Television thread

[Merusk]

Kansas, but it would have made more sense to be in Colorado, since they could actually see the mountains, which ain't happening in that area of the world.

Woah, really? Kansas? WTF.. they had survivors trickling in from Denver and - like you mention - the mountains.   Hurk..

But then I didn't watch much, just caught an episode or two here and there.

[sigil]

it's believable that folks would come from the mountains and Denver to there, it's just another couple hundred miles, maybe the earth is smaller in Jericho's universe ;)

A dual tuner Tivo made possible picking up a lot of shows that would fall through the cracks otherwise. most of them ddeservedly so, but Jericho was alright. Nothing award winning, but it'll do.

[MrHat]

Now, film seventh heaven  in the middle of it.

There was a bit of Who's a good guy  or bad guy, Some love interests, and a home wrecker that made me give up on it for a while. The First third (shit blows up but we don't know how much) and the last third of the season (bad things happening and finding out how bad things really are) are decent.

Ah, that's what I meant.  I must of caught a shitty part.

[Cheddar]

Comcast.

I have read nothing past this post but this made me giggle.  A LOT.  Thanks.

[HaemishM]

I finally watched the Shield Season Finale. WTF? That's a season finale? Is it the first half of the season or the .5 part of the season? It didn't end well for a show which I don't expect to see for another what, 6 months to a year? Why did Vick stomp out of the review board hearing? And wasn't that in 3 days instead of that night? It was a good episode, just weird.

Shane is so dead.

[Margalis]

The Shield schedule got all messed up towards the end of season 5, they weren't sure how many more episodes there were going to be. Originally there were only going to be something like 6 more episodes after the end of season 5, then there was going to be one more season, then one and a half or something like that - hard to follow.

Basically the season we just saw was actually the end of season 5 and the start of season 6, or something like that...honestly I have no idea.

[Signe]

Last episode of The Sopranos was ALMOST brilliant.

[Abagadro]

I need to process it more. It was either a brilliant use of unresolved tension and red-herring threats as an allegory of current life in America, or a really cheap use of technique to obscure not having really any place to take the story to a conclusion.

[SnakeCharmer]

Last episode of The Sopranos was ALMOST brilliant.

Um.

What?


Seriously.  What?


I'm not sure if you're being your usual funny deadpan comedic self or actually being serious.

[Evil Elvis]

I thought it was good.

Didn't care too much for the ending, though.

[Selby]

Didn't care too much for the ending, though.

Everybody I have talked to is furious about the ending.  Me, I personally felt they did a good job.  It ended however you wanted it to.  They set it up, and then let you decide.  I was expecting more, but considering the trend of having whole series of episodes where absolutely NOTHING happens in the past few seasons, it ended decently.  I'm glad it is over.

[Miasma]

I liked the ending too, very Sopranos-y.  A typical ending featuring a massive shootout isn't the way to end one of the more innovative shows ever made.  It would have felt like a hollow boilerplate type finale.

I bet the cable companies had to handle thousands and thousands of angry people calling up screaming about how their cable went out at the end.

[Bunk]

It took me about an hour to proccess it all, and to come down from the adreniline high of the last five minutes. Fucking Brilliant.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I was one of those people going WTF?!?!?! at the ending, but the husband hit up the message boards after and read a few good theories about the ending there.

I guess one of the more popular explanations comes from something Tony and Bobby were talking about out in the boat up at the lake - how you never knew it when you got shot/died - didn't hear/see/feel anything.  That was someone with the theory that the either the guy who went into the bathroom came out and shot Tony or the two black guys who came in right before Meadow.  The husband is convinced Meadow was upset about something besides not able to parallel park properly.

Was I the only one that found Phil's death to be absolutely hysterical?  Yeah, if it had been real I would have been horrified, but seeing that just made both of us laugh.  All the buildup and then he gets taken out like that?

[Bunk]

I've read a bunch of theories already on the whole blackout thing, but I'm sticking with the "life goes on" theme. He gave us the one thing that we didn't expect - everything going Tony's way. Or at least as much as it ever does.

Phil's Dead
A.J.'s happy
Meadow seems to be accepting the family business
Carm's well, at least she isn't trying to leave him again
He seems to have found a new therapist to pursue

Sure, he's got the whole trial thing coming, but at this point, who knows what will happen with that. We got five minutes of the most tense TV I've ever seen, and then BAM! Nothing happened. Yea, I went through the whole WTF, did my cable die? thing, but once it was done and I reflected on the episode, I loved it.

One item I loved that I haven't seen discussed much yet is Paulie, and his whole turmoil at finally being offered some respect from Tony, and not knowing how to take it.

The whole episode had tons of great little moments, both in red herrings and in comedy bits. I loved AJ's comment on no SUVs as he hops in to the BMW, and then tries to justify it's milleage.

Janice's comment about getting past the shit from her Mom, and how no one thanks her for that.

[Xanthippe]

I thought it was one of the better episodes in general, but the first thought that struck me after seeing the ending was "well, at least now the franchise is wide open for a Sopranos movie."

[Signe]

Yes, that's why I thought it was "almost" brilliant.  At the end of a series or a movie, whenever my first thought is, "Ah.  I guess there will be a sequel", I believe the ending is a cop out.  I don't mind if I still have questions after, or some is not completely resolved, but I like feeling at the end it is an end.  If they can work in a movie or something, fine... I just don't like that feeling that's why they ended it that way.  I loved all the confusion and excitement at the end, however.  The whole time I was saying to Righ, "it must be him!  No, him!  Who's that???  Look!  He stood up!"  If he'd been sitting close enough, I probably would have been poking him.  Poor Righ.

[Simond]

Time for some Dr Who: The latest (UK) episode was low budget, Doctor-light...and utterly awesome. Clever use of time travel, a new enemy with amazing-yet-dirt-cheap 'costumes', and a real horror movie vibe.

And if the last 15 seconds didn't instill a severe phobia of statues in small children nationwide, there's no justice.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Yes, that's why I thought it was "almost" brilliant.  At the end of a series or a movie, whenever my first thought is, "Ah.  I guess there will be a sequel", I believe the ending is a cop out.  I don't mind if I still have questions after, or some is not completely resolved, but I like feeling at the end it is an end.  If they can work in a movie or something, fine... I just don't like that feeling that's why they ended it that way.  I loved all the confusion and excitement at the end, however.  The whole time I was saying to Righ, "it must be him!  No, him!  Who's that???  Look!  He stood up!"  If he'd been sitting close enough, I probably would have been poking him.  Poor Righ.

Exactly!  I kept thinking it was going to be the guy with the vest shooting.  Then the nervous looking guy at the counter.  Then the two punks...  It was tense.  And then.... nothing.  My husband said it was open for a movie as well, but I hope they don't go that route.  The ending will have people speculating about it for a while, but a movie would answer any questions and ruin the whole "what do you think happened?" part.  They did a good job of wrapping everything up, I'll give them that.  Tony manipulating Paulie into taking the cursed position was funny as well.  He really does know what buttons to push to get his way.

The Chicago Trib ran a contest for people to write in and guess the ending.  Most went with the blazing shoot-out ending, but a few said that Tony would be sitting on the deck by the pool and the ducks would move back in.  I'm glad it wasn't either to be honest.  Too cliche all around.

[Ironwood]

Time for some Dr Who: The latest (UK) episode was low budget, Doctor-light...and utterly awesome. Clever use of time travel, a new enemy with amazing-yet-dirt-cheap 'costumes', and a real horror movie vibe.

And if the last 15 seconds didn't instill a severe phobia of statues in small children nationwide, there's no justice.

One of the best I've seen yet with clever, clever writing and some great acting.  The fact that it was almost entirely devoid of The Doctor was doubly impressive.  I'm always up for a Wibbly Wobbly, Timey-Wimey explanation.  Cutting the fat out of episodes for a 45 burst is the best thing the revisited Dr Who has ever done.

Tho I'm sure I had a thread devoted to this topic buried somewhere...

[El Gallo]

I have never felt so tense watching TV in my life as I did during the last scene of the Sopranos finale.  I figured they would go with the "same as it ever was" ending with the last scene being Tony going out to pick up the paper or whatever.  But I was just begging for the episode to end whichever way as the tension built in that scene.

I think it's a good way of leaving us with a shot inside Tony's mind.  This is what his life has always been, this is what his life will always be.  Always on guard, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Except when he distracts himself with momentary pleasures. 

Love how they seduced AJ to a conventional life while Meadow seduced herself.

A+  Only thing I would have liked to see was some Melfi.

[Xanthippe]

A+  Only thing I would have liked to see was some Melfi.

Speaking of Melfi, I was so disappointed that Tony never avenged her rape.  I really really really really really wanted that guy to be tortured and then killed.

[Sauced]

Sure, but that would have been the end of the only person on the show with moral character.

I thought it was brilliant, personally.

[Miasma]

They left a lot of the old plot threads unfinished, which is fine.

It would have been funny if the ending consisted of that Russian Chrissy and Pauly wounded but might not have killed in the forest came out of nowhere and just gunned down everyone at the safehouse .

[trotski]

I liked the episode, it was a little hard to follow what was the possibly the best Sopranos episode of all time, last week.  But good none the less.

The ending was great, although I did the same thing and curse HBO for what I thought was a blackout.  And for the record, I'm in the Tony's dead camp.  Just too much information points in that direction.

[Abagadro]

I seriously doubt Chase will do a movie based upon everyhing I have read. After procesing it since yesterday, I am coming down on the brilliant camp.

[El Gallo]

I am looking forward to the Simpsons doing their take on the Sopranos ending.  This will be a hackneyed cliche cultural reference for a long time, and I wonder if we'll forget the impact it had initially.

[Yegolev]

Family Guy jumps on the Star Wars bandwagon:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965865.html?categoryid=1237&cs=1

I just watched the Star Wars Robot Chicken episode last night.  It wasn't bad.  I noticed Seth McFarlane used three different voices in as many portrayals of Palpatine, starting with Quagmire then Brian and finally Stewie.  This is OK, since that is two more voices than Steven Blum has.

[Miasma]

I think someone posted a trailer of that Family Guy episode, it looks pretty funny.

Yeah, here it is.

[Rasix]

"John from Cincinnati" is actually pretty decent.  I'm liking it a lot so far and am already into the "I can't wait for the next episode" mode.

The premise isn't very interesting honestly.  The acting by the kid in it is cringe worthy. The Deadwood style dialog (in spots) can be a little disjointing (Charlie Utter still talks like Charlie Utter).  But somehow, it just works.  This could be a very enjoyable series if it's allowed to play out.

[tazelbain]

I thought it was a lttle better than okay.  Part of RC's charm is the surprise of unexpected references.  That is washed out when it is limited to a theme.

I really like the (non) ending of SG1. While it didn't settle anything, it did seem to complete the "Earth becoming a mature civilization" theme.  I hope they make the movies.

[Miasma]

The onion provides closure to those who didn't like the Sopranos ending.

[Merusk]

Burn Notice was pretty decent. Tried to be a little too slick for me, but it's early yet.  I'll give it a shot over the summer at least, if only to see Bruce in another TV series.  Anyone else catch it?

[Johny Cee]

The commercials for Burn Notice looked interesting, but missed the premier.  Would have definitely caught it if I knew that Bruce Campbell is in it.

Finally caught Rescue Me this week....  alot of Dennis Leary's character doing his awkward lieing schtick.  Looks like they killed off a major character at the end of the episode, though.

Proby and Garrity continue to be comedy gold.  Uncle Teddy was also relatively amusing.

[HaemishM]

Bruce Campbell is in another series called Burn Notice? What channel is it on?