General Television Thread

[GoGo Yubari]

Honestly, I think Chuck this season has started out more promisingly than season four (which was totally abysmal) did. At least there seems to be a direction this time. If I recall correctly season three started pretty weak too.

Of course, this direction almost certainly comes from knowing that this is the end.

[TKz]

I think I'm just a bit over it now, the latest turn with Morgan... eh. Same thing happened with Smallville, despite the final series (well, series 9 really, but 10 was pretty good too) being better than most, I just didn't really care any more. I haven't been greatly entertained by anything so far.

[GoGo Yubari]

Again, the Morgan thing is actually a thing that I've ended up liking, if just because

The Intersect turning him into an entitled little shit/possibly eating his brain or something is a good contrast to how a) Chuck handled it so well, something that has been continually implied to be fairly rare and b) how part of why Chuck handled it so well was because he didn't get too much too soon like Morgan (and the Indian guy from season three, and maybe Shaw) did. It's the first genuinely interesting thing they've done with Morgan (who was a huge bore in S4) in well over a year.

[LittleDaniel]

I love Modern Family, for me it's the only show other than Parks and Recreation this series that hasn't been a major disappointment.

We get it. Community's not living up to your expectations.

As far as Modern Family goes, I've never really seen the big deal. It's funny but nowhere near as amazing as the hype it gets would suggest.

I'm just sad that it's not as whacky as it used to be. It's all well and fine, I just miss the more ridiculous episodes. Stuff like the Mafia/Fried Chicken episodes were great.

Episode 1 - Singing introduction, monkey knockout gas, Jeff's 2001 dream which is a direct result of monkey knock-out gas.

Episode 2 - Annie's evil Asian twin, Britta as a terrible protestor (especially the musical montages), the model UN traveling from Earth-1 to Earth-2

Episode 3 - Chang as a terrible noir detective. Chang as a noir detective. Come on.

Episode 4 - Do I really need to say anything about the chaos theory episode? Even you say it's "decent."

Episode 5 - I'm sorry this Halloween wasn't an action-packed romp. But that would get really boring.

Episode 6 - You seemed to like this one so I'm not going to try to justify it. But, seriously, I'd say this one was the least "ridiculous" (until you get to the sudden death of Pierce's dad).

So, how can you say you want more ridiculous episodes when every episode so far has had very ridiculous qualities to them?

[TKz]

Didn't really think of it like that as the Chuck comparison hasn't really been brought up. I suppose I'll wait and see how it turns out. I do like the idea that Chuck handled it a lot better and this is why the other people with it have turned into cold, calculating killing machines. I just hope it doesn't last long, because Morgan wouldn't be a great villain, really. He's been way too much of a joke for far to long for me to ever take him particularly seriously as a central bad guy.

And c'mon EWB, let's not fight, you know I love me some Community, it just hasn't been hitting the right notes for me so far. Maybe I'll like it more when I inevitably rewatch it, it just hasn't been quite as good as last series I feel.

[livid]

Again, the Morgan thing is actually a thing that I've ended up liking, if just because

The Intersect turning him into an entitled little shit/possibly eating his brain or something is a good contrast to how a) Chuck handled it so well, something that has been continually implied to be fairly rare and b) how part of why Chuck handled it so well was because he didn't get too much too soon like Morgan (and the Indian guy from season three, and maybe Shaw) did. It's the first genuinely interesting thing they've done with Morgan (who was a huge bore in S4) in well over a year.

It's also a nice callback to Season 1 when they talked about Chuck's ability to retain information and see the encoded messages in the pictures in college as the reason the Intersect worked so well. The fact that Morgan doesn't have that skill could be why it's eating his brain and his memory and making him a dick. I could be giving the writing team too much credit but this final season seems to be all about connecting the dots to a larger conspiracy so I would assume they're going to be doing some other callbacks as well.

I'm hesitant about Chuck because of the Morgan angle too but I have confidence in the writing team as they always tend to start out pretty slow/weak but make for it near the end with some really fantastic episodes.

Oh, I know you love Community TKz, I just had to point it out. I was also pretty disappointed with the first three episodes myself but it's gotten better since and it's starting to resemble it's normal feel.

[GoGo Yubari]

That is a very good catch. I haven't watched season one since it aired so I forgot all about that.

[Maxx]

Who's giving Hell on Wheels a shot this evening?

[Baddar]

Not sure if I've posted about them before, but hey...

As Teen Wolf finished (which I loved) two shows were being advertised on Living - Ringer (Sarah Michelle Gellar - there's fucking two of her in this! ) and The Secret Circle. To my surprise, I'm really enjoying them.

Well, I kinda knew I'd enjoy Ringer, but The Secret Circle is actually quite entertaining. Yeah.

[Damian WayLNKe]

I just watched the first two episodes of Call Me Fitz on Netflix. I'm enjoying it and looking forward to where it goes from here. Has anyone else seen it? I can't recall anyone mentioning it.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Who's giving Hell on Wheels a shot this evening?

'sup. AMC rarely goes wrong with original series, and I'm a sucker for western-themed programming as it is so I'm definitely there.

[GoGo Yubari]

Only AMC series that's not worked for me is The Killing, and I gave that a few weeks. Hell on Wheels will get the same courtesy unless it's somehow awful.

EDIT: Ooooh, The AV Club gave the premiere a B+.

[TKz]

I've never really seen any SNL before, but I thought I'd check out the Charlie Day episode. The Greek Gods segment has been pretty great.

[GoGo Yubari]

The Poseidon bit in that is fantastic. I love how bugfuck insane Greek myth is.

[TKz]

The Poseidon bit in that is fantastic. I love how bugfuck insane Greek myth is.

Yeah, I was in tears almost at that. "Right, okay, I turn into a Dolphin... hear me out. I have sex with a woman... stay with me! It's not consensual... but wait! ...she's my daughter."

Nothing else has been that great other than surprise appearance of Danny DeVito thus far.

[Lint]

So a band I listen to posted this on their Facebook page today..

For every day the Plow United Facebook page is still misidentified as a "community" page, I am going to post another clip from COMMUNITY. In today's clip, from Season 2, Troy, Abed and Annie chloroform the night janitor at Jeff's old law firm, and themselves.

If you would like this to stop, please click where it says "this is wrong" and maybe someday before we are all dead, a real human being who works at Facebook will change this back to being the official page, which it is.

http://www.nbc.com/community/video/ep-202-my-whole-brain-is-crying/1252225/ is the first clip they posted

[MalaCloudy Black]

OK, holy shit, this season of Dexter just went from "OK/Decent" to "Intriguing".

Dexter spiraling further into the darkness and seeing visions of his brother rather than Harry? Jonah (possibly) re-enacting the Trinity killings by killing his mother and sister -- and Jonah doing the "Hello, Dexter Morgan" routine? yeah, definitely watching next week. I mean, I watch every week, but still..

[GoGo Yubari]

Hell on Wheels is promising.

And I'm glad Dexter is apparently getting better. Once I finish with season four of Breaking Bad I will be moving on to Dexter season six.

[Benji]

Okay, I was going to wait on Dexter arriving on UK TV (which would mean August next year, probably), but I'm not waiting that long again. How long until the season is finished?

[MalaCloudy Black]

A while yet. The last episode of S6 is on December 18th.

And yeah, I quite liked Hell On Wheels. Was that one-handed guy with the awesome beard played by Ted Levine? EDIT: It was. Awesome. Also awesome was that monologue at the end by "Doc" Durant. I hope that gets on youtube.