Find me some good TV
Because I'm cheap, I'm dumping HBO, which costs me $13 a month. Problem is, without it, TV stinks. I'm down to watching reruns of The Unit and Shark, and Nip/Tuck has gone way past rational, into really really stoopid. The Shield and Mad Men havent started, I refuse to watch reality TV, which is pure crud. I dont care about obese people losing truckloads of fat or bad singers in Omaha. Havent watched Survivor since Johnny Fairplay, Amazing Race no longer amazes.
I need some new TV.
No sports, OK? I'm not one of those sports guys who thinks it's great to hunker down in front of the tube for exciting Big 12 action. If I watch more than 2 minutes of Around The Horn, check my brain for waves.
I watch Bourdain occasionally, but food doesnt thrill me. I watch the Wandering Golfer, but it makes me sick with jealousy. I even watch those find-a-house shows on Fine Living, but the Gen-X whiners tick me off. If you don't like the colors in the bedroom, paint it, OK?
I'm even tired of my guy Bear Grylls, since I read some of his stuff is staged and he spends many nights in hotels. Plus, how many times can you see him eat a bug for protein and make that goofy face?
I got a few suggestions from radio callers last night, something about a guy with an incurable disease selling crack or meth or something to provide for his family after he's gone, some other show about a British guy who bumps his head or some such and travels back in time to 1973. What?
None of it sounded all that great.
I need your help. Thanks and a tip of the Keystone Light.
posted by Paul Daugherty at 9:05 AM
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Post a Comment*survivorman...nothing staged...no crew... films it all himself...
search out on bbc america in reruns or on dvd the original bbc "the office"...whole series nicely wrapped up in 13 brilliant episodes...show does need to be watched in order
daily show and colbert are back in production...shows have been more bare bones but still biting satire...
losing HBO hurts, but all is not lost. I watch 'The Antiques Road Show' and play a game with my roommate. Whoever guesses closest to the suggested value wins. I've learned a ton about antiques and it's never dull (even though that's Exactly what you would expect).
BBC World News is great. You feel so well informed having a brit give you the news.
King of Queens doesn't disappoint.
And anything PBS rolls into an hour format. PBS is the best. Frontline = wow.
Breaking Bad at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights on AMC.
Don't miss it!
The shows I'm currently watching:
Top Gear on BBC America
Mythbusters on Discovery
American Gladiators on NBC
Thats about it. Before the strike I was watching Chuck, Heroes, 30 rock, My Name is Earl and The Office.
The Office, Family Guy, 10 items or less, and Law and Order equal great TV.
Doc, I hear ya loud and clear. I know it's obvious, but have you checked out Friday Night Lights? Most of the "drama" with the kids is predictable, if not outlandish, but the relationship between Coach Taylor and his wife is about the best portrayal of reality I've seen in a long time. He's a flawed genious, and it plays out well against the Texas tapestry. Give it a shot.
Doc, I hear ya. I hope you've checked out Friday Night Lights. The first season started out looking very depressing (it is set in west Texas) but the way the writers are portraying the relationship of Coach Taylor, his wife, and their daughter is all-too-real. Good stuff. Watch it just for that and the football background (it is just background) is just a perk.
Read a book.
Network shows: Boston Legal & Friday Night Lights (I grew up in west Texas and my high school played Odessa Permian every year - Permian was the HS that the original book "Friday Night Lights" was based on).
C'mon Paul - the HBO fee is more than worth the options it gives you. I mean how can you live without "Real Sex" and "Cathouse"??
Serious question Paul:
Reading and listening to you, it's clear you're not a diehard sportsfan. Where you always so upfront about this fact or just more so now that your established and comfortable revealing it???
Oh yeah, Breaking Bad AMC is about the best thing going right now, but a better solution is to check out some series like Dexter or The Wire via Blockbuster and simply immerse yourself in them for a few weeks--you wont be sorry.
Why don't you ask McAlister?
He's TIVO'ed every TV show ever made !!
How about reading a book?
Watch WWE. Hot women and great action. Monday 9-11pm USA
tUESDAY 10-11PM SCIFI
FRIDAY 8-10PM CW
How I Met Your Mother is hilarious.
Many of the shows on USA are good but never get their due respect. Burn Notice, who doesn't start its second season until summer, is my favorite show. Great stories and awesome roles.
The only show on TV that's worth watching continues to be Law and Order.
Whether it be the original, SVU or Criminal Intent, it's the only show where quality writing and acting come together.
You canceled HBO too early. The final season of The Wire has been airing. If you've never watched do yourself a favor and go rent the first season. The greatest television drama ever.
Breaking Bad on AMC is good if you like your comedy dark.
Coupling on BBC America is hilarious. It's like if Friends had some creativity.
Check out It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (not currently running on FX but seasons 1 & 2 are on DVD) if you have any appreciation for Seinfeldesque humor.
run, don't walk to your nearest library, B&N, Borders, etc. and pick up "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt (the best, bar none) and/or "Ava's Man" by Rick Bragg (2nd best, bar none). These 2 books will be with you long after the writer's strike is over. Enjoy!
I agree with PD. WIth the strike, there is absolutely nothing worth watching.
You can't go wrong with the Hamilton County library and their quality supply of DVD series. I've never had HBO, but I've seen all the Sopranos, Rome, and Curb Your Enthusiasm because of our library.
Mark
Don't try to find new TV shows. There is nothing ever on TV. That is why mine only gets turned on for Reds games and other sporting events.
It's amazing how free you feel when you break the habit of turning on the TV when you get home. Have a good conversation with someone, read a book or go out and find something to do in our wonderful city. Some people would be shocked to see how much actually goes on around town especially downtown, in OTR, and NKY.
Like Morrie Shwartz said, "Lying on their death bed, no one has ever said 'Man, I wish I would have watched more television in my lifetime'."
Not preaching to you Paul, just an overall comment on society and a small suggestion...
Friday Night Lights, no question.
Some favorites:
Rescue Me
The Unit
Lost
Dexter on Showtime is also an excellent show where a run through the DVDs would be a good way to pass some time. My favorite part about the show is that it is similar to "The Sopranos" in that you're rooting for a deeply flawed character.
-Chris
Norwood
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is hilarious, not on the air right now, but you can pick up seasons 1 & 2 (in a combined set) for $20, while crude, it is historical. Plus Danny DeVito joined the cast for season 2.
Agree with Chris -- Dexter is an excellent series. Also from Shotime, we are going to watch the first and second seasons of the Brotherhood. Video on demand is great especially when it is free.
Chuck
Paul, blockbuster.com my wife and I swear by it. You create a list of the flicks you want to see, and they send them to you. You watch them, stick them in the envelope and they send you another one on your list. At blockbuster you have the option of returning the DVD at the store and get a movie for free. Great deal. We have been a member for a couple of years.
I picked up season one of The Wire at Best Buy for $28, and it used to be twice that much. Seriously, like others have said, The Wire is one of the best shows ever to grace the small screen (and puts all network TV police procedurals to shame)
Paul-- Your wife & kids are probably suffering through the same hard times. Try this just for fun. Pick a time slot. Clear off the dining room table (that wonderful repository for all things too important to put in their proper place) and break out your board game of choice: Monopoly, Dominos, Scrabble-- a deck of cards would do.
Allowing for commercial breaks, you'll have 50-some-odd minutes of side-splitting entertainment. Just don't forget to put a coaster under your beer can.
9:50 next time you watch Survivor Man ask yourself how he films himself up in a tree w/ a camera angle that is from another tree?
The more you study the camera angles the more you realize something does not add up. My guess is he is not by himself as viewers are told. Let's be honest w/ ourselves there is very little that is real about supposed reality TV.
Doc I agree w/ Antiques RS and also would suggest Mythbusters as well as Dirty Jobs.
Robert Young
Milford
Bearcat Basketball is "appointment television"! Everything else on TV is garbage. I also agree with the idea of reading a book. Read some Cormac McCarthy; No Country For Old Men or The Road.
"an incurable disease selling crack or meth or something".
Why tv? Enjoy plinking your neighbors light. Relax.
Of course relaxing too much means no job which will create a lack of relaxation.
In the world of having to do you've become an annoying and sometimes interesting acquaintance.
get your hbo back you cheap f##k! the new show "in treatment" is brilliant and it's the last season of "the wire". what the hell is wrong with you?
Television is interruptive. Too many commercials, pop-ups, "Breaking News," storm and flood watch warnings and ticker-tape messages acrossed the bottom of the screen. And why isn't there a separate channel for school closings? We've gone all our lives without all this crap to clutter up the screen. I'm convinced Channel 9 loves "screwing" with their viewing audience as they find one idiotic reason after another to throw some more interruptive garbage on the screen while the viewer is TRYING to watch
the show. It's pathetic. All of them, and Channel 9 in particular, are CNN and Fox News wannabees.
And today we have school closings that were announced all over Channel 9's screen last night and we have NO SNOW and higher than expected temps today. All of you people belong in a rubber room so you can't mis-inform anybody. Get somebody at the helm who knows how to treat their viewing audience.
response to robert from milford...les stroud "survivorman" is first and foremost a filmaker that got into survival training later in life...
survivorman operates on a multiple of levels...on the surface level, it’s a show about survival, which is fairly interesting. But on the level below, it’s a show about making a show about survival — watching how this guy is all alone out there filming the show...when you see some of the stuff Les is doing, you have to ask: how in the world did he get that shot? i watch the show for this reason cause i film all the time...the Season 1 DVD has a behind-the-scenes episode that explains the lengths he goes to in order to record himself doing things like trekking across arctic ice floes (the short answer: he sets up a camera, treks for a few miles, then comes back and gets the camera...he mentions all the time in the show that he did something twice...once to get the shot and the other to go back and get the camera...at the end of one show when he has to leave the valley floor in utah he says he has to walk out of here but he is not coming back for the camera because he did not have the energy to come back for it...he takes a few cameras with him so he can get for example a shot from one tree while climbing another...in many an interview he says “I’m supposed to be out there surviving—but 60 percent of my time is spent changing batteries, cleaning lenses and setting up camera angles,”...Standard equipment now includes two Sony HVR-Z1Us, which handle the bulk of the footage, as well as a single Sony HDR-HC3. Also thrown into the Pelican is a smaller Sony DCR-HC96, the profile and infrared capabilities of which make it easy to “prop up and do time lapses,” A waterproof lipstick cam, and the $300 Viosport Adventure Cam H20...
The guy on Survivorman has explained a number of times the labor that goes into setting up the cameras. He must spend half of each day he's alone just moving his four cameras to get a shot. Good show, always interesting.
Also, Top Gear on BBC America is funny and full of great information.
If you like Sci-Fi, my wife swears by Dr. Who and Torchwood on the BBC.
Get a Tivo and record Conan O'Brien, the funniest guy on TV.
I have an idea Doc, try some new entertainment. "Music". I saturate myself with sports, news, and some cooking shows and then it's time for a nice pair of Koss headphones...you know the kind that cover the entire ear,lights dimmed, some Jean Luc Ponty, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Then a glass of wine, turn on the lava lamp, and I better stop right there. Free yourself from the Slime From the Video.
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