Random TV Thoughts

[Tabe]

Ya know, sometimes ya just gotta touch that hot stove no matter how many times everybody else tells you it's hot.

[piranesi]

But you realizes that you will be touching it like 36 more times, right?

[Tabe]

But you realizes that you will be touching it like 36 more times, right?

I'm a Detroit Lions fan.  Does that not explain everything?

[Ryan]

You live on the stove in question? Tabe's favorite show is Ax Men, so it'll work out.

[Greggulator]

I'm in Season 5 of FNL. I think it's my favorite show of all-time and the best of the "Golden Age" of TV that we've lived in. (Mind you, I haven't seen Breaking Bad.)

 

The reason is simple -- The characters are good people. There are no anti-heroes. We've had some great anti-heroes (Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Jimmy McNulty and I'm assuming the Breaking Bad guy) but there aren't any true heroes. FNL doesn't have anyone close to an anti-hero. Coach and Tami? They're great people in a loving and inspirational marriage who are faced with a slew of challenges. Saracen? Julie? Street? Tyra? Landry? All good kids becoming adults, often times in difficult situations and messing up along the way. Even though Riggins is the bad boy, he's not an anti-hero -- he's just the hot dude who drinks and loafs his way through life but finds out what it means to be a man.

Having characters who try and find and execute the right thing is a lot harder than creating a charismatic bad guy.

In addition, the most affecting moments of FNL (SPOILERS PROBABLY SO DON'T READ FURTHER) are so completely earned and beautiful. I mean, it was awesome when Stringer finally got got. But the death of a cool villain is easier to pull off than it is to write a high school kid getting into college. The villain's death may be epic. But Tyra getting into school was earned.

Also, there was an article on Grantland or somewhere on how they filmed the show. Most shows are blocked for the cameras -- The actor has to hit a mark on the ground somewhere and then deliver a line. They tried to do that as loosely as possible for FNL. They also were very loose with the script; it was almost improvisational in terms of how the cast was given the freedom to find the right words when they were in character. That's why the show feels so incredibly authentic and real.

 

I don't want the show to end.

[Greggulator]

And the Season 2 murder plot in FNL is awful but Jesse Clemons and Adrianne act the hell out of those scenes. I'll give them all the credit in the world for trying to make an awful storyline redeemable. It could have been a disaster but instead was a distraction.

[Gonzalez]

Ya know, sometimes ya just gotta touch that hot stove no matter how many times everybody else tells you it's hot.

Really if go into Dexter thinking it's going to be one those all-time great cable shows, then you'll be extremely disappointed(especially after the quality dips post-season 1). But if you go into thinking of it as more of a 1980's episodic action show mixed with a weird alternate reality Batman, then the later seasons can be a lot more tolerable. 

[Craig H]

Oh Tabe, I know you're going to be a completist, but I urge you to just pass on the rest of Dexter.

 

As for FNL, I recently started watching it again and it's just as amazing as it was the first time around. I consider it, Breaking Bad, and The Shield as the top 3 shows of all time. As for which is the best depends on the mood I'm in, but FNL is nearly perfect.

 

CLEAR EYES. FULL HEARTS...

[Tabe]

You live on the stove in question? Tabe's favorite show is Ax Men, so it'll work out.

LOL, yeah, that'll be the day.

[Ryan]

Tabe, don't read this, it's a massive spoiler for Dexter.

Sadly, Tabe will have to wait until he finishes the series finale to get my sad, sad joke about it.

[Matt D]

I actually really like The Blacklist. Spader's great in it.

[ivpvideos]

The Blacklist has been a lot of fun. I enjoyed it very much.

Tabe, you have an opportunity here to do something none of us can do. You can let Dexter end on a high note and never know the disappointment and pain that we know. For you Julia Stiles will be just the girl from O and Save the Last Dance, not the beginning of the end.

[Craig H]

I love that we're all trying to talk Tabe off a ledge, except Tabe is gleefully dancing around on said ledge.

[ultimoDANK]

If I watched the first 4 seasons I'd play it out as well.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

This should end Tabe's masochism

Doakes only turns up once, in a flashback

[piranesi]

This should end Tabe's masochism

Doakes only turns up once, in a flashback

 

But he rules a splendorous empire in the GIF world.  And that is how we measure artistic impact today.

[EVA]

That live SOUND OF MUSIC Carrie Underwood special did 18 MILLION VIEWERS.

So prepare for more of that.

[piranesi]

Blame our moms.

[EVA]

I'd wager NBC is fasttracking Blake Shelton in OKLAHOMA! as we speak.

[piranesi]

 

Get me Contstantine Whatisname in a scrooge cap YESTERDAY!!!

 

Where is that gay Sanjaya kid?  I need my Tiny Tim and I need him vulnerable and gay.  It's a new era people!!!!!

[Raziel]

That live SOUND OF MUSIC Carrie Underwood special did 18 MILLION VIEWERS.

So prepare for more of that.

Maybe this time, Acting ability would be a prerequisite.  

[piranesi]

Christmas?  Whatever.  If you're into that sort of thing...

 

Just keep that bitch away from Arbor Day or I'll scratch your FUCKING EYES OUT!

[EVA]

That live SOUND OF MUSIC Carrie Underwood special did 18 MILLION VIEWERS.

So prepare for more of that.

Maybe this time, Acting ability would be a prerequisite.

See, I think that was part of the draw, though. It was a highwire act. Will this pop singer with no experience in musical theatre crash and burn on live TV?

That's why the next one really needs to be Blake Shelton doing OKLAHOMA! High, high, high likelihood he stumbles on stage drunk and slurs his way through "Oh What A Beautiful Mornin."

[Tabe]

Tabe, you have an opportunity here to do something none of us can do. You can let Dexter end on a high note and never know the disappointment and pain that we know. For you Julia Stiles will be just the girl from O and Save the Last Dance, not the beginning of the end.

Nice analogy - I've had an irrational crush on Julia Stiles ever since Save the Last Dance but she has done pretty much nothing since to justify that crush.

 

I love that we're all trying to talk Tabe off a ledge, except Tabe is gleefully dancing around on said ledge.

Yer darn right I am.  If anything, all the warnings have made me want to see the rest even more.  I can always quit partway through

 

That live SOUND OF MUSIC Carrie Underwood special did 18 MILLION VIEWERS.

 

I'd watch Carrie Underwood read the phone book.  On mute.  Just sayin'.  Oh yeah, she's easily in Tabe's Top 10. 

[Bustronaut]

I dunno Tabe, The Sound of Music is a minefield for watching on mute, even if you forget she's a nun, there's the chance "the hills will be alive" right when a swastika pops up on screen.