Television thread

[WayAbvPar]

WOOOHOOO! New Deadwood last night! I had forgotten how much I love this show until the ep ended last night and I was FURIOUS that I had to wait a week for another fix. All kinds of good stuff, including Bullock beating the everliving shit out of EB (which has needed to be done for 2+ seasons now).

[Morfiend]

WOOOHOOO! New Deadwood last night! I had forgotten how much I love this show until the ep ended last night and I was FURIOUS that I had to wait a week for another fix. All kinds of good stuff, including Bullock beating the everliving shit out of EB (which has needed to be done for 2+ seasons now).

I also forgot how much I liked Deadwood. Its nice to watch a quality show again.

[Evil Elvis]

Anyone know what was up with Bullock fidgeting with his nose when me met with Hearst?

[El Gallo]

I was wondering about that myself.  I liked the episode, it seemed to have more of a season one feel to it.  I felt like they lost their way a little bit in the second season (it was still awesome, of course).

[WayAbvPar]

The nose thing was some sort of nervous tic (notice he did it when talking to his wife- who, by the way, needs a nude scene stat). I am guessing there will be some sort of further explanation for it.

[Johny Cee]

With the return of Woo,  Deadwood seems to be picking up the pace.  Al is minus a finger,  Hearst insinuates rape and states that he almost decided to kill Bullock,  and the Ellsworths aren't getting along.  By the way,  the doctor appears to be coughing up large portions of his lungs. 


Did I miss Venture Bros premiere?  I was watching the repeat of Rescue Me,  when I realised Venture might be starting up again.

[tazelbain]

Yes.

[Abagadro]

Random Deadwood thoughts:

I was a bit nonplused by the first two eps of Deadwood, but McRaney is really starting to elevate things.  This show is about bad guys fighting against worse guys and they seem to be getting back to that. The upcoming confrontation between Hearst and Dan looks like it might just be freaking awesome.

They can frankly jetison Joanie and Jane at this point and I wouldn't give two shits. Joanie is getting particularly pointless and lame.

Richardson is rapidly becoming my favorite character based solely on his use of antler talismen.

[Yegolev]

Did I miss Venture Bros premiere?  I was watching the repeat of Rescue Me,  when I realised Venture might be starting up again.

It's on the TiVo.  Hector took Dracula out behind the woodshed last night, so tonight is Venture Bros.

[Big Gulp]

Damn!  I completely forgot about Deadwood last night.  Oh well, I guess that means I can use my On Demand (which we finally got installed last week, yay!) and catch it.

Oh, and I love Richardson, too.  When he's at the midpoint of the stairs worshipping the moose and Al walks by saying, "Fuckin' pagan." I laughed my ass off.

[HaemishM]

Did I miss Venture Bros premiere?  I was watching the repeat of Rescue Me,  when I realised Venture might be starting up again.

It's on the TiVo.  Hector took Dracula out behind the woodshed last night, so tonight is Venture Bros.

The Venture Bros. was outstanding. They plan on using more villains this season, as well as the Monarch, and I applaud this. Especially when that villain is the horribly gay King Gorilla.

"Death-prone children" - Le art.

[WayAbvPar]

Random Deadwood thoughts:

I was a bit nonplused by the first two eps of Deadwood, but McRaney is really starting to elevate things.  This show is about bad guys fighting against worse guys and they seem to be getting back to that. The upcoming confrontation between Hearst and Dan looks like it might just be freaking awesome.

They can frankly jetison Joanie and Jane at this point and I wouldn't give two shits. Joanie is getting particularly pointless and lame.

Richardson is rapidly becoming my favorite character based solely on his use of antler talismen.

Interesting. I LOVED the first 2 episodes, and thought last night, while still top quality, wasn't quite as good. I completely agree about Joanie and Jane, although Joanie needs a nude scene before she goes.

[Abagadro]

It's probably my latent misogyny showing up because I really can't find myself giving a crap about any of the female characters on this show. Since the first eps had a lot of Joanie, Jane, Alma and Trixie stuff they just didn't light my fire up all that much.  The stuff in Al's place with the murders was good stuff though particularly how Hearst is now using the second incident to back off Bulllock.

[Big Gulp]

Interesting. I LOVED the first 2 episodes, and thought last night, while still top quality, wasn't quite as good. I completely agree about Joanie and Jane, although Joanie needs a nude scene before she goes.

I thought the second episode was the best one, with this one right on it's heels.  Hearst is coming along as a great character, worse than Al or Cy, because he doesn't indulge in any of their petty human frailties.  He's just an insanely rich, completely unscrupulous bastard whose only focus in life is "the color".  I never thought Major Dad would look so completely evil.

And yeah, the women's arcs are completely worthless.  I never liked Jane or Joanie.  Alma could be interesting considering that aside from Al and Bullock she's the only one who could really fuck up Hearst's plans.  They just need to utilize her.

ETA:  Oh, and Ellsworth needs to lay down the Papa Stick.  He's the only saint on this show, and she treats him like shit because she'd rather be banging the sheriff.

[Sky]

I love Jane. "Why the fuck is everyone whisperin' 'round here lately?" "Look at that, a piss puddle. Must've missed that when I planted my ass there last night."

Seems like Joanie could be an interesting character if they'd go somewhere with her instead of just having her meander aimlessly. I was hoping she was going to off Cy and take his place over or something.

[El Gallo]

This season looks to be the best one yet.  Hearst is a great villain, and his "aunt" looks like an entertaining side character.  EB and Richardson have been A+.  I like Jane's comic relief and Seth is more interesting as borderline-insane.  I agree that Joanie's story has been uninspired; they need to give her something more interesting to do or less screen time.  I like her awkward relationship with Charlie and would like to see them do something with that.

I am a bit nervous that the big load of new characters in last week's episode, with at least two more minor characters from last season coming back next week, will dilute the focus of the show too much.  I thought that was the source of a lot of the problems with season 2, but I may be in the minority on that.

[Johny Cee]

I can see why HBO was bitching about the Deadwood budget.  They populate the series with alot of recurring characters,  and like to sprinkle in some "name" actors.

Most TV series,  they're lucky to have one or two people you've heard of.  Most of the actors on Deadwood you can place from previous work.

And now Brian Cox joins the cast....

Deadwood is staying historically accurate in at least one thing with Hearst:  he was illiterate.  Hence the crude drawing he sent to Al.

McRaney is channeling a deeply disturbed individual with Hearst.  Barely held back from completely sociopathic behavior.  And Cy....  Cy is just as oily and conniving as you can get.

I'm a little pissed at missing Venture Bros premiere.  Looks like I'm staying up late on Thursday.

[Triforcer]

Justice League is ok, but no animated show can ever do the "serious" thing like Batman the Animated Series did (the first one from the early/mid nineties, not the crappily drawn later one).  That show was just so many levels of awesome.

[Broughden]

Let me start by saying that given our nerdish love of all things superheroish I felt this topic deserved its on thread. If the admins dont agree feel free to stick in the Television thread.


Coming to NBC this fall: Heroes

Just saw the first trailer/commercial tonight. You can watch it at the link above.
Initial impressions are that it looks like X-Men + Unbreakable + The 4400 combined. However given NBC's normally high production values it certianly looks better than any super hero related shows that the WB has ever released. The director is David Semel whose work includes this summer's Windfall series, the mini-series Revelations, American Dreams, and more.


(Having just found out they cancelled Surface...screw NBC. Im sure this show will get a large following, I will love it, and then NBC will cancel it and replace it with Law and Order: America's Got Fear Factor)

[Broughden]

I was thinking about necro posting the old thread. Did you guys hear that Surface was canceled? :(

WTF?!? Surface was cancelled? I hadn't been paying attention to this thread previously and just read that today. Why? That was one of my favorite new shows from that season! Damn them all to hell!

Im sure the idiots at NBC will replace it with some low cost low budget reality TV tripe.

(I googled the news about Surface and found that Invasion was cancelled as well.)

I guess NBC thinks everyone wants to watch either talent shows or reality shows because of their low production costs.  :-(

[HaemishM]

I've heard that Heroes is decent enough to watch. Chris Ryall of Comics 101 seemed to like it.

And yes, they'll probably shitcan it after a great season like they did with Surface. I'd like to whoop the boys that thought not renewing Surface was a good idea. That season finale was just one of the best, most exciting pieces of TV fiction I've seen in a while.

[Xanthippe]

I didn't realize Deadwood had started yet.  I'll have to catch up or something.

I wish they'd do something interesting with Joanie.  She's a good actress.  Jane is an interesting character; she needs something other than being the town drunk.

I can't get the idea that Bulloch is gay out of my head.  He just does not strike me as interested in women - any woman - at all.  I don't buy his heterosexual interest.  It looks too fake.

With regard to the Sopranos, I thought it was the worst season ever.  None of it was compelling to me at all.  Time to wrap it up.

Rescue Me has been great this season, although the end of last week's episode was upsetting.  I'm still puzzling over it.

[HaemishM]

Rescue Me has been great this season, although the end of last week's episode was upsetting.  I'm still puzzling over it.

Yeah, me too. It reminds me of a rape scene in an issue of the comic Cerebus years ago. How does one sympathize with a main character who rapes his wife?

[Sky]

He just does not strike me as interested in women - any woman - at all.

The scene with him and his (soon to be) wife drinking tea sitting side by side was awesome. Victorian culture ftw.

[schild]

The canceling of Surface was pretty bad. But what do you want? All of the actors were shitty. There's a reason Lake Bell was removed from Boston Legal.

[tazelbain]

I'm a little pissed at missing Venture Bros premiere.  Looks like I'm staying up late on Thursday.

Or, you can get the fix.

[Margalis]

My problem with the end of Rescue Me last week was he raped her and she got all into it. That's the stuff bad usenet groups are made of.

This season Tommy has been made to look like a complete bad-ass in very contrived ways.

[Johny Cee]

I'm a little pissed at missing Venture Bros premiere.  Looks like I'm staying up late on Thursday.

Or, you can get the fix.

Saw that.  I'm not going to watch Venture Bros on a tiny screen.

It actually isn't staying up late with my crazy insomnia.

As for Rescue Me:

Tommy has never been a sympathetic character.  He's completely broken.  Everytime the show does something to make him sympathetic,  they've always turned around and had him be a complete asshole.

Every character on the show is a completely dysfunctional mess.

Garrity is fucking hilarious.  Especially when he and the proby start up the synergy of stupid.

[Xanthippe]

:
As for Rescue Me:

Tommy has never been a sympathetic character.  He's completely broken.  Everytime the show does something to make him sympathetic,  they've always turned around and had him be a complete asshole.

Agreed.  Every time I start to like him he goes and does something completely fucked up and then I hate him again.  I have really started to hate Janet this season.  She's every bit as fucked up as Tommy, which I didn't exactly see before.

Every character on the show is a completely dysfunctional mess.

Garrity is fucking hilarious.  Especially when he and the proby start up the synergy of stupid.

One of the things I liked about Laura was that she wasn't completely dysfunctional.  She was a particularly nice foil for Garrity.  I would have preferred to see her and whatsisname prettyboy continue to function as coworkers after their thing was over.  Too bad she's out.

And yeah, Garrity and Proby.  Gold.

[Abagadro]

Article about the rape scene controversy with some statements by the writer

[HaemishM]

Article about the rape scene controversy with some statements by the writer

That confirms what I thought about the scene, that at some point, karma was going to pay back Tommy. It always seems to.

I think the scene was MEANT to make you uncomfortable and confused. The whole show should do that, considering just how much of a cocksucker most of the characters really are. That scene just happened to do nothing to really protect you from that realization, whereas most others do.

[WayAbvPar]

Can I just say that I fucking  Deadwood? This (last) season is going way too fast. Loved last night's episode, although I could have done without even implied sex involving Con Stapleton. The preview for next week looked AMAZING too.

Also- Holy CRAP the guy who plays Hostetler is huge. He towers over Bullock, who isn't exactly short.

[Big Gulp]

The preview for next week looked AMAZING too.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the Dan vs. Captain Turner cage match.  I also expected Al to at least act a little bit more obsequious towards Hearst in that meeting, if only to lull him.  Al losing his shit strikes me as out of character.  It is nice seeing Cy so utterly playing the bitch, though.

[Johny Cee]

Blah...

Got a call and had to go out to dinner and drinks, so missed my TV.  I watch 3 damn TV shows and I tend to miss them.

Caught Venture Bros.  Still good.  Henchmen 21 and 24 are great.  A little disappointed that Brock got rid of the mullet,  though the giant sideburns are nice.  The interactions with the henchmen tend to be the best part of the show.

The kegger with Monarch's and Underbite's henchmen was hysterical last season.

Going to have to catch Deadwood one of the million times HBO replays it.  Like the Sopranos,  this is a show that you want to see blood in the streets and the main characters (Bullock, in particular) going on a rage-fuelled rampage.  I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the Hearst plotline is going to resolve in an akward and unfulfilling manner, though.

[WayAbvPar]

The preview for next week looked AMAZING too.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the Dan vs. Captain Turner cage match.  I also expected Al to at least act a little bit more obsequious towards Hearst in that meeting, if only to lull him.  Al losing his shit strikes me as out of character.  It is nice seeing Cy so utterly playing the bitch, though.

I think the blowjob soliloquy about the orphanage was telling- Al feels the same sort of impotence against Hearst as he did against the proctor who wouldn't let him join his mother, and it REALLY REALLY bothers him (even to the point of physical impotence with Dolly). Hearst sounds like he might be moving away from the camp soon since it is getting to civilized for him, so Al might get to take some measure of revenge against a few of Hearst's proxies. God I hope Dan kicks the shit out the Captain...his "Morning....great time of day to go FUCK YOURSELF!" was priceless.