General Television Thread

[Baddar]

Awesome.

Well, I wanted something to watch tonight - I've gone with Terriers.

EDIT: The first episode was fun. I'll definitely give #2 a try when I get chance.

[Jimmy]

Why do the US remake a lot of UK shows? I'm glad they did because The Office was awesome at points, but why can't they just show the original on US TV like we do with American shows. They get remade for a reason - because they're quality. So why not take a punt and put them on a big channel or something. Especially The Inbetweeners because it was such a massive cult hit over here.

[Monkey D. Lars]

As I have said so many times, Justified is the only show I have ever seen that gets better with each subsequent season. Not a little better, but leaps and bounds better, and it was pretty awesome from the first episode.

I told GoGo I was making it my mission to get Justified into the Top 10 this year! Between me and Livid, this will be the year of Justified.

I will gladly help you with that

[Guest mr. potato head]

I sort of wish I didn't pay so much attention to the AV Club and the good TV critics, because I think I'd be enjoying The Newsroom more if I wasn't noticing all the not-that-great Sorkin-style elements I've learned from them.

[LittleDaniel]

Why do the US remake a lot of UK shows? I'm glad they did because The Office was awesome at points, but why can't they just show the original on US TV like we do with American shows. They get remade for a reason - because they're quality. So why not take a punt and put them on a big channel or something. Especially The Inbetweeners because it was such a massive cult hit over here.

You lot have silly accents.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, but we have to cope with you guys calling trousers 'pants' and so on.

[LittleDaniel]

And we have to hear you say "bloody" when there's no blood in the frame at all!

Okay but seriously, when my dad watched the UK Office he needs subtitles because he can't understand half of what you all are saying.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

The Newsroom gets a second season on HBO

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Why do the US remake a lot of UK shows? I'm glad they did because The Office was awesome at points, but why can't they just show the original on US TV like we do with American shows. They get remade for a reason - because they're quality. So why not take a punt and put them on a big channel or something. Especially The Inbetweeners because it was such a massive cult hit over here.

Sometimes the us version is far superior.

I submit threes company as my example.

[LL!]

Between me and Livid, this will be the year of Justified.

Oh yeah? You guys have it covered. Cool, then I won't vote for it.

[TGC]

Between me and Livid, this will be the year of Justified.

Oh yeah? You guys have it covered. Cool, then I won't vote for it.

I meant pestering people to watch it you damn bastard!

Also I watched Newsroom ep 1 yesterday finally and I liked it a lot. Does it repeat certain Sorkinisms as MPH said? Yeah it does. Do I mind? No I don't. Quality TV as far as I am concerned by a man whose stuff I usually always like. There's something to be said for consistency.

[Pesci]

People who aren't watching/haven't seen Breaking Bad: watch it now. It's so, so good!

Though if you fall into that category don't read the imminent spoiler because you will be spoiled.

Just finished watching season 3 episode 6, where Hank tracks down the RV; definitely my favourite episode for a while. Looks like it's building to an awesome finale. Truth be told I was a little disappointed by the ending to Season 2 - the plane collision was a bit ridiculous, and didn't really seem to lead to anything - I guess there's still time for it to in the future, but meh. Everything else has been just about perfect though.

[Dingle]

The plane collision definitely has ramifications, but it is more of a metaphor for Walt than anything else. However, I'd hate to potentially spoil things because I can't remember what happens in what season haha. The only thing that annoyed me was the constant foreshadowing for it, simply because I expected the two dead bodies on the front yard to be someone significant.

Edit: Breaking Bad Spoilers in reply to Pesci, don't read unless you've seen season 2. Nothing major but yeah.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Devil In Jouzy City

[Guest mr. potato head]

Between me and Livid, this will be the year of Justified.

Oh yeah? You guys have it covered. Cool, then I won't vote for it.

I meant pestering people to watch it you damn bastard!

Also I watched Newsroom ep 1 yesterday finally and I liked it a lot. Does it repeat certain Sorkinisms as MPH said? Yeah it does. Do I mind? No I don't. Quality TV as far as I am concerned by a man whose stuff I usually always like. There's something to be said for consistency.

Yeah I don't think I'm blaming the show for my lack of enjoyment (relative, I'm still enjoying the show on the whole) as much as I'm blaming the crtics for tuning me onto those "once you see it you'll never not see it" things.

[Ron]

http://tvline.com/2012/07/02/surprise-eastbound-and-down-is-renewed/

Eastbound and Down has been renewed. After what seemed like the Series Finale after season 3, HBO has decided to bring it back. I enjoy Kenny Powers so I like this news.

[GoGo Yubari]

So I got really bored and wrote up what my six nominees for each Emmy category that I give a crap about would be, judging only by shows I've actually watched for the most part (so no Justified, no Girls, no Modern Family, no Anything on CBS, etc. etc. etc.).

Best Drama

1. Mad Men

2. Breaking Bad

3. Game of Thrones

4. Homeland

5. Boardwalk Empire

6. Luck

Mad Men or Breaking Bad wins. Either is fine.

Best Comedy

1. Parks and Recreation

2. Community

3. Louie

4. Curb Your Enthusiasm

5. Veep

6. 30 Rock

Parks or Louie should win this. In reality it'll be fucking Modern Family again.

Best Lead Actor (Drama)

1. Bryan Cranston (Walter White, Breaking Bad)

2. Jon Hamm (Don Draper, Mad Men)

3. Steve Buscemi (Nucky Thompson, Boardwalk Empire)

4. Damian Lewis (Nicholas Brody, Homeland)

5. Dustin Hoffman (Ace Bernstein, Luck)

6. Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead)

Andrew Lincoln shouldn't be in there but he is because I've only seen one episode of Awake so I don't feel right including Jason Isaacs. I'd go with Cranston in this field. Jon Hamm is wonderful but I don't think there was one singular "holy shit, Don was amazing this week" episode. Damian Lewis deserves recognition too but he's in an impossible field.

Best Lead Actress (Drama)

1. Claire Danes (Carrie Matheson, Homeland)

2. Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson, Mad Men)

3. Jessica Pare (Megan Draper-Calvet, Mad Men)

4. Katey Sagal (Gemma Teller-Morrow, Sons of Anarchy)

5. Sarah Wayne-Callies (Lori Grimes, The Walking Dead)

Um. Jesus. I don't watch most of the shows that have eligible candidates. I haven't even seen season four of Sons of Anarchy yet, and I don't think Sarah Wayne-Callies deserves to be nominated at all, but, you know. I don't watch The Good Wife or Scandal or The Closer or anything. Claire Danes is winning this in a landslide anyway so who cares?

Best Supporting Actor (Drama)

1. John Slattery (Roger Sterling, Mad Men)

2. Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones)

3. Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad)

4. Giancarlo Esposito (Gustavo Fring, Breaking Bad)

5. Michael Pitt (Jimmy Darmody, Boardwalk Empire)

6. Jared Harris (Lane Pryce, Mad Men)

This field is a nightmare. Every actor of these six could win and I'd be happy. The episode where Roger trips on acid is so fucking great, and John Slattery does so fucking good getting to show all these new shades to the character, that I think I'm pulling for him to win. But "Blackwater" is an amazing Tyrion episode for Dinklage (who should really be in the Lead Actor field, but whatever), and Aaron Paul is such an incredible actor, and Esposito deserves something for playing one of the all-time greatest TV villains, and Pitt and Harris get to go to such awesomely fucked-up places with their characters...

I mean, let me put it this way. This is a field for me that somehow managed to exclude Mandy Patinkin's fantastic performance on Homeland. I could have maybe put him in over Harris. Nobody else.

Best Supporting Actress (Drama)

1. Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris, Mad Men)

2. Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones)

3. Anna Gunn (Skyler White, Breaking Bad)

4. Maisie Williams (Arya Stark, Game of Thrones)

5. Gretchen Mol (Gillian Darmody, Boardwalk Empire)

6. Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper, Mad Men)

In this field, Christina Hendricks wins. "The Other Woman" should be an unbeatable submission episode for her this year, I'll actually be a little pissed if anyone but her or maybe Lena Headey wins. Maisie Williams and Kiernan Shipka are the two best child actresses working; I almost nominated Sophie Turner for how good and nuanced she is in "Blackwater," but Shipka's amazingness won out. Gretchen Mol beats out Kelly MacDonald for the Boardwalk Empire spot, because I think MacDonald's acting is probably better but Mol's is so much more entertaining. And Anna Gunn deserves so much praise for the thankless task of playing Skyler White, one of TV's more underrated characters because she gets so much shit from a lot of Breaking Bad's viewerbase, some deserved and some totally undeserved (people who hate her on moral grounds but like Walter are hilarious).

Best Lead Actor (Comedy)

1. Louis CK (himself, Louie)

2. Larry David (himself, Curb Your Enthusiasm)

3. Joel McHale (Jeff Winger, Community)

4. Adam Scott (Ben Wyatt, Parks and Recreation)

5. Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski, Chuck)

6. Will Arnett (Chris Brinkley, Up All Night)

Louis CK should win this. He will probably lose in the actual Emmys to Jim Parsons. Whatever. Larry David is always great, Adam Scott's had a good year, Zach Levi handled Chuck's final year magnificently, Joel McHale had a wonderful season finale of Community, and Will Arnett is doing his best TV acting since GOB Bluth on Up All Night, because he's finally playing a character who isn't a variation on GOB Bluth.

Best Lead Actress (Comedy)

1. Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation)

2. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Selena Meyer, Veep)

3. Krysten Ritter (Chloe McGruff, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

4. Deanna Walker (June Colburn, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

5. Christina Applegate (Reagan Brinkley, Up All Night)

6. Tina Fey (Liz Lemon, 30 Rock)

So here it's sort of a thing where most of the shows with obvious nominees are shows I don't watch. After I watch a couple more episodes of Awkward., though, I bet I'd probably put Ashley Rickards in the spot of probably Applegate or maybe Walker. Poehler, JLD, and Tina Fey are all the obvious, deserving inclusions and Poehler should win. Ritter and Walker is one where I love the show and I love both of them and I caaaaaan't really decide which performance is more deserving; I think probably Ritter, but I think Walker's done an amazing job with a role that traditionally is not the easiest to make interesting. And Up All Night mostly is a show that works (when it works) because Applegate and Arnett are so good in it. I could maybe sub in Lea Michelle for Applegate's spot because Michelle's had some amazing scenes written for her on Glee in the midst of all the crap, but they're entirely dramatic scenes and there's still so much crap.

Best Supporting Actor (Comedy)

1. Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation)

2. Danny Pudi (Abed Nadir, Community)

3. Tony Hale (Gary Walsh, Veep)

4. Chris Pratt (Andy Dwyer, Parks and Recreation)

5. James Van Der Beek (himself, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

6. Ted Danson (George Christopher, Bored to Death)

Oh gosh, Best Supporting Actor for Comedy. Nick Offerman deserves his fucking Emmy already and it pisses me off that Modern Family means he'll never get it. Pudi is probably the most versatile cast member on Community, JVDB is both the gimmick and performance that immediately hooks you on Don't Trust the B----, Ted Danson deserves so much more praise for his work on Bored to Death than he gets, Tony Hale is perfectly pathetic on Veep, and Chris Pratt is Chris Pratt.

Best Supporting Actress (Comedy)

1. Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry, Community)

2. Anna Chlumsky (Amy Brookheimer, Veep)

3. Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate, Parks and Recreation)

4. Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez, Glee)

5. Jane Krakowski (Jenna Maroney, 30 Rock)

6. Allison Brie (Annie Edison, Community)

I don't even know who I'd have win in this hypothetical field. I think Jacobs or Plaza. I love Allison Brie but she wasn't given the most notes to play this season whereas Gillian Jacobs felt like one of the key focuses of season three, and she did such a good job with everything. Anna Chlumsky is just so fucking great as the Only Sane Woman on Veep. The way she bounces off everyone else in that cast is amazing. Krakowski's had some particularly wonderful episodes of 30 Rock this season; the one where she Yoko Onos the parody of The Wiggles is probably my favorite. And Naya Rivera's mostly a sentimental favorite for me; season two of Glee was where she was fucking amazing and the only reason I still watched the show. She's still the former and part of the latter now, but it's not so much of a revelation this season. I really really hope that when Glee capsizes she moves on and becomes part of a better TV show.

And, for the fuck of it, my winners for guest actors would be William Forsyth as Manny Horvitz for Boardwalk Empire, Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth for Game of Thrones, Jimmy Fallon as SNL host, and Kathryn Hahn as Jen Barkley for Parks and Rec.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I had no idea GoGo watches Awkward.! Hooray, I'm not the only person on the board that does >_>

[GoGo Yubari]

I've only watched the first two episodes! I liked them decently enough, though, so I'll probably keep watching them every now and then until I run out of them on my DVR.

Other shows that I've watched and liked recently but not mentioned on EWB are The L.A. Complex, Comedy Bang Bang, and up until the display name change, The Aquabats Super Show!.

[Josh]

God, Gillian Jacobs and Nick Offerman deserve to be nominated and take every single vote.

[Ruki]

http://tvline.com/20...own-is-renewed/

Eastbound and Down has been renewed. After what seemed like the Series Finale after season 3, HBO has decided to bring it back. I enjoy Kenny Powers so I like this news.

...wait....really? Season 3 had the perfect ending to the series. What more is there to do?