Watched the first two episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Incredibly, it managed to be even worse than Arrested Development. At least I willed myself to sit through the torture that was AD's second episode. I had to tap out to It's Always Sunny with 12 minutes left on the clock. Again, humor is incredibly subjective and all, but that was downright painful.
iron, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a rude combination of Seinfeld and absurdism. If you like Aqua Teen Hunger Force style stuff (which you may not), then you'd like it. My wife hates it, and all entertainment is subjective.
I like rudeness, absurdism, and appreciate Seinfeld, even if I was never a big fan. "Always Sunny" was simply awful, though. Haha, I'm in the exact opposite situation! My girlfriend loves the show and sincerely hoped I would. No dice, I'm afraid. Focus- We just watched a few episodes of Children's Hospital. Now this I find really funny. Rob Cordry is awesome.
Just marathoned the first two seasons of American Horror Story. I really liked them. At times I was about to lose hope with the clichés and all, but then somehow the story picked itself up again. The actors were amazing, very strange almost, at least for a TV show. And the female characters were quite exceptional.
It's odd that I used to like watching true crime shows on A and E, such as City Confidential. But now I don't.
On countless recommendations, I watched the first episode of Fawlty Towers. While it relies on the classic comedy dynamic of the put-upon, sympathetic, scoundrel of a husband bossed around by a shrewish wife, it does it particularly well. John Cleese is phenomenal in the title role of Basil Fawlty, playing him with energy, mania, and hilarious mannerisms. The minor characters, particularly Manuel, have outstanding funny spots of their own, and I love that there was a solid plot arc for the entire episode. So far, I'm impressed and excited to see more.
I don't have any favourite telly shows at the mo. Sometimes I watch Arrow or The Dome, and the horrible last season of The Office.
Tried to watch Falling Skies yesterday, and while I liked Noah Wyle's character (history prof, plus he looks less like your run-of-the-mill squaky-clean boring-ass Hollywood actor) and my heart sung when he corrected his wall-boring son who said 'clip' instead of 'mag', I had to stop halfway through the pilot because of all kinds of strategic bullshit that kept popping up. "We can kill them if we get close enough" gee, where're the snipers? Sniper rifles? You could kill your aliens half a mile away if you pulled your heads out of your collective asses! Also, are these aliens major bike thieves too? Why do you walk so much? Anyway, me and my hubby just ended up tearing it apart after that ("okay, so, if aliens attacked, most of Europe would be screwed because we have no guns, like, what would Brits fight the aliens with? Teapots? Crumpets? But on the other hand, while Americans have guns, they'd be too fat to survive and fight anyway, so there, only Russia would be left standing, maybe China at best"). So since the premise is that stupid and the only remotely interesting character is the prof, I'd rather not waste my time in watching that show. Back to Firefly it was. With good actors, you can make up for a lot silliness.
Earlier this year I started watching Pretty Little Liars. It's so... dramatic, but still kinda fun to watch. Besides that, I used to watch House.
That was the only good thing about that show and Noah's character wasn't annoying. The rest of the cast was so boring I could've been looking at talking walls. It just blew my mind how bad the writing in that show was, especially the head-shot thing: they can't kill the aliens because they have to get close to get a head shot (which does kill them). And most of these guys and gals are carrying AR-15s! Hell, those rifles can hit targets several hundred yards away and a good AR-10 (which I'd imagine they would've looted from gun shops ASAP after SHTF) can take out targets almost half a mile off if the shooter knows what he/she is doing. Good sniper rifles (bolt action) can help a good shooter score hits from almost a mile away (I've seen 2000 yard shots hit small steel plates), so what, all the snipers, varmint hunters etc. have been killed? And even for someone who's not that good, scoring a headshot with an AR-15 from 200 yards is hardly a miracle, so yeah, that's just plain bad writing, trying to make problems to create suspense where there's no problem in reality. Also, why on Earth would they have a 12-13yo kid in the frontlines with an AR when there were young men in their group without rifles? First, if an adult man got badly wounded, the kid couldn't carry him out of the line of fire, and second, kids that age simply aren't mentally and physically equipped to fight in the frontlines. Sure, give the boy a gun so he can defend himself and other kids if everyone else falls, but how about first arming every grown man? Oh well, some shows, like Firefly, rock, others, like Falling Skies, suck.
Has anyone seen Dead Like Me? I binge watched that in about two weeks during the school year. It's one of the best shows I've ever seen. I just loved the characters, and the writing, and the plot, and it's just so good in my opinion. And when I finished it I was so upset because it got canceled after the second season due to the new show time president wanting to revamp the channel. Although I think it had one of the biggest following show time had ever seen. Lifetime made a new movie about 7 years later. It was a nice gesture and all, but of course it wasn't the same without some important actors and contributors. And it was lifetime. But no one I know has ever heard of it, and It's really depressing loving something on your own.
Isn't it crazy that you can watch one season, one season several times (+ a movie)? Imagine if they had made more of it (one of the greatest TV injustices in history, I daresay)! Good thing they made a lot of StÅrgate though, and that Supernatural is still running. I do feel totally bummed about Futurama ending, though
Futurama was amazing. Perhaps not as groundbreaking as the Simpsons way back when, but otherwise imo a superior show and perhaps one of the best animated shows ever. One proof of this that Bender's character seems to have influenced so many other shows, e.g. Jake from Adventure Time is like a doggy reincarnation of Bender, be it on purpose or not (or maybe it's just a coincidence, but I'm guessing it's not... not entirely anyway).
I don't see this at all. Jake is warm-hearted and considerate, genuinely caring and watching out for human best friend Finn. Bender is basically an asshole, and the gag is that he often doesn't care for his friends at all. You could say both have a devil-may-care attitude at times (although even this differs), and Bender's consumption of alcohol is often presented as funny, similar to Jake's consumption of food, but you're really stretching at this point. And having a funny asshole on a show hardly started with Bender. (For the record, I think Bender is a far superior character to Jake, and that Futurama is an awesome, all-time great show, while Adventure Time is mediocre and forgettable)
Futurama was great in its prime. I was surprised at how well directed and scripted some of the episodes were, on par with some of the older Simpsons episodes. There was one episode where Fry is learning to play that holorecorder (don't remember what it's called) to impress Leela. That one made me smile all the way through. I only wish it had been more consistent with those types of episodes. I really tried to get into Supernatural, like I FORCED myself to watch the first 2 seasons but I really just wasn't impressed. The characters felt uninspired and witless. I was surprised since I'm a big fan of Buffy. I started watching Firefly but didn't get hooked immediately. I'll try watching it again some other time.
It's all very subjective; I see tons of small little parallels between Bender and Jake (they even have the same voice actor) and I remember looking at other characters in other shows/films and thinking "wow, this one is so similar to Bender, voice, syntax, behavior etc," (e.g. it was a kids' show, but whenever there was a sexual reference, it usually came from Jake, and that kinda sticks out because of the show's main target audience) but not everybody sees the same things, so naturally some will agree, some won't, no biggie. The first time I watched Firefly, I stopped watching the pilot halfway through. Back then I thought the casting was awful and there was nothing in the show that would've made me want to keep watching. It wasn't until months later that I gave it another go and it was love at second sight, so I highly recommend you give it a go, try, say, 2-3 episodes. If you don't love it by then, it probably won't be worth your time, but imo it's one of the best sci-fi shows ever, on par with Battlestar Galactica even though the shows don't really have anything in common except the genre and that both take place mostly in space. As for Supernatural... I hated the two leads at first. I saw them as two pretty boys who were there just because they were good-looking. After a few episodes though (say, 4-5), I started getting into it, especially the humor and how great Jensen Ackles is at delivering lines that would come off cheesy (and not in a funny way) from "normal" actors, but the guy's really got a knack for comedy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yesXXpECx7A WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TEXT AND NEXT VIDEO MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Anyway, Supernatural has its weak moments, like bad writing when it comes to creating suspense in some scenes (e.g. the usual: weapon flies off the MC's hands as soon as a mosquito bumps into him etc), but once you get to know the characters (Sam, Dean, Bobby, and my favorite, Castiel), you'll find that they are what drives the show. I'm not big on bromance (and Supernatural has it in abundance), so I tend to skip the last couple of minutes of each episode when Sam and Dean have their tender moments (undoubtedly the source of the myriad of Sam/Dean slash fiction, aka Wincest, floating out there... creepy), but apart from that, the show generally has good writing, solid storylines, great action scenes (Jensen and Jared actually know how to handle guns!), memorable heroes and villains, and great character interaction. I have a couple of gripes though, and the biggest is the women of Supernatural. They tend to fall into two categories: evil, manipulative bitches or these swooning girls who throw their lives away for Sam and Dean without thinking twice about it. A refreshing exception is Charlie Bradbury, but her character has one drawback for me: she's one of the most blatant examples (imo) of where her sexuality (a lesbian) just feels forced and plastered on. Perhaps the writers thought that if she was straight, she, too, would've sacrificed her life for Sam and Dean, unable to resist their charm, so she would've appeared in just one episode. Anyway, apart from that, she's one of the better female characters in the series. Needless to say, the plot of Supernatural is very epic, but I still tend to prefer the "monster of the week" episodes instead of the mythology episodes. The former just feel like they are where the show is at its element with the exception of one episode, Family Remains. I wrote a review on IMDB about this one because it just sucked so hard. But yeah, won't go into that example of cinema at its worst right now. All in all, SN is one of my favorite shows because it has such a nice, happy-go-lucky -feel to it that so many contemporary shows lack because they're focusing on trying to be the hardest, baddest, most violent etc, instead of focusing on a great story and, first and foremost, amazing characters. To wrap this up, here's one of my two favorite lines from my favorite character, Castiel (the guy in the trench coat. He's still learning to swear at this point): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySOVat4HgIY
Yeah, I was about to say; you probably think they're more similar than they really are because John DiMaggio does both voices. Well, I was just curious what your reasoning behind this was. Jake is incredibly kind and selfless, protecting and helping his friends. Bender is incredibly selfish, fucking over his friends at multiple opportunities. Out of curiosity, since reading your post I asked a couple of people who watched both shows what they thought. They noted the voice actor thing, but saw minor similarity otherwise. (Beyond the shallow stuff, like both Jake and Bender being foils for the main character, although even there, in different ways) Anyways, Bender is a memorable, but hardly new character. Also, I don't think that's what makes Futurama a great show.
Hello guys! Anyone else here that is a huge 24 fan and is looking forward to the new 24 series, 24 Live another day? I love the show and I hope it will be better than season 8 that in my opinion wasn`t as good as season 7. I rewatching the show now from season one and I just can`t get enough of it. I`m very curious as a native, how you watch the show? Have you tried to have a marathon and tried to watch it within 24 hours as it is ment to be watched?
I also think Futurama is great for other reasons than just Bender (I don't even like the character all that much although he's got his funny lines). However, Bender does care about his crew mates. Several times he's been about to sell them out and has then realized just how much he cares about them (esp. Fry), and has then done the "right thing" so to speak, so that's another similarity he shares with Jake, who is also very selfish at times, very loyal at others, like Bender. But I'm definitely not denying that there are lots of differences between the two characters too, just that there are more similarities between those two than, say, Finn and Fry.
One of my all-time favorite TV shows is La Femme Nikita. For one, I just love Peta Wilson as Nikita, but the storylines, the setting, everything still feels so fresh and different. I haven't really watched the new Nikita, except I didn't like the twig who plays Nikita and the guy who's the new Michael is dead-boring. But I guess you need McG to make it appealing to the current audience...
Ha, I used to watch that show all the time as a kid! It was entertaining fluff, but I always heard it was a disservice to the original Luc Besson film. (Which I still haven't watched...) I realized as I grew older how heavily it was influenced by certain Japanese samurai and yakuza films, whether it's the "Lady Snowblood" series or all their female biker gang exploitation flicks.
Now that's a show that always looked interesting to me. But it was on here in the UK at some ungodly hour, like 2am or something, and it just wasn't practical for me to watch it. I watched a few episodes or part-episodes, but only sporadically. I never did quite figure out what was going on. However, I might consider ordering it on DVD, if that's possible.
The original film is different and very good, highly recommended. The TV show has very little to do with it, and like I said, I just love Peta Wilson in her role. Disservice? Pfft, there will always be fans who complain about that. The movie and the show are a different animal. I don't even hold Luc Besson in such high regard anyway, Nikita being the only movie I've really liked while the rest are marred by the horrendous "acting" of Milla Jovovich (yes, I like to look at her just like the next gal/guy, but she should've just stuck to modeling). Don't know about Japanese female biker gang exploitation flicks. There weren't that many bikes or exploitation in La Femme Nikita... Well, Michael rode a bike... in tight pants... long hair flowing in the wind...
