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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

TV Shows You've Never Seen

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18:07 / 27.09.06

That should be 'howdunnit', of course.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:13 / 27.09.06

Aw, but Quincy had the two greatest episodes ever- the one where everyone on a cruise ship was going nuts (it was ergot poisoning) and the one which followed the same gun through fuck knows how many crimes...

...they were ace. And it made me, as a kid, want to be a forensic pathologist. Because as far as I could tell the job description involved doing gooey shit then hanging out on a yacht with chicks in bikinis.

Had either of those scenarios presented themselves to me as a kid, I'd probably have run screaming, really. But it was telly, so it was all cool.

18:32 / 27.09.06

What interests me particularly about CSI is the way the characters really aren't front and centre. Sure, they're in there - they'd have to be - but, as Randy says, the gloss and the howdunny is the thing, and, you know, that kind of goes against the grain. The modern American drama is usually heavily character driven, to the point where many of the themes have a large psychological component. To my mind Shows like CSI seems almost anachronistic and horrifically dull, but then I suppose they fill a niche that isn't catered for much these days.

WS, I've been wondering recently whether, when the history books are written, people are going to look back on this period as a golden age of American drama, in much the same way as the 70s are seen as a golden age of American film. Modern shows have so much more room to manouver than films, they don't have to worry about censorship in the same way, they have an epic amount of time to explore complex themes and character, and many programme makers seem to stepping up to challenge. Shows like The L Word, Deadwood, The Wire, The Sopranos, really are bloody fantastic and are well worth your time. Okay, they do involve a serious investment of of time and energy, but it's sooo worth it, and, well, a broadband connection makes it all so much easier.

You do have a broadband connection, don't you?

miss wonderstarr

19:48 / 27.09.06

Oh, you mean me! Sorry I am used to "MW". I had to work that out.

Yes, I have recently downloaded the American Office series 2, some Blakes 7 and Stan Lee's reality TV superhero show. I wouldn't have finished Lost season 1 if it wasn't for download. I watched most of Life on Mars on download, even though it was being broadcast on TV at the same time, because I preferred a format where I could freezeframe and rewind it easily.

However, it's still a major commitment to get anywhere near up to speed on something like Six Feet Under, at this stage. Maybe I just have a butterfly mentality, but I would find it very hard (or rather, not very enjoyable) to sit down for a whole weekend and try to get through most of a show's entire season. One a night, maybe. But I'd have to enjoy it a great deal to commit to one show a night. I did that with Lost, but I started on My Name Is Earl and couldn't be bothered after 3 episodes. I have all of Babylon 5 season 1 on my computer, but the convenience of it still doesn't make me want to plow through it all ~ and that's how it felt, like a duty.

However, to take up your comparison to 70s movies ~ it's only recently, over the last year, that I've started seriously buying up great 1970s movies that I'd never seen at all (I was too young, and then maybe they seemed too naff and dated). So, if it takes me 15-20 years to get round to watching these shows you mention ~ if they're really that great, they'll still be waiting and worth it, right? I can look forward to rediscovering hours of quality drama on whatever format we have in 2025.

20:00 / 27.09.06

Ah, yeah, MW would make more sense, but I must admit to preferring WS.

I do understand your reluctance. The way folks (like me) evangelise about some of these shows can, I think, actually put people off. To be told that a given series is as meaty as a twenty pound slab of raw beefsteak can make the prospect of sitting down and watching it seem more like hassle than fun, even if you're prepared to accept that the show probably is rather good. However, with bitorrents at your disposal it is possible to crack a show at your own pace - week by week, or month by month, say - rather than over the course of one weekend.

19:21 / 29.09.06

Here's a quick one. I've only seen five minutes of this, but I think I understand the premise fairly well. Somebody, please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Kitchen Confidential: "Zany," American made dramedy (with the focus on the comedy) series, starring Nicholas Brendon and a bunch of other rubbish actors. The only thing that differentiates this from any other number of crappy series, is the apparent inability of the cast to do anything other than scream their lines at each other.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

20:09 / 29.09.06

I wouldn't worry about it, Llama, they pulled the plug on this show after about three episodes, I think.

intrepidlytrite

14:51 / 30.09.06

I've read a lot about Dr.Who, but since I'm not from an English speaking country, as a kid I never had the chance to see it. Actually, I've never seen a single episode. I saw a glimpse of an episode in a YouTube video on a TV pirate, but that's all I know (from what I saw, it looked like it was set sometime in the early 20th century). I stumbled across it last year when people were all excited about a new actor, or a new actor leaving.

So, from what I know, or not know, I conclude that Dr.Who is about a guy who's constantly explaining things to people, and it must have a lot of science/science fiction/fantasy in it, that's why it's got such a huge geek appeal. Somewhere in the back of my mind there's something telling me that he's called Dr.Who because he takes on different roles in each episode, but that could be the right information stored in the wrong part of my brain.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

15:28 / 30.09.06

He didn't want to say "magic door."

17:24 / 30.09.06

he's called Dr.Who because he takes on different roles in each episode

That makes him sound like an intergalactic Mr. Benn.

17:28 / 30.09.06

he's called Dr.Who because he takes on different roles in each episode

Nice idea but no.

intrepidlytrite

16:22 / 01.10.06

Just looked up Mr.Benn. That show sounds like fun.

Whisky Priestess

23:41 / 01.10.06

THE YOUNG ONES

I have just watched my first ever episode of this and having had a mental concept of it as Students Behaving Badly, I was, er, surprised. Mainly by the fact that it was either a major influence on, or influenced by, Roland Rat. A lot of endearingly crap puppetry, some amusingly surreal sequences with a lion tamer, Narnia references etc. I have no idea what the episode was called.

I suppose I thought it would be more linear, more classically "sitcom" - but then I suppose the fact that it's not is what means it has endured.

03:36 / 02.10.06

WS, I've been wondering recently whether, when the history books are written, people are going to look back on this period as a golden age of American drama, in much the same way as the 70s are seen as a golden age of American film.

I've thought about the same thing, and I'd argue at this point the best of TV far eclipses the best of film. Cultural consesus has The Godfather as one of the two or three best films of all time, and I think The Sopranos is a much deeper, more accomplished work. So, does that mean that The Sopranos is better than any film ever made?

Like the 70s, this new quality came about as a result of a lapsing of content restrictions. HBO and other cable channels changed the possiblities of TV storytelling, and stuff like Buffy and 24 pushed the boundaries of network storytelling. I think it says a lot that a network will undertake a show like Heroes, a genre show that presented its first episode as the intro to a massive story that will take many years to get through. You just wouldn't see that in the past, where the vast majority of shows were all standalone, geared towards syndication viewing.

I think DVD's been a huge part of it, because the format values serialization over standalone episodes. I've never seen sales figures, but I'd guess stuff like 24 sells a lot better than a CSI or Law and Order. And networks are thinking of that as they choose their shows.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

14:41 / 02.10.06

I suspect I'm missing out on something in regards to Veronica Mars. I hear it's quite good, but the words "girl detective" ring the Nancy Drew bells, and then my eyes glaze over.

I also feel bad that I never seen a single minute of 24.

21:45 / 02.10.06

This a bit off-topic, bit hopefully still on-topic enough given some of the chat further up thread. I use BitTorrent myself to download a lot of stuff, but it can be a pain to find older shows sometimes and a massive commitment of bandwidth when you're usually looking at 24 episodes for a single season. What I've found useful is renting DVD box sets off Amazon and the like, pretty much everything could want is there and, because you rent each disc individually, you can start watching a series then switch to something else if it doesn't do it for you.

This has been a boring but hopefully useful post from Bamaba Inc.

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