Suggest me an intelligent TV show... please

Started by LUniqueDan, Mon 03/08/2009 12:03:55

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MrColossal

#40
Tue 04/08/2009 14:56:25
I recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is a very smart young adult cartoon developed by Nickelodeon. There are only a few episodes that are groaners [OH OH WILL THEY KISS?!] but on the whole the show is amazing. Heavy Miyazaki influence with a pretty serious story underlining the show.

If you watch it, give it some time before dismissing it.
"This must be a good time to live in, since Eric bothers to stay here at all"-CJ also: ACHTUNG FRANZ!

Snarky

#41
Tue 04/08/2009 15:19:50
Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 04/08/2009 11:54:07
I can't honestly recommend a single new tv show.  Now, old tv shows I can do!

Sledge Hammer.

Just a couple of weeks ago I saw David Rasche (Sledge Hammer!) at a screening of In the Loop, the movie I mentioned earlier. He plays a neo-con who is trying to manipulate and bully the US into war with an unnamed country in the Middle East (reportedly a character based on Wolfowitz, Addington, Rumsfeld et al.), and in the Q&A after the film he was positively giddy about getting a chance to tear into Rumsfeld. Rasche seemed like a good guy, and the film is fantastic. Go see it! A strong contender for the 2009 Jeff Lebowski Award for Best Swearing in a Motion Picture.

Mr Flibble

#43
Tue 04/08/2009 16:34:55
Quote from: veryweirdguy on Tue 04/08/2009 11:08:33

*Mr Flibble, for some reason I think you'd like Look Around You a lot. If not, I'm sorry!

Have you been peering into my brain? I absolutely adore that programme! I'm wondering how you knew that  :)
Ah! There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

Rincewind

#44
Tue 04/08/2009 17:38:31
Just from the top of my head:

"The Day Today" & "Brass Eye"
- Truly brilliant and utterly hilarious media/television satire shows by genious Chris Morris.
"The Day Today" spoofs the absurdisms of TV news reporting, and "Brass Eye" focuses more on documentary-styled current affairs programs and how they deal with moral panic concering topics like crime, sex, science and most notoriously, pedophilia.

"QI"(Quite Interesting)
- Probably the only really, truly entertaining panel/comedy quiz show ever.
Led by the almighty Stephen Fry and filled with interesting, nerdy and quite often extremely funny knowledge.

"Charlie Brookers Screenwipe"
- British TV journalist Charlie Brookers spews out his biting, acidic, but also gut-wrenchingly funny views on both current and old television, filled with raging cynism and humour, but also moments of genuine heartfelt tribute to some true TV gems.

"Homicide: Life on the Street"
- My personal favorite when it comes to cop shows.
The show was co-created by author/journalist David Simon, and based on his brilliant book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets", documenting a year with the Baltimore homicide unit in 1988.
The book later also laid the ground for his show "The Wire", which you've already mentioned. Now, I haven't watched "The Wire", so I can't really compare them to each other, but there is no doubt that "Homicide" is one of the finest and most realistic cop shows of its time, with more focus on showing the mundanity of real police work than fast-paced action.
It has colourful characters, good humour, great storylines and a gritty, shaky, almost documentary feel to it, at least in the early seasons. The show did drop in quality around season 6-7, but the first three seasons are nothing short of TV drama brilliance.
(Also, it had one of the most haunting and just hands down perfect opening sequences ever)

AGA

#45
Tue 04/08/2009 17:41:16
Quote from: veryweirdguy on Tue 04/08/2009 14:19:11
Berian.

I beg to differ!

Scrubs started off strong but went downhill after like season 4ish. Too sentimental and low-brow. I watched the last episode of the last season recently and felt it was wishy washy self-indulgent masturbatory crap (although I know you like that!)

The Office is good, but go with the British one as it is much much better.

And also, you like Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice? Far be it for me to judge, but I think that makes you a namby pamby nancy girl. Real men watch JACK BAUER catch BULLETS with his TEETH while riding a COUGAR.

Scrubs was shiter nearer the end, but I'm looking on it as a whole.

The Office American version is very different from the original, but they both have things to offer.

Grey's is totally for girls, but if you watch it long enough you get attached to it.

And I watched the first couple of seasons of 24, but it got boring after a while.

InCreator

#46
Tue 04/08/2009 19:19:21
24 is good if you have whole season(s) on DVD and 3-4 days to endlessly watch one.

But catching it from tv with week apart kills pretty much everything... and yeah, same plots play over and over with tiny changes: the first "problem" is never too interesting because it's just cover for second, bigger one, which is cover for third, major conspiracy...  :P

Vince Twelve

#47
Tue 04/08/2009 19:29:43
Oh, I can't believe I didn't think to throw out HBO's Rome!  Another one of the best shows I've ever seen!  It takes a couple episodes to find its narrative stride, but from then on, it's such a fantastic, bloody, and yes, intelligent, ride through (somewhat fictionalized) history.

Highly, highly recommended!

veryweirdguy

#48
Tue 04/08/2009 19:43:55
Quote from: Mr Flibble on Tue 04/08/2009 16:34:55
Have you been peering into my brain? I absolutely adore that programme! I'm wondering how you knew that  :)

Score one for the VW-guy! I'm not sure sir, maybe it's your past discussion of British comedy or your general sense of humour? For some reason I thought you'd dig it. And for some reason I was awesomely right.

Quote from: Rincewind on Tue 04/08/2009 17:38:31
"The Day Today" & "Brass Eye"
- Truly brilliant and utterly hilarious media/television satire shows by genious Chris Morris.
"The Day Today" spoofs the absurdisms of TV news reporting, and "Brass Eye" focuses more on documentary-styled current affairs programs and how they deal with moral panic concering topics like crime, sex, science and most notoriously, pedophilia.

Good choice! The Day Today is the sort of thing that you initially think is dumb and silly (not necessarily in a bad way) but on further inspection is actually a pretty decent satire of the media. Still as relevant today as it was back then.

AGA: You make good points on all these things. Stop it?

m0ds

#49
Tue 04/08/2009 20:03:16
The X Files. A lot of the info in it seems unreal or weird - but it's actually very accurate & the dialogue, IMO, is brilliant, especially if you like science and/or the supernatural.

Other than that, what about QI? It's billed as "the most intelligent panel show", and I don't understand a word of it, nor do I find it funny whatsoever, but a lot of friends like it and laugh out loud, so it must be doing something for someone ;)

AGA

#50
Tue 04/08/2009 21:08:34
Quote from: InCreator on Tue 04/08/2009 19:19:21
24 is good if you have whole season(s) on DVD and 3-4 days to endlessly watch one.

But catching it from tv with week apart kills pretty much everything... and yeah, same plots play over and over with tiny changes: the first "problem" is never too interesting because it's just cover for second, bigger one, which is cover for third, major conspiracy...  :P

I watched the first two seasons like that, but I started to get bored halfway through the second. It was already starting to repeat itself.

Quote from: veryweirdguy on Tue 04/08/2009 19:43:55AGA: You make good points on all these things. Stop it?

Like I can do anything else. I'm a genious.

AGA

#52
Tue 04/08/2009 22:32:00
Quote from: Vince Twelve on Tue 04/08/2009 21:34:12
Quote from: AGA on Tue 04/08/2009 21:08:34
Like I can do anything else. I'm a genious.

Except at spelling.  :=

A link for you.

Timosity

#54
Wed 05/08/2009 05:47:34
The last decade of TV from any country has been pretty poor

There have been a few shows I've liked, but you really have to sift through the crap.

Probably one of the most entertaining series from the UK is Shameless It's up to series 7 now, but as with most series, the first few are awesome, and what made them. Then they get more money to spend, and just seem to repeat the same stuff.

Probably the best series to come out of Australia was the first series of Underbelly Based on true events in the criminal underworld in Melbourne, not sure if it has been shown overseas, but probably can download, or buy (it wasn't shown in the state of Victoria at the same time as the rest of the country, cause trials were still going on, certain characters names weren't revealed because of this)


Flight Of the Conchords is ok, I really like some of their music, but the show can get a bit lame

American TV has gone down hill a lot, prob cause there is just too much of it.



I suggest finding a good Radio station, and forget you had a TV, I've probably switched the tv on an average of 2 times a week for the last year, more often to watch a sporting event, or the shows mentioned above, which are usually on the same night for me.

Mr Flibble

#55
Wed 05/08/2009 20:36:57
I can't believe I forgot to mention Peep Show.

British comedy with David Mitchell and Robert Webb (recently both have been doing a lot of TV appearances). It's a sitcom but it's unique in that everything you see is filmed from the perspective of one of the characters, and you also get to hear the main characters' thoughts. The result is hilarious and often so hideously cringe-inducing that it is difficult to watch.

I'd have to say it's my favourite comedy show (even moreso than Red Dwarf, Look Around You and Yes Minister) and I watch it as a form of therapy sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrGOhLJuhY

It's also a bit like The Odd Couple in some ways: the mix between the straight, uptight, perpetually anxious one and the lazy, slobbish, oafish one. I heard the characters described brilliantly by David Mitchell, "they manage to be all at once self-important and  deeply unhappy."
Ah! There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

Vince Twelve

#56
Wed 05/08/2009 20:47:53
Ooh, Veronica Mars!  You have to get past the concept (High school girl solves mysteries) and just try it.  It's super intelligent.  Even though network fiddling kind of broke the last season.

Snarky

#57
Wed 05/08/2009 22:34:53
Quote from: Timosity on Wed 05/08/2009 05:47:34
The last decade of TV from any country has been pretty poor

There have been a few shows I've liked, but you really have to sift through the crap.

I would argue (in fact, I have argued) that on the contrary, this decade has been the best time for quality television probably ever. And I think that's mostly about cable channels like HBO getting in the game, not having to play by the rules of network television, and being able to target smaller niches. (And also about DVD box sets and Internet fandom making it possible to ask more of audiences.) Now even AMC is running acclaimed original programming like Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

If you're just watching whatever is on the big networks during primetime, then yeah, television probably seems worse than ever. But who does that, if they're interested in "intelligent" programming? There are so many ways to bottle up the stuff you want to watch and enjoy it on your own terms, you should never have to watch crap again unless you want to.

voh

#58
Wed 05/08/2009 22:47:13
Quote from: Vince Twelve on Mon 03/08/2009 22:47:42
Hey Voh, I love me some Doctor Who but I gave up on Torchwood somewhere around the dumb Faerie episode in Series 1.  The whole thing just wasn't floating my boat.  I've heard good things about Children of Earth, though.  is it watchable by someone with only the first 7 or so eps of the show under his belt?

Definitely. To me, as a Torchie, it was weird that some of the loose ends of Torchwood proper weren't adressed, which made it very obvious that Children of Earth is something intended for people to go into 'cold'. You'll be fine. Watch it.

Also, I do watch Dollhouse and Fringe. Dollhouse I'm not sure about, Fringe has 'meh' moments but I still want more. They're both on the list until they prove to be either bad or good, right now they're mostly 'intriguing'.

Bones, to me, is usually one of the highlights of the TV-show-related week. I'm a big fan of David Boreanaz in it, Emily Deschanel is frickin' awesome in it... Hell, I love almost all the characters, their interactions, the comedy is actually funny and the drama is actually... Dramatic. Yes, it's sort of dry sometimes, and yes, it is, at the end of the day, a typical US procedural show, but I can't get enough.

It's my guilty pleasure :)
Still here.

m0ds

#59
Wed 05/08/2009 22:56:09
LOL. Did someone seriously list Scrubs as intelligent. I don't wanna re-read this thread otherwise I'll just laugh at that person for the next 7 years :P
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