Left Behinds: What you need to be watching this fall

Saturday, October 07, 2006

What you need to be watching this fall

Veronica Mars
The Wire
The Venture Bros.

You may watch other things if you insist (I enjoy several others), but if you do not love these three you are A Philistine.

What the hell, here's what I can remember off the top of my head of my "enjoy" list, if you're looking for recommendations:

Dexter (Michael C. Hall!)
Extras
Spooks
The Office
Everybody Hates Chris
House
Laguna Beach

Gilmore Girls should be on the list, but if I can judge by the first two episodes of the season, the writing has fallen down a deep hole with the departure of the show's two cocreators and primary writers.

9 Comments:

At 2:04 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Veronica Mars: middlebrow to the extreme, sort of amusing.

House: OK, even less interesting and more formulaic than VM.

Dexter: horrendously written and I'm shocked you like it. In a word: hell to the naw.

The Office: genius.

The Gilmore Girls season premiere: the least rewarding hour I've spent all year, and that includes the hour and a half last month when I couldn't fall asleep and was just picking my nose.

all the others you mentioned: I haven't seen.

With the exception of The Office, you've skipped the most interesting programs in this, the greatest era of television ever.

Project Runway
Flavor of Love
Wonder Showzen
At 3:44 PM, Antid Oto said…

Flavor of Love is still on?
At 11:59 PM, Antid Oto said…

And I can't believe you think "middlebrow" is a devastating insult to aim at television. You think there's highbrow TV? You think real lowbrow TV is good? What is the alternative to middlebrow?

Anyway, I just watched the second episode of "Dexter," and yeah, the writing sucks. I was taken in by Michael C. Hall--apart from him, there's not much of value in the show.
At 12:33 AM, Anonymous said…

My tops are:

30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, and definitely Venture Bros.
At 11:48 AM, Antid Oto said…

I missed the Battlestar bus. But it's getting so much praise that when I finish with this season of the Wire, I'm going to go back and start watching it from the beginning.

Will check out 30 Rock too.
At 11:58 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Yeah, 30 Rock's first episode had a few hilarious moments. Though I always found Tracy Morgan the weakest link on SNL.

I wasn't even aware of BG. I mean, as something to pay attention to. I tend to not get into extended dramas.

And yeah, I'm usually drawn to TV's lowbrow. I go elsewhere for highbrow (though it probably exists to some extent on PBS and cable -- well done documentaries and movies, for example. And CSPAN. Throw poor CSPAN a bone). It's hard for me to justify spending time on the conventional middlebrow stuff, whereas trash TV feels anthropological, like I'm really experiencing America. Hence I got into The Simple Life when it first arrived, and am eagerly awaiting tomorrow's season finale of Flavor of Love.

Having said that, the new season of VM has won me over, provisionally. It's much snappier than the first two seasons.

But in general, I don't turn to TV for sharp wit. For that, the world has Left Behinds.
At 12:00 AM, Solomon Grundy said…

Also, I've been disappointed with this season of the Office, haven't you? It's not as tight somehow.
At 3:54 PM, Antid Oto said…

Also, I've been disappointed with this season of the Office, haven't you? It's not as tight somehow.

Yeah. We'll see if it improves.

the new season of VM has won me over, provisionally. It's much snappier than the first two seasons.

[SPOILER OF LAST SEASON'S FINALE]

I've kind of thought the characterization has been sacrificed a bit in favor of that snappy dialogue. There are lots of little moments where the writers, in dealing with this rape epidemic on campus, seem to forget that Mac's dead ex-boyfriend date-raped Veronica and Veronica just found out it was him a couple of months ago. I also miss the unsubtle but still welcome examination of class from the last two seasons. Again, we'll see.
At 12:20 AM, Solomon Grundy said…

I like the fact that they try to explore race and class in a contemporary manner, but I did not enjoy the clunky results the first two seasons. That latino gangbanger with a heart of gold was wince-inducing. For example.

And I was so glad they finally dumped/minimized the boring male characters in favor of girl power and snappy dialogue. Those drippy boys were what prevented me from really getting into the show (in fact, I only watched the show under duress, in a marathon while I was staying at a friend's house for the evening).

SPOILERS

But yeah, Veronica's got to be the most resilient rape victim ever. Especially considering she just witnessed/didn't prevent an acquaintance getting raped.

I love Mac. Big Mac. She's so much cooler than the dumb male best friend (could that friendship be any more implausible?).

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Saturday, October 07, 2006

What you need to be watching this fall

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