Kevin's Watch

I'm guessing all Babylon 5 fans are anticipating the upcoming Babylon 5: Lost Tales tv movie? Don't know when it airs, Bruce Boxleitner just presented some clips from it during the Spacey Awards on the Space Channel.

Marvin wrote:Tv seems to be the new premier forum for creative talent, rather than movies.

Wow, that's quite a thing to say. If true, I guess I've just been too burned out on TV for the last 20 or so years to have really noticed.

Does Law & Order count? I don't know what year it first aired, but for a time I was convinced it was the best drama on television.

I'd say the new Doctor Who series is my current favorite. Some don't like David Tennant as the new Doctor, but I still think it's a great show.

As far as a limited run series, I agree about Band of Brothers. I only caught it recently on the History channel. It's an amazing production. However, my personal favorite miniseries was From The Earth To The Moon. Don't know when it originally aired, but I'm fairly sure it was within the last 10 years.

Matrixman wrote:I'm guessing all Babylon 5 fans are anticipating the upcoming Babylon 5: Lost Tales tv movie? Don't know when it airs, Bruce Boxleitner just presented some clips from it during the Spacey Awards on the Space Channel.

Very excited. So, far, it's not airing on TV, it's a Straight to Disk experiment being released in R1 on July 31. Pre Sales have been pretty strong, so I suspect the next disk will be greenlit, and that may help find a TV outlet for it. Currently Amazon's #52 best seller, and been in Pre sales for about a month.

Didn't know about it. Can't wait.

Now I've got to buy the frakin' series.....

From The Earth To The Moon

Great series.

Cail wrote:Didn't know about it. Can't wait.

Now I've got to buy the frakin' series.....

Small caution, the reason it's called the Lost Tales is because it is 3 stories (although this one was only 2, because they needed more airtime) a disk, that are side stories, or expansion on little things that never really got developed. The stories on each disk may be related (30 minutes a story), but, one disk may not be related to the next disk.

That's OK. It's the original cast, and that's the important thing.

Though I could do without Galen.

Cail wrote:That's OK. It's the original cast, and that's the important thing.

Though I could do without Galen.

HEHE, but...Galen means it's very likely to involve left over Shadow Tech, as he is in both stories, so, he is likely the link between the Capt Cupcake Story and the Pres Sheridan story. Most people actually have less use for Capt Cupcake (well...other than the brothel scenes in River of Souls)

I would also have to include Farscape a "best of the last 10 years", which gave a unique twist on the 5 year arc'ed SciFi series and made Muppets in SciFi cool.

Captain Cupcake. Heh, hadn't heard that one before. She's always been a poor man's Susan to me.

I'm not an X-Files fanboy, but I'd have to put them at the top of the list. They brought sci-fi back to the mainstream in a way it hadn't seen since Fantasy Island.

Lost for the same reason. Also for proving you don't necessarily have to spoonfeed primetime viewers.

Farscape, if for no other reason than it's my favoite show ever. It also brought back a kind of darkness to episodic sci-fi that had been conspicuously lacking in modern space operas like Star Trek and Babylon 5, with the exception, I think, of Space: Above and Beyond (which didn't do so hot). Without Farscape there would be no -

Battlestar Galactica. About the only good thing to come of the recycling trend of the last several years. And in the same way you can praise authors like Bakker or Erikson for creating worlds of such incredible scope and depth, you really have to give the producers credit. The camera work, the score, the acting, and the script are all there, and they make the story breathe.

House and Scrubs for giving something new to the by now very tired medical setting, though in entirely different ways. Of the two, I think House gets the edge for creating a character that is 'warts and all' but still fascinating and just endearing enough sometimes. The edge would be almost nonexistant if the writers had kept the stronger dichotomy between Dorian's metrosexual goofiness and his serious and earnest but sometimes selfish internal qualities. Kind of like how Homer Simpson went from a kind of boorish everyman in the first couple of seasons to the complete blessed idiot that we know him as now.

I thought there was a whole lotta darkness to B5. I've never watched Farscape (it looked goofy), so I can't comment, but I've heard a lot of good things about it. S:AaB had moments of sheer brilliance, wish it had lasted much longer. X-Files was everything Syl said, but it overstayed it's welcome by about 3 or 4 seasons. After a great season premier, I thought the bulk of BSG this year was pretty weak. It'd better redeem itself next year. I love Scrubs, but Dorian annoys the Hell out of me. I watch the show for everyone except him.

I'll have to take your word for B5. I could never get through more than five minutes of it. Always felt that it was either like trying to watch a soap opera or that I needed to see it from the beginning or something. I love dialogue, but it definataely deserved the nickname Babble-On 5. I really should download it.

I think you'd get a kick out of Farscape, Cail. I actually decided to watch it for the muppets. I grew up on Henson stuff, so... But after a while, you really forget they are muppets. (just now realizing I might be coming off as a total fanboy considering the new av. heh).

I agree with you somewhat on BSG. I thought the New Caprica stuff dragged ass (not entirely, but enough) and slowed the rest of the season down. But there were some downright awesome performances by Baltar (when he was being questioned), Apollo (his speech at Baltar's trial. cheesy, but in a way that fit Apollo completely and still incredibly moving), and Starbuck (her dialogue with Kat right before...). Any three of them could win an Emmy in a perfect world.

You really need to watch B5 from the beginning. It is a soap opera for the most part, but any serialized show is going to be to a certain extent. The writing on the show was excellent, and strangely prophetic given the current political climate. Seriously Syl, I think you'd love it.

I'll have to keep an eye out for Farscape reruns and DVR them. I like most sci-fi, I think it was the muppets that kept me away from it.

There were some great performances this season on BSG, but I felt like they took too long to resolve some relatively simple story lines.

Doctor Who - until David Tennant takes the lead role.

I'm going to say The Wire.

But I'm going to add on that it's more a matter of circumstance than anything else. I don't watch much TV because I'm just not suited to keeping up with a series. I think I was able to watch seasons 1-3 of the wire, and the full run of the wonderful but shortlived Firefly, mainly because I was watching them both on DVDs my bro borrowed from college friends. I just can't stay interested in a show if there's a week long space in between episodes. Progressive plot or no. This might be the fault of my earlier years (not so far behind me) of watching anime on cartoon network - because they were all syndicated from Japan, new episodes came 5 days a week, and a sort of regularity was established no matter how bad the show.

Even when watching the Wire, I realized I didn't like the 4th season as much. I can't really say anything that was bad about it either...but because I was watching it once a week, I think I was less interested (though I did keep up).

Not the "best", but still very, very good.

Gilmore Girls. For the sharp wit and scattergun light-speed dialog.
Ed. Charm all the way. Oh, and funny too.

These are shows that my whole family liked - and that was rare, so there must be something special about them.

Gilmore Girls? Ed? The Wire? Come on now..aren't we reaching a bit? j/k Ed was good.

2 pages and no one picked Heroes yet.

I forgot to add StarGate series to my best list...well, the first 6 seasons anyway.

comedy : Scrubs. for the balance between the surreal, the slapstick, the drama. (the only comedy I like)

the Shield is brilliant. Mackey is the most compelling character in a drama.

Homicide is the best ensamble.

Lost is the best Sci-Fi.

Rescue Me is also excellent.

Iron Chef is the best reality show.

I really like House as far as dramas go.
Unfortunatly, I watch a fair amount of CSI--it's not really a great show, but it's always on somewhere or sometime, so if there's nothing else on, you can always count on it!
As faras comedy's go, I love My Name Is Earl...in constrast, I can't stand the Office.


Some from up here:


This Hour has 22 minutes (Canadian mock-news show)
Rick Mercer (Canadian Colbert Report)
Trailer Park Boys (It's like Earl, but set up as a documentary, it's so damn stupid it's hillarious)

Homicide was a good show, but best ensemble? I think not. Andre Braugher carried the show, he was surrounded by a couple of decent actors (Yaphet Koto, Ned Beatty, Kyle Secor), and a bunch of people who had no business being on TV (Michelle Leo, Reed Diamond, and just about everyone else on the show).

Off the top of my head, both NCIS and Firefly were better ensemble programs.

Last 10 years?

Farscape -- this was a good show because it was out there (S3, Crichton gets duplicated, and both play paper, scissors, rock endlessly to prove which one's the original--it's always a tie). Rarely pulled its punches--very dark at times. There's definite cheese in the FX (and the music), but that's a spice here. And Claudia Black. *sigh*

For new viewers, I recommend seeing the Premiere first, just to see what Crichton and Aerin are about. After that . . . there are several episode arcs from Season 2 on, but most episodes are complete.

X Files -- too bad it died a slow death. Carter didn't know when to quit.

Firefly -- lots of good ensembles out there, but this one should have been at or near the top today.

Lost -- another great ensemble. Is it SF? I've heard some arguments that its success is only because the producers and the network deny the label.

Frasier -- Much funnier than Cheers ever was, and I liked Cheers.