NBC has released their fall 2011 schedule, and Chuck is back for a final season, and Trump ain’t running for Prez’nit.
The line-up, btw, looks horrible. They have a Glee ripoff and Mad Men ripoff that look watchable, a couple really horrible comedies with one I’ll give a shot because I love Hank Sanders and have a thing for Amanda Peet, and a “re-imagining” of the UK’s Prime Suspect. If the Office is any indication, that means they will remove any and all subtlety, darkness, and wit while dumbing it down and cranking up the explosions.
But they kept Chuck, so that is all that matters.
James Gary
I, for one, vastly prefer the US version of “The Office” to the UK version.
Just representin’.
Gin & Tonic
Looks like they’re aiming for a solid, respectable fourth place in the race. Wait, hold on, what?
stuckinred
Check out Dowd on the upcoming season.
Corsets, Cleavage, Fishnets
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: As in, Maureen Dowd? No thanks. (does that mean she has actually written something worth reading?)
geg6
Gotta love you, Cole. The only person in America who breathlessly awaits NBC’s fall schedule announcements.
EvolutionaryDesign
And they kept Community! Blessings be upon NBC, if not for that one reality.
Southern Beale
I don’t understand the appeal of “Chuck.” My husband loves that show. I think it’s stupid, just your typical spy comedy show. Originally it was about some nerdy dweeby big box retailer clerk with a secret life as a spy who saves the world. But over each episode the main character got less dweeby, more suave, even more attractive, and got the hot babe. It became less “revenge of the nerds” and more like your typical show.
That’s my .02 on it. Don’t get the appeal.
AngerplusageequalsED/T-Pahtee!
For a one-time purchase of 100 bucks, I got AppleTV, a wifi device that connects my macbook to my big monitor. I picked up Netflix at 8 bucks a month. The spousal unit has an iPad and we can stream whatever is on her screen onto the monitor directly with an AV adapter (40 bucks). I just cancelled ALL cable–100 bucks a month less on a 140 a month bill (keeping cable-WiFi at 40 a month). With everything, it’s almost a grand saved a year, and if I wanted NBC crap (and come on! What’s worth watching there that I can’t catch on Hulu plus at 8 bucks a month–over my PS3)??? You know, I can’t be alone. The CSR at cable asked me why I was ditching them after fifteen years of 100 bucks-plus a month, and I asked her if other people were doing this. She said, yes, more and more, and more and more often. She said people were ditching the wall-mounted house-phone/land-line left and right, also. John and everyone else, dump the cable and let the old anger junkies have another media platform, like they do with over-the-air radio. BTW: Internet radio is awesome (especially SOMA’s trance-music stations and Machineingeist). I haven’t listened to corporate, over-the-air radio for almost 20 years now. All the stupid screaming and commercials! Now I listen to listener-supported internet radio all the time, and it’s F-ing great!
srv
NBC can’t do the Beeb right, wait for Netflix’s re-imagining of House of Cards with Kevin Spacey.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@EvolutionaryDesign:
And 30 Rock! The only two comedies worth watching on broadcast tv these days (and, imo, Community might be the best comedy ever made- consistently smart and funny- pop-POP!).
cathyx
@Southern Beale: Now reread your description of Chuck and tell me again what you don’t understand about it being appealing to men?
adolphus
I was wondering why they don’t just bring back Cop Rock and set it in a Forensics Lab specializing in Zombie crimes. That would re-imagine so much for so little.
Hawes
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Yes, Community and 30 Rock are two of the only three network comedies worth watching. (The other being Modern Family.) Since Archer isn’t on the nets, I’ll leave that one off.
PurpleGirl
It will only be watchable if it has Helen Mirren in the lead role. (I remember what American TV did to “Cracker.”)
Hawes
@adolphus: CSI: Walking Dead?
the dude
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): …don’t forget Parks & Recreation!
I guess Outsourced got canned. For all its faults, I liked it (and, like Chuck, it’s another NBC comedy with a hot Aussie blonde), but I’m not surprised it’s gone.
I see that Chuck is moving to Friday nights.
existential fish
Parks and Rec is the best comedy on TV now and one of the top 5 best shows period. Community is a close second in terms of comedy, though.
TaMara (BHF)
You took the words right out of my mouth there, Cole. I’ll give the Hank Azaria one a try and the PB one. The rest looked awful. Awake might be something, we’ll see.
Anton Sirius
Smash is more of a Studio 60 ripoff than a Glee ripoff, only with weakass Broadway tunes instead of weakass comedy sketches.
Carol
“Trump ain’t running for Prez’nit.” Don’t rule out third party. Trump can pay for ballot access, and wouldn’t have to even try to campaign until the fall of next year.In the meantime, he could make appearances as a potential candidate without actually getting in the race officially. He could make a few extra speeches from time to time. That can be done while doing a series as well.
Southern Beale
@cathyx:
Oh.
Well, you’ve got a point.
MikeJ
@Anton Sirius: I always thought Studio 60 got a bad shake. It wasn’t supposed to be a comedy, it about making comedy. I thought it was pretty good. Of course I also thought West Wing was pretty good even though none of the characters knew anything about politics or policy.
adolphus
@Hawes:
Exactly, but with periodic musical numbers while solving crimes.
Better, have the zombies solve the crimes. Kind of a CSI:Groovy Ghoulies.
Southern Beale
One of my favorite TV comedies which got canned a year or so ago was Better Off Ted. It was on Fox, which was pretty unbelievable, considering the entire show’s premise was how evil and soul-numbing American corporations are.
blackfrancis
@the dude: so it was the two of us that watched Outsourced.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Hawes:
I’ve watched Modern Family a few times and liked it, but I just can’t seem to find the time to squeeze it in to my viewing schedule.
Is Ed O’Neil’s character’s step-son living up to his potential? The scene from the first season that sticks in my mind is the birthday party disaster, which must have been pretty hard to shoot, and that kid pulled off his role in it perfectly.
BTW, my new favorite catchphrase is from the season 2 finale of Community: Let’s kick some taint!
goblue72
The best TV crack on right now is AMC’s The Killing. Set in Seattle, its a remake of a recent Danish noir cop-thriller TV series by the same name. Much like Mad Men or Breaking Bad, its got a fantastic cast, tightly written script and cinematic pacing. The series focuses on the murder of a teenage girl and the homicide detective trying to find her killer – but its really about the emotional trauma that a murder creates for families and the larger community. I was addicted by the 1st episode. The 13 episode season is about halfway through, and I still have no idea who the killer is.
WaterGirl
I would really like to post a link to Kristof today talking about listening to Richard Holbrooke, but i see only ‘television’ and not ‘open thread’, so okay, I can talk about TV instead.
Here are my shows that the bastards cancelled this year:
Chase
Chicago Code
Human Target
Lie to Me
Life Unexpected (I know)
Rubicon
Terriers
And the bastards got rid of the two awesome women on Criminal Minds, but at least they are bringing JJ back.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Southern Beale:
I thought Ted was on ABC.
Not that it matters much to me. I’m working during prime time. Hulu, ya know?
guachi
Wow. NBC’s lineup is awful. Chuck, a comedy or two and that’s it.
I do like SVU and although the episodes get repepitive, occasionally an episode is outstanding.
I don’t know if it’s good or bad they sent Chuck to Friday. Maybe they figure it’s hard-core but small audience will follow it anywhere. Plus a proper finale will probably really help with syndication of the show.
WaterGirl
@srv: I will watch any movie or tv show with Kevin Spacey in it.
Edit:
@goblue72: Yes. The Killing is great. They somehow make you experience the show rather than watch it.
goblue72
@blackfrancis: Make that three – sorta. I watched a few episodes on Hulu. I think its problem was that it aimed for 20 to 30 something, slightly to the hip side of mainstream audience – which is the kind of audience that just wasn’t going to get real comfortable with the fact that there was a part of it that was just racist.
General Stuck
Blowed up my TV,
threw away the paper
Went to the country,
Planted a little garden,
ate a lot of peaches
Trying to find Jesus on my own
adolphus
@goblue72:
I started up loving it but have been completely bored by the last couple of episodes. I’ll probably see it to the end, but it’s lost a few stars. The first couple of episodes did rock.
It has been compared to Twin Peaks for obvious reasons and I lost interest in that show the longer it stayed on too.
LM
Justified!
It’s coming back, too.
existential fish
@WaterGirl:
Rubicon was great. It’s last 4-5 episodes might have been the best TV I ever saw.
I guess the slow build drove everyone away.
the dude
@Southern Beale: I loved Better Off Ted. I watched both seasons recently on Netflix. What a brilliant show.
I see that the hot blonde from Better Off Ted went on to do Mr Sunshine, which was also canned. Gawd I hope she doesn’t get a recurring role on any other show I like.
Omnes Omnibus
@LM: Excellent. Most excellent.
fasteddie9318
@MikeJ: My two problems with Studio 60 were that half the time it seemed like the show existed primarily to let Aaron Sorkin get his bitch on about anyone or anything that had ever screwed him at his two previous gigs, and that, when they did show some of the “comedy” those creative geniuses were supposed to be turning out, it wasn’t, you know, any good. I get that the show wasn’t a comedy, it was about making comedy, as you said. But if you’re going to show some of the comedy that’s been made, you might want to try making sure it actually is comedy. Sportsnight might have been a crappy depiction of what actually goes on behind the scenes at ESPN, and West Wing might have been hopelessly naive in its depiction of the White House, but at least those shows felt like the characters knew what they were doing.
opal
@EvolutionaryDesign:
I keep hearing about Community but I can never remember what night it’s on.
I have “A Fistful of Paintballs” queued.
fasteddie9318
Oh, and Justified FTW.
the dude
@goblue72:
So it’s a Twin Peaks remake?
Aneece
Community and Parks & Recreations. Both funny. One that’s completely liberated from reality, the other finding the funny in the hyper-ordinary. Bless both their precious hearts.
goblue72
@adolphus: Yeah, but unlike Twin Peaks, the murder mystery will be solved in a single season. And the killer won’t be some psychic demon from outer space named Bob.
fasteddie9318
@the dude: This time the backwards-talking midget speaks backwards in verse.
You Don't Say
As long as ‘Parks & Rec’ is back. And I’ll give ‘Prime Suspect’ a try.
the dude
@goblue72:
How about Jacob?
bago
I have a pithy sentence I’d like to try.
Racism is the difference between axeing a question and misunderestimating the answer.
goblue72
@the dude: I wouldn’t call it that. Twin Peaks just used the cop thriller genre as the jumping off point for typical David Lynch surrealist meanderings. I like David Lynch, but an episodic format where its expected that the plot will progress somewhere was doomed to end where it did. With Bob.
The Killing is really your standard format Scandinavian neo-noir police procedural. Dark and brooding, with lots of false turns, but ultimately ending in catching the bad guy. Agatha Christie with more rain.
EvolutionaryDesign
@opal: Thursdays @ 7. That finale is insanely funny and good.
Mr Stagger Lee
I confess, I like The Cape,at least they could have put it on SyFy a sister channel. I do wish at times they SyFy and NBC would take a 2nd look at Firefly.
Martin
@goblue72:
Actually, the problem was that the show came out at a time before DVRs and Hulu/bittorrent. It was inevitable that most of the audience would at one point or another forget to set the VCR, and once you missed a show, you couldn’t possibly catch up. The audience had nowhere to go but down.
bago
Or possibly refudiating.
Martin
@Martin: The other problem was that the show didn’t have Naya Rivera in a cheerleader outfit, but many shows suffer from that fatal flaw.
Mutant Poodle
Sure, Chuck is back. But without a Jeffster concert tour, it’s fair to say the terrorists have won.
opal
@fasteddie9318:
Justified is my favorite show since The Wire.
goblue72
@Martin: Possibly – Lost wound up turning into an endless series of nonsense and it found an audience. I still have trouble seeing Lynch’s hallucinatory surrealism ever catching a mainstream audience. Even his film’s have a very narrow niche audience of art-house cinephiles. His last film – Inland Empire (2006) was highly praised by critics and still only grossed $4MM, three-quarters of which was foreign. It grossed less than $1M in the States.
James E. Powell
@Martin:
Okay, then explain what happened with Lost.
NeenerNeener
@General Stuck: Stuck, aren’t you supposed to build you a home before you plant the garden, eat the peaches and try to find Jesus on your own?
Or am I misremembering my John Prine?
handy
@the dude:
Is it possible I’m the only one here who got that?
Southern Beale
@Martin:
Nah, that ain’t it. You’ve always got a buddy at the office or whatever who taped it. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that people got tired of being strung along and there never being any damn resolution to anything. The serial format is great in soap operas because each little plot line has its conclusion just at a time when the other plot lines are heating up. Usually by then that particular plot line is about played out anyway.
I tell you what got me about that damn David Lynch show. I got tired of the increasing weirdness. It started out being about this girl who got murdered who as the episodes wore on you realize wasn’t the sweet little small town girl you thought she was but then as the seasons went on it just got too fucking weird. It’s like, dwarfs this and crazy shit that. After a while it’s like, the entire town of Twin Peaks is too fucking weird to be believed and if you people really thought Laura Palmer was some sweet little girl next door knowing how weird your entire fucking county is, I have no sympathy for you.
You know I can only take so much weirdness. Lost got me that way too. I wanted some fucking resolution. It’s fine, resolve the issue, tell us if they’re in the afterlife or if they’re in an alternate universe or whatever. Tell us that after two seasons or so, then you can jump off into other things like how they’re gonna get out or whatever. But keeping us hanging year after year without even resolving the basic mystery, fuckit, I decided they were never gonna tell me and I lost interest.
I know, I’m weird that way.
Violet
@blackfrancis:
I watched Outsourced too. It was horrible, but for some reason it made me laugh.
Thrilled Chuck is getting a final season, even if it is on Friday nights. I record everything on the DVR, so it doesn’t matter to me.
@AngerplusageequalsED/T-Pahtee!:
I don’t pay for Hulu, but when I want to watch something it never seems to be available. Is that the case if you pay a fee? Is there a fee option? I end up watching shows weeks after they air, sometimes months, and a DVR allows me to do that easily. Would they still be available on Hulu two months later?
Can’t ditch the cable/satellite because it’s the only way to watch certain rugby matches. Once the streaming options are dependably available and aren’t slow, jerky, and pretty much unwatchable, my household might switch.
Martin
@James E. Powell: Well, Lost lasted 6 seasons. And it lasted 6 seasons because viewers had plenty of opportunity to jump in after the first season, etc. so audience that might have given up early could be replaced by people that missed it out the gate but caught up with a season DVD. I know a LOT of people that did just that.
The ability to run serial shows is infinitely better now than just a decade ago. Even issues like changing time slots (which Twin Peaks did several times) is less problematic on ratings now. It’s all a horrifically archaic system that should have been replaced long ago for being so incredibly consumer-hostile.
ChrisS
Stuck, that song introduced me to, I guess, alt country. It came up on Napster while I was searching for something or other and now alt country Americana is about all I listen to.
birthmarker
@goblue72: I’m enjoying The Killing too. I think it’s going to come back around to the little campaign nerd guy.
Southern Beale
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Oh. I thought it was Fox? Well you might be right, come to think of it.
Never Mind.
Martin
@Southern Beale: But the problem was that as soon as they resolved it, audience fell off a fucking cliff. There wasn’t any new plotline to replace it. Lost was the same problem, they just did a better job with overlapping subplots to stretch things out.
How many true serial programs (other than soaps) did we have prior to the DVR? Some shows had limited serial segments, but never as part of the show’s premise. Twin Peaks was fairly innovative in that respect. But today it’s fairly commonplace – mainly because today it’s actually possible to pull it off without constantly shedding audience.
You Don't Say
@birthmarker: I think it’s going to be the father’s business partner, the guy who passed along the teacher’s name.
ChrisS
Game of thrones, anyone?
I’ve read the books, the series isn’t too bad though. I’m curious about other people’s experience.
Amir_Khalid
@Martin: A more serious problem for Twin Peaks was that David Lynch had no plan for where the show was headed once it had reached its original destination: revealing who killed Laura Palmer. Lynch just kept piling weirdness on more weirdness with no structure to it, until no one, not even the most loyal viewer, knew what the hell was going on.
Martin
FYWP moderation.
birthmarker
@Southern Beale: Saving Grace suffered from this too. A clever idea turns into every character having interactions with angels, squads of angels showing up to do some job, on and on. Too much suspension of disbelief. Way too much cowbell.
Violet
Just looked at the link for that Glee ripoff, Smash. It has that stupid American Idol runner-up, Katherine McPhee. Blech. That alone is enough to keep me from watching it. My very least favorite episode of Community is the one in which she made a guest appearance. At least she’s back to having dark hair so she looks halfway normal. The bottle blonde thing didn’t work for her at all.
opal
@goblue72:
This conundrum was addressed by Rabbits, quite possibly the most underrated sitcom of all time.
lettuce
@the dude:
Outsourced actually had a pretty strong cast. The writing was a little hack-y, a little too typical sitcom-y, but I was hoping for another season to see if it could get beyond that. Guess not.
All the network shows I watch are on NBC Thursdays, in fact, except for Modern Family. I keep hearing that the other networks are better, but clearly NBC is doing right by my very narrow demographic.
birthmarker
@You Don’t Say: Hmmm, interesting theory. Or it could be the councilman’s girlfriend. Doesn’t it need to be someone with access to the campaign car?
Martin
I think the show that has gotten the serial formula down the best is 24, hate to say. One story arc is one season. The endpoint is known, so your investment is known up front. When the show rolls into the next season, the characters carry over, so you have that development across seasons, but from what I understand, you can jump straight in at the start of a new season, catch up on who is who, and still get a whole story from start to finish.
I’d like to see sci-fi tried with that formula.
gogol's wife
This is a funny thread. I too am amused that Cole was waiting with bated breath for the NBC schedule to be announced. In response to a comment way upthread, I actually liked “Cop Rock.” At least it tried to do something different. And it had Peter Onorati in it, star of another favorite quickly-cancelled show, “Civil Wars.” (All the shows I REALLY like get cancelled after about 6 episodes: EZ Streets, Cupid with Jeremy Piven before he was famous, etc.) Now I just watch TCM all the time, or PBS if they have something like Uptown Downstairs Abbey. The networks have lost me.
uptown
@goblue72:
Actually filmed on location in Vancouver BC. And no, it doesn’t actually rain that much in Seattle (yearly average is 37 in. spread out over 154 days).
The Killing on Location in Vancouver –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susangittins/sets/72157626527783270/
You Don't Say
@birthmarker: My theory just came to me so I hadn’t really thought it out. ;-) He doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb so pre-meditation may rule him out. I was trying to think of people who are always there but that one looks away from, not at, as often happens in a fictional mystery.
Do you know what’s up with the male detective? Is he working undercover, perhaps Internal Affairs?
brad
Everyone who hasn’t mentioned Parks & Rec as one of the the highlights of NBC’s schedule is horribly, supporting the invasion of Iraq level, wrong.
30 Rock is a pale shadow of its former self, Parks & Rec is occasionally better than Community.
The only shows better than those two on tv today are all on FX.
Less than a month till season 2 of Louie starts.
Game of Thrones and season 2 of Treme are doing wonders to recover HBO’s rep, tho. Treme in particular is finally starting to seem like a worthy successor to the Wire.
birthmarker
@You Don’t Say:
Now that’s a REALLY interesting theory! I love his character, because he’s a homocide detective with an undercover’s credo. Overt all the way. (In a type A sort of way. No subtlety.) But I have taken him pretty straight forwardly, sort of as an inexperienced fool.
I agree that in a lot of these types of shows, the perp ends up being some peripheral character that draws no suspicions. Almost walk through parts, til the big reveal!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@goblue72:
Uhmmmm……The Fugitive?
Uriel
@James Gary: You aren’t the only one. Guess I’m just willing to give up a bit of all that darkly subtile wit in favor of having at lest one character on the entire show that I wouldn’t rather see run over by a bus on a weekly basis.
Or ‘lorry’, i guess I should say- since that makes it so much more arch and clever.
brad
Also, I should be ashamed of myself for not mentioning Bob’s Burgers. No show makes me happier to watch than that.
Also, too, Superjail on Adult Swim, and Portlandia on IFC, tho I can understand if it’s too hipsteriffic for some.
John
I don’t get Cole’s dig on the US version of the Office. It’s certainly not as dark as the British version, and has gone downhill in the last few years (and who knows if it can survive without Carell), but at its peak it was a very funny show that had its own charm that was quite different from the British version.
That is more than can be said for Chuck, which is completely brainless nonsense with the most embarrassingly blatant product placement I’ve ever seen on television. There will be occasionally amusing bits in Chuck, and I love Adam Baldwin, but it’s not actually, you know, good.
Violet
@John:
How do you measure “good”? Is there some kind of good-o-meter out there?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@brad:
It’s not that 30 Rock isn’t still very good, it’s just that it was so consistently great for the entirety of the first two seasons that it can’t find the strength, week-to-week, to jump the bar that it set so high.
Try to re-watch the older classic tv comedies and you’ll find that there are a lot of episodes that are, well….Meh. Not every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show had a Chuckles the Clown moment. Turkeys didn’t plummet to their deaths in WKRP In Cincinnati (and if you remember, that episode came very early in that show’s run). 30 Rock may never again have a “Uhm…Diabetes Repair?” moment again, but it still clears the bar more frequently than other comedies.
Tim Ferg
@28 Watergirl –
Chicago Code: This is a travesty. This show is excellent. The best show on FOX since Prison Break/24.
Rubicon – I love Robicon as well, but I can understand the ratings issues. The show was very slow to develop but had the a makings of an excellent show in the long-term.
And cancelling outsource? grrrr….I don’t like sitcoms much but I think Outsourced is awesome.
MikeJ
@Southern Beale:
I go hiking there (North Bend) most weeks. When you come to Seattle I’ll show you where to get cherry pie. Of course I’ll be speaking backwards.
You Don't Say
@birthmarker: I like him too. I ask because of the scene between him and the guy in the car who told him the father was once a bagman for the Polish mob. Did you know that the actor who plays the male detective is Swedish?
J
I too like Amanda Peet, but that description of Bent on NBC’s own website couldn’t be more cliche, tired, unoriginal and bland…
lol
@Martin:
Murder One is a 90s legal drama that followed one murder case the entire season. I watched the DVD set a couple years ago and it held up pretty decently.
Unfortunately, they killed the concept and got rid of nearly the entire cast for the second season, at which point it was cancelled. Definitely ahead of its time.
Fred
Who watches that shit? Any of it? I don’t even have cable. High speed internet is all I need. I can selectively watch clips of whatever I want. Most if not all those shows are available for download or streaming within hours.
I can watch live feeds too. Breaking news. Whatever.
maus
@uptown:
Yeah, but that’s true for anything supposed to be set in Seattle :)
birthmarker
@You Don’t Say: No, I didn’t.
I took that scene as developing the father as more than just the aggrieved parent. It set up a new thread of suspicions.(I’m pretty left brained.)
BTW , have you ever seen so much rain in your life?! Every freaking scene almost! How do they keep from molding?
Southern Beale
@maus:
Quite a lot of shows are filmed in Vancouver now. “Psyche” is supposed to be set in Santa Barbara but it’s filmed in Vancouver.
Southern Beale
@MikeJ:
Oh cool. Me and Mr. Beale will be in Seattle at the end of August. Just for three days but would love to get some tips on where to do things like eat great food.
Our visit just so happens to coincide with HempFest and I told the Mister that we need to go, just to get the full “Seattle” experience.
MikeJ
@Southern Beale: ?snoitseggus fo lluf daerht s’yadretsey daer uoy diD
Violet
@Southern Beale:
Seattle’s weather is usually great at that time of year.
Yutsano
@Southern Beale: Really sweet tax breaks. The provincial government got the idea when the rules in Seattle proved to be too strict (I think this was X Files that kicked this off) so now the Couve is turning into quite the production house for Hollywood. And considering how diverse that city is, not too difficult to pull off just about any place there.
RSA
I am willing to give Grimm a try, given that David Greenwalt (Buffy, Angel) is involved.
J
@Fred: sports. you must not be a big sports fan. sure, much is available or can be found via chinese or other dodgy and illicit feeds, but they are unreliable. Sports fans, like Cole (and me — English Premier League) want reliable and good quality live broadcasts of sporting events.
Southern Beale
@MikeJ:
No I did not read yesterday’s suggestions. Repeat? Link?
Not backwards?
:-)
Omnes Omnibus
@Fred: Well, Fred, I would guess that the people on the thread talking about the shows they watch probably watch the shows that they talk about watching. They might be lying, but I am willing to give them the benefit of a doubt on this issue.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I can honestly say I no haz TV. So my participation in this thread is tangental at best.
@Southern Beale: We came up with a lot of the obvious touristy stuff (if you do nothing else watch the flying fish, the guys are hilarious and LURVE tourists!) and I did politely suggest a BJ Seattle gathering. The Needle is a total tourist trap, but for a tourist trap worth the money IMHO. The restaurant at the top is even decent.
Thought: put a post on your blog and have us drop ideas there?
Southern Beale
@Yutsano:
Good idea! Will do…
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Go to Victoria and then Vancouver by boat. Drive though/hike in the Cascades.
Dr. Loveless
@fasteddie9318:
This. Also too, while Sorkin was trying hard to convince us that working on SNL (or actually, “Fridays”) has the same gravitas as working in the White House, it … just doesn’t.
Still, though, “Your brother is STANDING in the MIDDLE of AFGHANISTAN!” ranks as one of the great cheesy TV lines of all time.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: You can even ride a boat from Seattle to Victoria. The Clipper runs every day (I think) and is a bit pricey but the trip takes 90 minutes and you cruise right by the San Juans. Bonus points if you spot an orca pod!
Bill Murray
@Southern Beale: Ted had many people from Andy Richter Controls the Universe, another criminally unwatched series.
I haven’t cared about a new year’s schedule release since AMC and Remember WENN parted ways
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: That was what I was trying to say. I’ve done it. We arrived in Victoria on Victoria Day. We were greeted by a parade.
Southern Beale
Oh and a BJ meetup would be great, Mr. Beale and I would love to meet some folks for a beer one night ….
piratedan
I too will admit to an Amanda Peet fetish, started with The Whole Nine Yards I’m afraid…. NBC would do well to mine other good BBC concepts, Hamish MacBeth, MI-5, Torchwood would all be good places to start.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan:
I wonder why…
Yutsano
@Southern Beale: I’d go for the Owl & Thistle but that’s only because it’s right next to my work and pretty close to where I park too. Plus it’s really good. There is also Fado which is right there as well. Of course I’m just aiming for convenience for me. :)
@Omnes Omnibus: Victoria Day is the best time to go to Victoria, but that’s in late May unfortunately. Not that Victoria isn’t worth seeing just on its own mind you.
Southern Beale
OK I have put up a “We’re traveling to Seattle” thread on my blog, if anyone has any sugestions that would be great.
@Yutsano:
Thanks for the heads up on Owl & Thistle and Fado, will check it out …
Yutsano
Awww cwap. Moderation for overlinkage. I can haz no oppression now plz?
Southern Beale
@Dr. Loveless:
My big problem with Studio 60 was that I just never cared about the characters. At all.
brad
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): That seems about right to me, but it has the end result of pushing 30 Rock to the back of the line of best stuff on tv right now. Community is justly lauded, but Parks & Rec has, over the course of this season, matured into something quite incredible. 30 Rock just isn’t in their league atm, not to mention non-NBC shows.
LM
@Violet:
Hulu Plus costs $6.99/month, and most of the shows I like are on it, nearly every episode of most seasons. (They run with commercials, but there aren’t many and they’re usually only 30 seconds long.) It also has a lot of interesting offbeat documentaries and a gazillion older series. It streams to the TV from roku, so between it and occasionally buying a season of something on amazon or iTunes, I could drop cable and not miss it at all.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@brad:
I’ll agree that it isn’t up to Community right now, but 30 Rock is every bit as good as Parks & Rec.
I’ll admit that P&R has improved leaps and bounds since its premier half-season, but it’s still too derivative of that single camera, mockumentary style of The Office, imo, which is something into which that show is locked. If they don’t keep up with the good gag-writing, they’re going to end up as bad as The Office has become in the last two seasons.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Southern Beale:
Studio 60 lost me in the second (?) episode, when they did the Gilbert & Sullivan bit. Lazy.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Fred:
Yes, Fred, but if the networks are cancelling shows, there’s no way to see NEW episodes. They cost more to make than they could possibly raise during a fundraiser, even if they had Hamsher and Greenwald shiiling away at their blogs.
KCIN
Not only did NBC pick up a bunch of ridiculously stupid new shows ( Grimm sounds particularly unwatchable) but they passed on what were probably their three best pilots: Metro, 17th Precinct and Reconstruction all had either great concepts or creators with outstanding track records or both, and I’m hugely disappointed that NBC is willing to push the envelope on nudity (Playboy) but not on quality. Couldn’t they at least have put these shows on USA or something?
Violet
@LM:
Thanks. But are they available two months later? Or are they only available for a certain amount of time?
TooManyPaulWs
The good news seems to be that the planned Wonder Woman show isn’t making it past the pilot they filmed.
I’m rather torn by this. Wonder Woman is a classic comic book heroine and for some godforsaken reason nobody in Hollywood seems to want to do her justice with a live-action film or TV series (the David Kelley version sounded too much like Ally McBeal with Magic Lasso). I’m glad the Kelley attempt is done… but is this gonna scare off L.A. from making a more serious and more faithful attempt at a Wonder Woman project?
LM
@Violet:
Yes, for most Hulu Plus shows the episodes stay available for the entire season, plus all the episodes from the season(s) before stay available, too. So you can have months and months worth queued up, no problem. It’s not like the free Hulu where they’ll have maybe the 5 – 8 most recent. I tend to forget shows exist then watch them in marathons. I think that’s why this suits me so well.
Tehanu
@Southern Beale:
I have a general rule that any sitcom I really, really like always gets canned, usually sooner rather than later. Better Off Ted was only one of a long list, and now it looks like Outsourced is gone too. Sigh.
Nellcote
Chuck’s gone downhill since the hookup. But then that always happens. I guess I’ll blame Chuck for stealing Friday Night Light’s time slot.
balconesfault
@the dude: Damn – I loved Outsourced. Sigh … we needed more sitcoms about yuppie couples?
Nellcote
Were the skits on Studio 60 any worse than the real ones on SNL? I don’t think so. My genius solution for the shitty skit problem was to have Studio 60 talk about the premise for the skit and have viewers submit youtube versions with NBC doing a best of show at the end of the season. I’m looking foreward to Sorkin’s new series taking on cable news.
John
@Violet:
Well, if you want to get into it, Chuck is pleasant enough, but I don’t see anything deeper there to engage any deeper interest. The characters are cardboard, the central romance is tedious, the blatant and constant fan service they do with Sarah is embarrassing, and it takes itself way too seriously for a show that features lengthy in-show advertisements for Subway.
It is fluff, and fluff which has been getting consistently worse throughout its run. I don’t really care if other people like it, but I got pissed off that Cole can, on the one hand, apparently find this utter mediocrity to be the greatest show on television, and on the other hand, completely dismiss the US version of The Office, which, at its peak, was much, much better than Chuck has ever been.
Obviously, there’s no use arguing over taste, but I think my opinion of the relative merits of these shows is one that is shared by most television critics that I’ve read; it’s not like this is some weird, idiosyncratic opinion.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: because they’re ain’t anything finer than a fine lookin’ woman holding a gun and you’re all kinds of fine lookin’ – Frankie Figs
Geeno
@adolphus: I loved Cop Rock, but then, I love noble efforts, even when they’re doomed.
YAY! Barbara Boson!!
Bex
@goblue72: I second, third and fourth your review of “The Killing.” I don’t think Bennett did it.
Peter
@Martin: Well, there was Babylon 5.
KANFSU
@John: LOL, snaps for Chuck has nothing to do with anything but Yvonne Strahovsky in lingerie (or in water, etc), and maybe a touch of geekness.
the dude
@lettuce:
My main problem with Outsourced was the editing. Occasionally a scene would end and I’m thinking to myself “there was a punchline in there somewhere … why are the characters still milling around?”.
But it did have some great lines despite that clunkiness (like when Todd was demonstrating the orgasm key chain to the staff and said “First time I used it, it took me twenty minutes to find the button”).
brad
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): I have to admit to being wildly partial when it comes to Parks & Rec. I watched Poehler and Anzari at UCB back before they were known names, obviously with years of separation, and Ken Tremendous of Fire Joe Morgan fame is a writer for the show. Plus Audrey Plaza reminds me of an ex in a mostly good way. I wanted, badly, for it to be good, so now that it is I may be overestimating it, slightly.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@brad:
Yeah, I know that feeling. I felt that way about Anything But Love (Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Lewis, and my reason for watching, Ann Magnuson) a while back, but a few years ago I ran across some tapes I’d made of it and…Not as good as I’d remembered it.
I think Parks & Rec is a better show than that, but I’ve always got this feeling that they’re going to do something that will make me go, “That’s from The Office!”
Exurban Mom
RE: Trump’s presidential ambitions and Celebrity Apprentice: Word from NBC is that they will find another bigwig to play the boardroom heavy if Trump is unavailable, so it’s not the clear-cut sign O’Donnell and others were looking for…
Bulworth
I realize this show (CBS) will probably be terrible, but I’ll have to watch just once for Kat Dennings. Same with the Playboy Club for Amber Heard.
Also, too, I don’t get the Chuck thing either.
Stefan
This. Also too, while Sorkin was trying hard to convince us that working on SNL (or actually, “Fridays”) has the same gravitas as working in the White House, it … just doesn’t.
I always thought that Sorkin should have made Studio 60 as a show about network news. He would have gotten to do all the major themes he loved (politics, news, the television business and the business of television), without the awkwardness of shoehorning them into a show about, basically, a sketch comedy revue.
Stefan
I wanted, badly, for it to be good, so now that it is I may be overestimating it, slightly.
This is the same way I feel about the Obama administration…
Darkrose
I’m really excited about Awake, because Jason Isaacs has been my internet boyfriend for years. My only fear is that it’s going to be NBC’s FlashForward, which took a great premise and made it unwatchable and dull.