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Aug. 28th, 2012 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljGosh, again no posting over a weekend. I don't often do a whole lot other than maybe get out to the grocery store or hang out with mom so there's not a lot to write about. I did finally get my curtains up this weekend and they look nice though mom pointed out that, in the photo i posted on FB, one side seems fuller than the other. Not sure if it's because one side is pushed open further or if one set is actually not as wide as the other set. I don't have the packages anymore to check. I'm going to measure them and if one set is indeed narrower, i'll have to rehang them so that i have one wide and one short panel on each side of the center. They'll balance out that way. Doh. It could just be an optical illusion.
True Blood finished the season this weekend. and HOLY CLIFFHANGER, BATMAN! That's all i'll say in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. If you don't watch it, it won't make any difference what it is anyway but if you watch and have seen it, add comments! G. and I are both gobsmacked. He's the one that persuaded me into watching the show in the first place a couple of years ago. I caught up on the first season or two that were already out at the time and now record it when each season is on.
As one show ends, another starts. Doctor Who begins on the weekend! Yay! They're showing half a season in the fall, a Christmas special, and then the rest of the season in the spring which celebrates the show's 50th anniversary but to me, it's only techincally the 50th, as there was a great gap of 15 years that it wasn't on until it was revived in 2005. It hasn't aired *continually* for 50 years like Coronation Street has, for instance ;)
Dexter starts the end of September so those two will hold me for awhile. Then Game of Thrones will start up in the spring, I think. The problem with these premium cable series is they they're only 12 episodes for a season and it's such a long wait for the next one!
The fall network television season will soon be on us, where all the American networks start their seasons, new and returning shows although Grimm has already aired two new episodes. I picked that one up last year and Once Upon a Time (i think that's what it was called) which i sort of liked and sort of didn't but kept it up to the end. Not sure if i'll go back to it. I also got hooked on Fringe which was recommended to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
girfan I think so i downloaded the earlier seasons to catch up. I'll be looking for that to come back too.
I don't watch a lot of network evening shows these days, sticking with the HBO and paytv series, and things like Doctor Who which is airing on Space, and movies of course. Sometimes i may try a couple of different shows and often the first season is good but then it just loses the plot. Glee was like that. I liked it particularly for the Sue character, the cheerleader teacher who was so mean and sarcastic and was just brilliant but they cut her part back after the first season and put way more musical numbers in and i didn't like it as well.
I might have a look at what is new coming out this fall and see if anything grabs me. The only comedy I've been watching is Big Bang Theory. Comedies tend to all run together for me. Every few years a really brilliant one starts up like BBT and it runs for quite awhile but after awhile, it kind of fizzles out. Great comedies of the past were Frasier, Cheers, Third Rock from the Sun and yes, even Friends and Seinfeld. They all had good characters and a good ensemble cast. I never got into Two and a half men though i've seen a few eps and it wasn't bad. Now that the half man is nearly a full man, though, and Charlie Sheen is off having his midlife crisis, it's not going to interest me much. I really never liked comedies with smart ass kids in them who ran the parents in circles. Which is why i used to like Roseanne. Those kids were snotty but the parents were always one step ahead of them. Oh and Will and Grace was also a really good series. One drama series recently ended that i really did enjoy was Brothers and Sisters. soapy, yes, but i liked all the characters on it. It was a good ensemble cast, i thought.
I also like British tv and between what i already like and new series that people tell me about, I can usually get my fix downloading that. Often, those series are even shorter, with just 6 or 8 episodes. Scott and Bailey is a good female-cop-detective series that's going to come back for a third season. Sometimes in Canada, Showcase will carry some of these shows a couple of years after they're on in the UK. They did that with Life on Mars which i caught a couple of times, enough to be interested to download it all. Another good series is Being Human which is about a werewolf, vampire and ghost living together. It's a bit violent and brutal but quite good. They've changed over all the characters now though, so i'm not quite sure i'll like it as much next season. We'll see.
What you also don't want is an American attempt at remaking a successful British series. It rarely works as well. I did hear that the cable series Queer as Folk ran quite awhile but I tried watching the early episodes and it just didn't quite have that edge that the original British series had. There was an American remake of Being Human too but again, that was a bit flat. They seem to want to cast the shows with beautiful magazine cover model types for one thing, and i don't know why, but even using an almost identical script, things like humour just doesn't seem to work the same way. Perhaps the way the acting styles are makes the difference. The American remake of Life on Mars started off terrible using the similar storylines but once they started on their own original stories, it wasn't too bad though mostly the casting really wasn't that good. Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt would have been a great choice 20 years ago. Unfortunately it was cancelled though they were allowed to wrap things up and finish the season. Unfortunate because they ending they chose to write was really stupid.
Canadian television has not really done much for me at all. Some of the political humour shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer are both good. I've tried Republic of Doyle and it's ok. It's a generic detective series filmed in St. John's, Newfoundland and there are some quirky characters in it. Most new seasons of Canadian series don't start until January. I think too if you don't start watching a series from the start, often you just don't end up "getting it", starting after a season or two into it.
American network tv drama is also on the bland side when you compare it with the cable series that aren't restricted by language or nudity and can be more graphic (i.e. bloody vampire violence) and when you get used to that sort of thing, it's hard to go back unless it's top quality, not just a copy of something else that's already on.
True Blood finished the season this weekend. and HOLY CLIFFHANGER, BATMAN! That's all i'll say in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. If you don't watch it, it won't make any difference what it is anyway but if you watch and have seen it, add comments! G. and I are both gobsmacked. He's the one that persuaded me into watching the show in the first place a couple of years ago. I caught up on the first season or two that were already out at the time and now record it when each season is on.
As one show ends, another starts. Doctor Who begins on the weekend! Yay! They're showing half a season in the fall, a Christmas special, and then the rest of the season in the spring which celebrates the show's 50th anniversary but to me, it's only techincally the 50th, as there was a great gap of 15 years that it wasn't on until it was revived in 2005. It hasn't aired *continually* for 50 years like Coronation Street has, for instance ;)
Dexter starts the end of September so those two will hold me for awhile. Then Game of Thrones will start up in the spring, I think. The problem with these premium cable series is they they're only 12 episodes for a season and it's such a long wait for the next one!
The fall network television season will soon be on us, where all the American networks start their seasons, new and returning shows although Grimm has already aired two new episodes. I picked that one up last year and Once Upon a Time (i think that's what it was called) which i sort of liked and sort of didn't but kept it up to the end. Not sure if i'll go back to it. I also got hooked on Fringe which was recommended to me by
girfan I think so i downloaded the earlier seasons to catch up. I'll be looking for that to come back too. I don't watch a lot of network evening shows these days, sticking with the HBO and paytv series, and things like Doctor Who which is airing on Space, and movies of course. Sometimes i may try a couple of different shows and often the first season is good but then it just loses the plot. Glee was like that. I liked it particularly for the Sue character, the cheerleader teacher who was so mean and sarcastic and was just brilliant but they cut her part back after the first season and put way more musical numbers in and i didn't like it as well.
I might have a look at what is new coming out this fall and see if anything grabs me. The only comedy I've been watching is Big Bang Theory. Comedies tend to all run together for me. Every few years a really brilliant one starts up like BBT and it runs for quite awhile but after awhile, it kind of fizzles out. Great comedies of the past were Frasier, Cheers, Third Rock from the Sun and yes, even Friends and Seinfeld. They all had good characters and a good ensemble cast. I never got into Two and a half men though i've seen a few eps and it wasn't bad. Now that the half man is nearly a full man, though, and Charlie Sheen is off having his midlife crisis, it's not going to interest me much. I really never liked comedies with smart ass kids in them who ran the parents in circles. Which is why i used to like Roseanne. Those kids were snotty but the parents were always one step ahead of them. Oh and Will and Grace was also a really good series. One drama series recently ended that i really did enjoy was Brothers and Sisters. soapy, yes, but i liked all the characters on it. It was a good ensemble cast, i thought.
I also like British tv and between what i already like and new series that people tell me about, I can usually get my fix downloading that. Often, those series are even shorter, with just 6 or 8 episodes. Scott and Bailey is a good female-cop-detective series that's going to come back for a third season. Sometimes in Canada, Showcase will carry some of these shows a couple of years after they're on in the UK. They did that with Life on Mars which i caught a couple of times, enough to be interested to download it all. Another good series is Being Human which is about a werewolf, vampire and ghost living together. It's a bit violent and brutal but quite good. They've changed over all the characters now though, so i'm not quite sure i'll like it as much next season. We'll see.
What you also don't want is an American attempt at remaking a successful British series. It rarely works as well. I did hear that the cable series Queer as Folk ran quite awhile but I tried watching the early episodes and it just didn't quite have that edge that the original British series had. There was an American remake of Being Human too but again, that was a bit flat. They seem to want to cast the shows with beautiful magazine cover model types for one thing, and i don't know why, but even using an almost identical script, things like humour just doesn't seem to work the same way. Perhaps the way the acting styles are makes the difference. The American remake of Life on Mars started off terrible using the similar storylines but once they started on their own original stories, it wasn't too bad though mostly the casting really wasn't that good. Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt would have been a great choice 20 years ago. Unfortunately it was cancelled though they were allowed to wrap things up and finish the season. Unfortunate because they ending they chose to write was really stupid.
Canadian television has not really done much for me at all. Some of the political humour shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer are both good. I've tried Republic of Doyle and it's ok. It's a generic detective series filmed in St. John's, Newfoundland and there are some quirky characters in it. Most new seasons of Canadian series don't start until January. I think too if you don't start watching a series from the start, often you just don't end up "getting it", starting after a season or two into it.
American network tv drama is also on the bland side when you compare it with the cable series that aren't restricted by language or nudity and can be more graphic (i.e. bloody vampire violence) and when you get used to that sort of thing, it's hard to go back unless it's top quality, not just a copy of something else that's already on.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-28 02:14 pm (UTC)Actually, there's a reasonable track record on making a success of this, at least in sitcoms - Three's Company from Man About the House, All In The Family from Till Death Do Us Part, Sandford and Son from Steptoe and Son. Most recently, of course, there's The Office. I don't know of it working in drama, though.
I am amused by Matthew Graham's comment on the US Life on Mars - "It beggars belief". This is from a man, let's not forget, who co-created Bonekickers!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-28 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-28 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 07:49 am (UTC)Interested to learn from @girfan that Fringe has, or is about to, complete 5 series (I don't do much Internet research on TV shows - even ones I like!). We have the boxed set of the first 3 series and had assumed it finished at that. Will be on the lookout for Series #4 and #5 from now on!!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 09:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 01:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 08:22 pm (UTC)