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...)

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:

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.