I have completed all five seasons of Friday Night Lights. I have
never watched another series this way and I quite enjoyed it. And I stand by my early thoughts, this is one of the best series ever on television.
As the tears dry on my face, what should I watch next? What series do you recommend?
29 comments:
I assume you mean inhaling DVD's (or something comparable) in mass quantities?
Yes, for long form TV shows there is no other way to watch.
Yes, a midday break from this computer is needed. What series lends itself to this sort of watching.
The same two The beloved Spouse and I watch over and over: THE WIRE and DEADWOOD. Someday JUSTIFIED will be added to the pantheon. That's a ways off, I hope.
I hear it has been renewed so we are safe for another year at least.
BREAKING BAD and/or JUSTIFIED
hum, I've got nothing.
Patti,
I've got two for you. Not sure how much you like War series but;
BAND OF BROTHERS was spectacular. Plenty of action but just tremendous acting and characters. Plenty of episodes.
or
SOUTHLAND, a current running show you could rent and get caught up on if you haven't seen. THE best cop show I've ever seen (and that's covering a bunch for me - including the old NYPD Blue when it had the original cast.)
LONESOME DOVE if you somehow never caught it. Jones and Duvall, well what can you say.
I found season 1 of THE KILLING absorbing. Also TREME. Already mentioned here: DEADWOOD, JUSTIFIED. Need I mention TOM & JERRY cartoons?
Definitely TREME.
Also MI5 (or as it was called in Britain, SPOOKS).
Another British shows: DOC MARTIN. One more: FOYLE'S WAR.
You'll be happy to hear we just started watching FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on DVD (from the library) and even Jackie likes it so far, despite her antipathy to football.
Jeff M.
Football is just the pretext for examining life in a Texas town. It never disappointed me from beginning to end. As characters you love move on, new ones come along. It looks at race, class, family, love, school, friendship. So compelling.
MI5 is a great idea. And Doc Martin We have seen TREME and FOYLE's War.
I have watched quite a few episodes of SOUTHLAND. Excellent show.
I saw LONESOME DOVE too. BAND OF BROTHERS is a great idea though. Will see if my library has it.
MI-5 has better and worse episodes. Haven't tried DOC MARTIN yet. Aside from my usual recs, I'll suggest to you SAMANTHA WHO?, EVERWOOD, and, of course, GILMORE GIRLS. PEACEMAKERS, though I think you'll have to watch that on online.
Saw GILMORE GIRLS. Was Everwood the one with Treat Williams? Samantha Who is new to me. I am thinking of Veronica Mars, which I never saw. Any good?
VERONICA MARS rather to very good, episode to episode. It was almost exactly a criminous rethinking of the fantasticated BUFFY, so much so that Joss Whedon took a small role in one episode.
SAMANTHA WHO? very funny by me, excellent cast. Another which has since occurred, and which is on dvd--ever see the Canadian satire series THE NEWSROOM? If not, a must. The pendant MORE TEARS rather more self-indulgent. Both versions of THE OFFICE owe something to THE NEWSROOM, as do such subsequent Canadian series as THE INDUSTRY.
EVERWOOD was indeed the slightly soapy but engaging one with Williams and his perpetually pained expression.
VERONICA MARS created and produced by the mainspring behind PARTY DOWN.
Just got the DVD's of the final two series (9 and 10) of SPOOKS (MI-5) from England. Also got series 4 and 5 of DOC MARTIN.
Jeff M.
Bingo-library has THE NEWSROOM but not Samantha who.
THE WIRE is top-shelf. And there's always DOCTOR WHO.
I'm addicted to 30 Rock. It's becoming my reality. S very bad sign.
I think Deadwood is the best show ever aired on the small screen.
If you're looking for a remedy for the tears, I'm with Todd in recommending The Newsroom (look for the episode with Mordecai Richler's son Daniel). Made in Canada is up there... and you already know about Slings and Arrows.
If you asked after SAMANTHA WHO?, they might well buy it...Melissa McCarthy having just won the Oscar, the relatively inexpensive nature of the two season-sets, it being an ABC series, etc.
Another pretty good Canadian series, to supplement one's SPOOKS/MI-5, is INTELLIGENCE, from the DA VINCI'S INQUEST/CITY HALL folks. Playing on MAV TV and presumably on disc...though I should doublecheck that. And MADE IN CANADA was the original title of THE INDUSTRY, if that helps.
And just to reiterate, along with the likes of THE WIRE and DEADWOOD, my consistent recs for series on video run to ONCE AND AGAIN, JOURNEYMAN, HOMICIDE, THE MIDDLEMAN, DAY BREAK (at least for the first half of this intentionally limited series, rather similar in some ways to JOURNEYMAN, and also featuring Moon Bloodgood; it lost its way a bit by the end), and such classics as THE ROCKFORD FILES and THE PRISONER and THE AVENGERS...and you really might consider the animated ARCHER and/or THE VENTURE BROS, but perhaps other animation might persuade Phil faster...then again, if SCRUBS struck you as too fanciful to be actually funny, these or the likes of live-action CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL (again, shot in the same decommissioned hospital as SCRUBS) might not work for you. But did you ever look at the SCTV series? Some dross in with the gold there, but a whole lot of gold. Likewise MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.
And did you ever see THRILLER, the Karloff-hosted anthology series? Some don't hold up so well, but most do. Same folks did the 87TH PRECINCT series...which, unlike THRILLER, isn't on dvd yet...
Some of the early British serials, maybe. I recommend 'ALLO 'ALLO! (about a cockeyed French restaurant owner, his wife and two blondes who run the underground in France during WW2 — hilarious); TO THE MANOR BORN; ARE YOU BEING SERVED?; FAWLTY TOWERS (John Cleese), BLACK ADDER (Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry), and YES MINISTER (over YES PRIME MINISTER).
MST3K used to be a must-see for me.
Ever since they quoted the Dexter Lake Club scene from ANIMAL HOUSE in Roger Corman's VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT they can do no wrong.
Jeff M.
I don't know how you feel about fantasy shows but DEAD LIKE ME was amazing, I thought. I watched all the episodes (two seasons) over a period of two weeks I think. It's about a 20-something girl who dies and then learns she has been recruited by a squad of ghosts to procure people's souls just before the shuffle off their mortal coil. Highly imaginative, funny, and often very moving. It does however, have Mandy Patinkin in the cast. As much as I tend to dislike him in anything he does he was pretty good in this particular role. A kind of father figure for the girl and the leader of the soul catchers.
Another Canadian series worth watching is North of 60.
Thanks!
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