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

[bigspenda73]

Just started watching Curb your enthusiasm the other day, and I'm pleasantly surprised. Larry David is just hilarious to watch, and the show is quite addictive and so different.

probably my fav show right now, been watching them all on HBO on demand

[philly and the phanatics]

yea curb is awesome...guess time to bump seinfeld, favorite comedy show of all time

[wufwugy]

Finished Breaking Bad. I fucking hate that Jesse Pinkman dicksuck

[drmcboy]

The 'pilot' for the cape, which was just the the first two eps shown back to back, was pretty cool.


Also over the holidays tried out a couple shows I had skipped that are both good

parenthood - standard family drama but well done, good cast. I was not sure I was ready for more nate from 6 feet under but it's all good

the good wife - horrible title plus it's on CBS, but it turns out to be pretty cool. fairly inventive show given it's yet another show about lawyers.


Anyone who likes TV and missed Justified should run out and watch season 1 so you can be ready for the premiere 2/9.

[rong]

Parenthood is horrible.

I didn't want to watch it, I wanted some crime thing, but she made me in spite of this, so once watching it I was determined not to enjoy it, but couldn't help it, I laughed at least once, smiled several times, felt the emotions it decided I should feel at the appropriate time, and lets face it, it's good. It looks good, the people are pretty, the locations are nice, it's paced just right, the script is good, and it's full of the kind of charachters you want to watch, and they all gel so well.

And it's perfect.

Which is why I hate it.

Becaues I've seen it all before, all of those scenes, all of those situations, done in a very similar way. It's like they have scientifically figured out how to make a tv drama. There is nothing original here. Nothing that hasn't been said and done a thousand times before. It's the gilmore girls, it's the OC, it's the wonder years, it's desperate housewives, it's some lawyer drama I can't name.

Yuck!

I think if I am made to watch the 2nd episode I may be hooked. I hope it doesn't happen.

[PapalRage]

I've recently been amused by the first couple episodes of Better Off Ted on Netflix. Not the great show ever but every episode has been entertaining.

[bigspenda73]

So I caught the Curb Your Enthusiasm 1 Hour pre-pilot on HBO the other night, great stuff. It's called a "mockumentary" following Larry around as he tries to get back on the stand-up comedy circuit. His stand-up is pretty incredible.

My favorite clip

YouTube - Larry David tú vs usted

All of the stand-ups from the show

YouTube - Curb Your Enthusiasm - Stand Up

[a500lbgorilla]

10 O'Clock Live
Peep Show
That Mitchell and Webb Look

Anything with David Mitchell in it, really.

I only within the last hour found out about 10 O'Clock Live and I can already tell that I wish we had an American Version very much.

[Smith]

I could list a lot that are awesome, and nobody probably even heard of...

Just to name British Comedies
British version The IT Crowd Seasons 1-4 (Do not watch American remake version!)
British version Coupling Seasons 1-3 Season 4 meh... (Again do not watch American remake version!)

[bikes]

I just started watching the american Shameless

hudge potential imo

[drmcboy]

shameless is awesome

lights out is OK, still watching

also liked Episodes

[profnabeshin]

I could list a lot that are awesome, and nobody probably even heard of...

Just to name British Comedies
British version The IT Crowd Seasons 1-4 (Do not watch American remake version!)
British version Coupling Seasons 1-3 Season 4 meh... (Again do not watch American remake version!)

+1

Did you know there was an Australian vs of IT Crowd? i watched one episode, not sure if it was as good

[CoccoBill]

The UK IT Crowd is gold. You might also wanna check out Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, also has Richard Ayoade in it.

[philly and the phanatics]

pretty sure trailer park boys hasnt been mentioned yet.....i dont think they still make episodes but if you download and watch the majority of your television like i do, then this is amazing.... guaranteed nonstop laughs about canadian trailer park residents who grow weed and create havoc.

[boost]

pretty sure trailer park boys hasnt been mentioned yet.....i dont think they still make episodes but if you download and watch the majority of your television like i do, then this is amazing.... guaranteed nonstop laughs about canadian trailer park residents who grow weed and create havoc.

I that its pretty hit or miss, sort of like king of the hill. But maybe both these shows are just very mood dependent. The style of humor in both is almost devoid of punchlines.. sure there are some, but for the most part the majority of the funny seems to come from elsewhere.

[philly and the phanatics]

yea i can see some similarities between KOTH and TPB (although king of the hill is a lot more tame in comparison to TPB) mostly because both shows are sort of dry humor....also the older KOTH is the best imo whereas its not until season 3 and onward that i think TPB is at its best.

[boost]

yea i can see some similarities between KOTH and TPB (although king of the hill is a lot more tame in comparison to TPB) mostly because both shows are sort of dry humor....also the older KOTH is the best imo whereas its not until season 3 and onward that i think TPB is at its best.

I'm in season two of TPB right now, so I guess I will keep watching through 3 and reevaluate.

[supa]

Just finished the first season of Heroes. I really liked the first few episodes but thought it ran flat after that. Anybody know if the other seasons are even worth watching?

[vaks]

Archer is the shit

[drmcboy]

Just finished the first season of Heroes. I really liked the first few episodes but thought it ran flat after that. Anybody know if the other seasons are even worth watching?

I quit somewhere in season 2, then found some on the downstairs TiVo after quitting, still hated it.

[bigspenda73]

Game of Thrones on HBO

if you're not watching it, you're stupid

[boost]

Game of Thrones on HBO

if you're not watching it, you're stupid

The first ep was super salad.. the second ep felt a little jumbled, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I have high hopes.

[wesrman]

Trailer Park Boys was good for a season or two, but it gets repetitive after that imo.

New season of Curb is coming up! Cant wait!

[philly and the phanatics]

lol and curb doesnt get repetitive? oh i wonder if larrys going to conform to whats socially expected of him this week? (not that i dont love curb, its a great show and im not trying to get into an argument about whether TBP is better than Curb because i love larry david and seinfeld is my favorite sitcom ever)


will check out game of thrones tonight or tomorrow trailer looks like its got some potential...i thought it said game of thorns for so long i was like wtf thats gay

[wufwugy]

Just watched first ep of Game of Thrones, no subtitles so that's a problem, but whatever, I've dealt with that shit before.

It's extremely good. Some problems with too much emphasis on production values and too little on writing, but that problem is only very small, and I'm betting the writing smooths out well as it progresses. Very much hope they bring in more mysticism with a mind to Carnivale. Something like LOTR meets Carnivale meets Rome meets something new would be awesome opossum

[boost]

Just watched first ep of Game of Thrones, no subtitles so that's a problem, but whatever, I've dealt with that shit before.

It's extremely good. Some problems with too much emphasis on production values and too little on writing, but that problem is only very small, and I'm betting the writing smooths out well as it progresses. Very much hope they bring in more mysticism with a mind to Carnivale. Something like LOTR meets Carnivale meets Rome meets something new would be awesome opossum

I'm really enjoying it as well. I have not gotten to last sundays ep yet, but hopefully I will on thursday. As far as mysticism I really hope they keep it pretty limited... I don't want to see wizards casting ice bolts and whatnot. If not much more fantastical happens than the White Walkers and the alluding to there having once been dragons, I will be plenty happy.

[bigred]

I need to check this series out. Maybe I'll download them on my iphone for my long flight on Friday

[BennyLaRue]

Hey, stop trip-name-dropping.

[wufwugy]

I'm really enjoying it as well. I have not gotten to last sundays ep yet, but hopefully I will on thursday. As far as mysticism I really hope they keep it pretty limited... I don't want to see wizards casting ice bolts and whatnot. If not much more fantastical happens than the White Walkers and the alluding to there having once been dragons, I will be plenty happy.

Apparently, it's based on a novel series that was only pseudo-fantasy. I'm guessing the fantasy is mainly for milieu purposes, which is a good thing. I really hope they don't make the same mistake with things like the White Walkers that Firefly did with Reavers, i.e. kill that element and mystery of the story

When I say "mysticism", I mean HBO mysticism. They won't do stupid shit like obtuse magic, they make subtle and unique fantasy elements to drive or influence a highly creative story/world. You gotta watch Carnivale. Mysticism at its finest, and I consider it the greatest story for a reason. It would be greatest show ever, but it wasn't fully finished, and I have several different shows tied for the top spot anyways

[bigred]

Sounds like I need to check out Carnivale then...ON MY TRIP AMIRITE BENNY?

[wufwugy]

Keep in mind that Carnivale takes quite a while to kick off. It's like a thousand page novel where each season is subsequent 200 pages. You don't even know what the story really is about until deep into the first season. It was scheduled for five seasons, but cancelled before the third, because all things great are cancelled. The ending they did was still very good though

[BennyLaRue]

Sounds like I need to check out Carnivale then...ON MY TRIP AMIRITE BENNY?

YOUSUNOVABITCH!

[a500lbgorilla]

Community.



You really should be watching it. The last episode was hilarious in ways hilarious doesn't usually happen.

[bigred]

I like community a lot. Donald Glover is awesome.

[lolzzz_321]

I too enjoy this show. I wanna bang Annie.

[wufwugy]

Finished ep two of Game of Thrones. 100% guarantee this is going to be my favorite show. Shit is fucking awesome. Much better than expected. But that's HBO, they always surpass previous bests

I love the dwarf. Guy is an excellent actor. Check out the movie Station Agent. It doesn't sound like much, but it's great and you'll like Peter Dinklage after it. My hearing impairment has me miss so many bits of dialogue, but curiously I don't miss anything he says. Perhaps because he's a dwarf he had to learn how to correctly project his voice and enunciate his words in order to be noticed or something. Next time you watch it, listen to him speak. He's much, much better at it than every other actor in the show. I guess that's something I particularly appreciate given my trouble catching words

[wufwugy]

Also, I loathe nearly every sex scene in cinema. Being the world's premiere film critic (ldo), I can't help but acknowledge the uselessness, banality, and insult to my senses of sex scenes. They never have purpose, they're just there to make people think about naked bodies and that the characters are spiffy cool.

That said, the sex scene in ep two of GoT was excellent. Because it wasn't a sex scene, it was a character scene that used sex as a tool to tell a greater, deeper story

Only other sex scene I ever recall liking was in Enemy at the Gates because it was raw, blemished, as real as it gets, and soberingly not hot. I'm guessing the sex (rape) scene in Irreversible is also excellent, but I won't watch that

[Galapogos]

Also, I loathe nearly every sex scene in cinema. Being the world's premiere film critic (ldo), I can't help but acknowledge the uselessness, banality, and insult to my senses of sex scenes. They never have purpose, they're just there to make people think about naked bodies and that the characters are spiffy cool.

That said, the sex scene in ep two of GoT was excellent. Because it wasn't a sex scene, it was a character scene that used sex as a tool to tell a greater, deeper story

Did she have big titties though?

[wufwugy]

i literalold

[philly and the phanatics]

i dont even remember a sex scene in enemy at the gates....that was the sniper movie right?...i liked it, it was a pretty badass movie

[BennyLaRue]

i dont even remember a sex scene in enemy at the gates....that was the sniper movie right?...i liked it, it was a pretty badass movie

They were all dirty, sleeping in a basement with a bunch of ppl including kids.

IRL, that would have been one stinky clam.

[KoRnholio]

They were all dirty, sleeping in a basement with a bunch of ppl including kids.

IRL, that would have been one stinky clam.

That's why there was no foreplay, duh!

I've been watching that poker series "Tilt". Not bad so far.

[philly and the phanatics]

just watched first 2 eps of game of thrones.....+1!!!! show is legit

[lolzzz_321]

That's why there was no foreplay, duh!

I've been watching that poker series "Tilt". Not bad so far.

sick level

[boost]

was kinda disappointed with ep4 of GoT.. I mean the ending was pretty awesome, but overall the episode felt jumbled and the dialog was really meh.

[philly and the phanatics]

*****possible Game of Thrones spoiler alert (dont really think they are spoilers but some might get butthurt)****



yea ending was obv awesome, ep was meh....fat guy was pretty lame addition to the show. Anything the midget and the king say is always going to be gold, and i agree outside of them the ep was somewhat lacking....although the jousting scene was cool.

i was more disappointed with ep 3, and the appearance of Carcetti from The Wire rofl, i fucking hated that guy on the wire, and now hearing him trying to pull off some corny accent while grinning the whole time drives me beserk rofl...

[lolzzz_321]

yes i indeed rofled at carcetti and boromir from LOTR

[boost]

**GOT SPOILERS LDO**

Who is boromir? I kinda like carcetti in the wire.. not my fav character ldo, but he was good for the roll. In GoT I can understand the hate, and I do think they could have cast the roll better, but I'm fine with it. I'm a bit confused what he meant to accomplish by telling her that story... but it was a cool scene for sure.

I thought the fat guy was fine. I think it is a great vehicle for expressing how dilapidated the Night's Watch is. That being said, that micro story arc was almost directly lifted from Full Metal Jacket. Just it had way less depth since Jon Snow remains an altruistic good guy, while Private Joker gives in to the group and swings his soap bar filled sock.

What I did really dislike was the dialog. It was so inconsistent. Arya's scene with her dad was just so meh. "That's not me" is such a contemporary phrase imo, and made what could have been a fine scene, a complete dud.

[wufwugy]

spoilers

Not really noticing the problems you guys are. Every episode has been wonderful

The addition of Sam (fat guy) is probably actually very good. He probably plays an important role that focuses more on human condition sort of stuff, which is actually pretty common in novels. Expect him to do things like struggle with his fears, yet overcome then when it's most needed of him. That would be the standard way to write him, which is excellent, but if R.R. Martin is a true expert, he would be capable of deviating from standard, but I'm getting the impression that he didn't write the novels with a mind to non-standard storylines and characters. Most great writers/directors/artists are not capable of that. For examples, directors like Spielberg and Cameron are amazing, yet they're not capable of deviating too far from normal storytelling the way that guys like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Kar Wai Wong are

Not the biggest fan of casting Carcetti unless he can capture the weaselliness of himself. But it is what it is. I love the Boromir casting. That guy's always cool

I'm pretty much in love with Daenerys now. She is such a great character. A kind-hearted, innocent girl who gets raped by her husband, but learns to love him, and learns what it means to be queen. There is sooooo much they can do with her, far beyond what you get with most characters. Not to mention that every man's dream is to fuck her till she loves him obv

[boost]

Ya, I mean, I pretty much agree with what you've said.. but come on, the dialog has been pretty choppy at times. It feels like they take the effort to use antiquated sentence structures here and there... but completely ignore this trend they have set for entire scenes.

[drmcboy]

happy endings on ABC is pretty funny. They even had Jack's daughter from 24 make fun of the plot where she got chased by a mountain lion

[wufwugy]

Ya, I mean, I pretty much agree with what you've said.. but come on, the dialog has been pretty choppy at times. It feels like they take the effort to use antiquated sentence structures here and there... but completely ignore this trend they have set for entire scenes.

That is true. It has definitely got a breed of choppiness to it. Thing is, I'm not sure how much of a problem that is. It is possible to pull off a sort of mincing of prose styles. They're not doing it perfectly, but also not horribly.

I'm an insane dialogue hawk, but there's only so much I can say about this show's dialogue because the torrents I'm getting dont have CC so I'm missing about 1/3rd of the words. One thing I do know for sure is that the dialogue is 100x better than Battlestar Galactica. It's also better than the original Star Wars which didn't kill that trilogy

Like I said, dialogue is one of the things I pay the most attention to due to being born with a hearing impairment and how that disability has actually enhanced my minds focus on audio things because I have to pay more attention to it in order to get by, but I can't say too much about GoT dialogue due to no CC. So you may be absolutely right. The second episode smoothed out a lot of the dialogue that was disjointed in the first ep, and I haven't found reason to complain since. But I'll give it a strong look over in the next ep

I'm repeating myself (as usual), but your analysis is right, and I noticed it myself, but I'm not sure how much of a problem it really is. It is possible to mix and match antiquated and conventional dialogue. But it has to be done right, which I'm not sure if they're doing

[lolzzz_321]

Yes, boromir (sean bean) is obv good as a medieval dude.

Maybe it's because we know him as Carcetti and we think he doesn't fit this role. IDK though just something is werid. Carcetti in GoT reminds me of Ellen Page in Incpetion - you guys couldn't find anyone else?

[wufwugy]

Carcetti typecast will be tough for him to throw off, but it's doable. It's primarily an audience bias problem, but not exclusively, and great acting/writing/directing can overcome it. I think it's best to wait and see. I think it's something HBO knows how to defeat, and I expect the character to mold into non-Carcettiness just fine. It'll just take time. For example, I felt the scene where he told the story about The Hound was his first bit of non-Carcettiness

[wufwugy]

Another thing about typecast: they're typecast until they're not. It's one of those things where you just gotta give it time and you'll start seeing a different character than the typecast. Overall, policy used by networks like HBO where they reuse a lot of actors is good stuff because it helps eliminate typecast

[a500lbgorilla]

I love the Wire and had to google Carcetti to remind myself who you were talking about.

Guy is not typecast for me.

And Ellen Paige was good in Inception. Who else do you imagine in that role?

[lolzzz_321]

Jena Malone

[boost]

Jena Malone

nothx,ellenpageftw,gg

[boost]

And ya, I think he will fill in the role just fine. For like the first half of s01 of Treme I kept being weirded out by Bunk being a busto semi-deadbeat musician father... but now all I see is Antoine Baptiste.

[boost]

wow, what a sick episode... has me frothing at the mouth for more.. That was definitely one of the better hours of TV I've seen.

[boost]

btw

Game Of Thrones (Alert's 70s Metalstep Rmx) by Alertâ„¢ on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[philly and the phanatics]

def really sick episode, time for its own thread IMO, who wants to do the honors?

[boost]

def really sick episode, time for its own thread IMO, who wants to do the honors?

hmm, I was pondering this myself.. I generally just go to OOTV to discuss/read indepth stuff about shows. Not sure if we'll have enough contributors to warrant a standalone GoT thread. But if enough people would be interested, I'd be down to discuss it here, theres a lot of retardation that comes with the higher traffic on 2p2.

[a500lbgorilla]

Well, if you don't want to go to the extreme step of opening up a new thread, you could bump and re-purpose an old thread. It's not as if thread titles are a very good measure of what the thread's about around here.

[boost]

Rilla, are you watching?

[a500lbgorilla]

Yeah, show has been beyond excellent. I dunno what we'd discuss about it though, but I simply assume that's because I just haven't noticed anything. Even the things that are probably weaknesses in it like possible typecasting or the girl's break from using period language just pass right by me.

[BennyLaRue]

I've noticed that the personal grooming is not as per the period.

[oskar]

Last Chance To See

Stephen Fry follows the tracks of Douglas Adams from the book by the same name.
Here's some parrot porn to get you started: YouTube - ‪Shagged by a rare parrot - Last Chance To See - BBC Two‬‏

[boost]

ya, I think if GoT fans just use spoiler tags each week in this thread it will be fine. There are less than 10 posts per week about the show, and I don't think we have many (any) hardcore TV nits that watch each episode 5 times while taking notes. While these people are pretty lame, they are kinda essential to a show thread imo. And its kinda why show threads on higher traffic forums that get plenty of these nits are good, and at the same time so bad...

[wufwugy]

boots, show me a forum that does what you say about GoT. I don't think I've ever read a show thread

[oskar]

I don't even know what GoT stands for. Is that bad?

[philly and the phanatics]

yea because the answer is in this thread like 100 times you n00b

[boost]

boots, show me a forum that does what you say about GoT. I don't think I've ever read a show thread

OOTV (OOT subforum ldo) has two high traffic GoT threads. One for people who have read the book and one for people who have not. There are several people who nit pick everything, and while it can be annoying, its also nice because I rarely ever rewatch and episode, so I tend to miss things here and there.

[philly and the phanatics]

well i think we should have GoT thread just because then people coming in here to hear about new shows dont have to scroll through pages ruining the shows that were just recommended.

That being said, has anybody watched "the killing" or w/e on AMC....i might watch the first ep, going to go on a limb and assume the least likely person after the first episode is the actual killer ldo

[drmcboy]

the Killing is slow in the traditional AMC style (although not as slow as rubicon!) but I like it a lot.