Quality Television Disapearing??

[David Panzer]

Originally Posted by lotjx

If you didn't like the first half of Walking Dead season two then I am not sure how you can call the comic books solid when they are sowing people's faces back on.

The main reason I didn't like the first half of Season 2 of Walking Dead was that the missing girl storyline felt waaaaay drawn out.

With the comics, I haven't seen any signs of things being needlessly drawn out.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

Semi-genre stuff:
Fringe, UK Being Human, Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones.

Newer stuff:
I really like The Firm, Luck, and the new season of Justified.
I gave up on Alcatraz when they scripted one individual going to take down a sniper - no back-up. That is less likely than time displaced criminals.

Semi Genre Hidden Treasures on DVD:
Carnivale, Dark City, Children of Dune, The Prestige, UFO.
...and if you did not have the experience of growing up in Phoenix, AZ. during the 60s and 70s - The Wallace and Ladmo Show
They had time travel paradox skits, meta humor, and fearless critique of their show sponsors in what was portrayed as a children's show.

[Jonas]

Fringe is not semi-genre. Not since the end of the second season, certainly. (That may be part of why their numbers have been going down. Also part of why I've grown to love the show.)

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by Truth66

One of the biggest reasons why I liked Babylon 5, Crusade and Jeremiah was the quality of the story telling. Unfortunately this is becoming a thing of the past with television.
My buddy and I were discussing how pathetic television has gotten. It's essentially dominated by some form of a so called reality show. Even the specialty channels are becoming more and more dominated with these reality type shows ranging from cooking competitions to antiques and auctions. With more and more channels to choose from it's becoming more and more frustrating to find something with a quality story behind it to watch.
I told my friend that it gets pretty pathetic when I have to resort to watching a Barbie movie with my 6 year old in order to watch at least something that has a story to it.
If anyone has some recommendations of good quality story telling on television, I'm all eyes and ears.

Currently watching, or catching up with watching:
How I Met Your Mother
2 Broke Girls
Two and a Half Men
Hawaii Five-0 (Ver. 2.0) - just recording; haven't watched an ep. since last season. May get to it someday.
Castle
NCIS
NCIS-LA
Last Man Standing
New Girl - I find Schmidt almost intolerable. The 01/31 episode was especially good though, due to Lizzy Caplan. Hope she's on this show for a long time. Lizzy's gone. Dropped it and then went back to it. Not archiving it.
The Middle
Suburgatory
Criminal Minds
CSI
Rock Center with Brian Williams
The Big Bang Theory
Rules of Engagement/Rob - "Rob" is definitely improving.
Person of Interest - This and "Grimm" are my favorite new shows of the season.
The Mentalist
Bones - currently in an American Idol desert. Moving to Mondays, 4/7 IIRC.
The Finder - I'm liking this show quite a bit. It's a keeper (No, not that meaning.) Moving to Fridays.
A Gifted Man
CSI-NY
Supernatural - This season seems to have lots of padding. CAS is BACK 3/23!
Chuck - Sigh, it's over.
Grimm - Tied with "Person of Interest" as my favorite new show.
Awake
Missing


....and mornings
12 O'Clock High (Mon.-Sat.)
Highway Patrol (Tue.-Sat)
Mister Ed (Mon.Fri.)
and I Dream of Jeannie (Mon.-Fri..)

I'd watch Fringe but I got way behind on it and don't have enough recording devices to follow it this season. Have Season 1 & 2 DVD sets, and that's the way I'll watch it when I find the time.

[Chipmunk]

What's the (no spoilers please) consensus on the following series (of which I have 1-7 episodes DVR'd, but have seen zero eps):

Missing - new, just debuted last week
Awake - new, three eps so far, Lucius Malfoy as a good(?) guy
Life on Mars - old, on PBS (as a placeholder for Doctor Who), stars John Simm

I've been in Heavy Coding Mode for the last 2+ months, and (phew!) just finalized the last of three urgent releases (all components in my anti-spam system... die spam DIE!).

Unfortunately, over the last two weeks my hands have become all but crippled due to Motorcycle Noise from Hell.
Soooo, I need to take some time off, and figured a Grand TV Marathon would not go Amiss.

If I had my B5 DVDs with me, I would, of course, do a B5 marathon.

I spent Friday night getting caught up on Castle, and reruns of Stargate Universe, both of which just get better and better! I really want to do a SG:U DVD or streaming video (i.e. no commercials) slow marathon some time. The character development got to the level of elegance of B5. And, as I've said before, Ronald Greer is Michael Garibaldi.

[phazedout]

missing: not seen it cannot comment either way
Life on mars: Brilliant, just brilliant, watch it for Gene Genie alone, it's bloomin fantastic
Awake: I've not seen it but my mate Paul C tells me it seems to riff on similar themes to life on mars so maybe watch it first?

I'm quite enjoying alcatraz, I'll watch Sam Neill in pretty much anything but that first alcatraz ep was quite good drew me in.
Phaze
on the "So farewell to alcohol for another 6 weeks or so until I head wincaton wards at the beginning of May" ID

[Chipmunk]

Thanks phazedout!

Update:
I started by watching the pilot for Missing, and it did not grab me.
It felt like pure action, with no cerebral activity (woah! did anyone else just hear Jayne Cobb's #1 line from "Ariel"?).

I DVR'd the 2nd ep, and played it at 15x speed, then deleted it after dithering for a couple of days.


The deletion was after I'd caught the first two eps of Awake... which is frakkin' brilliant.
I kid you not.
Instantly addicting.

The premise sounded totally lame, but a friend had mentioned it briefly in her blog, and she's generally very reliable, so I had DVR'd the first few eps. It took tremendous willpower not to marathon all four. On the other hand, they're so rich, it didn't feel right marathoning them, so I watched one per night, then re-watched the pilot.

Go into it with zero expectations, and just enjoy it. Bizarre premise, with excellent execution, writing, and acting. At the end, you'll (probably?) feel a little better about the world, and your brain will have been active. No Jayne Cobb needed.


Based on Phaze's recommendation, I've watched the first three eps of Life on Mars.
It's not as good as Awake, but it is thoroughly enjoyable.
Again, bizarre premise, so perhaps not Muggle-ready, but great acting & characters, and interesting direction.

The season #1 finale airs Saturday (here in Iowa, which in 2004 the Beeb dubbed "Mars" - symmetry!), so I might try to marathon the rest of the DVR'd eps, and catch the finale "live".

The first thing I ever saw John Simm in was Doctor Who, and I immediately liked his compact energy, though felt he was wrong as The Master (I've only seen one actor who could come close to filling Roger Delgado's shoes).
He is absolutely perfect for Life on Mars.
phazedout, yes, he and "Gene" play off each other superbly.


I've also been watching (for the first time!) the final season of MI-5 (aka "Spooks" for you Brits).
I'm very nervous they're going to Whedonize [1] the entire remaining Team, but otherwise I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Very few TV series truly grok Geeks, and MI-5/Spooks is one of the best for showing believable Geeks, in contemporary society.

Even rarer than believable Geeks, is a believable female Geek.

Imagine a character embodying the steadfast loyalty of Susan Ivanova, the sunny sweetness of Firefly's Kaylee, and the brilliance plus romantic ineptness of DCI Morse.
Yup, MI-5's female UberGeek is all of that, in one realistic package. She joins the cast in season #2, and begins as a secondary character, but flourishes quickly.

There's also plenty of action type stuff, but unlike 24, the action doesn't drown out the plot and character development



[1] Whedonize -vb gratuitously kill beloved fictional characters
Origin: from the propensity of TV creative genius Joss Whedon to kill off beloved characters, usually for little to no logical reason.

[Chipmunk]

Warning:
MI-5's final season had really bad Whedonization.
I still recommend the series as a whole, just be aware that pretty much every season they frakkin' kill a lot of fantastic characters. In many cases, they have very Stovokor worthy deaths, but not always.
I'll leave it at that.


Life on Mars is a gem!
Thanks Phaze for your recommendation!
I'm getting close to the ending. Can you give me a Jan-level no spoilers "how does it end" assessment? Like the great one Jan gave for Jeremiah?
Thanks in advance!


Sherlock - season 2 just started on PBS.
Iowa PBS kindly ran a marathon of season 1, immediately before the first ep.
I was kind of "distracted" so couldn't enjoy the marathon and premier, but should have a relaxed high-quality viewing of the next episode.
One big bummer is that Iowa PBS only shows each ep once per week. They used to repeat it. Major suckage.


Big TV Insight of the week:
I could be Sheldon Cooper's flatmate, but not Sherlock's.
Between the violin and the firing a pistol indoors, Sherlock would drive me bonkers.
Sheldon would be awesome. Any bad habits can be dealt with by explaining the problem in logical terms, effectively reprogramming him.

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by Chipmunk

What's the (no spoilers please) consensus on the following series (of which I have 1-7 episodes DVR'd, but have seen zero eps):

Missing - new, just debuted last week
Awake - new, three eps so far, Lucius Malfoy as a good(?) guy

FYI, both Missing and Awake are cancelled. Unfortunately for me, so is The Finder. DAMN YOU, FOX!

Luckily, Supernatural and Grimm are renewed.