***Official TV sitcoms and Series recommendation thread***

[pocketfours]

I know, I know.

BWE: Clearly high quality stuff but didn't find anything but been there done that gangster shit in the first five episodes. I way way rather play GTA than watch this.

GoT: So much embarassingly bad writing and unbelievable acting in the first episodes that I simply couldn't go on. I'm sure it got better but I just can't get myself to give it another chance. Again I'd rather spend my time playing Elder Scrolls.

The Newsroom: News anchor with a lisp? I couldn't get over it.

[boost]

Wuf, Newsroom is barely mediocre. Sorkin is such a self-obsessed prick, and it bleeds through all of his writing.

Otherwise, your areyoufuckingseriousigiveup.gif is appropriate.

[wufwugy]

The Sorkinisms don't bug me. It could be because I've never watched anything else by him

GoT: So much embarassingly bad writing and unbelievable acting in the first episodes that I simply couldn't go on.

Like what?

[JL]

LOL

Entourage gets gradually worse from start to finish (if I remember correctly) and starts repeating itself. If you liked it you could try How to make it in America instead. Hmm seems they cancelled it after two seasons, oh well...

Got nothing for you. I suppose get on the Homeland bandwagon. The second season is a joyride after a very tedious and barely watchable first (you can't skip it though).

BBT is always a fun 20min if you're at all into nerdy shit.

Planet earth and other BBC nature series in 1080p are amazing if you have decent gear.

FlashForward was only one season of b-class drama, but def interesting stuff to think about and some nice achievements in cinematography during black outs.

Suits is watchable if you're desperate or on a treadmill.

Homeland is on my list. I will start watching it next year probably.

I BBT. I always turn it on when I am channel surfing.

LOL at Flash Forward. We watched that when it came out. I did not expect anyone in a million years to recommend that show.

Funny that you didn't list Boardwalk Empire, GoT or the Newsroom, since I don't watch them either. Gave them all a very decent chance though. Probably good stuff in there but not for me. Def give them a try if you haven't already.

It's surprising to me that you watched Flash Forward, but gave up on BWE, GoT, and The Newsroom. Wuf's gif is the perfect reply. I haven't watched any of these yet, but they are definitely on my list. I am just waiting until they are a few more seasons deep, so that I can marathon watch them. I hate waiting week to week.

[pocketfours]

Like what?

It's hard to remember bad scenes. Something about Eddard Stark polishing his sword in an absurd setting and a kid being casually pushed down from a tower after witnessing infidelity comes to mind. Pretty much all the dialog made me feel like I'm just looking at actors reading lines from memory.

[boost]

It's hard to remember bad scenes. Something about Eddard Stark polishing his sword in an absurd setting and a kid being casually pushed down from a tower after witnessing infidelity comes to mind. Pretty much all the dialog made me feel like I'm just looking at actors reading lines from memory.

[BennyLaRue]

It's hard to remember bad scenes. Something about Eddard Stark polishing his sword in an absurd setting and a kid being casually pushed down from a tower after witnessing infidelity comes to mind.

Meh. I heard 19,000 kids die every day from preventable causes.

[pocketfours]

LOL at Flash Forward. We watched that when it came out. I did not expect anyone in a million years to recommend that show.

Yeah it was pretty crappy drama and mediocre acting but the storyline was too fascinating to be passed on. It constantly kept me thinking how I would write the next scene. I'm a determinist, so I thought the idea of not being able to alter the future even though you know what's going to happen was extremely fascinating and as far as I know it has never been attempted before by anyone.

But fuck FF, if you want a good laugh I can tell you I watch the Bachelor.

It's surprising to me that you watched Flash Forward, but gave up on BWE, GoT, and The Newsroom. Wuf's gif is the perfect reply. I haven't watched any of these yet, but they are definitely on my list.

Good luck with those

[wufwugy]

It's hard to remember bad scenes. Something about Eddard Stark polishing his sword in an absurd setting and a kid being casually pushed down from a tower after witnessing infidelity comes to mind. Pretty much all the dialog made me feel like I'm just looking at actors reading lines from memory.

[pocketfours]

I clearly fail at TV.

[JKDS]

P4's reaction is more in line with how i expected people to react to the show given no knowledge of the books.

[wufwugy]

P4's reaction is more in line with how i expected people to react to the show given no knowledge of the books.

Why? I didn't see anything internally inconsistent or inconsistent with realism

[JL]

Would anyone recommend watching The Shield? I knew nothing about it until 2 minutes ago when I watched a trailer. I am undecided.

[boost]

Would anyone recommend watching The Shield? I knew nothing about it until 2 minutes ago when I watched a trailer. I am undecided.

I still want to watch this. I remember my brother was super into it and I watched a few eps and thought it seemed good. But this was before I watched The Wire. I know it's way close to 24 on the realism spectrum, and I don't know how easy that would be for me to swallow nowadays.

[wufwugy]

Yeah I had to stop 24 due to it being an unrelatable caricature

[Galapogos]

Yeah I had to stop 24 due to it being an unrelatable caricature

My favourite 24 ridiculous moment was when some hacker kid was trying to get an early release of some software product then a window popped up with some code, he glances at it then exclaims, "omg! It looks like somebody's hacking the internet! "

[Tom1559]

If you are in the UK or you can get the UK channels you have to watch Only Fools and Horses. Timeless comedy and no matter how many times I watch these they still make me laugh.

[a500lbgorilla]

It's hard to remember bad scenes. Something about Eddard Stark polishing his sword in an absurd setting and a kid being casually pushed down from a tower after witnessing infidelity comes to mind. Pretty much all the dialog made me feel like I'm just looking at actors reading lines from memory.

Oh my sweet summer child...

[a500lbgorilla]

I moved 'em and moved 'em back. Can't put them in the GoT thread as it's for HBO purists only.

[boost]

Meh, I'm one of the bigger nits, and I think that's where they belong. They certainly don't belong here, and especially not without spoiler tags. The rules about book spoilers should be explicit and strict, but if common sense is used, we should be able to have discussions like this.

[wufwugy]

Those posts are fine for HBO purism.

[a500lbgorilla]

They're there now.

[Renton]

holy fuck homeland

[TeUnit]

shameless, trailer park boys, geordie shore

[wufwugy]

Homeland is one of the rare higher tier shows where the weakest link is its writing. The directing, editing, acting, just about everything else, is quite good, but the dialogue and plotting needs a pick-me-up. I'm usually the world's biggest sap for even the slightest romance, yet the Homeland one is the most dull thing I've ever seen

[d0zer]

imma go out on a limb and say that this season's dexter was fantastic, as long as we treat it like comic book shit, namean?

[rong]

Gonna watch the season finale tonight. It has good potential. Not coming back in here until I've watched it for fear if spoilers.

[wufwugy]

Why the fuck didn't I start watching Sons of Anarchy earlier? That shit is so cash it's retarded

Did I just call something cash? How very unsalad of me

[drmcboy]

Would anyone recommend watching The Shield? I knew nothing about it until 2 minutes ago when I watched a trailer. I am undecided.

yes. it is one of those shows where you end up hating everyone by the end, and there is one specific twist in season ~4 or so that is really a weak choice, but it is worth watching. First couple seasons are def the best.

[rong]

New David Attenburough series "Africa" just started in the UK. First episode was brilliant. Can't see anyone not liking it. Fighting giraffes, socializing rhinoceros and other cool stuff.

[a500lbgorilla]

Why watch a Giraffe fight when my telelvision has been inside one, I ask.



The red box x's out nearish the top left corner. Guy sucks for pulling that trick.

[Pascal]

Watched first 2.5 episodes of FlashForward last night, enjoyed

[pocketfours]

Watched first 2.5 episodes of FlashForward last night, enjoyed

Excellent. Too bad the average person is too stupid and ignorant to understand its premises about free will and determinacy.

[Renton]

I thought flashforward was cool to start and fizzled out quickly by the end. Def a case of a show getting rightly canceled. I got bored when it started setting up all these retarded puzzles for the main characters to solve.

[rong]

^^^^ agree. I liked the premise. It had such promise. It failed fast.

[pocketfours]

ff succumbed to its own impossibility

[drmcboy]

In the post lost world I am now instantly skeptical of any show based on really interesting mysteries to be revealed later, ie revolution / last resort. another strike for FF is that lead guy, he is a mess in everything he is in. Could have been awesome tho

[Pascal]

Spoiler: Show

The crows bit was so irritating. LOADS OF CROWS DIED AND IT'S ONLY EVER HAPPENED ONCE BEFORE AND JUST SO HAPPENS EVERYONE MENTIONED BLACKING OUT..."why is this relevant, I don't understand why this is relevant, what have crows got to do with this" shut the fuck up

FF spoiler from like ep3

[bikes]

SHAMELESS! returns! Sunday! FK YEAH

[drmcboy]

SHAMELESS! returns! Sunday! FK YEAH

!

also, has anyone watched enlightened?

[boost]

Just gave Homeland a chance... the pilot was ok, I will probably stick with it for the first season, then reevaluate. There was a tiny bit of cringe worthy and cliche writing, but overall it seemed salad.

[wufwugy]

Yeah I think I said earlier that Homeland does everything else better than its writing. The writing isn't awful, but it is what they could improve the most on. I'm also not a fan of the acting the way everybody else loves it, but the acting is still quite good. For example, both TWD and SoA have had crying/screaming scenes with shitty acting, but Homeland actors are still able to pull off strong emotions. I guess what I don't like is a lot of the characterizations and The Bear's beard and demeanor makes him look like Perpetual Disapproving Uncle or something

[boost]

Homeland Pilot stuff

Spoiler: Show

yeah, some of the acting is bad, but I haven't seen anything atrocious so far. The writing that bothered me was the whole scene where the mom comes home early to tell the kids. Like, everything felt so forced, and for what? Why not just have her know the boy that is smoking weed with her daughter? Her discovering that her daughter, who seems to be thirteen at most, has a boyfriend and is smoking weed right after she finds out her decade long POW husband is alive... it was just too much, and then she just is like *smiles* "kids I have something to tell you!" WTF?

[wufwugy]

They make a few really "duh" mistakes. Like Brody's wife calling him Brody. No wife calls her husband by the same name she took on when she married him

[boost]

They make a few really "duh" mistakes. Like Brody's wife calling him Brody. No wife calls her husband by the same name she took on when she married him

That's his last name? Didn't catch that... yeah, that's awful.

But she is stupid hot, so there's that.

[pocketfours]

They make a few really "duh" mistakes. Like Brody's wife calling him Brody. No wife calls her husband by the same name she took on when she married him

I'd argue that isn't true. Why do you think marriage would change how a woman calls her mate?

[wufwugy]

I'd argue that isn't true. Why do you think marriage would change how a woman calls her mate?

Because her name is Jessica Brody. His is Nick Brody. She not going to call him Brody even if she fancied it in high school. She's going to start calling him Nick long before she puts on a ring because she'll know it's weird to call your husband the same name as your own

[boost]

I'd argue that isn't true. Why do you think marriage would change how a woman calls her mate?

Yeah, people always get this one way wrong when they reverse nit. The point is not that no one has ever done this ever in the history of forever. The point is, it is fucking strange, and without setting it up-- acknowledging in the narration, dialogue, or in some way that it's a quirk of the character, it just comes across as bad writing.

[pocketfours]

Pretty hard to change how you call someone you love imo. Could be I didn't notice that anything was off because I never pay attention to character names anyway.

[boost]

Pretty hard to change how you call someone you love imo.

ugh. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing.

[Renton]

I don't think its strange for a marine. Not at all. I think u guys are way off.

[wufwugy]

When their kids are being brats and she's upset she can't ever say "go handle your kids, Brody!" the way all married couples project the flaws of their children onto the other parent because she's also "Brody" and the meaning of her projection is lost. It's for subtle reasons like this that no remotely normal wife would call him by his last name mainly

I'd be very surprised if anybody here has any counter example of a woman they know who took on her husbands last name and calls him by his last name exclusively as if it's his first


It's not strange at all for a marine's buddies to call him by his last name. It is strange, however, when the wife does it

[boost]

I don't think its strange for a marine. Not at all. I think u guys are way off.

Nope.

[Renton]

If marines is 95% of a mans life and he meets his girlfriend she's gonna call him Brody, especially if he has a bland first name like Nick. Doesn't seem like that big a stretch to me that this would continue.

[pocketfours]

Arrow somehow manages to keep me watching, what's wrong with me?

[d0zer]

jim jefferies new show "legit" is pretty good. The pilot shows potential at any rate.

Fans of sketch comedy might also enjoy the kroll show which just started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuuHEe3M1Zs

[rong]

Arrow somehow manages to keep me watching, what's wrong with me?

Watched pilot last night. It's horrific. I hated it from the opening scene onwards.

[pocketfours]

Watched pilot last night. It's horrific. I hated it from the opening scene onwards.

Must be Katie then. Pls ban me from this thread.

[BooG690]

It's pretty much a more realistic Sex & The City and I may get blasted for this but, Girls on HBO is pretty damn good.

[drmcboy]

Arrow somehow manages to keep me watching, what's wrong with me?

yeah, there is a lot about it that is terrible, but also still watching. it is the gift of CW

[boost]

yeah, there is a lot about it that is terrible, but also still watching. it is the gift of CW

I watched the pilot, and it was just absolutely awful.

[bikes]

SHAMELESS IN THE HOUSE

[boost]

**Contains MASSIVE Wire spoilers, do not click, and do not read if you have not watched the entire five seasons**

In the following thread some guy has posted up a bunch of character studies from The Wire that he lifted from a private forum. These are truly amazing. I am getting more insight from these than I have from several five season marathons, discussions with friends, participating/lurking Wire threads, reading interviews, etc. This guy could clearly write a lengthy dissertation on the show.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15...-wire-1295975/

Oh, and he has written episode recaps, s01e01-s05e05, and they will be posted up at some point. Enjoy.

[bode]

just read a few, but those write ups are great. Really liked the one on Bodie.

[d0zer]

Yeah they are...good find boost

[a500lbgorilla]

I read those on my phone all day. It really, really made me want to watch some more of the Wire.

His discription of Prop Joe was probably the most enlightening. I had never thought about Prop Joe at all other than being cool in every scene.

Bunk's was real solid as well. All of them were super solid.

[wufwugy]

the stringer bell one is goddamn poetry

[a500lbgorilla]

Nope, I lied. Marlo's is the best.

A few of these are better than watching the show itself. Just pure injections of something I want more of.

[wufwugy]

yeah im gonna watch the show again soon because of these. i knew it was deep, but not this deep

[wufwugy]

where are the others?

it's missing frank sobotka, kima, cutty, cheese, and the guy who shot cheese, and many others

[Hawk]

I started watching House of Cards on netflix yesterday. I'm three episodes in and it's really good so far.

Kevin Spacey is awesome.

[boost]

where are the others?

it's missing frank sobotka, kima, cutty, cheese, and the guy who shot cheese, and many others

I mean, this is not the guys job, he's just some poster on a private forum, and the 2p2 guy was nice enough to repost for us. Of the minor characters though, I would most like to see one on Slim Charles (the guy who shot cheese) I think.

[wufwugy]

yeah slim was an interesting cat

[drmcboy]

so far The Following has been pretty cool

[bode]

where are the others?

it's missing frank sobotka, kima, cutty, cheese, and the guy who shot cheese, and many others

sobotka would be good, but you can infer a lot about him just from reading the ziggy post. kima would be good to read also, but the others i dont think are deep enough.

i've watched the series 3 times now maybe, and season 2 is one of my favorites. maybe the most underrated season of any show all time.