Television thread

[Margalis]

I have to admit I did watch Cleopatra 2525, and yes the theme song was awesome.

[Johny Cee]

You could also watch Space: Above and Beyond, a personal favorite of mine.

My favorite was Farscape,  so obviously take anything I say with a grain of salt. 

[Margalis]

You're off the team.

[Merusk]

Here, you linked the wrong one.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_VNsjjYRgjc&feature=related

 

Cleo had an interesting villian but I really preferred Jack.  No big surprise that the one with the half-naked bimbos got the full half hour slot, though. 


Speaking of B5 I got season 1 & 2 for x-mas and have been watching them during the days Netflix is in transit.  Watching seaon 1 again I'm trying to remember why I liked Sinclair so much and was so ticked when they brought in Sheridan.  Of course, as JMS points out in the comentary, part of that is the forced resolution to some crisis in every episode but man, that guy was almost hammier than Shatner.

Still, great to watch it all again knowing the whole story and picking up stuff I'd missed/ forgotten.  The major-arc episodes stand out as so much better because of that.

[Margalis]

Personally I hated Sinclair. Something about his acting just rubbed me the wrong way.

[Jain Zar]

BSG has decent allegory to modern days, cool stories, it generally doesn't get silly, its got very little forced humor or Joss Whedonesque suckass quipping (All scifi/horror quipping is shit.  GET OUT OF MY SHOWS DAMMIT.) yet its not so unbearably dark as to be an endless procession of doom and wrist slitting.

Are you serious?  I love Joss Whedonesque quipping.   LOVE IT.

I'm a huge massive nerd of levels heretofore unseen outside of the unwashed, LARP, pocket protector wearing kind, yet I utterly despise everything Joss Whedon has ever done.  (Outside of Firefly which I have not watched and generally refuse to, since I already know its quipland in space.)  Hated Buffy, hated Angel more since it could have been good if they stopped with the quippy shit, hated Alien Resurrection outside of Ron Perlman, and hated his X Men run. (First 2 trades.  I wasn't subjecting myself to any more of that early 80s throwback ass.)

I know its geek heresy but I just don't like anything the man has done.  He seems like a nice guy and all, I just find his stuff to be shit.

And that every Brownshirt needs to be slapped in the face with Ron Jeremy's wang.

[Johny Cee]

You're off the team.

 

[stray]

I didn't even know those shows were supposed to be geeky. The people who were trying to get me into Buffy for years weren't anything like that.

[Margalis]

Probably the difference between people who simply liked Buffy and people who are Whedonophiles.

[Morat20]

So, I would like to start watching one of the following series:

- Babylon 5
- Battlestar Galactica
- Stargate SG-1 (and Atlantis)

In your opinion, which one should I choose?

B5: Hasn't aged well -- the cheese factor and special effects just don't work as well. Still, it kicked off multi-season arcs and real story telling in sci-fi, even if they had to do shit filler episodes 70% of the time the first few seasons. (Fucking Grey 17 Is Missing? Fuck you, Grey 17 and your lame ass monster of the week).

BG: Sad to say, only seen the miniseries. Just picked up the first season on DVD and have been assured it's the bee's knees.

SG-1: It's "planet of the week" shit. I like it a lot, but it's a lot like ST:TNG -- they dabble in arcs, tend to have a lot of reoccuring villians and problems, and there's generally an attempt made to address some of the issues involved. In the end, though, they don't push it too far -- it's light, with occasional really good episodes. The production values, especially in later seasons, are pretty high and I've been told they took rather extreme steps to get the military side of it fairly believable. (The Air Force has a liason with them, and the SG-1 producers won some sort of award for realistic and positive potrayal of the US Air Force.). It's not great, but it's solid. Their version of Groundhog Day (time loop) was fucking awesome, though. :)

There's also Farscape. It's-- fuck if I can describe it. Chaotic sci-fi soap opera in a universe that looks like a cross between the Muppets and a BDSM coinventio? Once you get past the muppets,(no mean feat, I admit) it's just plain old unique. I liked it, once I figured out what the hell was going on. Scorpius was one heck of a great villian, though. I never did figure out who --- or what -- that guy was working for.

I have a hard time recommending that one, because it's one of those "like it or hate it" type of shows, and damned if I can figure out what makes people feel either way.

[Abagadro]

a universe that looks like a cross between the Muppets and a BDSM coinventio?

Heh. This made me giggle.

There is some great cleavage on that show.

[Morat20]

a universe that looks like a cross between the Muppets and a BDSM coinventio?

Heh. This made me giggle.

There is some great cleavage on that show.

I admit, I was there for Aeryn Sun in leather pants. Oddly, my wife appeared to be watching it for John Chricton in leather pants. I don't get the appeal myself. :)

[Merusk]

Scorpius was one heck of a great villian, though. I never did figure out who --- or what -- that guy was working for.

Scorpy was great, yes indeed.  As to who he was working for.  Like all great villains: Himself.

Chiana was always the one that did it for me. Rawr.

[stray]

Couldn't get past the henson look myself.. And the one guy that wasnt in lousy makeup (the lead character i guess?) was a dork.

[Bunk]

I feel sad that I made my first reply without bringing up Farscape. I still haven't quite managed to get every episode, but if you watch them in order to keep the story straight, its a great show. You will eventually get past its muppetness. The only other show I can think of that had a similar feel to Farscape would be Lexx, which was interesting yet odd.

[Lucas]

Thank you guys for the comments ! By the way, yesterday night I watched the Battlestar Galactica 2003 mini series (or huge pilot, if you want) and I liked it: it has a certain Wing Commander-esque (and thus, fricking awesome) feeling to it, especially when you see the ships in the launch hangar, some of the personalities aboard the Battlestar and so on.

And of course, just in time for the mini-series finale I decided Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was my favorite character, and well, you know...:P

[Merusk]

The only other show I can think of that had a similar feel to Farscape would be Lexx, which was interesting yet odd.

I never bring up Lexx, because there's always someone who'll give you, "so you're a pervert then," responses.  I thought it was a great, fun show with some interesting characterizations.  Plus it added-in Rutger Hauer towards the end, so win.

[JWIV]

The only other show I can think of that had a similar feel to Farscape would be Lexx, which was interesting yet odd.

I never bring up Lexx, because there's always someone who'll give you, "so you're a pervert then," responses.  I thought it was a great, fun show with some interesting characterizations.  Plus it added-in Rutger Hauer towards the end, so win.

The movies were fun - the tv series however was complete rubbish.

[HaemishM]

Lexx the series was just geek wank fantasy pandering of the worst kind. It needed to be a straight to DVD softcore pr0n series.

[Merusk]

See what I mean, Bunk?   

[HaemishM]

I didn't call you a perv for watching it.

The writers, though? Complete fucking 

[Rasix]

Couldn't get past the henson look myself.. And the one guy that wasnt in lousy makeup (the lead character i guess?) was a dork.

Crichton is pretty annoying protagonist for about the first 2 seasons of the show.  He's almost just completely unlikable in that time frame. I find it hard to enjoy shows where the protagonist is someone you want to clobber with a lead pipe. 

However, the show increases dramatically in quality in around mid to end point of the second season. I had been told this and I'm not sure I would have stuck it out if I hadn't known.   Once the momentum starts going on the show it really moves at a nice pace and the story line is ultimately rewarding, despite a few WTF moments in the wrap up miniseries & last few shows of the regular series.  The only other major issue I have is that there's plenty of filler episodes that cover the standard sci-fi schtick and those are generally poorly executed. 

Not a show I'd recommend to anyone, you really have to be willing to deal with the show finding itself for what isn't a trivial amount of time. 

[Triforcer]

Lexx the series was just geek wank fantasy pandering of the worst kind. It needed to be a straight to DVD softcore pr0n series.

Prince is one of my all-time top five TV villains.  That man was money. 

[Jain Zar]

Thank you guys for the comments ! By the way, yesterday night I watched the Battlestar Galactica 2003 mini series (or huge pilot, if you want) and I liked it: it has a certain Wing Commander-esque (and thus, fricking awesome) feeling to it, especially when you see the ships in the launch hangar, some of the personalities aboard the Battlestar and so on.

And of course, just in time for the mini-series finale I decided Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was my favorite character, and well, you know...:P

Just keep watching.  Just keep watching.   

[Johny Cee]

Lexx the series was just geek wank fantasy pandering of the worst kind. It needed to be a straight to DVD softcore pr0n series.

Lexx was a German/Canadian produced series.  As we all know from these boards,  the only thing more perverse than a German is a Canadian.

[Ironwood]

Prison Break is Awesome.

[Merusk]

Has it gotten better? S1 was very cool, then S2 sucked hard and I got bored with it and only watched every few weeks.  (Surprisingly,  I was able to keep-up with the complex twists.  )  I started watching S3 and got annoyed/ bored around the time they chopped-off Sarah's head because the actress realized the show wasn't going anywhere and haven't really watched since.

[Ironwood]

Boxed Set.  Series One.  I'm in the UK.

Oh and thanks for the spoiler.

 

[Merusk]

Fuck, sorry.  I thought you were picking it up on Torrent or something.

You don't want to watch after S1 anyway.  Really, I'm not kidding here.

[Ironwood]

Don't sweat it.  While I'd been avoiding specifics, the general suckiness of 3 was being made clear everywhere.

Season one (of which I just finished the last episode) was really, really worthwhile TV.  It did, however, have major flaws in that, to my mind, the 'intrigue' stuff I quite literally didn't give a fuck about.

However, it did get you invested in the Characterisation to the point I am now tempted (despite it being midnight here) to break open the seal on box 2 and have a look.

Damn my wife for her infernal presentage !

[Righ]

Strike over.

[Margalis]

The problem with Prison Break is that you can only build up to the break for so long, and once it occurs the show is logically over. They broke out or died trying - the end.

It's the kind of thing that should probably run for a season or two then hit a clear end. Unfortunately the ratings were such that they'll keep it going even though the original concept has been lost.

[Lucas]

Strike over.

Good.

Now please you "Lost" crew: move your ass back to Hawaii, asap. kthxbye.

[Signe]

Lost has been showing new episodes.  I guess they have some stashed away.  Of course, it does seem very much as if they've given up the ghost on resolving anything.  I don't think it'll last it's projected ending in 2010, even with the decrease in the number of episodes.  There's too many wandering plots to fix at this point, I think.  I gave up on trying to figure anything out.  I just watch it to see what Locke does next, really.

[Margalis]

They admitted that they make up the story as they go along and that they don't have resolutions in mind. They also said (they being writers) that the numbers mean nothing and that's the entire explanation.

I watch both Project Runway and Make me a Supermodel. (Cue VDL calling me a faggot) Am I alone there? Also I'm in love with Holly.