2014 RANDOM TV THOUGHTS

[doubtingELDANDY]

I hate this show Ink Master. This one contest has them picking a tattoo that their rival has to do. So of course they are picking something they aren't good at. Intentionally giving people bad tattoos essentially. I don't see how the participants can come out of it looking well. I'll have to skim through some older seasons to see. They anti-specialization attitude is ridiculous as well. Looking at the last season they had a lot of specialists as judges. Will just have to check out those episodes see if they keep that attitude.

The older seasons are more tolerable. Unfourtanately the show has turned into casting people who will yell and cause drama.

[Larry Rydell]

The first 15-minutes of the pilot for Karen Gillan's Selfie are horrible, but then it finally picks up.  I see from ads for the series itself, they've already changed her wig to match her more natural red hair color.

[The Comedian]

Bojack Horseman just absolutely blew me the fuck away.

 

It's getting mixed reviews apparently, with the negative stuff apparently from people who expected it to be a comedy because its a cartoon. It's really more like Rescue Me or Orange Is The New Black; the jokes are there to buffer the dark dark shit underneath. Personally, I'm a poignancy junkie; heroic sacrifice, unrequited love, shit like that is what I'm into. It's why I love Replacements songs, old John Woo flicks, and slice-of-life anime. So I'm into shit like this. Actually the Rescue Me comparison is pretty apt, since Bojack is kind of like a more droll, less histrionic version of Tommy Gavin. There's good inside him, but it's buried by years of self-loathing, self-destructive assholery that's it's trying to crawl out from under.

 

Anyway fantastic show if you like that sort of thing...

[Spritenaut 32]

The first 15-minutes of the pilot for Karen Gillan's Selfie are horrible, but then it finally picks up.  I see from ads for the series itself, they've already changed her wig to match her more natural red hair color.

 

Yeah, I hated the pilot.  Not sure I'll give it another look when it properly premieres later this month/

[Reed]

Gillan's American accent may be worse than David Tennant's...which I didn't think was even possible. It is like her dialogue coach's advice consisted entirely  of making her watch Clueless over and over again.

 

Oh, and the REAL television event of 2014 is coming:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgDz0s7xw8A

 

A trailer and a few clips in, and I already hate this grandmother more than Walter White or Vic Mackey at their most villainous.

[Tabe]

I could see that Jane show working as a movie. Maybe. As a TV show? No way.

[Reed]

I think even as a movie...it's just too out there.

 

OK, so maybe you can get past the whole "accidental artificial insemination" thing, but then you throw in 1) she's a virgin 2) the father of her child is her boss who she has romantic feelings for 3) He had cancer so this is his ONLY chance to have a child, dun-dun-dun! 4) she has the nicest, most easy going boyfriend in the history of the whole world. Oh, and the doctor who accidentally artificially inseminated her is also the boss' sister.

 

I'm sure it works fine in Mexico as a convoluted soap opera for bored housewives, but this is a prime time drama/comedy in a fairly prominent US network. You have to have at least a thread of credibility. 

[piranesi]

The law of internet message board predictions says this is going to be a huge hit, despite early reports of a woeful 6.92 on the Tabedoza meter.

[Reed]

I could see this becoming the TV version of Sharknado it its first season. Just so cheesy it ends up as a cult thing and a big hit.

 

Oh, and for the next season she can go into labor...only for a sharknado to hit. The crossover potential will be huge.

[odessasteps]

I think even as a movie...it's just too out there.

 

OK, so maybe you can get past the whole "accidental artificial insemination" thing, but then you throw in 1) she's a virgin 2) the father of her child is her boss who she has romantic feelings for 3) He had cancer so this is his ONLY chance to have a child, dun-dun-dun! 4) she has the nicest, most easy going boyfriend in the history of the whole world. Oh, and the doctor who accidentally artificially inseminated her is also the boss' sister.

 

I'm sure it works fine in Mexico as a convoluted soap opera for bored housewives, but this is a prime time drama/comedy in a fairly prominent US network. You have to have at least a thread of credibility.

How long was Ugly Betty on the air? Couple seasons?

[Reed]

Ugly Betty didn't have that far fetched a premise did it? Apart from the fact Betty wasn't really ugly. Yeah, it got ridiculous as time went on but it wasn't batshit insane from the get go.

[piranesi]

Ugly Betty didn't have that far fetched a premise did it? Apart from the fact Betty wasn't really ugly. Yeah, it got ridiculous as time went on but it wasn't batshit insane from the get go.

 

Yeah but that was almost ten years ago.  I don't know if you've noticed but our general cultural trend hasn't been to hold the line, sanity-wise.

 

I see this show becoming a darling of old ladies with an ironic weekly recap on Jezebel that turns it into a little sensation for about 12 hot weeks before it fades away.

[Reed]

Speaking of questionable TV, with NCIS: New Orleans about to start, as well as NCIS and NCIS: LA and the NCIS: Red pilot they did last year that didn't get picked up, just how much crime does CBS think goes on in the naval forces? Are the navy recruiting from the NFL or what?

 

It seems like a very limited subject to get so much television from.

[Brian Fowler]

I think Ugly Betty somehow got 4 seasons, fwiw.

 

Also...  I honestly did not know that NCIS had anything to do with the Navy.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a full minute of an episode.

[Spritenaut 32]

NCIS: LA barely has anything to do with the Navy.  The show revolves more around terrorism plots and trips abroad.  NCIS cases are mostly crimes involving seamen in some capacity.  NCIS stands for Naval. Criminal Investigation Service, iirc.  Plot-wise, NCIS is somewhat rooted in reality.  NCIS: LA - which has a wing of the naval investigation service investigating international terrorism that is only tenuously connected to Navy interests - is mostly ridiculous.  The original premise - a navy deep cover unit - was equally absurd (they jettisoned that premise after the backdoor pilot.  The unit had a different core mission when the first episode of the series aired).

 

I haven't liked the spinoffs, but most seasons of NCIS have been watchable.  I wouldn't defend it too highly as quality tv, but I tend to enjoy it.

[piranesi]

Thanks to RAW on DVR I've seen the last 30 seconds of every single NCIS episode and not a single other part or any of them. 

 

Based on what I've seen it's a show about a very close knit group of people who work in a kind of library/administration office, who are easily shaken up, and who spend most of their work day just thinkin' things over and cheering each other up.

[odessasteps]

Crimes in the navy are probably mostly SHARP related, one reason JT and I have to take so much harassment training.

[Reed]

Thanks to RAW on DVR I've seen the last 30 seconds of every single NCIS episode and not a single other part or any of them. 

 

Based on what I've seen it's a show about a very close knit group of people who work in a kind of library/administration office, who are easily shaken up, and who spend most of their work day just thinkin' things over and cheering each other up.

 

Based on the fleeting clips I've seen, NCIS: LA seems to be 90% Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J jumping away from explosions.

[Travis Sheldon]

The wife and I just finished up Mrs Brown's Boys and are nearing the end of Vicious. Both series are great, BTW.

Been slowly taking in the 8th series of Trailer Park Boys. Even though I know that series 9 is here in Spring, I am trying to take them slowly and enjoy them like a fine bottle of Swish.

The Goldbergs will be starting in a couple of weeks, so I'm getting pumped for that.

[Matt D]

It's always bugged me that I could never figure out why I wasn't into Boy Meets World when I was the key age demo (Born in 81) and so many of my peers online had (and hey, a few years earlier I'd been really into TGIF). I don't think I've ever even seen an episode despite seeing every episode of Saved by the Bell 6 times and Wonder Years at least 2-3. I had thought for years it just wasn't a big thing at my school for my grade since all the kids a year below me were into it, so it was seen with scorn by my class in Jr. High, but now I think the answer might be that in the Boston area, in 1993, they launched Time Trax and Kung Fu the Legend Continues on Friday night and that became my favorite thing. 

 

But I could be wrong.

[HumanChessgame]

I don't think I've seen an episode of any TGIF show (wait...was Family Matters one?  I used to watch syndicated eps of that sometimes), mainly because Friday nights in the early 90s were Brisco County Jr and The X Files for me.

[Technico Support]

NCIS: LA barely has anything to do with the Navy.  The show revolves more around terrorism plots and trips abroad.  NCIS cases are mostly crimes involving seamen in some capacity.

 

I thought Law & Order: SVU was the one that covered crimes involving seamen?

[J.T.]

NCIS is a police procedural?  I thought those mother fuckers were spies.  I haven't seen any civillian in any branch of service allowed to dress in the manner that Abby Sciuto does, and the dress code is pretty relaxed amongst Info Tech Specialists like myself.

[Reed]

NCIS is a police procedural?  I thought those mother fuckers were spies.  I haven't seen any civillian in any branch of service allowed to dress in the manner that Abby Sciuto does, and the dress code is pretty relaxed amongst Info Tech Specialists like myself.

 

From what I've seen they really stretch what these guys do. Like one week they'll be investigating your run of the mill Navy murder/crime, next week they'll be in Iraq fighting terrorists or Gibb will be taking on Mexican drug lords.

[Spritenaut 32]

 

NCIS is a police procedural?  I thought those mother fuckers were spies.  I haven't seen any civillian in any branch of service allowed to dress in the manner that Abby Sciuto does, and the dress code is pretty relaxed amongst Info Tech Specialists like myself.

 

From what I've seen they really stretch what these guys do. Like one week they'll be investigating your run of the mill Navy murder/crime, next week they'll be in Iraq fighting terrorists or Gibb will be taking on Mexican drug lords.

 

 

Yeah, NCIS is pretty grounded in run-of-the-mill murder cases, but they spend a lot of time fighting spies, terrorists, going overseas, etc.  Stuff that should be way out of their jurisdiction.  Best I can recall, the early years were mostly cases that would be their jurisdiction, and the later years got more heavy into espionage and terrorism, as well as the turgid drug cartel stuff.  I blame that on lazy writing, mostly, though they sort of had a reason to get involved in spy stuff when they brought Cote de Pablo's character in (in the show, her father was the head of Mossad).