let's talk about tv shows itt

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