The Recommended TV thread

[michaelpaciocco]

Because when you see someone else with a good idea, sometimes you got to steal it.

in this case, this idea
mightygodking.com/index.php/2011/07/07/tv-recommended/

So, first, given the international flavor of our crew, I'm going to modify the categories slightly - and move it into the Dirty Dozen method

Sitcom (North American)
-ALF. Formative to me in my youth, and even rewatching it (although they only seem to have the syndicated cuts on DVD) is still an unrepentant joy. It's got a lot of nuance in dealing with humanity through a lens of absurdity, and almost has a backhanded critique of suburbia...or you can just enjoy a funny furry alien. Take your pick.

Sitcom (Other)
-As the only non-American comedy I think I've ever watched, this has to go to Red Dwarf by default.

Non-sitcom Comedy (i.e. Stand up show, Sketch comedy)
-As a good Canadian, I can't not recommend the Just for Laughs festival showings from the CBC. yes, there's variety in Standup, but when you've got good showings by a fair number of stars, and then on top of that, you have guys like a young John Rogers working the show, well...fuck, you can't not love it.

Mini-series
-Invasion: Earth from the BBC. Dark, and horrifying on a formative level. "How royally fucked humanity would be in the face of an invasion by truly powerful aliens" - yeah, American media would simply NOT go here. Ever.

Drama (North American)
-Leverage. Leverage. And again, Leverage. If you think otherwise, let me know and give me your address so I can send it to Christian Kane for him to correct you on the matter.

Drama (other)
-...nope, I got nothing here that isn't genre. I could put Sherlock I suppose, as it's something I've seen a bit of and liked.

Dramedy
-here's another type of show I almost never ever watch, so I'll just have to write in the only one of these I've every really watched: Due South.

Special Interest shows (We can throw in reality TV, Cooking, houses, etc.)
-Mythbusters. Because I'm a science nerd.

Animated (North American)
- Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. I trust I don't have to explain this to anyone? Good, let's move on.

Animated (Anime)
-This is really starting to show my limited viewing horizons. Eh, so be it. Going to just put in Robotech: The Original Macross Saga and call it a day on this one.

“Genre”
-Farscape, because it holds up better even knowing where the series ended up (unlike, say, BSG) and while there is the occassional scenery-chewing (I'm looking at you, Stark), it never really devolved into actors phoning it in (like, say, the last season of B5).

Wildcard
-The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 'Nuff said.

[jensaltmann]

Sitcom (North American)
Home Improvement. Tim Taylor, the host of the DIY show Tool Time, who thinks he's the greatest. Except, of course, that he isn't. But in a charming, childlike way, because he's more like this big kid who never grew up. One of the reasons why I like this show is that it likes to subvert and lampshade the sitcom tropes.



Sitcom (Other)
Nikola. A German sitcom about a nurse who is also a single mother and has a kind of love-/hate relationship with the hospital's star surgeon.



Non-sitcom Comedy (i.e. Stand up show, Sketch comedy)
Rudis Wochenshow, a German sketch comedy that took the previous week's news and spoofed them. This one, the original, ran in the 1970s. There was a relaunch with a different crew in the 1990s, and it's about to be relaunched again.

Mini-series
Shôgun. It's the adaptation of the novel by James Clavell. Outrageously successful in its time (both the novel and the miniseries). The novel is one of my all-time favorites, and while the adaptation has some problems, it adapts the novel quite well.



Drama (North American)
Leverage. I'm as fond of Leverage as Michael. It's smart, funny, outrageous, and it pushes all the right buttons. Plus, Fox should ditch Hugh Jackman and give Christian Kane the Wolverine part.



Drama (other)
The Avengers, of course.



Dramedy
Castle. Nathan Fillion as mystery writer Richard Castle, who arranges to hang out at a police station for "reserarch", and Stana Katic as Detective Beckett, the police officer he has chosen as the role model for his new series of novels about hardboiled police detective Niki Heat. Might be about to jump the shark next season, but the seasons so far have been very very funny.



Special Interest shows
Schmeckt nicht, gibt's nicht. A cooking show by a local cook who is something of a cooking celebrity. Akiko liked it a lot. So much that we even went to eat at his restaurant once.

Animated (North American)
Justice Leage/Justice League Unlimited. I wish comics were like this.



Animated (Anime)
Paranoia Agent. Which would, like most anime, fit into the miniseries category. It's... a bizarre mishmash. The story appears to be about a mysterious kid who hits people with a baseball bat. But then it expands into something much more surreal and bizarre.



“Genre”
The Middleman. A very funny but lovingly rendered genre comedy spoof.



Wildcard
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The first season, anyway. Buck Rogers is an astronaut from the 20th century who gets frozen, and defrosted 500 years later. It's a funny and cheesy sci-fi heist series made by people who love the genre. As I said, the first season. Season 2... avoid that one, though.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

Sitcom (North American)
- WKRP

Irreverent humor, bizarre storylines, & classic rock. Not to mention an object lesson in autumnal avian aeronautics.

Sitcom (Other)
- I'm not sure it counts, but I'll vote Blackadder, although one can skip the first series.

Non-sitcom Comedy (i.e. Stand up show, Sketch comedy)
- I have to go with Python. Not the first, but arguably still the best.

Mini-series
- The only one that comes to mind is "V". The original miniseries, not the sequel, followup TV series, or remake.

Drama (North American)
- Columbo. The episodes hold up surprisingly well.

Drama (other)
- I WILL put down Sherlock, because it made me a convert with the first episode.

Dramedy
- Since I'm not even sure what one IS, I'll throw The Middleman in here.

Special Interest shows (We can throw in reality TV, Cooking, houses, etc.)
-Mythbusters.

Animated (North American)
- Animaniacs. Because they got away with crap that would NEVER be put on screen today.

Animated (Anime)
- Because it shouldn't be forgotten: Star Blazers.

“Genre”
- The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr. Three words: Steampunk Bruce Campbell

Wildcard
- I'm going to toss in The Drsden Files. A bit uneven in parts, but it had some great acting, particulalrly from Terence Mann.

[Anders]

Sitcom (North American)
I'm going to put 30 Rock. It's smart, irreverent and inverts pretty much every Aesop ever used in television.

Sitcom (Other)
The Mighty Boosh, though it's pretty far out for a sitcom; surrealistic and with one brow high and one low.


Non-sitcom Comedy
QI, a British panel show hosted by Stepehn Fry which will teach you an enormous amount of more or less useless trivia.


Mini-series
The Kingdom; Lars von Trier's original, not Stephen King's ridiculous remake. Equal parts horror and hilarity. (The trailer below focuses more on the horror.)


Drama (North American)
Fucking Deadwood, cocksuckers!

Drama (other)
Being Human. Okay, so it's "genre" (which label I intensely dislike), but it's also good.

Dramedy
Eureka.


Special Interest shows
The only thing fitting here I've watched lately is Så mycket bättre, the Swedish version of a Dutch show. Take seven well-known singers from different eras and genres and have them sing each others' songs. I love odd covers so this is pretty much made for me.

Animated (North American)
South Park. Still funny.

Animated (Anime)
I haven't watched enough to be able to recommend anything.

“Genre”
The Middleman has been mentioned a couple of times, so I'll toss in The Game of Thrones. Probably the best fantasy series... well, ever. Faithfully adapted from Martin's books with great actors, and if you haven't read the books: don't get too attached to the characters. People die.

Wildcard
Svenska Slut, a Swedish kind of SF, kind of drama, kind of bleak comedy about nuclear waste. The first episode is available here (without subtitles, so not likely to be of use to anyone here): video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6785900194673789714

[jensaltmann]

Jul 9, 2011 13:17:35 GMT -8 Anders said:

and if you haven't read the books: don't get too attached to the characters. People die.

I have to admit that this warning from everyone who has read the books is one of the two reasons why I stayed away from the books.

One is because it's unfinished, and I'm actually willing to bet money it never will.

The other is this warning. I tried to read the first book some months ago (for work reasons -- remember the Sean Bean interview I mentioned?), and because everyone kept telling me that quote, I couldn't get into the story. Because I knew that any character might die at any time, I maintained emotional distance.

For me, that's no way to read fiction. Emotional distance from the characters means I don't care what happens to them, and if I don't care what happens to them, then reading a novel is pointless for me. (Unless the prose is so extremely well written that I feel I can use the novel as a textbook for how to pull certain things off.)

[Anders]

Jul 9, 2011 23:26:52 GMT -8 jensaltmann said:

For me, that's no way to read fiction. Emotional distance from the characters means I don't care what happens to them, and if I don't care what happens to them, then reading a novel is pointless for me. (Unless the prose is so extremely well written that I feel I can use the novel as a textbook for how to pull certain things off.)

I don't mean that warning literally. I'm saddened when a character I like gets killed off, but that sadness is... well, real, or as real as emotions provoked by fiction can be. I much prefer that to the at best fake comfort and more common bored annoyance when the writer pretends to puts a main character in peril but you know they'll make it - like in the Xth book in a series built on that character.

[jarddavis]

Sitcom (North American)
- WKRP Or Barney Miller. Dark Horse would be Soap.

Good casting, irreverent humor but not so outlandish as to be unrealistic in either cases, and both had the ability to get serious every now and then without losing site of what they were.

And Soap... well, Soap was one of the best ensemble casts ever and the fact that they were parodying Soap Operas was a goal surpassed. But, it kind of petered out after a few seasons.

Sitcom (Other)
- All I've ever watched are Brit shows and I have to say I'm right up there with Black Adder as well.

Non-sitcom Comedy (i.e. Stand up show, Sketch comedy)
- I second Mario's Python nom.

Mini-series
-My all time fav is still Masada. Although... I suppose you could say that Jekyll could count as a mini-series.

Drama (North American)
- Magnum PI, which very quickly distinguished itself as being more than "just another detective series."

Drama (other)
- Sherlock. Honestly, I'd rather see more Sherlock than a Hobbit movie.

Dramedy
- Sports Night

Special Interest shows (We can throw in reality TV, Cooking, houses, etc.)

- In Search Of. I was riveted throughout my childhood.

Animated (North American)
- Personally, Family Guy. Where I think the motto is "Boundries... what boundries?"

Animated (Anime)
- Cowboy Bebop.

“Genre”
- Space 1999. (First Season.) Campy. Overacted. And still a lot of fun when I was a kid. And the Eagle still stands up.

Wildcard
- Eureka.

[jensaltmann]

Jul 10, 2011 14:31:35 GMT -8 Anders said:

I don't mean that warning literally. I'm saddened when a character I like gets killed off, but that sadness is... well, real, or as real as emotions provoked by fiction can be. I much prefer that to the at best fake comfort and more common bored annoyance when the writer pretends to puts a main character in peril but you know they'll make it - like in the Xth book in a series built on that character.

I actually agree with that. Better to have a bodycount, and be slightly sad when a character I like dies, than to just have the pretense of peril.

But the thing about Game of Thrones is that everyone gives that spoiler of "And don't get attached to any characters, they die." That makes me keep my emotional distance from the characters, simply because I instinctively try to avoid even that much sadness. But when I keep emotionally distant, then I don't get invested in the story, because not only do I not care about what happens to the characters, I make the effort of not caring. That destroys a major part of the pleasure of reading a story: the part of getting sucked into it, the part of cheering and suffering with the characters.

So, basically, this is a case of where one relatively vague spoiler makes me avoid a series.

[Anders]

I've had that reaction too. Usually it hits me too early to get more than a few pages. (That's how it was with Robin Hobb's Assassin series.)