TV Heaven, Telly Hell....

[Mr Mystery]

Afternoon folks.

A gentle thread this time, one where we can discuss our preferred televisular entertainments. This could encompass entire channels, or be a cherry picked list of ideal TV, which you would line up on a channel all your own if you had one. But also, tell us your telly hell. We've all been there. Sat around on a Saturday afternoon, nothing to do. Too late to go shopping, too early to go pub, and absolutely nothing of any interest or quality on the tellybox, even though you have Sky and more channels than something with a lot of channels. What hell spawned series do you find invading your mind space when that happens?

For me...I like my telly to either be quite cerebral without being inaccessible (QI type stuff, BBC Documentaries) a good drama (CSI, even though it can get repetitive) bit of SciFi (duh) and even space for the willfully, satirically moronic (Beavis and Butthead). All those things make me sigh a happy sigh, and settle in for a viewing session. Oh, and comedy. I love comedy...but I find comedy is Marmite from two dimensions. Some I love, some I hate.

Ideally, I'd like some middle weight drama to start the evening, perhaps an episode of CSI, or NCIS. Enough substance to make you think, without really requiring a great deal of attention. From there, a nice slice of QI Pie. Again, starting to raise the cerebral stakes, and teaches me stuff, even though it's largely not terribly useful information in the grand scheme of things. After that...well, depends how mentally dulled the day has left me. If I've over concentrated at work, and the grey cells are shattered, time for some comedy. I'll likely enjoy anything that didn't originate on Channel 4 (I dunno why! Use to love Channel 4...then...then Big Brother happened....). Perhaps a spot of Miranda, for again, the semi-cerebral-you-don't-have-to-pay-attention-but-there-are-rewards-for-doing-so kick, or any non-US sitcom, those I'm usually good with. Stand up is always worth a crack, unless it's Jimmy or Alan Carr or Justin Lee Collins, none of whom I find in the slightest bit amusing. Comedy Panels? Good night in right there!

Should my brians be up for a bit more informations, then it's typically off to BBC4 for a documentary of some kind. And I can be snobby about my documentaries. They have to be BBC productions, as I just find them superior. No inappropriate music (heavy metal playing when a Lion attacks....yes I'm looking at you, Discovery Channel...berks), no going over the same point time and time again to fill in info. Lots of new or interesting information, and pointing out when an opinion is just that, and why it's divergent from the mainstream opinion. Lovely!

As for films? Depends really. Even if a film I really like is on, I have to be in the mood. Films are why I own 300+ VHS, DVD and Bluray....

But telly hell.... Sorry to say mine happens more often than not. Televised sport represents a big chunk of it. Some I can have on quite happily, like Darts or Snooker (even though strictly speaking, they should be the most boring of spectator sports) but football, rugby, atheletics (but not Olympics, go figure) leave me pretty much cold. Atheletics just seems...dull to me, and Football and Rugby have never interested me. And on a Saturday afternoon...well that's quite a lot of telly shut off from me. But what about the other channels? Romcom Films? Kill me. Kill me now, in the face, until I'm dead from having died. But ressurect me when it's pub o'clock. Change the channel again? Well, that's it, I've hit the deadzone. I've so utterly rejected the last offerings, all telly now seems poop. I'd go and read a book, but I've read them all. I'd go cook something in the kitchen, but I'm either not hungry enough, or fixated on something I'm missing an ingredient for and I can't be arsed to go up the shops. Bah! Telly hell can sometimes be cured with a DVD or Bluray, but on many occasions it leads to just watching utter, utter bobbins. Or worse....reality TV, my very own televisular Beelzebub...

So, over to you. TV heaven, telly hell. Tells us precious!

[Wolfshade]

CSI, NCIS are great, the spin offs aren't (well aside from CSI Miami, which I can't decide if it is a spoof or not). Some True Blood action wouldn't go a miss either, nor Game of Thrones. Oh and don't forget some Buffy action.

Some Family Guy/ American Dad/ Simpson cartoon action.

We need some Red Dwarf and Star Trek (any flavour, possibly not TOS or TAS).

Comedy wise I would through some 30 Rock
Guilty pleasurea Motorway Cops possibly some embarassing bodies

TV hell reality TV or quasi reality like Towie, hering about it from the womenfolk at work is enough. Sports I think I would agree with you, and some of these saturday night quiz shows that you require single digit IQs to enter. Add to that those Britian's got the X-factor voice.

[Mr Mystery]

Ah yes. Britain's Got Cretins. I think I purposefully forgot those shows. Definitely part of my telly hell. And it's bad enough that they are usually on just after, or just before something cool (like Dr Who). If like me you intend to tune in a couple of minutes early to defo not miss anything, you often find the 'talent' show mysteriously overrunning....taking as much of a chance as it can to bombard my brian with it's drivel.... Bah!

I just don't see the attraction in them. Now sport, sport I get, even though I don't enjoy it myself. Totally fair play on that one. But 'talent' shows, when it's all so obviously engineered and orchestrated, and the winner has been picked months, possibly years in advance? Really? One or two I can see the novelty....but this many? Every year? And the pointless 'spats' between the judges? All just tabloid fodder, and a total TV turn off. Especially when you know a truly awesome singer (say, Alison Moyet, Freddie Mercury, Skin etc, yes I know at least one of those persons named are dead) could go on, in disguise, belt it out and get nowhere, because it's nothing to do with actual talent, and all about marketing. Can I market you? Are you pretty enough? Are you singing the latest songs? Pfffrrrtt.

Though I must stand up for Saturday Night Takeaway. It might be as light as light entertainment can possibly be, but my word, love them or loathe them, you have to admit Ant and Dec can carry a show! Their show is poop, and they know it, so let's just lark around and make the best of it.

[energongoodie]

Right now I'm loving The Big Bang Theory best of all :D with Game of Thrones, Arrow, The Mentalist and Grimm :)
I'm finding myself enjoying New Girl :confused:

Today I heard about the new BBC sci-fi drama 'Doctor Who time slot' type show coming out called 'Atlantis'. I'm not holding my breath though.

[Wolfshade]

TBBT awesome, though apparently I am too much like sheldon...

[eldargal]

I'm fussy when it comes to television. I don't end up watching a lot as a result. I'm quite bored with detective and law shows, at least the British version. They all seem to be getting more and more grimdark to point I can't even stand watching them. They have gone far past realism and they are almost parodies of themselves. I also only watch scripted television, it will be a cold day in hell when I support cheap to produce, intellectually poison reality television.

Currently enjoying Clone Wars, Transformers Prime, Castle, Once Upon A Time, The Borgias and probably a couple I'm forgetting.

I also watch Buffy quite regularly, usually get through the whole seven series every 18 months or so now.

I'm on a bit of a 80s reboot kick at the moment with Transformers Prime and season 1 of Thundercats on the way. I also watched some Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes or whtever the show is called and wasn't that impressed, not sure I'll watch any more or not.

I don't watch many films either, one to three a year maybe. This year is shaping up to be unusually full with Iron Man 3, Star Trek 2, Man of Steel and Thor 2 all coming out this year.


Edit: Oh and I won't watch any show about zombies. Zombies are stupid, boring and completely overdone.

[Necron2.0]

Disclaimer: For our British friends, what I list are US shows, which you probably get in some form or other, but which you may not have seen.

I watch very little TV because I don't normally have the time. When I can, I watch the following:

1) Castle (regularly)
2) Dr. Who (regularly)
3) Elementary (semi-regularly)
4) Mythbusters (occassionally)
5) How It's Made (occassionally)

I also will generally watch any show that involve actual autopsies or forensic investigation of actual crimes.

As for Telly Hell, it's usually late at night, when I cannot sleep, and I catch myself on some stupid channel and I cannot manage to hit the off switch. In those cases I have caught myself watching:

1) World's Stupidest ....
2) Ancient Aliens
3) Metalocalypse

[Mr Mystery]

If you like autopsies and that, you're missing out.

Channel 4 (I think) here in the UK have done animal autopsies, live (show not beastly natch) and even a series of human ones by Gunther Van Hagen, creator of Bodyworks and inventor of plastination.

When our telly is good, we really are horribly spiked!

[Phototoxin]

I don't have a TV since I don't watch enough to justify it. DVD boxed sets are the way to go!

Things whot I like: 24, CSI, CSI:Miami (Horatio the legend!), Big Bang Theory, Sherlock. I tend to watch the antiques roadshow and QI on a Sunday at my mother in laws. If it's on and there's a telly some Paroit

Things whot I hate: 'Reality' TV, Soaps, mindless police procedurals, fashion, music, 90% of advertising.

[Wolfshade]

I've seen Castle advertised, I want to watch it main because of the guy in it, but is it actually any good?

[eldargal]

I've seen Castle advertised, I want to watch it main because of the guy in it, but is it actually any good?
Well I think so. It gets the balance between realism and humour right and while not technically a 'serious' crime show it does serious crime better than most serious crime shows in my opinion.

[Psychosplodge]

Keep in mind I'm lacking sky or cable, and only have freeview...

The only thing I make time to watch is Sons of anarchy

if I remember they're on I'll watch SG1, walking dead, big bang theory, top gear, Foyle's war, how I met your mother.

I'll also watch grand designs, daria, and how it's made if i'm doing nowt else and they're on.

But TBBT, and HIMYM, have suffered from when they randomly stop showing new ones and stick repeats on and then start showing new ones again, as I don't watch the channels generally I miss that they're starting again.

[Wolfshade]

Did you see the handbell ringing on TBBT last night?

Has anyone suggested Criminal Minds?

[Psychosplodge]

I did it made me lol.

Though it would have been funnier about three month back...

[Wolfshade]

I did it made me lol.

Though it would have been funnier about three month back...

Funny that

[Brakkart]

TV Heaven for me would be the following: Babylon 5, Game of Thrones, Rome, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, The Borgia's, both of the Sci-Fi Channels Dune mini-series (Dune & Children of Dune), Doctor Who, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Sherlock, any BBC documentary by Andrew Marr (especially his recent History of the World), Top Gear specials (not a fan of the regular show and I can't drive, but their specials are hilarious), some Star Trek (I'm really picky when it comes to those shows, there's maybe 10 episodes of Next Gen out of 176 of them that I consider to be any good for example), Most 80's cartoons (especially M.A.S.K and The Mysterious Cities of Gold), Firefly, Buffy, Angel, Red Dwarf, some stand-up comedy (such as Michael McIntyre's Roadshow and Live At the Apollo), Coast, cookery shows by Nigella Lawson, The Muppet Show.


TV Hell: Any and all so-called reality TV shows, televised "talent" shows, most modern cartoons (notable exceptions would be Justice League and Young Justice), Pretty much every show ever made that features anyone from the emergency services and I include all detective shows in that (though as noted above I do like Sherlock), All soap operas but especially Eastenders the writers of which frankly should be locked up for a crime against humanity, Most televised sport, All party political broadcasts.

As for films I watch a pretty wide range of them from the following genres: Comic Book, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Spy/Espionage, Action/Adventure, Gothic Horror (not regular horror movies!), Disney/Pixar, DC animated movies, Historical epics.

[Mr Mystery]

Now, how about Dragon's Den? Strictly speaking, it's yet more cheap-to-produce judge panel tripe....or is it?

Personally, I find it entertaining in small doses, and I dare say to a budding entrepeneur, fairly informative. The Dragons are never Simon Cowell style rude for the sake of it, but they are robust in their opinions, and far from afraid to call a rubbish invention rubbish. Far more often, even when not investing they offer some kind of constructive advice.

Yet reality TV it remains. Exception that proves the rule, or same old rubbish?

[eldargal]

Wasn't it Dragons Den where the judges rubbished some chaps app which has since been extremely successful? Something about recipes...

[Psychosplodge]

Anything with Michael McIntyre in it is instantly turned over, he's a poor man's Lee Evens.

Watched the first couple of series of dragon's den, but it the novelty wore off.

[Brakkart]

I watched Dragon's Den a couple times whilst round my parents as it's the sort of show my Dad likes to watch. I appreciate that they are honest and offer good criticism but it's just not my thing. Also I can't help but agree with Michael McIntyre's take on the show:


http://youtu.be/NgDJDaVDzRA

[Psychosplodge]

Nope.
Somebody grant him the Emperor's Peace

[Brakkart]

Anything with Michael McIntyre in it is instantly turned over, he's a poor man's Lee Evans.

At least he can tell a joke without having to swear every other sentence, Lee Evans hasn't managed that in years. Don't get me wrong, I like Lee Evans too, there is no more energetic stand-up comedian, but he would be a lot funnier without as much profanity.

[Psychosplodge]

I don't notice it, but that's probably down to my workplace...

[Mr Mystery]

Convince friends your Michael McIntyre by wobbling your head and noticing things....


Yep. That about sums up my opinion :p

[Wildeybeast]

Wasn't it Dragons Den where the judges rubbished some chaps app which has since been extremely successful? Something about recipes...

Not sure on that one specifically, but there are few they have declined to invest in which have gone on to do quite well (the ride-on childrens suitcases spring to mind). Often it's not necessarily the idea they don't like, but the business model or even their confidence in the individual that stops them investing.

I think Dragons Den is the good side of reality TV. People with genuine talent (or not as the case may be) are given a real business opportunity and chance to improve their lives. The Dragons are investing their own time and money in it and don't do it for the paycheque they pick up from the BBC or public exposure. It's reality TV in the sense that it is real, but otherwise it has little in common with the likes of TOWIE and BB.