The Inbetweeners was always a great show before the American's decided to get their hands on it. Family Guy and American Dad are also good. Surprised no one's mentioned South Park. Did anyone ever watch Balls of Steel?
No, never heard of it. It looks pretty insane from its Wikipedia write-up. Predictably it appears to have been popular in Australia. I'll grab it and give it a go but it'll probably sit there unwatched (for a while at least) alongside The Inbetweeners, Darkplace and Nowhere Man. The second episode of the final season of Breaking Bad aired on Sunday and I feel the need to report that its final scene pushed me over the edge in terms of rooting for Walt. It was pretty dark and I hope to see Walter suffer in the remaining episodes. As dark as it was, though, he's still yet to plumb the depths that Tom Kane did in Boss's first season.
Sex and the city, desperate houswives and Will and Grace are all my favorite TV shows of all time! I'm silver btw and I dont like any of this crap above and neither does the real Cosicave.
lols, I was abt to question his gender. Does anyone remember a mini series called the Winning streak? it was about 2 rally drivers trying to earn the works drive in the new 6R4.
I don't think I'll bother with Winning Streak, tbh. Like the film Grand Prix, I don't really see the point. I'm not sure what my reaction to Rush will be... I do want to give a shout out to a cracking little comedy we watched over the weekend as an antidote to the Olympics: Episodes. I came to it via Stephen Mangan and his performances in the Dirk Gently TV shows, Nathan Barley, HIGNFY, etc., but there's a wealth of comedic writing and acting buzzing around in what, from the outside, appears to be quite a derivative show. A husband-and-wife comedy writing team (Mangan and Tamsin Greig) pick up an offer from an american TV network chief to take their hugely successful British TV sitcom to Hollywood. Naturally, the American TV machine ****s them and their show over and turns it into something they never intended it to be. Like Curb Your Enthusiasm it revolves around an ex-star of the sitcom world playing a parody of himself. Like 30 Rock it takes place in and around the writing and filming of a network TV comedy show. Unlike either it's not a sitcom. The narrative progresses episode-by-episode and the characters develop and grow, which enables a compelling dramatic story. It's also filmed in London (except for external scenes), despite being set in L.A., which means the guest stars are generally British actors playing American characters, which is also a seam of humour explored in the storyline. I wouldn't say it's massively original other than in the way it weaves different genres and styles, and explores the differences between American and British TV comedy. The jokes are fresh and funny, however, the characters likeable, and the drama is believable. Season 2 finished in the UK in early July, but they're only halfway through it in the US.
I love what I've seen so far of Episodes, which isn't all of it, unfortunately. Funniest show I've seen in a long time with great acting too.
Nice one, Max. I don't think there's a poor performance to be seen, although some of the supporting characters haven't been fleshed out yet. I really like the way it plays with sitcom conventions, e.g. the reasoning given for the changes in the American remake are played out in the show's 'real life' situations.
Yes, it's very clever indeed and often stupid at the same time, well, the stupidity of the characters' behaviour is cleverly done. I should look out the whole thing and watch from start to finish.
I watched the first episode of 'episodes' and found a lot of the jokes cliched and obvious, havn't seen it again but I rarely watch TV anyway, maybe I'll give it another go as first episodes are generally 'getting to know the characters' I suppose Red Dwarf (one of my favourites) was the same, and didn't reach it's zenith until season 5, the despair squid episode is one of my favourites of all time.
Actually, that was my first impression of it too. But when I saw it later on I was surprised how much better it was.
I hardly ever watch TV, so this small contribution is made in ignorance of many of the shows discussed above, save the most obvious such as Star Trek. I prefer the scientific and natural history genres, so Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe – despite patronizing its audience with an overly dramatic 'popularising' of its message; and virtually anything produced by Sir David Attenborough always goes down well with me. On the humour side and for subliminal perfection, Dad's Army is an all-time classic – its subtlety unlikely to be bettered by any sit-com, in my opinion. The Fast Show was also quite brilliant, especially in its early days. This, in a sense, was a development from the greatest comedy of all: Monty Python. Benny Hill should also get a mention, if for no other reason than its sheer audacity! Going back far further, someone above mentioned Captain Scarlet; but for me, Thunderbirds – with all its conceptual machinery – will always be king of the marionette genre. Stingray and Fireball XL-5 were its fore-runners which also had this particular child glued to the TV set; but for me, Captain Scarlet never cut the mustard. I should also mention the original, brilliant, Batman series. As I said, when it comes to TV, I'm really very ignorant… There is probably only one thing I know less about: films. I very very rarely watch them and have an aversion to virtually any modern production from Hollywood. Hence I often seem to insult actors and actresses because I do not know them or their names! One such occasion was particularly memorable and serves as an example of how some people can be so offended when not recognised. Apparently it was the 'famous' Bruce Willis (I did not know this at the time); but was so totally up his own back-side and mortally wounded by my ignorance that I found it funny! Unfortunately, I was completely unable to engage in conversation on his level because I had never (and still have not) seen a single film he has appeared in. Ha! How pissed off can a person be! And the last time I went to a cinema was the result of arm-twisting by friends back in 2004. As can be seen, on a personal level, television and media entertainment in general, has become all but redundant.
Moreso in this case. Personally I think the first episode is deliberate misinformation (either that or it bombed and they realised immediately they had to get good, fast) - it's very straightforward, ordinary sitcom fodder and I also thought, "I can't be arsed with this" after one, maybe two episodes. But things settle down and it gets real very quickly. Max is spot-on: the actions, opinions and motives of some of the characters is insane at times and although 'Hollywood' lets them get away with it, the actual writers don't. The standout performance for me is Carol, the network chief's main exec and mistress. She's intensely fake and annoying in a clichéd Hollywood way (and she never stops being so in the office) but she's actually one of the more interesting and genuine characters. The actress who plays her does a really good job, but then she does get all the best lines, too.
I can understand that and would paraphrase something I think Miggins said once, along the lines of all TV is mind control, to validate such a response. Quite apart from the western, capitalist dogma that is presented as the 'right' (if not 'only') way to structure society in particularly American but more or less all English-speaking media, two additional egregious offences are the factory production lines of regurgitated stories with mass appeal (instead of creating something new, and this applies as much to music and books as to TV and cinema) and the conspiracy of media outlets (particularly news organs, advertising, cinema and television fiction, politics and business) to keep us socially catatonic and constantly spending. At the end of the day, TV shows exist solely to put you in a position to be advertised at. This is, of course, no different to Formula 1 or any other form of entertainment. It's all a matter of choosing the blue pill or the red pill.
… Yep! This may sound a bit 'OCD' but it's also the truth… I simply do not watch adverts. Indeed, there is only one TV advert which slows reaching the remote in order to change channels, mute or switch the damned thing off altogether: it has meerkats and a reference to "Sergei" but although I know it tells me to "Compare zee market dot com", I still do not know what it's advertising, despite being highly amused by it! There is another which is so intensely irritating that I instantly switch off the TV, regardless. Every time. – It has a shouting, high-pitched voice-over by an old Dr Who. On the odd occasion I've been too slow, I've accidentally gleaned that it is trying to sell me some sort of insurance. I cannot stand it, and if ever I found which company or product it is trying to force upon me, I would make a deliberate point of avoiding it like the plague*! *There are two things I already do this with: Ferrari cars and anything to do with Murdoch.
Guess it would be a bad idea to link you this then? [video=youtube;PI57X03AtyA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI57X03AtyA&feature=related[/video] And this! [video=youtube;HvdlTJrJyQ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdlTJrJyQ0[/video] Me personally, I cant stand all this charity crap by trying to give me some guilt complex that I should give my money to people who live in some ****hole. 5 words: I dont give a ****!
That'll be moneysupermarket.com, Cosi. Gocompare.com is even worse though. I guess you'll be wanting the Aviva deal then
Thanks for nothing, Max! In one fell-swoop you have made redundant many successful years of deliberate avoidance. (You're right: I can hear his voice even now shouting "Moneymarket dot com"…. As for Gocompare.com and "Aviva", I haven't got a clue what they are about and I have no wish to be told! P.S. Murdoch got his Sky garbage sent back to him last summer with the announcement of BBC's underhand deal with them over F1. Despite this, Sky's representatives continue to pester me; as do Ferrari's sales team at least once per year. Indeed, the latter make ever more tempting offers in the hope that they will benefit from some form of free advertising of their products! (I used to own a 308GTB and have been known, by them and their associates, to drive various models owned by others).
You're welcome, Cosi, but are you "feeling EPIC!"? I only get pestered by my ex really, but as we live together that's perhaps not surprising
Feeling "EPIC!"? Your advantage over me, sir, is maximal. Que es? P.S. Sorry about your 'ex'. Best of luck and all that, eh?â¦
