There is no such thing as watching too much TV...
Many people on my flist have been doing the 30 days of TV meme and I've enjoyed reading them. But due to procrastination and short(ish) answers, I'm just posting my answers in a oner.
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Firefly. I know it's something of a go-to answer for many geeker types, but when someone asks that question my gut immediately answers "Firefly" just like how my gut answers the question "who would win in a fight..." with "Batman" before I even know who the options are. And I know that part of the reason it's so perfect is that it never had time to make any major missteps, but I so wish I could have spent more time with those characters. I would genuinely use one of my three wishes on having it back if I ever met a Genie. That is so dorky and I don't even care.
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Friday Night Lights. There's no sensible reason in the world why I'd care to watch a show about American Football at a High School in Texas, and clearly many other people in the world agree and have decided not to bother watching. The problem is that that's not what Friday Night Lights is about. It's about class, and race, and community, and family, and relationships, and loyalty, and responsibility, and hardship, and living with the hand that life has dealt you. It's about growing up, and about being grown up. It's about parenting, both about being a parent and being a child. It's about birth and death and joy and pain and the whole of life and it's just heartbreakingly beautiful. I could rhapsodize about it for quite some time. Watch it. (And yes, season two went a bit wobbly but since then it's been as wonderful as it's ever been.)
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Justified. The dialogue is just scrumptious, the characters all feel so three dimensional, the little details make me happy, and oh my assorted gods why had I never noticed how hot Timothy Olyphant is before now?
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
My brain says The Wire. My heart says Buffy.
Day 05 - A show you hate
There aren't really any TV shows I hate, because the stuff I probably would hate I don't watch. I imagine if I watched a lot of reality shows or your CSI type crime shows then my blood pressure would be a lot higher.
I do however have a very vivid memory of a visceral reaction to a TV show that could be classified as hate. Several years back I was a visitor in someone's home and therefore bound by politeness to watch what they wanted to watch. And they wanted to watch Mad About Alice, an alleged sitcom starring the alleged actress (and now alleged judge of talent) Amanda Holden. Probably the worst half hour of television I have ever sat through. Every aspect of that production was made of fail. And afterwards I had to go away and cry because something that awful had been given such a prime piece of BBC Friday night real estate. Thankfully I was not alone and it's gone down in British tv history as an absolute disaster. But somehow Amanda Holden keeps getting work.
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Really hard to pick one episode of The Wire as it's so un-episodic. But my favourite ever scene takes place in "All Prologue" - Omar on the witness stand pwning the hell out of the world's most ethically-challenged lawyer. Sheer joy. And that episode also features a fabulous bit part actress who plays a stripper - she has already stolen her entire scene before she even moves on to readjusting her boobs.
And for Buffy, my favourite is probably "Once More with Feeling" although I think "The Body" is the best episode.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Impossible to pick a least fave for The Wire.
As for Buffy, well, "Into the Woods" can piss right off. Relationship ultimatums annoy me, Riley's problems with Buffy's strength make my blood boil, and who the hell is that wearing Xander's face because that whole guilt trip speech he gives Buffy is a massive pile of nonsense. Grr argh indeed.
Dishonourable mention should also go here to Battlestar Galactica's "The Captain's Hand". In a society where human beings are an endangered species I could possibly maybe understand an argument for banning abortion. That this happens in an episode where not one single character mentions what the fleet's contraception situation is or discusses how they handle adoption makes me want to punch things repeatedly.
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
The Wire. Again a predictable answer from an admitted telly-addict, but it really does live up to its reputation as the best tv show ever.
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Too many to pick from!
The sequence from "Chosen" of all the potentials being activated, intercut with Buffy's speech - "can stand up, will stand up" - will probably stick in my mind forever. Especially the girl playing softball.
Aforementioned Omar witnessin' scene. And the famous variations on "fuck" scene is pretty special.
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
I had no real interest in Battlestar Galactica initially. But Mr Blaize had a childhood fondness and so we tuned in for the mini series. I liked Kara pretty much straight away but was mostly meh on the whole thing. "33" however was pretty gripping and by the time we got to the end of the first season I was hooked. Overall I have had a rather manic love-hate relationship with BSG but I think the good outweighs the bad, and it certainly elicited many yelling at the telly moments, which I judge to be a very good sign.
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Heroes is a text book example of squandering every single piece of potential in a show. In the future it will be taught as how not to make a TV show if you don't want your audience to end up hating you.
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Oh dear. I watch a lot of tv. I've watched a lot of things more than five times. But I've probably watched Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" more than any episode of anything ever.
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Doctor Who. And in many ways it still is. A really good episode of Doctor Who has the power to make me feel 7 years old all over again. From the moment Christopher Ecclestone said "run for your life" I knew that nu-Who could excite me just like it had done when I was young.
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Omar Little. Ryan O'Reilly. Eliot Spencer. Wesley Wyndham-Price. Ben Linus. Jean Luc Picard. Saul Tigh. Mal Reynolds. Eric Taylor.
The Doctor.
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Kara Thrace. Veronica Mars. Buffy Summers. Willow Rosenberg. Audrey Horne. Lorelei Gilmore. Door. Tammi Taylor. Parker.
Sister Peter-Marie.
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Don't really feel any guilt over anything I watch. But the closest probable candidates would be Strictly Come Dancing and its US spin off Dancing With the Stars. Both shows seem to have run out of interesting celebrities, both have become overlong and bloated with nonsense, both judging panels have become parodies of themselves (and doing both shows at the same time is clearly causing Len and Bruno to suffer some form of jet lag induced insanity), and I'm not entirely sure why I'm watching anymore, other than for the pro dancer numbers they use to fill time.
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Generation Kill. "That was pretty fucking ninja."
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Treme and Carnivale both have great titles, but my favourite is True Blood's. HBO seems to really care about the title sequence and I really appreciate that, and in terms of sharing the mood and feel of a show I think it's one of the best.
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Tough call. It has to be either The Wire or Oz (these two shows both have the advantage of being very large casts, but oh! what casts!). On the one hand The Wire doesn't have Lee Tergesen or Rita Morena or Dean Winters or Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje or Eammon Walker or JK Simmons or Christopher Meloni or Kirk Acevedo. But Oz doesn't have Idris Elba or Andre Royo or Michael K Williams or Wendell Pierce or Jim True-Frost or Sonja Sohn or Michael B Jordan or James Ransone. All I know for sure is that the best cast were cast by Alexa L Fogel. The woman is clearly a genius.
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Jack Harkness and John Hart in Torchwood's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"' is pretty spectacular.
Day 21 - Favorite ship
I generally choose to sidestep any potential fandom kerfuffles of this sort. If pressed, I'll go with Tammi Taylor/Eric Taylor.
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Buffy felt like the perfect ending to me. And if the comics end up undoing that ending or implying that it was a bad thing to do I will have a temper tantrum of epic proportions.
Day 23 - Most annoying character
James Hurley in Twin Peaks. You are not James Dean and your storyline in season two is the single most pointless plotline in the history of ever you weird-haired flat-faced vortex of boredom and despair. Ahem.
Day 24 - Best quote
"Hey! What did you just call him? You used that word, you’re talking about him. You live a few years, you start seeing in people’s hearts. Even the best people. You use the “N” word? Yeah, how about retard? You call that nice girl in Cheerios retard? But you think it’s okay to come into my house and say faggy? I know what you meant! What? You didn’t think I used that word when I was your age? You know, some kid gets clocked in practice and we tell him to stop being such a fag, shake it off. We meant it exactly the way you meant it. That being gay is wrong. That it’s some kind of punishable offense. I really thought you were different, Finn. You know, I thought that being in Glee club, and being raised by your mom, that you were some new generation who saw things differently, who just came into the world knowing what it’s taken me years of struggling to figure out. I guess I was wrong. I’m sorry Finn, but you can’t stay here. I love your mom and maybe this is going to cost me her, but my family comes first. I can’t have that kind of poison around here. This is our home. He is my son. Out in the world, you do what you want. Not under my roof.”
Glee is a show that I have a tumultuous relationship with but I fucking love Burt Hummel.
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Deadwood. Not entirely sure why I didn't watch it when it was first airing, but my recent rediscovery of Olyphant has made it a priority.
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Saul motherfrakkin' Tigh is a motherfrakkin' Cylon. Blew. My. Mind. In the best possible way.
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Firefly's "Serenity" hits the ground running, but the whole not being aired thing didn't help matters. Lost's pilot is gorgeous but it really ought to be at that price. I think Veronica Mars's pilot wins here - who Veronica is and what Neptune is like is set up so slickly and elegantly. And so perfectly noir.
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Buffy. The fandom that sucked me into these here interwebs and kick started a chain of events that make me, me. Sappy, but true.
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Leverage makes me laugh more than most sitcoms (and by 'most sitcoms' I mean all sitcoms that aren't Fawlty Towers). But it can still bring the drama when it feels right. Most of all it's just so much fun to watch. And it has Christian Kane punching people in new and interesting ways. What's not to love? And its fandom is pretty awesome too. White Collar is also approaching obsession like levels for me too.
Day 30 - Saddest character death
Another tough one. Tara on Buffy and Charlie on Lost both made me weep copiously. But I think the saddest ever is Cyril O'Reilly in Oz. I can't even get into describing why - if you've seen it you know why. In a show with so much death and so much injustice it really is the most heartbreaking thing they do. And now I'm just realizing how many similarities there are (in storytelling terms) between Cyril's death and Charlie's on Lost - the audience knows this character is going to die; their fate is sealed, their storyline heads inexorably towards death. Then comes the episode where the audience is sure death will claim them, and then - last minute reprieve! The audience begins to relax, but come next week... Dead fictional character, sobbing real audience member.
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Firefly. I know it's something of a go-to answer for many geeker types, but when someone asks that question my gut immediately answers "Firefly" just like how my gut answers the question "who would win in a fight..." with "Batman" before I even know who the options are. And I know that part of the reason it's so perfect is that it never had time to make any major missteps, but I so wish I could have spent more time with those characters. I would genuinely use one of my three wishes on having it back if I ever met a Genie. That is so dorky and I don't even care.
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Friday Night Lights. There's no sensible reason in the world why I'd care to watch a show about American Football at a High School in Texas, and clearly many other people in the world agree and have decided not to bother watching. The problem is that that's not what Friday Night Lights is about. It's about class, and race, and community, and family, and relationships, and loyalty, and responsibility, and hardship, and living with the hand that life has dealt you. It's about growing up, and about being grown up. It's about parenting, both about being a parent and being a child. It's about birth and death and joy and pain and the whole of life and it's just heartbreakingly beautiful. I could rhapsodize about it for quite some time. Watch it. (And yes, season two went a bit wobbly but since then it's been as wonderful as it's ever been.)
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Justified. The dialogue is just scrumptious, the characters all feel so three dimensional, the little details make me happy, and oh my assorted gods why had I never noticed how hot Timothy Olyphant is before now?
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
My brain says The Wire. My heart says Buffy.
Day 05 - A show you hate
There aren't really any TV shows I hate, because the stuff I probably would hate I don't watch. I imagine if I watched a lot of reality shows or your CSI type crime shows then my blood pressure would be a lot higher.
I do however have a very vivid memory of a visceral reaction to a TV show that could be classified as hate. Several years back I was a visitor in someone's home and therefore bound by politeness to watch what they wanted to watch. And they wanted to watch Mad About Alice, an alleged sitcom starring the alleged actress (and now alleged judge of talent) Amanda Holden. Probably the worst half hour of television I have ever sat through. Every aspect of that production was made of fail. And afterwards I had to go away and cry because something that awful had been given such a prime piece of BBC Friday night real estate. Thankfully I was not alone and it's gone down in British tv history as an absolute disaster. But somehow Amanda Holden keeps getting work.
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Really hard to pick one episode of The Wire as it's so un-episodic. But my favourite ever scene takes place in "All Prologue" - Omar on the witness stand pwning the hell out of the world's most ethically-challenged lawyer. Sheer joy. And that episode also features a fabulous bit part actress who plays a stripper - she has already stolen her entire scene before she even moves on to readjusting her boobs.
And for Buffy, my favourite is probably "Once More with Feeling" although I think "The Body" is the best episode.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Impossible to pick a least fave for The Wire.
As for Buffy, well, "Into the Woods" can piss right off. Relationship ultimatums annoy me, Riley's problems with Buffy's strength make my blood boil, and who the hell is that wearing Xander's face because that whole guilt trip speech he gives Buffy is a massive pile of nonsense. Grr argh indeed.
Dishonourable mention should also go here to Battlestar Galactica's "The Captain's Hand". In a society where human beings are an endangered species I could possibly maybe understand an argument for banning abortion. That this happens in an episode where not one single character mentions what the fleet's contraception situation is or discusses how they handle adoption makes me want to punch things repeatedly.
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
The Wire. Again a predictable answer from an admitted telly-addict, but it really does live up to its reputation as the best tv show ever.
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Too many to pick from!
The sequence from "Chosen" of all the potentials being activated, intercut with Buffy's speech - "can stand up, will stand up" - will probably stick in my mind forever. Especially the girl playing softball.
Aforementioned Omar witnessin' scene. And the famous variations on "fuck" scene is pretty special.
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
I had no real interest in Battlestar Galactica initially. But Mr Blaize had a childhood fondness and so we tuned in for the mini series. I liked Kara pretty much straight away but was mostly meh on the whole thing. "33" however was pretty gripping and by the time we got to the end of the first season I was hooked. Overall I have had a rather manic love-hate relationship with BSG but I think the good outweighs the bad, and it certainly elicited many yelling at the telly moments, which I judge to be a very good sign.
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Heroes is a text book example of squandering every single piece of potential in a show. In the future it will be taught as how not to make a TV show if you don't want your audience to end up hating you.
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Oh dear. I watch a lot of tv. I've watched a lot of things more than five times. But I've probably watched Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" more than any episode of anything ever.
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Doctor Who. And in many ways it still is. A really good episode of Doctor Who has the power to make me feel 7 years old all over again. From the moment Christopher Ecclestone said "run for your life" I knew that nu-Who could excite me just like it had done when I was young.
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Omar Little. Ryan O'Reilly. Eliot Spencer. Wesley Wyndham-Price. Ben Linus. Jean Luc Picard. Saul Tigh. Mal Reynolds. Eric Taylor.
The Doctor.
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Kara Thrace. Veronica Mars. Buffy Summers. Willow Rosenberg. Audrey Horne. Lorelei Gilmore. Door. Tammi Taylor. Parker.
Sister Peter-Marie.
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Don't really feel any guilt over anything I watch. But the closest probable candidates would be Strictly Come Dancing and its US spin off Dancing With the Stars. Both shows seem to have run out of interesting celebrities, both have become overlong and bloated with nonsense, both judging panels have become parodies of themselves (and doing both shows at the same time is clearly causing Len and Bruno to suffer some form of jet lag induced insanity), and I'm not entirely sure why I'm watching anymore, other than for the pro dancer numbers they use to fill time.
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Generation Kill. "That was pretty fucking ninja."
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Treme and Carnivale both have great titles, but my favourite is True Blood's. HBO seems to really care about the title sequence and I really appreciate that, and in terms of sharing the mood and feel of a show I think it's one of the best.
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Tough call. It has to be either The Wire or Oz (these two shows both have the advantage of being very large casts, but oh! what casts!). On the one hand The Wire doesn't have Lee Tergesen or Rita Morena or Dean Winters or Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje or Eammon Walker or JK Simmons or Christopher Meloni or Kirk Acevedo. But Oz doesn't have Idris Elba or Andre Royo or Michael K Williams or Wendell Pierce or Jim True-Frost or Sonja Sohn or Michael B Jordan or James Ransone. All I know for sure is that the best cast were cast by Alexa L Fogel. The woman is clearly a genius.
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Jack Harkness and John Hart in Torchwood's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"' is pretty spectacular.
Day 21 - Favorite ship
I generally choose to sidestep any potential fandom kerfuffles of this sort. If pressed, I'll go with Tammi Taylor/Eric Taylor.
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Buffy felt like the perfect ending to me. And if the comics end up undoing that ending or implying that it was a bad thing to do I will have a temper tantrum of epic proportions.
Day 23 - Most annoying character
James Hurley in Twin Peaks. You are not James Dean and your storyline in season two is the single most pointless plotline in the history of ever you weird-haired flat-faced vortex of boredom and despair. Ahem.
Day 24 - Best quote
"Hey! What did you just call him? You used that word, you’re talking about him. You live a few years, you start seeing in people’s hearts. Even the best people. You use the “N” word? Yeah, how about retard? You call that nice girl in Cheerios retard? But you think it’s okay to come into my house and say faggy? I know what you meant! What? You didn’t think I used that word when I was your age? You know, some kid gets clocked in practice and we tell him to stop being such a fag, shake it off. We meant it exactly the way you meant it. That being gay is wrong. That it’s some kind of punishable offense. I really thought you were different, Finn. You know, I thought that being in Glee club, and being raised by your mom, that you were some new generation who saw things differently, who just came into the world knowing what it’s taken me years of struggling to figure out. I guess I was wrong. I’m sorry Finn, but you can’t stay here. I love your mom and maybe this is going to cost me her, but my family comes first. I can’t have that kind of poison around here. This is our home. He is my son. Out in the world, you do what you want. Not under my roof.”
Glee is a show that I have a tumultuous relationship with but I fucking love Burt Hummel.
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Deadwood. Not entirely sure why I didn't watch it when it was first airing, but my recent rediscovery of Olyphant has made it a priority.
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Saul motherfrakkin' Tigh is a motherfrakkin' Cylon. Blew. My. Mind. In the best possible way.
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Firefly's "Serenity" hits the ground running, but the whole not being aired thing didn't help matters. Lost's pilot is gorgeous but it really ought to be at that price. I think Veronica Mars's pilot wins here - who Veronica is and what Neptune is like is set up so slickly and elegantly. And so perfectly noir.
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Buffy. The fandom that sucked me into these here interwebs and kick started a chain of events that make me, me. Sappy, but true.
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Leverage makes me laugh more than most sitcoms (and by 'most sitcoms' I mean all sitcoms that aren't Fawlty Towers). But it can still bring the drama when it feels right. Most of all it's just so much fun to watch. And it has Christian Kane punching people in new and interesting ways. What's not to love? And its fandom is pretty awesome too. White Collar is also approaching obsession like levels for me too.
Day 30 - Saddest character death
Another tough one. Tara on Buffy and Charlie on Lost both made me weep copiously. But I think the saddest ever is Cyril O'Reilly in Oz. I can't even get into describing why - if you've seen it you know why. In a show with so much death and so much injustice it really is the most heartbreaking thing they do. And now I'm just realizing how many similarities there are (in storytelling terms) between Cyril's death and Charlie's on Lost - the audience knows this character is going to die; their fate is sealed, their storyline heads inexorably towards death. Then comes the episode where the audience is sure death will claim them, and then - last minute reprieve! The audience begins to relax, but come next week... Dead fictional character, sobbing real audience member.