The Idiot Box: TV Season 2011/2012

[Crafty_Pat]

My little spreadsheet of shows I actually watch is rapidly dwindling (end of season standard), but unlike normal there isn't much that's replaced it.  Those links you posted earlier today left me with a profound feeling of "Meh".

There's still a fair bit that I watch, but yeah, this season isn't offering much in the way of awesome.

Random question:  Does anyone on the forum live in Portland?  If so, is it as amazing as it seems?  Mate of mine just give me the first two seasons of Portlandia...

Alex lives in Portland and so I spend a fair amount of time there. I really like it, though I don't know if I'd qualify it as "magic." Perhaps I'd feel differently if I lived there. It's certainly got lots of character. For example, there are more mom and pop businesses there, in relation to the overall number of businesses, than anywhere I've ever visited. In places you can eat at a unique restaurant or food cart (there are so many food carts!) every day for a month.

At the Crafty Games summit earlier this year I was there for two weeks and while we didn't have the opportunity to get out much, we ate something I'd never had before every time but one (and in that one case we had something I can't get anywhere else).

Oh, and the weather is phenomenal. Except in those rare moments when the sun's out. Then it sucks.

[Sletchman]

Sounds pretty great.  At least it's getting winterish here, finally.  It's not like living in a steamroom that's up to high.  I never got why the English complained about their weather - it's cool and there's some nice rain.  What's not to love?

I noticed tonight was like a big finals night for some reason - 30 Rock, Community (8-bit gaming and Brita (briefly, sadly) dressed as a stupidly-hot-goth-girl?  I'll take 3.), Nikita (a good episode in it's own right, as well as being well executed in that it could also serve as a series finale if required), and Person of Interest (Amy Acker was a very cool character who I hope to see a lot more of in Season 2, and the end point / probable jump off for season 2 was very interesting).

I also watched the unaired pilot for 17th Precinct and think it's a shame that it wasn't picked up (would have made for some pretty strong Vow of Silence setting source material).  Oh and finally got around to Dollhouse (I couldn't trust Whedon for quite some time after Serenity, allright?).  Fun show so far (ep 2...) and some extremely cool concepts that I plan to use to some degree (it's part of my "watch a shitload of cyberpunk themed stuff while working on my setting" method of writing).  Puts me in the mindset of The Pretender, sexy action girl edition (which isn't a bad thing - The Pretender was great (and insert obvious comment about my approval of sexy action girls), maybe I should rewatch that too...).

[Crafty_Pat]

Sounds pretty great.  At least it's getting winterish here, finally.  It's not like living in a steamroom that's up to high.  I never got why the English complained about their weather - it's cool and there's some nice rain.  What's not to love?

I could not agree more.

I noticed tonight was like a big finals night for some reason

It's the last day of Sweeps.

I also watched the unaired pilot for 17th Precinct and think it's a shame that it wasn't picked up (would have made for some pretty strong Vow of Silence setting source material).  Oh and finally got around to Dollhouse (I couldn't trust Whedon for quite some time after Serenity, allright?).  Fun show so far (ep 2...) and some extremely cool concepts that I plan to use to some degree (it's part of my "watch a shitload of cyberpunk themed stuff while working on my setting" method of writing).  Puts me in the mindset of The Pretender, sexy action girl edition (which isn't a bad thing - The Pretender was great (and insert obvious comment about my approval of sexy action girls), maybe I should rewatch that too...).

I loved the Pretender - except for the terrible movies - but couldn't get into Dollhouse until the Epitaph episodes (and one of the Season 1 eps - can't remember which, I've largely blotted out the series at this point).

[Desertpuma]

Dollhouse Season 1 was good. Episode 6 actually really opened up the ball and ran with it. The first Epitaph episode was solid and made all of Season 2 really worthwhile.

[ThunderMonkey]

I finally got around to watching the three seasons of "Arrested Development".

My god, that was some good television.

[foproy]

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i was a bit disappointed with the scene at the end of supernatural.

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it was them telling you dean was in purgatory i think it would have better served a cliffhanger just having him wake up in the woods.

[agent oni]

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i was a bit disappointed with the scene at the end of supernatural.

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it was them telling you dean was in purgatory i think it would have better served a cliffhanger just having him wake up in the woods.

It didn't lessen the "oh, f*&^" moment for me.  In fact I'm anticipating the next season even more.

[foproy]

i do have to say it was a great ending to a mediocre season. while i liked many of the side cases i just didn't go for the whole main storyline.

[Crafty_Pat]

Sanctuary Canceled

[Sletchman]

Sanctuary Canceled

No real surprise there - the 4th Season ending easily served as a series final and was followed up with zero announcements for like 5/6 months.  I would have actually been surprised to see it renewed.

[Crafty_Pat]

Sanctuary Canceled

No real surprise there - the 4th Season ending easily served as a series final and was followed up with zero announcements for like 5/6 months.  I would have actually been surprised to see it renewed.

Still a shame. I rather liked the last year.

[Desertpuma]

I love Amanda and Martin Wood's work on it but I lost some interest mid-way through Season 2 and then real life got in the way before I could see Seasons 3-4. I worked well for what I saw but there were a couple of missteps in my opinion.

[ThunderMonkey]

"Breaking Bad" got picked up for its final eight episodes to the series.

I'm into Season 3 right now. It's been an interesting journey so far. I can't wait to see Mr. White's transformation from wuss to Scarface reach its conclusion.

[Crafty_Pat]

"Breaking Bad" got picked up for its final eight episodes to the series.

I'm into Season 3 right now. It's been an interesting journey so far. I can't wait to see Mr. White's transformation from wuss to Scarface reach its conclusion.

As I understand, it was picked up for a final 16 episodes last year, and those 16 will be split into two stretches of 8.

Honestly, after the last season, it seems to me that anything else they do constitutes an epilogue.

[Crafty_Pat]

The Making of Defiance: "Defiance" being SyFy and Trion Worlds' joint TV / MMO venture that's been in development for ages (i.e. the last four years, or roughly the right amount of time for an MMO).

Also, here's the first pic of Danai Gurira as Michonne in AMC's The Walking Dead...

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