What Are You Watching

I think she is referring to the fact that she couldn't just cast actresses, she had to cast people who could also dance en pointe, making diversity harder. But given how bad these actresses are and that they are doing crazy amounts of dancing, I can't imagine she couldn't have found someone of equal talents in that time.

Everyone else is watching new shows, and I'm stuck 35 years in the past, because I discovered a YouTube account that has the first two seasons of Starsky and Hutch fully uploaded, and I can't stop watching. I have no nostalgic attachment to the show at all; it went off the air just before I was born, and like so many things on the internet, I have no idea how I stumbled across this, but good lord, the show is kind of awesome. The two leads are both pushing my buttons like whoa, and the hoyay is at Kirk/Spock levels. I shudder to think what the internet would have done with this show had it existed back then; it would have been Sherlock-like madness. Anyway, I've got to get my hands on the other seasons.

blixie wrote:I made the mistake of watching One Nation Under Dog I will never EVER recover, I've been in a mental fetal ball since viewing it. OMG it ranks up there with the Worst Thing I Ever Saw on Nova covering Sunday Bloody Sunday and the Troubles.

I have this sitting on my DVR right now and I'm considering just deleting it. I don't deal well when bad things happen to animals.

Luthien wrote:Everyone else is watching new shows, and I'm stuck 35 years in the past, because I discovered a YouTube account that has the first two seasons of Starsky and Hutch fully uploaded, and I can't stop watching. I have no nostalgic attachment to the show at all; it went off the air just before I was born, and like so many things on the internet, I have no idea how I stumbled across this, but good lord, the show is kind of awesome. The two leads are both pushing my buttons like whoa, and the hoyay is at Kirk/Spock levels. I shudder to think what the internet would have done with this show had it existed back then; it would have been Sherlock-like madness. Anyway, I've got to get my hands on the other seasons.

I was a young'un when it aired, and remember liking it, but it wasn't until I just now read your comment that I realized the epic hoyay levels (wait until you see the later seasons). Is there some way we can make the internet discover this show, because I'm pretty sure the fandom wars would be wank-worthy.

I know I watched Starsky & Hutch as a kid, but I don't really have much memory of the show itself. What I *do* remember is going to the store to buy the 45rpm for David Soul's "Don't Give Up On Me Baby" after watching the video on Top of the Pops every week.

I know that Aaron Sorkin is a sexist ass! I know that! I know that by setting The Newsroom in the past; he is rewriting "smart" journalism with not just 20/20 hindsight but with future goggles; however Sam Waterson is a delight. Sure he is Leo McGarry pre-AA and Isaac Jaffe with a drinking problem but Sam is a national treasure and so I will watch The Newsroom for him and his amazing sauce!

I am definitely trying to figure out if I love Jeff Daniels more than I hate Aaron Sorkin with that show. I figure Sam and Allison Pill with a little bit of Fonda sending up Turner puts it over the edge.

I enjoyed it a lot. I really liked Allison Pill's character, as well as Mackenzie's producer dude Jim. I loved that he tried to respect the fact that it was still Don's floor when the story started to break but acted when he saw that Don wasn't going to run with it. I thought how the whole BP story unfolded was really tense and suspenseful.

I was somewhat annoyed that Mackenzie seemed so hesitant and kind of weak when she was in Will's office. I was thinking that for someone who had been reporting on the news from caves and being shot at, as Charlie described earlier, that she'd just have more attitude and backbone. Then again, Charlie did say she was mentally and physically exhausted, so perhaps that's how they're wanking that interaction (we also don't know the details of she and Will's breakup). Still, it seemed an odd posture for her to take, but I really liked her when she got in the booth and ran the whole show as the BP story unfolded: all confidence and surety of herself.

Sam was awesome, as always. My favourite exchange was between him and Will, when Will finds out about Mackenzie:

Sam: Only one person knew how to get in touch with you.
Will: THAT WAS YOU!

I haven't watched many Aaron Sorkin shows, but this compilation is AMAZING.

That's hilarious. Doesn't change my opinion of his brilliant writing though. 7 minutes out of literally thousands? Yeah, there's probably more to be found, but some of the comments referring to it as "lazy writing" probably couldn't handle Sorkin's workload.

Also I think if you looked at any writer with a particular style you will definitely find the same lines over again. I'm sure a compliation of David Milch or Joss Whedon would show the same thing. Also so many of those are so generic! But I think that is amazing editing and I applaud the person who put it together because that is work.

Teen Wolf. So shocked. It's good, if you like this sort of genre tv, which I do. If you like Vampire Diaries, you could watch this show.

I watched all of the first season and caught up with the second. Lead character Scott is dumb but a good person. Scott's star-crossed love Allison is really pretty and kind of Elenaesque, Jackson is a complicated woobie jerk/asshole, Lydia is bitchy and smart, etc. But I truly {heart} Stiles, Scott's best friend. He's hilarious and has all kinds of watchable chemistry with EVERYONE. Especially Derek, the creepy older humorless hot alpha werewolf. There's a great scene in S1 where Stiles has asked classmate Danny over to help with some computery/hackery thing problem or whatever and Derek is also hanging out for complicated plot reasons and wearing a blood-stained shirt. This scene is great because:

- Derek trying to be out of the way by reading the big stupid textbook
- Stiles encouraging Derek to keep changing shirts and asking Danny to comment on t-shirt selections
- Derek increasingly and hilariously furious at Stiles about the terrible t-shirt choices
- Danny (who is gay) realizing that Stiles is using hot shirtless Derek to bait him and get him to do the hacking

bad quality video of this scene.

I unabashedly love Teen Wolf for all the reasons you posted above. This week's episode blew. my. mind. with Lydia and Peter. It was some freaky shit that the cute boy that's been flirting with her was the hallucinatory spirit of the alpha trying to get Lydia to revive him. I can't believe I watch not one but *two* MTV shows. The other one is Awkward, which I love so much I got the DVDs of season one.

DirecTV is fighting with Viacom so MTV, TVLand, Comedy Central, AMC and lots of others are not on the air right now. I'm OK with missing some of that stuff but if it's not back on before Thursday when Awkward is on shit is going down.

sen3, I just marathoned Awkward the same way and loved it so was thinking I should check out Teen Wolf as well. Who knew MTV was making entertaining TV shows these days?

ETA: Missed your post, Raised by Wolves! Yes, love Awkward!

Awkward love back at you, chou! Since I am a DirecTV customer I don't have MTV right now. I "watched" last week's Awkward on their website. It was like watching an 8-bit video game.

Does anyone else here watch Bunk on IFC? It's a fake game show that has three comedian contestants playing for absurdly non-charitable causes. This week Bobby Moynahan from SNL won and his non-charitable win was learning to clog dance. The best part was that when he won he tried to get his clogging partner to do the Kid-N-Play dance with him in wooden shoes. Best 10 seconds of TV this week.

Spent a good chunk of the weekend watching Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine on Hulu. Excellent.

Anyone else check out Political Animals? I thought it was a bit cheesy at times, the ex-President's casual racism was a bit much, but other times it was pretty good. I kept thinking that if Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino's characters were male, fandom would be shipping them all over the place. The show kept stressing how alike they both were. I loved Sebastian Stan, he does such a good job at making a pouty face.

I really liked Political Animals. The worst part for me was the beginning. All of the big press coverage and rally scenes were a bit over the top and felt phony, but not in a satirical way. Everything else was really interesting, I thought. I really like the Elaine character a lot. I'm trying to guess what the older "perfect" son's secret will be; I don't think an anorexic fiance is the only skeleton in his closet. I keep getting a Romney boy vibe off of him (probably in part because his fiance's name is Ann), so I feel like there's some creepy undertone to his character.

Oh yeah the beginning when the reporter was filling us in on everyone's backstory as they came up to the stage felt really forced. Especially when he was talking about Sebastin Stan's character being gay and how everyone thought it would be an issue but it never was. It didn't flow right.

Also the awkward dance party with Sigourney and Adrian Pasdar should never happen ever again.

Because I like to get around to stuff on a leisurely basis, I just started Sherlock on Netflix streaming. It's a solid, entertaining show, but I just do not get the weapons-grade crazy that has sprung up around it. I mean, objectively I can TOTALLY see how it would stir the crazy, what with the subtext basically text if you're looking at it that way, but...meh. I suspect a large factor is that while I think Humperdink Funkybunch does a good job at being off-putting and creepy and weird-looking, I don't find him attractive. At all. Also there are only three episodes available, which is not enough time to form a lasting relationship as far as I'm concerned.

I've also started Breaking Bad and United States of Tara. Toni Collette is, as always, awesome.

I am pretty crazy about Sherlock, but I don't find Cumberbatch attractive either. I do think he and Martin Freeman are excellent together, and in general I find the show super entertaining. If you like the show well enough, the other three episodes should be available in the coming months.

Meanwhile, we're finally watching Terriers. We're only halfway through the season, and I'm enjoying it, but it doesn't feel like the kind of thing where I'll be gutted that it only had one season. Maybe that will change, but usually I'm a lot more attached by this point.

Also there are only three episodes available, which is not enough time to form a lasting relationship as far as I'm concerned.

Fandoms have erupted around movies with less run time.

TiffanyNichelle wrote:Anyone else check out Political Animals? I thought it was a bit cheesy at times, the ex-President's casual racism was a bit much, but other times it was pretty good. I kept thinking that if Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino's characters were male, fandom would be shipping them all over the place. The show kept stressing how alike they both were. I loved Sebastian Stan, he does such a good job at making a pouty face.

I watched it and enjoyed it quite a bit as well. I love politics as a spectator sport and watching it this way makes me feel less like banging my head into a wall than real politics does. The one weak link for me was Ciaran Hinds as the Bill Clinton analogue. I just could NOT believe that any woman, much less many women would want to willingly sleep with him. I think they needed someone with a more physical attractiveness and the level of personal charm that Clinton had.

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.

The one weak link for me was Ciaran Hinds as the Bill Clinton analogue. I just could NOT believe that any woman, much less many women would want to willingly sleep with him.

This is the part where I have to kick myself and get that reminder that, oh yeah, Ciaran Hinds doesn't look like he did when he was Captain Wentworth in Persuasion anymore.