What TV SHOWS are you watching ARCHIVE

The Girl in the Fireplace is the best Doctor Who episode ever made, across its entire fifty year run. It has some of everything that has made Doctor Who what it is.

I really liked Eccleston. That whole season is good and I wish he'd done the three doctor episode, as it would have added to his interpretation. Tenant was excellent, but the writing really fell off towards the end of his run. Must be hard to do week after week.

S.

Getting excited about the Sherlock creator having a hand in it (Steven Moffat) is a problem because although his episodes are great standouts in the first four seasons, when he takes over in season 5 (Matt Smith's run as the Doctor) the show goes to absolute shit. The writing becomes even less coherent and everything becomes big, loud, and stupid. I nearly quit watching several times during his run, and finally, when season 7 started I didn't watch it as it aired, electing instead to wait and find out first if it was worth my time. I didn't miss it.

That said, I don't like Sherlock either, so feel free to ignore my opinion. Also, you can easily skip straight to season 5 and start there with Moffat's run, as he pretty much reboots the show for himself.

Tore through the last season of Justified and thought it was again, solid. That's really how I could wrap up my entire opinion of Justified, it's solid but never really absolutely fantastic.

Wife and I then started watching Banshee and after 4 episodes I'm not too into it. Will stick it out because it's not bad, but it's not great either.

Also watching the pilot for Peaky Blinders and was hugely impressed. Very great and loved the Scorcese-esque use of music throughout.

Watched the first two seasons of News Radio last week. It starts out strong, and by the second season, the show was great, right up there with the very best sitcoms of all time. News Radio was blessed with talented writers and several very funny performers, each with a different style of comedy. Phil Hartman did his best work on this show, with the arrogant and bizarre Bill McNeil character. Dave Foley delivered great deadpan, low-key humor. Andy Dick brought the physical comedy with pratfalls and accidents, while Stephen Root was great at dropping strange non-sequiturs. Thanks to the writers, even the less funny cast members got plenty of good material to work with, so the whole ensemble was funny.

At the moment, I am unable to remember a funnier show than News Radio. WKRP is an obvious one to compare. MASH got too serious at times, and went on for too many seasons. For several seasons in the '90s, the Simpsons was much funnier, but then there were so many weak seasons of the Simpsons since then. I suppose that even News Radio falters near the end, after Hartman's tragic death, because his replacement Jon Lovitz was so awful.

You're right, the casting in News Radio is impeccable. I think the writing is ok, but without some inspired casting choices in even small roles it wouldn't be anything special as a sitcom. What amazes me is that normally you'd get 1-2 great standout characters in a sitcom, but News Radio fills almost every role with someone who is extremely good.

I finished up BBC's Ripper Street on Netflix. It's a 19th Century police/detective story set in Whitechapel immediately following the Jack the Ripper serial murders. I especially enjoyed the episodes with the Elephant Man.

Anyone see the Hockey World Juniors last night? Canada beat Russia 5-4 and it was an incredible and emotional game. Just breathtaking. It'll be exciting to see what Connor McDavid can do in the NHL in a couple of years.

I also watched all of The Flash and Constantine over the holidays. Good shows, easy to watch, a little cheesy in places (and I am so sick of every second character being a hot young woman in these types of shows) but generally enjoyable.

I think I want more old people in my entertainment, in these shows even the 'old' people are quite young. It's disappointing. Everyone looks so clean and it makes them unbelievable in a way that just isn't necessary.

I am on the 8th season of House and am very sad to see that this is the last season. Also, I saw the first episode of "Black Mirror" which was OUT-FUCKING-STANDING. Must-see if you like noir film and TV.

Can't wait for Blacklist to restart, and that would be the sole reason I'm watching any part of the Super Bowl.

Can't wait for Walking Dead. It's like Battlestar Galactica Season 1, but over and over again. Just amazing television.

Not sure what we'll start watching when House is done. I guess I'll go back to reading.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Grudunza wrote: I'm sure some would, but the streets sure as hell wouldn't be empty. Even half empty. Oh my gosh! I just figured out that pig sex is distasteful! Who knew? C'mon.

Lazy writing, unsupported premise. Let's go with shock value to sell ad time because it's easy.

Cynical old man, says I. If you walked outside just after 9/11 there weren't a whole lot of people. Everyone was glued to people jumping out of the Towers. When the "Shock and Awe" campaign started, I was actually out and about and it was pretty fucking sparse out there. I don't know how it was in the UK when Diana was killed, but I suspect there was a lot of sitting and crying.

You misread it, anyhow. It wasn't as much about the pig being fucked by Tony Blair Lite, it was about whether the Princess would be saved. Plus, people these days are sick, and would watch GW Bush fucking a pig, at least 51% of people at the time.

And the streets weren't completely empty - the two joggers were out jogging when they found the princess. The scenes of empty streets were far more to underscore how powerful a moment it was, as hyperbole, I'd say. Not to be taken direct.

I gave up on The Walking Dead after season one. The opening episode shamelessly ripped off 28 Days Later. The show didn't have anything new to say about zombies or survivors of a zombie apocalypse. I disliked the characters, and I can't stand the actress from Prison Break who has only two facial expressions. The final fate of the CDC was stupid beyond belief and basically ruined the show for me. On top of all that, I have been burned out on zombies for years now.

Shellhead wrote: The opening episode shamelessly ripped off 28 Days Later.

Bah, that's just serendipity. The comic started the same way and they came out just a month or two apart. It's not a rip off. But I lost the show after one season too. I like the comic all right but in the TV show it feels too dramatic to me. I didn't even mind that last episode and what happens to the CDC, I just find the pacing kind of boring. All these little things would be fine if the cast and pacing worked for me but they don't.

I am really tempted by Black Mirror now but I can't seem to find a way to view it. I looked it up and apparently it's created by Charlie Brooker, who I love. His Weekly Wipe TV show was awesome. It gave Doug Stanhope an awesome venue to work with and it's where I heard the phrase "everyone else hates you as if you were a Nazi made of spiders" which I've tried to find ways to use in my personal life. So now I'm very curious. But it's not on Netflix or iTunes so I'm going to have to look around and see what's possible.

EDIT: It looks like a lot of it is on youtube for free!!

It is on Netflix but maybe not US. Try a proxy server to UK and login to Netflix there (logout from your current Netflix). I think I watched it on UK Netflix but it may have been Canadian Netflix (in which case use a Canadian proxy). If you didn't know you can login to Netflix in any country where it is currently streaming and that is quite a few.

Netflix is well weird. I logged into Swiss Netflix which has all the Big Bang Theory seasons, not available in any other region.

Netherlands Netflix has the Second Thor movie, which no other Netflix region is streaming and the latest Dr Who (which even the UK doesn't stream).

Black Mirror is definitely on Netflix. And is outstanding (IMO... awful crap according to some others here).

I don't know if any of y'all have been watching Gotham, but I'm loving it and think it's become stronger over the course of the season. Gordon has grown on me (seemed like a weak character/actor originally), and the developments with the Fish/mob/Penguin story has become interestingly nuanced and fun. Add in the great character of Bullock, the development of young Bruce Wayne and Alfred, and some very cool villains, and it's about everything I could want in a show like this.

Grudunza wrote: Black Mirror is definitely on Netflix. And is outstanding (IMO... awful crap according to some others here).

American Netflix... not Canadian. But there is enough on youtube that I can make do for now. I'm going to start watching it tonight.

SuperflyTNT wrote: If you walked outside just after 9/11 there weren't a whole lot of people.

I was at my daughter's dance recital which was well attended. We went to the park afterwards. I'll admit things were quieter, but they weren't empty, and it wasn't a man fucking a pig showing on the TV.

The nihilist stuff has never impressed me, not even when I was in school. It strikes me as a parody of legit, intense social commentary, a sort of hipster thing. The biggest hurdle I have with it is that it just seems incorrect, very black and white in a thoroughly gray world. It's like a western where you can tell who everybody is by the color of their hat.