anyway.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
2009-10-26
: TV Time
Bored to Death makes me laugh. I'm like "Meg! Come watch this show with me! It's about Jason Schwartzman being self-absorbed and awkward!" She's like "oh hooray my favorite. Too bad I have to sort my thread collection today, or I totally would. I'm not just saying that." But I'm like "but ... Ted Danson too, also being self-absorbed and awkward. You'd love it! Today Jim Jarmusch was on, playing himself." And she's like "was he self-absorbed and awkward?" and I'm like "yes!" and she's like "oh man TOO BAD I have all this thread to sort."
Community makes me laugh. There's not much to it, but I like it.
Modern Family makes me laugh. Is there much to it? I dunno. It's no Arrested Development. But I like it anyway.
The Office still makes me laugh. A couple of episodes ago, I had to leave the room for a minute because of the pain. That show, dang. A few seconds of sweetness and we'll endure an otherwise whole episode of nothing but pure brainmelting terror.
My favortie thing about Glee is that Mr. Schu's way of dealing with problems is to go along with something really dumb. (My second favorite thing about it is its approach to sex ed.)
House schmouse. Also, Lie to Me schmie to me.
Dollhouse is oh, fine. Did I hear rumors that they were going to can it? That'd be sad.
Meg loooooves Big Bang Theory. I don't really love it (but I like watching it with her). I think she may identify with Penny. Maybe more than a little. I don't like to think about that very hard, though, because the implications for me are, um. Well. Better saved for those 3:00am sessions of brutal self-reckoning. Not so suitable for blog posts or 22 minutes a week with a laugh track.
There's no The Shield, no The Wire, not even any dumb old Battlestar Galactica, and Lost and Burn Notice aren't due back for a while. Anything I'm missing?
1. On 2009-10-26, Vincent wrote:
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I watched about 5 minutes of The Forgotten and about 20 minutes of Stargate: Universe. |
2. On 2009-10-26, Graham wrote:
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Mad Men is a thing of beauty. Graham |
3. On 2009-10-26, Matt Wilson wrote:
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Ha. I have that exact reaction to The Office. It's like cutting an onion and being all mmm onion yum... oh jeez fuck Mad Men is an aquarium of sad people. Quiet and pretty and mesmerizing in just that way. Not watching much else on reg'lar TV lately, but I'm netflixing Californication, and it's pretty entertaining in that OMG self destructive way. Also Netflixing In Treatment. Weird to see Gabriel "what heart?" Byrne in that role, but he's very good. |
4. On 2009-10-26, Avram wrote:
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What Matt said about Mad Men. And I'm loving The Venture Bros (though not so much last night's somewhat homophobic episode). |
5. On 2009-10-26, Eppy wrote:
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I recently discovered It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu, and I think I might love it. It's an exercise in making tragically unsympathetic protagonists just sympathetic enough for you to care about them. More importantly, it's funny. |
6. On 2009-10-26, Seth Ben-Ezra wrote:
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Problem: The Wire is no longer being made. Solution: Watch The Wire again. That's what Crystal and I are doing, and it's working out pretty well. |
7. On 2009-10-26, John Harper wrote:
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Psych is like a love letter to television. It's hard to imagine a more well-meaning and fun show. It's the kind of fun like if a kids' talent show was actually brilliantly written and produced. Adorable is maybe the word. I like Bones because it's a fluffy procedural that isn't about a bunch of hateful jerks (unlike CSI, House, and every other goddamn one). Plus Emily and David are just the best. Castle hits the note exactly between Psych and Bones, plus it has Nathan Fillion being all funny and charming, too. It makes me happy to see him on TV. Those three are like the trifecta of feel-good shows with smart writing (Burn Notice fits right in there, too). Venture Brothers, Always Sunny, yes those too for sure. |
8. On 2009-10-27, Judd wrote:
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I am enjoying Better off Ted a whole lot but that might be the only show on TV that I am seeking out other than the Venture Brothers. |
9. On 2009-10-27, buzz wrote:
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What, no Leverage? Get with the program! |
10. On 2009-10-27, Alex D. wrote:
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"It's an exercise in making tragically unsympathetic protagonists just sympathetic enough for you to care about them." makes me think of kill puppies. Far as TV, I've just started watching Damages. I'm not fully sure why I like it so much, but it's there. I also tend to like Sons of Anarchy. Nothing like humans I can relate to digging themselves into some deep shit, then causing more trouble trying to get out of it. "The hot breath of chaos on their ass", to misquote Ron Edwards. |
11. On 2009-10-27, Neon Fox wrote:
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Fringe? Nifty pseudoscience and Denethor being a different kind of crazy! Also I second the nomination of Castle. |
12. On 2009-10-27, ironick wrote:
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I <3 Dexter, especially for the way Dexter consistently feels like he's an awkward outsider and can't figure out his life because he's a serial killer masking himself as an ordinary joe. The joke, of course, is that we ALL feel that way, which makes Dex a lot more normal than he thinks he is. This season hasn't quite knocked my socks off like last season did, but it's still very good. |
13. On 2009-10-28, Ted wrote:
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Castle is fun in a lighthearted way. It's pretty episodic, so you can just watch a recent one to see if you like it. (Although there's always the chance you'll hit a bad episode that way) |
14. On 2009-10-29, Joshua A.C. Newman wrote:
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TV has gone back to making me mad. I guess, except for Mythbusters. And I saw a show on Modern Marvels about the evolution of the axe, which is sort of ironic. |
15. On 2009-10-29, V. Ryan wrote:
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If you like the comedies Better off Ted comes back in December, that show is hilarious. |
16. On 2009-10-30, Porter wrote:
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Community had me at the proverbial hello, but I don't think the subsequent episodes have lived up to the pilot (I'm a sucker for all thing Breakfast Club, so maybe that's skewed my analysis). I hear a lot of meh for Dollhouse. Anyone want to make a case for it? |
17. On 2009-11-02, Vincent wrote:
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Dollhouse just made a bonehead move. I'll keep watching it, but... |
18. On 2009-11-04, mxyzplk wrote:
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Sons of Anarchy has taken The Shield's spot for me. I watch Dollhouse, not overly enthusiastically. Venture Brothers of course. Warehouse 13 was OK. I've tried Special Unit 2 and Sanctuary and Castle, and pretty much I'll watch them if they're on and I'm bored. I hear Big Bang is good and just added it to the DVR to check it out. |
19. On 2009-11-04, Vincent wrote:
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I'll check out Sons of Anarchy, thanks! |
20. On 2009-11-05, Jeff Z wrote:
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You really should check out Shameless, particularly the early series. |
21. On 2009-11-10, Robert Bohl wrote:
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Vincent, you should definitely ignore everyone talking about Leverage and watch the BBC's far-superior Hustle. These are criminals with a code, rather than superheroes doing criminal acts. It's an amazing and wonderful show about con artists that rarely falls down. |
22. On 2009-11-11, Alex D. wrote:
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Roughly related, Sons of Anarchy made me look up the term "Nomad" in relation to motorcycle clubs. A guy, or occasionally a group, not tied to anyone location but meant to be respected and cared for at each chapter. Possibly sent out by the leader or leaders to investigate problems in remote chapters... and deal with them, if necessary. This sounds... strangely familiar? (My info is limited to Wikipedia, which may or may not be entirely accurate. Still, this is almost a hack that writes itself.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_(motorcycle-club_membership) |
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