General Television Thread

[EddieG]

Always felt like he was way better in The Wire than he was on Game of Thrones. Out of everybody, he seemed to not buy GoT the most, he always felt like a dude playing a role.

He was also the villain in 12 Rounds, which is amazing considering he was very good as Tommy Carcetti and just awful in that movie.

Anyway...

I decided to put The Wizard of Oz episode of Scrubs in the background...

Jesus Christ is this show amazing. I haven't watched Scrubs in a few years and within 30 seconds I get hit with this classic moment...

Sweet merciful crap, John C. McGinley was simply UH-May-Zing in that role. How was he never even nominated for an emmy? Not even NOMINATED?

Then we got Ted's Band singing "Maniac" and all the nods to Wizard of Oz. Brilliant television. Anybody have an issue with a Scrubs appreciation thread?

All in Favor?

Already made one, it's the John C McGinley Appreciation Thread (seriously, that's what I named it).

So now we can turn that into the Burn Notice thread?

[MalaCloudy Black]

The Wire, Season 3 Episode 11. Holy shiiiit.

Holy shit, I did not think that Stringer was going to be killed. I mean, while it was happening I was sitting there thinking "kill him! kill him!" but I figured he'd talk himself out of the situation or find some way to get out of it alive. And then BLAM, right in the middle of his sentence Mouzone and Omar open fire and kill him. Daaaaaaamn.

Also, the sight of Brother Mouzone and Omar working together is so incredibly badass.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I've just seen a half hour long youtube movie with intro's from cartoons from the 90s, and I wondered maybe we could do a top 25 90's cartoon list?

[fr34k]

Oh, The Legend of Korra you are amazing! Some pacing issues, but still great show. Every fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender who is still on the fence about this should watch it.

Edited June 24, 2012 by fr34k

[GoGo Yubari]

I've just seen a half hour long youtube movie with intro's from cartoons from the 90s, and I wondered maybe we could do a top 25 90's cartoon list?

There was already a cartoons list, and it was heavily populated by '90s stuff. Yes, zrc ran it and the formatting absolutely sucked but doing another one would still be redundant. Simpsons wins, South Park 2nd, probably Futurama 3rd.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I've just seen a half hour long youtube movie with intro's from cartoons from the 90s, and I wondered maybe we could do a top 25 90's cartoon list?

There was already a cartoons list, and it was heavily populated by '90s stuff. Yes, zrc ran it and the formatting absolutely sucked but doing another one would still be redundant. Simpsons wins, South Park 2nd, probably Futurama 3rd.

I was thinking more about shows you've watched while growing like I watched a lot of turtles and samurai pizza cats

[GoGo Yubari]

I watched The Simpsons growing up.

[Monkey D. Lars]

alright, lol you're right I watched it too.

[Benji]

I do not understand FX. The latest Dexter aired about eight months ago in the US, and it's barely just started over here. Burn Notice season six started a couple weeks back in the US, and FX is going to finally start airing season five in about three weeks.

Sky Living isn't much better, the newest season of Supernatural still hasn't aired either.

I hate to advocate finding them elsewhere, but when delays between US airing and UK airing are that long, I can't really say I blame anyone. Game of Thrones manages to air the very next night, why on earth can't they manage that with other shows?

[Jimmy]

Fuck, Season 4 - Episode 10 of Breaking Bad could possibly be my favourite yet.

Gus killing off the whole cartel is badass. For a moment, I thought it was going to be Hector's head as the gift, but as soon as I saw the drink, I got where it was going. Jesse's really come into his own, too. The only thing I don't like about this season is the Walt/Jesse relationship. Walt's been too whiny this season and it gets really annoying anytime he interacts with Jesse (which didn't happen this episode actually.)

[fr34k]

So, did anyone besides me watch The Newsroom?

[TKz]

The new episode of Wilfred has Robin Williams in it!

Also holy shit fr34k is alive!

[Jimmy]

Is it good? Doesn't air over here until the 10th of July, but I'm extremely excited for it.

[fr34k]

Also holy shit fr34k is alive!

Indeed I am!

Is it good? Doesn't air over here until the 10th of July, but I'm extremely excited for it.

I thought it was pretty good, a bit preachy at times but I liked it well enough. From what I've heard critics are a bit less excited though.

[TGC]

So I am on episode 15 of Revenge and what a fun fucking show. Lots of nice little twists and turns, pretty decent character development, and some spectacular scenery chewing acting by Madeline Stowe. And unlike oh so many shows (pretty much especially since Lost) this one actually answers its own mysteries as it goes along. 15 episodes in and we learn 90% of the mystery that the first episode opened up with. Brilliant.

[TKz]

Can we just cancel the rest of True Blood and make it the Jason and Andy show? Pretty much the only entertaining parts left.

Rev. Steve Newlin is my new favorite character.

[Nick Adams]

Anybody checking Next Food Network Star? I personally think Team Giada is gonna' go down first, but that's partly because I like Alton Brown more. Probably because he's such a cerebral chef.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Huh, I'd been avoiding this thread all day figuring there'd be spoilers for The The Newsroom. Guess not.

I went into it with low expectations on my personal Sorkin curve (so I figured I'd enjoy it enough to keep watching without hating myself but not love it, better than The Killing but not near Mad Men). The first 20 minutes or so, discounting the big speech which I'd seen in a preview somewhere, I enjoyed even less than that, but damn if Sorkin didn't pull me in with his patented brand of people putting aside their differences and coming together for what's good and fair and just.

Now I'm left almost looking forward to the next episode. Obviously they won't all be quite as formulaic, but they're not trying to shoehorn in a premise about sketch comedy that just doesn't fit with what the writing's going to be about.

My biggest gripe is with the characters. Sports Night was sort of a mishmash as Sorkin learned how to develop characters (mostly with Dan and Jeremy). The West Wing pulled everything together. But by the time of Studio 60, it was like he thought "I'm Aaron Sorkin, people love my writing, they don't care about the characters!" Which doesn't work, because his writing is really similar through all his shows, and the only reason people loved it so much in The West Wing is because it *also* had characters worth caring about.

The characters in The Newsroom are, so far, not worth caring about to me. The main character is obviously the Sorkin avatar Matthew Perry played in Studio 60, so I know what to expect from him (some Jed Bartlet-esque facial expressions helped too). Charlie, the bow-tied boss, is an eccentric old guy who's part Jack Rudolph, part Isaac Jaffe, part Bert Cooper. You've got the "new" guy in the office who has great instincts and an eye for the neurotic pretty girl, said neurotic pretty girl, and the jerk-ish guy said neurotic pretty girl is dating (Hi, Harriet Hayes and Luke Somebody!). But they're all completely one-dimensional, at best, and that's still more than I can say about some of the other characters we got glimpses of. I know that's typical for pilot episodes, so I'm hopeful things get better and Sorkin will actually try and create some interesting characters that aren't clear analogues for ones he's used before.

I like the decision to set the show in the recent past and use real news stories. Fake news stories will never pack quite the same punch, and the real world gives ample examples to illustrate whatever point the show wants to make. I just hope we don't get "Flights resumed in Europe"-type asides to illustrate HEY GUYS REMEMBER THIS HAPPENED TWO YEARS AGO CRAZY RIGHT?!? stuff in every episode.

Only other complaint is one that shouldn't surprise me. Sorkin's hatred of the Internet is legendary (and reinforced here. It's weird because Internet news is actually able to provide an alternative to most of his gripes about news and politics today. Mainstream news can't do what this guy did because there are too many pressures bearing down on them, but something like Gawker or the Huffington Post, while also containing fluff, is doing the sort of stuff he's looking for. But 12 years ago people said bad things about his show on Television Without Pity, and if he responded to those bad things, he wasn't given any special status above those people who didn't create the show, so he doesn't like the Internet. Too bad.

[Benji]

What should I expect from Veep? The promos I saw on Sky Atlantic didn't really tell me what kind of comedy to expect, I've basically just recorded it based on Armando Ianucci's reputation and Julia Louis-Dreywhatever.

[GoGo Yubari]

Heavy on sharp dialogue, deeply cynical, pretty strong cast.