Help out with a Xmas tradition

[Mental Maden]

We really shouldn't leave Freaks and Geeks off the list. Wonderful show cut down in it's prime, think there are 18 episodes?

One of my all time favorites.

[therain93]

Thanks for the recommendations.  Feel free to keep em coming.  Already a fan of many and tried some of the others.

Walking Dead- could I have my geek card and not watch this?  You betcha I do.
Grimm- Watch it.  Love it.  Go Monroe!
Once Upon a Time- DVR it every Sunday.  It's a little uneven at times, but it gets my respect for fantasy content on network TV.
Fringe- Big fan, I've been there since the beginning.
Firefly- Browncoat.....right here.  Thanks to Pepsiman for the recommendation and my cable being out for two weeks a few years ago.
Covert Affairs- tried it, sort of liked it.  The blind guy bugs me and pretty much got me to stop watching.
Buffy and Angel I watched on and off over the years.
Arrow and Nikita- Not feelin' these.  They seem a little too "CW" for me.  But thanks, Santa.


Kat-I watched the Starz Torchwood might have to give the BBC seasons a shot.  I'll look for that doc, sounds interesting. Thanks



And Omni- I typed X-mas because I'm lazy.

Battlestar Galactica -- Dystopian future/past that wove a lot of then-contemporary issues into its story that are still relevant today.  It would rank as one of my favorites. Available on Netflix.
 
Life -- Starring Damian Lewis, it's a crime procedural, but much more than that with the star trying to unravel the conspiracy that led to his improper conviction.  It was a top notch show that suffered because it started just before the TV writers' strike.  Damian Lewis is also the star of Homeland. Available on Netflix and Hulu.
 
Jericho -- possibly the grand-daddy of the contemporary apocalyptic serial.  It did a lot more right to capture you than Revolution has (imho).  Unfortunately, it did fizzle out towards the end, although fan pressure got an additional bunch of episodes for the 2nd season.  Still a good watch. Available on Netflix.

Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- The 2nd season went off on a bit of a tangent with Sarah's "visions", but I felt it did a great job of recasting the mythos and basically discarding everything after T2.

Edit:  I'm going to kinda sorta recommend Dollhouse too, but with a condition: it really depends on how much you liked Buffy and Angel, since you watched them off and on.  Dollhouse kind of follows the buffy formula....it starts with a lot of "mind programming" of the week episodes to establish background, much like Buffy had "monster of the week" episodes.  The difference in the two Whedon productions though is that while Buffy had season long arcs, Dollhouse had really a big storywide conspiracy arc, which thus required a lot more background episodes.  Those background episodes made the series plod along a bit.  When the cancellation order came, Whedon then knew he had a fixed end point and so the season 2 writing got a lot tighter, and better (imho).  Still, it was a great ensemble cast that developed relationships really well -- typicall hallmarks of Whedon writing -- and for that I would recommend it.
 
edit 2: damn, fixed lots of typos!  ( ' ;

[beveri8469]

dollhouse was one of my fav shows to watch. plus i like eliza dushku too.

[Mental Maden]

Battlestar Galactica -- Dystopian future/past that wove a lot of then-contemporary issues into its story that are still relevant today.  It would rank as one of my favorites. Available on Netflix.
 
Life -- Starring Damian Lewis, it's a crime procedural, but much more than that with the star trying to unravel the conspiracy that led to his improper conviction.  It was a top notch show that suffered because it started just before the TV writer's strike.  Damian Lewis is also the star of Homeland. Available on Netflix and Hulu.
 
Jericho -- possibly the grand-daddy of the contemporary apocalyptic serial.  It did a lot more right to capture you than Revolution has (imho).  Unfortunately, it did fizzle out towards the end, although fan pressure got an addition bunch of episodes for the 2nd season.  Still a good watch. Available on Netflix.

Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- The 2nd season went off on a bit of a tangent with Sarah's "visions", but I felt it did a grate job of recasting the mythos and basically discarding everything after T2.

Edit:  I'm going to kinda sorta recommend Dollhouse too, but with a condition: it really depends on how much you liked Buffy and Angel, sinceyou watched them off and on.  Dollhouse kind of follows the buffy formula.  It starts with a lot of "mind programming" of the week episodes to establish background, much like Buffy had "monster of the week" episodes.  The difference in the two Whedon productions though is that while Buffy had season long arcs, dollhouse had really a big storywide conspiracy arc, which thus required a lot more background episodes.  Those background episodes made the series plod a long a bit.  When the cancellation order came, Whedon then knew he had a fixed end point and so the season 2 writer got a lot tighter, and better (imho).  Still, it was a great ensemble cast that developed relationships really well -- typicall hallmarks of Whedon writing -- and for that I would recommend it.

If you are unfamiliar with the many threads in the CH/VC section at CoH then you'd probably remember my blasting of Dollhouse.  I watched the run, liked some parts, made fun of the show unmercifully.

I watched and quite like Sara Connor.

Watched most of Life if I remember.  Damien Lewis is great in anything.

Jericho- watched only handful of episodes, that one will be revisited.  Probably not this weekend.

Galactica- yeah, I've got my geek card.  Was onboard at the start.

[therain93]

If you are unfamiliar with the many threads in the CH/VC section at CoH then you'd probably remember my blasting of Dollhouse.  I watched the run, liked some parts, made fun of the show unmercifully.

I watched and quite like Sara Connor.

Watched most of Life if I remember.  Damien Lewis is great in anything.

Jericho- watched only handful of episodes, that one will be revisited.  Probably not this weekend.

Galactica- yeah, I've got my geek card.  Was onboard at the start.

I don't recall seeing the threads, but I can appreciate the viewpoint on Dollhouse -- I watched the first 3-4 episodes when it started, tivo'd everything, but only watched it after cancellation. It might have had something to do with TSCC getting cancelled first, which I felt was much better.
 
We do generally seem to be on the same page taste-wise-- have you watched Dark Angel or Alias?  They've been on my backburner/to-do list for a while now, so not recommendations, other than being on my radar.

[Mental Maden]

I don't recall seeing the threads, but I can appreciate the viewpoint on Dollhouse -- I watched the first 3-4 episodes when it started, tivo'd everything, but only watched it after cancellation. It might have had something to do with TSCC getting cancelled first, which I felt was much better.
 
We do generally seem to be on the same page taste-wise-- have you watched Dark Angel or Alias?  They've been on my backburner/to-do list for a while now, so not recommendations, other than being on my radar.

If I remember I watched most (maybe all) of Dark Angel and liked it.

Alias is backburnered for me as well.  Will put it on my "watch sometime" list.

[Pep Rally]

I assume you've watched all the Star Trek series?  My favorite might actually be Enterprise even though it only got 4 seasons.

or possibly Brisco County Jr?  Wild Wild West type fun with Bruce Campbell.

I also liked Legend of the Seeker.

Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, Always Sunny in Philadelphia are all good comedies

I've heard Game of Thrones, and Downton Abbey are good as well. GoT is on my to watch list.

[Profit]

Pep, you have got to watch Game of Thrones. It is awesome.

Maden, I second Brisco County Jr. You can not go wrong with Bruce Campbell.

[Mental Maden]

Maden, I second Brisco County Jr. You can not go wrong with Bruce Campbell.

Bruce Campbell yay.  Western no!  They make my skin crawl.  Deadwood being just about the only exception.


To some previous posts:  I've seen most Star Trek.  Not a huge fan to be honest.  I lean Firefly and Star Wars (original trilogy) and I'm one of those that thinks Abrams actually improved a stale franchise.  Yeah.  I said it.

Arrested Development is one of my top 5 favorite TV shows of all time. Love it!  "What are we going to do about the Seaward?"

Game of Thrones?  Go look who started the Song of Ice and Fire (the book series GoT comes from) thread.  Yeah I've seen it..........a lot.  If you haven't you must.......now..........I'm serious......now.

[Leandro]

dollhouse was one of my fav shows to watch. plus i like eliza dushku too.

Seconding Dollhouse. Only 2 seasons, but it wraps up everything very nicely.

The Middleman  only lasted 12 episodes (and a comic) but I loved every single one of them. It's an incredibly feel good series with an unlikely superhero and an amazing snarker sidekick.

[Victoria Victrix]

Brisco County, Jr, is not....a western.  Or rather, it is a western in the same sense that Buffy is about high school drama.  Seriously, this is one you should not miss.

[Battlechimp]

Brisco County, Jr, is not....a western.  Or rather, it is a western in the same sense that Buffy is about high school drama.  Seriously, this is one you should not miss.

Yeah there's so much anachronism in the show I wouldn't really call it a straight western

And have to throw out Leverage out there. This is a show that more people need to be watching. :-)   its a sort of Robin Hood con/heist show. Think the best/scariest part of the show is just how many of these cons are real.

[Victoria Victrix]

Yeah there's so much anachronism in the show I wouldn't really call it a straight western

Anachronism, magic, ancient gods, for all I know, aliens...yeah. 

[Samuraiko]

Babylon 5. Hands down.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[Pep Rally]

Brisco County, Jr, is not....a western.  Or rather, it is a western in the same sense that Buffy is about high school drama.  Seriously, this is one you should not miss.

Exactly. I put the extra Wild in for a reason. It's like calling Firefly a Western. I've even seen it sited as one of the first examples of steampunk on television.

Legend of the Seeker is a good show if you like Sam Raimi's Hercules, and Xena.

A show I used to like in the early 00's was Special Unit 2. A fun little Men in Black type show complete with aliens, gnomes, and crazy weapons.

A few others: Wonderfalls, Veronica Mars, Warehouse 13, Shameless, Friday Night Lights, Portlandia, Chuck, or go old school with Tales of the Gold Monkey, A-Team, or Incredible hulk.

Although it won't be released in the states until January, you may be able to find it online(like I did), Continuum is an interesting sci-fi series.

[Profit]

Pep, you sure Continuum hasn't been released in the states?

And Chuck, I only finally caught onto chuck a few episodes into the last season, but from what I saw it was awesome. I need to go buy those, or force netflix to get them.

[Mental Maden]

Quick update: I figured I'd challenge myself and give Brisco County Jr. a shot.  Sadly it's not on Netflix.

I will give my thoughts on shows I watched (some suggested here others from other sources) when I'm done.

Thanks all!  Keep them coming.  This could end up being a good all purpose "Hey you gotta see this thread" maybe getting others interested in shows/movies they'd never watched.

[Pep Rally]

Pep, you sure Continuum hasn't been released in the states?

And Chuck, I only finally caught onto chuck a few episodes into the last season, but from what I saw it was awesome. I need to go buy those, or force netflix to get them.

Yeah, apparently Jan 14th on SyFy is Premiere->  http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=96969


Another thing to like about Chuck is Zach Levy started Nerd Machine, and made Trailer Park Heroes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu17yNsg7YM, during ComicCon this year which features the reunion of Mal, Jayne, and Wash.  And he's gonna be one of the Warriors Three in the next Thor movie.

[FatherXmas]

The Science channel gets all the discontinued or syndicated Science Fiction like shows.  SyFy gets their series from Canada or down under (stupid Aussie K-9 series ran on SyFy today, yes the Doctor's K-9 but not, this one can fly and regenerate?!).

[antarcticaa]

Downton Abbey.  Oh my word, what an excellent series.  The actors are fabulous, the storyline addictive, the costuming and locales are gorgeous and the period is fascinating.  Highly recommend it!