Law & Order is Terrific (And always will be)

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, CI is awful.  Vincent D'Onofrio is awful.  Doesn't he split time on that show with Chris Noth now anyhow?

haha isn't Make It or Break It on ABC Family?  I've had an aversion to it for the same reasons I've resisted Greek. 

The best-TV-of-decade thread got me thinking, and I've been rewatching The OC:

1.  3 episodes in there was another use of "Hallelujah" I'd forgotten about, so the series total is 4, I think, though there might be more. 

2.  I always knew they recast Trey and Caitlan later in the series, but I'd always given them a pass because I'd just remembered the original actors only being in the pilot, and briefly.  But no!  They're in it a ton!  And Caitlan's like 8 and comes back from boarding school 3 years later as a 16 year-old.

3.  I'd completely forgotten about the Luke's gay dad subplot.  LULZ.

4.  "Don't mess with the Deathcab."  Ahhh, 2003 was simpler times. 

[ellaguru]

Yeah, I only watched a couple Criminal Intents, for d'Onofrio and against my own moratorium on Law & Order (which is not because I don't like L&O but just because every episode is identical to every other episode and I have seen Enough), and d'Onofrio's not a big enough draw to keep me coming back. He is a cute boy and can act, though.

i have been watching make it or break it!!  you make not know me, but i am as much of a 13 year old girl as blucas. 

are you a lady?  if so, do you dream of sleeping in a d'onofrio hibernating spoon position?  i mean... i don't anything about that.  i bet it would be super cozy though, just sayin'.

Oh, no, I am full grown man, I just play a 13 year old girl on the internet. I think the only Law & Order person I've fantasized about was Claire Kincaid. Well, maybe the cop from Angel, too, although I thought she was pretty terrible on L&O, so maybe not.

blucas: yeah, Make It Or Break It is on ABC Family, and that's probably a totally reasonable cause for general aversion. But really, it's surprisingly not terrible.

[crystalcakes]

blucas!  how did you not know that about caitlyn at the time?!?!  it was so funny.  now she's 14 and hooking up... wait, isn't she a child??

lordy.  d'onofrio and noth were splitting time on criminal intent for like 6-7 years but it all ended in 09 when jeff goldblum became the new detective.  hells yes!!  he noodles around on the piano when he is solving the crime.  i am not joking.

[Andrew_TSKS]

The return-of-character-as-different-actor thing... did that happen late enough in the OC's run that they'd become basically a joke already? If so, it may have been an in-joke about soap operas.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, I pretty much knew cc, I was just surprised how much the old Caitlin was in S1. 

TSKS, basically, Trey, Ryan's brother is in a couple episodes at the beginning of S1, then isn't seen until the end of S2, recast, when he gets out of prison.  That one wasn't so egregious, since the old actor only had 2 or 3 scenes and the new actor looked kind of like him anyway.  You'd have to be paying pretty close attention even to realize he'd been recast.

The Caitlin thing's hilarious, though.  She's like, 7 or 8 years old, in it a bunch in S1.  Then she's shipped off to boarding school  She comes back in S4 (or maybe late S3?) as a sexy teen.  Lulz.  I forgave it though, since the actress who plays her when she comes back is actually pretty funny and one of the reasons S4 was the best in the show's run. 

[davy]

I'm gonna give Californication a shot tonight. Nobody told me it was basically about my life. (I flatter myself, but still...)

[davy]

We're off to a surprisingly promising beginning!

[davy]

No kidding, I thought that was a really good pilot!

[crystalcakes]

californication is one of the worst shows i've watched in years.  i would include entourage in that group as well.  ughhhhhhhh.

davy, i had no idea that you're a sex addict with a drug problem and douchey friends.  hahah.

[davy]

Well, I made that comment before I actually started watching it. I was referring more to the whole "lonely guy who once fancied himself a writer going through a divorce and trying to learn how to live life as a bachelor while raising his only child" angle.

[mountmccabe]

Sorry I am late; I actually thought this thread was about Law & Order and decided to stay out to avoid badmouthing what others like.

Speaking of bad old sci-fi TV, I've been watching SG-1 from the beginning.  I'm about 2/3 through the second season.  It's not great, a lot of episodes are TNG season 1 level bad, but they're starting to build a pretty good universe, I guess you could differentiate the episodes similarly to the X-Files, monster-of-the-week eps and mythology eps, and the mythology eps tend to be better than the MOTW ones but some of the MOTW ones are good too.

Several years ago when SciFi used to play approximately 20 episodes of SG-1 a week the other people in the house were big fans and it was fun and I liked a lot of it and man, I knew that show scary well.  I think I have seen all but one or two episodes up through season 8; then sometime around season 10 I moved somewhere without cable and lost track; occasionally seeing an episode but since as the show goes on it's such a serial it was hard to enjoy.

The best thing I can say for the show is that the writers/etc realized that they were SciFi's flagship show and that they'd be around for a long time and they actually took advantage and went more and more serial, taking strands that had been all over the place and designed a two or three season length plot arc to finish off the show (and launch a sequel.)

Then they didn't actually finish off the show, which was in my mind a bad move except that, to be fair, I liked how SG-1 and Atlantis became companion shows; they interacted and traded characters and were clearly different views of the same universe, running concurrently.

So, yeah, Jim, I can certainly recommend continuing.  It isn't always above replacement level sci-fi but seasons 4 & 5 have many of the best ideas and best episodes and seasons 6-8 are, for the most part, one big arc which is cool if you're into that sort of thing.

[mountmccabe]

Also I have to say with respect to Dollhouse that Season 2 >> Season 1.  I'd say that holds even if you ignore the first six episodes of Season 1.

[elpollodiablo]

Thoughts on Big Love last night? I kinda really dug the new credits. Not so crazy about the continuing ballad of Bill's Mom & Dad, that shit is getting pretty played out.
It would seem that they've become unable to contain Ginnifer Goodwin's hotness any longer, however.

Typos!

[YojimboMonkey]

So, yeah, Jim, I can certainly recommend continuing.  It isn't always above replacement level sci-fi but seasons 4 & 5 have many of the best ideas and best episodes and seasons 6-8 are, for the most part, one big arc which is cool if you're into that sort of thing.

My buddy Mike says that after the first 2 or 3 seasons, when Sci-Fi took over the show, they stop doing a clip show every season, which will be a huge improvement.  I can't fucking stand those clip shows, especially when you're marathoning the series like I am.  Jesus, yes, I remember this clip, I watched it like 2 and a half hours ago you fucks

[edison]

Thoughts on Big Love last night? I kinda really dug the new credits. Not so crazy about the continuing ballad of Bill's Mom & Dad, that shit is getting pretty played out.
It would seem that they've become unable to container Ginnifer Goodwin's hotness any longer, however.

New credits? Was there a lawsuit or something? Will watch the new one tonight, probably...

[elpollodiablo]

The new credits are much darker, literally and figuratively. They looked amazing in HD. I thought it was meant to prefigure a darker direction in the show this season, but haven't really seen that yet. More grotesque, maybe, but not all that foreboding.

[Andrew_TSKS]

So davy, did you still see Californication as having much of any relation to your own life once you actually watched it?

[davy]

Oh, only superficially. I can relate to the parenting bits, but that's only, like, 10% of the show.

Nevertheless, I've found the first several episodes quite enjoyable. I like the dynamic between he and his ex-wife. Totally surreal and probably impossible in the real world, but it's a kick to watch.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Yeah, I liked it a lot at first, too. It goes steadily downhill throughout the run, though. Season 3 bugged me bad enough that I couldn't get through it.

Which reminds me, I'm gonna give Gossip Girl Season 1 Disc 4 another shot tonight, but if I can't get more excited about it than I currently am, I'm giving up on that show. The gloriously evil promise it showed on disc 1 and most of disc 2 was almost totally gone by the end of disc 3, and without the evil, it's tough to enjoy it.

[davy]

Yeah, I liked it a lot at first, too. It goes steadily downhill throughout the run, though. Season 3 bugged me bad enough that I couldn't get through it.

I can totally see that happening.

[dieblucasdie]

Man, S3 must be really terrible then, because for me that show just stank of writers'-room-wish-fulfillment from word "go."  I'll suspend my disbelief more willingly for shows depicting anything from a wide variety of supernatural phenomena than I will for one pitching, "middle-aged washed-up writer can't keep precocious 16 year-olds off him."   

There is not a single show on The CW but is more accomplished than Californication in every aspect.  Acting, directing, editing, casting, dialogue, scoring, believable plotlines, honest depiction of emotion.  Fuck, even in the arena of crass sexual exploitation, The Vampire Diaries. 90210, Smallville, and America's Next Top Model all have Californication beat.  And those are among the worst shows made this decade. 

Californication is 90210 for aging hipster dudes with broken dreams of just-below-the-mainstream celebrity.  Except worse. 

[ellaguru]

I didn't mind the first few episodes of Californication, but lost interest pretty quickly. I think I saw maybe four or five?

I'm all caught up on Make It or Break It. I think I'll have to downgrade it from somewhat interesting to passing fair. It kinda went all teenage soap pretty quick. But it's not bad and I'm a big enough gymnastics geek that I'll keep tuning in.

However, I'm on to actually good things now instead. I didn't watch season two of Breaking Bad when it was broadcast so that I could watch it all in one go. And then I didn't watch season two of Breaking Bad because it was summer and the weather was nice and I wanted the bleakness of my TV to be reflected in the bleakness of the landscape. But now the stars are aligned and I'm good to go. I think maybe I'll try to re-watch season one first, but I've already watched it twice (and the pilot three times) so I don't know if I'll be able to manage that.

[Greg Nog]

Yay, Breaking Bad!

I'm continuing to enjoy Farscape.

[edison]

I just discovered that Breaking Bad's third season starts in march! Awesome!

[ellaguru]

I quite enjoyed Farscape. I think it gets more interesting as it goes along. Like DS9, it does that thing where, eventually you discover exactly what it will take for each of the characters to totally betray their friends. And of course inevitably get caught. Good times!