2014 RANDOM TV THOUGHTS

[Greggulator]

Yeah, go with Friday Night Lights first. It's my favorite show ever. It's so different from everything else of the era -- it's about people trying to make good choices despite rough situations, as opposed to the general dark tone of everything post-Sopranos. It's really heartwarming, features the best married couple in the history of television, has incredibly lovable characters, etc.

The general thought is that Season 2 sucks. There's one plot that people hate. If you can endure that plot, then the rest of the series is absolutely magical.

[Raziel]

So, I really want to watch Scorpion because it feels like it'll be interesting.  The second half of the episode though just had so much shit that was out there and not even in "suspend disbelief" catagory.  But I'll give it another episode or two.  Shit, I watch the NCIS series (I know I'm gonna catch shit for that)

[peterien]

Thanks guys, FNL it is then. Ill keep you updated

[Tabe]

Yeah, go with Friday Night Lights first. It's my favorite show ever. It's so different from everything else of the era -- it's about people trying to make good choices despite rough situations, as opposed to the general dark tone of everything post-Sopranos. It's really heartwarming, features the best married couple in the history of television, has incredibly lovable characters, etc.

The general thought is that Season 2 sucks. There's one plot that people hate. If you can endure that plot, then the rest of the series is absolutely magical.

Yeah, what Greggulator said.  You'll also have to ignore the nonsense that the show pulls with the characters' ages.  The first season of FNL is the absolute peak of TV drama.  Just incredible stuff.

 

And spot on with the mention of the "best married couple" comment.  Two characters that love each other, are supportive*, aren't screwing around on each other but are sometimes miffed at each other.  Really well-nuanced and balanced.

 

Seriously though, if not for The West Wing, this would probably be my #1 show of all-time.

 

* - my one gripe is that Coach T's wife at times acts like she's never been a coach's wife before instead of the 15 years they've actually been married.  She'll seemingly randomly out-of-nowhere seem puzzled by the hours he puts into his job, as if she's never experienced it before.  Heads up lady: I coached high school football in Colorado, not Texas, and not even as the varsity head coach and *I* worked 100+ hours a week during the season.

[Tabe]

Turns out I was actually done with the first season of Parenthood not halfway through.  Stupid 13-episode season when you think it's 22 or 24 episodes.  5 episodes into season 2 now.  Some thoughts:

 

- I find myself generally disliking most of the female characters, particularly Kristina and Sarah.  Hard to describe why, just do.

 

- I am impressed with Dax Shepard.  He did a great job in his role.

 

- I sympathize with the Adam character.  Long hours at work and an extended family that has no problem with making constant demands on his time.

 

Season 2 is a little better about not having the implausibly-large-gathering-of-family-at-insignificant-events thing happening, so that's good. 

[peterien]

Yeah, go with Friday Night Lights first. It's my favorite show ever. It's so different from everything else of the era -- it's about people trying to make good choices despite rough situations, as opposed to the general dark tone of everything post-Sopranos. It's really heartwarming, features the best married couple in the history of television, has incredibly lovable characters, etc.

The general thought is that Season 2 sucks. There's one plot that people hate. If you can endure that plot, then the rest of the series is absolutely magical.

Yeah, what Greggulator said. You'll also have to ignore the nonsense that the show pulls with the characters' ages. The first season of FNL is the absolute peak of TV drama. Just incredible stuff.

And spot on with the mention of the "best married couple" comment. Two characters that love each other, are supportive*, aren't screwing around on each other but are sometimes miffed at each other. Really well-nuanced and balanced.

Seriously though, if not for The West Wing, this would probably be my #1 show of all-time.

* - my one gripe is that Coach T's wife at times acts like she's never been a coach's wife before instead of the 15 years they've actually been married. She'll seemingly randomly out-of-nowhere seem puzzled by the hours he puts into his job, as if she's never experienced it before. Heads up lady: I coached high school football in Colorado, not Texas, and not even as the varsity head coach and *I* worked 100+ hours a week during the season.

Ok ive watched the first 3eps back to back and this is a great show. The scene with the sprints on the hill in the rain was fucking AWESOME. I hope there's more moments like this (?) Kyle Chandler is great.

So far, so good.

EDIT; god damn I hate Buddy Garrity

[JRGoldman]

Buddy becomes one of the best parts of the show after a while. Also I echo what Gregg, Tabe and Craig have said about FNL.

As an aside, one of the metrics I try and use to judge the lasting impression of a show is how often I refer to an actor by a character name when they appear in something else. For example, when Kim Dickens shows up in Deadwood, my first thought is never Joannie Stubbs, it's always 'Matt Saracen's mom left him to become a time traveling prostitute'. Same with that almost human show; Minka Kelly's character could well have been Lyla Garrity, cause I sure as heck didn't know her actual name. I think if you use this method, FNL might have the most memorable characters of all time. I mean, who among us hasn't thought 'oh man! Tim Riggins!' When he shows up in anything?

[Greggulator]

 

 

Yeah, go with Friday Night Lights first. It's my favorite show ever. It's so different from everything else of the era -- it's about people trying to make good choices despite rough situations, as opposed to the general dark tone of everything post-Sopranos. It's really heartwarming, features the best married couple in the history of television, has incredibly lovable characters, etc.

The general thought is that Season 2 sucks. There's one plot that people hate. If you can endure that plot, then the rest of the series is absolutely magical.

Yeah, what Greggulator said. You'll also have to ignore the nonsense that the show pulls with the characters' ages. The first season of FNL is the absolute peak of TV drama. Just incredible stuff.

And spot on with the mention of the "best married couple" comment. Two characters that love each other, are supportive*, aren't screwing around on each other but are sometimes miffed at each other. Really well-nuanced and balanced.

Seriously though, if not for The West Wing, this would probably be my #1 show of all-time.

* - my one gripe is that Coach T's wife at times acts like she's never been a coach's wife before instead of the 15 years they've actually been married. She'll seemingly randomly out-of-nowhere seem puzzled by the hours he puts into his job, as if she's never experienced it before. Heads up lady: I coached high school football in Colorado, not Texas, and not even as the varsity head coach and *I* worked 100+ hours a week during the season.

Ok ive watched the first 3eps back to back and this is a great show. The scene with the sprints on the hill in the rain was fucking AWESOME. I hope there's more moments like this (?) Kyle Chandler is great.

So far, so good.

EDIT; god damn I hate Buddy Garrity

 

 

The show is non-stop moments like that. I think I cried during at least 90% of the episodes. The show "earns" its moments more than anything else ever on television.

[Tabe]

Stick with Buddy. He's awesome.

And, really, the whole show is full of awesome moments. Lots and lots and lots of them.

[Craig H]

Yeah, Buddy gets better. It's all about Saracen and Tim Riggins, though. Even when the cast changes over, the new kids aren't as memorable, but they're still written very well.

Oh, and Kyle Chandler is fucking awesome. I said it before, but I'll watch anything that dude is in, primarily because he's almost always in Coach mode. He's cery Coach-like in Super 8, Zero Dark Thirty, the Wolf of Wall Street, etc.

[peterien]

The whole team just visited Street in the hospital. The room here got a little dusty. This show is fantastic!

[Matt D]

I don't think I can get over my general disdain for small town America's uber-religious love of football in order to watch Fight Night Lights. 

[Craig H]

I don't think I can get over my general disdain for small town America's uber-religious love of football in order to watch Fight Night Lights. 

 

That's the beauty of Friday Night Lights. I avoided FNL because of that. Then I watched it and it's about something else entirely.

[Greggulator]

I don't think I can get over my general disdain for small town America's uber-religious love of football in order to watch Fight Night Lights. 

 

Football is my wife's least favorite thing in the world, with small-town Texas being not too far behind.

FNL is her favorite television show ever. She loves it so much we put off watching Season 5 for months because she didn't want it to end.

The football stuff is sort of just the thread of how all of the characters connect and interact. If anything, the show is pretty critical of people who have an uber-religious love of high school football (including the coach's wife). But it also shows how football does build community bonds and gives kids a chance to go in places they never thought they could.

But the football stuff really is just background noise. I don't even remember a lot of the football scenes.

[Tabe]

I don't think I can get over my general disdain for small town America's uber-religious love of football in order to watch Fight Night Lights. 

Give it a try.  Seriously.  It's not really about football.

[odessasteps]

Matt's big city yankee bias on display again.

[peterien]

Up to episode 12 of FNL season 1, was afraid by episode 8 that I cared about no one but Coach but now theres very few characters I don't care about.

Saracen, Smash and Jason Street im all interested in but above all else I want everything to go right for Riggins. Everything.

[Rev Ray]

Nature on PBS is running Penguins:  Spy in the Huddle, the first episode was pretty great.  Robot in disguise as penguins sneak into Rock Hopper, Emperor and Humboldt colonies to provide up close pics with a number of cameras, including an egg cam that robots will drop into the middle of the colony.

 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/penguins-spy-in-the-huddle/about/9024/

[The Comedian]

Oh, and Kyle Chandler is fucking awesome. I said it before, but I'll watch anything that dude is in, primarily because he's almost always in Coach mode. He's cery Coach-like in Super 8, Zero Dark Thirty, the Wolf of Wall Street, etc.

 

Early Edition was also very underrated...

[Tabe]

Up to episode 12 of FNL season 1, was afraid by episode 8 that I cared about no one but Coach but now theres very few characters I don't care about.

Saracen, Smash and Jason Street im all interested in but above all else I want everything to go right for Riggins. Everything.

Saracen might be my favorite character in any show ever. Riggins is great too.

[TimWresPowr]

Rough debut episode of season 3 of Nashville last night. Reading other boards it seems pretty universal that it was one of the worst episodes they have done. Main storylines are just way too overdramatic & IF they are realistic, the characters continue to make stupid decisions & they seem to be writing things in the opposite direction of how viewers want things to go, in the name of "drama". Some of the side characters were used for comic relief rather than progressing their storyline which seemed quite unwelcome. Amazingly the most interesting & realistic storyline they have going is the one with the gay singer coming out to his wife & their struggles. One that ironically would have been a huge turn-off to me normally if it had been a focus of the show from the start. It seems the longer this series goes I'm more interested in the aesthetics & premise behind the show than any of the storylines or character development.

[Technico Support]

Rough debut episode of season 3 of Nashville last night. Reading other boards it seems pretty universal that it was one of the worst episodes they have done. Main storylines are just way too overdramatic & IF they are realistic, the characters continue to make stupid decisions & they seem to be writing things in the opposite direction of how viewers want things to go, in the name of "drama". Some of the side characters were used for comic relief rather than progressing their storyline which seemed quite unwelcome. Amazingly the most interesting & realistic storyline they have going is the one with the gay singer coming out to his wife & their struggles. One that ironically would have been a huge turn-off to me normally if it had been a focus of the show from the start. It seems the longer this series goes I'm more interested in the aesthetics & premise behind the show than any of the storylines or character development.

 

Oof.  This show is a guilty pleasure of mine.  It's on the DVR for tonight but man, that sounds bad. 

 

Is the main character supposed to be the most unlikable person on the show, by the way?

[Craig H]

 

Up to episode 12 of FNL season 1, was afraid by episode 8 that I cared about no one but Coach but now theres very few characters I don't care about.

Saracen, Smash and Jason Street im all interested in but above all else I want everything to go right for Riggins. Everything.

Saracen might be my favorite character in any show ever. Riggins is great too.

 

 

Saracen definitely has some all time awesome moments. He's so one note, which felt like a limitation of the actor, but it turned into him actually playing THAT KID many of us knew in school. Quiet. Meek. Lacking in self confidence. Seeing his character grow and mature throughout the show, including how he broke down into tears in front of Coach, was a real treat. You rarely see character growth like that. It's up there with Jesse and Walt's journey from Breaking Bad.

[Jrag]

Andy Greenwald wrote a love letter to Lost yesterday.   Fuck the haters!

 

.http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/lost-legacy-ten-year-anniversary-abc/

[Tabe]

 

 

Up to episode 12 of FNL season 1, was afraid by episode 8 that I cared about no one but Coach but now theres very few characters I don't care about.

Saracen, Smash and Jason Street im all interested in but above all else I want everything to go right for Riggins. Everything.

Saracen might be my favorite character in any show ever. Riggins is great too.

 

 

Saracen definitely has some all time awesome moments. He's so one note, which felt like a limitation of the actor, but it turned into him actually playing THAT KID many of us knew in school. Quiet. Meek. Lacking in self confidence. Seeing his character grow and mature throughout the show, including how he broke down into tears in front of Coach, was a real treat. You rarely see character growth like that. It's up there with Jesse and Walt's journey from Breaking Bad.

 

All this Friday Night Lights talk got me looking on Ebay for a "Clear Eyes" shirt or something similar.  And my search turned up the companion book, which I didn't know existed.  I ordered a copy this morning.  I have a feeling I'll be binge watching the show again before too much longer.