Underestimating Middle-America Since 1950: Television Test Thread

[Reply #120 on:]

Watching a bunch of english stuff at the moment.

Bought a show called Identity on DVD, it's an itv show starring Mayor Carcetti from The Wire. watched a few eps, it's intriguing, a bit hammy at parts but good.

Also FINALLY watching Life on Mars (UK not US) and it's bloody great. Love that it looks like it was made in the 70's. Afterwards I'll be watching Ashes to Ashes and also Sherlock at some stage.

EDIT: Anyone who's watched Life on Mars, what are their accents? Specifically, like region or whatever.

[Reply #121 on:]

Oh, wow, they made a show of that?
Gah, chalk up another on my list of things-I-want-to-see-or-should-watch-or-should-watch-again-but-never-really-get-around-to..

*KNOCK KNOCK*

It's Dirk Gently.  Now there's a tea time!

[Reply #122 on:]

Tea and crumpets!

Dirk Gently who?
Do not Dirk Gently into that good night..

(Honk honk)

I found one of the books! in my old room.  But anywhey regarding TV, my method is, I usually like to flip channels, scout around and watch bits and pieces of things.  I just sample a bunch of a variety of things if nothing in particular catches me.  Then I will settle on something if it arouses my attention and piques my interest enough.
Which reminds me of that awesome educational program on T.S. Eliot I caught at five o'clock in the morning once..

[Reply #123 on:]

I must congratulate Saturday Night Live for making an episode with Jim freakin Carrey, and still not being that funny. Why did he wait so long to come back on the show? Even if he is funny on his own he could have come back, I mean the Roxbury sketch he did back in like 96' with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan is still so damn hilarious. Oh well, I still love you Jim.

[Reply #124 on:]

It doesn't matter how good of a guest host they get, Saturday Night Live has been a humor vacuum for a LONG time now. Only a few remotely funny things have come out of it the last few years, and everybody is so shocked that those couple things are actually funny that they become huge internet hits.

[Reply #125 on:]

I began hating Jim Carrey for his anti-vaccination stance, but all stupidity movement asides, he was pretty damn lame in that episode.

I generally find that SNL episodes with a male host are funnier than those with a female host.  Dunno why, but maybe because men are more willing to make an ass of themselves than women.

But I agree with JoshTheater, SNL is more miss than hit these days.  There are some funny bits here and there.  I don't know what to pin this on, but I think my problem with a lot of the sketches are that they should probably not have been in at all.  Ironically, some of the funniest parts of SNL are the parts that are not live these days.

[Reply #126 on:]

Ashes to Ashes is great.

I'm liking season 2 over-arcing story. I miss Annie though, still haven't found out what happened to her. Hopefully get more info soon.

[Reply #127 on:]

Is Sarah Shahi's adorable hotness enough to make me watch Fairly Legal?

Yes...unfortunately.

[Reply #128 on:]

EDIT: Anyone who's watched Life on Mars, what are their accents? Specifically, like region or whatever.

Northen. If you want more specific then the are Mancherian (hmm not sure that is the right spelling). The accent in a Manchester accent (like Dapne is Frasier), hence why in Ashes to Ashes Gene Hunt is called "The Manc Lion".  Although the actor who plays Gene Hunt is as Southern as some one can be.

[Reply #129 on:]

Is Sarah Shahi's adorable hotness enough to make me watch Fairly Legal?

Yes...unfortunately.

Just GIS'd that, they're using the Arrested Development colour scheme for their poster!
Trickery.

She's also in that Life show with Damian Lewis (Captain Winters!), is that any good?

[Reply #130 on:]

Life was very good for the first season.  There was some weirdness in the second season surrounding Sarah Shahi's sexy character, and I didn't see the last several episodes.  My dad assures me the storyline wrapped up nicely by the time the series was cancelled though.

As an added bonus Christina Hendricks guest starred in a few episodes.

[Reply #131 on:]

EDIT: Anyone who's watched Life on Mars, what are their accents? Specifically, like region or whatever.

Northen. If you want more specific then the are Mancherian (hmm not sure that is the right spelling). The accent in a Manchester accent (like Dapne is Frasier), hence why in Ashes to Ashes Gene Hunt is called "The Manc Lion".  Although the actor who plays Gene Hunt is as Southern as some one can be.

Quite right, except it's Mancunian, not Mancherian. And that Daphne in Frasier sounds about as Mancunian as the Queen (but she is supposed to be from Manchester, of course).

[Reply #132 on:]

Ahh well us 'Ampshire folk do ave trouble with our spelling.

I did enjoy Life on Mars but the ending to Ashes to Ashes jsut seemd a little off.

[Reply #133 on:]

If there's one spin-off show that should be made and would have my complete support it'd be:

Action Hank



Dexter's Laboratory = Fuck yeah!

[Reply #134 on:]

the missing cat was a running gag through the series from what I remember; he'd been looking for this one woman's lost cat for something like 15 years.  She balked in the 2nd book when her bill included his new refrigerator, which he bought so he could throw out the old one as the final escalation of a protracted battle with his housekeeper over who would open the fridge - and therefore clean it out - first.

Something like that anyway. Been a while. Not seen the series yet.

[Reply #135 on:]

Nobody's likely to have a response so I'll post this here rather than bump the Babylon 5 thread.


Been re-watching it slowly over the last month, and I just got to "In the Shaow of Z'Ha'Dum" which has one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. It's also remided me why I loved Vir's character so much.

I could describe the scene but I'm not alone in my opinion so youtube has me covered.

[Reply #136 on:]

Finished watching Ashes to Ashes. Sad! Need to rewatch the beginning of Season 3 to work out what exactly happened...

Show spoiler

Did she actually go back to the real world at any stage?

When Ray, Chris and Shaz are all watching their tape... saaaaad! Poor Shaz! Poor all of them!

Poor Gene! Poor Alex! !

Also, that arse face who was being a dick to Gene the whole seaon, the devil right?

[Reply #137 on:]

Is American Idol being replaced with the exact same show, only now called The X Factor?

[Reply #138 on:]

Not being replaced I believe. I guess you could call The X-Factor a spin-off.

Still, fuck the world.

[Reply #139 on:]

Those shows are nothing but glorified karaoke contests with record deal prizes.

Californication season 4 finale: kinda meh, but at least there's another season on the way, more Hank Moody shenanigans.

[Reply #140 on:]

I like what Rage Against the Machine did in the UK in 2009, beating X-Factor for Christmas #1 in the UK singles chart, which is a very big deal in the music world, here, that was cool. Indeed made for an even Merrier Christmas for me, a guy who liked that song anyway.

[Reply #141 on:]

Arnie has a new animated TV show coming out called:
The Governator...

[Reply #142 on:]

Californication season 4 finale: kinda meh, but at least there's another season on the way, more Hank Moody shenanigans.

Thought the finale was really strong compared to the rest of the series but the series was the worst so far (still one of the best shows on tv though)

[Reply #143 on:]

Dirk Gently is getting another 3x1 hour-long episodes!

[Reply #144 on:]

That is good news; I rather enjoyed the pilot episode

[Reply #145 on:]

Was it as good as the books, Tweek, or did it suffer from adaption decay?

[Reply #146 on:]

It was quite different as I recall; although I haven't read the books for twenty years.

[Reply #147 on:]

Cool, 3 episodes, better than nothin'!
There's only 2 books for the material anyway.

[Reply #148 on:]

FazeShift did you delete my Bella Thorne thread?

[Reply #149 on:]

Yes, it seemed to be less about a TV show and more about you perving on the 13 year old girl in it... not cool.

[Reply #150 on:]

Oh gross I thought she was 14

It was more about it being a milestone for the TV forum, I thought. That thread belongs in The Museum, sir! You will be hearing from the PEEL Historical Society regarding this matter!

[Reply #151 on:]

I didn't even know who Bella Thorne was until I googled her. I still don't know. But if you image search her name one of the related searches is "Bella Thorne bikini" (is that you Bear?) which I find disturbing. Can't people wait til she actually grows some boobies to be perving it up?

[Reply #152 on:]

It's not disturbing for a bunch of 14 year olds. They think she's smokin and I don't mean cigars

[Reply #153 on:]

Please share with me Bear.

[Reply #154 on:]

Anybody been watching Game of thrones?

Took me a while to understand who the hell everyone was.

[Reply #155 on:]

A friend just put me on to Bored to Death. Absolutely adoring it, nearly through season 2. Funny, funny stuff.

[Reply #156 on:]

Yay, it's good did you see the one with the boobs girl yet?
That was a great one...

[Reply #157 on:]

I saw boobies and penies in that show!

Now for season 3...

[Reply #158 on:]

I was really tempted to make a new thread for this at first but then decided against it., but has anybody here watched the original Twin Peaks series? It's on Netflix and I just watched the first two episodes and I have to say I'm hooked. The acting is wonderful and the characters are ridiculously interesting. The FBI agent might already be one of my favorite television characters of all time, he's awesome. Definitely going to watch this entire show.

The only bad thing I can say about it is some of the music is at times a bit too cheesy for the situation, in particular the dramatic piano theme that plays whenever something sad or emotional is happening. On the other hand I love the smooth jazz that plays in a lot of the scenes, it's awesomely kitschy.

Also please nobody spoil any of it for me.

[Reply #159 on:]

Anybody been watching Game of thrones?

I'm all caught up on it!
Last episode I was all "Ohhhh snap son!"

There's a lot of weird looking dudes in it.

I wonder if there are actually dragons in the books, I presume they are, as each opening shot of Conan Dex (seewhatIdidthere?) and his new sexy missus pan over the dragon eggs as if to say to the audience:
"Hey guys, look, dragon eggs... just reminding you that there are dragon eggs up in here, but don't worry about it, it probably won't be important... probably... they're dragon eggs by the way... ... "