Has anyone checked out True Blood? My friend got me watching it but so far it seems to be about the bizarre sexual escapades of a southern hick. (And also there are vampires)
I wish I had HBO. I'd watch it in a heartbeat. Plus I like a lot of Six Feet Under (on DVD--where I'm probably going to see TB if it survives).
themightypuck on
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius
I have no patience for any show that requires you to tune in regularly. Well, no patience or a terrible memory for "Lost is on, so I have to be home and in the living room to watch it."
That screwed me over for years because I used to work nights, but now we have cable, and the scheduled record function, and I looooove it :P
Oh, and Law and Order: SVU is always good for slightly sleazy whodunits, although the twist always comes precisely 40 minutes past the hour.
I found it mildly entertaining until someone pointed out what perverse pleasure the writers take in finding new and horrible ways to torture not only the victim of the week but the regs, and now it kind of squicks me out. Same for the CSI franchise.
I watch TV while a) intertroning b) house cleaning c) talking to mates d) reading, so I'm basically using it to cultivate a really short attention span. I'll watch most of what my flatmates watch (mostly stuff like Scrapheap Challenge, Horrible Plane Crash of the Week, Miami Ink), but don't go out of my way for anything but quality. Right now I'm stuck on old stuff that I missed - Xfiles, West Wing. I'm loving my new access to the daily show/colbert report. In five years I'll be catching up on BSG, which I kind of lost track of ages ago. Dexter was awesome, but I kept forgetting it was on.
only on foxtel, and only about a third of households here have any kind of cable, but yeah. Its kind of cool, but I'm often way too irratable to tolerate listening to the dopey customers :P
I have been stubbornly resisting any sort of satellite or cable in our home like some pitiful luddite for several years now. We can't get the freeview box stuff without upgrading our aerial, and I don't want to support Sky. I don't really feel the lack. Most decent TV shows unavailable on terrestrial TV can be picked up on DVD for less than a month's worth of Sky and with the BBC's IPlayer I can see whatever decent stuff they're putting out on the cable only channels.
Five channels gives me entertaining new gubbins like CSI, House, Doctor Who, Strictly, Big Bang Theory (Vairable's right - it's not great but disliking it would feel like beating a puppy), quality BBC wildlife stuff, documentaries and inevitable costume dramas, decent news and seemingly endless re-runs of Frasier and Father Ted. For pretty much everything else (BSG, The Wire, Mad Men) there's the DVD collection (the only time I've ever been frustrated was by Veronica Mars - never released on DVD over here and only viewable on cable). And that's without even counting the endless rewatching of old favourite shows on DVD like Buffy, West Wing or Blackadder.
Uh, anyway, TV - mostly for entertainment, occasionally for education.
I think television has an unparalleled ability to tell really long stories and create likable characters, and so I watch it just to get swept up in all of that. Mostly I love my DVDs.
Unparalleled? What about books?
I think I just prefer the structure of an episodic medium for some reason. If we can compare the an average season of television to an average book, they might tell basically the same story, but the TV show will take more time about it and go into more detail, and also tell a whole bunch of other stories while it's at it. It's really just a matter of personal preference.
I think television has an unparalleled ability to tell really long stories and create likable characters, and so I watch it just to get swept up in all of that. Mostly I love my DVDs.
Unparalleled? What about books?
I think I just prefer the structure of an episodic medium for some reason. If we can compare the an average season of television to an average book, they might tell basically the same story, but the TV show will take more time about it and go into more detail, and also tell a whole bunch of other stories while it's at it. It's really just a matter of personal preference.
Err... Thats totally the wrong way around.
No, you're thinking of a book and a movie. A book versus a TV season might be tipped more towards the latter in terms of higher quantity of story, of course the entire thing depends on the quality of the book / TV show itself. Take Dexter for example.
I actually don't watch TV, except for the 24 hour news channels, the remainder of the channels are useless junk.
I do watch TV shows though but only from DVD boxsets or the internet as I want to be able to watch the show when I want to watch it and not when they are on TV (also the shows I am interested in often don't even air on danish TV, even if I wanted to watch them on there).
My taste in TV shows is pretty much just sci-fi and british comedy.
Some shows are outrageously expensive around here aswell, 1 season of Stargate or Star Trek cost 800-1000kr which is $160-200 so I pretty much buy all my boxsets from the UK.
I think Battlestar Galactica is the only thing I actively want to watch. I'm always happy watching a nature documentary, assuming the subject matter is somewhat interesting and not fucking retarded like Meerkat Manor.
Otherwise I watch astonishingly little television. Oh, I try to watch Iron Chef as well. The American version isn't as awesome as the Japanese, but it still gives me plenty of cooking ideas. I love cooking. Actually, as a child, the only show I would always want to watch would be The Frugal Gourmet on PBS. I remember, the idea that french fries could be made out of sweet potatoes completely blew my mind at age seven.
Most television is just raw escapism (besides most of the educational stuff), something to entertain you and immerse you and let you forget about the real world and its problems for a while.
The only shows I've watched that are something beyond that are The Wire, Generation Kill, and Band of Brothers. Those shows definitely didn't help me escape from thinking about the real world's problems.
Scrapheap Challenge is the epitome of all mankind. I forgot to mention that.
I was going to ask if this was anything like Junkyard Wars but wiki tells me they are the same thing. I really, really miss that show. It was fantastic.
I love getting sucked into a good drama show. I watch House, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Lost, BSG, etc. I find it a way to unwind at the end of the day, even if the plots don't always make sense. And I will watch Simpsons and Family Guy all the time, just for mindless entertainment.
I enjoy playing video games and reading, but I like to knit a lot and TV lends itself easily to doing busywork at the same time.
As for complaining about shows that you watch, I find I only complain about shows that I really like and so am disappointed when they fail to meet my expectations. I like BSG so if I get an episode I dislike because it's filler or features a character I find annoying, then I'll be upset about it. It's not like I knew this particular episode was going to be terrible before I watched it if all the other episodes have been good. I try not to complain about Heroes or Lost, even though they can be terrible, since you know that going in. Who doesn't love a good trainwreck?
Really though, my TV watching doubled as soon as I got a DVR. I don't know how I ever watched TV without it. I'll often turn off the TV when a good show is coming on so that I can record it and watch it later without commercials.
I mainly watch cartoons and comedy, with a bit of sci-fi thrown in, which translates to the actual channels I usually watch. If I see Spongebob or Flapjack is going to be on for a few hours I watch that, if I see Daily Show or Colbert or Futurama or South Park is on, I'm over there. If one of the Stargate shows or Star Trek is on, I'll check that out. I'll also flip through History or Discovery to see if something that looks interesting is happening there.
A lot of it is really background while I'm on the computer at home, but silly comedy tends to dominate what I leave on.
I think television has an unparalleled ability to tell really long stories and create likable characters, and so I watch it just to get swept up in all of that. Mostly I love my DVDs.
Unparalleled? What about books?
I think I just prefer the structure of an episodic medium for some reason. If we can compare the an average season of television to an average book, they might tell basically the same story, but the TV show will take more time about it and go into more detail, and also tell a whole bunch of other stories while it's at it. It's really just a matter of personal preference.
Err... Thats totally the wrong way around.
Not really- An average season of a serial TV show is 12 or 13 hours long. Most books don't take me 12 hours to read.
Oh, and Law and Order: SVU is always good for slightly sleazy whodunits, although the twist always comes precisely 40 minutes past the hour.
I found it mildly entertaining until someone pointed out what perverse pleasure the writers take in finding new and horrible ways to torture not only the victim of the week but the regs, and now it kind of squicks me out. Same for the CSI franchise.
See, I kind of like the perversity of it. Whenever there's something horrible on the news, especially something horrible that's happened to a pretty white girl, it's only a matter of time before it shows up on SVU with the serial numbers filed away. It's a fun show to get angry at, too, especially when they try to do something with "weird" subcultures; the totally-not-Second Life episode was hilariously wrong.
Besides, Munch and Benson .
Trowizilla on
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duraxWho watches the watchdogs?Registered Userregular
...But I guess my point to all of this is, why do you watch TV? I watch it as an escape from a difficult day at uni/work so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and just live in the moment, occasional plot holes and inconsistency among broader arcs being something to laugh at when spotted, then shrug off. Others get something else out of it, being fond of analysing shows and trying to figure out the murderer before the lead detective does, so to speak.
I watch TV for three main motivations (1)to be distracted, (2)to be informed, and (3)to be validated.
The greatest distraction is always the one that makes one feel something. Be it happiness, anger, or fear, feeling something makes the distraction much more enduring, and in most cases more attractive the next time the show is on.
Informative shows don't need to be commented on.
Validation is the hardest one, but these are the shows you watch that connect you with people in everyday life. e.g. Watching an episode of Sex and the City because your girlfriend likes it.
Because of the election I'm watching a lot more informative shows lately.
I think television has an unparalleled ability to tell really long stories and create likable characters, and so I watch it just to get swept up in all of that. Mostly I love my DVDs.
Unparalleled? What about books?
I think I just prefer the structure of an episodic medium for some reason. If we can compare the an average season of television to an average book, they might tell basically the same story, but the TV show will take more time about it and go into more detail, and also tell a whole bunch of other stories while it's at it. It's really just a matter of personal preference.
Err... Thats totally the wrong way around.
No, you're thinking of a book and a movie. A book versus a TV season might be tipped more towards the latter in terms of higher quantity of story, of course the entire thing depends on the quality of the book / TV show itself. Take Dexter for example.
No, I'm thinking of TV and Books. Its completely innacurate that a TV shows go into more detail and have more subplots than books, in general.
Oh, and Law and Order: SVU is always good for slightly sleazy whodunits, although the twist always comes precisely 40 minutes past the hour.
I found it mildly entertaining until someone pointed out what perverse pleasure the writers take in finding new and horrible ways to torture not only the victim of the week but the regs, and now it kind of squicks me out. Same for the CSI franchise.
See, I kind of like the perversity of it. Whenever there's something horrible on the news, especially something horrible that's happened to a pretty white girl, it's only a matter of time before it shows up on SVU with the serial numbers filed away. It's a fun show to get angry at, too, especially when they try to do something with "weird" subcultures; the totally-not-Second Life episode was hilariously wrong.
Besides, Munch and Benson .
CSI's fun. You get to yell at them for messing up the science, then for messing up all their personal interactions too! The subculture episodes are just bonus points.
(They are assholes to almost everyone they question, for example..)
Oh, and Law and Order: SVU is always good for slightly sleazy whodunits, although the twist always comes precisely 40 minutes past the hour.
I found it mildly entertaining until someone pointed out what perverse pleasure the writers take in finding new and horrible ways to torture not only the victim of the week but the regs, and now it kind of squicks me out. Same for the CSI franchise.
See, I kind of like the perversity of it. Whenever there's something horrible on the news, especially something horrible that's happened to a pretty white girl, it's only a matter of time before it shows up on SVU with the serial numbers filed away. It's a fun show to get angry at, too, especially when they try to do something with "weird" subcultures; the totally-not-Second Life episode was hilariously wrong.
Besides, Munch and Benson .
CSI's fun. You get to yell at them for messing up the science, then for messing up all their personal interactions too! The subculture episodes are just bonus points.
(They are assholes to almost everyone they question, for example..)
Yeah, but the camerawork. I know, let's cut every two seconds to a different angle in the headache-inducing mood-lit forensic lab, and then, DEAD BODY FLASH!
I'll watch some anime once in a while, but even that's rarely done, usually I'll pick up a season of some show, marathon it, and not really watch TV again for months.
The last TV show I actually went out of my way to watch was Avatar.
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I wish I had HBO. I'd watch it in a heartbeat. Plus I like a lot of Six Feet Under (on DVD--where I'm probably going to see TB if it survives).
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
I found it mildly entertaining until someone pointed out what perverse pleasure the writers take in finding new and horrible ways to torture not only the victim of the week but the regs, and now it kind of squicks me out. Same for the CSI franchise.
I watch TV while a) intertroning b) house cleaning c) talking to mates d) reading, so I'm basically using it to cultivate a really short attention span. I'll watch most of what my flatmates watch (mostly stuff like Scrapheap Challenge, Horrible Plane Crash of the Week, Miami Ink), but don't go out of my way for anything but quality. Right now I'm stuck on old stuff that I missed - Xfiles, West Wing. I'm loving my new access to the daily show/colbert report. In five years I'll be catching up on BSG, which I kind of lost track of ages ago. Dexter was awesome, but I kept forgetting it was on.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Five channels gives me entertaining new gubbins like CSI, House, Doctor Who, Strictly, Big Bang Theory (Vairable's right - it's not great but disliking it would feel like beating a puppy), quality BBC wildlife stuff, documentaries and inevitable costume dramas, decent news and seemingly endless re-runs of Frasier and Father Ted. For pretty much everything else (BSG, The Wire, Mad Men) there's the DVD collection (the only time I've ever been frustrated was by Veronica Mars - never released on DVD over here and only viewable on cable). And that's without even counting the endless rewatching of old favourite shows on DVD like Buffy, West Wing or Blackadder.
Uh, anyway, TV - mostly for entertainment, occasionally for education.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Err... Thats totally the wrong way around.
No, you're thinking of a book and a movie. A book versus a TV season might be tipped more towards the latter in terms of higher quantity of story, of course the entire thing depends on the quality of the book / TV show itself. Take Dexter for example.
As for what I get...humor, entertainment and the occasional thrill when a show does something so awesome I can't believe it isn't cancelled yet.
I do watch TV shows though but only from DVD boxsets or the internet as I want to be able to watch the show when I want to watch it and not when they are on TV (also the shows I am interested in often don't even air on danish TV, even if I wanted to watch them on there).
My taste in TV shows is pretty much just sci-fi and british comedy.
Some shows are outrageously expensive around here aswell, 1 season of Stargate or Star Trek cost 800-1000kr which is $160-200 so I pretty much buy all my boxsets from the UK.
Otherwise I watch astonishingly little television. Oh, I try to watch Iron Chef as well. The American version isn't as awesome as the Japanese, but it still gives me plenty of cooking ideas. I love cooking. Actually, as a child, the only show I would always want to watch would be The Frugal Gourmet on PBS. I remember, the idea that french fries could be made out of sweet potatoes completely blew my mind at age seven.
There aren't that many HD channels on Comcast, though, are there?
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Not as much as I like but it's steadily increasing. I could care less about the sport channels but once they get you it's hard to downgrade.
The only shows I've watched that are something beyond that are The Wire, Generation Kill, and Band of Brothers. Those shows definitely didn't help me escape from thinking about the real world's problems.
But...but you're supposed to save big bucks with Comcast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSlmgnsvu4g&feature=related
That's for Comcast voice which I don't have. I plan on getting FIOS soon!
I was going to ask if this was anything like Junkyard Wars but wiki tells me they are the same thing. I really, really miss that show. It was fantastic.
I love getting sucked into a good drama show. I watch House, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Lost, BSG, etc. I find it a way to unwind at the end of the day, even if the plots don't always make sense. And I will watch Simpsons and Family Guy all the time, just for mindless entertainment.
I enjoy playing video games and reading, but I like to knit a lot and TV lends itself easily to doing busywork at the same time.
As for complaining about shows that you watch, I find I only complain about shows that I really like and so am disappointed when they fail to meet my expectations. I like BSG so if I get an episode I dislike because it's filler or features a character I find annoying, then I'll be upset about it. It's not like I knew this particular episode was going to be terrible before I watched it if all the other episodes have been good. I try not to complain about Heroes or Lost, even though they can be terrible, since you know that going in. Who doesn't love a good trainwreck?
Really though, my TV watching doubled as soon as I got a DVR. I don't know how I ever watched TV without it. I'll often turn off the TV when a good show is coming on so that I can record it and watch it later without commercials.
Nothing. I don't have a TV, nor do I want one.
A lot of it is really background while I'm on the computer at home, but silly comedy tends to dominate what I leave on.
Not really- An average season of a serial TV show is 12 or 13 hours long. Most books don't take me 12 hours to read.
See, I kind of like the perversity of it. Whenever there's something horrible on the news, especially something horrible that's happened to a pretty white girl, it's only a matter of time before it shows up on SVU with the serial numbers filed away. It's a fun show to get angry at, too, especially when they try to do something with "weird" subcultures; the totally-not-Second Life episode was hilariously wrong.
Besides, Munch and Benson
The greatest distraction is always the one that makes one feel something. Be it happiness, anger, or fear, feeling something makes the distraction much more enduring, and in most cases more attractive the next time the show is on.
Informative shows don't need to be commented on.
Validation is the hardest one, but these are the shows you watch that connect you with people in everyday life. e.g. Watching an episode of Sex and the City because your girlfriend likes it.
Because of the election I'm watching a lot more informative shows lately.
No, I'm thinking of TV and Books. Its completely innacurate that a TV shows go into more detail and have more subplots than books, in general.
CSI's fun. You get to yell at them for messing up the science, then for messing up all their personal interactions too! The subculture episodes are just bonus points.
(They are assholes to almost everyone they question, for example..)
Yeah, but the camerawork.
But now that I think of it, I usually aim my tv watching time towards Anthony Bourdain/No Reservations and Good Eats/Feasting on Asphalt/Waves.
My God I love Alton Brown.
I'll watch some anime once in a while, but even that's rarely done, usually I'll pick up a season of some show, marathon it, and not really watch TV again for months.
The last TV show I actually went out of my way to watch was Avatar.