our last TV thread

Madoka Magica (which is now on Netflix) is one series that greatly impressed me (and everyone else who watched it) a few years ago. These days I'm following Game of Thrones.

I always had a soft spot for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugKcTAuCcyg

Just watched the Ken Burns PBS documentary The Roosevelts and like every Ken Burns effort it was both entertaining and educational... superbly done.
I also finally completed the last season of HBO's In Treatment which was incredible... made me think, laugh out loud and weep like a baby.

Theme to the contrary notwithstanding, I think the primary reason the British mysteries are so good is that they have fewer shows per season. Some may turn out only three shows a year; ten seems to be typical. That gives the writers and production team more time to produce a quality product.

I do quite like Father Brown and Grantchester. Death in Paradise is quite good fun, but it is not of the quality of Morse or Inspector Lewis or Midsomer Mysteries or Dalziel and Pascoe. (I said I was a mystery buff.)

There are some excellent Australian mystery shows also. The Miss Fisher Mysteries and The Doctor Blake Mysteries are quite top-notch, though Doctor Blake gets a little soppy at times.

As for Perry Mason, it may be an acquired taste and understanding the stories does require a bit of knowledge about California law. Most of them are resolved at a preliminary hearing (sort of analogous to a grand jury--a proceeding before a judge without a jury to determine whether a trial is required); it is not a common procedure, even in the USA. But the Perry Masons are all about the puzzle. There are no "character arcs."

I can do without "character arcs." Characters with "character arcs" should be set adrift on arks.

grumble, grumble, get off my lawn.

How could I forget Midsomer Murders? (As it is known over here)
Dark humour, which I love, and as mentioned really good mysteries.

That was me late at night making a mistake.

I also make mistakes early in the morning and in mid-afternoon.

Mistakes made while you wait. Reasonable rates.

I like MST3K ( Mystery Science theater 3000 ) and the way they make fun of B movies.

This is a classic funny one. Prince of Space. Prince of Space saves the earth from evil martians that have noses like a chicken peak. And The evil leader has a stupid evil laugh through out the film.

Here's an interesting perspective:

William Friedkin slams superhero movies

Speaking of House of Cards, I thought the first two season were amazing and have yet to watch the third one.

I just recently found out that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is on Netflix in the UK so I am watching that every day at the moment. Very enjoyable.

This thread caused me to meta search and I discovered that many consider the mini-series, especially on the no holds barred cable networks like HBO, Showtime, BBC, etc to be the current high water mark in performance art since there is so much more total elapsed time in which to develop complex characters by showing what they do or did and letting the viewer invest opinion and imagination as opposed to describing it where the viewer is forced to either take it on surface value or suspend disbelief. Thus far more dynamic and complex characters can be developed leading to more lifelike complex plots.

Certainly a groundbreaker in this venue was The Sopranos and it can be easily argued that James Gandolfini's "Tony Soprano" was a far more lifelike character than even Don Vito Corleone who was developed through 2 of the best, Marlon Brando and Robert DeNiro over nearly 2 full-length movies. If that argument seems even remotely valid to you it then becomes obvious how the average single movie with one single actor can really not easily compete with the "room to stretch" possible in a mini series. This of course is attractive to quality actors and writers which continues to raise the bar. The HBO minis are so successful that even the pure entertainment, less Classic variety shows (like the ones that deal with the modern obsession-for-a-minute zombies and vampires) are quite novel and engaging, certainly highly entertaining. If you're new to mini-series of this caliber and want a taste, the bottom line is that if the subject matter is even remotely interesting to you, you will likely love the show.

Some proof of that is that Netflix and Amazon are getting rich even with very cheap prices, renting and selling shows as old as 10-12 years.

As with all things balance is key. Sure TV stuff is fun but the stuff you watch requires filtering because brain does not have counter response unlike stomach..as for TV series and movies in general - yea like them much cause it is easy source of different ideas and boredom killers.

Recently checked out TV series Continuum about time travel and turned out to be quite good. Sure as with all production there are few errors and missed story details but in general it is enjoyable and can compete with Back to the Future.

Could you explain or expand on that please?

Presumably the stomach can barf out the crap daily whereas the mind can only slowly go mad or bad.

OK

I find my mind rebels against anything with either too much of "a message" or without any intelligence. As a youngster I watched a huge amount of television and if I have been in some way brainwashed or left mentally or culturally disabled because of it I'd be interested to find out how.
I tend to think that television is treated far too seriously by those for and against it.
There is no need for some mental filter or anything else.