What TV SHOWS are you watching? ARCHIVE

JonJacob wrote:

I've been watching Trailer Park Boys on netflix lately and I have to say that 2 and a half seasons in and I am very surprised. I had written it off as garbage before watching it, something I'm very bad at doing, and now that I've seen it I have copious egg on my face. The show is not just funny, it's charming and sad too.

I've seen every episode and it is a really fun show. They do a good job of mixing up the status quo of the park each season, which makes it feel more lifelike.

Burned through the first 2 seasons of True Blood. I was skeptical going in thinking it would be twilight the tv show but I have to admit I fucking love it. I'm about to start season 3 which I have heard from several people is shit, so I'm lowering expectations again.
Anyway it's much better than Walking Dead was, I'm seeing now why people thought the characters in the latter were underwritten.
There is also a hell of a lot more "World of Darkness" influence then I was expecting. In fact if feels more WoD then Kindred the Embraced (which was meant to be a WoD show) ever did.

I only use my television to watch DVDs. We didn't bother with the format switch, because reception was going to be even worse in our hilly neighborhood. Local cable monopoly wants $70 per month for basic cable. If we need to watch television at all, my girlfriend and I watch it over the internet. Or she goes over to her cousin's place.

For what its worth, I liked the plot(s) in season 3 better than season 2.

Mad Dog wrote:

For what its worth, I liked the plot(s) in season 3 better than season 2.

Interesting, as I prefered season 2 to season 1.

The new season of True Blood starts this week so that'll be some new TV, the mid-winter period is pretty barren over here while they wait to start running the new seasons - bummer since I've been off work over this period. Been watching lots of cop show reruns like NCIS and Criminal Minds to kill the time.
I'm assuming the new season of Sons of Anarchy can't be far off either.

I was underwhelmed by The Walking Dead.

I agree with the True Blood season 3 being really weak. I will probably end up watching future seasons because the wife likes it so much. At least there are some naked chicks to keep me interested.

HBO is re-showing Six Feet Under (a contender for my favorite show ever) and I have watched the first two so far, since the wife never saw any of the show. She isn't sure yet, but I'm hoping it grabs her so we can keep watching as long as they keep showing it.

wdgrant wrote:

I agree with the True Blood season 3 being really weak. I will probably end up watching future seasons because the wife likes it so much. At least there are some naked chicks to keep me interested.

HBO is re-showing Six Feet Under (a contender for my favorite show ever) and I have watched the first two so far, since the wife never saw any of the show. She isn't sure yet, but I'm hoping it grabs her so we can keep watching as long as they keep showing it.

I just ran across a rerun of Oz on HBO last night. I think they are running out of decent new programming to fill the calendar and stuff like the Sopranos and The Wire is in syndication. I have never seen 6FU anywhere else.

HBO programming isn't what it used to be. Hallowed franchise shows like Deadwood, The Wire, and The Sopranos are long gone. Other shows are either about to end ( Big Love ) or stayed past their prime ( Entourage ) . Treme got critical acclaim, but I thought it was boring . Boardwalk Empire is OK, but other than Game of Thrones, nothing on the horizon looks promising.

And Southernman, Sons of Anarchy just ENDED the third season about a month or so ago. This means that the DVD won't be out til next August if they follow the usual SOP. It was OK, but a huge letdown from the first two seasons.

Been watching The Loop on Hulu. I'd never even heard of this show before, so it's no wonder it never made it past two (short) seasons. Too bad, though, as it's often quite funny. And Mimi Rogers as the sexpot boss lady...

Spartacus on DVD. A bit too violent for my girlfriend, so we're watching it a bit slowly, maybe halfway through so far.

Also the V remake season 2 just started last week, it's pretty decent.

Watched the premiere of "The Cape." What a shit sandwich. So many stupid cliches. At one point the guy goes "I just wanna show my son that one man can make a difference!" Just awful. There's even an Oracle like character named...Orwell! So bad. I'm sure it's gonna be a runaway hit.

Columbob wrote:

Also the V remake season 2 just started last week, it's pretty decent.

Eh, I started watching that when it began, but I've lost interest. It just seems like a BSG kind of thing, but with the acting/writing not nearly as solid.

usrlocal wrote:

'Leverage' and 'Burn Notice' are both full of awesome.

If you like Leverage, definitely check out Hustle, which just started it's 7th season on the BBC. I like Leverage quite a lot (especially when it doesn't take itself too seriously and focuses more on the three side characters, who I think are much more fun and likable than the two main characters), but I've really always thought of it as "Hustle Lite". Hustle is very very slick and has a great style and energy to it. Some of the earlier seasons were more consistently good, and the show does miss the departure of Marc Warren as Danny Blue, but it's still quite good much of the time.

The only thing that sucks about Hustle is that a "season" on the BBC equals only 6 episodes.

My sister and I are both vampire fans, but there are two important differences. I don't mindlessly consume any form of entertainment involving vampires, I try to stick to the better stories/movies/comics/etc, while my sister is a particular fan of the Anita Blake series. The other big difference is that my sister lives in the Deep South, in Shreveport. So my sister has been trying to get me to try True Blood for a couple of years now, and I finally rented the first four episodes.

I feel bad saying this, but as a lifelong resident of the Midwest, I generally don't enjoy hearing a southern accent. Slow, slurred words like a stroke victim, and an overall uneducated sound. I know that southerners are just as intelligent as anybody, it's just that they don't sound intelligent. So one major reason that I kept putting off True Blood was avoidance of southern accents.

The first four episodes were okay, a tolerable way to pass the time. I really enjoyed the opening credits, which seem like a cool collaboration between David Lynch and Chris Isaak. But True Blood didn't have anything new to say about vampires, or much to say about vampires at all. Okay, there was one thing. They took the White Wolf concept of the Masquerade and turned it inside out, making vampires to be out in the public eye as the latest and most hated minority group.

Really, that's what True Blood is about, a big vampire metaphor for exploring themes of discrimination and integration. And that's why one of the episodes that I watched didn't even have any vampires on screen for most of the episode, and why there are so many sunny day scenes. Oh, and also sex, but then this is an HBO show.

I don't plan on watching any more True Blood. I didn't like most of the characters, and the pace was often plodding. Nothing surprised me, and I felt that I could have missed half an episode without missing anything at all.

To the extent that I enjoyed True Blood at all, it was as a nuanced examination of an alien society: southerners, not vampires. Based on my several visits to see family in Shreveport, this show seems to have really nailed the setting. The accents, the decay, the manners, and the gossip. I suppose even the pacing is dead-on, because the oppressive heat and humidity slows everything down for at least half the year.

Definitely not plodding in the second season - and being a cuthulhu cultist type fan you may enjoy the second season. Season 1 and 2 were quite different and I haven't seen the 3rd season yet but reports here sound like it is different again.
Finish off season 1 as it changes.