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.
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?
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
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:
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