TV of 2011

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flyonthewall2983
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TV of 2011

#1 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:20 pm

Thought I'd start this thread, dedicated to the shows not exactly interesting enough for their own threads, or better yet only worthy of one post of scorn.

Guess I'll start out. Just watched the series premiere of Harry's Law. The premise is a bit wacky for even the sometimes uber-wacky primetime line-ups, but it does have it's finer points. Seeing the back and forth between Kathy Bates and Paul McCrane was easily the highlight of the episode.

Would be nice if this was made a sticky thread, btw.

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J Wilson
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Re: TV of 2011

#2 Post by J Wilson » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:46 am

The second season of Archer starts Thursday on FX, for the animation fans out there.

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Re: TV of 2011

#3 Post by oldsheperd » Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:31 pm

I watched all 4 seasons on 30 Rock on dvd for the first time this past month. Seasons 1-3 are great. I can see how season 4 dipped especially with the subplot involving Jack's love triangle which kind of weighed things down. Julianne Moore and Elizabeth Banks' characters were kind of "eh"
I also finished watching the 1st season of The Ricky Gervais Show on dvd. I laughed my arse off. Karl Pilkington is such a fascinating character. I wouldn't describe him to be at all the "Buffoon" that Gervais describes him as, I think his weird ideas are kind of fascinating at least in their creativity.
An Idiot Abroad hit the states here on Saturday and the China episode was pretty good.
As you can tell I'm like waaay behind in my tv show watching. The hockey season, school and judo constantly keep me lagging.

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mfunk9786
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Re: TV of 2011

#4 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:44 am

Big Love might have something to say about that.

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Murdoch
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Re: TV of 2011

#5 Post by Murdoch » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:49 am

I never got into Big Love, although I guess I should say best cast of dramatic series that don't take themselves too seriously instead.

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Re: TV of 2011

#6 Post by ianungstad » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:31 pm

Anyone looking forward to Game of Thrones? The trailers and promos running on HBO have piqued my interest. I'm just a little wary that it's not going to play well to a broad audience. I have the feeling it might just end up being nerd porn, being overly obsessive with world building and establishing a convoluted mythology rather than tell a ripping good yarn.

AMC have also released a four minute trailer for it's new series The Killing which looks decent. Reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks if they stripped away the quirk and supernatural elements. (High school girl gets killed, seperate storylines about the cops and the best friend trying to track down the killer, everyone in the community has secrets, etc.) This could be either a good or bad thing. The Danish series has pretty much become a cult classic and they're apparently sticking pretty close to that series, so should be worth a watch. I don't know if they have the rights to the original series but if the US remake is a hit, maybe they could air the Danish version of The Killing on the Sudance channel or something, so people in North America can see what the fuss is about.
Last edited by ianungstad on Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: TV of 2011

#7 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:42 pm

I tried so so so so so hard to like Rome, but I feel like classical, regal material extended to the length of a premium drama series can be... to put it simply... boring. What makes shows like Breaking Bad and Big Love so great is the fact that they don't stray too far from modern life, and are able to serialize the content of the show without forcing us to care about antiquated personal problems and large-scale political issues that sometimes feel yawn-worthy even in a two hour film.

Not sure where I'm going with this post - I'm probably very wrong - but I feel like fictionalizing history that is several hundred years old never tends to work out well. Especially if there's ten hours of this per season. HBO seems to have really softened since cancelling such masterpieces as Carnivale and Deadwood though - if Treme (which can't even manage to make New Orleans interesting, let alone watchable) can get a second season, this show will surely be given plenty of time to find its footing.

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Re: TV of 2011

#8 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:54 pm

The Killing looks way more interesting to me, though I've not really watched an AMC series since the first season of Breaking Bad (really, really wanting to catch up on that BTW).

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Re: TV of 2011

#9 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:34 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:The Killing looks way more interesting to me, though I've not really watched an AMC series since the first season of Breaking Bad (really, really wanting to catch up on that BTW).
Do it - the cliffhanger that's currently lingering is absolutely the best I've ever seen in a television drama, and the wait to see how things are going to turn out has been longer than usual (and more painful than usual to boot).

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Re: TV of 2011

#10 Post by Murdoch » Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:37 am

mfunk9786 wrote:I tried so so so so so hard to like Rome, but I feel like classical, regal material extended to the length of a premium drama series can be... to put it simply... boring. What makes shows like Breaking Bad and Big Love so great is the fact that they don't stray too far from modern life, and are able to serialize the content of the show without forcing us to care about antiquated personal problems and large-scale political issues that sometimes feel yawn-worthy even in a two hour film.
I liked the way they staged the Caesar assassination, but overall it was pretty dull. It falls into the same camp as Tudors for me, which despite its sexcapades failed to make its historical events/plot-lines compelling.

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Re: TV of 2011

#11 Post by tartarlamb » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:33 pm

I expected to absolutely hate Rome, but instead fell in love with it. It devolved a bit into the usual HBO organized crime clichés in the second season, but overall Roman history is pretty spectacular drama if nothing else, and it was nice to see it treated with a beefy budget and an attention to detail in both writing and production. In terms of Rome-as-television, it easily surpassed I, Claudius.

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Re: TV of 2011

#12 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:57 pm

Between the premiere of The Killing and this week's episode of Justified, I'm really glad I started this thread.

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Re: TV of 2011

#13 Post by Nothing » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:51 am

A piece of TV from last year that has really stayed with me is Louis Theroux's Ultra-Zionists doc about illegal Jewish settlers in the west bank. Great stuff, if you can call it that.

If Rome didn't do it for you, try Spartacus: Blood & Sand. Much trashier on the surface, yet the narrative is more convincing and it has a pleasantly unrepentent radical slant.

S1 of Justified was okay for the few episodes, but then the Leonard-like tone evaporated and it turned into just another US crime drama imho.

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Re: TV of 2011

#14 Post by knives » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:24 am

Anyone catch Norm McDonald's new show? It's basically a half hour weekend update where Norm doesn't even seem to care about the subject matter which only makes it funnier. There was this great bit where he supposedly got made up as some basketball guy, though it seems more like he dubbed over the guy acting, and just made a jackass of himself. I'll be tuning in next week at least.

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Re: TV of 2011

#15 Post by ianungstad » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:20 pm

Please let this be a joke.

Inside the DHS, which is slated to begin filming shortly for a premiere in the fourth quarter, will chronicle the behind-the-scenes workings of the Department of Homeland Security and its personnel, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "We have incredible access, including working directly with Secretary Napolitano," AMC's SVP Joel Stillerman said. Executive producer Piligian of Pilgrim Films & Television and AMC will cooperate with the department on protecting sensitive information, and Stillerman doesn't expect that to be an issue. "We're not looking to do an expose of the Department of Homeland Security, we actually want to go in and look into the day-to-day (workings) of the people and what they do to keep us safe."

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Re: TV of 2011

#16 Post by Murdoch » Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:51 pm

The final season of Rescue Me begins July, I wonder if Leary's claim that the crew will all die in a fire will hold true.

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Re: TV of 2011

#17 Post by ianungstad » Tue May 03, 2011 6:32 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78zEDBmHwbU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Promotional trailer for AMC's new fall series Hell On Wheels. Looks pretty good. AMC"s track record has been pretty spotty as of late. The Walking Dead has found both critical and commercial success but they've also put out duds like Rubicon and The Killing recently. I'm cautiously optimistic about Hell on Wheels.

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Re: TV of 2011

#18 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue May 03, 2011 10:12 pm

You also seem to only post about AMC.

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Re: TV of 2011

#19 Post by ianungstad » Tue May 03, 2011 10:46 pm

Yep. My partner watches a lot of television but the handful of shows I watch seem to be on either AMC/HBO and the occasional lowbrow/guilty pleasure on Comedy Central. As for posting about AMC, I have more of an interest in their development slate than other channels as someone who is a shareholder in the company.

EDIT: Speaking of other trailers, FOX released a teaser for Terra Nova on Youtube. Looks like they spent a small fortune on the pilot. The teaser doesn't tell you much about the series, mostly assorted action shots and showing off it's CGI work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6o-Fzg4 ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: TV of 2011

#20 Post by dad1153 » Wed May 11, 2011 2:51 am

Fox cancels "Lie To Me," "The Chicago Code," "Breaking In," "Traffic Light" and "Human Target." And somehow "Fringe" survives by being much lower-rated than every other show in that list except for "Light."

Fox also picked/dropped up a bunch of shows/pilots ahead of next week's upfronts. JJ Abrams' "Alcatraz" made the cut, "Locke & Key" didn't.

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Re: TV of 2011

#21 Post by ianungstad » Wed May 11, 2011 3:24 am

I can't say that I'm too surprised. Locke & Key by it's end will only have tallied up 36 issues of the comic. On network television where you have 22 episodes a season that's not even two seasons worth of material. I could see that being a major concern for FOX.

According to bleedingcool.com, the pilot directed by Mark Romanek was fantastic. Hopefully it will be snatched up by a cable network ASAP. It would work well as a 3-4 season cable series (at 13 episodes a season). Actually it would make an excellent companion series to air next to The Walking Dead.

Meh. If the project is totally dead, hopefully the pilot will eventually be leaked online.

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Re: TV of 2011

#22 Post by dad1153 » Thu May 12, 2011 10:37 pm


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mfunk9786
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Re: TV of 2011

#23 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu May 12, 2011 11:01 pm

WHY ARE WE YELLING

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Mr Sausage
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Re: TV of 2011

#24 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri May 13, 2011 2:18 am

mfunk9786 wrote:WHY ARE WE YELLING
Fixed now. It was kind of hard to look at.


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