Good Geek TV: Recommendations welcome!

[michaelpaciocco]

I'm beginning to realize that once BSG is over, there's little out there for me that I know of.

Here's the current standings of Geek TV that I watch:

Smallville: has gotten measureably better this season, but it's still smallville. I won't go any further on this one. I enjoy it to the extent that a) it's been fun to mock with friends, and b) on those rare non-mock occassions, it lives up to its premise. But even at that, I'm surprised that a 9th season might even be happening.

Heroes: Exasperates me. Not just because I tell where every single idea the writers have had originates from. These people are stuck in a loop and well...let me put it this way; when characters start behaving in a manner that makes Clark Kent from "Smallville" look like a freaking Rhodes Scholar, you are doing it wrong. Has this gotten another season? If so, why? Ok, sorry, let me rephrase that: Other than Hadyen Pantierre (although, honestly? Does not do it for me.)?

House: I like House. I know the medicene is 75% crap, but hey, it's fun and the characters are engaging to me.

So, yeah, recommendations, anyone?

Michael

[Anders]

Big Bang Theory is more tv about geeks than geek tv, but it's okay for a light sitcom. There are plenty of references, though they tend to explain them a bit too much.

Terminator is okay. Not great, and you'll have to ignore that apparently both the Resistance and Skynet can send back dozens of agents without worrying much anymore, but it's not horrible either. Summer Glau is, unsurprisingly, the best part of it, but the others hold up their ends decently.

Dollhouse starts in a couple of weeks. I'm not wild about it after watching the trailer they released some months back but I've enjoyed Whedon's tv output so far.

Lost is... well, the same.

That's all I've got, and I'd be glad to hear from others. I could stand a couple of more good shows to rotate out some of the half-decent ones I'm still watching.

[jensaltmann]

Burn Notice is terrific. And for BSG-fans: Six is a recurring character this season.

I also like Bones, it's one of those CSI shows (but developed after the novels of Kathy Reich, not a CSI spin-off), only very funny and somewhat bizarre.

Dexter is a show about a serial killer who, in his secret identity, works for the Miami PD. A very good show.

[K-Box]

House and Burn Notice are fine quality stuff, although I don't get to keep up with them as often as I'd like.

As much as the Law & Order franchise is the McDonald's of TV entertainment, I have a soft spot for Criminal Intent, because Vincent D'Onofrio's character is very much in the House/Monk tradition of brilliant but fucked-up human Time Lord (yes, in spite of its hiccups, Doctor Who also remains on my watchlist). Jeff Goldblum is apparently joining Criminal Intent, too, so as much as I miss Chris Noth, that's going to be awesome.

I really used to like Monk, but ... yeah. It's not like I actively dislike it (it's inoffensive enough), but I just don't have any interest in it anymore.

I feel genuinely guilty about never watching The Middleman while it was still on, which makes no sense, since it's not like I'm a Nielsen family or own a Tivo or anything, but every time I thought about catching it, I'd get caught up in other things, and everything I've seen and heard leads me to believe it was great.

Oh, and The Venture Bros. is coming back for another season, and it's been nothing but perfect so far.

[jessebaker]

"Dollhouse" is interesting but I have to wonder how Whedon will deal with the whole serialization issue. Part of what made Buffy work and be kind of revolutionary with it's serialized plot format, was that Whedon tightly paced things out so that each season was it's own little self-contained story. Even with Angel, which was a little more loose with the format but still kept the basics established with Buffy.

Conceptwise, "Dollhouse" will need to reveal pretty much EVERYTHING in the first couple of episodes about the main concept of the show to keep it from being yet another "mythology mystery" snoozefest ala Fringe. Whedon will also have to find a way to create a decent season centric big bad for the show for the first season.

Given the concept and such, I kind of see the notion that Whedon may want to steal heavily from "Wiseguys" as far as arc structure if he isn't going to outright replicate the Buffy story structure. Multiple self-contained arcs of multiple episodes with a definate beginning-middle-end and the occassional one-off episodes inbetween. Each arc has it's own big bad and only in rare cases do the big bads survive past their arcs.