A TV Show Topic

[Premezilla]

Okay, okay. I admit it. I am a LOST fanatic. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the show is filmed where I live. Perhaps a miniature, demented Robinson Crusoe resides within the tortured recesses of my soul. Or, maybe I just like a good yarn. In any case, I am quite firmly hooked on this new show. It is one of the few shows I have ever seen that truly makes me want to continue watching, in order to find out what happenes next. The show is extremely character-oriented, which allows me/the viewer to connect more firmly to each person on the island. Why am I raving about a show at 2:30 in the morning when I have school the next day? I have no clue. Much like Johnny Cochran's infamous "Chewbacca defense," "it does not make sense." But I digress.

I like LOST. And NCIS. And, back when it was funny, a show called My Wife and Kids. My point being, what are the tv shows that are YOUR must-sees? And why?

I remember when CBS had a lock on Monday nights; King of Queens was in its infancy, followed by the powerhouse Everybody Loves Raymond, finishing up with the oft-overlooked and under-appreciated Becker. My first hour-and-a-half comedy block my parents allowed me to skip homework to see. Fast-forward a few years, and Wednesday nights were just for My Wife and Kids. CSI on Thursdays was also a must-see; however, even at this point in time the whole Survivor-reality thing was getting old to me. Finally, today's must-see include Tuesday nights with the crew of NCIS, Wednesdays with LOST, and episodes of Jackass, Viva La Bam, and Wild Boyz whenever I can squeeze them in.

There's no real point to this section.

[[wcip]Angel]

I haven't watched a television programme on TV for years now, but I'm a huge fan of TV-series (more so than movies) and so you'll find plenty of television DVD-box sets on my shelves, including

* Buffy the vampire slayer
* Firefly
* The Sopranos
* Murder One
* NYPD Blue (Season 3 is coming in february! Wohoo!!)
* Babylon 5
* Taken
* The 4400 (a bit disappointed with this one though)
* Seinfeld
* Curb your Enthusiasm (bought season 1 and 2 just last week. It compliments "Seinfeld" really well.)
* Frasier
* Little Britain
* The Office

Needless to say, http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/ is one of my favourite websites :)

In the future I plan on getting the following DVDs

* Angel
* 6 feet under
* The West Wing
* Deadwood
* ER
* The X-files

I'll also complete the series I already have.

-----
The reason I don't watch television series on TV is 4-fold

1. I can't watch the episodes whenever I like
2. I can't watch them several times over
3. Commercials (!!)
4. Horrible Norwegian subtitles. It's not as bad as German/French/Italian dubbing of American television, but the translated subtitles are *always* dreadful.

The best show is - without a doubt - The Sopranos. From the fantastic and highly convincing acting, well-written scripts and cinematic presentation to the huge bunch of well-portrayed characters, lovely and suitable music and the engrossing and thought-provoking stories; The Sopranos shines in every conceivable way.

For years, my favourite show was Buffy, as there was no other show (and still isn't) that could pull at my heart strings as well as this one did. There is no tv show that has made me cry or feel such raw emotion than this one. In time, had it not been ruthlessly cancelled in the middle of its 1st season, I suspect Firefly would have achieved the level of emotion that Buffy carried in its best episodes. (Becoming, Passion, The Body, Hush, Amends, etc) I read on The Elder Scrolls forums yesterday a post about Firefly, and I thought to myself "that's a nice quote."
"Firefly is not the best series ever made, but it's the best series ever made that was cancelled mid-season."


It's now been 7 years since it went off the air, and still no sit-com has bested what I consider to be one of the funniest shows ever created; Seinfeld. I still watch 3-4 episodes a day, and I consider myself a normal person. Not only do I watch the episodes over and over, I think about the show all the time, because the show deals with a lot of mundane everyday things. Whenever I compose a forum post on a given topic, I always manage to find a Seinfeld-quote that's somehow related to the subject. I recently started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm (created by Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld), and it's amazing how well these two shows compliment each other. I also love the "no-script"-improv-thing that the show is based on. (Basically, there's no script. The actors are told what the scene will be about and in which direction it should move, but they make up their own lines to get there.)

I feel I should also say something about Babylon 5. Those who are fans *love* the show. Those who are not *hate* it, and it's very easy to understand why. I get the distinct impression that Babylon 5 is one of the best sci-fi programmes that has so many crappy episodes. (Some might compare it to Stargate SG1, which is also riddled with horrible episodes while having a nice overarching storyline). If you examine the series real up-close, episode by episode; scene by scene, you'll be regularly confronted with horrible acting, lousy writing and crappy stories. However, if you take a step back and look at the series as a whole, it's a whole different story. It's an epic; a saga about the people aboard a space station, and the impact they have on contemporary, future and even past history. The series span 5 years, but there is much information about the years before and those to come. The overarching story of the whole series is impressive, detailed and highly entertaining.

The 'filler'-episodes are occasionally dreadful, occasionally bearable, but the "plot-episodes" - the once that impact on the rest of the series, are all remarkable. The thing about "The Sopranos" is that it's always great; the acting, the writing, music and cinematography.. it's *always* great. The thing about Babylon 5 is that these things (the quality of acting, writing, directing) fluctuate immensely. Sometimes an actor will give a poor performance, and other times that person will shine. (Same with the writing) (Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan shone brightest of all in the last episode of the series, "Sleeping in Light". When I hear people criticise and complain about Babylon 5, I just think about their performances in that episode, and I smile.)

Yeah, I like television :)

What film can do, television can do better.

edit: And that was a hell of a lot more than 100,29 words :P

[pakman]

Here is my list:

Dirty Jobs on Discovery channel
Mythbusters
Modern Marvels
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Law and Order: Criminal Intent
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
CSI (the Las Vegas one)

[Jeunemaitre]

My point being, what are the tv shows that are YOUR must-sees?  And why?
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Scrubs (ABC): because it's one of the few shows that makes me laugh.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC): my wife always cries at the personal stories, I like the carpentry.
Nova (PBS): I can never figure out when its on the local PBS station, but if I click by it, I stay for the rest of the hour. Me likee science!
Nature (PBS): wildlife lead in to EM:HE, again Me likee science!
Antiques Road-show (PBS): I keep hoping to see something that looks like something I own to find out that my wife bought something that might actually be worth money.

In general, I can't stand most of the sit-com fare because I feel like I can predict the plot after about 5 minutes. Also, can you tell that I don't have cable? If I did, I might get sucked in by the ability to click back and forth between PBS, Discovery, and the History channel. It would be bad for my health.

[Guest]

"House" is great. Not for the medical mystery, which is interesting but not so accurrate, but for its commentary on humanity and personalities that it shows through its in depth character ddevelopment.

I like "Lost" too :)

[GenericKen]

My List:
-West Wing
-House
-Scrubs
-Earl
-Arrested Development (RIP)
-Mythbusters
-Prison Break
-Veronica Mars

Shows I'm soured on but still watch:
-24
-Lost
-Simpsons

Best special eva:
-The Presidents, on the History Channel

[Urza-DSF]

My god, what is wrong with you all? Does no one else get the Food Network?! If you do then check it out at 7:30pm Eastern Time for one of the greatest shows ever: Good Eats.

Other than that... I really just leave my TV on The History Channel, Food Network or one either Adult Swim on Demand or Anime Network on Demand.

[Guest]

My god, what is wrong with you all?  Does no one else get the Food Network?!  If you do then check it out at 7:30pm Eastern Time for one of the greatest shows ever: Good Eats.

Other than that... I really just leave my TV on The History Channel, Food Network or one either Adult Swim on Demand or Anime Network on Demand.
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WEll I dont have cable or satelite :P But i guess I really dont like those showws much since Im to cheap to get them.

[Occhidiangela]

Does no one else get the Food Network?
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FN is a big favorite in my house: all four of us, the adults and the kids.

We try out new FN recipes five or six times a month. The only keeper so far is Rachel Ray's vodka cream sauce to go with shrimp and pasta (magnificent) and a couple of other Rachel Ray bits (not memorable to me) the Missus has written down. I borrow ideas here and there on interesting flavors or ways to use spices or combinations of ingredients.

On that score -- you did what with basil? -- FN is a great resource.

Occhi

[Artega]

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
Stroker and Hoop
Samurai Champloo
Fullmetal Alchemist
FLCL
IGPX
The Boondocks
MythBusters
Dirty Jobs
Law and Order

[cheezz]

Friday nights are for Sci Fi channel. .

The wife and I have always loved Stargate and have watched it religiously since it first came out on Showtime. So we watch the two Stargates and Battlestar Galactica. We both still love the origanal CSI on Thursdays, and we like to watch Surface on Modays. The wife got me hooked on Lost.

I'm sorry, but I still love Survivor. Watching people pretend to be civilized while the whole situation degenerates inti a Lord of the Flies scenerio appeals to my Sadistic tendencies.

[whyBish]

"Firefly is not the best series ever made, but it's the best series ever made that was cancelled mid-season."
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Well, for me personally, that title goes to a series called "Dark Skies" (or maybe that was cancelled at the end of a season(?))

I agree on the Buffy front. Unfortunately, over here Buffy did not play on one channel, and continuously. It played on 3 different channels over its lifetime, and some of those channels had little national coverage at the time. Buffy started on (iirc) TV2 for a few seasons at a resonably prime time (8-9pm ish). It then went to TV3 where they started again from the beginning, but, being a lot behind the U.S. it played at about 11pm at night, and was a few seasons behind. After about the middle of the second or third (?)season (the 'Adam' season) they had a one day buffy marathon where they played all of the (for us) 'new' episodes for the rest of that, and the following season. It then shifted to channel 4 where they started playing from season three(?) or so, once again late at night.
I plan on getting Angel on DVD second hand eventually. I think the entire series played here all on TV3. A couple seasons on primetime, and the rest at 11:30 pm ~~~
Firefly also played here at about the same timeslot :-( , but I don't plan on viewing something that will leave me disappointed.

At the moment, my only "must see" program is 24 (the season where a nuclear reactor melts down, but the main threat only seems that they are going to shot down the president in airforce one... strange priorities :P )

We have only had one season of Lost here, and that didn't make it to must see for me (resonable, but I wouldn't turn down a game of tennis for it :P ) I have doubts about how long it can last. It has the smell to me of the X-Files (where the first two seasons were innovative, but then it went downhill), but there is much less room to maneuvre within the Lost plot (flashbacks, current island stuff).

[LochnarITB]

I generally don't just sit and watch TV, but rather record (a lot) and play it as background while I'm surfing and gaming. A lot of what I record has already been mentioned, especially Friday night SciFi. I also tend to be a sucker for shows like Survivor and Amazing Race. A few that I haven't seen listed yet are American Chopper, World Poker Tour and Celebrity Poker Showdown. If the other networks went away, I could probably find enough recordable content on my reasons to have cable: Discovery, Travel Channel, The Learning Channel, Food Network, Bravo and SciFi.

[Premezilla]

Well. I just finished composing a well-thought out, structured response, when I accidently hit the left-side button on my mouse, which just so happens to be a shortcut to my browser's "back" button.

Curses.

Seeing as I'm too lazy to re-write everything out, I'll give my post in a nutshell.

-Seinfield=hella funny.
-CSI=hella overused.
-Good Eats=hella best produced show on FN.
-New shows to be added: MXC, Chappelle's show, Family Guy, American Idol (purely for the "reject" epidosode)

And that, my friends, is it for now.

[Quark]

FLCL
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For the love of all that is sane ... *shudder*

[Quark]

Definately House. That's really the only one right now.

[ima_nerd]

Shows on TV now?

-Family Guy, obviously.
-LOST. Wow. WoOoOoW. I stayed up until 5:00AM last nite/this morning watching a disk and a half of the first season. 1.5 disks to go .... how do people watch it with commercials and having to wait a week inbetween episodes?!

Shows off of TV

-X-Files. The single greatest show ever made. Period.
-Friends. The overall funniest TV show (Family Guy is veeery close). Just enough drama to make it more than just laughs but just enough laughs to make it a comedy.

I watch those shows and NCAA sports. And of course, movies. Lots of movies.

[Ammonium]

Hmmm, I can just hit 'forward' and the text is still there :P. Maybe its a function of Firefox.

[[wcip]Angel]

-Friends. The overall funniest TV show (Family Guy is veeery close). Just enough drama to make it more than just laughs but just enough laughs to make it a comedy.

Got to disagree with you there. Drama *killed* Friends in the end. It was ok the first couple of seasons, but after Chandler and Monica got together during their trip to England (Ross' wedding to Emily), the writing got constantly worse by each season. There was an increasing "Step by Step"-factor that killed the humour.

Whereas Seinfeld would always kill potentially dramatic/emotional scenes with a punchline, Friends revelled in it, and it led me to the mute-button more times than I can count.

edit: I found an old IMDB comment I wrote:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/usercomments-358

Ehem.. it's a bit pompous and over-written, but please bear with me :)

[ima_nerd]

Got to disagree with you there. Drama *killed* Friends in the end.

That's true. I prefer the earlier seasons to the later ones. Well written comment :) I don't agree with all of it, but it was well written.