Topic: (NEW Poll Added!!) New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

[NWR_insanolord]

I want to have a rough idea what I'm getting into when I watch.

This is not something you get watching Community. The show's not afraid to go a little crazy and experimental, and adopt a trope for an episode and then never do it again afterward. That's one of the things I love about the show, but I can see how some people wouldn't care for it.

[oohhboy]

Do you realise how big those X Factor/American Idol/reality BS shows are? They create nasty rating deserts around them. It's a amazing Community survived next to that. BBT won't be that show that takes Community down. It will be some bean counting suit that can't look up from his spreadsheet that kills Community.

Community has a strong chronological element to it for a comedy. Watching random episodes mean some of it gets lost since there is actual character development strangely enough giving it's a lot more structure and rewards for whose see it front to end dispite the chaos of each individual episode. It's order from chaos.

Use the characters as an anchor rather than looking for a formula to settle in. They change, but not so drastically to the point they become different people each season. The underlying character remains, but the super structure changes and warps with the reality of each episode.

[TJ Spyke]

BBT does almost as well in the ratings as American Idol is. It averages 16 million viewers a show this season (more than four times as many as Community). Shows that may be liked or loved by critics but do poorly in the ratings can only last so long before they get canceled. If NBC wasn't in the shape it is in, there is no way they would have renewed the show after it finished 97th in season 1 with 5 million viewers a episode, dropping to 115th with 4.48 million viewers a episode in season 2, and is now doing less than 4 million a episode this season. The show just keeps losing viewers.

[NWR_insanolord]

Then I say thank god NBC's in shambles enough that they feel it's a good move to keep quality television on the air instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator. NBC has three fantastic comedies on Thursday night (plus The Office, which I've never been a big fan of but a lot of people like), and I can't remember the last time I watched something on CBS that wasn't football. Ratings mean nothing in terms of quality, and whatever it takes for NBC to keep doing what they're doing, I'm happy.

[TJ Spyke]

If Community keeps its downwards spiral happening, even NBC will not keep the show around unless they do something like they did with Friday Night Lights and get DirecTV to subsidize the costs.

[ThePerm]

The River......   sucks

[Halbred]

Really? I was kind of rooting for that show.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The River lost me in the second episode.

I'm still gonna check out the 3rd ep, but now I'm looking even less forward to it than I was before.


edit: I just finished ep 3 & 4


I expected more out of this show, but the 4th episode was better than the last 2.
I might finish out the season a few episodes at time, but I'm not a big fan.


So far the formula seems to be
Search for missing Man
you've gone/done/seen somewhere/thing/one you shouldn't have
Certain death is upon you
Make Proper sacrifice
Now all is well again.... continue on journey. end episode.

[Stogi]

I'm glad 'The Walking Dead' doesn't suck anymore.

[BranDonk Kong]

I don't even get why CBS gets the ratings it does, but Neilsen ratings shouldn't matter...at all. I don't know anyone that watches CBS unless it's football or David Letterman. I don't think this thread is necessarily showing an odd situation where the minority is the majority, I just think it's an example of why ratings don't matter, especially when they're based on such a tiny population.

[ThePerm]

The River lost me in the second episode.

I'm still gonna check out the 3rd ep, but now I'm looking even less forward to it than I was before.


edit: I just finished ep 3 & 4


I expected more out of this show, but the 4th episode was better than the last 2.
I might finish out the season a few episodes at time, but I'm not a big fan.


So far the formula seems to be
Search for missing Man
you've gone/done/seen somewhere/thing/one you shouldn't have
Certain death is upon you
Make Proper sacrifice
Now all is well again.... continue on journey. end episode.

pretty much the same, i was looking forward to it, but its just lame. They pull up to a new location, some voodoo **** goes down that the spanish speaking girl predicts, someone possibly dies, they solve the problem, episode over. The formula is just goofy.

[BlackNMild2k1]

So far the formula seems to be
Search for missing Man
you've gone/done/seen somewhere/thing/one you shouldn't have
Spanish girl predicts impending doom based on old "fairytale" her grandmother told her....
Certain death is upon you
Make Proper sacrifice
Now all is well again.... continue on journey. end episode.

yeah, I had to edit it.

[tendoboy1984]

Do you realise how big those X Factor/American Idol/reality BS shows are?

Televised singing / dancing / talent contests are not reality shows.


Would you call Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Jeopardy, The Price is Right, etc. reality shows?


Shows like Jersey Shore, Cake Boss, Hogan Knows Best, COPS, etc. are reality shows. In fact, I consider COPS to be the first true reality show, since it's real police officers on pursuit of real criminals, with a few cameramen filming the footage.


And I'd even go so far as to call America's Funniest Videos a reality show, since it's all about user-submitted tapes.

[Morari]

And I'd even go so far as to call America's Funniest Videos a reality show, since it's all about user-submitted tapes.

Wouldn't it be more of a straight-up contest, though?

Rupaul's Drag Race is the only reality show worth watching, even if the current season seems to be scraping rock bottom with its contestants.

[Ceric]

I want to have a rough idea what I'm getting into when I watch.

This is not something you get watching Community. The show's not afraid to go a little crazy and experimental, and adopt a trope for an episode and then never do it again afterward. That's one of the things I love about the show, but I can see how some people wouldn't care for it.

BBT does that as well ironically.  Which is fine as long as its the norm.  If I go into an episode and there is something for the long term fans to notice, but is self contained own thing I'm ok with that.  That's actually a hallmark of a traditional American produced Cartoon compared to a Traditional Japanese produced Cartoon which is very order driven.  If a show has a strong continuity where you be easily lost if you don't start from the beginning then doing the oddball episode here and there is ok, but ultimately I think its just a ticking time bomb for a Comedy.  It doesn't give the writers enough room to stay funny without starting to muddle there own show.

Good examples of this is "30 Rock".  That show was funny, but its so trapped in its characters now that it has no where to go.  It should have been cancelled 2 seasons ago.  "Better of Ted" another good example, while I recommend everyone watches that show at least once because it is funny if it hadn't gotten cancelled despite enjoying it I would say it had 1 season left into it.

Since I'm on the tangent now anyways, lets look at what could arguably be considered the most successful series ever, Law and Order.  The Franchise has ran a long time and successfully spun off numerous times because its core formula was solid.  Crime, Investigation, and Court.  The characters where just a vehicle to hit those point.  People could and did move in and out with no real effect what-so-ever on the show itself.  That's a good, but hard concept.

From piecing together what I'm hearing in this thread Community really needs to be watched from start to finish in order, but has just as many episodes thrown in that our offshoots at that point of the continuity.

The Spoiler stuff is what I originally wrote for the interested.  I thought it had some points, but was off-topic.

[TrueNerd]

NBC is in shambles right now. The AV Club posted an article recently about how NBC's ratings were tied with that of Univision. I didn't even know what network Univision was before reading the article. It doesn't matter what they're airing, people are avoiding NBC like rancid dog poop. Meanwhile, CBS is doing so good that the fucking Rob Schneider sitcom is getting 12 million viewers a week, (trouncing the also solid Parks and Rec in the same timeslot) and I don't hear ANYONE arguing that that is any good.

Before writing off the quality of CBS as a whole, I have heard from people I trust and critics that The Good Wife is one of the best shows on TV right now, it just has a terribly unappealing title. Like, I've heard serious comparisons to The Wire and Breaking Bad. I haven't seen it, can anyone confirm/deny?

[NWR_insanolord]

I haven't watched The Good Wife, but I've seen those same comparisons and they've made me interested. That and How I Met Your Mother (which I also haven't watched but have heard good things) are the only non-football and non-late night things I'd have any interest at all in watching on CBS. It saddens me that NBC backing quality shows has been so bad for them in the ratings.

[gbuell]

JP, if you dislike The Big Bang Theory I have a very difficult time believing you'll like How I Met Your Mother.

[NWR_insanolord]

You're probably right, but I have heard positive things about it from people who acknowledge the shittiness of The Big Bang Theory. It's on Netflix now, so I figure I'll give it a shot.

[Ceric]

I haven't watched The Good Wife, but I've seen those same comparisons and they've made me interested. That and How I Met Your Mother (which I also haven't watched but have heard good things) are the only non-football and non-late night things I'd have any interest at all in watching on CBS. It saddens me that NBC backing quality shows has been so bad for them in the ratings.

You may like How I Met Your Mother.  Its on Netflix.  I would watch whats on there.  Last season and this one are not that good.  Though when it first came out I just caught episodes to ogle Alyson Hannigan.
Though I'm back to having to watch more of Community because the more I hear the more I'm confused why there is such a polarization beyond the time slot.

[nickmitch]

How I met your mother is like a big cock tease. I mean how many times are Ted and Robin gonna hook up?

[Ceric]

How I met your mother is like a big cock tease. I mean how many times are Ted and Robin gonna hook up?

Agree.  That's why the last 2 seasons haven't been that great.  Everyone stories are really wrapped up and there just stalling.  They should have had him meet her 2 seasons ago and been dating at this point.

[nickmitch]

Yeah, the times are starting to get out of whack too. At the beginning of the show, the kids could've been Ted's. But now, that's looking to be impossible.

[King of Twitch]

The characters and the actors themselves are way better on HIMTMHM. There's no laugh track though, so you won't know when to laugh? Ha, ha? or Ha haha ha? You just have to improvise and deal with it as it comes.

[oohhboy]

HIMYM is pretty good(Better than BBT), but I am somewhat soured on the premise and I wish they get it over with already, which includes ending the series. I find Ted an extremely unlikable whiney douchbag with "problems" I wish I have. Barney Stinson (NPH) might be a womanizing, seemingly amoral, sleazy bastard, but he is our magnificent bastard. It helps that NPH is gay, affable and is parodying himself.

I ogle Alyson Hannigan, but I ogle Cobie Smulders more, but only slightly more.

The BBT was never experimental unless you consider nerd black face experimental. There isn't any actual character development outside of who is sleeping with who. They did shake things up bit by adding more females in what was nominally a sausage fest. Melissa Rauch (Bernadette Rostenkowski) was a good addition to the cast as I found Kaley Cucoo (Penny) surprisingly unattractive despite having a nicer figure. The BBT also effectively resets at the end of each episode, they do call backs, like with the Mars Rover, but it's like how in the Simpsons how they do call backs. The laugh track is only the most blatantly wrong thing about this show pointing out each "joke" magnifying how unfunny they are. If I want some real nerd comedy or something consistently funny, I would go watch Futurama which did nerd comedy light years ahead of time.

30 Rock had a massive problem for a while where everything thing was about Tracy Jordan and I hate his guts. It's not helped by the fact the actor pulls the same garbage outside of 30 Rock. Now the problem is that it's no longer about a comedy show about making a comedy show, but about each character's neurosis and the exponential amount of Flanderization happening. The one thing that really worked for a while was Tina Fey's relationship with Matt Damon (Carol). Alec Badwin has always been golden in the series though.

I can't stand shows like Law and Order, besides being boring as hell, the whole ripped from the headlines level of writing can't compare to actual headlines, which is depressing. I do watch shows like NCIS and it's counterpart NCIS L.A, but mostly for the unintentional comedy factor especially with how everything about NCIS LA has to be some international incident even if it's just some local crime. The number of Arabs they shoot is borderline racist if it wasn't for the fact they have a ridiculously high body count that would make Rambo blush with envy. NCIS at least has the decency to stay sort of grounded in "some" police work if it wasn't for the absurd story arcs they have running through a given season. All that is assuming your willing to buy into the whole authoritarian police state ideal both shows push to a level matching propaganda where the people using the tools are always just people and terrorists are so sophisticated that suspending civil rights is always the only option.