Lately, we’ve been watching lots of movies and whole television series. The TV shows stand out more in mind as we spend much more time with the characters. Some of our favorites have been:
- Friends
(?) - Julia has watched all of the seasons, and I’ve enjoyed many, many of the episodes.
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Boston Legal (?)- we’ve watched the 1st two seasons, and are just watching the 3rd.
Julia and I have been watching a lot of TV as we spend hours comforting our 6 week old son — and Julia spends many more hours feeding him.
We don’t have cable TV, because I find the cost and the hours of commercials insulting — Julia puts up with me 
Also, not having it likely contributes to us spending more time doing other things including reading aloud to each other (well, we did that a lot before W was born anyway).
We rent a lot of movies and whole TV series from our local mom and pop video store, Nighthawk Video. Most movies disappoint. It’s difficult to tell if a movie is going to be any good based on the back of the box. I’ve been surprised by some television shows though, and once you’ve found a good one you, there are hours of entertainment available.
Movies have their A list actors, big budget special effects, and advertising campaigns — many times after seeing a movie, I feel the trailer told a different story. Television shows’ success are more dependent on the writing and the whole casts’ acting.
I used to be focused on all of those aspects that movies have going for them, but I find myself now very conscious of the writing and enjoying one role acting.
My guess is television is a much easier format to write well for. TV doesn’t have to try as hard as a movie.
One thing that was missing in television for me was the brilliant sound tracks found in movies, but HBO and Showtime programming changed that, and Grey’s Anatomy reflects this.
Watching TV shows in batch like this does trade away the suspense, but I’m a little frustrated by the cliff hanger style of most shows on TV currently. I don’t know if I could have handled watching the 1st season of 24
Lately, we’ve been really enjoying Friends, Grey’s Anatomy and Boston Legal. Julia has also been watching Desperate Housewives
I bought Firefly
What other shows should be check out?
15 Comments
I was going to suggest Lost until you cut it up.
I really like Heroes as well, but it’s on hiatus right now until the Fall I think. You can probably find a season and a half worth of episodes to go through.
Lost is a phenomenon, and I respect that lots of people enjoy it. What seasons have you watched?
I watched about half the first seasons. Julia enjoyed it more than me. My distaste for it likely soured it for her.
Although every episode ending with a cliff hanger bothered me, what led me to lose interest was I found the acting and emotion insincere/ I wondered if every episode was an independent creation — same writers every week? The story seemed all over the place, and I can only enjoy so many flash backs.
The 1st season of Heroes started out really good, but it was a little dark and physiological for us — I’m more of a happy x-Men kind of person (though there was that 3rd X-Men movie). When I watched the beginning of the 2nd season, it felt lost, like the 1st season of Heroes was all the story that was to be told.
What shows have some of the best long story arcs?
I highly suggest The Office (US version) starting with season 2. As well as the first four seasons of Scrubs (starting in the fourth season things get a little wishy-washy).
If you’re looking for an animated show, I highly suggest Futurama. It is extremely deep as far as animated comedies go, and there are actually PhD.s that write the science based jokes (the extra features make me feel dumb).
For Julia (not that I know her enough to suggest), Gilmore Girls is a good, witty show that my sisters and mom just absolutely love to bond while watching.
The Sopranos, The Shield, The Office (give it a chance… you might not like it at first taste). The wife and I are really enjoying Dexter and The Tudors right now.
Scrubs is a show you should definitely check out. It’s one of my favorites. It’s a bit off-the-wall, but it is brilliant and witty. Some people don’t get the humor of the show, or the fact that it is a blend of drama with comedy, or, as the creator put it, a drama with “elements of comedy”.
I’ve seen all the Scrubs several times and I never get sick of watching them. There are some real laugh out loud moments in some of those episodes. Other episodes give you something to think about.
I haven’t really watched TV since around 1990, though I have watched a little NHK here in Tokyo now over the last few years.
My suggestion for fantastic TV series to have a look at renting (though it’s not for everyone) is The Wire. Was put onto it by a friend and though I haven’t watched the whole thing it’s amazing. As I say though, it’s definitely not for everyone.
My second suggestion is Le Négociateur, based on the real-life experience of Québéquois private investigator and hostage negociator Claude Poirier. I’m part-way through catching up on Season 2 right now. Not sure if there are english subtitles available somewhere or not.
For another fantastic québécois series, have a look at Les Invincibles. Starring the same great cast as the films Québec-Montréal and Horloge Biologique, this one is more of a comedy-drama.
You might want to also check out 30 Rock and My Name is Earl for some light hearted comedy.
Meant to follow up sooner on this. I’ve watched every episode of every season of Lost, and while some of them were weaker than other, in general I’d say that I’ve enjoyed the show as a whole. The most recent season (ended last week) has been quite good - answering lots of questions, but of course raising new ones. I think I read somewhere that there is a plan to end the series in 2010 so it sounds like they have a script they are following.
As for Heroes - I can’t get enough of that show. The funny thing is that I didn’t start watching it until Dave told me about it and how much he was enjoying it. After that, my mission was to get Amy (my wife) interested in it (so I wouldn’t be watching it alone) and surprisingly it didn’t take much effort on my part to make that happen. As for season two being “a little dark and physiological” - no comment. I found season two a bit harder to get into, but that was likely due to the start and stop nature of things around the writers strike.
I think the best way to watch a series is always going to be from start to finish - with every episode available - and I’d say that is especially true with Lost.
At the risk of turning this comment into a mini-novel, the one other show I might recommend would be Entourage. I’ve not seen much of it, but the shows I did see were entertaining enough.
How I Met Your Mother is a great show. Season 1 and 2 are both on DVD and by far the funniest season’s.
House M.D.
I’ve many times failed to explain why I like it, so I won’t add to that number now
My favorite way of watching is to buy the whole series DVD and watch it at a time.
My wife in our downtime really like to watch whole series that we have missed on dvd. Our favorite one recently has been prison break and sapranos. It can become addicting and take up a day or two when you get started though. On the upside it is a good way to relax and spend time together
I second The Sopranos and Dexter (if your mind is twisted a bit). We are also watching Prison Break season 1 right now. Pretty good so far.
the office us version sucks ass for dinner and brekky, not lunch thou. greys is getting to repititive and danger mouse was a cartoon. where am i going with this? im not, good night!