspective of it, i think, which is aided by how well presented it is. i would totally sign up for a show of blustering kg monologues but this seems more varied, more interesting.

Jean-Ralphio's walkthrough that job at the end of Parks and Rec was gold.

i had not yet registered on the sandbox until now but i feel moved to post after seeing that eva amurri is back on tv. just as a bit character on 'the new girl' (yes i know), but it looks like they are setting up to keep running 'schmidt at work' plotlines, so maybe they'll keep her around once in a while.

sigh, eva amurri.

― j., Thursday, December 8, 2011 12:51 AM (21 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

ah shit i have to watch the new girl again

Donna from 70s Show is playing Chelsea Handler?!?! This can't be good.

ah shit i have to watch the new girl again

well, it still seems just as good - strong writing, good comic performances. it's just... her.

at least she carries off her scenes with aplomb? during the big terrible sex scene in the last episode i wasn't exactly laughing all the time but i was kind of aghast and impressed throughout.

Jean-Ralphio's walkthrough that job at the end of Parks and Rec was gold.

1000x this. Plus he was hitting on the dognapping victim from Veronica Mars!

AHS was as crazy as ever this week!!

i'm catching up on Homeland and just lolled so hard at "MILES DAVIS...YOU LIKE JAZZ?"

lol yeah

btw pilot episode of HBO's Luck on sunday after boardwalk yall

MILES DAVIS...YOU LIKE WHITE WINE?

Homeland is solid and good value, but I think Boss is the best new drama this season. It's been kinda hard getting people on board with that, though! My brother, who I know will love it, has been resistant because he thought it was a Grammer-ian right-wing-fest.

Luck pretty much the only drama I plan on watching the rest of this tv season

*drudge siren* the reveal of what mac is short for on its always sunny is totally worth it *drudge siren*

^^^ OTM

Homeland is solid and good value, but I think Boss is the best new drama this season. It's been kinda hard getting people on board with that, though! My brother, who I know will love it, has been resistant because he thought it was a Grammer-ian right-wing-fest.

― In Your Velour Slacks (Hairplug Receipts), Friday, 9 December 2011 20:28 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

otm x 1000, i get so much resistance pushing boss but it's so distinctive & fills such a good space - like this is obv gross & sounds like an attempt to manufacture a high brow television consumer's wet dream, but it kinda IS somewhere betwene the west wing & the wire - procedural, expansive, immersive. it's so distinctively made as well.

i think it's the kind of show that will do better after the season ends and ppl can watch all the eps together over a weekend

i've been behind on so many shows lately and felt more motivated to catch up on Sons of Anarchy, Homeland, etc. that i feel like even the few episodes of Boss i've watched i wasn't really giving my full attention. i may try to start over and watch the whole season in one go to see if i was just sleeping on it.

*drudge siren* the reveal of what mac is short for on its always sunny is totally worth it *drudge siren*

― big popppa hoy, Friday, December 9, 2011 4:43 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

More otms

preferring Boss over Homeland is madness to me! The troubled daughter who is an addict but also a nurse AND a priest of some kind was anough reason for me to tune out, but then there's also those awful assistant-pol quickie scenes, and the general overplotting. not for me, at all.

whereas it took until ep 10 (I think) for Homeland to seriously trip up at all in terms of plotting, I've found it to be crazy self-assured for a first season.

The troubled daughter who is an addict but also a nurse AND a priest of some kind was anough reason for me to tune out, but then there's also those awful assistant-pol quickie scenes, and the general overplotting.

idgi this at all! like i don't think i know what overplotting is; I mean i don't think the story gets convoluted at any point; if there are assistant pol quick scenes then they're just to present the texture of the guy's schedule & job & the backdrop of what's going on with him. or they're things that feed into the story arc, like the building site/water thing. & all of these things are done so gracefully, even efficiently, I think; you get some introductory shot of people talking, the voiceover carries on while you kinda airily follow or track or consider KG. & with the daughter, you make it sound complicated!, but it hasn't ever seemed like ~too much~ in the plot or anything; i guess + she's a priest is the only slightly unwieldy add-on, but her character is that she's the recovering addict/nurse & her actions are in that ballpark. hers is the strand of boss i think of when i think of how good & broad & well fleshed out it is, because it's such an immersive sub-story you slip into, when you're following her in the clinic.

i am obviously arguing a subjective pov, here, but just i guess i think that so much of what appeals about it is its breadth & sprawl, in folding these copious things in - i guess in a sorta 'procedural'/'this is the daily business' west-wingy kinda way, in which there's the over-all arc & then the daily bread of the characters butting heads & showing rather than telling. & the problem i have with homeland is it being too directional, slightly, like my crit about ancillary characters seeming cartoonishly thin - that it would benefit from more ambient exploration of the spaces they're in, over succinct plotting.

haha by "assistant-pol quickie" I meant the sex scenes involving the blonde assistant. which were, at least in the first 2 eps (especially the 2nd), embarrassingly awful imo.

yeah it really tipped past 'edgy cable drama titillation' to 'this is like cheesy soft core'

14-year-old me is astounded at my saying so, but the sex/nudity on both Boss and Homeland is a little gratuitous. Like "Lt. Daniels and his chiseled bare ass" gratuitous.

ok there is no such thing as gratuitous morena baccarin

besides some of the early Baccarin stuff, basically all of the nudity on Homeland is integrated fairly naturally IMO.

yeah i think homeland compares favorably to hbo shows i have loved in terms of gratuitous sex scenes. the scenes with damian lewis and his wife were hard to watch, but seemed necessary to the story.

Boss finale :-(

Conceding that I've maybe seen enough naked Morena Baccarin in any context produces some like real high-level internal conflict, let me tell you.

The woman with the cat on Misfits was Mandy on Brookie, no? Complicit in the whole Under The Patio shit?

Also today's Doctor Who news = WOO (although truth to tell neither story is brilliant).

no one wanted to talk about how much community sucked this week?

Already happening on the two Community threada

oh btw i started watching happy endings this weekend--pleasant surprise--it's funny and the cast has great chemistry but it exists in this weird space where either i'm cracking up or i'm so annoyed at certain mannerisms/tics (basically, 60% of what the gay guy and lil wayans say/do and like 40% of what the kim catrall-looking woman says/does and also and in particular the way casey wilson says "ahmahhhhzing" or how they all say "casheesh") that i want to turn the tv off

its a very broey show for all its attempts at distancing itself from bro culture

max that's basically exactly how i feel when you or slocki or cr?m is saying things like "relaish" instead of "relationship" or whatever absurd abbreviations you guys use

yeah but were like fun and cool *makes guns out of fingers*

i mean i always have this argument on the 'how i met your mother' threads w/ people who think ted being a douche is a problem and not hilarious

yeah i guess the writers/actors feel "in on the joke" of ted being super lame w/ HIMYM but it feels less so w/ happy endings. like i want "amahhhzing" to be more of a joke on casey wilson instead of just like "a joke" that sort of hangs there and its unclear if we all agree that its a horrible thing to say. possibly this show is too sophisticated for me

but every single character besides casey wilson's thinks "amahhzing" is horrible and ostracizes her when she says it, how is that ambiguous

oh i like totally didnt pick up on that

still, "casheesh"

luuuuuuuck

oh mann

Boardwalk was pretty amazing.

I liked the Luck pilot - pretty much "sum of its parts," but, y'know, not such a bad thing to be in this case.

Also today's Doctor Who news = WOO (although truth to tell neither story is brilliant).

― aldo, Sunday, 11 December 2011 22:41 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

Read that as "today's Doctor Who news = WOO (dun derun, dun derun, dun derun, dum dum de de dun derun...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyuwGzYIAns

Luck was cool. My expectations were super high so for the pilot to hit "good, could turn great over the course of the series" I thought was a win

kinda hard for me to deal w/ that show on a purely "is it good entertainment??" level cause I work in racing. thought it rang pretty true though. definitely not dumbed down for a mass audience imo except maybe in one little scene.

I was pretty lost for a chunks of it (I know nothing about horse race betting or...really...betting in general). It all made sense by the end though.

NY Mag did a pretty good "episode guide for those who know nothing about racing" piece

kinda hard for me to deal w/ that show on a purely "is it good entertainment??" level cause I work in racing. thought it rang pretty true though. definitely not dumbed down for a mass audience imo except maybe in one little scene.

when we get back to ilx proper plz post copiously on luck thread

I always confuse Parks & Recreation w/ Community bcz, like all other series that have debuted in the last 5 years, I haven't seen them.

afaik nobody posted this yet:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/tv/feature/the-25-best-tv-shows-of-2011/292

lol how to make it in america

there is literally almost no show HBO aired new episodes of this year that is not on that list

can I just say Grimm is pretty shockingly grim; I was totally taken aback by the gore in the pied piper episode (!)

when we get back to ilx proper plz post copiously on luck thread

haha I'm sure I won't be able to help myself. I think I started the thread iirc.

lol @ the disconnect between the first sentence of the Breaking Bad blurb and its placement as #2

There's Breaking Bad, and then there's the rest of television except "Louie."

Conceding that I've maybe seen enough naked Morena Baccarin in any context produces some like real high-level internal conflict, let me tell you.

― In Your Velour Slacks (Hairplug Receipts), Saturday, 10 December 2011 05:34 (2 days ago) Bookmark Permalink

where is all this morena baccarin nudity and is it on a tv show worth watching so i dont feel like a perv?

wtf at that Slant list.

also the writer doesn't seem to have seen the Boardwalk finale when he wrote that.

it's a pretty canonical list, not very surprising but mostly accurate, but i can't take any "best of tv" list with "the walking dead" on it seriously - such a shitty show

i was talking to my brother about the walking dead the other day. him: "you should give it another go! its like if a zombie apocalypse actually happened" me: "nothing happens, it is hour upon hour of trying not to get eaten also america is a big place of dull nothingness." him: "Yeah, exactly!" me: "..."

The blurb for Walking Dead is hilarious tho. I love the defense for badly written and acted characters being basically "well, sometimes shitty people survive zombie apocalypses too".

well, TV, such a shitty medium

xxxp

tv is so much better than movies right now

Movie of the year - "Your TV"

the best tv anyway, yeah

where is all this morena baccarin nudity and is it on a tv show worth watching so i dont feel like a perv?

― big popppa hoy, Monday, December 12, 2011 4:26 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

it's on Homeland and yes

ty

better than Hollywood shit, very possibly

xxxp

I have to assume that Arli$$ would've made it onto that Slant list if it were currently airing.

the better end of niche/cable TV these days is at least on the same level as mainstream arthouse cinema these days

I can't object to your bitching since I don't watch series, but I figure there's probably only 6-8 good shows anyway.

I saw Arli$$ a few times; at least it was funnier than Arrested Development.

mainstream arthouse cinema

lol whut? The Weinstein Company?

Would love to see this HBO show on a list:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM5NzA4MjQ3OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTQwNTIzMQ@@._V1._SY317_CR12,0,214,317_.jpg

sorry i meant to put 'arthouse' in scarequotes

haha I'm sure I won't be able to help myself. I think I started the thread iirc.

Nah, that was Eazy. (Milch/Mann is like his dream collab.)

can I just say Grimm is pretty shockingly grim; I was totally taken aback by the gore in the pied piper episode (!)

yeah! that's the only Grimm episode i've seen, and i kept calling new people into the room to look at the music teacher's bloody rat-eaten face frozen in a horrifying perma-scream.

also i wasn't paying 100% attention to it but it seemed like a pretty crappy show, why was the violin kid deadmau5 and what did it have to do with anything?

hey so i've now seen every episode of Once Upon a Time this season even tho that kid is so annoying and Cameron is a lame protagonist and that Snow White lady seems to be portraying a fourteen year old and the Evil Queen is totally ridiculous -- why????

is this what Lost fans felt like? psychologically forced to continually watch a show that wasn't any good?

I binged on the first four or so episodes and found myself kind of enjoying it despite all those problems you've mentioned. Thankfully I haven't had the desire to catch up on anything since then.

"once upon a time" is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dorky

like yesterday's episode was the dumbest thing, and yet i will come back to watch more because there is something about it

and it inadvertently sends these WEIRD messages bcuz it's trying to create real world analogues to fairy stories, like it indulges in the worst stereotypes about adoption bcz the evil queen adopted the kid

stop making me kind of want to watch this show

kinda hard for me to deal w/ that show on a purely "is it good entertainment??" level cause I work in racing. thought it rang pretty true though. definitely not dumbed down for a mass audience imo except maybe in one little scene.

― chjips ahoy (sandbox dmr), Monday, December 12, 2011 8:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

curious abt what little scene u mean -- they dont play sigur ros when they euthanize horses?

**** spoilers in this ******

curious abt what little scene u mean -- they dont play sigur ros when they euthanize horses?

nah not that scene. that was pretty well done I thought. and hard to watch (they put up a curtain at the track for a reason, ugh)

I thought when those dudes were playing the pick six and were all "what's our biggest payout?" "well the biggest longshots return you the most money!!" it was kind of a "well, duh" to me and you would think guys who obviously played the pick six regularly would need that explained, it was for the audience to understand what was going on. (also if you're writing a dramatic end to a big pick six sequence, why have them cover all the horses in the last leg ... doesn't that sorta take the drama out of it?) For the most part I thought they threw people into the deep end with the jargon and stuff. it's not like they put on a voiceover saying "the pick six is a bet where you pick six winners in a row" or explained what a "triple bug boy" is or etc.

is this what Lost fans felt like? psychologically forced to continually watch a show that wasn't any good?

by the last couple of seasons, sure. Lost was good at the beginning though. def stayed great up through season 3 at least.

I dunno how a general TV thread works with spoilers, someone start a sandbox Luck thread if you want to get into this shit deeper. I wasn't sure how many people would have watched it.

you would WOULDN'T think guys who obviously played the pick six regularly would need that explained

oops

oh yea even as a casual at best racing fan i thought some of that dialogue was overdone/unnecessary

i appreciate when a show or w/e comes @ u w/ the real jargon even if i have no idea - ie triple bug boy -- im sure the comparison has been made b4 cuz its fuckin milch but it's like shakespeare - u dont have to understand every syllable to vibe the story

yeah totally. it's not like on medical shows everyone really knows what's up when they yell out "I need 50CCs of benzomediscopamine stat!!"

re spoiler post:

i did think that narratively that scene was handled incredibly. the way that they focus the audience's attention (and the bettors) on #8 and then when the injury happens they just move onto #2 and there this moment of triumph for them, but for the audience we are left with the other horse and there's this gaping sense of almost sociopathy, or heartlessness where the trauma is just elided bc, hey, payday. but the wound cuts even deeper bc of this.

That whole sequence was really well done, and highlights the fact that getting Mann onboard to (if nothing else) set up the aesthetic of the races was a really smart move.

omg @ this week's homeland!

a whole lot resting on that finale. Carrie's boss has gotta be the mole, right?

Yeah, just watched it. Wow. I'm guessing that Claire Danes is prolly gonna get another Emmy.

omg @ this week's homeland!

― tehresa, Tuesday, 13 December 2011 04:52 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

yeah this was good & manic CD was great. was so frustrating when she didn't listen to her dad's sage advice. next week is the last? & i hadn't thought of carrie's boss being ~involved~

guys i love claire danes. "i thought i had reinvented music."

Yeah. So great. Makes me realize that my Angela Chase crush never truly went away.

This got picked up for a second season already, didn't it? If not, I'm sure it's imminent. I know Dexter just got picked up for two new seasons, and people aren't so terribly over the moon about that show anymore, so I have to assume that Showtime will take care of its critical sweetheart.

The Christmas special of Eureka was the worst thing ever and made me feel ashamed of having bothered to watch the show at all, which I was already slightly feeling I probably should be. (So obviously I thought I'd come and post about the shame on the internet.)

Plus way to have an end-of-season cliffhanger and then have the cliff-hung character turn up in the Christmas special like nothing ever happened. But then considering there've been several ridiculous plot resets already I suppose continuity is irrelevant.

it's kind of hilarious that Syfy has all their shows do Christmas specials every year, but yeah afaict they all take place outside of their usual continuity (or at least that seems to be the case with the Haven and Warehouse 13 ones, have never watched Eureka).

This got picked up for a second season already, didn't it?

Yeah it got renewed four or five weeks ago, though how they'll keep the cast of characters they have right now completely eludes me. (Unless they aren't!)

there is one real obnoxious bitch on top chef this year

Beverly?

I won't spoil tonight's episode if you haven't seen it but the obnoxious bitch is the fat loud-mouth woman that gets called a bitch when others are talking to the camera

I watched Black Mirror E2 on catch up yesterday - basically a modern day update on EM Forster's The Machine Stops. I can't say it's not without its flaws, but I felt really quite affected and rather depressed when I woke up this morning.

highlight of work of art this wk was simon pronouncing arkansas "our-kansas"

Also, I think that the court part of l&o is the order part, not the law part. After all, the theme song says "first comes the law, then comes the order".

dude whaaaaaat

court stuff is law stuff, "order" is "keeping order", i.e. policing

i dunno what song you're talkin about sterl but it's either referring to the actual title or is getting a bit deep into policing philosophy: first come the laws, then comes the enforcement (then come the lawyers)

Yeah it got renewed four or five weeks ago, though how they'll keep the cast of characters they have right now completely eludes me. (Unless they aren't!)

Not to spoilerize, but this is at least as true for Boss as it is for Homeland! The extent to which they were willing to write out the supporting cast makes me wonder if they were even anticipating a second season.

After all, the theme song says "first comes the law, then comes the order".

Sorry, I have to be a stickler: the theme song goes "First comes the law part, then comes the order part."

finished watching terriers on demand. what a goddamn incredible show, you guys were all right about that one. sadface cancellation for sure.

i loved the reporter so much

i actually had a dream recently where i ran into Donal Logue somewhere and i was all "Terriers was the shit man NO SERIOUSLY ALL-TIME DUDE YOU ARE THE MAN"

i just dont get how FX which is so notable at their ability to endlessly pimp their shows bungled this one so badly - also not the greatest name i guess - but the fact it failed is so so stupid, its a near perfect show on pretty much every level.

I think it's time for me to cancel HBO, at least until Treme comes back. Boardwalk Empire is just a little too violent for my taste, as much as I like a little Kelly Macdonald in my life.

I guess it would be bad timing to pick up Showtime now?

SPOILERS, PROBABLY, IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ALMOST EVEN ANY OF HOMELAND

there is a thing on nymag about how homeland ~might~ end. i wondered, the woman whose bf got shot?, who went on the run & got called in by mandy potemkin or w/e that guy's name is: will she figure? she seemed to get a lot of close-ups when we were zipping in and out of the felt-tip coloured-wonder-wall of claire danes' mind

i didn't read the nymag thing btw. i can wait

so.... first three eps of sons of anarchy and i am hooked like a guppy

there is one real obnoxious bitch on top chef this year
sometimes, the bf says that i have job ptsd from my old job. this chef reminded me so much of someone there who made my life hell for quite some time - appearance, demeanor, mannerisms, etc - that i actually flashed back. it was really scary!

so.... first three eps of sons of anarchy and i am hooked like a guppy

first 2 seasons of that are real good. think I'm done with it now after the s4 finale (I only watched 4 sporadically after not being too into 3)

s2 is great until the sucky finale. s3 sucks but has a solid finale. s4 is great until the crap finale...

Can we talk about Its Always Sunny because WOW. At first I thought the episode was kinda shitty but the last five minutes just blew me away. The dance and the Mac reveal had me genuinely crying with laughter, with actual tears.

haha i am watching it right now and it is just like whoa

Wow, I'm about 2 seasons behind.... Guess I should catch up.

<i>Good Wife</i> on a tear lately, but a question for you deists. Having grown up in a heathen household, is Alicia's reaction to Grace's religion-seeking a big surprise/over-reaction?

Its Always Sunny felt like a step too far during the dance routine but I enjoyed it

I always like Good Wife

Sons of Anarchy is an up and down show but when it's on it's on, and i felt like this season had a lot of payoff -- not sure what people disliked about the finale so much, it was obviously lower on excitement than the last few episodes that preceded (and would almost HAVE to be) but it worked for me.

Sutter was saying that he split the finale into two parts because he wanted people to see the whole thing and not some hacked up 90-minute version that was originally intended. He's admitted that maybe he shouldn't have, because the first hour was always going to have the big action and the shooting and the final bit was always going to be a wind down.

I think people's problem was the lack of follow-through (Clay needed to die, basically, but they've kept him around) and the sudden cartel revelation that felt like a reason to keep Jax there when he would have just left.

yeah, i can see that. i just thought it was obvious that Clay was going to live and thought the cartel thing, while kind of a transparent device, worked for me on at least a thematic level of setting up the next season well (although i hope that's the last season since things have already come to a head so much at this point).

that nearly the WHOLE damn thing ended up feeling like more set-up, instead of something compelling in its own right, was what frustrated me. oh, and what the hell was up with Gemma's behavior in the last few eps? Segal is so good, and was so chilling when she insisted that Clay be killed "by a Son/son," but she did basically nothing to actually make that happen.

<i>Good Wife</i> on a tear lately, but a question for you deists. Having grown up in a heathen household, is Alicia's reaction to Grace's religion-seeking a big surprise/over-reaction?

i dunno but, man, wendy scott-carr...

Good Wife is easily the most consistent pleasure on TV for me - rarely transcendent (last example would be "Executive Order 32444" or whatever that was called) but it's always at least a little compelling in some respect.

(although i hope that's the last season since things have already come to a head so much at this point).

Sutter's hoping for 7 seasons, and unless the ratings drop precipitously, it'll happen.

i feel like one of the few people these days who isn't in a rush to see their favorite shows go off the air before they jump the shark, but that is kinda crazy. i don't even know how they could make the current art last for more than one more season, let alone 3. hopefully they'll find new ways to utilize the whole ensemble instead of killing off more and more secondary characters.

anyone watching the slap?

Watched the first couple of episodes. Felt a bit rote

The Killing II finale => Anyone see it?

Buch turned out to be p/gd in this: looked like a man condemmed at the end w/his glance at his secretary/civil servant.

i saw it, enjoyable but there were some huge plot holes imo

I've mainlined the first SoA season, and I'm mostly through the second. My favorite episode in the show so far is the one in which the vote for Jax to go rogue is reversed by his mom's admission. The scene at the kitchen table with Jax, Clay, and Gemma was so goosebumps and lump-in-the-throat good, and earned.

We're all in agreement that 'The Firm' will likely be terrible, right?

unless wilfred brimley reprises his role, yes

Would watch it if that happened.

caught up on this season of it's always sunny, "chardee macdennis" was the peak, the reveal in the finale was pretty obvious but still made me laugh my ass off.

DO WE HAVE A SANDBOX BREAKING BAD THREAD BECAUSE I HAVE CAUGHT UP AND OH MY FUCKING LIFE WHAT THE SHIT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT AND WHEN I SAY TALK ABOUT IT I MEAN SAY HOLY SHIT OVER AND OVER AGAIN

i just watched homeland finale. wowww. so pissed i have to wait for a new season now!

I'm not sure how I feel about the finale to be honest, a lot of it felt like a copout.

OK THATS GREAT AND ALL BUT IM COMING MONTHS LATE TO THE BREAKING BAD FINALE AND SHIT WENT DOWWWWWWWWN

I PRESUME IF ILX EVER RETURNS AND I GO BACK TO WHEN THE FINALE FIRST AIRED IT IS HELLA AMOUNTS OF CAPSLOCK IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO TALK ABOUT IT

yeah the homeland finale was kinda sucky i thought, i mean not bad in particular just didnt really live up to my expectations

I think it accomplished the not-inconsiderable task of actually making a second season plausible, while not betraying itself much in the process. Also, the final shot was agreeably messed up.

i dunno but, man, wendy scott-carr...

GANG. STA.

Simon otm, i didn't love the Homeland finale but i don't know what else they could've done that would've been better, all things considered. worst thing about the finale was that the ads Showtime aired for it pretty much gave away 90% of what happened in the episode, which really sucked a lot of the air out of actually watching it.

I think Breaking Bad's reckless tendency towards constantly painting itself into a corner makes me respect Homeland's apparent reluctance to do so a little less. The seams are showing a bit and, acting aside, I can't help but feel like the second season is likely to be relatively disappointing.

second seasons are usually an improvement - given how strong their s1 was, relatively speaking, I think they've earned a bit of trust.

true, but a LOT of shows blow their load the first season, especially if it's a premise like this that has a particular arc and doesn't really lend itself to being an episodic series for years and years. i'll give them the benefit of the doubt but it'll be an uphill road.

Also, I thought this season was a good model for how to blow through way more plot than viewers might be expecting while still managing the pace nicely; hell, when it started, I was pretty sure we'd be spending the whole season with Carrie watching Brody through those hidden cameras. They went down in episode, what, five?

Homeland finale was great, I thought. Such prolonged tension, but really well done. And Carrie not knowing what she did is messed-up but also great.
Ahoy hoy I was kind of communicating totally in caps lock after the BB finale! For some reason I have a lot of friends who just finished season 3 and are like 'wow' and I'm just RELISHING the thought of them finishing s4.

See Breaking Bad had always been a bit of a drag to me, with v. good moments thrown in. I kinda just, not gave up, but not felt the need to go any further from the middle of s4. And then I couldn't sleep, had nothing to do that didn't involve sitting down (wrapping presents etc.) and thought what the hell... AND SHIT YES WAS IT WORTH IT.

Some classic gifs in the Real ILX thread iirc

im with the second mr. stevenson here--see for example damages, which definitely dropped in quality for s2 (but recovered in s3)

the problem is that the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER nick-brody-is-secretly-a-terrorist is only sustainable as a thing for at best another half season before it starts to feel like the show isnt going anywhere. like not enough has changed about the core character dynamic "crazy carrie, brooding brody" for there to be forward motion--it feels more like the season finale of a network show, where something MIGHT change but you know within a couple weeks itll get back to more or less the same dynamic as before

Bored to Death canceled

name becomes super literal description

Hung, hanged. How To Make It In America, not gonna make it

sad about bored to death

Enlightened renewed. I need to catch up with it.

I'm a little more than halfway through s1 Game of Thrones and liking it. latest ep I watched (#7?) was totally epic

see for example damages, which definitely dropped in quality for s2 (but recovered in s3)

hm I felt like that one just got progressively more ridic as it went along and all their little tricks and quirks started to seem so stupid. not sure if I'm fully caught up to s3 though.

great job hbo!

i thought s3 was pretty good! definitely better than season 2. i doubt very much theyll ever live up to season 1 but thats okay

sad about bored to death getting canceled but i cant believe a show that weird and location-specific ever made it to three seasons in the first place

i doubt very much theyll ever live up to season 1 but thats okay

i kinda think the format of the show makes it impossible for them to top that first season, i dont really think they have anywhere left to go its just variations on a theme or w/e now

i d/l a bunch of homeland episodes btw thread hyh

yeah damages is one of those shows that makes me wish cable networks were more open to the bbc style "just one season"/"miniseries" thing

why do you always hate on damages season 2, max, it hurts my feelings

tim olyphant marcia gay are you made of stone???

plus it's still all about the patty-ellen relaysh which season 3 is kind of less about

which was the season that closed with a wicked cover of leonard cohen's 'everybody knows'? i think thats still my fave damages moment~~

i think the storytelling in s2 is p incoherent, they do a bunch of things that dont make much sense and fuc w/the characters for the sake of ~twists~

yeah it's hard to argue with that but the, i don't know, EMOTIONAL PACING is still compelling

the storytelling is at least a little incoherent in all the seasons

"everybody knows" is season 3, i think

season 2 was still super watchable and gripping, it just wasnt season one which is still one of my favorite tv seasons of all time

they do a bunch of things that dont make much sense and fuc w/the characters for the sake of ~twists~

sad about bored to death getting canceled but i cant believe a show that weird and location-specific ever made it to three seasons in the first place

it was like watching a mini buddy comedy every week. sad. love danson is so good in it!

danson also great in damages. waiting for netflix to get latest damages so i can catch up. but yeah, season 1 is by far the best, but it was SO good that i'm willing to put up with the other seasons.

i think the patty + ellen relaish in s3 is really complicated and exicting w/o feeling too artificial and it also has some gnarly performances from danson marting short and lily tomlin

dansons been having such a great late career renaissance, so proud of him, i met him once, gave him directions, seemed like a nice guy?

'thanks for telling where to find animal collective, max, and thats a handsome looking top hat' - actor ted danson

*must not rehash how badly Damages went to shit in s2*

ugh i hate you all

i think the patty + ellen relaish in s3 is really complicated and exicting w/o feeling too artificial and it also has some gnarly performances from danson marting short and lily tomlin

― R.I.P.iest (Hungry4Ban) (є(٥_ ٥)э), Tuesday, December 20, 2011 9:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

martin short is a total genius in damages season 3, it's true. to the rest of your comment i say whatever.

fucking hell, i knew it was a risk reading a general tv thread

shit, i'm sorry!

i won't protest too much. I wasn't hugely invested in Homeland anyway but i just read a vicious Boardwalk Empire spoiler elsewhere and i'm still reeling from that one. I really should keep up with the broadcast schedule of these things

the rest of your comment i say whatever.

i was praising the show!!!

i know. now i am just being a jerk.

:/

i don't really get season 3 (though i like it fine) and i'm all defensive about season 2.

but did i know that you knew, thats the qn... or did you know i was pretending not to know that i knew that knew

have you been drinking, like i have?

what kind of a name is Aissa? do you guys think it's supposed to be Isa, the Arabic version of Jesus? that's pronounced "Eee-sa."

s2 and s4 have the most... problematic... 'ellen likes rough trade' storylines i think

have you been drinking, like i have?

yes... :((((

i haven't even seen season 4 and am afraid because people said it was so bad.

I think it's a bad mispronunciation of isa

I didn't watch any tv forever and then I discovered Parks & Recreation and I love this show!

yeah so grimm which was never great to begin with obv has pretty much lost me at this point, its bad when yer monster of the week show gets kinda tedious

on the plus side started watching detroit 187 on netflix streaming and its pretty dope.

this got cancelled too i bet.

it did

someone should give christopher moltisanti another vehicle because he's cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDPIK7Fz_g4

I didn't watch any tv forever and then I discovered Parks & Recreation and I love this show!

hooray! the other day my sisters and i made our mom watch like six episodes from season 2 (basically any episode louis ck was in), and now she's a total convert, too. so excited for her to get to season three and see "ron and tammy 2".

also my youngest sister has got us watching the whole series of avatar: the last airbender. i had heard good things about it secondhand, but i'm really charmed and impressed by how fun and funny it is without being pandering or try-hard at all.

av clubs top 30

oh man homeland huh this is really p good but gd lynne reed ;_;

god i know that fucking storyline. this show is p depressing imo.

srsly... everyone is so broken and desperate. but i was impressed that they made a p minor character seem so impt in just a couple of episodes partic bcuz she was so obv doomed after the stupid chief signed her death warrant. (cmon claire danes gets results!)

That A.V. Club list is one of the more interesting I've seen this year, and I definitely agree that their top four are the four best shows currently(-ish) on TV (if, perhaps, in a slightly different order). I'm a little puzzled by the Boss diss, but I'm glad to see Men Of A Certain Age show up. It was a quality, low-key show that's sadly probably going to be lost to the ages after two brief and, y'know, low-key seasons.

I don't think Time's ten best episodes of the year list has popped up here yet. I definitely agree with the selection of the episodes that I've seen, but I keep feeling the need to draw special attention to "You're Getting Old" (and the follow-up episode, "Ass Burgers"). I think there was some discussion of it on the non-sandbox board. If you're a general fan who's fallen off the South Park bandwagon, I'd highly recommend checking these episodes out. Existential and bleak and introspective in a way South Park usually isn't. But still funny.

it seems p questionable to list any episode of curb as one of the ten best of the year but to then not make it palestinian chicken is just smh

On my podcast I gave "You're Getting Old" the "Best episode of a show not on your top ten" award. It really is something else. ("Ass Burgers" was great too but makes for a much sillier-sounding mention.)

Has there been any discussion of Life's Too Short 'round these parts? It's apparently gotten negative reviews and really poor ratings, but that seems to be mostly Britisher backlash towards Ricky Gervais's public persona. Which I understand but don't really sympathize with. Especially as I think it was an improvement on Extras.

what podcast is that? i've been looking for new tv podcasts...

as a newly created too late terriers fanboy, i am sad to see it not making these lists

xp I co-host this. Our end-of-year wrap up ep won't be up till next Tuesday, though.

The entirety of Terriers aired in 2010.

thanks!

oh well that makes sense then

I'm glad to see Men Of A Certain Age show up. It was a quality, low-key show that's sadly probably going to be lost to the ages after two brief and, y'know, low-key seasons.

I LOVED that show

watching the last years doctor who and omg the reveal who river song is and then the next episode is called 'let's kill hitler'! i always forget about this show because i work saturdays but it is possibly the most fun thing on tv.

On my podcast I gave "You're Getting Old" the "Best episode of a show not on your top ten" award. It really is something else.

I think this might be the best episode of any show on the air this year that isn't Louie. Or maybe I just relate to it too much.

Life's Too Short was abysmal.

I haven't watched that but I suspected it would be bad? Ricky Gervais seems so insufferably smug lately in everything he has worked on.

Smug, lazy, sub Jim Davidson shite with a protective layer of "irony"

That's...just baffling to me. I mean, it was nowhere near The Office (not much is), but I thought it was largely quite funny. Based on what I've read thus far, there's been a real schism between reactions in the UK and reactions in the US (it'll be interesting to see how it does once it's actually released in the States). Which seems to lend a lot of credence to the belief that a lot of the negative reaction towards Life's Too Short is really just an expression of exhaustion towards Ricky Gervais in general. There are certainly valid criticisms of the show, but writing it off as an awful program full stop just seems really reactionary. Like, if it had been created by some unknown, I feel like it probably would've seen heaps of praise.

Well it's difficult to divorce Gervais's work from his persona at this point but to me the majority of the show consisted of the exact same celebrities acting wacky shit which he's already done to death in Extras (oooh look Liam Neeson doing a standup routine about AIDS), with the rest consisting of the usual comedy of awkwardness stuff with Warwick Davis doing a Gervais impression in the middle of it. It so fucking tired.

and this show couldn't possibly have been created by an unknown, it's Gervaisian to its core.

I've been a bit of a Gervais apologist, but after the first coupld of episodes grace I've stopped watching each episode part way through – it's just weak – there was perhaps enough good material for an hour-long special, but even then that would have seemed poor in comparison with Extras.

I was kind of watching Life's Too Short because there was nothing else on but that wedding speech bit was just barrel-scraping at the absolute worst. Really, really terrible. Which is kind of a shame because there have otherwise been a few funny bits (mainly the gormless assistant, thinking back).

After some forgettable episodes it's nice to see Beavis and Butthead stronger than ever with "School Test"/"Snitchers"

which episode(s) of 30 for 30 should i download to watch on the plane?

vlade
marcus dupree
iverson
ricky williams

^all dope

thanks, just went for ricky williams for now, took longer to dl than i expected

kind of bummed about Bored To Death and Hung being canceled but that's almost balanced out by How To Make It In America also being canceled

sis and i watched the first "great expectations" episode, felt kinda rote and by-the-numbers. i want to like gillian anderson's childish miss havisham but it's not quite gelling for me. also lol at "beautiful estella" growing up to be kinda plain and "common pip" growing up to be Mr. Cheekbones.

Dad cannot stop watching cable reality shows aimed at guys. Like every damn night. Whenever I see these things I keep wondering how many onscreen characters have massive chemical dependencies. The two guys who do one of those pawn shows seem like they've just done a mound of blow each time before they talk to the camera.

Also, their constant talking to the camera drives me nuts.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwcor7Fok31qe8bp4o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325261116&Signature=T8ecET%2BA%2B1NoZMenb178uLHUTxQ%3D

hey you guys (well some of you at least) were right, and happy endings is actually pretty good. also in the grand tradition of being late to the party and only watching good shit after its cancelled, i am burning my way through "life on mars" and its kinda incredible. "detroit 187" was ok but man between the pointless love story and the cramming of obv long form plot points towards the end it didnt really go well for me as a whole

Southland comes back soon too...

imo it's kind of fun to catch up on good short-lived shows after they're canceled, you know exactly how many episodes there are and savor each one, sometimes they work really well as a self-contained miniseries.

yeah terriers was def like that, and i think life on mars will be too.

i've been meaning to watch Life On Mars, a friend was big on the US version but i'm not sure if i should just go straight to the UK one?

is anyone bothering with Hell On Wheels? i'm vaguely tempted to try to catch up but i honestly bailed after one episode partly because i try to minimize the presence of COMMON, ACTOR in my life

im watching the us one, partially because netflix streaming, but also because from what i hear they knew about cancellation early on, and actually managed to do a fairly good job of making it self-contained and resolved.

also why pass up a chance to watch imperioli and keitel chow on scenery in the same show

sis and i watched the first "great expectations" episode, felt kinda rote and by-the-numbers. i want to like gillian anderson's childish miss havisham but it's not quite gelling for me. also lol at "beautiful estella" growing up to be kinda plain and "common pip" growing up to be Mr. Cheekbones.

nah, grown-up estella is super hawt. gillian anderson's miss havisham reminds me of a zonked out version of miranda richardson's queen elizabeth on blackadder. i quite like this so far.

i've been meaning to watch Life On Mars, a friend was big on the US version but i'm not sure if i should just go straight to the UK one?

I know a couple of people who loved the US version, but I thought the couple of episodes I watched were utterly moronic. The UK version has my favorite series finale of all time.

i watched the downton abbey xmas special yesterday

i feel bad cuz my bf really wants to watch downtown abbey but i reflexively skeptical eyebrow every mention of the show

so 'homeland' was p good but not really great, i thought, i feel like it never really hung together even if it was exciting to watch

Downton Abbey is definitely a very stereotypical BBC/PBS Upstairs Downstairsy Masterpiece Theater sort of deal, but it's so good! Suprisingly soapy and fun, lots of oh-snap dialog from Maggie Smith and others.

i feel like if i made a list of things i hate about downton abbey it would be 10x as long as the list of things i like about it, and yet im like totally addicted

couldn't even make it to the end of "you're getting old" : /

its written by the guy who wrote gosford park, and it basically feels like gosford park without altman, which is to say without any edge or sense of irony or politics or anything

lamp i think you might like it--its super soapy but the period detail is spot on and everyone is either good-looking or an excellent actor

getting old

the first season is the "actually" "good" season, the second season is infuriating and does everything wrong, the xmas special is somewhat redeeming

the guy who wrote 'gosford park' also wrote a really terrible novel abt a beautiful girl who marries a duke and i keep thinking 'downtown abbey' will be a lot more like that than like 'gosford park'

i think i have a hard time watching masterpiece theatre soaps stuff in 'the right way' cuz im culturally conditioned to think of them as serious and middlebrow rather than as soapy or camp

The masterpiece theatre aspect to it is offputting, but really I'm just lazy and haven't had the time/motivation to watch it.

party down always seemed like a fluke but this looks like starz could have an actual good show again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnXGW8QxTfk

Boss has its moments (i've only seen the first few episodes though)

oh shit i forgot Boss was on Starz yeah i wasn't hugely into it but it's obv good

could be good but trailer makes it look a lot like mad men redux

well yeah all these shows from that period have that feel but at least on premium cable it shouldn't feel quite as toothless as pan am or playboy club

what are the untapped televisual decades?

1890

WRONG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJropeninglogo.jpg

I've started in on Homeland (pilot episode I uh managed to watch was weirdly bowdlerized -- amateurishly blocking out nudity, muting the soundtrack entirely whenever characters make sexytime noises/profanity) -- and it's good, but...? Still very reliant on fictional conventions. Not hooked yet, at any rate.

yeah you d/l or streamed the censored version of the pilot i did the same thing theres a verz w/ the swears and good stuff out there as well

haha leee you saw the same one i did. we loled a lot.

I went cold turkey and skipped everything this year, even shows I was watching before (Dexter, SoA, P&R, Community, etc. etc.). Watched a little bit of Homeland, but was put off by the b-plots and found my attention wandering (I loved Rubicon FWIW). Watched an episode of The Good Wife and it seemed rather good.

Is there anything I'm missing? I'm at the point now where I'm just ignoring the weekly air dates and just watching the entire season all at once. Planning on doing this with Breaking Bad when the final season airs.

BTW, seconding (thirding) "You're Getting Old / Ass Burgers" as the best episode of anything I've seen on television all year.

man i wish they hadn't killed rubicon :(

The cancellation of Rubicon and Terriers was actually the precipitate of why I just gave up all series this year. (did catch up on a lot of movies though)

Rubicon was by no means great but i do wish it would've gotten a 2nd season over Walking Dead or The Killing

They killed off the boring Miranda Richardson character so there was nowhere to go but up!

Sveral Homeland eps were written by Rubicon's second showrunner, Henry Bromell (who also produces). There are some clear similarities, esp. in the back half of the season.

*several

haha you could seriously delete pretty much the entire Miranda Richardson arc from Rubicon and the show would lose next to nothing in terms of plot or entertainment value -- i actually already forgot about that whole part of the show until you mentioned it just now

i am finally watching Firefly
thx netflix :)

I really, really was let down by Firefly. Like, nerds, really?

i don't really get whedon, like i guess he's supposed to be good with dialogue and characterization but the patter is so forgettable and bland and the characters are 'logable' in the most transparent ways possible

haha um 'lovable'

not so good w/ the dialogue, much better w/ the characterization. also at one point in time, good at creating characters (partic in Buffy) unlike any other character on tv. i think firefly was more exciting bc of the genre exercise (western + scifi) than bc of the characters. tho some of the characters (reynolds, zoe, jayne) were versions of western tropes + so were interesting along that line. i thought dollhouse was a total waste of time.

i haven't actually watched much Buffy, episodes here and there, which i liked, and no other whedon series really
i like Firefly though because of the cowboy western stuff + space! mostly and because there are a lot of non-lame women characters. it's no Farscape, however.

i don't really get whedon

me either

firefly and dollhouse are awesome, dr horrible is near perfect, buffy makes no sense to me and is kinda crap imo.

yeah dollhouse started not so great but warmed up p nicely

lol dollhouse is awesome and buffy is crap

i genuinely cannot understand how someone would think like this

its like saying illmatic is rub but nastradamus now that is the best hiphop record ever made

watched 10 episodes of homeland yesterday, showtime finally made a good tv show, im sure thats been covered, did not read thread

ill check back in when im done guys!

Whedon does quiet inspirational humanism really well, esp. in Firefly.

buffy rules. i've never finished another whedon series except dr. horrible.

there's a whedon-written episode of roseanne that i love to death

I think Buffy is academically good but I have almost no emotional attachment to the series aside from a couple of key series moments (Buffy's mom, Dark Willow). I have always enjoyed watching the show but never enough to make a point of trying to see it.

Firefly OTOH was just awesome, esp. once I saw it in the correct order.

Whedon is pretty great at picking actors but overall I like the Firefly cast more than the Buffy cast.

I never got past the opening of Dollhouse; great premise tho.

Dr Horrible pwns, obv

Since the sandbox doesn't have a P&R thread, this goes in here:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx241ppdm61qm1br0o1_500.jpg

lol and I just now watched the Twilight Zone where Anne Blyth plays a movie star that never ages and is probably Cleopatra.

I'm iffy about Dr. Horrible, the ending wasn't very funny.

aw now i wish i hadn't finished watching firefly earlier today bc it would be the perfect thing to watch before going to bed tonight
the final ep is v good imo

Blimey, Sherlock was a bit good.

Or, as you you could say, Not Shit Sherlock.

did the new one air already??

Aye, 2010 tonight. Loosely based on A Scandal In Bohemia.

this is the 4th ep right?

Yes. Next Sunday has the one based on Hound of the Baskervilles.

looks like - max, i think? - was right:

Deadwood had sympathetic characters who threw the word "nigger" around, on the theory that we'd understand that people in that time and place might have done it without intending an insult. Everyone who uses that word on Hell On Wheels does intend an insult, which is fine, except that the show goes out of its way to lump Bohannon in with the insulted. It insists on the superior dignity of those on the bottom of society, then works extra hard to shoehorn its quick-drawing hero in there, on the theory that there's nobody more long-suffering and sinned against than a good-looking white Southern man who can kick the ass of anybody who looks at him cross-eyed. It's not bad enough that American politics have been rendered infantile and idiotic by the trend among the privileged and well-off to feel unaccountably sorry for themselves; now even our Westerns can't keep their hands off the crying towels. This goddamn show should be called H-E-Double-Hockey Sticks On Wheels.

i was just thinking about that old ilx how i met your mother thread and how i may have said some mean things about it and now it's probably my favorite show on tv.

also tv related, i really hate how this season they have turned walking dead on amc into lost...missing characters appearing in visions, people not divulging key plot points to each other, sweeping camera pans w meaningful musical score that take up 4 minutes of what should be tense zombie apocalypse, really obvious "twists" that take way too long in the revealing, etc

also tv related, i really hate how this season they have turned walking dead on amc into lost...missing characters appearing in visions, people not divulging key plot points to each other, sweeping camera pans w meaningful musical score that take up 4 minutes of what should be tense zombie apocalypse, really obvious "twists" that take way too long in the revealing, etc

also tv related, i really hate how this season they have turned walking dead on amc into lost...missing characters appearing in visions, people not divulging key plot points to each other, sweeping camera pans w meaningful musical score that take up 4 minutes of what should be tense zombie apocalypse, really obvious "twists" that take way too long in the revealing, etc

oops!

i feel bad for nathan fillion, i just love him but it seems outside of joss whedon ventures he can't catch a break.

i am not much of a TV guy, but SEVERANCE is honestly pretty grebt imo

it’s so good. I think about it at least once a week even though it’s been over for a few weeks.