[Ebrey]

I finished the first half of Veronica Mars season 3. It's probably my favorite first half of a VM season - I hope they don't blow it in the second half like season 2 did.

This season marks two changes. One is that instead of introducing an A and B mystery at the beginning like the first 2 seasons, the first 9 episodes of this season are devoted to a B mystery and introduce the A mystery at the very end. This works better - in the first season, for instance, the B mystery was introduced in the pilot then solved almost entirely in the second-to-last episode, which didn't make much sense.

The other is the transition from high school to college. This can be tricky! Buffy was never able to make college as important of an aspect of the show as highschool had been, because the half of the cast didn't move on to college. VM doesn't make this mistake, although it takes a while for Weevil to get a job on campus and his character doesn't seem to have a particularly interesting arc like he did in season 2. Mac also has a smaller role this season, which is bizarre since she finally joins the main cast this year.

Logan continues to be the most developed character outside of the Mars family, although I think they'll either have to write him out or make him more of an alternate main character than a love interest. They can't keep having him get together with then break up with Veronica forever.

[rabite gets whacked!]

Having just started the first episodes of the Wire (my first HBO series) and recently watched Children of Men, while currently reading Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, I feel qualified to make the following statement:

HBO needs to create a dystopian speculative fiction series, immediately. Cause holy shit is why.

[jdoe]

It doesn't get much bleaker than the Wire, though. A dystopian fiction series would be a bit redundant, not to mention less relevant.

I've been watching Rome and Band of Brothers. Rome's alright. It's picked up as I've approached the end of the season. The show goes through these very slow, plodding sections that are too soap-operatic. I could do without the Atia plotline. Titus and Verenus, the two "everyman Romans" who get involved in most of the major historical events, carry the show.

Band of Brothers is great. I put a notch below the Wire and Deadwood, but it's still better than most of the top tier television series.

[rabite gets whacked!]

I didn't care for Band of Brothers at all. It seemed too episodic for me, just like network TV with a bigger budget and star directors. What I like about the Wire is immersion, where each episode flows smoothly and unhurriedly into the next, and characters aren't suddenly introduced with some expository sequence detailing their CV and hidden motivation and fatal flaw all at once. It's basically TV that uses the length of the series to allow room for the breadth of the characters, rather than caricaturing them so they can be reliably reused through a series of hour long adventures.

I'm not looking for relevance. I want a long form exploration of man seriously unhinged. I mean, even if they didn't go as radically far as Children of Men, but something as normal as Melville's Army of Shadows. I don't see the redundancy there.

[jdoe]

But Band of Brothers isn't interested in being an extended, novel-like series. Rather, it's capturing the terrors of war and how those events bring the men involved together. The episodic nature suits that purpose well. I don't see how a tight, focused storyline would supplement its agenda. And even still, it still has an overarching plot.

Creating an immersing, intricately woven series like the Wire is very, very hard for television. It requires weeks of planning, writing, and devotion that very few series are willing to invest. It's a lot of work that alienates the audience (who are now expected to watch every episode on a regular basis). It speaks a lot about this level of writing when the Wire is the only show on television that really succeeds on an intelligent level.

[Vikram Ray]

Arrested Development is easily the best sitcom ever.

Carnivàle would have been the greatest show ever made had it been allowed its full 6 seasons, but it was cancelled after 2.

[PianoMap]

I'm looking forward to Christopher Eccleiston's run on "Heroes." It's a decent show that could still get to be very, very good.
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[Ebrey]

[rabite gets whacked!]

[jdoe]

[Ebrey]

I'm conflicted on this new season of 24. There have been a couple of really awesome things:

A nuclear bomb going off in LA could be very interesting if they really delve into the consequences of it.
Jack having spent the last two years in prison, and having to shoot Curtis, is actually affecting him, unlike most of the things that happen to him.
Eric Balfour is always nice to see.

On the other hand:
Is anyone even REMOTELY interested in a new batch of Muslim terrorists? I assume there will be a Chinese villain later on in the season (the bombing at the beginning was done by a Chinese guy, and I assume a Chinese person was released in exchange for Jack Bauer), but until then these Muslims are terribly boring.
Why is Jack working for CTU again? I've said for years that a great way to revitalize 24 would be to ditch the CTU element, which has become extremely played out (he's disobeys then rejoins CTU a dozen times per season).
With Tony and Curtis dead, there are no longer any characters who are anywhere near as cool as Jack.

[Capitan Smexy]

[Gouki]

[GcDiaz]

[PianoMap]

Yeah I'm getting that 'cancelled in it's first season' vibe from Heroes too, but even if 24 is more popular, I don't think it's any better. I stopped watching it after the second season. Every single show it's just:
-Jack learns of terrarists
-Jack dispenses of terrarists
-We find out they're NOT the REAL terrorists
-Jack tortures a mole
-Jack dies
-Jack's NOT REALLY dead
.
.
.
It just gets really predictable and boring, after a while.
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[luckystrike]

So, I've got some free torrent space: Battlestar Galactica or Babylon5? Be as subjective as you want to be!

[Broco]

[DonMarco]

I just recently started showing off some of the Adult Swim shows to my brother.

Squidbillies - Quite possibly the smartest show on TV now. Period. A lot of the humor is hick, hillbilly, southern, red-state nonsense. But they work so well. It's also a show that really doesn't have a beginning, so starting anywehere is fine.

Moral Orel - Originally I hated this, but the newer episodes have become better. I still don't like it, though.

Metalocopaylesepelse - It's the most "brutal" show on TV. Blood, excessive graphic violence, horrific death, leather-clad hooded guards with sniper rifles, dragons, clowns that do cocaine. Fans of heavy/speed/death metal would do well to watch it.
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Still alive.

[internisus]

Did you guys watch the return of Battlestar Galactica tonight? It was possibly the single most exciting episode so far, throughout all three seasons... Here is a totally spoilerific list of things that have completely changed since the episode prior, for the purpose of allowing me to sit here and look at it and go "wow."

Hera is back on Galactica.
Baltar is back on Galactica.
Caprica Six is now on Galactica.
D'anna (sp?) has seen the faces of the final five.
D'anna and her entire model line have been boxed.
The next step towards Earth has been revealed.
Starbuck has seen the first sign of her destiny.

You guys need to tune in to watch this show. We have to keep its ratings up! I hope they were really good tonight.

[internisus]

[PianoMap]

Yeah the new episode was pretty good. Especially good actually, because I think the new season so far, excluding the New Caprica rescue pilot, has been pretty dull. [though the boxing match episode delivered some nice closure on a few points]

I also thought the rather juxtaposed plot seed of Kara's "destiny" was kind of lame and distracting.

Everything else was great though! Things are starting to really heat up.
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[luckystrike]

God, The Wire.

Probably better than Deadwood and at least as good as Entourage (both shows which I enjoy immensely) The Wire manages to keep me entertained with every episode. I still have strange dreams/nightmares about Season 2 (easily the best season so far), and the fates of most of the characters therein. Man, I loved Sobotka and his surly bunch of Polish union-men. I enjoyed how that season almost made you hate the police that were constantly (and mostly uselessly) interfering in their lives, ending in tragedy for some good people. Also those goddamn Greeks. Seasons 1 and 3 were also fantastic, but Season 2, I mean, god damn. Season 4 has me a little nervous, as there is a ton of fodder area for feel-good cliche stuff (particularly Prezbylewski's current stint as an inner-city school teacher and Cutty's inner-city boxing gym, though halfway through the season they've done a good job of stepping around any wierd and out-of-place sentimentality) but I suppose I could use some positive stuff in a show that is almost crushingly depressing by the end of each season. I do particularly like the Mayoral Race subplot and even though his plot is a sentimental feel-good trap Cutty always manages to make me chuckle with his predicaments in the gym, particularly the fact fat black women are always giving him food. I don't really like Marlo Stanfield so much, as he is probably the first proto-badguy the show has had and isn't as deep at this point and time as any of the Barksdale people. I mean, hell, Bodie has more depth to him.

Someone mentioned in another thread that McNulty, while typically being our window into the events happening in the show, is hardly the protagonist, which I agree with. By Season 4, he's almost not even around any more, it would seem. Doesn't matter anyways, because the characters surrounding him are ultimately more interesting: Omar, for one, is more well-written than any of the characters on the police force, with maybe the exception of maybe some of the higher ups (in particular Rawls, who is probably my favorite character in the series.) Tommy Carcetti is also a great character, as well as most of the Barksdale syndicate (and the Co-op in general) and the above-mentioned union. There are a million more characters that have come and gone in the series that are just as interesting and intelligently written as the one's I've mentioned above.

And goddamn Tommy's race-fixer Terri makes me want to find a woman that will punch me in the ribs and demand I pleasure her like whoa. On that note, I am really impressed how the show makes me attracted to characters who aren't particularly physically attractive: Pearlman and D'Agostino are like, 40 years old apiece, but they way the show lets them wield their power is incredibley sexy. Also, the first time I got to see Daniels without a shirt on it felt like fanservice of the greatest kind. I've never been so gay for black men as I have in this show.

I think if there was a 2D Fighting Game based on The Wire I would play it.

uh, the end.

[nothingxs]

So far I've only really paid any attention to House, Scrubs and Heroes. I've thought about watching 24 again but Heroes is too busy capturing my limited attention span.
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select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[gooktime]

The Shield returns on April 3rd!

[internisus]

So, children, since we have last spoken I have purchased and watched all seven seasons of The West Wing. I love it very much!

Also catching up on BSG and The Office recently.

Venture Bros. season 2 was both zany and sort of boring.

Going to give Heroes a try.

Next dvd tv show purchase will be the big set of Six Feet Under, but I was laid off last week so this might take awhile.

[Dracko]

The Shield season 3 is finally coming out on DVD in the UK in June.
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[Broco]

[internisus]

The BSG season is over. No talk?

[Gouki]

Heroes is pretty damn great TV. Moves really slowly, though.

Also, Avatar is the best damn cartoon currently being aired.
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... Maybe later.

[Ebrey]

sorry internisus I'm years behind on BSG.

TV is sucking for me right now. Studio 60 went off the air, probably for good. Veronica Mars is off, but will be back in April. 24 is at its lowest point ever - right now it's a total ripoff of season 2, which was already the worst season.

[Ebrey]

[internisus]

Shit. West Wing at its lowest point is still some of the best tv ever.

[Dracko]

I demand a region 2 DVD release of Wonder Showzen and The Venture Brothers.
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[luckystrike]

I just finished watching the entire 12 oz. Mouse run (2 seasons long) from beginning to end, and I think it was the best Lynchian horror I've seen since, well, Lynch himself. Not nearly as good as Lynch's best stuff, but still impressive for a 10-minute-a-week late night cartoon show. Of course, some of the episodes were totally out there and terrible (Auraphull, Star Wars VII) but some were spot on (Almost all of Season 1, Star Wars VII), in turns both hilarious and nightmarishly frightening. With most of this sort of stuff though I can only critique it in uncertain terms, but I think it was really good.

People decry the animation style and humor of the show but it's kind of missing the point, I think. Also, it must have been almost impossible to watch during it's Adult Swim run; missing one randomly placed 10-minute episode could completely put you out of the entire show without you even realizing it, and trying to piece the show together over a 2 month time period while only getting bits and pieces of it 10 minutes a week, and taking into account the somewhat important secret messages that get flashed at the end of some of the episodes... When the DVD box is released later on, they will edit out the intro song/credits and play the show as a continous "movie."

Anyways, probably my favorite thing Adult Swim has shown, but I don't expect it to get a lot of praise from anyone. I don't know, anyone else seen it and want to comment? I don't know anyone who has seen the entire thing.

[internisus]

Man, I don't care what anybody says. Lost is a great show.

Does anyone know how it's doing? I mean, I'm a bit frustrated that BSG has tanked this season in the ratings and will most likely end in its fourth season when Moore has said they were planning to go to five. I want Lost to go and go and go. Is it doing well in the ratings? Do I contribute to the ratings when I watch it on ABC's website?

Also, anyone know when the season finale is?

[rabite gets whacked!]

I'm pretty certain they'd never miss a chance to bolster their numbers, even if only on paper. I'm sure the online vote counts.

Lost at its lowest ratings is still above 10mil (I think in the 11s), as compared to the 1.somethings of BSG. That's what network TV does for you, I guess.

But dang, every time I think about Lost I just can't believe it survived on the networks. It's really too good for them, but somehow it's avoided the quick excising that nearly always equates to. I guess the most incredible thing about it might be that the writers have struck a perfect balance and actually retained an audience while keeping the show pretty far out there.

After this season I really might rewatch it all chronologically, which is something I've never felt like doing with a TV show.

Also, anyone know when The Wire Season 4 comes out on DVD? I need to finish up season 3 still.
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[internisus]

[Broco]

[internisus]

Does anyone have $300? I'd like to see Six Feet Under. All at once.

[rabite gets whacked!]

Oh, my favorite Lost episode by far (and actually my favorite TV episode ever created, more than the Season 2 Wire finale and everything) was that episode a month or so back centering around those 2 peripheral characters that was a flawless parody of the entire history of the show. It was just a perfectly written campy dark humor piece that kind of presented an alternate history for everything. I was so jazzed at the time I tried to start a thread on it, but I guess we're the only people here that watch the show.

I also really like how they still reference dead characters from time to time, as opposed to most shows doing their best to forget they ever existed.
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[internisus]

I saw that thread, but I hadn't caught up yet at the time. Yeah, it was definitely a perfect little capsule commentary, but it was also exceptionally done such that it made use of the small scenes in which we actually had seen those characters before, as if the episode was planned long ago. The show's production is seamless that way.

I generally love the use of dead characters and old events from other points of view; it's one of the show's greatest aspects. I mean, Ethan is still a semi-regular character on the show, and he's been dead for two years! I also love it when the fundamental episodic structure of the intermittent flashback is cleverly transformed by using it for events not strictly in the past, off the island. I think the first time they did this was with Claire in season 2, when the device was used to show what happened to her when she disappeared the first season. I thought that was brilliant. Recent shows like Desmond's, Niki & Paolo, and this week's Juliet episode use the flashbacks in unusual ways, as well.