General Television Thread

[apsham]

Just finishing Season 1 of The Wire and I am loving, loving, loving it.

Measures up to The Shield for me, for sure.. but I still like the main base of characters in The Shield a lot more than the majority in The Wire.

[LL!]

After The Wire, I will watch The Shield. Coming Summer 2014.

[Phobia]

IMO The Shield should be watched before The Wire. The Wire, though great, takes a much longer time to get into. I watched a couple episodes before I started really digging it and there are some low points that were a struggle to get through. Takes a while to care about the characters. The Shield is the polar opposite of this as I was hooked after the very first episode. Great writing. I can't imagine having to watch it live week to week.

I also suggest watching Oz. Ignore all of the comments on gay sex and the like, its one of the greatest dramas you can watch and, like Game of Thrones, you never know who is going to die next. No such thing as safe.

[TKz]

I watched the first like, four episodes of The Shield? It was pretty good, but it's a bit too Sons of Anarchy in the bad way. They all seem to be pretty fucking bad guys, so it's hard to know who to root for. I don't usually have a problem with this, but I kind of did with The Shield.

And I watched the first episode of The Wire at like 2am. Not really the best time for it.

[Benjamin]

I don't understand that, at all. The Shield has a plethora of guys to root for. They all have a little dirt on them, but almost every character is likeable.

[apsham]

I was never able to root for Vendrell at any point after they paired him with his wife.

[Phobia]

His wife is the worst. Kavanaugh is one of the best villains ever, imo. Forrest Whitaker did a ridiculously good job.

[Walker]

I'm caught up with Game of Thrones!

I must say, I much prefer the second season to the first, which I didn't like very much. I think it is because it got over the world building introductory stage of the story and went ahead and turned it into a serial of linked stories. That said, most of the main characters are twats. Am I supposed to be fully behind Daenerys decimating the others for example? She's the only really likable character for me. I also like Arya and Gendry.

[apsham]

His wife is the worst. Kavanaugh is one of the best villains ever, imo. Forrest Whitaker did a ridiculously good job.

I started doing the gum thing. It's amazingly efficient.

[TKz]

I kind of figured Hannibal of all shows would know better than to try the whole "genius serial killer behind bars" thing. It's way too overplayed at this point.

[Your Mom]

As far as not liking anyone on the Shield I always like Lem and to a lesser extent Ronnie from the strike team. Also I liked Claudette and her interactions with Dutch.

[TKz]

So, Arrow. How much boring are we talking before it gets good, guys? I mean, I dealt with Smallville's crappy first season, but that had the wonderful early 2000's teen drama cheese to keep it fun when all the superhero shit was boring.

[GoGo Yubari]

How far in are you?

[TKz]

...episode 1.

[livid]

It's a gradual growth (though not an iceberg either) but just...don't judge how they use Deadshot at first, lol.

[TKz]

Well, I sat through Smallville Season 4. It can't be that bad, right?

[GoGo Yubari]

I'd say the Huntress two-parter seven episodes in is a decent enough measure.

[TKz]

Well, I'll give it a shot. I kind of want to see a half decent adaption of Black Canary and I get the feeling this is the only chance I'll get.

It wasn't so good in Smallville.

[livid]

Well, I sat through Smallville Season 4. It can't be that bad, right?

Not even comparable. Not one bit.

GoGo's right though, The Huntress episodes are probably when things start clicking for everybody.

Also, you'll be waiting a bit for the Black Canary though because that's definitely not happening this season.

[TKz]

That's cool. They probably shouldn't introduce such an important character until they've got their shit together and know what they're doing with the show. For all the crappy stuff in Smallville, once they knew what they were doing, it ends up being kind of a mini-TV version of the Marvel Universe. It's just a ton of fun to see all the different characters and how they're done. When they do it well, it's great. But fuck. Sometimes they just downright didn't.

It'll all be worth it if Deathstroke ends up being a major villain.