TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:09 am

There is a warm and friendly feeling to Star Trek that is hard to dismiss. It probably, for me, dates back to 1966–67 when I was 9 years old and watched it faithfully with my mom (who was also a space-flight junkie; I remember being up really early with her, watching some of the Gemini launches).

Still, now when I think more about stories, I tend to strongly prefer the ones where the characters change, where what happens in episode 4 of a season has reprecussions that play out through episode 22. Star Trek pressed the "reset" button a little too often. Well, always, pretty much.

DS9 had some good story arcs.

I like novels, to read and to write, better than short fiction, and I think I've come to the same conclusion in TV series: I like series that spread out as a continuous story that has an ending (this is important) and that clearly have an intended structure. For my money, it's only within such a structure that a character can change and grow in an interesting way—and that's what it's all about. Exciting events, cool ideas, yes, certainly, but I want to see what it all does to people.

Post by **Sassafras** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:54 am

Okay.

Although it pains me deeply to admit to it,

I have an TV obsession.

Hugh Laurie in House.

Yes, I know it's formulaic and the medicine in often somewhat suspect (which is, to say the least, putting it mildly .... I mean, let's face it, no self-respecting profit-driven hospital would permit a doctor to operate in such a cavalier fashion .... think of all the potential litigation!) but I just adore his vitriol, his sarcasm, his ineffable cantankerous self.

<sw00n>

Post by **PrinceAlarming** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:48 pm

And Hugh Laurie gives up a perfectly fine English accent for the role...

Post by **Tyrhael** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:15 pm

Primula Baggins wrote:X-Files was just such a bitter disappointment that it warped my perceptions, I guess. All that wonderful creepiness, all those hints at something amazing, ended in a bizarre tangle of wildly inconsistent explanations and the total destruction of both main characters.

Sounds like what happened with Alias. I loved it, but it went downhill once Irina left. The characters became two-dimensional caricatures of themselves.

I also like Lost, and Jericho. I might also have to admit to an obsession with a certain anime TV show about 6 years ago (mostly because I had a crush on one of the characters, lol). I also liked Star Trek (the original, the one with Picard, and Voyager).

Post by **WampusCat** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:55 pm

Based on the recommendations here, I watched "House" for the first time last night. Quite enjoyable!

And in a major upset, "Heroes" has taken the lead over "Lost" as my biggest must-see show, and the one I'll miss the most during the break before new episodes.

Post by **Sunsilver** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:22 am

Anyone else here addicted to NCIS?

I think the acting is terrific, the interplay between characters is always amusing and sparkling. I can't recall an episode that I've really disliked.

Mark Harmon drives the show, but the other characters all come through, too. I especially get a kick out of David McCallum as Ducky. (I was a HUGE fan of his when he played Illya in the Man From UNCLE.) Dr. Mallard is, of course, totally different, and I love his gutsy, ready-for-anything attitude.

One of the most memorable lines from last season: Ducky has a date with another doctor, and the rest of the crew are raising their eyebrows... Gibbs: Ducky may be old, but he's not dead!

This week's episode, which has Gibbs temporarily coming out of retirement to help Ziva was especially good. Another great line, which was just so in character: Gibbs: "You have ten seconds to tell me why I'm not on the beach in Mexico, building a leaky redwood hot tub...ten, nine, eight...."

Post by **WampusCat** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:11 am

Illya!

The passion of my youth.

I didn't know he was in a new show!

Post by **Alatar** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:25 am

I preferred him as the invisible man. Not that we saw that much of him.

Cymbal Crash

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:17 pm

Thanks. He'll be here all week.

Post by **Cerin** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:30 pm

He was the passion of my youth, too, Wampus! (Of my teenage youth; it was Michael Landon in the primary years.)

Once I noticed he was on the show I started to watch it. The first year I was delighted by the comic repartee. I guess it's become a bit routine for me now, but I tune in out of affection just the same.

-------------------------

I was reading a bit of the beginning of the thread. I was a Buffy nut for the first three seasons. I used to tell my Dad about the show, and then on one visit I forced him to watch some episodes

(his first was 'The Glove of Minegan (sp?)), and he was hooked. Much more so than myself, as was my sister. She became a Buffy messageboard denizen.

I became emotionally detached from the show in the years after that. The hopeless romance had been the heart of it for me. I was irritated by the college season and the insipid Riley, I was affronted by the whole Dawn scenario with violated lives and manufactured memories, I was appalled at all the suffering with the death of the mother, and the cruelty of the beginning of the season they brought Buffy back was too much for me. I stopped watching, although when I visited my parents', my father turned the tables on me and we watched some taped episodes together, so I got a taste of the domestic abuse theme. It just all became too grim and involved for me. Though I did stumble upon the last part of the last show of all and they seemed to have figured out a way to end it well.

Even through the times I wasn't really enthused any longer, I could appreciate the excellence of the show. I was surprised to see Joss quoted somewhere as saying he thought 'Veronica Mars' was the best series ever. I tried that out just because of such a recommendation, but I don't think that series is nearly as good as Joss's. As for 'Angel', well, the Darla business, the baby, the betrayals but finally Cordelia's ascendance to another plane and her intimacy with Angel's son, well ... too much for me, as well. So that's where I stopped following that series. Boreanaz has found the perfect vehicle, I think, in 'Bones'. I'm happy for his success.

Post by **Glawariel** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:17 pm

I, too, am a huuuuge Buffy fan. I definitely feel like it peaked after season 3. I think that whole Buffy/Angel relationship added an extremely interesting and intriguing dimension to the show. As I was disappointed when Giles was no longer able to be her watcher.
Although, I have to admit that the episode "Hush" from season 4, with those terrifying Gentlemen, was very well done.

As for my obsessions- Lost, 24 and Heroes. It will be a real dilemma come January when both 24 and Heroes will be aired on Monday nights at 9:00. What to watch and what to tape?.....

Post by **Cerin** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:33 pm

So we missed the premier of '24' due to a power outage.

Can anyone explain what happened with Jack and the Chinese? How long was he a prisoner? How did he get away?

Thanks!

Post by **Glawariel** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:43 pm

Cerin, did you miss all 4 hours of the premiere? Here is a link to the 24 Website that actually gives a minute by minute sum up of each hour:

http://www.fox.com/24/episodes/6am.htm

You may also be able to download them from itunes and they are now officialy avaible on DVD as well.

To just briefly answer your questions- Jack was traded back to the US, after 2 years in prison, by President Wayne (!) Palmer for some undisclosed hefty price. He was brought back so that he could sacrifice himself in order to stop a huge slew of suicide bombings that had been taking place all over the US. The goal, as of now, is to capture the terrorist orchestrating all of the attacks. In order to do so, Jack is working with a former terrorist who has now committed to trying to coordinate some sort of peace agreement. And, of course, Jack did not have to sacrifice himself

(he got out of that by biting one of his captors in the neck (jugular?) and thereby killing him. It was really gross, actually

). I'm not sure how much more details you would like so I'll stop with this.

And there were plenty Jack'isms (Baur'isms?) to go around- "dammit" "you're gonna have to trust me" etc. etc.

There was one line that was very fabulously Jack Baur- he was "borrowing" some random guy's car and he sort of threw him out of it unto the ground. He (Jack) looked at the guy and said "don't get up" (or something like that) and the guy very willinginly obliged. Seems sort of meh now but it was really funny at the time. Sort of along the same lines as "the only reason you're still concious is because I don't want to carry you".

All together, the first 4 hours were awesome! Welcome back, Jack!

My friend forwarded a great quote a couple of days ago "when bad things happen to good people it's fate, when bad things happen to bad people it's Jack Baur"

Post by **Cerin** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:45 am

Thanks, Glawariel!

Naturally we were most curious about the Chinese angle since that's the way the last one ended.

We had another power outage during last night's episode

but that was only about 1/2 hour long, so I got most of that 2 hours on tape. I was kind of hoping they'd have an encore of the first two nights, as I seem to recall them doing that in other years.

Post by **nerdanel** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:03 am

Re: the recent Buffy comments (which I missed in Dec)

You know how it is when you have your favorite parts of a show, but you feel that every part is important? That's how I feel with Buffy. I definitely think the show's high point was Season 3, but I think it was important to cause Buffy to grow and develop as a character beyond her dreamy-eyed schoolgirl days. Buffy and Angel were beautiful together because they were forbidden love, because they could never be more. Joss shows us in a couple of scenes what they would look like as a regular, vanilla couple in episode 8 of Angel Season 1, "I Will Remember You," in which Angel becomes temporarily human - and it feels (to me at least) insipid.

Buffy/Riley and Buffy/Spike were necessary stages of Buffy's development, and I was so pleased that she concluded the series standing on her own two feet, tied to no boyfriend - the infamous "cookie dough" idea that I've quoted here more than once.

Meanwhile, Angel had to move away from Buffy to achieve his destiny - all 110 episodes of it

- he was a mere shadow of his true potential when he was Buffy's sidekick.

That said, I've cursed the name of Joss (as the fandom puts it) every time I've rewatched the end of Season 3. It's beautiful...painful...poignant...emotionally wrenching. But it had to happen, or both characters would have stagnated as emotional juveniles, Buffy at 18 and Angel at 200-whatever years old.

Post by **yovargas** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:43 pm

Never having seen an episode of Lost, I have no idea why I read this whole thing, but I did. Here's an interesting interview with one of the Lost creators/producers:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/755/755527p1.html

Post by **WampusCat** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:39 pm

Very interesting! Thanks, yov!

Post by **Glawariel** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:15 pm

So it begins...the great battle of our time....24 vs. Heroes. Whatever am I to do? What should I watch on time and what should be recorded/viewed on the internet? If I am to decide based on commercial/post-show discussion, my mom, sisters, nephew and former roommate all watch 24 and those same sisters and nephew also watch Heroes. So should what I watch be dictated by the choice that they make so that I could still make those "oh my G-d I can't believe that just happened" phone calls that pertain to both shows? My nephew said that he'll probably alternate but I can't see myself alternating so that's out of the question.

I can't choose based on which show has weekly shockers because that also can be said for both. Nor can I choose based on which show had a cliffhanger at the end of the previous show and needs resolution because that also applies to both. Nor can I choose based on which show is more likely to have spoilers reported on Yahoo! news or the morning paper's Entertainment section because that also applies to both. And it's not like I can watch one right after the other that same night because I watch Studio 60 from 10:00 to 11:00 after which I've lost my tv show momentum.

This past week I watched 24 on time because I was in NY visiting my former roommate so we were able to watch it together (all is good and right in the world when I can watch 24 with her). And I was able to watch Heroes last night with my sister and nephew because they were just coming back from out of town on monday and had to DVR it anyway. So I got the best of both worlds because I actually watched both shows with fellow fans who would get the mid and post show phone calls anyway.

But what about this week? Should I continue that pattern of 24 first on Monday nights for consistency's sake or watch Heroes if that's what my nephew ends up doing, even though we may not watch it together.

Thankfully, I won't have this problem over the next couple of months when I'll be on my trip and will have to download both of them (in addition to Lost and Grey's Anatomy and possibly Studio 60 and Ugly Betty

) but what about when I get back?!

I just want to add that this should be the worst of my problems

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:32 pm

What a dilemma, Glawariel!

I feel as if I missed the boat on Heroes, and now it would cost me about $14 on iTunes to catch up to Episode 8, which is the oldest free episode on the NBC site. So I may just wait for the season DVD, rent the first few episodes, and see if they grab me as I suspect they will.

Which is all okay, given the time conflict! My son never misses 24, and I've actually been watching it this season myself (later, off the DVR).

Post by **WampusCat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:29 pm

It's not even a close competition as far as I'm concerned. Heroes. Always.

But then, I never watched 24, so I don't know what I'm missing.