Bulldrek v3.0

So over the last few years I've watched a few television shows, mostly due to a massive amount of time spent being injured. I'd like to discuss some fo them with you:

Heroes

I really enjoyed the first two seasons of Heroes. I think it went in a different direction than I expected, but in some ways it's stuck to some of the cliches I expected to see. I'm not sure what to expect from season 3, which I hear will concentrate on the villains.

Lost

I hear this has an end point, which I think more series should have. I want to stick with this show, but if things don't improve this next season I may decide to drop off, and wait till it's finished.

Smallville

Cast changes spell the end for this sleeper hit in my opinion. Half the fun has been Lex Luthor, and he's moving onward. I hope the eight season will be the end. I hope it provides a nice jumping off point for something else.

Battlestar Galactica

Another series with an end point. I've held on this long, damn it don't disappoint me!

So what are you watching? What is good out there? What should I be watching, or watching for?

I'm watching an awful lot of shows, but I've not been particularly discriminating. Few of them are high quality shows, so I find I'm watching a lot of Buffy and West Wing reruns to fill time. The only ones I'd recommend are probably The Tudors, Bullshit, and In Treatment, all of which are aired on premium channels.

I tried the Tudors, but it just lost me after a few episodes. But what is Bullshit and In Treatment?

Bullshit is Penn & Teller kicking the crap out of common knowledge and stupid ideas.

In Treatment is an HBO series set entirely inside of psychotherapy sessions.

Marius wrote:Bullshit is Penn & Teller kicking the crap out of common knowledge and stupid ideas.

P&T - Bullshit - Eat This! - Part 1
P&T - Bullshit - Eat This! - Part 2
P&T - Bullshit - Eat This! - Part 3

I just checked out Fringe last night. Apart from Joshua Jackson anyways. Really enjoyed the performance of newcomer Anna Torv.

I almost hate to admit, that I'm starting to really dig Burn Notice. I shouldn't because I fucking hate the main actor. I came for Bruce Campbell, but I'm starting to think I may stick around.

Stupid question, I guess. Has BSG wrapped up or is there still more to come of the final season?

Last half of the last season is yet to come. Sometime next year, since production was delayed due to the writer's strike.

Marius wrote:Bullshit is Penn & Teller kicking the crap out of common knowledge and stupid ideas.

I almost pissed myself from laughing when they had people sign a petition to ban dihydrogenmonoxide.

Hehe, that's good. I remember that a while back there was a website dedicated to the dangers of dihydromonoxide. "100% addiction rate!" "Its gaseous form causes massive burns!" etc.

That's a hell of a flashback: that was Deep Resonance days when we found that.

So I revisited the Tudors and made it four episodes before deleting both seasons. I just can't find any interest in any of the characters or the story being told. So I guess that's on the list for later. (Tastes change right?)

To add to the discussion True Blood is shaping up nicely, despite some pretty strong reminders of White Wolf at times, and a bad habit of just ending each episode. (Drives Ada nuts.)

Fringe is shaping up okay, a little forced at times in my opinion, but I like the cast.

Sons of Anarchy is pretty damned good in my opinion, and I like how it intertwines with the same setting as the Shield.

The second season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles is off to a pretty bang up start, and I have massive hopes for this series. I hope they don't burn me.

For anyone that still cares, Heroes premiers tonight.

I'll check it out. The Unit comes back next week I think.

And Heroes is certainly less boring than last season. Some of it is still badly thought out, and their only delaying the inevitable with Peter/Sylar, but I liked it and will check it out again next week.

Knight Rider premiers Wednesday, and Life comes back next week. I'm checking out KR out of morbid curiosity, but I thought Life was quirky fun last season.

Knight Rider just sounds way ghey to me, but Life is the awesome. I like it.

I love me Hulu.com for giving me at least two decent shows I can listen to while at work. I can't say I really watch them, as I'm too busy routing, but I can listen.

Burn Notice - Yup, I'm straight up in love with this show. Funny, quirky, and totally unrealistic in all the right kind of ways. You've got just the right mix of the fictional Miami Vice vibe and zany supporting characters to keep it light and fun, while still giving enough of a serious backstory and tradecraft MacGuyver moments to be consistent. I haven't seen any of the second season yet, but season one totally hooked me.

Fringe - Only two episodes so far. But I really dig the cast, and maybe I'm just way out of the loop here, but I'm a little surprised at the level of bodily gore they actually show on this. I haven't watch much of anything on live television except movies in about three years (BSG on On Demand or online only), so that surprised me a bit on Fox. But the show is catchy. I really hate to admit that, since Lost made me want to kill someone. I was really hoping that JJ Abrams was another person I could illogically hate and rail against, because it's always fun to have another target. After Cloverfield and Lost, I was sure that would be the case. Fringe might turn that around for me. Go John Noble.

Did My Own Worse Enemy start yet? And if so, is it as much a train wreck as recent Slater projects have been? I want to enjoy his stuff, I really do, if only for some certain roles in the past. But I'm afraid it will suck mightily.

WillyGilligan wrote:And Heroes is certainly less boring than last season. Some of it is still badly thought out, and their only delaying the inevitable with Peter/Sylar, but I liked it and will check it out again next week.

The thing with Heroes since the first seasons (and even during the first season a bit), they don't really seem to know which direction they want to take it in. As a result, at least to me, it seems like they're trying to do too many things at once.

My Own Worst Enemy is supposed to premier October 13th.

Serious Paul wrote:Knight Rider just sounds way ghey to me, but Life is the awesome. I like it.

Knight Rider suuuuuccckked, even when I account for first episode issues. I literally watched about 5 minutes of the show, paused it and went into the next room to rant at my wife for another 15 minutes. I'm pretty forgiving of television, but it was truly bad, with only one or two moments of passable entertainment (I know I lose man points for this, but I don't count cleavage for purposes of passable TV. Nice to see, does not prop up a horrible show, imo.)

And Deev, I agree with you on Heroes. I find it just interesting enough to keep watching, but this season could go either way.

I'd been behind on Terminator, because I just hadn't been in the mood, but I've just gotten caught up with the times, and while I've rather a lot to say, positive and negative, about the show itself, the news of the moment is the casting coups: yes, the scottish lady named Shirley Manson is indeed that scottish lady named Shirley Manson - took me a bit long to figure that out - and yes, holy crap, that really is Toby Ziegler, White House Communications Director, playing the Henry-Gale-ish watch repairman. When did this show start pulling real names?

I've been watching a bit over one and a half season of Terminator: the Sara Connor Chronicles and so far it's ok. Not good, just ok. The dark message of the series is not translated into the series too well. The amount of Terrminators and people sent back in time is just too much. It made me wonder why Skynet doesn't just send a small army back in time to just get it all over with. That and the fact that for some reason Skynet keeps sending back old models instead of T1000 models, but maybe I'm just asking too much questions with regards to this series.

I think for a television show it does well, I've enjoyed both seasons so far. I do hope some of it explores some other characters.

Terminator looks to be getting cancelled. Heroes has lost me, I mean I have the finale Tivo'd but can't work up the interest to ask my daughter to pass me the remote and watch it. I've gotten into Chuck and that's nice fun for a guy that spent way too much time watching TV in the 80's/90's. I mean, honestly, they had a spy named Sascha Banechek in one episode; just dropped the reference and left it alone for people like me to laugh at and normal people would just overlook.

Really looking forward to the return of Sons of Anarchy in the fall.

I'm just hoping they don't blow it-SoA has potential, but it also has the potential to be abused.

Burn Notice still has me hooked, and I can't wait for the next season of Leverage. Which, if you haven't seen, its a TNT show that seriously feels like what would happen if you mashed The A Team and Mission Impossible TV together and had the crew of Sneakers consulting. Great interactions, off the wall plans that somehow work, and often lots of pissing people off.

Burn notice had a decent return, I thought. I also like the follow up show Royal Pains, at least enough to give it a few weeks.

Kai wrote:Burn Notice still has me hooked, and I can't wait for the next season of Leverage. Which, if you haven't seen, its a TNT show that seriously feels like what would happen if you mashed The A Team and Mission Impossible TV together and had the crew of Sneakers consulting. Great interactions, off the wall plans that somehow work, and often lots of pissing people off.

For some reason, TNT has me hooked on programming. Leverage, Saving Grace, The Closer, those are all shows I've enjoyed immensely.

On the big three side of it, Lost never appealed, I'm not a diehard enough Joss Whedon or Eliza Dushku fan for Dollhouse, Terminator is gone, I just never got into Heroes, and Fringe just didn't click. I do enjoy Criminal Minds and the Mentalist, as well as CSI: New York and NCIS. Numb3rs was cool, but I've missed a lot of it.

I tried Caprica, but with little joy. I lost interest in it about halfway through it. Season 2 of True Blood is on, and Iantha is watching, and generally we watch TV on my computer or the projector together.

I've been hearing a lot of good thinks about Leverage, Chuck and apparently a show that's been discontinued called "Dark Angel", that I'll try to watch. I also hear about Burn Notice. So I'll add them to my "Queue" and check them out.

I snagged a 1Tb external drive, so I'll be snagging a ton of stuff. Atem and 3278 have discussed Weeds, which I watched the first season of and lost interest in so I may revisit it. I'm also going to finish Breaking bad, which is pretty damned cool in my opinion.

So what's on the horizon? What looks good? What's being discontinued?

Burn Notice is good fun.

Charlie Jade was okay-ish. I liked Chuck, it was a amusing bon-mot. Oh, if you like gritty UK TV, try Skins. It was bloody brilliant.

'Parently HBO has a new show coming out called Hung - have you lot got any steer on the skinny?

I really like Burn Notice, although I only watch it online, usually two or three episodes at a time. It's like a combination of the best parts of Macgyver and the A-Team, what's not to love?

You know what I like about Entourage and Burn Notice -- and what I used to like about My Name is Earl -- it's all smaller, bite-sized shows that you can consume in no more than half an hour. It makes it a very flexible time filler. That's why I usually load up a bunch of episodes on my iPhone at once, so I can watch it while in public transport, or waiting for Eva to show up, etc.

8 Episodes into Burn Notice, and so far so good. I'll have to snag Leverage.

DV8 wrote:... Burn Notice ... it's all smaller, bite-sized shows that you can consume in no more than half an hour.

*psst* 44 minutes long. I know I need to convert to Celsius from Fahrenheit and I think I did the math right. Subtract 32 and multiply by 0.5555....yup. Still coming out at 44 min long.

Hmm, you're right. They certainly don't seem so long! I guess that just lends credence to the quality of the show.

ROME on HBO was amazing. Got the DVDs. (Watched live)
Currently watching True Blood. (Watching live) Pretty good.
BSG was good. (caught on DVD)
Supernatural is good. (on DVD)
Deadwood was good and Carnivale was awesome. (DVD)
Heroes Season One was great. (DVD)

I tend to very rarely watch TV. We only follow one series at any given time.
I have found some fun series' via netflix "damn, I wish I'd seen this live".

Ampere wrote:I have found some fun series' via netflix "damn, I wish I'd seen this live".

Why? What is the added value for you?

Yeah, I try to watch things "live" as little as possible.

Eva wrote:

Ampere wrote:I have found some fun series' via netflix "damn, I wish I'd seen this live".

Why? What is the added value for you?

I usually catch a series long after it's canceled and left to the DVD archives.
Sometimes I do think that I missed out the first time around. Must have been wasting time doing something else while *this* genius program was live and in current circulation.

I didn't get in to B5 until long after it ended, and at least the first three seasons were excellent. Those would have been nice to see live.

Ironically, while I occasionally think I may have missed out, my nature is one that live series are a pain. I think it's an ADD thing but I tend to be UBER excited about a show (or anything really) and then move on to the next UBER exciting thing, sometimes forgetting what the previous one was until I missed episodes. Premium channels have OnDemand so I can easily catch up (which is part of why I loved the various HBO series) but regular channels are more of a pain to keep up on.

I know there ARE internet methods of keeping up with TV, but I tend to avoid them. My PC is my work machine and I try and keep it as pristine as possible, so I watch VERY little video on it. (I have had some technical issues w/ Hulu and the like, and I don't do any sort of torrenting anymore. Esp not on my work machine.)

More often than not my NEED for instant gratification means getting a series on DVD and watching them all marathon style.

I have to agree that there is some added value to the anticipation of the weekly wait.

DV8 wrote:I have to agree that there is some added value to the anticipation of the weekly wait.

Hate it. I've watched various series in various ways now, and for my money - any only speaking for my personal preference! - watching shows in one big lump is the only way to go. Probably this has something to do with my preference for serial TV shows, but I also feel more connected and invested if I can watch a whole whap of show at once.

Lately, since I don't watch TV regularly, I've started saving up shows that I watch, so I can watch them all at once, and don't waste time every day catching up with what aired this week. I guess by "lately," I mean, "for the last year or so," because I did that recently with Heroes, which I was a season behind on...even though the season ended several months ago.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I prefer watching things on my own schedule and not on someone else's. It's the foremost reason I've stopped watching television altogether and simply download what appeals to me.