The TV Series discussion thread

Shows such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and yes, Breaking Bad.

Those are your R-rated shows that "no one seems to watch"? I hate to break the news to you, but those are/were three of the most popular television shows of the last decade.

(Although I'll never understand how 'Sex and the City' ever achieved the level of popularity that it did.)
 
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Just finished the last episode of Dexter.

How far the show has fallen….. I used to really love it - and I considered it a very bold and progressive show during the first few seasons.

It's true that it never got back to the peak that was season 4 - but I would never have thought it could be as bad as season 8 has been.

I invested quite a bit in Dexter after discovering it last year - and I felt I had to watch the last season almost out of loyalty.

But, as it turned out - I can only recommend watching seasons 1-4 if you're considering giving it a go. Season 5 and 7 do have some interesting episodes - but overall - the show should have simply stopped at 4.

I'm out of good TV shows now….

I haven't seen Boardwalk Empire. Is it any good? Other recommendations?
 
I was heavily disappointed by season 5 of Dexter so I delayed watching it.And you say it's downhill from that?Than I won't bother with rest of the series, too bad because seasons 1-4 where great.
 
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I was heavily disappointed by season 5 of Dexter so I delayed watching it.And you say it's downhill from that?Than I won't bother with rest of the series, too bad because seasons 1-4 where great.

Season 5 is the best of 5-8 :(

Some of season 7 is pretty good - but most of it is average at best. Season 6 has an interesting beginning, but devolves into really bad writing pretty fast.

Ultimately, I suppose it's down to how much of a fan you are - but if you hated season 5 - then I can't rightly recommend watching anything after that.

Perhaps you can watch the very last episode just to get some closure, as it's the best of season 8 - and it's "average" which is better than it's been the entire season.
 
It's a shame when a series starts out great and then the people behind it can't maintain the original level of quality.

Battlestar Galactica always comes to mind. There was a time when I thought it could possibly be the greatest sci-fi series I had ever seen... then Season 3 came along. The miniseries and Seasons 1&2 were fantastic, but the second half of the series just kept going downhill.
 
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It's a shame when a series starts out great and then the people behind it can't maintain the original level of quality

There is a reason for the origin of the phrase 'jump the shark' after all. :)

No one wants to jump off the gravy train - the first year of a show requires the hardest work and makes everyone the least money .. but is quite often the best. Then everyone gets comfortable, ratings = more money, and so on. The desire to keep the ratings high means testing everything out and altering plots, characters even even underlying tenets of the show to push ratings.

I think of Heroes as a show where we loved the first season but almost immediately the second season was so bad it was unwatchable. Smallville got way silly, and we even watched the guilty pleasure Revenge until it was clear the writers had no clue what they were doing anymore. This summer Rookie Blue had a few characters and plotlines that felt like they were being tinkered with in real-time to adapt to feedback. Not good.
 
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Todd is, by far, the most dangerous person on the show. That's not an opinion, that's just a fact. As for him ever turning on his uncle or friends, I don't see that happening. Did you see the sheer PRIDE he exuded when they were listening to Jesse's whining/crying/bitchfest tape?? He took joy in Jesse telling the tale about Todd shooting that kid in the desert, I swear I saw pride on his face.

I agree with how dangerous Todd is. But I think for the sake of the finale and wild twists, Todd will somehow come through & save the day for Jesse in some way. Or, perhaps he'll turn on his brothers for his own gain. Either way, he's a scary guy. I can't wait until Sunday.
 
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Those are your R-rated shows that "no one seems to watch"? I hate to break the news to you, but those are/were three of the most popular television shows of the last decade.

(Although I'll never understand how 'Sex and the City' ever achieved the level of popularity that it did.)

I'm ashamed to say I used to watch Sex & the City with my wife, and more often than not it was funny. The two movies, on the other hand, were horribly bad with the girls' pretentiousness hitting new and unbearable heights-- ooh plus social commentary on the treatment of women in the Middle East in the case of the second one.
 
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I agree with how dangerous Todd is. But I think for the sake of the finale and wild twists, Todd will somehow come through & save the day for Jesse in some way. Or, perhaps he'll turn on his brothers for his own gain. Either way, he's a scary guy. I can't wait until Sunday.


Oh, I have my own theory about that. See, Todd killed Jesse's girlfriend....but only threatened Skylar's family. Huge difference....and what had Jesse done to deserve this? Simply escaped, ran 30 ft and got caught, nothing compared to Skylar sitting with police and having a chit-chat. Also, Todd and company know EXACTLY what Jesse said when he was in custody, and no idea what Skylar may have talked bout. Bottom line, Todd worships Walter White, and in the end it wouldn't surprise me at all if Walter finds a way to turn that to his advantage. Of course, I still think White should die in a very long, painful manner.


-Carn
 
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Those are your R-rated shows that "no one seems to watch"? I hate to break the news to you, but those are/were three of the most popular television shows of the last decade.

(Although I'll never understand how 'Sex and the City' ever achieved the level of popularity that it did.)

the first movie did well but the most popular shows of the last decade have been reality (singing contest) shows, football, and primetime CBS.

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These shows just get a lot of buzz for some reason. One that isn't R-rated is Madmen. Even telemundo is beating some of these cable shows.
 
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Mad men will always hold a special place for me. The casting is perfect, the acting for the most part is exceptional, and anyone brave enough to do a show perpetually set in the 60's these days deserves high praise. Huge bonus points for creating a show that never relies on computers or cellular phones as pacifiers for the actors.

As for Dexter, I may never forgive that show for forcing me to sympathize with Deb. I basically really disliked her character, but how her so-called-brother dealt with her passing even left me shaking my head. Derrrrr.


-Carn
 
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I caught the Blacklist after its hype all summer long. James Spader is perfect in this cross between Silence of the Lambs, 24 and Person of Interest. Lot of holes in the story though and, since its derivative, sometimes contrived. I expect it to get better or it will run out of steam.

pretty obvious their setting up the main character for us to think its Spader's daughter. we'll likely get some other twist when they end that arc I expect.

I got a laugh at how long it took them FBI to think he might have been the kidnapper all along, then they believed him when he said he wasn't.
 
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I have found the shows on the USA network to be excellent. White Collar, Suits, Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, etc are all worth trying along with Person of Interest and if you enjoy SF, Continuum.
 
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Corwin you sure? I mean I didn't watch any of those, yet everyone here says Continuum sux, and that Burn Notice rocks (well, at least those seasons that aired).

Lucky I kinda share your thoughts about Blacklist, except I didn't watch PoI so dunno about that one. Pilot is promising, could turn into an awsome thing, yet doesn't guarantee it won't go down with next eps.

Btw, is anyone watching Sleepy Hollow? It's on Fox - and I don't want to start watching it if they'll cancel it like they usually do with their own shows.
 
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Its amazing the love affair the media seems to have now with these R rated cable shows that no one seems to watch.

That nobody seems to watch? You're basing this on what? Sopranos had per episode US viewership as high as 13.4 million. That's comparable in terms of gross viewers to some recent seasons of the current most popular broadcast shows like the big bang theory, despite being on a premium network and from an earlier year. Sex and the City didn't have quite the same peak viewership, but its finale did make it to number 77 of the top 100 most watched airings on TV of all time.
 
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Btw, is anyone watching Sleepy Hollow? It's on Fox - and I don't want to start watching it if they'll cancel it like they usually do with their own shows.
Yep. First episode did a decent job of walking that fine line between supernatural and silly (a line the producers mentioned being extremely aware of). It earned another couple weeks to see where it goes.
 
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Continuum may not be for everyone, but I really like it. You have to watch it from the beginning and you have to pay attention; it's VERY tightly scripted. It's more time travel than SF since the star is a female cop who travels back in time chasing terrorists from our future. It's set in modern day Vancouver.
 
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Yep. First episode did a decent job of walking that fine line between supernatural and silly (a line the producers mentioned being extremely aware of). It earned another couple weeks to see where it goes.

I was finishing up some analysis for work while my older son was watching ... he thought it was sort of derivative of Grimm in many ways. Not bad but not at that level. Thoughts?
 
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Grimm is okay series, nothing brilliant but also nothing utterly bad. If someone asked me what show I think is the best example of average, I'd say Grimm.

If S. Hollow is something like that, I will give it a try.
 
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