September 12, 2007

• Yeah, after Deadwood, there is a dearth, really. Life on Mars from the BBC is quite good, but that's only 2 seasons, and is not very deep or heavy like Deadwood. Depends what you're after, I haven't found any other HBO offerings to be my cup of tea. That prison one, whatsit, Oz, was a bit yucky, imho. Ooh, there is Rome, from HBO/BBC, which is cracking good. That's a fucking beaut. Again, only two seasons, though, because it cost a fortune to make. But lots of repeat watching value.
• I wasn't much for Deadwood, but 100% what Hank said about Rome - VERY good show. Mad Men on AMC is pretty good, although it's starting to get a little Twin Peaksy for me. Rescue Me on FX (a Denis Leary thing) is excellent. If you're getting DVDs, try out Battlestar Galactica if you haven't. I was surprised at how good it was, and they had some name talent on their - Olmos, Mary whats-her-name, Lucy Lawless. And I'm waiting with anticipation for the last season of The Shield, coming up after the turn of the year. You want to go WAY back, get the DVD set of Homicide: Life On The Street, which was the excelsior of cop shows and lasted all of two seasons, I think. I've heard that Weeds on Showtime is very good, but have never seen it.
• I couldn't get into Weeds. It just didn't didn't do it for me. But Rome was excellent, and Battlestar is pretty damned good. I've seen only a couple of episodes of the new Jeckyll (and Hyde) series on BBC. It might have potential.
• After getting tired of House MD solving everything with spinal punctures, the only TV series I followed in the past months was Dexter. Interesting premise, great first episodes. The conclusion of season 1... uh, I felt they slipped on the plot, bad. It's widely available on torrent sites.
• Homicide, Life on the street lasted seven seasons, though seasons 1 and 2 together total 13 episodes, and depending on how you view things, went all to hell one or more years before it actually ended. I love it though. (And it's spiritual successor "The Wire," on HBO, based on the same source material, first hand observation of the Baltimore Police)
• Some of my favourite miniseries: Our Friends in the North was excellent. Features Christopher Ecclestone and Daniel Craig and the gorgeous Gina McKee. It might not make 10 hours in total though. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People between them might add up to 10 hours. Superb stuff; Alec Guinness is fantastic. A Very British Coup, based on a book by British Labour Party politician Chris Mullin, and starring the redoubtable Ray McAnally in one of his last performances. Only four episodes though, iirc. Boys from the Blackstuff: gritty North English early 80s drama from Alan Bleasdale. Chance to see a young king Theoden, Bernard Hill, headbutting left, right, and centre. GBH, again from Bleasdale, was decent enough though a bit bizarre. Not really miniseries: Robbie Coltrane's Cracker, a set of standalone dramas; similarly, Helen Mirren's Prime Suspect.
• Rescue Me (3 seasons on CD) Homicide, Life on the Streets (seven seasons) Grey's Anatomy (well, just the first 2 seasons) Six Feet Under
• Mad Men on AMC is pretty good, although it's starting to get a little Twin Peaksy for me. I started out absolutely WILD on Mad Men, but my enthusiasm is losing steam, too. I'm all for slow buildup, but it seems like there ought to be some kind of payoff along the way. And I did think of you, Fes, what with all the marketing and snappy suits!
• It was slow starting and got canceled after just two seasons, but I really enjoyed Carnivale. Six Feet Under is hella good too. Battlestar Galactica, natch. Nth Homicide: Life on the Street. Andre Braugher at his very finest. Also, you know what I recently discovered and am having a ball with? Batman: The Animated Series.
• I absolutely second A Very British Coup and Tinker, Tailor plus Smiley's People. Coup is only three episodes, but it is supremely crafted with great performances. For Smilet and co., as with so much of Le Carre (and, well, quite a few spy stories), the joy is in the payoff. If you want a bit more spice with your spies, you may want to try Spooks (aka MI-5 in the States). Both series 1 & 2 (aka seasons 1 & 2) are quite good and total 16 episodes. Series 3 is a bit of a transitional season, but season 4 seems to hit it's stride again. For large chunks of gritty goodness, I've gotten recommendations for The Wire and Rome as well. They're in my Netflix queue. For absolute silliness, I'd recommend Scrubs. The first season is a beaut and you'll know if it's your thing after the first few episodes (heck, for you maybe the first one). And if you're looking into torrents, be sure to check out the incomparable Spaced--just 14 half hour episodes or so between its two seasons, but man, what a fun ride. It's from the same folks who did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
• If you're not necessarily stuck on it running long: The Kingdom There's also good old fashioned Roots, if you haven't seen it before, or not for a long time. I, Claudius is supposed to be very good, I just got it for my brother for his birthday and he's thrilled. Other good series: Sopranos 6 Feet Under Oz Lost Cracker The Singing Detective
• Also, I loved Curb Your Enthusiasm, though it's not really a miniseries as such.
• Oh, I second The Singing Detective, although I prefer Pennies From Heaven myself. Other stuff -- I wrote off my final year of law school by watching This Life, a show about articling students whose life was much more exciting than mine would ever be. That, and MacCallum, the original one with John Hannah. Sweet Mothra, was that ever a good show. Other than that, Arrested Development was probably the best comedy to come out of the States in years. It's not something you can watch casually, though. Inside jokes spread out throughout the entire three-year run. The Riches just wrapped up Season One -- an incredibly well-written, well-acted show. Prime stuff.
• Correction, make that McCallum. The later episodes, after the first girlfriend left and he got together with Zara Turner are better, which isn't to say the early ones are crap.
• Connections
• Homicide was on for SEVEN seasons? Holy shit. /waggles head in ugga-wugga fashion.
• If you want to go in a different direction, HBO did a series years ago called "From the Earth to the Moon" about the Apollo program. I have the DVD set, but noticed recently they reran it on cable (Science Channel, maybe?). It was fantastic. Lots of NASA history and a great cast.
• I still like to wathch Upstairs, Downstairs periodically.
• Yes! Seconding From the Earth to the Moon. Great Series. Also Cosmos.
• Ditto on the Upstairs. Downstairs. I usually see something I missed last vieweing. I've got the spinoff, Thomas and Sarah, in my Netflix queue but haven't seen it yet to recommend. Not technically a miniseries, but I had a blast watching the entire short run of Futurama on DVD. The commentary tracks, to my mind, set the gold standard for DVD commentary, and it's delightful to see the running gags develop.
• Might not be the worst idea to catch up Season One of 30 Rock, before the new season starts on Oct. 4th. Consistently the only show to make me shut myself up from laughing because I'm missing the next joke. Very well-written, particularly for the complexity of the characters.
• HEROES Season one. Even though it's a "season" of a TV show, there is closure and it's basically a really long TV movie.
• This one has already been mentioned but I'll second it: Carnivale is really good. Also, the latest David Attenborough series, Planet Earth, is blowing my mind--the cinematography is jawdropping and the "Diaries" tacked onto the end of each episode that show how they filmed each segment just as jawdropping. Finally, if you've never seen Judd Apatow's short-lived show Freaks and Geeks, that is definitely worthy of Netflixing! Realistic teen angst at its finest.
• I strongly second Life On Mars, Jekyll, and the Singing Detective (not the icky remake). Six Feet Under was pretty good, though it seemed to get weaker season by season. I found Rome a disappointment, however, despite its potential. I'd add Veronica Mars, Alias, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Lost, and Doctor Who, if you've missed any of those.
• Oh, and add Carnivale to the seconded list!
• Oops, and add Wire in the Blood to the recommended list.
• 
• I second, third, what have you: Six Feet Under, incredible writing and very satisfying. Carnivale, it will leave you hanging at the end but you will appreciate what they DID give you. Rome, great show. Planet Earth w/ Attenborough. I know this has all been said in the above comments but as we are winding up Deadwood as well and I know how you feel.
• Thanks for the thread, rolypolyman! It will certainly come in handy in the future. I've only watched season three of The Wire, but it's probably the best drama I've ever seen. So that's high on my recommended list. Also Arrested Development, Scrubs, Dead Like Me, the first season of Huff (not the second!), Sopranos, Carnivale, pretty much most of the HBO and Showtime ones people have been recommending all through the thread. My brother loves Rescue Me, but I haven't had time to check it out. I tried to get Cupid online, but couldn't get a good version. Still, it's pretty good even though it's fuzzy. And when I was younger I couldn't get enough of My So-Called Life and Parker Lewis Can't Lose, so if I were torrenting, I'd look them up. But I have my hands full right now with Weeds and earlier seasons of The Wire. Also, it's not currently out yet, but Heather Havrilesky gave Burn Notice a great review, and I watch whatever she tells me to.
• Carnivale, it will leave you hanging at the end but you will appreciate what they DID give you. The great thing about Carnivale is that you can just watch those two seasons as a self-contained thing, and see the finale as the closure to this chapter of the story (goddammit, I really want to discuss this but don't want to ruin it with spoilers), but of course being left with the very realistic idea that the story keeps going and is never finished. But still, there were potentially several seasons worth of good shows left, things were just getting really really good, and those miserable cocksuckers at HBO should be nutpunched repeatedly for killing both Carnivale and Deadwood the way they did. God forbid if there wasn't room on the schedule for Tourgasm or Real Sex MCMXVII: All Anal. Or, you know, just kill a couple of the absolutely horrid movies that make up 75% of your film playlist for the month.
• See, now I'm mad and am probably going to go home and punch my baby now. Thanks a LOT, HBO.
• I tried to get Cupid online I thought we covered that in the Internet dating thread!
• *ties MCT's shoelaces together*
• The Brits have done some fabulous series (both minseries and episodic) over the years and we've been fortunate to get many of them on our local public station. Some of my favs in no particular order: Brideshead Revisited Rumpole of the Bailey A Touch of Frost Inspector Morse Blackadder Midsomer Murders New Tricks nth Prime Suspect, I Clavdivs and A Very British Coup. I enjoyed last season's Intelligence on the Ceeb but I'm not sure if it's available on DVD yet.
• Morse (dismissively): Oh Lewis!
• Yes Carnivale is enthralling, good writing, strong storyline and characters. Oh and the set design is great! Plus best opening credit sequence EVAR! I recommend the first season of Rome, the second season was a tad weaker. I liked the Sopranos a lot, mostly the early seasons though (with Tony's mother still around).
• The Kingdom This was a great show, but when the fuck are they going to release series 2 in the US? I saw it during its *very* limited theatrical release, so I know it exists.
• Monarch of the Glen? I like that one. How about the Lovejoy (books by J. Gash) series Oh, oh, oh, and Inspector Lindley
• I claudius- I found it riveting. The books were good too.
• How about the Lovejoy (books by J. Gash) series And after watching Deadwood, you'd have Iam McSane as a common tone! Lovejoy is one of the rare exceptions where I've enjoyed the books and the shows equally, even though they're quite different.
• Bluehorse, I love "Monarch of the Glen" too! And if you haven't yet seen the fantastic "Foyle's War," you are in for the most amazing British detective series of your life!
• Sean "Boromir" Bean did a whole series of Napoleanic Wars dramas called "Sharpe...". IMDB offers: # Sharpe's Challenge (2006) # Sharpe's Waterloo (1997) # Sharpe's Justice (1997) # Sharpe's Revenge (1997) # Sharpe's Mission (1996) # Sharpe's Siege (1996) # Sharpe's Regiment (1996) # Sharpe's Sword (1995) # Sharpe's Battle (1995) # Sharpe's Gold (1995) # Sharpe's Honour (1994) # Sharpe's Enemy (1994) # Sharpe's Company (1994) # Sharpe's Eagle (1993) # Sharpe's Rifles (1993) I've only seen one or two of these, but they were quite good.
• I second that emotion - seen 'em all multiple times and had rip-roaring fun. Oddly enough, this is ALSO one of those cases where the movies strayed somewhat from the books but were still good.
• Ooooh! And I just found out that Robin of Sherwood is available at Netflix!
• Aah, yesh. Jashon Connery. Shuperb sheshpian, at leasht for shuch kindsh of showsh.
• Holee shit! Jason Connery was married to Mia Sara! Who knew?
• Holee shit! Mia Sara is now with Brian Henson! Who knew?
• Connery, Sara, and Henson, I'd expect. Maybe their friends and relatives.