Much like the “Review the last movie you watched,” this is for regular television shows. I figured since the movie one was so popular with movies, a television one might be good too.
Just a note for those wanting to review but unsure how to go about it- it might be a good idea to watch at least one full season of the series before reviewing it, not just a couple episodes.
So I’ll start off-
Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!
Probably one of the best showtime shows I’ve ever seen. It’s like Carlos Mencia, except they aren’t just Ranting about something that is annoying them, and they present actual statistics and professional people in the area of expertise dedicated to the show (such as say an economist to a "Walmart is destroying the economy episode) to favor their approach.
Some of the episodes are kind of a little too much for me, particularly Season 1’s Sex, Sex, Sex! That was an episode that started off with five minutes of nothing but penis viewing and ranting about how penis enlargement didn’t work. Not a particularly eye catching episode (though they aren’t required to censor it considering it’s on a pay-channel).
But then they make it up for episodes like “Profanities” and show just how stupid a set of simple sounds in a word can be taboo unto society, and why people like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin are godsends to prove just how unoffensive words like Fuck and Shit are.
This show, overall is pretty good, although if you’re not one for nudity all around (like me), stay away from any episode with the word “Sex” in it. There’s like two or three I think.
I feel bad for double-posting this, but damn you Jaks, for making a thread it fits into better!
I’ve been on a nostalgia kick and I was browsing through TV on DVD sets, when something caught my eye. Was it Burn Notice season 1? No, too recent. Was it Birds of Prey? No, I couldn’t remember whether it was terrible or terribly advertised. It was actually Freakazoid Season 1. Which was awesome, except for a couple repeats of parts that went after new bits. Like… The episode was A/B/C then another one would be D/E/B.
Not a huge complaint though.
One of my favorite parts being, that on the commentary track for the first episode, they reveal that the huge spiel that Freakazoid breaks into during his scene in the gym was actually Paul Rugg’s audition and was almost completely improvised.
And no, the whole…
Announcer: We interrupt this program to increase dramatic tension.
… Thank you
…the whole Madman (Mike Allred) controversy thing doesn’t bother me. Mr. Allred responded and wasn’t overly angry, but, just a bit miffed at the costume. There was no legal action taken, so I believe the subject is closed.
Roddy MacStew: At least let the boy go!
Gutierrez: No.
Roddy MacStew: Why not?
Gutierrez: Because he tasks me! He tasks me! Around the moons of Vega, I chuckle at thee. Around the suns of Andromeda, I chuckle more at thee. Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins! Kirk, oh, friend, I… Oh!
[fixes tie]
Gutierrez: I’m sorry…
The last television series I watched, at least in its entirety, though possibly at all, now that I think about it, was Spaced, since it’s finally been released on DVD in the US. For any who don’t know, that’s the sitcom that Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost were all involved with before they did Shaun of the Dead. The humor of the show and the movie is very similar, so if you liked Shaun of the Dead (or Hot Fuzz), then you’ll love the show. It’s absolutely brilliant, and I don’t say that about many sitcoms, since I dislike the genre for the most part. The DVD set that was released here is also pretty cool, with a pretty good amount of bonus features, and two commentary tracks for each of the 14 episodes. I very highly recommend it.
So I just started watching all the way through two series’ from comedy central, old ones at that.
Battle Bots-
It contains destructive robots, a hazardous arena with all sorts of sharp and/or explosive objects, the nerds who made those robots, a gold lugnut trophy, oh and Bill fuckin Nye the science guy there to explain the functions and physics of all the events/robots. What’s not to love?
The Man Show-
Ahh the old classic juggies and a beer for each audience member (literally). This is the most sexist, degrading, awful show ever made on comedy central and I fuckin love it! That show had like four or five seasons and it literally knew no bounds when it came to really just harassing women as much as humanly possible, especially when they introduced The Man Show Boy, who’s first appearance he went around asking to help old ladies across the streets, and of course those ladies weren’t old (some were in their 20’s).
Kirby: Right Back At Ya
(Still watching it of course on TIVO)
A show based on the Nintendo video game of Kirby; I have been watching it since I was 17.
King Deedee is a villain in the show but is the good guy in one of the video games in Kirby 64 because he is on Kirby’s side. Kirby is always fighting to save the village against King Deedee.
The Simpsons
Oh yeah lot of people love that show. It’s funny, it’s somewhat dumb, a spoof off of other movies and TV shows and other references. I remind myself of Lisa because of her open mindness and how she talks to get other people to understand. But Bart is the prank one and used to do prank phone calls to Moe’s Tavern. Now Moe thinks every phone call he gets now is a prank.
I have a feeling i’ gunna get at least one boo from this but i absolutely could not resist watching it… Sex and the city season one. Great season but after that everything seemed to just go down hill from there. Reminded me a lot of Seinfeld (probably spelled that wrong) except with a bunch of stuck up women doing stupid crap. But it is a good show for the rest of the world to look at and find reasons to make fun of Americans.
Ah one of my favorite shows as a kid. Very educational, you learn from it despite it being fiction about the bus turning into different things and the students and the teacher can turn into anything.
A fantastic, and fantastically strange, little animated show, about a secret agent, doing the bidding of Abraham Lincoln, who happens to be, as the title suggests, a screw-on head, with several robotic bodies he can use, depending on the situation. This was created based on a comic by Mike Mignola, who also created Hellboy, and looks exactly like one of his comic books brought to life, unlike the (still entertaining) Hellboy Animated movies. Like Hellboy, it has a wonderful sense of humor about it, and some rather strange characters. Unfortunately, there was only one episode made, which is available on DVD.
Well, I didn’t see it when it was on tv, so when I saw it on Netflix.com’s ‘watch instantly’ queue I decided to check it out.
It actually seems like quite a good show. Not much to say… except, like pretty much anything else, I was relaying YIMs to my friend while it was happening since it’s fun to make little comments like ‘Did… did he just put two collared button-up shirts on?’ and ‘When he shot Christopher Eccleston he got this look on his face like: “This isn’t the banana from my lunch”.’ Though, he wasn’t watching them with me, so it was probably pretty weird for him to see me just throwing out random comments apropos to nothing.
The ending to the season just left me a tad baffled though, I mean Peter can freaking fly! Why did his brother need to carry him into the sky? though, I guess I could probably rationalize that with well, maybe Ted’s powers made him unable to use anything else.
I’ve heard it goes downhill during season two, which I will start watching soon, but I want to make my own judgments. No rallying cry of “too much time travel” will dissuade me… unless there is a ton of very graphic incest involved (I can take a little, I mean, Back to the Future had almost-incest… and Angel Sanctuary (no time travel here) was a quite beautiful story in its own way (Though, I’ve met few people who can get past the ick factor)), which I highly doubt. WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT INCEST?!
Anyway, the only problems I had seemed to be Netflix issues, involving tin-canning (though there is an easy workaround) and one episode that took me a bit of work to get so it was synched.
Anyway, the spoiler-tags have set my formatting all to hell so I’ll stop here. AWAY I GO TO TRY AND ACTUALLY FINISH READING VIRTUAL LIGHT!
CAN YOU TELL I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT WATCHING EPISODES?CAN YOU?!
I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother for research purposes. No, really! I’m applying for a job that asks me to write an episode of any currently-airing sitcom, and I liked HIMYM the best of the ones I watched.
By and large, the show is very delightful. The acting is spot-on, and the characters are all very charismatic and relateable. The script is snappy and smart, the situations are clever, and the casting is perfect.
My only problem with the show is actually something that I imagine most people will like (I know my roommates do). I was weaned on shows like The Simpsons and Seinfeld, which both have unbelievably cynical bents (in The Simpsons, things don’t work out until the end of the episode, and in Seinfeld, things never work out, period). In HIMYM, this kind of bleak cynicism is disappointingly absent in favor of realistic-but-maudlin romantic situations. There is some very good romance in this show, but I personally find that stuff boring. Dunno why, but I’d rather see Jerry and George screw up their relationships than Ted and Marshall succeed in theirs.
Overall, though, I heartily recommend HIMYM, not in the least because one of the main characters shares my name. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one…
I’ve been watching Chuck and I have to say, it’s really good. It’s nice light hearted entertainment, with enough long-running story to keep you reasonably hooked, but not painfully so.
Anyone else seen the show on TLC called ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’? My fiancee is addicted to it. She’s made me watch it a few times, and while the kids are cuter than hell, I feel so bad for the Dad (Jon) and the kids (twins and sextuplets). The Mom (Kate) is kind of bitchy and takes a lot of the frustrations she has being the Mom to 8 kids under the age of whatever the twins are (I’m gonna say 7 or 8 ) out on them all the time. Either way, not a terrible show, but I’m not sure I’d subject my kids to being on TV every single day like that. The little kids (the sextuplets) are like 3 or 4, and they’re gonna think that being famous is normal. What happens when they’re older? I sense six little prima donna crybabys in the works.
Well, WingZ already said it months ago, but The Wire is one of the best TV shows ever. And this is coming from someone who generally can’t stand cop shows (well, unless the main cop is also a serial killer, but that’s not quite the same thing). It’s so much more than just a cop show, though… It starts out that way, but then it branches out, and becomes a show about all of Baltimore, basically. I’d recommend it to anyone and everyone (well, anyone over 16 or so, as it’s a pretty adult show).
Well, you very rarely see the wives of any characters on The Wire, if that helps =P And the police work is probably not like what’s on The Unit, either… It’s pretty much all about building up cases to get a wiretap approved, listening to the wiretap, and trying to keep the wiretap up. There’s very little action on the police side of things - there is more when it comes to the drug dealers, but still not as much as you might expect. The show is very much a drama, not an action show.
Also, there’s nothing inherently wrong with mixing genres in a TV show. That’s basically all Joss Whedon does, and he’s very good at it. But if it isn’t done well, yeah, it can be distracting. I don’t think The Wire really does that, though… They widen the scope of the story each season by adding a different aspect of the city - schools, government, media, etc - but it all fits into what the show already was quite well.