General Television Thread

[MalaCloudy Black]

I keep meaning to watch The Shield, but FX doesn't have it available on their website(s). :/ Is it on FX On Demand or am I going to have to torrent it?

[Benji]

Two episodes in and Elementary seems like a pretty generic cop show with unsociable genius so far. I expected it because I was told it, but I was also told does it get better. How many eps am I looking at?

[TKz]

I couldn't really pinpoint where I started to love Elementary. But I do now. And you're Benji, you'll watch anything, so I'm sure you'll like it if it was good enough for my cynical ass.

[Walker]

It is more than 9, because that is when I stopped watching.

[GoGo Yubari]

Funnily enough, the tenth episode ("The Leviathan") is the one I think is the first great one.

To be honest, there are episodes you can skip outright without losing anything though it's been so long I can't pick out any of them for sure except "The Deductionist," which is straight-up bad but a good ways in.

[Lint]

Fox is doing an American version of Broadchurch and has cast David Tennant as the lead

[livid]

Funnily enough, the tenth episode ("The Leviathan") is the one I think is the first great one.

To be honest, there are episodes you can skip outright without losing anything though it's been so long I can't pick out any of them for sure except "The Deductionist," which is straight-up bad but a good ways in.

Yeah, it's about episode 10 that it starts its run of being awesome.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Straight up, The Leviathan is a great episode of TV.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Speaking of Elementary, didn't really dig this week's episode.

Also Sherlock YOUR STAB IN THE DARK WAS NOT A LITERAL STAB IN THE DARK STOP YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THAT

[RPS]

I figured I'd bring this up here. My thoughts on Girls and Louie...

So I watched the first two seasons of Girls and Louie. I watched Girls first and just finished Louie. Both are great television shows and so similar. It's about two individuals who struggles with selfishness, struggle with their body image, and deal with the superficial problems nature of theirs and other's problems. It's so strange to me why one's acclaimed and the other isn't. Maybe it's the subject. I don't think it's a huge radical feminist argument to be made about people hating women, but I think it's a part of the puzzle. Television and media usually centers around the problems of the single middle aged white dude - problems grappling with mortality, relationships, sex, etc. Almost every show on television focuses, sometimes largely others times not largely, on the lives of middle aged dudes.So when you see Louie complaining about dealing with his children, it's something we are used to, but he comes at it from a different and more interesting perspective.

And maybe that's why people hate Girls (or dislike it). Because people aren't used to being exposed to people like Hannah. Not a lot of shows, especially not cable drama/dramedies, that deal with struggling young girls. And she faces the same problems that Louie does - she has problems with her weight, adjusting to relationships, unable to learn from her mistakes. But there's just some reason the audience can't relate to her. Part of the reason I love Louie is that you know he's going to make a wrong decision, but he's doing it because he is who he is. He's middle aged and he's stuck in his ways. He can't change. He won't change. He gets hung up on small things and he blows them out of the water. But the audience accepts that. That same attitude doesn't seem to be there when people hate on Girls. Hannah's deals with her problems in a way 20 somethings deal with their problems - they are reckless and irresponsible. And there doesn't seem to be that same acceptance of Hannah's mistakes as there are for Louie. It's strange.

I absolutely love both shows and think without question they are the best shows on television. It always just seems odd to me that people are really turned off by Girls but love Louie. Outside of Louie's more DIY/experimental approach to the technical side, the two shows are pretty much identical.

[Pizza]

I don't understand the extreme hate Girls gets. I don't like it as much as Louie, and Season 2 is very far down my list of things to watch, but Season 1 was decent enough. There are people who don't like Louie, but they don't scream and shout about it the way people who don't like Girls do, and that's almost certainly based on misogyny.

I do find Louie much funnier than Girls, but that may be because I find Louie very relatable, whereas I have very little in common with anyone from Girls.

[RPS]

I think people relating to the characters is key. When I watch Girls, I see aspect of my friends, both good and bad. I fully relate to it. But I'm also a gay dude and a lot of my friends happen to be girls, so I don't probably tend to socialize with women far more than I do with straight guys and that's probably why I like the show a lot more than others. Both shows are great though. I just don't get the irrational hate of Girls. I think the line of Hannah saying she is the "voice of my generation, or at least of a generation" is so apt. She's not speaking for all Americans, but she's definitely speaking to an experience of young privileged and entitled girls growing up in today's society and the problems associated with it.

[KONGO]

I personally dislike Girls because the creator went to my school and I find it dreadfully unfunny. I think it's a well-done show with lots of well-realized characters and I hate them all and none do things that make me laugh. So yeah, that plus all the praise, eh. I'd say the only reason I harp on it is because she went to my school and is exactly the kind of twee "minimalist life experiences" thing that a lot of people did at Oberlin and that I hate like a lot. If I didn't have a connection I would probably not care, seeing as I only gave it a two episode shot and only that because I wanted to see if it was any good.

[Josh]

I haven't yet given Girls a chance (I want to), but I don't think anyone has to see both shows to know there's a double-standard based on gender in the way media is received.

[Jimmy]

I loved the first season of Girls, but the 2nd season put me in a place where I started to dislike all the characters in season two. I'm maybe not intelligent enough to fully analyise and understand why I like Adam more than I do any of the other principal characters in Girls. I just think it's because he has a set of morals and ideals that he sticks to, in the face of anything, whereas the other girls seem superficial, always changing and make simply unlikeable and decisions I can't understand. I get that people make those decisions, but I just don't enjoy watching them make it. I don't know whether that's because I'm a male and only empathise with male's, or I just don't like what the girl's become. I loved the 1st season and thought the 2nd season was okay, but mainly, I just started to resent Hannah. She was annoying, whiny and unreasonable. That's completely okay when you're a side character, but when I'm struggling to like the main character, I start to lose interest.

And maybe that's my problem, in the 2nd season Hannah becomes the main character, instead of it being an ensemble. But yeah, this is hardly a well considered or thought out argument.

[Your Mom]

I do not like anyone on Girls. I hate the way they all act. Which means its not worth watching. Louie I just found painfully awkward but I guess thats the point. I just cant handle it

[RPS]

I loved the first season of Girls, but the 2nd season put me in a place where I started to dislike all the characters in season two. I'm maybe not intelligent enough to fully analyise and understand why I like Adam more than I do any of the other principal characters in Girls. I just think it's because he has a set of morals and ideals that he sticks to, in the face of anything, whereas the other girls seem superficial, always changing and make simply unlikeable and decisions I can't understand. I get that people make those decisions, but I just don't enjoy watching them make it. I don't know whether that's because I'm a male and only empathise with male's, or I just don't like what the girl's become. I loved the 1st season and thought the 2nd season was okay, but mainly, I just started to resent Hannah. She was annoying, whiny and unreasonable. That's completely okay when you're a side character, but when I'm struggling to like the main character, I start to lose interest.

Hm, I find it funny you use Adam as the example. I find Adam to be just as unreasonable as Hannah. Everything from him quitting the play because he didn't like the guy's take on one of his characters, the hiding his alcoholism from Hannah, him expecting to move in so closely after the formation of their relationship, his weird sort of pseudo-possession over Hannah, his weird stalking thing after the relationship broke up and him dating somebody who he clearly wasn't supposed to be with. I think if you were to say compare Charlie to Marnie... I'd totally co-sign that. Charlie's a freaking victim of Marnie. But Adam? He's just as reckless and immature as Hannah.

[Ant]

http://tvline.com/2013/10/04/brooklyn-nine-nine-script-order-full-season-pickup-next/

I like this show. Pretty happy

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh, that's good news! I thought this week's episode was great, particularly Terry Crews vs. dollhouse.

[Josh]

Yeah, Brooklyn Nine Nine already seems like this season's best new show by a long shot.