The "TV shows that don't warrant their own thread" thread

[Hitman23]

Where was that?

I found them at Best Buy. I don't think the price is still available though. I think the sale price is back up at $25 now. Which is still better than $40.

I should have bought season 3 while I had the chance but I didn't. I guess I'll find it for cheap eventually. Season 4 is still full price.

[Hitman23]

Oh by the way if anyone is interested when I was in Best Buy yesterday I saw season 1 of Walking Dead on sale for $20. I was going to grab it but I had to resist, I went in there for something else.

I swear if I won the lotto I would be at Best Buy every frigging day.

[Soriambi]

My experience - Season 1 is gold, season 2 has some classic bits but struggles sometimes to come up with ways to move the overall plot forward, season 3 is great but desperate, so it ends up more meta than you reading this forum post right now which is me describing how meta it is.

Be seeing you,

Saxmania

So I finished watching the series a few minutes ago, and I definitely understand what you mean about season 3, especially the later episodes. I also agree that season 1 is pretty clearly their best work, though I don't think there was a truly bad episode in the whole series, and almost all of them were at least good. I would have liked a bit of a happier ending, but I guess it kind of had to go that way given how screwed up the family is. When you like the characters, though, I guess you just hope for a happier ending, even if they are mostly horrible people. I wasn't really a fan of how it ended in general, either, as it seemed like a major reach.

In addition to all the lead characters being great and perfectly cast, I was impressed with how many extremely memorable bit/recurring characters there were. I hope they can capture the same dynamic in the new season.

[CoyoteYankee]

That show really gets better with multiple viewings. I couldn't really tell you which seasons are the best, though the 3rd season is always hinting at their impending doom, so it's kind of annoying, but you notice so many tiny things going back a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time.

Then you go to the wiki and there's so much stuff you didn't even make the connection with, even with repeated viewings. The show is a masterpiece.

I love AD. And it gets better each time you watch it, because you notice things you missed the first time, that just makes it funnier and funnier.

Totally agree with both of these statements. I've seen every episode at least 4 times and every time I find something funny that I didn't notice before. That's just brilliant.

Are they still doing the movie?

[Big_E]

Oh by the way if anyone is interested when I was in Best Buy yesterday I saw season 1 of Walking Dead on sale for $20. I was going to grab it but I had to resist, I went in there for something else.

I swear if I won the lotto I would be at Best Buy every frigging day.

And that might be the only way to save the company...

[teknetic]

Fringe was renewed for what should be its last season. I am happy.

[RhodyYanksFan]

And that might be the only way to save the company...

Are they struggling? Where else do people buy consumer electronics? I've bought all my TVs, my PS3, hell even my new oven there. Can't beat their financing.

[Soriambi]

Totally agree with both of these statements. I've seen every episode at least 4 times and every time I find something funny that I didn't notice before. That's just brilliant.

Are they still doing the movie?

I think the plan as of right now is to have the new 10 episode season (which as of now will be released in early 2013, as shooting starts this summer) lead into the movie, but while the new season is going to happen, I think the movie is still very much a maybe thing.

[JL25and3]

I think the plan as of right now is to have the new 10 episode season (which as of now will be released in early 2013, as shooting starts this summer) lead into the movie, but while the new season is going to happen, I think the movie is still very much a maybe thing.

I expect both to be disappointing. They've set the bar awfully high.

[Soriambi]

I expect both to be disappointing. They've set the bar awfully high.

I'm a bit worried about the same, but I'm hoping the time between them might have given them plenty of time to think and some new ideas. When I was done with the series, I kind of wondered if it ending after season 3 wasn't for the best. It was very strong for all three seasons, but I kind of wondered how much longer it would have been before they didn't have much else to do and the quality dropped significantly.

Now that they're all older, etc, there might be new scenario possibilities, especially with George Michael and Maebe's characters, and it will be interesting to see what "happened" to the characters during the time off and where they are now. It might also give them a chance to dial back a couple of the characters a bit. I felt that Tobias, for instance, was spiraling further and further into silly caricature as the episodes moved along. While he was definitely never a subtle character by any means, I enjoyed him more in the earlier seasons when there was still a bit of subtlety at times and he was a little better balanced. By the end, almost everything he did or said had a blatantly obvious double entendre

[JL25and3]

I'm a bit worried about the same, but I'm hoping the time between them might have given them plenty of time to think and some new ideas. When I was done with the series, I kind of wondered if it ending after season 3 wasn't for the best. It was very strong for all three seasons, but I kind of wondered how much longer it would have been before they didn't have much else to do and the quality dropped significantly.

Now that they're all older, etc, there might be new scenario possibilities, especially with George Michael and Maebe's characters, and it will be interesting to see what "happened" to the characters during the time off and where they are now. It might also give them a chance to dial back a couple of the characters a bit. I felt that Tobias, for instance, was spiraling further and further into silly caricature as the episodes moved along. While he was definitely never a subtle character by any means, I enjoyed him more in the earlier seasons when there was still a bit of subtlety at times and he was a little better balanced. By the end, almost everything he did or said had a blatantly obvious double entendre

You mean things like "analrapist?"

[JL25and3]

This past weekend I watched a bunch of episodes of "Soap" that I had dvr'ed off Antenna TV. What a great show that was.

[Soriambi]

You mean things like "analrapist?"

Like that, yes, but just in general the things he said sounded more and more forced and came on a more and more consistent basis (which probably contributed to them sounding more forced.) Some of them were still funny, but the character became less of a character and more of a vehicle for the writers to relay funny double entendres they had thought of. I think a large part of the show's success is that the characters, though ridiculous, had more than a tiny shred of believability to them (at least for me) and felt like they could actually be people, and I thought Tobias started losing that as the series moved along, which made his stuff weaker.

[CoyoteYankee]

I'm a bit worried about the same, but I'm hoping the time between them might have given them plenty of time to think and some new ideas. When I was done with the series, I kind of wondered if it ending after season 3 wasn't for the best. It was very strong for all three seasons, but I kind of wondered how much longer it would have been before they didn't have much else to do and the quality dropped significantly.

I never thought this at all. When Season 3 ended, I wanted more. Although, of course, Season 3 wasn't as good as Season 1, it was still a top notch hilarious show.

[Soriambi]

I never thought this at all. When Season 3 ended, I wanted more. Although, of course, Season 3 wasn't as good as Season 1, it was still a top notch hilarious show.

I wanted more too, but I guess what I'm saying is I wonder how long they could have kept it up with those characters without getting too repetitive or too out there. When it comes to comedies, I'm fine with continuing to run them out there even after their best days are past, since they tend to be more episodic and don't tend to have the same kind of plot arcs that a good drama has (where you kind of want the shows to end before they jump the shark), so it's not as big a deal if a comedy show goes on a few seasons too long. I don't think they were too close to done yet, but I was feeling some signs that they might have been nearing the point where it started declining.

Thinking about it, though, that could be due to the low ratings, the effort to keep the show on the air, and, in the end, the knowledge that the show was going to be cancelled, which might have caused them to move things along more quickly than they otherwise would have liked to. It might have moved along very differently and the end of season 3 might not have felt like that at all if they had been guaranteed 8 or 9 seasons after season 1 or something.

[Big_E]

Just curious if anyone here watched the "In Plain Sight" series finale the other day, and what they thought.

I've seen some on-line comments where people absolutely loved it, and others where they hated it.

Me, I thought it was one of the best series wrap-ups ever...

[RhodyYanksFan]

Just curious if anyone here watched the "In Plain Sight" series finale the other day, and what they thought.

I've seen some on-line comments where people absolutely loved it, and others where they hated it.

Me, I thought it was one of the best series wrap-ups ever...

I watched the first 3 seasons but stopped after that. The show was just too repetitive. I did record the finale though.

[JL25and3]

Just curious if anyone here watched the "In Plain Sight" series finale the other day, and what they thought.

I've seen some on-line comments where people absolutely loved it, and others where they hated it.

Me, I thought it was one of the best series wrap-ups ever...

I watched it. I thought it was perfectly good, but nothing all that special.

I watched the first 3 seasons but stopped after that. The show was just too repetitive. I did record the finale though.

I kind of felt the same way; I did continue to watch it, though less regularly. At this point, I think USA has run out of original series worth watching.

[RenoHightower]

I watched it. I thought it was perfectly good, but nothing all that special.


I kind of felt the same way; I did continue to watch it, though less regularly. At this point, I think USA has run out of original series worth watching.

I still love Psych.

[JL25and3]

I still love Psych.

I found that watchable the first season, then it just got too silly for me.

[Big_E]

I watched it. I thought it was perfectly good, but nothing all that special.

Well, what I loved is that it wrapped things up the way I wanted them,

I thought the characters stayed true to who they were.

And the whole series was not an alcohol-fueled hallucination by Jinx.

[JL25and3]

Well, what I loved is that it wrapped things up the way I wanted them,

I thought the characters stayed true to who they were.

And the whole series was not an alcohol-fueled hallucination by Jinx.

Right. Nothing outrageous or out-of-form happened, but nothing particularly imaginative or inspired, either. That is to say, it was better than St. Elsewhere, but nowhere near Mary Tyler Moore or Newhart.

[Big_E]

Right. Nothing outrageous or out-of-form happened, but nothing particularly imaginative or inspired, either. That is to say, it was better than St. Elsewhere, but nowhere near Mary Tyler Moore or Newhart.

"Mary Tyler Moore" is classic. I HATED "Newhart".

Yeah, I know, everyone else LOVES "Newhart". OK, yeah, I get it, he woke up next to Suzanne Pleshette. Wow, funny, clever, OMG I never saw that coming! Fade to black...

...Now, that means the entire run of the show, all 8 seasons, was just a dream! If St. Elsewhere gets crap for being the imagination of an autistic kid, and Dallas got reamed for the whole Bobby in the shower, last season was a dream, then why does Newhart get lauded for the same basic concept? Because of Suzanne Pleshette? Meh. It was funny, but I think it was an insult to the audience.

So many shows screw up their final episode -- the Sopranos got widely criticized, Seinfeld I thought was terrible -- that just not screwing it up (IMO) gets it good credit.

[JL25and3]

If St. Elsewhere gets crap for being the imagination of an autistic kid, and Dallas got reamed for the whole Bobby in the shower, last season was a dream, then why does Newhart get lauded for the same basic concept? Because of Suzanne Pleshette? Meh. It was funny, but I think it was an insult to the audience.

Because St. Elsewhere was a serious show, with an ending that it was impossible to take seriously. That was insultiing.

Newhart was a comedy - for that matter, not nearly as good a comedy as his first show. And as you say, it was funny. You still can't take it seriously, but you don't have to.

[Texsahara]

Right. Nothing outrageous or out-of-form happened, but nothing particularly imaginative or inspired, either. That is to say, it was better than St. Elsewhere, but nowhere near Mary Tyler Moore or Newhart.

Yet it's all intertwined in little Tommy's mind.

In a similar event, a recurring character—an amnesiac known as John Doe #6 (Oliver Clark) – watched an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on a hospital TV and started believing himself to be the character Mary Richards. Betty White, who played Sue Anne Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was a guest star on this episode as a Naval officer; Doe sees her and calls her "Sue Ann!". She responds: "I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else."
In the same episode, another patient in the psychiatric ward is Elliott Carlin, the resident neurotic from The Bob Newhart Show, as played by veteran character actor Jack Riley. Carlin's abusive and disparagement of Doe mirrored his behavior toward Oliver Clark's Bob Newhart Show character, Mr. Herd. Mr. Carlin subsequently appeared on Newhart, still uncured from the damage caused by "some quack in Chicago."