The Small Screen: TV

[Kieran]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

 

[brokenshoelace]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

I've been trying to catch up on every highly rated series I ever missed (and they're numerous), which included House of Cards. Great show. Watched the first season in a day and a half. Some of the plot points are too contrived and a touch unrealistic, but they remain highly entertaining, with masterful performances to boot. Spacey is awesome, obviously, but to me, the highlight of the show has been Robin Wright in her role as his wife. Can't wait to watch season two within the next few days.

On a different note, DarthFed, I've taken your advice and started watching Spartacus. I have on more episode left in the first season and I must say, I did not expect it to be this good. It starts out as just another "fun" show with some over the top violence and a cliched premise, but gets REALLY good midway through the season. Terrific.

I hope the second season does not disappoint given the change in actors following that tragic death. Though I need to watch that 6 episode prequel first.

 

[Kieran]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

I've been trying to catch up on every highly rated series I ever missed (and they're numerous), which included House of Cards. Great show. Watched the first season in a day and a half. Some of the plot points are too contrived and a touch unrealistic, but they remain highly entertaining, with masterful performances to boot. Spacey is awesome, obviously, but to me, the highlight of the show has been Robin Wright in her role as his wife. Can't wait to watch season two within the next few days.

Yeah, Robin Wright is fantastic and her and Spacey go so well together, as actors, and characters.

You ever watch Mad Men?

 

[brokenshoelace]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

I've been trying to catch up on every highly rated series I ever missed (and they're numerous), which included House of Cards. Great show. Watched the first season in a day and a half. Some of the plot points are too contrived and a touch unrealistic, but they remain highly entertaining, with masterful performances to boot. Spacey is awesome, obviously, but to me, the highlight of the show has been Robin Wright in her role as his wife. Can't wait to watch season two within the next few days.

Yeah, Robin Wright is fantastic and her and Spacey go so well together, as actors, and characters.

You ever watch Mad Men?

I literally got the 1st season three days ago but have yet to watch it. Will definitely do it within the next 10 days.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I've heard "True Detective" is phenomenal. It premiered this year. Though given that I've missed every episode so far (there has been 4), I'll just wait for the season to end and watch it in its entirety. It's only 8 episodes anyway.

 

[Kieran]

Oh fricken em gee!

The first ep of House of Cards! It's gone up a notch, down a notch, I won't be able to bleedin' sleep! Onto the second. I feel an all-nighter creepin' on. On Valentine's Night - and keep your dirty thoughts to yourself! It was fabulous, and Kevin Spacey and his Doug Stamper sidekick must be the most horrific, reptilian, ruthless and attractive villains on TV. I don't wanna give anything away... :nono but this was unbelievable...

 

[DarthFed]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

I've been trying to catch up on every highly rated series I ever missed (and they're numerous), which included House of Cards. Great show. Watched the first season in a day and a half. Some of the plot points are too contrived and a touch unrealistic, but they remain highly entertaining, with masterful performances to boot. Spacey is awesome, obviously, but to me, the highlight of the show has been Robin Wright in her role as his wife. Can't wait to watch season two within the next few days.

On a different note, DarthFed, I've taken your advice and started watching Spartacus. I have on more episode left in the first season and I must say, I did not expect it to be this good. It starts out as just another "fun" show with some over the top violence and a cliched premise, but gets REALLY good midway through the season. Terrific.

I hope the second season does not disappoint given the change in actors following that tragic death. Though I need to watch that 6 episode prequel first.

The second season WILL disappoint. In ranking them it goes season 1, and then season 3 and the prequel were both excellent. I think the best character in the show is Gannicus and he is the main character in the prequel.

Season 2 was a big step down and part of it is the change in actors. I think he struggled at first but in season 3 he did a very admirable job.

 

[DarthFed]

I've heard "True Detective" is phenomenal. It premiered this year. Though given that I've missed every episode so far (there has been 4), I'll just wait for the season to end and watch it in its entirety. It's only 8 episodes anyway.

I might have to rewatch a couple episodes as I have seen them pretty late at night and that's influenced me in thinking it isn't all that great. When you have a cast of Harrelson and McConaughey on a TV series it is going to get major attention no matter what. By no means is it bad but it hasn't really piqued my interest yet.

I want to start Justified and House of Cards sometime soon but not a good time of year for me. April will be bringing GOT for a few months and that show and the youtube videos of it will be more than enough viewing.

 

[brokenshoelace]

House of Cards is back for series 2 on Netflix! I think I'll be subterranean for the next few days gorging on it!

I've been trying to catch up on every highly rated series I ever missed (and they're numerous), which included House of Cards. Great show. Watched the first season in a day and a half. Some of the plot points are too contrived and a touch unrealistic, but they remain highly entertaining, with masterful performances to boot. Spacey is awesome, obviously, but to me, the highlight of the show has been Robin Wright in her role as his wife. Can't wait to watch season two within the next few days.

On a different note, DarthFed, I've taken your advice and started watching Spartacus. I have on more episode left in the first season and I must say, I did not expect it to be this good. It starts out as just another "fun" show with some over the top violence and a cliched premise, but gets REALLY good midway through the season. Terrific.

I hope the second season does not disappoint given the change in actors following that tragic death. Though I need to watch that 6 episode prequel first.

The second season WILL disappoint. In ranking them it goes season 1, and then season 3 and the prequel were both excellent. I think the best character in the show is Gannicus and he is the main character in the prequel.

Season 2 was a big step down and part of it is the change in actors. I think he struggled at first but in season 3 he did a very admirable job.

I'll try to tough out the second season as I want to watch all 3. I just got done watching the season 1 finale, and it was extremely good, and very satisfying. This show is a major pleasant surprise. It's not that I expected it to be bad. I just didn't expect it to be this good.

 

[DarthFed]

It's not like the 2nd season is bad or boring, just lacks what the other ones had, especially in terms of plot twists and acting. Of course the show is based partially on history (aside from the prequel) so that is part of it too. I imagine the show would have had an extra season or two (but no prequel) if Andy hadn't died.

 

[DarthFed]

So since we are so often arguing about greatest tennis players and "tier 1 vs. tier 2 vs. tier 3" I was thinking we could do the same for TV shows as this could also be a good way to find more shows to watch. I just downloaded House of Cards season 1 last night so I will be watching that soon.

Tier 1: GOT, Breaking Bad, The Wire. You will see in Tier 2 and 3 I will have a lot more shows but these 3 stick out as the best I've ever seen. Great writing, extremely entertaining, plot twists, no characters are safe, general unpredictability as to what will happen at the end.

Tier 2: Rome, Dexter, Spartacus, Sopranos, 24. Rome would absolutely be tier 1 if they had more seasons. But with only 22 episodes it is hard to place it with the shows above. It is of course based off history like Spartacus so you don't have the unpredictability of some shows, but "breathing life" into all the huge historical figures makes up for it as it isn't all fiction. Dexter is outstanding for 4 seasons but such a large drop after it. The first 4 seasons though are fairly comparable to the top shows yet still not quite as good IMO. I am really excited for 24 to be back on. It had 8 seasons (24 one hour episodes so lots of viewing). I thoughts season 6 was the worst and season 3 was the best but the first 5 were all excellent.

Tier 3: Homeland, The Borgias, Shameless, Californication, Weeds, Lost. Kind of ironic that 5 are Showtime shows but that's how it goes. Homeland had the capability of being so much better but it dipped in season 2 and season 3 was yuck. Weeds is a great show through 3 seasons and then it just got awful overnight. Most shows have a slow but steady drop but this one went down in a hurry. Californication was great the first 3 seasons and solid the 4th but the last 2 have been dreadful. They are calling it a day after what is sure to be a poor Season 7. The Borgias is similar to Rome in that it'd be a tier higher if it had more seasons. It got cancelled in the middle of the 3rd season and you could tell they had to readjust everything at the end and it naturally didn't come out well. Lost wasn't perfect yet it was still highly entertaining until the last couple seasons.

Missing the cut: Everything else I've seen But some other semi-popular ones that stand out would be True Blood, Nip Tuck, and Married with Children (still hilarious when I see it).

Shows I currently watch that could move up to one of the tiers: Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex. Both just finished their first seasons and they were very good. I still am not all that impressed by True Detective but it certainly isn't bad, only 4 episodes in.

 

[kskate2]

I think you could include the original Law & Order and Hill Street Blues in tier 1 and Alias in tier 2.

 

[DarthFed]

I think you could include the original Law & Order and Hill Street Blues in tier 1 and Alias in tier 2.

Never saw either, even I'm not lazy enough to watch every show You should make a list too.

 

[Kieran]

Brother Darth, you're being very kind to that illogical mongrel that is called Homeland. Though in fairness I'd put Mrs Brody in Tier 1, standing all alone!

My Tier 1 shows are Fawlty Towers, Mad Men, West Wing, NYPD Blue, Spiral (French) and The Bridge (Scandinavia), and House of Cards is making a strong case.

Tier 2: Sopranos, The Killing (Danish), Columbo, Star Trek TNG, Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett), and I bet there's a bunch more I've forgotten.

Tier 3: could really be anything that I casually got absorbed in but didn't need to watch.

I'm not disagreeing with your top shows, by the way - I just never saw them!

 

[brokenshoelace]

Good list. I'll think of mine and post it.

Dexter was on its way to become a first tier GOAT until he changed his coach after season 4 (in this case, the writers).

 

[DarthFed]

Brother Darth, you're being very kind to that illogical mongrel that is called Homeland. Though in fairness I'd put Mrs Brody in Tier 1, standing all alone!

My Tier 1 shows are Fawlty Towers, Mad Men, West Wing, NYPD Blue, Spiral (French) and The Bridge (Scandinavia), and House of Cards is making a strong case.

Tier 2: Sopranos, The Killing (Danish), Columbo, Star Trek TNG, Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett), and I bet there's a bunch more I've forgotten.

Tier 3: could really be anything that I casually got absorbed in but didn't need to watch.

I'm not disagreeing with your top shows, by the way - I just never saw them!

Yep I can't disagree with yours either, and I've only seen a couple of them! Unlike sports there are no stats and tournaments for favorite TV shows. It is all about taste.

I hear you about Homeland, but the first season was so great and, though I found similar flaws to season 2 as you, I thought season 2 was still good. This latest ugly season was the debris from season 2 though. So the iceberg was season 2 and Homeland went down quicker than the Titanic.

 

[Kieran]

I'm still bingeing on series two of House of Cards. It's excellent, and some interesting guest directors: Jodie Foster, and Mrs Underwood herself, Robin Wright.

I'm wondering how Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen, West Wing president) would handle Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey, VP in HoC). It's the difference between the two shows - both of which are high end political dramas involving Democrats: one show was idealistic and the other shows politics to be seamy, brutal and utterly hypocritical and without principle.

And both are written by guys who worked on the inside - both most likely reflect the truth of it, funnily enough...

 

[TsarMatt]

If anyone is watching True Detective, I bet the writers didn't tell you about the fun Cole and Marvin had during their case work...

 

[Kieran]

True Detectives is making waves, no doubt about it! I've seen reviews of it that compare it to The Wire.

Finished House of Cards last night. I'll say nothing except...I'm missing Frank!

 

[brokenshoelace]

Finished House of Cards last night. I'll say nothing except...I'm missing Frank!

I really hope this isn't a spoiler :nono