Babbling about TV shows! Generally!

[alwaystheocean]

December topics! Here is my first! Still lots of slots left! :D

So here is tellitslant's first request, and btw, THIS IS A HUGE TOPIC, KK. O_o

TV shows you love / hate / want to watch / want others to watch

Ok, I’m going to start with lists for each and we’ll see where that takes me.

TV shows I love: The Good Wife, Warehouse 13, Buffy, Angel, Firefly (I have issues with Joss Whedon but they’ve not managed to override how I feel about shows I loved before I started being away those issues), Farscape, The West Wing, DS9, the Justice League Animated ones, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Doctor Who (new, old, and everything in between), The Avengers (STEED AND PEEL), Alias, Wonder Woman, She-ra, Jem & the Holograms, My Little Pony (new and old), Xena, Legend of the Seeker, X-Files, Orange is the New Black, Jam and Jerusalem, Utenaaa, Strawberry Panic, Maria-sama Ga Miteru! OK, this list is getting silly now. There could be more on it but I decided to try and go for the ones that occurred to me first and made me squeakiest.

TV shows I hate: I don’t want to dwell on this, as I have like, TV shows I’m mad at because I used to love them and they BETRAYED ME OMG, or I have TV shows I kind of hate on principle but acknowledge my principles are quite spurious because this sort of thing is YMMV? Like I kind of resent Supernatural, for example, for its continued existence and giant fandom, but that’s not fair, really, because I do know and love people who like it and it’s not like I want them to not have their show? Same goes for Sherlock. Actually, I do kind of hate Sherlock. Sorrynotsorry. Amusingly, I ALSO HATE Doctor Who, because the more I think about the current iteration, the unhappier I am. Like I DON’T fancy getting into RTD vs Moffatt but the summary is while I think RTD had massive honking problems that bother me still and I’ve constructed elaborate head-canon that allows me to reject them, Moffatt’s problems are just too big for me to head-canon away (in the interest of full disclosure, possibly I just reached a head-canon quota and snapped? So it’s both of them?) and show why can’t you just BE BETTER ALREADY. Oh well. Or I hate BSG for not delivering on its awesome set-up and randomly becoming shit at women. Like seriously, how did that happen? I still don’t understand how BSG started off so good and went SO WRONG. Or I hate Merlin for screwing over Morgana and Gwen, and its women generally, after having such a promising first season. Like I know it wasn’t the best show on telly or anything, but if it had at least continued with the amounts of screen time everyone got in S1 it would’ve been better. (MORGANA TURNED EVIL OFF-SCREEN. NEVER OVER IT.) I kind of hate Lost, still, because JJ wandered away from Alias to make it and I don’t think that helped Alias’s convoluted myth arcs any. ;) So yes, less TV shows I hate, more about why. Yay?

TV shows I want to watch: Elementary, Sleepy Hollow, Lost Girl, Babylon 5, the rest of DS9. Probably some other Trek, maybe. Lots more, probably. Oh, Orphan Black. Seriously surely this list is longer? This feels very manageable. Oh, Birds of Prey. Um, more ER for baby Julianna Margulies at some point. I need to catch up on Nashville. (I’m like, somewhere in the latter third of season one.) Oh! Tenko. I am sorely tempted to try The Fall for Gillian Anderson, but fear. Oh, Scott and Bailey. Luther? Mayyybe? I need to research it more first. Borgen! The Hour. Maybe Fringe. I need to re-watch and then finish The Sarah Connor Chronicles, because I don’t really remember the details of what I did watch and I never saw the last few eps of S2. (Tbf, this is because I was so gutted it got cancelled I elected to save the remaining episodes. But at this point I’ve lost track of what I’ve seen and not seen, and don’t remember the finer points of the plot, and vids have rather confused the issue.) Maybe Sanctuary? Oh, Scandal, Parks and Rec, the rest of Community. I wish someone would make me a super-cut of the bits of Game of Thrones I’d actually care about. At some point, Agents of Shield. Also, at some point, Dollhouse. (Honestly, if you’d told teenage Cleo there’d be a time she didn’t have encyclopaedic knowledge of a Joss Whedon show, she wouldn’t have believed you. How things change.) I have this urge to watch Spartacus because like Lucy Lawless, John Hannah and Ancient Rome, plus Jaime Murray for a bit, this is like Cleo-catnip, but isn’t it TERRIBLE? I would like to poke more of the Jaime Murray bits of Hustle. OH! Slings and Arrows. See, I knew there was more. Princess Tutu.

TV shows I want others to watch: OK, I want everyone ever to watch Xena. Likewise Warehouse 13. For similar reasons. Orange is the New Black and Jam and Jerusalem. UTENA! I wish the C’s would watch more of The Good Wife. And Utena. ;D *SUBTLE HINT* I really want Hannah and Andrew to watch Farscape, but tbf, that’s partly my fault. I want Andrew to watch the rest of DS9 with me. ;) *MORE SUBTLE HINTS* I wish my MOTHER would watch The Good Wife, actually, I think she’d like it.

There you go. Some telly feelings. :D

Comments

[quarter_to_five]

The Fall is...I feel hesitant in surely, definitely, cross-my-heart saying it has no fail whatsoever at all ever, but if it does, it's in interesting, ambitious ways. It's really, really, front and center about misogyny, so the pitfalls are deep and they are many, but I admire the effort. Also, Gillian Anderson is kind of magnificent, so.

Screw Game of Thrones. If you're dying of curiousity, the books are great, otherwise I don't honestly think it's worth most anyone's time in terms of interesting/fuck-this-noise ratio.

[alwaystheocean]

I'm actually fairly secure from all I've heard that I can deal with it fail-wise, it's more that I'm worried I'll find it too scary...

I know I like the women cast in the TV show, and I KNOW I have no interest in the books, hence my desire for a super-cut. My best friend likes the books so has told me quite a lot about them.

[netgirl_y2k]

You have most excellent taste in television. And I really must find time for Orange is the New Black. I do think you'd like Orphan Black, and I have nothing but good things to say about Elementary.

I find it pretty easy not to resent Supernatural because I don't know anybody who's into it so I never hear about its giant fandom. Likewise, more or less, Sherlock. Although I watched the first ten minutes of Sherlock and had to change the channel because of how thoroughly rude and unpleasant I found the title character. Not unrelatedly... Elementary. Sorry, I'm done now.

Absolutely agree on Doctor Who. RTD had problems that I was able and willing to overlook or head-canon away. Moffat... less so. I think I would be really, properly angry at Moffat Who if it was going to be Moffat and Smith, and underdeveloped companions, and toxic benevolent sexism, and plots that aren't nearly so clever as Moffat thinks... hey look I was angrier than I thought I was.

No, but my point is, we're getting a new Doctor soon, Moffat won't be around forever, and if Doctor Who doesn't get better it might at least get more to my taste, so its easier to just breath through. Whereas Merlin - bloody Merlin - offends both my sensibilities and intelligence on a deep and lasting level.

[alwaystheocean]

Why thank you! As do you! :D I DEFINITELY think you'll love Orange is the New Black, and I'm pretty sure I'll like Orphan Black and Elementary!

That's fair about Supernatural, IDK why it still bugs me as much as it does.
This is a thing I've heard in Elementary's favour! Honestly, I just haven't got around to it yet.

I also agree about Doctor Who, I definitely don't hate the show forever, just on a temporary, rage-y break. I know it'll be better with a new show-runner and even a new Doctor will at least change the dynamic.

Yeah, I feel like our feelings on Merlin are pretty similar. So infuriating. I think I'd detached sooner than you so it bothered me less but still, wow.

Aw, I've missed talking to you. <3

[netgirl_y2k]

Aw, I've missed talking to you. <3

Me too!

[alwaystheocean]

Semi-relatedly, it pleases me how many of your fics are podficced. <3

[yantantether]

I've only just started watching Elementary, and I'm really enjoying it! And I tried Utena a few years ago, but found all the duelling a bit too repetitive. I keep thinking I should go back to it though, because I hear the duelling plot line isn't throughout the whole series?

[alwaystheocean]

I remember Utena taking a while to get into because of that but just take it slow at first in that case? It's so 100% worth it!

[umadoshi]

The first arc of Utena is fairly interesting once you've seen the show and can see what it's setting up, but on its own, it's mostly not very compelling. And the duels continue for most of the series, in a way that I tend to file under "establishing a feel of ritual" or something.

Having said those discouraging-sounding things, it's an amazing show, and it does a lot of really neat things. If a rec from a stranger helps at all, it's my favorite anime.

[goodbyebird]

The Fall certainly isn't an easy thing to watch, but Gillian Anderson is sublime in it, as is her character, so that kept me hooked past the eyeroll-worthy stuff. But Luther! Borgen! And the last run of episodes on Sarah Connor Chronicles rates as some of the best tv ever with me, I love it so.

Fringe is the show I loathe the most ever due to it STABBING ME IN THE BACK. AND THE FACE. LOTS OF STABBING WENT DOWN. (BSG takes second place) But I lovelovelove Olivia Dunham and Walter was a very interesting character as well. On my advice, watch the first three seasons but then cut the chord. You will most certainly not like what comes after.

Also I'd suggest Gilmore Girls if you haven't already. Three generations of ladies, front and center! <3 oh oh oh and Six Feet Under! Pretty pretty please get this show to your eyeballs stat.

[alwaystheocean]

I was saying above, I worry The Fall will scare me or creep me out too much, likewise Luther, but I'm definitely there for Borgen and finishing Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Ah. That's really excellent to know, thank you, cuz that's about how I feel about Alias and many feel about Lost and that's...well, that's a pattern, JJ. Like I've heard others say they love the whole show and I'm on the fence about it...We'll see. Thank you for the data point, definitely!!

Eeee, I LOVE Gilmore Girls, it should've been on the first list! <3 Six Feet Under I've always vaguely been aware of and meant to check out but never in an active 'I will do this' way? Like I've heard nothing but good things, and yet.

[goodbyebird]

Oh god yes, the third season of Alias flipped the quality and narrative of the show so fast, I got whiplash! But then also IRINA DEREVKO so I kept watching hehe. As one does. But the first three seasons of Fringe is worth your time for sure.

Oh and for scary but good shows that deal with misogyny and such, Top of the Lake. Seven ep mini-series, very well written.

[alwaystheocean]

Yeah, basically I still do really love Alias but in a very DIFFERENT way to how I loved it pre-S3. ;) And the fact Fringe is the same for you makes me MUCH MORE SUSPICIOUS of it. Like not that I won't check it out necessarily, but my expectations are now different.

I actually don't like scary, I'd be watching The Fall for Gillian Anderson. But thank you for the rec!

[goodbyebird]

The thing with Fringe is that Olivia Dunham is unequivocally the Main Character of the show. She is treated as someone very important, it's mostly her POV, and she's such a layered and competent and non-cliche female character. But then. In season four, PSYCHE! The white dude is actually the main character :D the white dude is Very Very Special :DD the cameras will use him as POV character now :DDD And the turnaround point was so grossly inconsiderate and disrespectful of Olivia as a character, so gross and out of character I can't even. It still makes me fume. I stopped watching on the spot.

But the first three seasons featuring Olivia Dunham and Walter and skience!

[tellitslant]

Heee, I didn't mean you had to cover alll of them. But yay anyway?

High five for the hates list. I feel you on most of those.

I'm surprised you haven't watched Elementary yet! Highly recommended. Also yes re Sanctuary and Lost Girl and Slings & Arrows. MOAR CANADIAN SHOWS. But no, don't watch Spartacus. Seriously, you'll regret it even if jaime and Lucy's characters are disgustingly in love and adorable and hot. I am finally watching Orphan Black starting next week! :D

Hmm, I have seen most of your want-others-to-watch list. Go me! :D

And thaaanks.

[alwaystheocean]

I'm not really good at either/or, I see multiple slashes and assume it means poly. ;)

Hehe, thanks!

I just haven't got round to it, IDK why? I was waiting for season 1 to finish and then 23 episodes seemed like a lot and now S2 has started. IDEK. ;)
All the Canadian shows you've lisetd plus Elementary it's just a matter of time, really.
Awwwwwwww, MAN, but I wanna watch Jaime and Lucy be hot and in love. :/
Yay for Orphan Black! Do let us know your thoughts.

Good work. ;D

THE GOOD WIFE, KAREN! (I'm now only one ep behind and I cheated and watched part of it earlier this week.)

[usuallyhats]

*cheers for Babylon 5, DS9 and Orphan Black*

I wouldn't recommend watching The Hour unless you have a particularly compelling reason to do so, to be honest: it's really pretty, it starts well and it has its moments, but it's kind of a mess overall, I thought.

[alwaystheocean]

It'll totally happen! :D

Ooh, OK, useful info, thanks. Mostly my reason is Anna Chancellor but it's not a must-have.

[usuallyhats]

That is a fairly compelling reason! She is the best character, but her season two plot really annoyed me. (Admittedly I was not concentrating on it 100% by then, so I might have missed something that would have made me less enraged by it.) It is SO pretty though.

[alwaystheocean]

Hm, OK. This sort of stuff is good, it helps me rank how soon I'm going to get to stuff. As a result of this post, Orphan Black, Lost Girl, Elementary and Sleepy Hollow are nearer the top of the pile, and Fringe and The Hour nearer the bottom. ;)

[cosmic_llin]

I'm sorry we haven't watched more TGW! I'm sure we'll get around to it eventually. ;) (And Utena.)

[alwaystheocean]

That makes me feel so much better. ;) (Honestly I am much more fussed for you to watch Utena because there are so many things about it relevant to both your interests.)

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I think possibly because Moff felt the need to go ahead and map out the characters' entire lives so you can't headcanon anything, whereas with RTD there's more room to make things better for yourself?

[silly-cleo.livejournal.com]

You have, in fact, hit the nail on the head.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

LIKEWISE ABOUT MERLIN