All day long, while I was working, all I could think about was making dinner and sitting down for another episode of True Blood. I love it when I get hooked on a show with a bunch of seasons aired and I can just stream them over the mac mini from comcast or xfinity.
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Keith
HBOGo is definitely the shit. Tell me you’ve already watched Deadwood. Before GoT, that was my favorite show that HBO has done (and yes, I like it more than The Wire). And Eastbound & Down Season 1 is pretty killer as well…a movie broken up into a sitcom.
Hal
True Blood was great once. It’s always interesting to watch a show from it’s peak to it’s less than stellar heights.
Also, I’ve been really enjoying the podcasts over at nerdist.com, and one of the most recent was with Joe Manganiello, who was surprisingly pretty damn funny and engaging. The bit about how he turned into the fine specimen he is today with the help of a well meaning teacher with a gym in his garage that he used to regularly host the schools less than muscular students was hilarious.
http://www.nerdist.com/2013/06/nerdist-podcast-joe-manganiello/
Oh, hbogo has Angels in America streaming now. One of the best miniseries HBO has ever had, and amazing collection of acting.
gene108
I do believe they are one and the same, like the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Anyway, I got hooked into True Blood early on, but it got a bit too melodramatic for my tastes as the series progressed. YMMV
Dave C
The quality takes a nosedive pretty damn fast after season 1. I haven’t yet decided whether or not I’ll watch this season.
Keith
@gene108: I’d say when they started adding the where’s (particularly where-panthers(!!!)), it got pretty bad. The fire demon plot from last season was unnecessary, too. They should have kept it tight, with vamps, shapshifters, Sookie et al, and just kept it to a single type of “other” creature as the antagonist, ala Maryanne. The wolves are just there to add sex appeal, but I find all the pack politics to be boring as hell.
Aji
@gene108: Agreed. First couple of seasons were must-see; since then . . . kinda pfft. Never really cared all that much for Sookie, I gotta say, and Bill leaves me colder than a vampire’s. . . something, anyway. Eric, though, I find kinda hot, and I love Lafayette and Tara. So every once in a while, if there’s nothing else on, we’ll still tune in.
Oh, and the music’s good, too. Same with Sons of Anarchy and Justified, both of which still get watched religiously in this household.
pokeyblow
I don’t personally think it’s of major cultural import, but I’ve seen a few articles lately about the big shift in television watching, marathon sessions of a single show using one of the streaming services.
So there’s that.
Aji
@Keith: Okay, I’ve missed a lot, obvs. WTF is a were-panther? And a fire demon? Or would I just rather not know?
And MaryAnne – that was Michelle Forbes’s character, right? I think that was the last season we watched it even semi-regularly. Couldn’t take all the new tangents.
Trollhattan
@Hal:
The first season was engaging, tightly written and acted and I thought, very compelling. Not sure what exactly happened–whether I became weary of the concept or maybe because they spent too much emergu towards a bloody ending to later seasons’ story arc–but it’s now a gory soap opera.
raven
You want to get creeped out watch “The Fall” on netflix.
lojasmo
I think you leapt that Selachimorpha with the DRONNNEZ post.
LesGS
True Blood was the first show my kids and I sat down to watch and quickly came to the realization that it might not be a show a dad and his daughters – teenagers then – could watch comfortably together.
Trollhattan
@Aji:
Justified might be at the top of my heap, maybe even ahead of Breaking Bad. The Americans can achieve greatness with a solid sophomore season.
HBO still has some good stuff, but I’m beginning to wonder why I’m shoveling all that money into their maw.
gene108
@Keith:
I started tuning out as season one progressed…I don’t have the attention span anymore to keep dealing with new characters and plot twists..
I spend most of my time watching sports and nature specials.
Trollhattan
@LesGS:
As my tween would quickly note: “Awk-ward!”
the Conster
Just want to shout out to my old high school friend Nancy Oliver who wrote and produced the first three seasons of True Blood, which is why it’s good. She wrote most of the last three seasons of Six Feet Under, and wrote and produced Lars and the Real Girl. She and Alan Ball went to college together, and they make a pretty damn good team.
Trollhattan
@Trollhattan:
“emergu”? Sheesh.
Keith
@Aji: good lord, I can’t spell werewolf anymore! The werepanthers were meth/V-heads who turned into panthers. They were season 4 or 5 and existed so Jason could have a steady girlfriend
Hal
@Keith:
Loved Michelle Forbes. I thought the show through season three was great. Even the witch season had some great moments, but the last two? yeesh.
They also botched the whole Sookie true nature thing. When she first encounters Maryanne and gives her the blast, Maryanne’s “what are you” reaction made you really interested in finding out. Eventually it just got stupid, and now it’s like, eh, big deal. I’ll still watch this season for awhile, hopefully it gets better.
Aji
@Trollhattan: I tried and tried, but I just can’t get into The Americans. I think I didn’t give Breaking Bad enough of a shot – hell, it’s filmed here in NM, and I prolly oughta start over from Season 1 and see if I like it this time. Love Justified, though. It’s one of those where, if I’m up late and can’t sleep and they’re re-running episodes, I’ll just sit and watch ’em all straight through all over again.
LesGS
@Trollhattan: “Word,” as mine would say.
justdale
@gene108: :
Not quite.
Xfinity is the consumer arm of Comcast. If you’re dealing with the business arm it’s still just Comcast. [I work out of a home office and willingly pay the extra $ for Comcast business class Internet. Static IP, no port blocking, SLA with much faster response, and bandwidth is provisioned so neighbors can’t drag my performance down. Worth the money.]
Aji
@Keith: Just blame auto-correct, and you’re good.
Meth-heads, huh? Probably for the best that I missed it all. Sounds oogy.
Shortstop
@efgoldman: My poor Hocks.
JWL
I feel the same way about re-runs of The Golden Girls (as I slurp oatmeal and warm cocoa).
Felonius Monk
Cole, I’m just not real cool with Tunch being able to watch this kind of stuff. After all, it might give him ideas.
Carrie
@Aji:
I just love Justified. The writing is spectacular and the actors, even the supporting actors are unbelievably great. SOA is my second fave.
Tomorrow i start Ripper Street. Can’t wait.
Oh and BTW, apparently James Gandolfini died. I hope it’s not true but TMZ is reporting it.
Porco Rosso
Carnivale, now that was a series.
Arclite
I really enjoyed the arc of the first season of True Blood.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Carrie:
Ripper Street is brilliant IMO. I think you will enjoy it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Carrie: Let me join the chorus in praise of Justified.
The prophet Nostradumbass
An HBO show I tried to watch, and only made it to about half way through the third episode or so, was The Newsroom. Damn, that show was obnoxiously preachy. The promos they’ve been running for it recently are ludicrous, too.
Comrade Jake
I’m surprised Breaking Bad doesn’t get more play here at BJ. One of the best shows on the teevee.
Violet
@the Conster:
Aww…I love that film. A quiet gem, as the film reviewers like to say. Just lovely.
Aji
@Carrie: Gandolfini? Seriously? Oh, that will suck if it’s true.
I’ve seen like two episodes of Ripper Street – again, when I can’t sleep – and I liked it. I do need to go back and see the series from the start, I think. But if you’re a GoT fan, it’s kinda cool to see Bronn as a staid, uptight copper.
Comrade Jake
Six Feet Under was also pretty phenomenal. Best closing episode of all time.
the Conster
@Comrade Jake:
Yes, that show is mind blowingly great. It’s the best show I’ve ever seen, hands down. It’s tough to watch, but the payoff is ridiculously great.
Carrie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Yeah, pretty sure i’m gonna really enjoy that one.
Hal
@JWL:
Golden Girls are my late night viewing if I work the late shift and can’t sleep, but man, the ones airing on TV are so heavily edited they leave some of the best parts out. I compared once to the DVDs and was surprised how much great stuff is left out of the shows that air on TV. That’s one series I’m hoping will end up on Netflix sooner or later.
the Conster
@Comrade Jake:
Yes, this! Partly because of the song they used. Alan Ball wrote and directed it. It was very satisfying.
Comrade Jake
@the Conster: I really cannot wait until the last half-season. Obviously there’s going to be some epic confrontation between Walt and Hank. My bet is on Walt killing Hank – that would represent close to his final walk into darkness.
Violet
@Carrie: It’s all over the news. Looks like it might be true. He was 51. Awfully young. Wife just had a baby.
Carrie
@Aji:
Haven’t seen GoT yet, saving it for the fall and i’m planning to watch the whole first season in one weekend.
The exciting thing about Ripper Street is that i purposely haven’t read anything about it (well, apart from what we all know about jack the ripper),haven’t read the reviews, dunno who the actors….that’s what makes it exciting.
j
…comcast or xfinity
Aren’t they the same thing? Like AT&T renamed their copper wire old phone line service “U-Verse”?
Add to that, Compost’s owner is a big time GOP nut case who also owns the Philly Flyers, and had that ignorant self proclaimed “hockey slut” Palin creature drop a puck at one of their games.
The real fans were not amused.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc/27147711#27147711
Litlebritdifrnt
@efgoldman:
That is always the problem with British shows the “seasons” as they are are always too damn short. I suppose it is good that it always leaves me hungering for more. I felt the same about “Whitechapel” and now find myself watching the old episodes on Youtube until they decide to make some new episodes.
Carrie
@efgoldman:
lalalalalala i can’t hear you !!!!!
Agree with you about Copper, still enjoyable though.
Comrade Jake
@the Conster: Absolutely. Perfectly fit the tone of the show and its ending.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
I did the same darn thing. Thought I would just check it out and bam! Now I have to watch to see what happens next. Oh well…..at least I’m entertained.
Aji
@Carrie: Oops – sorry for the sorta-spoiler. Although if you haven’t seen GoT yet, it probably won’t mean anything to you. We’re big GRRM fans, so we’ve watched that from Episode 1. As to Ripper Street, I didn’t – and don’t, even now – really know anything about it, either; I stumbled over it one night by accident. Nice, though, when you can enjoy episodes of a series on a stand-alone basis, too.
the Conster
@Comrade Jake:
Could be, but Vince Gilligan said that Walt is so bad now, should anyone be surprised if he meets his end? or something to that effect. IIRC, Vince said that the ending will make sense.
raven
James Gandolfini died.
gene108
@LesGS:
That’s nothing. I was visiting my mom and we decided to go see a movie. She looked at the paper and picked Y Tu Mama Tambien, as the write up was a foreign film about romance and road trip.
The film starts off with two teenagers making whoopy.
Left after 5 minutes or less and the theater let us see Enigma at no charge, which is a better movie to see with your mother next to you.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@Carrie: Be careful online for GOT spoilers! Or maybe you’ve read the books already?
Comrade Jake
@the Conster: Hank’s character is interesting to me, because he’s one of the few who don’t fit the “pattern”. At one point I thought he’d break bad (in how he was physically debilitated and dealing with it) but then he redeemed himself quite a bit.
YellowJournalism
@LesGS: I had a similar experience with my dad and “Six Feet Under,” but the show was so good we pushed through it, and finally it wasn’t enormously uncomfortable. It still got uncomfortably silent during the more risqué sexy scenes, though. I guess you know you’re an adult when you can watch that stuff wih your parents in the room and only have to avoid eye contact for those few minutes.
And I’ll add some love for “Justified.” I really hope they bring back Patton Oswalt’s character sometime next season.
Comrade Jake
@raven: dead at 51 of a stroke. RIP. Cat was talented as all hell, but I think his lifestyle finally caught up with him.
JPL
@raven: wow.. He was a young talented actor.
how did your test go?
Violet
@raven: Thread for Gandolfini above.
Carrie
All i know about GoTis that there’s a really exciting wedding at the end of the first series…..or something. :-)
Aji
@efgoldman: From the two that I saw, that was my impression. Good to know – I’ll look for the next ep next time I have insomnia on the right night.
the Conster
@Comrade Jake:
Yes, Hank has had some hard shit to deal with – Marie being his main challenge. Those two are so interesting, separately and then together. Has there ever been a more interesting protagonist than poor Jesse? Such great characters that you hate to love and love to hate, including Saul Goodman who might have a show of his own.
mouse tolliver
@Hal:
That’s because Joe is basically just a comic book nerd trapped inside a male stripper body. That nerdist episode with Joe M and Morena “Space Whore” Baccarin (from Firefly and Homeland) was pretty fun too.
raven
@JPL: Fine, few polyps removed and wants me back in three years. thx
raven
Hey anybody been to The Lawn at Riverfront Park in Nashville for a show?
Farley
Beware! I was hooked after the first season. Kinda liked the second season. Gave up after the third. Maybe I should try again.
mouse tolliver
@The prophet Nostradumbass: To paraphrase the late great Roger Ebert, I hated, hated, hated, The Newsroom. Sorkin basically plagiarizes MSNBC’s reporting of the BP oil spill, and then makes the audience listen to a sermon on how nobody in the news business covers the news like his characters cover the news. And the women are all written like dithering sitcom characters from the 1970s.
kmeyerthelurker
@Porco Rosso: I know! I loved that show! Why it got two measly seasons, and True Blood gets as many as it wants, I’ll never understand (Yes, I know the answer is $$, but whatever). Just finished season 5 of True Blood and it SUCKED. All the humor is gone.
Steve V
Just to warn you, the show gets incredibly silly as it goes on. Not that that has stopped me from watching. :-)
Redshirt
It’s on Starz, but y’all should – need to – watch “Spartacus”. It’s amazing.
It’s also filled to the brim with sex and violence, so definitely not for Father/Son viewing time.
Steve V
Follow up, as long as Lafayette is a character I’ll be watching. Russel Edgington is awesome too.
Hal
@Steve V:
I feel the same way about Lafayette, which is ironic since he was knocked off in the first book. The way they took that character and made him a lasting character in the series is a great illustration on how to differ your source material, instead of just doing a word for word translation onto the small screen.
electricgrendel
I love Michelle Forbes, so season two was great despite how off the rails it goes. The villain in season 3 is one of the best tv villains ever. Season four, from start to finish, is just abjectly terrible. Season five is kind of where they gave up. I am hoping season six is the end, or sets up the end in season seven.
Since Cole never reads these, I figure there’s not change of spoiling anything. :D