Steve watches his DVR

Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 9009 Location: SOMEWHERE EXTREME

I liked the very beginning of Chuck but the rest of the pilot did not live up to a superspy sneaking into a high-tech government facility Mission Impossible-style to hack into a Mac Plus Terminator 2-style so I never made the effort to catch another episode.

Christmas came early Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 9225

Stranger Dan wrote:

All the best shows this season have non sequitur musical numbers except for Metalocalypse where they are a rock band so their musical numbers are usually pretty sequiter.

My name is Stranger Dan and I am the one person who is not a grandparent and also watches Viva Laughlin

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:55 pm

Pushing Daisies had a musical number last week "just 'cause"

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:05 am

Add Dexter to your list. If you're worried about being too far behind, don't be - they recap everything really well at the beginning of each episode. Normally I hate that but they seem to do a good job of it.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:05 am

Last night's Heroes gave us a glimpse into what it would have been like if Veronica Mars was written by chimpanzees. Seriously, Heroes is very close to losing me -- there is little about this show that does not suck.

Last night's How I Met More Mother gave us a glimpse into the fact that the show's writers think "crazy 90's clothing" and replacing words for slightly naughty things with more innocuous things are both totally hysterical. They're not. But, I did like the Crazy/Hot Mendoza Line thing. Sort of.

Last Friday's Friday Night Lights focused on handsome but dangerous Tim Riggins. Thus, it sucked.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:32 am

Okay, so I can watch the first season of Heroes or the first season of Friday Night Lights online on Netflix. I was going to start watching Heroes (since they are also putting up new episodes), but now you are saying that both of the shows suck?

I've already watched all The Office and all the 30 Rock there is to watch, so my fallback now is probably the English version of Coupling. Heck, even Quantam Leap and the original Battlestar Galactica are starting to sound more appealing than these supposedly good new shows. I could also watch the first season of Good Morning, Miss Bliss but I don't think I'm quite that desperate yet.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:47 am

Boorishly P. Foundry wrote:

Okay, so I can watch the first season of Heroes or the first season of Friday Night Lights online on Netflix. I was going to start watching Heroes (since they are also putting up new episodes), but now you are saying that both of the shows suck?

I've already watched all The Office and all the 30 Rock there is to watch, so my fallback now is probably the English version of Coupling. Heck, even Quantam Leap and the original Battlestar Galactica are starting to sound more appealing than these supposedly good new shows. I could also watch the first season of Good Morning, Miss Bliss but I don't think I'm quite that desperate yet.

Heroes is really strong up until the last quarter of the season, when they throw all logic and consistency out the window and take a major turn toward the suck. Season 2 has picked up that boneheadedness where they left off.

Plus, Hiro's storyline blows this season, and he was the one constant bright light. Now, it's a broodfest with the Petrelly brothers, a stupid-and-lamefest with Parkman and Mohinder, and a We-Think-We're-on-a-WB-Seriesfest with Cheerleader and her dullard of a new boyfriend.

So I would advise against investing into the series. I'd watch Lost, instead, which pretty much gets everything right that Heroes gets wrong.

However, Friday Night Lights is mostly great, with some draggy characters and storylines that sometimes interfere. The writers have made some really bad choices with the beginning of this season, but all is not yet lost. But watching this season develop reminds me that I should be happy that Freaks and Geeks was canceled before it had the chance to get terrible (the "leave a beautiful corpse" theory of television).

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:02 pm

Lost is not an option, sadly. NBC is the only broadcast network that is really embracing online content at all. All the other networks are like, "WE PUT MAGNUM P.I. UP ONLINE WHAT ELSE DO YOU FREELOADERS WANT?" It's probably only a matter of time before the rest of the networks realize that the Internet is a valid paradigm for content delivery... But until then I am living in a TV world that consists of NBC, A&E, the History Channel, the BBC from five years ago, select MTV hip-hoperas, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:10 pm

Well, I am still watching Heroes, so, you know, it's not awful. It's just one of those shows where it would be so easy for them to get things right, that it is all the more maddening when they don't.

And I'm being even more hard on Friday Night Lights, because it is at the head of the class and I expect more from it. I really recommend watching it, but I'm just warning it is not as cliche-free or "real" as you might have heard.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:30 pm

Boorishly P. Foundry wrote:

Lost is not an option, sadly. NBC is the only broadcast network that is really embracing online content at all. All the other networks are like, "WE PUT MAGNUM P.I. UP ONLINE WHAT ELSE DO YOU FREELOADERS WANT?" It's probably only a matter of time before the rest of the networks realize that the Internet is a valid paradigm for content delivery... But until then I am living in a TV world that consists of NBC, A&E, the History Channel, the BBC from five years ago, select MTV hip-hoperas, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Lost is on iTunes, which is where I watched most of it from. Also it is on Netflix. Those aren't free though.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:15 pm

Renting TV shows one disc at a time by mail is really annoying and inconvenient. (I tried it with Star Trek, Farscape, and a few others but quickly got fed up.) You can't watch Lost instantly online on Netflix, so it might as well not be there at all as far as I'm concerned.

Also hell if I'm gonna pay $1.99 for an episode of a TV show that I don't even know if I like.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:17 pm

Basically there are particular ways I want to get my TV, and I am not going to make it easy on the networks by kowtowing to their outdated distribution models. If the rest of the networks want my eyeballs, then they have to do what NBC does. And it wouldn't hurt NBC to do it a little more too.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:28 pm

Maybe you should stop being a cheapo and get more than 1 disc at a time from Netflix.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:29 pm

CHEAPO

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:11 pm

I watched the first episode of Chuck at a friend's house because they'd DVRed it. It has Jayne from Firefly on it, and had a spy hacking a super Mac Plus, so I'd at least give it a chance except I have had work or school during the must see TV hours for months.

So basically my TV watching has been catching the occasional episodes of MythBusters, Daily Show, and Colbert Report at my aunt's, since she has cable.

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:41 pm

I don't know if Steve reads this any more but it sounds like Michael Cera is going to be hosting a special unbroadcasted version of Saturday Night Live. (I guess that writers are allowed to work on stuff that's on stage only.) So you guys on the east coast might be able to score tickets to see Mikey C. tread the boards.

http://www.avclub.com/content/newswire/striking_30_rock_daily_show

Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 2956 Location: the new board

sgower wrote:

Add Dexter to your list. If you're worried about being too far behind, don't be - they recap everything really well at the beginning of each episode. Normally I hate that but they seem to do a good job of it.

I've really wanted to catch this. How closely do the shows follow the books? I just finished the third and want more.

Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 8693

Boorishly P. Foundry wrote:

Renting TV shows one disc at a time by mail is really annoying and inconvenient. (I tried it with Star Trek, Farscape, and a few others but quickly got fed up.) You can't watch Lost instantly online on Netflix, so it might as well not be there at all as far as I'm concerned.

Also hell if I'm gonna pay $1.99 for an episode of a TV show that I don't even know if I like.

Boorishly P. Foundry - the man who regularly drives across America but refuses to drive down to the local video library?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:39 pm

When do I drive across America? Did I miss something?

Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 8693

Aren't you the guy who goes on business trips all the time?

I am not good at keeping tabs on people and also my knowledge of American geography is somewhat hazy. I'm not entirely certain how far apart Ohio and New Jersey are, or if you fly.

Really, I don't put a lot of effort into most of my posts.

Also right now I am watching Inframan and it is wonderful. It has a sexy viking dominatrix space-demon with an army of mace-handed mutant men, living in a psychedelic skull cave inside a dragon.

Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 405

they're a state away from each other

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:10 pm

Pennsylvania takes a while to drive across though.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:34 pm

He takes the subway.

Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 8693

Flyin North wrote:

they're a state away from each other

It's not my fault that your country has such tiny states.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:50 am

CAPTAIN LAZERS wrote:

sgower wrote:

Add Dexter to your list. If you're worried about being too far behind, don't be - they recap everything really well at the beginning of each episode. Normally I hate that but they seem to do a good job of it.

I've really wanted to catch this. How closely do the shows follow the books? I just finished the third and want more.

That's a complicated answer. Honestly I hate the books so much. This is one of those few instances where the TV adaptation is a LOT better than the novel (the last 5 episodes of the first season notwithstanding).

The first season follows the novel's events quite closely, deviating in a few ways. The other characters aside from Dexter are much more fleshed out, and are pretty cool (Sergeant Doakes is pretty much the best character on the show).

The second season is a new beast on its own. It doesn't follow the novel at all, and the set-up is that these treasure hunters find all the cut up corpses that Dexter leaves behind - and we go from there. And trust me, it has been a friggin fantastic season so far, much better than the first season.

It's worth your time.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:30 am

I'm pretty sure nobody regularly drives across America for their job except long haul truckers and maybe Greyhound bus drivers. It would take seven hours for me to drive to New Jersey, and that's just passing through one state.

Christmas came early Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 9225

they can't let boorishly drive across Pennsylvania because then he would see how much both ohio and new jersey suck by comparison.

also video library? is that australia slang for something?

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:39 am

Why you gotta be like that, the baber? My whole family is from Pittsburgh and I got nothing against Pennsylvania at all. I'm even willing to say that Allentown and Erie are fine places.

Allentown. And Erie.

true falcons will attack children · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:46 am

sgower wrote:

CAPTAIN LAZERS wrote:

sgower wrote:

Add Dexter to your list. If you're worried about being too far behind, don't be - they recap everything really well at the beginning of each episode. Normally I hate that but they seem to do a good job of it.

I've really wanted to catch this. How closely do the shows follow the books? I just finished the third and want more.

That's a complicated answer. Honestly I hate the books so much. This is one of those few instances where the TV adaptation is a LOT better than the novel (the last 5 episodes of the first season notwithstanding).

The first season follows the novel's events quite closely, deviating in a few ways. The other characters aside from Dexter are much more fleshed out, and are pretty cool (Sergeant Doakes is pretty much the best character on the show).

The second season is a new beast on its own. It doesn't follow the novel at all, and the set-up is that these treasure hunters find all the cut up corpses that Dexter leaves behind - and we go from there. And trust me, it has been a friggin fantastic season so far, much better than the first season.

It's worth your time.

I read the first book after I watched the first season and that made me so grateful that they tossed out the Harry Potter/Voldemort psychic link thing he had with the Ice Truck Killer in the book. Seriously what the hell was up with that? Having Dex see what the killer is doing through his eyes cheapened the mystery by making it less about his smarts and more about his weird dreams even if it did make for the nice twist where he thought he might be the killer.

This season is great though because I'm spending every moment going "Oh no! He's so screwed!" and for the flawless genius Dexter was in the first season that is pretty crazy.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:20 pm

oh I know - especially considering the last five minutes of the last episode!!