[709]

Originally Posted by murbot This Breaking Bad break is killing me.

Yes.

Don't know if you're into sci-fi at all, but lately I've been re-watching the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It's just so good. The first few seasons in particular are just fantastic. I'm only just into the second season (I have all of it on DVD), but goddamn if I don't want to just keep watching.

[Foj]

Just recently discovered that Reading Rainbow has been put on iTunes!!!

But, you don't have to take my word for it.

[Frank777]

Just had to share this insanely funny take on a classic Spider-Man episode.

[Frank777]

I think NCIS just jumped the shark. They've signed on to help rehabilitate the NSA's reputation.

[psmith2.0]

Now that the brunette Israeli cutie-pie is gone, all my reasons for watching are gone.

I was at a friends house and "The Walking Dead" was on. I've seen several episodes over the years, so I know the basic gist of it all. That is the most grim, downer show that has ever been. It's just savage in its "you're screwed...go ahead and eat a bullet, you'll feel better!" vibe. And they're not afraid to kill anyone either. I don't think anyone in that cast is going to make it out alive by the time it all wraps up.

I watch it and I just feel like spiderwebs are all around me and I just want to watch a Charlie Brown or old Bugs Bunny short. Something funny/light that'll make me laugh. I'd even settle for an episode of "The Nanny" if worse came to worse...

[Matsu]

Lost Girl, lesbian bisexual faerie sucubus characters adequately compensate any misguided feminist undertones. Sometimes, OK often, silly, but did I mention lesbian bisexual faerie sucubii?

[PB PM]

People still watch TV? What is this, 2005?

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Frank777 I think NCIS just jumped the shark. They've signed on to help rehabilitate the NSA's reputation.

I doubt they are going to try to help repair the NSA's image. Hell they painted Mossad as an evil organization.....

Though I am upset over it because I liked the chemistry of Gibbs, Tony, and McGee. I wish they would keep it as a three man team. Though that may be due to me being upset over my favorite little Israeli ninja left the the show. I'm still enjoying the show without Ziva, but I don't look forward to her replacement. But, it looks like SecNav is going to force her on us( I really don't like her).

[Capella]

Originally Posted by Quagmire I doubt they are going to try to help repair the NSA's image. Hell they painted Mossad has an evil organization..... Though I am upset over it because I liked the chemistry of Gibbs, Tony, and McGee. I wish they would keep it as a three man team. Though that may be due to me being upset over my favorite little Israeli ninja left the the show. I'm still enjoying the show without Ziva, but I don't look forward to her replacement. But, it looks like SecNav is going to force her on us( I really don't like her).

My mom got me to start watching NCIS with her because she told me that Ziva was attractive and beat people up. I'm disappointed she's gone

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Capella My mom got me to start watching NCIS with her because she told me that Ziva was attractive and beat people up. I'm disappointed she's gone

Oh yes. Sexy as hell and she can kick your ass. I wasn't much of a Tiva shipper(hell they annoyed me to no end), but I enjoyed her interactions with Tony.

Though they toned it down since season 7, I loved her openness towards sex. Especially in her first two episodes "Kill Ari". Playing and beating Tony at his own game. I quickly grew attached to her due to that. Much prefer a woman who is comfortable with sex and her sexuality than someone who treats it as some sort of taboo like Kate did.

I would rather have had McGee leave than Ziva. She was my favorite character.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by Quagmire I doubt they are going to try to help repair the NSA's image. Hell they painted Mossad as an evil organization.....

Evil? Nope. They've always painted the Mossad as ruthlessly determined and unwilling to leave festering security issues to other agencies.

And that's pretty much exactly how it plays out IRL.

Originally Posted by Capella My mom got me to start watching NCIS with her because she told me that Ziva was attractive and beat people up.

That doesn't seem like the healthiest reason to watch a series.


But really, the NSA is reeling from the worst credibility crisis of its existence and suddenly an NSA analyst is the newest likeable character on TV's #1 television series?

That's definitely not a coincidence.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Frank777 Evil? Nope. They've always painted the Mossad as ruthlessly determined and unwilling to leave festering security issues to other agencies. And that's pretty much exactly how it plays out IRL.

Maybe evil wasn't the right word, but bad or at least Eli and now Orli are bad people.

[psmith2.0]

I thought it was interesting/neat that the actress who played Ziva, Cote de Pablo, is actually Chilean. I didn't know that until a few years ago. Physically, she's pretty as can be...but it was her personality (both cute/child-like or dead serious/hard-case, depending on the situation) and how she carried and handled herself that put her over the edge for me into full-blown "crush/weak-kneed" territory. I just thought she was awesome, what little I saw of her (I've probably only seen about 20-25 episodes of this show, total, over the years).

But, for me, she's firmly in that Dana Scully/Clarice Starling/Olivia Benson/Ellen Ripley/Jane Tennison group of characters I admire and root for more than any male character that has ever occupied a TV or movie screen.

[709]

Jane Tennison... rowr.

[psmith2.0]

Wasn't she awesome? I finally got to see all installments of Prime Suspect a few years back. I really enjoyed it.

[murbot]

Metalocalypse.

How did I not know about this show until just now?

I'll check back in when I'm done the 4 seasons and listened to the 3 albums they put out.

Must have fallen asleep under a rock.

[tomoe]

Have almost finished Lost, about two episodes left but haven't got around to finishing because I sort of hate the show. So stupid and so many awful characters--especially Jack. Hoped they would have killed him off seasons ago...

Also started The Shield. Has interesting characters but goddamn is Vic Mackie (and his goon squad) a piece of shit.

[murbot]

I still have The Shield and The Wire to watch. Haven't seen a single episode of either. I know, crazy. Lots of TV in my future.

[Matsu]

Even though it's getting some international play, for those not following Toronto news, Rob Ford is the best thing on TV right now. Just google it, fucking awesome!

[psmith2.0]

A tale of two mayors, huh? It might be a comfort to Mr. Ford to know that a fella down in Washington DC came out of his similar situation pretty well, being re-elected mayor of his city again, a year or so after his release from prison.

And we're a lot more forgiving and tolerant of a society now than 20 years ago, so there's a pretty good chance Ford will suffer no real fallout from this. He just needs to apologize (that's what everyone obsesses over these days...an "apology"), maybe work up a few contrite tears, do the half-hearted rehab song-and-dance (famous and/or powerful people never go to rehab on their own...they do it because they're told to by a judge, or by their PR flacks to try and save their butts - literally - by dodging other, worse alternatives) and make an appearance on the Canadian equivalent of Oprah. He'll be back in the mayoral office in short order.

[Matsu]

I have a feeling the ford story is going to get a lot worse. He was in a video, and he's smoked crack, but it appears people associated with him made numerous, illegal, attempts to recover said video, menacing, extortion, etc... One of the other two men in the video is the victim in a murder investigation...

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by murbot I still have The Shield and The Wire to watch. Haven't seen a single episode of either. I know, crazy. Lots of TV in my future.

The wife and I are struggling to get through the first season of The Wire. Incredibly boring, incredibly predictable, incredibly trite. I'm not sure I want to go on. Everyone tells us it's the best TV show ever, but that can't be. It may get great, but it's automatically disqualified from being the best show ever due to how amazingly shitty the first season is.

[Ryan]

Sherlock season 3 anyone?

She figured out that code WAY too fast, something's up with John's fiancee.

[tomoe]

Going to start Sherlock season 3 this weekend!

Those offtopic/spoiler tags still no worky on the iPhone AN version...

GF and I still haven't finished Lost. Two episodes left, but we despise pretty much every character except Hugo and don't really care how it ends.

[Windswept]

I'm sorry Ziva's gone too. I liked pretty much everything about her character, *except* for the screenwriters continuing to add in her mis-use of American slang and colloquial expressions. This trait was sort of amusing for a while, but can start to annoy the viewer as time passes and as it crops up repeatedly in too many episodes.

I never liked Gibbs slapping Tony on the back of the head. In fact, the whole military structure of subservience of lesser ranks to their superiors adds an unappealing tone to NCIS. This subservience *isn't* found in NCIS Los Angeles, and the latter program is so much the better for not having people treat each other in an abusive way.

I've always hated the way Tony treated McGee - putting him down, criticizing him, playing dirty tricks on him, just because he's a "probie." Tony *looks* good, but someone who treats others in an abusive way loses his appeal almost completely, and the good looks become meaningless. I don't understand how the people who put this program together thought that giving Tony such an abusive character would somehow be appealing. I think most women would hate such brutality.

McGee never treats others abusively, nor does Abby. It's too bad the writers couldn't manage to let Tony's character grow and change. That would have added so much more depth to this tv drama. And, again, I can't help comparing NCIS to NCIS Los Angeles. So many differences, and none of the military rank-pulling hierarchy that can engender unpleasant maltreatment among the characters.

[Windswept]

Season 4 of Downton Abbey starts tomorrow night on PBS. Has anyone here been following this program over the three seasons? I'm looking forward to these upcoming episodes; but the writer, Julian Fellowes, seems to like throwing in a bit of tragedy here and there, so one can't help feeling a certain amount of dread regarding what horrible thing might crop up in season four. eek!

[Naderfan]

Originally Posted by Windswept Season 4 of Downton Abbey starts tomorrow night on PBS. Has anyone here been following this program over the three seasons? I'm looking forward to these upcoming episodes; but the writer, Julian Fellowes, seems to like throwing in a bit of tragedy here and there, so one can't help feeling a certain amount of dread regarding what horrible thing might crop up in season four. eek!

I was visiting my parents last week and my mom got me hooked. I still haven't seen Season 1, but I watched all of Seasons 2 and 3 with her, so I'm ready to start 4. I'm excited.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by 709 Yes. Don't know if you're into sci-fi at all, but lately I've been re-watching the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It's just so good. The first few seasons in particular are just fantastic. I'm only just into the second season (I have all of it on DVD), but goddamn if I don't want to just keep watching.

I got hooked on this recently, plowed through the whole show over Christmas. Not sure why I never watched it before—it's a fantastic series.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Naderfan I was visiting my parents last week and my mom got me hooked. I still haven't seen Season 1, but I watched all of Seasons 2 and 3 with her, so I'm ready to start 4. I'm excited.

I haven't seen the DVD for season one at the library where I check these out, and if they didn't put it on video, I wonder why not? I can't remember what events might have occurred in that time period and it's kind of a torment trying to recall all those hours worth of material.

I heard in an interview that some of the actors chose to leave the series and go on to do something else for their careers (hence a death or two from the storyline). It's hard to imagine why they would leave, since Downton Abbey is apparently one of the most widely-viewed tv series of all time around the world. I wonder if the viewers are mostly women, of if the division percentage is anywhere near 50-50, men vs. women.

Have you seen interviews of the current real-life lord and lady of the estate that plays the part of Downton (Highclere Castle)? She was an accountant who came to stay as a guest for one of those weekend house parties, maybe a hunting party. She met the lord and the rest was like a fairy tale.

It costs a million dollars per year to run Highclere Castle, so with its new fame as Downton Abbey, it has attracted vast numbers of paying visitors who help keep the building maintained, with a new roof that prevents rain from ruining the castle's priceless antiques, carpets, furnishings and paintings.

Julian Fellowes, the screenwriter, also wrote the film Gosford Park. Did you ever see that movie? I guess he is a friend of the Herberts (the lord and lady), and wrote Downton Abbey with their castle in a starring role as the setting for his series. Must be nice to have friends like that, huh?

[Naderfan]

Originally Posted by Windswept I haven't seen the DVD for season one at the library where I check these out, and if they didn't put it on video, I wonder why not? I can't remember what events might have occurred in that time period and it's kind of a torment trying to recall all those hours worth of material. I heard in an interview that some of the actors chose to leave the series and go on to do something else for their careers (hence a death or two from the storyline). It's hard to imagine why they would leave, since Downton Abbey is apparently one of the most widely-viewed tv series of all time around the world. I wonder if the viewers are mostly women, of if the division percentage is anywhere near 50-50, men vs. women.

That's odd about Season 1. I know it used to be on Netflix, but then got pulled (from the live streaming at least) when it went to Amazon Prime. I wish now I'd watched it when I had the chance! I've heard too about all the contract/casting issues. I can't remember where I read this, but apparently British actors are less willing to sign on to long-term contracts (compared with American tv actors) and that's why they're scrambling so much to move people in and out. Seems weird to me too.

And if my anecdotal evidence means anything, the men who do watch it largely seemed to be forced into it by wives/girlfriends. My FB newsfeed last night was largely divided between my female friends' excitement for the start of the show and my male friends' groans over having to watch it once more.