What Are You Watching

biakbiak wrote:

I think they needed someone with a more physical attractiveness and the level of personal charm that Clinton had.

I think the charm thing is the key. The racist, ethnic slur-wielding chauvinist made me wonder why Elaine would have gotten together with him at all. Also, I could not take seriously the ethnic slurs about the Italian-American President in 2012. I am not denying that Italian-Americans have faced prejudice in this country, I just don't buy people not looking at Bud and being like, "WTF?!?! It's 2012!" I get why they didn't make the President African-American but I think they should have at least made him Hispanic/Latino if they were going to make that a major part of Bud's character.

In 2006, one of our candidates for Senator was Italian-American, and the incumbent said he looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons. Granted, he was probably suffering from dementia at the time, but still.

To me that is commenting on his physical appearance not attacking his Italianess by using slurs like Guinea.

Just finished season 1 of Nikita on Netflix, and I'm hooked as hell. The whole "Sexy spy in lingerie" ad campaign turned me off in the beginning, as well as the inconsistency of the previous American television adaptation. This, however, is awesome action/adventure TV in the finest tradition of women who kick ass, and I'm hoping that we can start in on the second season within the next day or two. At that point, I'll be able to check the thread here without worry about spoilers.

I've been trying to give Newsroom a chance (Alison Pill! Dev Patel!) but if characters are going to mention the far-superior Broadcast News and remind me what I could be watching and genuinely enjoying instead, then I'm out. Also, I'm pretty sure the last episode included the exact same speech I originally heard on Sports Night.

I liked the first episode of The Newsroom, but I turned it off half-way through the second. I'd much rather watch Sports Night for the 18th time. Even with the Dana Dating Plan.

Michael Ealy's face commanded me to start watching Common Law, and I've really enjoyed the first two eps! Michael and Warren Kole have such great chemistry together, and the antagonistic dynamic between Travis and Wes really cracks me up. Plus, Sonya Walger is on it, so it's lovely to support a new show featuring a Lost actor.

The first episode of The Wire. It was kind of slow, but I liked it. I think it's going to take a few viewings to wrap my head around who's who, I was pretty tired when I watched it. I've also heard it's a slow burn, it doesn't get really good until Season 2.

I also watched the first two episodes of The West Wing, and loooved it. Some of the more speechy dialogue made me roll my eyes, but the snappy exchange between Bartlett and the Navy doctor hooked me. I can see the seeds of Sorkin's 'woman problem' here, but it's not enough to make me switch off.

Teen Wolf is killing me and it's all laurelin_kit's fault.

Teen Wolf! So good. Fandom is getting scary though.

I have been on a North & South (BBC, 2004) bender. I have had to watch some part of it every day for the past week. Surely the last scene must be one of the most rewound/rewatched endings ever.

Teen Wolf's popularity has exploded out of nowhere. It's all over LJ now, and I can't get away from it! I haven't paid any attention to the fans or if there are any shipping wars or whatever though, so I have no clue how crazy the fandom is.

I've also heard it's a slow burn, it doesn't get really good until Season 2.

Huh, that's funny, every Wire fan I know (including me) counts season 2 as their least favorite. 1 and 4 are the ones I see most frequently praised as the best. But yes, it is a slow burn, and all I can suggest is to pay attention as best you can. Alan Sepinwall has some great reviews at his old site, What's Alan Watching, where he reviews each individual episode but does "newbie" and "veterans" versions of every review, so new viewers can understand what's going on without being spoiled for future eps. Here's the page that includes "newbie" reviews of the first three episodes and it helped me better understand who was who.

Thank you queenofdenile, that's going to be a great help!

Seasons 2 and 4 are my favorite seasons of The Wire. They are all really good but season 2 has some of my diehard character types in it. I always feel so alone though, because it feels like everyone hates it!

Netflix has all the seasons of Coach up and I'm plowing through them now. Definitely a better show than I remembered and Craig T. Nelson is just fantastic in this role. I think I watched this just a little bit back when it was on but I'm addicted to it now. I remember thinking his daughter Kelly was so annoying back then, but she's amusing the hell out of me now. Perfect portrayal of the over-dramatic teenager who doesn't have a clue about real life.

Shelley Fabrares is also much better than I remembered, I recalled her as a Mary Sue, too-perfect type, but now her character makes a lot more sense to me. She's got great reactions and plays the straight man character really well.

Definitely a better show than I remembered and Craig T. Nelson is just fantastic in this role.

Oh no, Coach was great, there were a lot of really hilarious and well written multi camera shows on at that time: Newsradio, Wings, Coach, Anything But Love, Murphy Brown, Roc all pretty sterling and fall down funny. As much as I do appreciate the depth and scope of single camera comedies, I still think at their best multi cameras can be as funny, if not more funny.

I think the scene that made me laugh the hardest during Coach was when Jerry Van Dyke went to the pound and found Quincy. I literally fell off my couch laughing. "We like to call him Yoda."

Jerry Van Dyke and Bill Fagerbakke are excellent too, they bring a clueless but sweet energy to the show. I love how protective Hayden is of Luther and how he tries to cover for him/bail him out as much as he can.

I just love how layered the character of Hayden is, he's an overbearing loudmouth jerk on the one hand, but good-hearted and surprisingly sensitive and self-aware at other times. His admission of his role in his failures at marriage and parenthood are so honest and interesting. And I also appreciate the relationship between him and Christine a lot more as an adult, such as their agreement that she not come up for the weekend if Hayden loses a big game because despite his best efforts, he's going to be a mopey jerk. I've been there so many times, where I know I'm in too bad a mood to be good company but fail to cancel my plans/hang out time and things end up in a big fight no matter how hard I try not to start things.

Last night I watched the episode where Hayden feels like he's losing Kelly to her dorky singing in-laws and it ends with him telling her that he used to sing to her when she was two. He can't remember most of the song so he's just sort of muttering lines ending in "little buckeroo." The line "something with an acorn...little buckeroo" seriously killed me, I had to keep rewinding it. Such a sweet scene but hilarious at the same time.

So, while painting over these last couple of months I've mainlined a bunch of crack television--Make it or Break It, Deadliest Catch, Teen Wolf, some Investigation Discovery stuff that streams on Netflix, Leverage, Covert Affairs, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, Revenge, Grimm, etc.

Does anyone have some suggestions for other crack television I might enjoy? I like fairly mindless stuff that I can half pay attention to while I paint in a Photoshop window. TV shows are awesome because I can just queue them up.

Well, there's Covert Affairs and Suits (my latest binge). If you like White Collar, you'll probably like those. Also, Hustle (aka the British Leverage). Haven and Lost Girl are sci-fi/fantasy fluffiness. I did a Veronica Mars rewatch lately, which was fun. Rome is addictive crack of another kind. Not as fluffy fun as a lot of those other shows are, but it's compulsively watchable.

Seconding the recommendations for Covert Affairs and Suits. As long as you're on USA, Necessary Roughness is a lot of fun. Riley from Buffy shows up as a trainer/love interest/eye candy. (I don't really have a problem with how much TK likes to air his pecs out, either.) It's about a shrink who winds up doing sports therapy after her divorce, primarily for her local pro football team. It's not hard to follow, but it is a lot of fun and does have sufficient plot and character development if you do want to pay attention.

Person of Interest is also good--it's basically a televised comic book. There's the smart nerdy dude who figures out who needs to be protected, then the ex-CIA muscle who wears a long black coat instead of a cape. It's a nice blend of post-9/11 paranoia, mystery, and awesome fight/chase scenes.

I'm just happy someone else is still watching Grimm! Seeing the commercials for it this week, I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.

I also recommend Haven and Lost Girl, but they are not available for streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime :-(. But Eureka is on Netflix streaming! Also, if you have Amazon Prime, I recommend Stargate Atlantis for good genre TV to watch while you do other stuff.

Teen Wolf: Just watched the latest episode. I cannot decide who is the worst: Derek Hale as Alpha leader of a wolf pack or Mitchell from Being Human UK as vampire nest leader. It's so sad at how they both suck so much at trying to lead. Also, that whole thing where Gerard wants Scott to give up Derek or he kills people was so dumb. There is no mystery there. Stupid Derek can ALWAYS be found in the ruins of his burned up family home.

I can't believe it took me so long to realize that the dude on Grimm is Dave from Road Rules: Semester At Sea! He always seemed like such a cool dude, so I'm really stoked that he actually nabbed a starring role.

Thanks for the recs, guys. :) I really appreciate it. I think I'll start with Suits.

Being Human UK was like crack to me until

Spoiler:

, and then I was done. Being Human US is not even on my radar. I am comforted by dwarven hotness in my DVD player in the near future.

whatthedeuce wrote:I can't believe it took me so long to realize that the dude on Grimm is Dave from Road Rules: Semester At Sea! He always seemed like such a cool dude, so I'm really stoked that he actually nabbed a starring role.

You just blew my mind. I've been trying to figure him out forever.

Dude, it's a crazy revelation, right? I was all Keanu-esque "WHOAAAAAAA" when I realized it!