TV Shows Discussion

[Fiach]

Yeah mate I am currently on season 3 of The Unit.

The title song has changed into some sort of cheap a$$ Nickleback kinda thing now, !much preferred the old cadence song.

While I enjoy the Unit immensely, it really takes a lot of liberties with "artistic licence", things like syphoning diesel from a tractor to use in a petrol car to chase terrorists, would be one example, But if you take these things with a grain of salt, its quite good.

There have been some quite standout storyline arcs in the series, I remember one, where a bunch of terrorists crashed a Unit party, talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight LOL :)

My main fly in the ointment with the series, is that it dwells too much on the wives, I know its for commercial reasons, but it adds a severe pile of suckage to an otherwise excellent TV series.

The seaons run usually for 20+ episodes, but season 3 has only 12, I'm not sure why, it could be due to the writers strike, as this played havoc with The Shields episodic continuity, but season 4 returned with 20+ episodes, so hopefully they are back on track now.

[Art Blade]

I'm currently consuming that Vol.II 20 episodes, bought it yesterday and went through 2.5 discs so far lol, was a good entertainment (I love it to watch stuff like that on DVD in a single go, see how far I get until my face hits the keyboard and soaks it in drool while suffering from a nap-attack)

yeah, liberties... don't you love it how they use ther sidearms with outstreched arms while sneaking around corners? In real life, the bad guy would have the opportunity to slap the gun out of their hands, and to prevent that, the good guys would pull the gun close to their body/chest, to extend it only to actually shoot.

[fragger]

My main fly in the ointment with the series, is that it dwells too much on the wives, I know its for commercial reasons, but it adds a severe pile of suckage to an otherwise excellent TV series.

I agree mate, the soapy stuff interferes with a good action tale!

I recently watched a terrific 12-part miniseries about the Apollo program called "From the Earth to the Moon", produced and narrated by Tom Hanks. I highly recommend it to space nuts (like myself) but skip episode 11 - it focuses on the astronauts' wives, which I found to be a big yawn. Days of our Lives, Apollo-style.

Got to go into the bush, kill something and beat my chest now. ;)

[Art Blade]

Got to go into the bush, kill something and beat my chest now. ;)

Hahaha!!  :) :)

[Fiach]

LOL that reminds me of Tim the toolman Taylor from Home Improvement, whenever he got a power tool in his hands and started grunting like a gorilla  8)

Yeah if you have any army XP, you would see countless faux pas when they approach certain objectives, I actually get a bit of a hoot out of some of the things they do, but what the hey, McGuyver did it first and much better :)

[fragger]

McGuyver did it first and much better :)

Only man I know who could repair a nuclear submarine with a ring-pull and a wad of bubble gum ;D

[Art Blade]

you guys keep me grinning and chuckling hehe :-X

[RedRaven]

After reading through all posts here thought would add my two-penneth worth,not a massive fan of TV, as i prefer movies. but a couple of series worth checking out are Band of Brothers and Rome (both BBC/HBO productions) excellent acting, scripting, well made solid viewing. Also by HBO but very gritty and almost depressing The Sopranos. On a lighter note the old Robotech series is great fun, and Ghost in the Shell SAC 1&2 are all good animated fun.Recently have been watching Two and a Half men with my son (surprisingly funny)and must not forget both Futurama and The Simpsons which always gets a chuckle or three. Have not seen the original Galactica since being a kid tho the new one has been pretty good in general. And the first 2 seasons of Heroes were entertaining without being too cheesy or dull, but not seen 3rd yet so cant comment on that. And without a doubt Star trek next generation. Picard is THE best captain ever. ;D

[Fiach]

Currently Im wading through The Unit Season 4, man this series has totally lost the plot!
The wives go undercover achieving bizzare results, a psychologist creates a telepathic link between one of the wives and her daughter.

It's gone really bonkers and become a huge disappointment at this stage.

On saying that, when you get a sucessful series and you try to prolong its shelf life past its original concept, it runs foul of the law of diminishing returns as the series progresses.

The best series I have seen so far that I have managed to follow to their ultimate conclusions are 24, West Wing and The Shield, they all ran for maybe seven seasons each...... honourable mention to Married with Children, I think that went for 11 seasons or something like that.

Has anyone ever seen the british vrsion of Married with Children, with Russ Abbot, gawd it was rubbish.

[fragger]

honourable mention to Married with Children, I think that went for 11 seasons or something like that.

Another one was Frasier, they kept it up for 11 seasons and the quality of it never flagged. Also the Beverley Hillbillies, another 11 seaons, ditto. Old show, but still funny!

[RedRaven]

A show that i found very enjoyable was "Intelligence", (canadian production).
Very good acting & script, engaging characters. Only ran for 2 seasons then was dropped :( . Similar to US show "The Wire". though much better in my opinion. Apart from all the US sci-fi productions filmed in Canada think Intelligence is the only show i've seen from Canadian TV.

Speaking of sci-fi - "Stargate Universe"  or SG:U just started showing here in the UK, the 3rd spin-off from the film (SG1 and SG Atlantis being first 2). It has a similar premise to Star Trek Voyager <massive distance from earth, trying to get back etc>. though unlike the Star Trek franchise SG:U is not as clean-cut, shot with hand-held cameras giving it a similar feel to the Battlestar Galactica remake, the set design has a 'old / used' look where as all the Star Trek stuff is very Neat and Tidy, looking more like a polished show room.

British actor Robert Carlyle leads the cast as a  , and apart from some cameo appearances from SG1 crew and Lou Diamond Philips i dont recognise the rest of the main character actors from anything.

not a massive Stargate fan but some of it has been enjoyable, will have to see how this version progresses. it has potential to be a good show and i do recommend any sci-fi fans to check it out.

[Art Blade]

I loved the entire Babylon 5 series, each season was great  :-X

[RedRaven]

Agree with you on that Art, really liked Zathras.....

"But only Zathras have no one to talk to. No one manages poor Zathras, you see. So Zathras talks to dirt. Or to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used to everyone walking on it. Just like Zathras. But we have come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the universe. So, you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet. Hmmm, huh, huh, very good! - Zathras fix now. Come, this way."

A real epic sci-fi series :-X

[mandru]

I'll apologize up front for the over long post but I'm late jumping in and the topic got me going on a roll.

I've pretty much quit watching the major television networks as I don't think I've turned to the big 3 networks (ABC CBS NBC) to intentionally view something for over 10 years. There's just nothing there that interests me and way to much that just leaves me screaming at the show producers.   >:(

And I've never watched sports, the lure of pointless competition totally eludes me though I've been surrounded by friends my whole life that live for the next big game even if it is only Tag Team Roman-Greco oatmeal vat wrestling, so that saves me a lot of viewing time and cheese puff stains on the recliner.

Don't even get me started on reality TV. OK, Just a little.   :P  Why would I want to watch people behaving badly. Even a show like Iceroad Truckers which would seem to have an interesting enough premise of long distance haulers in the far North who have to contend with the weather and uncertain driving conditions of frozen rivers as highways and rough terrain and a rag of a boss that insists on turning every haul into, again, a pointless competition but then the producers of the show through editing and omission of information while shooting and airing go further to crank up the tension and suspense to the elevens where there really is none at all (of course besides the normal hazardous conditions).

"There's a driver out on the ice that we haven't heard from for 18 hours and No One knows where he is or if he's even still alive!" Uh... you mean 'no one' besides the three camera men you got packed into the cab with him who all have their own cell phones and have reported every twist and turn in the road the whole time.

Sorry in my book, omission of the truth is the 2nd Classic Way to Lie and I don't like being lied to.

There have been many highlights in TV viewing over the years I just don't like where it's gone recently.

One show that keeps coming back to me was called Salvage 1 with Andy Griffith as the owner of a salvage company that dreams of recovering the the abandoned materials left on the moon and a way becomes possible.

Unfortunately only 14 of the 18 episodes shot made it to air and it was scrubbed. I think that this particular show really caught my attention, even though it was admittedly pretty cheesy, was that it put forward the concept that space needed to be pulled out of the hands of government and private interests needed to have their hands untied to drive the space effort to get it right and get it done.

Universe and How the Earth Was Made are two current series running on the History Channel that I'm enjoying quite a bit but then as soon as those are over they plunge into pseudo history or some other weirdness that plays on the fear of the 312 different ways that we as a species are facing certain extinction any day now.

I do enjoy Travel Channel's airing of Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations which is a combination world travelogue and culinary exploration seasoned with Bourdain's snarky commentary and the fact that he goes to some truly interesting places.

The Sci-Fi Channel changed their name to Syfy which I can't get past the similarity to an old slang for a hooker spreading an STD (siffy = infected with syphilis). Personally I tend to think of it as the "Monsters Trying to Eat People Channel" as that tends to be the premise of almost every movie they show.

I'm sorry but I'm a bit of a SciFi snob having, at one point years back, a collection of over 1500 paperbacks in that genre and flying piranhas, even if they were genetically manipulated, doesn't qualify as science fiction.  :D

Typically I'll keep the TV on for background noise and it pretty much does a good job of living up to that task.  :P

[PZ]

We must be cut from the same cloth because I could have written what you expressed.  With the exception of Salvage 1, which I am not familiar with, my preferences are almost exactly as yours.  You might enjoy the Richard Proenneke story, One Man's Wilderness - a true "reality" story.

[mandru]

Ah the joys of satellite dish TV!

250 channels of programming of which I spend 99% of my time on just 4 of them.    *sigh*

I actually got the dish to receive JTV which is a 24 hour loose gem and jewelry sales home shopping channel. I am a hobbyist/quasi-professional jewelry designer and I'm always on the lookout for deals on cut stones that can be fired to 1750 degrees F in a kiln to set them in PMC (precious metal clay, which starts as malleable clay and ends up as fine silver and now recently bronze after firing).

Basically my wife ends up wearing every thing I design. I just don't have the skills to self promote and market the stuff I make but I enjoy it anyway. Pretty much everything I've sold has been bought off my wife while she's wearing it.

Now in the last couple years JTV has gone online and I could watch them in real time on the web but the dish is set up, it's cheaper than cable and reliable so I'll live with it.

I actually spend more time on the Veoh website pulling up Japanese anime subtitled in English than watching TV. I've been quite caught up in a few of the series with good story lines and occasionally the music scores in the sound tracks are pretty hot too.

[Art Blade]

hehehe, good read, and I can relate, mandru  :-X I haven't watched TV at all for the past 10 years, except Formula 1 racing events. But the days after Michael Schumacher aren't the same and I start to lose interest. I have like 1,500 DVDs with all the movies I like and a couple of select series. What is not out on DVD I read in form of paperbacks or hardbacks... over the past year and a half, like maybe 50 or 60 books, all of which Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

I like what you do, designing jewelry, and it's funny to think you have your wife walk around and people buy your stuff off of her LOL  :-X ;D I reckon it's real good then  :)

[Fiach]

I'm not all that into SG-Series or the new Star Trek stuff, I loved the Shatner series and really enjoyed the new movie, although 7/9 did hold my interest for a significantly long time, I hated Janeway as a captain.

But a couple of sci fi shows I have enjoyed lately would be Firefly (check out the movie based on it called Serenity)  and Fringe (a kind of gory X-Files series).

We should start a Book section as I love SciFi literature.

[Art Blade]

ah gosh, Firefly! LOL, something like Bonaza meets Star Trek on Babylon 5  :-X Strange and funny. I've got both the movie and the series. Really something different :)

[RedRaven]

 Firefly was Really enjoyable, Jane's my favorite character. Was actually pleasantly surprised when i found out its from same guy who did Buffy & Angel and Gutted when it got canceled. His recent show Dollhouse was ok, had some interesting ideas but i only saw a couple of episodes. Tend not to watch that many series shows now, prefer to be playing PC, or here chatting with you lot. Much rather go to the cinema or theater, or watch film off my shelf, the stories come to an end. never quite understood how/why people get into soap opera's or things like Big Brother (to the point of obsessiveness in some cases). Give my Tom & Jerry any day.   

[Art Blade]

or The Flintstones  :) got a couple of DVDs with them  ;D

[Fiach]

LOL, Flintstones :) I was watching Ice Age 3 at the weekend and one of them slides down the ice shouting  YABBADABBADOOOOOOooo!!!!  :)

Yeah Jane was funny, One of the funniest momets with him for me was when there was this really hot girl on the ship and every so often ..... "If anyone is looking for me, I'll be in my bunk" :)

It was a sin, when they cancelled the series, when you consider the %&@TE they continue to screen. It was great to see Serenity, as a fine culmination to the series.

Have only seen a bit of one episode of Dollhouse, looked interesting, will check it out soon.

[fragger]

 :-X Great rant back there, mandru, and may I say I back you up 110%.

Someone (I think it may have actually been Arthur C. Clarke) once described television as an electronic substitute for thought, and that was decades ago. It generally stunk back then, and it's gotten generally stinkier ever since. The ever-increasing trend towards lowest-common-denominator programming is a slap in the face to anyone who has more than two neurons to rub together, and while there are still some stimulating and intelligent programs being produced, they just get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of televisual sceptic-tank scum that masquerades as "entertainment" these days.

Opiate for the masses indeed!

And as for "reality" TV, if this intelligence-insulting, crud-bucket genre constitutes art, then I'm a philistine and bloody proud of it.

Right (whew). I needed a good little rant myself.

Re: Sci-Fi, has anyone seen Lexx? Corny at times, silly even, but certainly imaginative. It reminded me of the old Heavy Metal comics of the 60's and 70's, especially the original French version, "Metal Hurlant". Some cool imagery, particularly in the later seasons. Plus it has Xenia Seeberg, ooh-la-la... :P

Btw mandru, I remember Salvage, Andy Griffith in his cement truck mixer space capsule! :)

[retiredgord]

I got into the Andromeda series and enjoyed it. I thought about painting the wife purple and calling her Trance ( Laura Bertram) but I figured I would've been disintegrated after the first two times. I wondered what she could do with that tail before she lost it. The later Trance was even more sultry and I loved the garb. Oh but I fail to mention Rommie herself (beutiful Lexa Droig) and later Doyle ( Brandy Ledford) whose boobs kept staring into my eyes. Oh poor Kevin Sorbo who had to keep his mind on his lines. I'd have kept my mind on THEIR  lines.  ;D ;D ;)

[Art Blade]

Yeah, I watched a couple of episodes of LEXX... silly but somehow intriguing :) Had to be in the right mindset to watch it though, could get on my nerves when I wasn't in the mood ;)