Just finished the series finale of Chuck, and I am every bit as sad as I was when I watched the final episodes of BTVS and Angel. Chuck was just such a good show. Yes, it was silly and nerdy and childish, but at least all the characters were likable and fun, unlike the sociopaths in Mad Men, a show that for some reason everyone just loves but me (I made it through four episodes of Season 1 before asking myself- “Why do I want to spend an hour every week with these awful, awful people?”).
Jeffster 4ever!
Baud
I couldn’t get into Mad Men either.
srv
Not a huge fan of MM, but at least the characters are realistic. Perhaps if Chuck was an anime, it would be interesting.
cathyx
John,
How was your mother’s day? Did you cook?
schrodinger's cat
I agree with you about Mad Men. I think a lot of people (including many women) watch it for the fashions.
Southern Beale
I really hated “Chuck.” It got cancelled? I hadn’t heard.
Husband loved the show, but he’s still catching up on the season he DVRd because I refused to watch it with him. I’ll have to break the news to him.
Ruviana
Didn’t watch Mad Men either. I thought, “I lived through this era and it sucked then. Why do I want to watch it?”
JPL
John, You’ll watch the last episode again. Jeffster’s version of Take on Me is the best ever. Breaking Bad is a compelling series but you really don’t like the characters. Chuck and Friday Night Lights were shows where you really wanted them to succeed ..
gaz
I couldn’t stand Mad Men. I watched half of the first season and then got utterly sick of it. The characters were empty. None of them wanted anything better. There was no journey, no growth. The show celebrated the decadent and depraved, IMO. And even in that, it wasn’t entertaining decadence and depravity (like Party Monster). It was just a bunch of empty suits. It was a bunch of Romneys
schrodinger's cat
I have been re-watching my Gilmore Girls DVDs. Love the first 2 seasons. Any other GG fans? I have a girl crush on Lauren Graham.
Waynski
I don’t watch Mad Men. My Dad was an ad man at the same time as the series is depicted. Too close to home.
lamh35
DAMNNNN!!!! Another $100 million (at least) for The Avengers. It’s on tap to pass $1 billion worth wide by next week. Sorry Dark Knight fans, but I’m thinking Dark Knight Rises ain’t catching this one!
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/05/13/box-office-report-avengers-second-weekend-record-dark-shadows/
Suffern ACE
I saw that Avengers movie. I’m have never been much into comics. I probably had 30 or so when I was a kid. I do watch the movies. I loved this one. But I have a question. Do they ever explain in the comic books where the other heros are when something big happens? In this movie, a huge alien army attacks NYC. Spider man lives there. The fantastic four don’t live more than 2 blocks from grand central where the invasion happens. The X men academy is like 20 miles away in Westchester County. Wouldn’t they all kind of show up and offer to help?
gaz
@JPL: Seriously? I felt that Breaking Bad was one of the best shows in recent memory. I didn’t have to like the characters to find them compelling.
ETA: Never mind – I read your post again, and basically, I agree. =)
FlipYrWhig
Well, the Mafia is horrible, but most people don’t think that makes gangster movies unwatchable.
schrodinger's cat
@gaz: I think John Hamm could play Romney pretty easily. Though I do think Hamm is much cuter.
Linda Featheringill
@Ruviana: #6
Exactly. I’ve spent a lot of time in meditation and in therapy to help me turn loose of the 1950s. Hated them then and don’t wish to be reminded of them.
Yes, this lousy world we have now is better than we had then.
j
Help the tragically unhip here.
WTH is “BTVS”?
FlipYrWhig
@gaz: I don’t think the point of the show is to “celebrate” any of what it depicts.
JPL
@gaz: Don’t get me wrong the show is excellent but I just can’t cheer for winners and losers. There are not winners.
BTW..Best line ever in Chuck was when Casey said Chuck find the porn virus. The last episode was perfect.
David Koch
great opening sketch on SNL btw Bush and Biden
http://www.hulu.com/playlist/330205
FlipYrWhig
@j: Buffy the vampire slayer.
gaz
@FlipYrWhig: And yet that’s what it did. If that’s the case, I blame the writers for missing the mark.
ETA: Then again, I didn’t live through the 50’s. A fact that I thank god for.
David Koch
I think Mad Men’s appeal is to Boomers who constantly try to relieve the 60s.
Redshift
@schrodinger’s cat: Sorry, I was subjected to GG while taking care of my mother-in-law, and I found nearly all the characters incredibly annoying. But to each his or her own.
Teddy's Person
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m a Gilmore Girls fan!!
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Best series finale will always be Six Feet Under. And who knew you’d say that about an episode in which everyone dies?
Worst is probably the L-Word. The final season started out well, with that annoying Jenny being murdered. But then they spent the rest of the season giving everyone a motive to kill her….and then didn’t resolve it at the end. (Possibly because they don’t realize I did it.)
JPL
Tonight is the final episode of desperate housewives and Sherlock is on PBS. If you haven’t watched Sherlock you should tune in. I wish I could shave off thirty plus years because I have a major crush on Benedict Cumberbatch.
gaz
@JPL: Yes, there are absolutely no winners in that show. That’s sort of quintessential to a good dark comedy, IMO. And that’s how I judge Breaking Bad. IMO, it’s a dark comedy. Quite a good one in fact. And yes I laughed when Jesse tried to dissolve the guys in the bathtub. Particularly when he dumped the guns in the tub, and it just didn’t register, even then – what the end result would be =)
heh. I admit my sense of humor runs pretty black.
FlipYrWhig
Anyhoo, the appeal of Mad Men is less about the characters and more about the satisfaction of puzzle-solving with the carefully-chosen details, like, “why this song?” or “didn’t someone else use that same pay phone to do something nasty, and is that a hint that this character is also on the verge of doing something nasty?”. And then there are a lot of Big Themes like gender dynamics, capitalism, the modern vs. the past, the authentic vs. the fake, etc. It borders on pretentious, to be sure, but there aren’t many shows that ask you to think about Whar It Means somewhere beyond heroes, losers, and plot integrity.
Mark
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: No, the worst ever series ender was ‘Entourage’. Humiliating
schrodinger's cat
@Redshift: The show did go through some annoying phases but it was one of the few shows which had female lead characters with ambitions other than just landing the guy.
Yutsano
I haven’t watched any of this stuff. Somehow I don’t feel like I’m lacking anything.
j
@FlipYrWhig: Oh. 10-Q.
I’ve never been a 12 year old girl, so I couldn’t figure it out. It took me a few years to decipher what DWTS was in my local “news” paper. I didn’t know who those people were even when they were 2nd stringers on low rated sitcoms 40 years ago. But when Tucker Carlson & Tom DeLay were on I started to pay attention. (To the gossip pages of the “news” papers.)
It looks like they cater to GOP has been’s or never was’s to start with. Like Bristol Palin.
I don’t watch a lot of TV.
David Koch
This is gonna kill the professional left
http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ht_newsweek_cover_barack_obama_jt_120513_wg.jpg
http://images.nymag.com/images/2/news/11/09/israel110926_cover_260x350.png
John X.
@Suffern ACE: The answer is, Fox Studios owns the rights to the X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four; Columbia owns Ghost Rider and Sony has Spider-Man. They don’t revert back to Marvel/Disney until the studios go some period of time – three years? – without making a movie with them.
Blade and The Punisher are back with Marvel now. Daredevil might be back soon. It’s why Sony rebooted Spider-Man so soon, Fantastic Four’s being rebooted next year and there will probably be a new X-Men movie every other year for the foreseeable future.
Suffern ACE
@Redshift: Heh. I thought for a second that GG was Glenn Greenwald, coming to your mothers sick bed, probably blustering on about how wrong you were.
Linda Featheringill
Finale to Six Feet Under was very nice.
I liked the finale to Medium but that show probably won’t be discussed here because it was somewhat of a chick flick [only for TV].
aliasofwestgate
@JPL:
You and most of the world. My crush is Freeman. I absolutely adore his John. He does the affable BAMF so well. :D
FlipYrWhig
@gaz: Nah, whenever the show appears to glamorize, it is much more likely to be commenting on how some things just can’t be salvaged with glamor and gloss, IMHO. They’re shallow, manipulative people in a shallow, manipulative business, and for most of them this is all they’re good at, so even when they’re succeeding they’re not fulfilled. I don’t think you’re supposed to like the main characters, although there’s an antihero effect that may slip in. YMMV.
hitchhiker
@schrodinger’s cat:
YES. Watched this entire series with my 2 girls and loved it.
Also, writing on MM is the worst in television. Worse than a soap. If you close your eyes and listen to it, you won’t believe how wooden and silly those people sound. I guess the sets are nice, though.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@John X.:
Didn’t they kill off most of the characters in the 3rd movie?
Redshift
As long as TV shows about sociopaths have come up, can anyone explain to me the apparently considerable appeal of Law& Order SVU? I was subjected to it (again) at my mother-in-law’s. Every episode includes horrific acts described over and over and over again. I am mystified that anyone would willingly subject themselves to that.
I also wonder if shows like that are part of the reason so many people think crime is way up when it’s actually been steadily declining.
FlipYrWhig
@Suffern ACE: “She’s sick, but that development, however lamentable, pales before the larger sickness in the body politic wrought by Barack Obama and his sycophantic defenders.”
Suffern ACE
@John X.: Someone should alert Tom Friedman. The fact that everything is for sale prevents even superheroes from meeting each other for a common project.
FlipYrWhig
@hitchhiker: A lot of that is for effect, though, like the entirety of Pete Campbell’s stilted delivery. He’s trying (too hard) to sound grown up.
David Koch
http://weaselzippers.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/NYM-POTUS.jpg
jazzgurl
Really into ABC’s pilot ‘Scandal’on Thursdays at 10.00 p.m Wow,wow,wow!
lamh35
@Redshift: I do watch L&O:SVU, just not as religiously as before they got rid of a particular character. All I can tell ya is to never watch Criminal Minds, every episode has a horrible incident or two…and it’s literally one of my fav shows even as I shiver with disgust.
jl
I missed the Happy Mother’s Day thread. So, happy Mother’s Day everyone.
Happy Mother’s Day to Cole, too. I think that enough people say Cole is one mean mother of some sort or other, so he qualifies for congratulations.
I hope some of is pets got Cole something. Don’t want to think about what Tunch might bring in. It could be anything. Cole was all excited that Tunch ‘caught’ a bird once, but I think the mass of Tunch caused an intense distortion in the local gravitational field which sucked the bird in No telling what he could drag in next. Hope it does not damage the house.
Anyway, happy Mother’s Day.
handsmile
Test
Yutsano
@handsmile: Ping.
Donut
Ha. I had an identical reaction to “Seinfeld.”. Every main character on that show was a total asshole. I could never understand why anyone would want to watch those hateful jerks interact with each other. I have yet to watch “Mad Men,” but have long suspected I’d have the same reaction. Meh.
Svensker
@FlipYrWhig:
I do. After living in Hoboken, NJ, I can’t STAND watching movies or TV shows about those thugs. Gah. The real life ones are such scum, but unlike their movie counterparts, they are boring, stupid and mostly really really ugly. They make good mozzarella, though.
I’ll except The Godfather movies. Otherwise, no way, jose.
Raven
Mad Men is great, especially when Roger Sterling drops acid.
gene108
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
Like it matters…comic book characters never die…
They may go into an alternate time-line or universe or have a new story line that pretty much ignores the fact that the other story line killed the guy off.
You will end up with continuity issues, but in the end death doesn’t mean a comic book character won’t be coming back.
EDIT: I hope they get somebody other than Hugh Jackman to play Wolverine. He’s too damn tall. Wolverine, in the comics, was 5’3″ tall. That was the appeal. A little guy you thought you could take in a fight turns out to be a BAMF.
Suffern ACE
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Following comic book law, you can tell the origin again and again. Only this time, Beast gets to be a hottie cutie (so he won’t get the blue makeup until near the end). Xmen Origins let us start 40 years in the past so we can have lots if stories. Last episode – how Dr. X lost his ability to walk. Next episode – how he lost his hair.
schrodinger's cat
@Donut: Seinfeld was funny, even the secondary characters like the George’s parents, uncle Leo even Elaine’s father.
RedKitten
I’m with you, Donut. I never understood the appeal. Sure, some episodes were funny, but the characters were all just so mean and selfish and insincere.
Yeah, Chuck was fun. I really liked that they didn’t shy away from letting Chuck grow as a character, the guest stars were great fun, and Casey = win 4eva!
Alison
I love when you surprise someone with a perfect gift :) Got my mom a new watch for Mother’s Day, which she wasn’t expecting and was, as she said (and I know meant because I know her like the back of my hand) the exact one she would have picked out for herself. The best thing was finding one with a band in her favorite color (dark green) and a face and numbers big enough for her almost-65-year-old, slightly-cataract-inflicted eyes to read :)
@schrodinger’s cat: I loved GG. Yeah, the dialogue was a little too witty at times – my ex used to get frustrated watching it with me, and he’d yell at the TV “NO ONE IS THAT CLEVER ALL THE TIME”. But it was funny, and still a lot more realistic than cheesy canned dialogue on most other shows. I also just liked the main character being a girl who was super smart and they never felt the need to downplay it or have her be ashamed of it, at least not that I recall.
Raven
Booker T and the MG’s, Green Onions. Listen to that bottom.
Raven
Why does Booker T keep getting me modded?
Raven
Donald Duck Dunn Green Onions
Scamp Dog
@Redshift: I’ve seen one episode and parts of one or two others, and couldn’t stand how earnestly Good the detectives were. Righteous vs. EvilEvilEvil! just doesn’t make for an interesting show. Plus the time they mis-explained teabagging (probably to keep the Standards & Practices folks happy) made me think that if they can’t discuss sex honestly, what’s the point of the show?
Teddy's Person
I watch and enjoy Mad Men. I think what keeps me tuning in is that I’m a historian, and I’m very interested in how popular culture portrays history (time periods, events, people).
Svensker
@Raven:
Yeah. RIP Duck. Sad sad news.
andy
I never watched Mad Men either. It occurs to me that parasites in suits have done me, personally, real damage and I don’t want so see tools wearing them being office badasses.
I actually don’t watch a lot of TV because of my schedule except the odd show like Walking dead.
In between shifts (and I have to go back soon) I made myself a pizza with an egg. Kind of makes me wish I was a stoner…
Teddy's Person
@Alison: I think the reason I loved Gilmore Girls so much was that I wish people were that witty and clever all the time.
JPL
@Alison: It was a rainy day in GA but my son came over and we finished some edging and put flagstone down where grass would not grow. He wanted me to go to HD to buy me a new wheel barrow but I put the brakes on. One, What would I do with the old wheel barrow and two, mothers do not go to HD on Mother’s day after working in the rain and mud. I do have some pride but sometimes you have to dig deep to find it.
gene108
Now that advertisers/marketing departments and subsequently networks have figured out how to focus things to certain groups of people very effectively, will there ever be anymore shows EVERYONE WATCHES?
Gilmore Girls, Sex in the City, etc. were targeted at women.
Other shows have a strong male audience.
A bunch of stuff on CW are targeted at teenagers.
I can’t think of a show like M*A*S*H (or whatever you think fits better) anymore that everyone watches and talks about the next day.
freelancer
It took 2 tries to get into Mad Men but it’s quite good, especially this new season.
Breaking Bad is the best show on TV currently in production.
I’m currently watching series 2 of MI-5 on Netflix. The Brits sure know how to make smart TV.
I promise, I will give Buffy one more try.
Suffern ACE
@gene108: They could do like they do with the Hulk…make him the right size when he’s by himself, otherwise alter his sizing to fit whatever shot they want him in with other people.
gogol's wife
@Yutsano:
You’d like Sherlock.
JPL
@RedKitten: How was your day?
Clime Acts
To me, Mad Men is one of the best shows, all-round, ever created for television.
I love that none of the characters are ALL good or ALL bad, though most lean one way or the other at different times. Real people are like that.
John, the shows you seem to like are…um, well…never mind.
lamh35
Speaking of Criminal Minds, do they still execute people by firing squad?
Also if you are a woman alone, you watch Criminal Minds with all the lights on and you lock every door and check the closet before going to bed…RIGHT? RIGHT?
Comrade Mary
@j: BTVS = Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Suffern ACE
@lamh35: I believe that’s still an option in Nevada or Utah.
Raven
@Clime Acts: Exactly. I tried to watch that awful Damages based on reviews here. What utter bullshit.
Yutsano
@Suffern ACE: Utah you can be executed by firing squad. It is also still used for field executions in the military, although that really never happens out there anymore. In fact I don’t know when the last military execution was in this country. I might have to Google.
EDIT: 1961.
freelancer
@Redshift:
Yes, precisely. There is no episode of Law and Order where you turn it off feeling cheery about the world. It is trite, glib, and suffers from an insane amount of injected, manufactured and disproportionate pathos.
Randy P
OK, question for those who saw the Avengers movie, which I did last Friday. I read (here) that there was an “obvious Joss Whedon moment” in the middle of the film. Whatever it was, I missed it. Is there any way to tell me where in the movie it happened without giving too much of a spoiler to those who haven’t seen it?
Thanks also to those who recommended staying till the end of the credits. I told my wife we had to, that I’d read here that it “tied up an important plot point”.
She more or less enjoyed it, including that last bonus scene, but she still says I owe her at least 3 chick flicks. Anybody got any recommendations from the last couple of years? Foreign cinema included? We’re both fans of French movies, even the “what the hell just happened” type like Copie Conforme, our last one.
Alison
@Teddy’s Person: Right? I mean, TV shows aren’t supposed to be 100% realistic, otherwise they’d be boring as fuck.
freelancer
@Randy P:
Let’s just say a major character gets offed. And you’re like GODDAMNIT JOSS! I liked that person! This is just like Serenity or Dollhouse all over again! (As mentioned above, I haven’t seen Buffy or Angel)
Baud
Agreed. Who wants to watch a TV show about a bunch of strangers talking about TV shows on a political blog?
Suffern ACE
@Randy P: You could always lie and tell her that Prometheus is about a woman recovering from a soured relationship finding a new purpose in life.
freelancer
@Suffern ACE:
Well at least the “purpose in life” part won’t be a lie.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
I was telling my mom about my bike accident last week (kid on a mountain bike didn’t see me and we collided), and the first thing she said was, “That could have been a set-up for you to get robbed. Where did it happen?” Well, yes, Mom, in theory it could have been, but given that there was no attempt to rob me, that kind of shows that it wasn’t a robbery attempt, doesn’t it?
Needless to say, my mom watches all of those cop shows religiously.
Narcissus
I love Mad Men because it is one of the few prime-time shows that isn’t a police, lawyer, or pseudo-police-vigilante procedural.
Ejoiner
Worst series ending ever? Easy.
Lost.
Gave that show 6 years of my life and what’d I get?
Hell if I know. Or the writers. Or the actors. Or anyone.
I’ve got to stop there or I’ll start ranting…again.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
Rarely, at least when I was reading them. There are obviously practical reasons why they don’t do things that way in the comics- they’d have to split up the heroes between cities or every other book would be a crossover story- but very little explanation for why every hero in the city doesn’t come out of the woodwork when the city is truly in peril.
lamh35
@Randy P: 5-Year Engagement. It’s at least 2hours, a chick flick and written by Jason Segal, so there enough “man-silly” that you won’t feel girly.
schrodinger's cat
@Alison: Loved the pop culture references and the rapid fire dialog.
Randy P
@freelancer: OK, got it. Thanks. And in her defense, it isn’t Avengers alone that counts toward this debt. We’ve seen a lot of action movies lately.
@lamh35: I actually can enjoy a good chick flick, depending. Characters are important to my enjoyment of a movie. For me, the heart of X-men: First Class was the relationships. And what made Green Lantern suck was the two-dimensional nature of the characters, good and bad, and their interactions.
PurpleGirl
@David Koch: Well, I’m a boomer but I don’t want to relive the 1960s. (Since I don’t get HBO, it wasn’t hard not to watch MM.)
Jay C
@jazzgurl:
Enjoy Scandal while you can: I read it has already been cancelled.
@lamh35:
Utah, and, I think, Oklahoma until recently.
Oh, and put me down in the anti-Mad Men group: some bits have been interesting, but AFAIC, once you strip away the “Wow-look-at-that!” factors (“Wow! Everyone’s smoking!”; “Wow! Those fashions!”; “Wow! Prejudice and sexism!”), what you’re left with is a trite soap-drama about a bunch of unattractive personalities. In slick suits. And pillbox hats.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: That would be a rather boring show. TunchCam would be much more interesting I think.
kdaug
Just watched the Dune flick again, and discovered the wife had not read the books.
She has her reading assignment for the train.
lamh35
since we are talking about tv shows, I’m not into Big Brother watching up conspiracies, but after watching Person of Interest…I’m seriously rethinking those conspiracies.
thanks to Criminal Minds, I’ll never stop a any roadside cabins in the woods hotels…EVER!!!
mainmati
I called my 84 year old Mom to wish her Happy Mother’s Day and she immediately launched into the Catholic Bishops and the Girl Scouts (I was raised Catholic). So, the Catholic upper clergy continues to show that they are truly corrupt and misogynistic.
Jade Jordan
John, you live in WV with Joe Manchin and the fools who voted for Mullet Prison man. Watch Mad Men to prepare yourself for real life.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
Huh? Are you for real? For the fashions? Yeah, only stupid shallow people who are into fashion and idiotic trivia are into a show that has many political, sociological, and psychological threads woven into the (for tv, let alone any modern media) complex and nuanced characters and plot lines. Only fashionistas are interested in such things, not serious people like us, right?
Gawd, I hate this hipster I’m-too-cool-for-school attitude. You watch a couple of episodes of a show that has a long story arc, complex characters, and a social climate that is changing at a breakneck pace and make a statement like that. Lost a lot of respect for you right there. At least I watched a full season before I cemented my opinion that Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dr. Who, and especially Chuck sucked donkey balls.
Fuck, I hate this false hipster contrarianism. It’s the liberal version of Andrew Sullivan.
lamh35
Damn Criminal Minds…first of all ya got a woman who’s husband became a serial killer. So she’s visiting him in prison devotedly for like 5 years. Everytime she visited she used the prison shuttle bus. So her husband finally is executed for his crimes (by firing squad I might add) but the serial killing just like her husband’s serial killing continued at the exact time of the husbands death (6am, btw) and continued every 6 hours until the copycat was caught. Who was the copycat…the shuttle bus driver who fell in love with the wife from all the talking and time spent on the bus going back and forth to the prison. So he’s killing all this blond women (the wife used to be blond, but since she had cancer she lost her hair and wears a brunette wig), cuts their hair (the last of which he scalped her) and uses the hair to make a wig with duck tape to give to his lady love after he kidnaps her on her last prison trip to pick up the husbands belongings????? And then he gives the wig to her and puts it on her head…scalp and all!!!!
WTF!!! I could never be a screenwriter, I just don’t have the imagination. Same reason why I couldn’t be an inventor I guess.
What do you do when you marry A SERIAL KILLER? Damn Criminal Minds.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Made it through about 40 comments and man, a lot of people on this blog are whiny (statement of the obvious I know). Regarding Mad Men, there is a lot to like about that show without really identifying with or really liking one or more of the characters. To each to his own, but there is a lot of “i haven’t watched it and my prejudices have been confirmed by other people so I am not going to tune in” stuff going on. Commenting from that vantage point just makes you sound silly.
ruemara
@Randy P: Hmm, to this chick, avengers is a chick flick.
Never gonna watch Mad Men now. I can’t stand awful people. I work with politicians everyday, why should I have to watch that nonsense on my telly too?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Suffern ACE: Do they ever explain in the comic books where the other heros are when something big happens?
It’s just assumed that the other heroes are ass-deep in their own alligators at the time. Every so often there will be a story line that sucks in every hero (*cough*Fear Itself*cough*), but most of the time no one even asks.
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: I am not characterizing all the MM fans, only some, was not making a blanket statement. I couldn’t get into MM despite the hype. YMMV. This remark was not directed in any way at you.
ETA: I am not a serious person, also I did watch the first season of MM.
Roger Moore
@freelancer:
Try skipping the first season, which is easily the weakest. The second season is much better, and the third is genuinely outstanding. Depending on how much you’re willing to jump into the middle of a show, you can go with one or the other. The first season was short enough that you won’t be missing too much backstory by skipping it, but going straight to season three might be too confusing for people who can’t pick up a story in the middle.
freelancer
@lamh35:
Stop watching Criminal Minds. You could have learned the lesson about the roadside hotels from National Lampoon’s Vacation and A History of Violence.
catpal
I like Mad Men for the historical and style of the show.
In a group conversation with some college-age women, some older professional women were trying to explain how women and working careers evolved, and she told the younger women to go watch Mad Men.
Some came back and told us they didn’t like MM, except for the fashion.
lamh35
@freelancer: Can’t stop watching I’m addicted.
Seriously though, even before Criminal Minds I’m not a fan of roadside motels when I’m driving. First because I usually drive alone and I don’t trust people. Second, I’m a usually traveling through the deep South and if there is one thing you learn when driving while Black, don’t be stopping in some backwater shawshank motel or city. Third, I just don’t like driving at night anyway.
Linda Featheringill
@geg6: #101
Now, now. It’s just a silly TV show. Some will like it and some won’t.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh35: Did you like X-Files when it was on?
schrodinger's cat
Plz can we has TunchCam or Tunch photos now? We has been good kittehs, so far as you know.
Suffern ACE
@geg6: So I take it my plan of introducing a discussion of the finer nuances of Shiaparelli and Prada I discovered at the Met this afternoon with be met with more anger than I thought.
Yutsano
@lamh35:
I confess I love to drive at night. It’s probably because I have better night vision than most humans (I can even see neat colours in full moons) so night feels better for me. Plus less hairless apes to run into my car.
Narcissus
Ooh ooh! Medical procedurals, too. There are also too many of them.
lamh35
@schrodinger’s cat: I still love X-files. If they ever make a 3rd movie, I’ll be there with bells on.
Was my fav show back in da day. It is the single reason why I still do this day find David Duchovny hot and he’s really not that hawt…lol.
It also probably is the reason I love Fringe so much. I’ve been conditioned by X-Files :-)
gene108
@geg6:
Which Doctor?
I find, when they started the show back up with the 9th Doctor, the 10th and 11th, etc. sort of all blurred together for me as basically being played as the same personality type by different actors.
I find the 2nd-7th Doctors to be better. The 1st is bit of intro into the series and such, but doesn’t stack up to later Doctors.
By the way, Doctor Who has been running for close to 50 years.
Also, too there is no 8th doctor in the T.V. series. Just skipped over that one for whatever reason.
schrodinger's cat
@Suffern ACE: Do go on, I loves me some fashion? Did you see McQueen at the Met? I wanted to go, but was too busy, to see it in person.
@Yutsano: Are you really a kitteh? When is the surgery? Good luck.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh35: Me too. Loved Scully and Mulder. The truth is out there…
Suffern ACE
@lamh35: I get the attachment to crime shows. I went through a two week span of watching ID network. I like to justify it because the science channel was all repeats and the history channels are always “aliens and Freemasons are why Bigfoot is hiding”, but honestly “Who Did I Marry” and “I almost got away with it” are just more topical than astrophysics at this time in my life.
magurakurin
@Linda Featheringill:
cuts both ways. Mad Men is a serious tv show, some will like, some won’t.
I really don’t get the MM hate. I understand if someone doesn’t like a show, but I don’t see anything in MM that deserves hate. Maybe the show fails in what it is trying to do, maybe it doesn’t, but I think it is pretty obvious that the show is trying very hard to do…something. And anyone who says, “I don’t like MM because I don’t want to relive the 50’s” really shouldn’t comment about the show, since the show is about the 60’s. Criticism is better served without a side dish of hate.
Personally, I think there is a demographic that finds MM compelling (and I’m a member) because we are the young children in the show. It’s a window (admittedly a fictional one) into the world of our parents, aunts and uncles. I also find it interesting that while the show is called Mad Men, in many ways the focus of the drama is the role of women in that world.
I think some people confuse their own dislikes and tastes with criticism. Just because something makes you feel bad or doesn’t appeal to you doesn’t mean it sucks. It means you don’t like it. Personally, I’m not a big fan of Picasso but I totally appreciate what his art was about and what he was trying to do.
I think there is plenty of room for genuine criticism of MM, but I heard little of it in the thread above.
Spaghetti Lee
@geg6:
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like someone who’d say his favorite shows are BTVS, Dr. Who, or Chuck aren’t really interested in showing everyone else how cool and hip they are.
lamh35
@Suffern ACE: IDK if it’s funny haha or funny aww. But I didn’t watch Criminal Minds when it first came on. I actually caught a marathon of it one Christmas Day when I wasn’t able to go home to NOLA. It was counter-programming obviously and I ended up watching back to back episodes and catching up on the 2 1/2 seasons I missed. Now I’m addicted, I admit. I love it.
Never let it be said that counter-programming doesn’t work, cause it did with me.
Alison
@Suffern ACE: I love the ID channel, it fills the role TruTV used to play before they started running mostly stupid shit. I like shows like New Detectives and such, real life forensics shows. I find that stuff fascinating, and it’s more interesting to me to see how it actually works as opposed to how Hollywood wants it to work, i.e. CSI and such.
smintheus
@Ejoiner: Twin Peaks has a good claim for the worst series ending.
WereBear
@Alison: I love real life forensics, and books (like Ann Rule or Jack Olsen, my two faves) because to me it is much more compelling when it is real, and has the added advantage of being true.
Just, you know, sadder. And perhaps that is the appeal of fiction.
Villago Delenda Est
If people said this about Faux Noize, the world would be a better place.
Villago Delenda Est
The thing about the X-Files is that the stand alone episodes hold up much better than the “Mythology” episodes, when it became very clear that Chris Carter had no earthly idea what he was doing.
Nunca el Jefe
This is just a test. I can’t seem to comment from work, so trying from my iPod. Have I been banned?
JasonF
@gene108: There is an Eighth Doctor, but he only made one appearance. He was portrayed by Paul McGann. In the mid-90s, the BBC and Fox co-produced a TV movie with the hopes that it would lead to a series. It didn’t, and that movie remains the only filmed appearance of the Eighth Doctor (though he has appeared in radio dramas, comic, prose stories, etc.)
gaz
@freelancer:
There’s a season 5?!eleventy111
Holy crap. I thought it was over after the 4 finale. I must stream!
Alison
@WereBear: Sadder at times, indeed. But also rewarding when some shitbag rapist or killer is caught because of something as tiny and amazing as like, a single thread from his coat or something. I imagine for forensics workers, catching people who probably thought they’d been too smart to get caught helps with the sadness over the victims. At least you can give some closure and be sure someone pays for what was done.
TooManyJens
@gene108:
Wow, that’s not the way I see them at all. There is arguably more similarity between, say, Ten and Eleven than between Four and Five (contra almost everyone else in DW fandom, I preferred Five), but I still find them quite distinct.
He was in a made-for-US-TV movie in 1996 which was not at all well-recieved. Eight does have a big following among fans of the audiobooks, because Paul McGann did a bazillion of those. But I guess they wanted to go in a different direction when the series started back up.
ShadeTail
I haven’t watched TV regularly since the mid-90s, but I still occasionally watch the old shows I liked back then. My two favorites are definitely Babylon 5 and The Slayers.
gaz
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: Considering you posted a gigantic generality about a plurality of people here without even really reading the thread, I find your comment to be singularly stupid and dripping with unintentional irony.
Fucking hipsters. Can’t live with ’em, and ain’t worth murdering either.
smintheus
@Villago Delenda Est: It happens with nearly all supernatural series, they just go off the rails trying to string along what is basically systematized nonsense for as long as possible. For ex., it was so obvious from the promos to Lost that the series would have to implode that I never bothered to give it a look.
But the non-mythological X Files episodes were extremely clever and funny.
Dee Loralei
@schrodinger’s cat: Love Gilmore Girls, especially the first 2 seasons. Lauren Graham made the name Lorelei cool for me, LOL! A few friends would listen to my son and I banter and tell us we were like the Gilmore Girls, LOL. My poor son, consigned to being Rory. But he actually watched it with me a few times and got a kick out of the kick-ass Lorelei’s of the show. Three generations of them!
ETA: He was kinda glad he only had to deal with one Lorelei growing up and not three!
mclaren
I have to agree with Cole about Mad Man. Fascinating period of American history, but the characters are so repulsive that you just have to ask yourself…why would anyone choose such a vibrant period of history and focus on ad men?
rikyrah
@schrodinger’s cat:
absolute GG fan. Was obsessed with it. I always loved Lorelai’s parents..thought they got a raw deal with her.
gaz
Must haz MOAR dark comedies. I can never get enough of the good ones, and yet there are so few.
Breaking Bad, again is teh awesome.
Six Feet Under might arguably be called a dark comedy by some, and while I like the show, it doesn’t quite fit the bill as far as dark comedies go – at least AFAIAC. (Still, I do like it)
I know I have strange tastes in many things, but it seems they are never enough of these. Maybe not many people care for them, or maybe they are difficult to write. Maybe both.
Must haz MOAR! MOAR I tell you!… RAHHH!
rikyrah
I loved Chuck and Mad Men. have to say that it took me having 2 seasons DVR’ed and me watching it in a marathon session for me to be hooked on the show.
Chuck was light-hearted fun, and I’m glad it lasted as long as it did.
Once Upon A Time’s finale tonight KICKED ASS!!
rikyrah
The X-files should have ended when Mulder and Scully left the show.
I think the show Supernatural ran its course 2 seasons ago, and I haven’t been able to watch it sense.
I feel about it, the same way that I feel about the last season of Angel – just didn’t work, because the show had run its course.
rikyrah
Also, as far as Gilmore Girls is concerned, I loathed Christopher. he was a waste of space….hated him from beginning to end of that show.
freelancer
@gaz:
Yeah, the 5th season is going to be the last, and it’s 16 episodes.
gaz
@rikyrah: Two things that estrogen opened me up to (I’m trans, XY – but went through hormone replacement):
Chocolate, and the Gilmore Girls. I didn’t care for either one pre-estrogen.
Now I love them both.
So FWIW, my theory is it’s hormonal. =)
I’m saying this tongue in cheek of course, but at least for me there’s more than a little truth in it.
Aaron Baker
I thought the last episode of Angel was genuinely moving–not a self-indulgent mess like the end of Battlestar Galactica, or, I’m told, Lost.
Sometimes the appropriateness of a series-ender can grow on you–the last episode of The Sopranos was jarring when I saw it–but as a moral comment on the characters and their happy embrace of sociopathy, I agree now it’s hard to beat.
smintheus
One recent show I’m sorry got cancelled so quickly was The Good Guys. Bradley Whitford was hilarious in it.
rikyrah
Did anyone else see the FRINGE finale?
I’ve watched it 3 times.
gaz
@freelancer: Oh god. It’s christmas in may… wheeee!
thank you for letting me in on that. I didn’t even bother looking. The end of season 4 seemed so… final… I must call my little sis and let her know – like right NOW =)
mclaren
@Suffern ACE:
Spiderman and the Fantastic Four and the X Men were sponsored by Pepsi, while the Avengers had the Coca-Cola Company as a sponsor, so Spiderman and the Fantastic Four and the X Men weren’t allowed to join the fight.
Anne Laurie
@Raven:
The FYWP spam filters thinks all Bookers are casino-related. People can’t even discuss the mayor of Newark (Corey B) on this here political blog!
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie:
There is gonna cause much gnashing of teef if he gets higher political ambitions. I personaly would love it if he replaced Lautzenberger (who is older than dirt) or Menendez. He’d make a great Senator. Though I think he replaces the fuckhead governor.
TG Chicago
@gene108: Among X-Men, you can only use the term “BAMF” in relation to Nightcrawler. ;-)
Suffern ACE
@schrodinger’s cat: Well I didnt see McQueen since the lines for that stretched into central park the last month and I’m not really into fashion except. Except for Ugly Betty and the fascinating documentaries on the September Issue and Vidal Sassoon, I don’t know much. I am not convinced that it and art that is necessary for an art museum. It seems more history or hall of fame.
However, I am open to arguments and did go to see the exhibit, and unfortunately I realized that the problem that I am going to have with fashion in art museums is that mannequins are creepy. Functional, but a room full of them is just odd, stuck behind glass cases. I know if they didn’t, people would snip samples or start feeling the fabric, but it is just an odd way to look at clothing. (although forcing models to wear clothing behind glass cases would be awkward, at least the clothes would move). Matters were not helped by the odd masks on the heads of the mannequins that looked like things Mexican wrestlers wear except these had no eyeholes or mouthholes. It was as if someone had decided to suffocate the people for wearing the dresses. I got that the title of the exhibit was “impossible conversations”-of course it is…with the blast shield down, the poor mannequins can’t see or hear each other, let alone talk.
gaz
This blog seriously needs a word-ban enema.
asiangrrlMN
The only show I watch, “Awake” just got cancelled. I’m not surprised as every show I like gets cancelled. ::pours one on the curb for “Awake”::
Edited to add: Anyone have a suggestion for a replacement show? It has to be well-written, well-acted, dramatic, include a diverse cast, and the ability to gut me every third episode.
Villago Delenda Est
@mclaren:
This is really old hat in the Marvel Universe. New York is being devastated by the Overmind, the Fantastic Four are leaderless because Reed Richards is under the Overmind’s control, so they recruit Doctor Doom to lead them.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the Avengers are totally involved in the Kree-Skrull War, and the X-Men are on hiatus.
Spiderman, IIRC, was busy with a multiple arm problem.
Villago Delenda Est
@Aaron Baker:
Best last episode, ever:
Newhart
Anne Laurie
@Jay C:
Not according to EW. Shonda-fans get both Scandal and Private Practicse for another season (as well as Grays Anatomy) — and I get Body of Proof, yay!
SBJules
@Linda Featheringill:
I too lived lived through those times & could not watch Mad Men. It did suck them.
askew
@smintheus:
I thought I was the only person who loved this weird show. It was hysterical. I wish the freaking show would come out on DVD so I could re-watch it.
As for Man Men, I don’t care about Don Draper or the other men in the show. But, I do find the women to be fascinating.
freelancer
@askew:
The Good Guys, the whole series is on Netflix Instant until 2036.
Donald G
@gene108
Subtract 16 years from that 50 year figure, since from 1989-2005, there was no production of Doctor Who, save for the 1996 BBC/Universal telemovie for Fox starring Paul McGann. [Images of Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor have appeared onscreen in “The Next Doctor” and “The Eleventh Doctor” as part of montages covering the Doctor’s history.]
Now that I’ve made geg6’s head explode by mentioning Doctor Who, I’ll compound that crime by admitting to liking the first three seasons of BtVS, and to liking what little I’ve seen of Chuck. I have mixed feelings about Sherlock, in that I only liked the first episode of Series One, and the first two of Series Two, and I utterly despise their interpretation and take on Moriarty.
Outside of the first couple of seasons, I despised Seinfeld in the nineties.
I have little to no interest in the long in the tooth franchised crime shows (Law and Order, CSI, etc.) or so-called reality shows or the televised talent competitions.
And a little Mad Men goes a long way.
Thymezone
That about sums it up. Summed it up in the first season. Complete waste of fucking time.
Cain
@JPL:
Really? Sherlock is on PBS? Netflix only has the first 3 episodes, and that’s it. Is there more than that?
edit: never mind, I see that three more 90 minute shows aired in January. Cool.
WaterGirl
@Jay C: You just sent me googling about Scandal. Everything I found says it has been renewed for season 2.
Edit: I see AL got there first.
Joseph Nobles
@asiangrrlMN: Oh, I’m with you on Awake. I guess the audience couldn’t grab hold of the conceit, and the burden of creating two different police cases almost every episode meant they were both easy to solve. I know, that’s not what was really going on there. The actual mystery was always what was up with the cop. And that guy with the big chin this past episode – I loved that. You just don’t see stuff like that in any other show.
As far as replacement series, I would go for Person of Interest: A computer genius and a ex-Special Force op secretly get social security numbers (but nothing else) of people connected to a future crime from the government’s all knowing surveillance machine. (The genius built the machine and also built the back door that gives him the numbers.) Together they work out if the indicated person is the victim or the perp and try to stop the crime. The season finale is this week, so DVDs will be forthcoming, and it’s been renewed for Season 2 already.
Donald G
@Cain:
January in the UK. Masterpiece Mystery on PBS started airing them last week. The second episode of Series Two aired earlier tonight. Next week is the final one of Series Two.
rikyrah
@askew:
Count me among the 1,000 people in America who loved The Good Guys. it was hilarious
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
I was a big Chuck fan. I have not watched the last season, but am in a way glad it was the last season. I fear if they kept it going too long it would have suffered – the plot lines were already getting a little redundant. Better to leave ’em wanting more than out-stay your welcome.
I’m bummed Community and Parks and Rec only have one season left (cancelled after next season both of them) – I find both shows to be hilarious – especially Parks and Rec. Ron Swanson is hilarious, but Amy Poehler is just fantastic. That show is better than the West Wing – the politician’s are just as idealistic and ennobling but it isn’t annoyingly preachy, which the West Wing often was. I’m convinced Rob Lowe is doing the show gratis just because he’s having such a fun time.
I’ve only watched two episodes of Mad Men but it didn’t do much for me. I just didn’t find anything redeeming about Don Draper. I probably will give it more of a chance. I loved Seinfeld, and it’s low rent offspring – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, despite the fact that neither show had likeable characters. I think the difference is those shows are both straight up comedies – the humor is in unlikeable people getting their comeuppance. With a drama, you have to find at least some of the characters compelling or there’s no point watching.
Tenzil Kem
@JPL: My slowly dawning realization that Jeffster was going to save the day — at least, HELP save the say — made my geekish heart grow three sizes bigger for a few minutes.
smintheus
@askew: I re-watched The Good Guys on line somewhere, maybe Hulu.