Law & Order is Terrific (And always will be)

[diesel_powered]

The uncertainty thread continually reminds me that I should mention that although it took me a couple episodes to get in, Slings & Arrows is pretty awesome. I think last week was the fourth episode and it's really began to click.

[girl]

Slings & Arrows is pretty awesome.

 

[mixed cats]

Oh, shit! That was some time ago.

My friend Paul figured out how the series should end: "I vote that Mr. Eko come back and smash Jack's cranium in with his Jesus Be Good Stick"

The only thing that I really, really want out of this show is for Jack to die. I know he won't, but I can dream.

[dieblucasdie]

Kate and Jack gonna make out at the end.  Take that shit to Vegas.

[elpollodiablo]

Haven't they kind of blown their wad on that? Weren't they living together at one point in this inscrutable chronology?

[mixed cats]

After the rescue/Oceanic Six lying business, after Kate got out of her murder charges, they lived together a bit and Jack proposed (but I can't remember if she said no or if she accepted before they dissolved).

[elpollodiablo]

But they obviously got they bone on at one point or another

[dieblucasdie]

There was an insanely long three-part interview that Mo Ryan did with Cuse and Lindelof (don't, by any means, actually read it; those guys are even more insufferable than one would expect), but anytime a variant of "How are you possibly going to wrap this all up in a way that makes any damn sense?" came up, they were all like, "This show is about being true to the characters, not answering every question," "Our only concern is giving the characters endings that make sense." & etc.  Which, to me, meant:  "Fuck you, you'll never find out WTF was up with Walt or the numbers, you're getting a Jack/Kate makeout session instead."

[Thermofusion]

Man fuck that

I wonder how much different/better Lost would've turned out if that David Fury guy had stayed on the creative team.

As for Jack and Kate, all I can say is they deserve each other.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, Fury sure hasn't helped tone down the ridiculousness on 24, so I think we have our answer, there.

Let's face it, it was all downhill after "They got the mustard out"

[Thermofusion]

The guy wrote "Walkabout" and "Numbers", probably the two best episodes of the series IMO

I keep forgetting he ended up on 24, though, that kinda shoots down my theory.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, he's got a list of titles as long as the Queen on 24, so who knows what he actually even does there.  When he was the primary writer on individual-ep scripts on Lost, Angel, and Buffy he was one of the best, though.

[edison]

Parks and Recreation last night was more uneven than the last one, but there were about five or six completely awesome lines, and the Leslie/Ron scene at the end, complete with Duke Silver reference, was beautiful.

edit: also, I'm frustrated, because I can't watch most of the bonus stuff on the official website as it's US-only.

[edison]

Actually, I'm rewatching it now, and there are way more than five awesome lines. My bad.

[Greg Nog]

I could probably watch 22 minutes straight of April sulking, I think.  There's just something about her unceasing raw hostility that I find utterly magical.

[coldforge]

I thought it was really great.

[coldforge]

P & R did this thing where they set up like, 4 or 5 really unlikeable, unfair characters and then in the second half of the first season decided to give them all a really fair shake. So Leslie Knope went from being Michael Scott to something far more interesting and compelling. And Andy went from a caricature of a lazy rocker to a loveable goofy guy, and so on and so on. Interestingly this made the two straight characters—Mark and, uh, Anne? The Jones lady—much less interesting and sympathetic in comparison.

[Greg Nog]

Huh!  That's really interesting, and explains why I had the reaction to it that I did; when I started watching it, it was one of the first episodes, and I thought the show was terrible.  Only a couple weeks ago did I give it another try, with a more recent episode, and I was like, "Oh hey, this has a lot of wonderful things going on."

[coldforge]

No, yeah. In the beginning Leslie Knope was Michael Scott, and Andy was like, a nothing, and Tom was a caricature of a club douchebag, and Ron was basically a Bushie, and Mark and Anne were these two normal people surrounded by crazy, incompetent people with no self-awareness. And the whole season was basically about this crazy incompetent person with no self-awareness's quixotic attempts to get a park built.

But over the last season (and I think the the last couple episodes of the first one) they've busted way out, and really made a clear effort to humanize every character in the show, even Jerry and Donna. And it's been much for the better because the writing and acting are good enough that having all the characters be basically likable and sympathetic only creates a more open environment for them to keep the show going.

It's one of my favorite kinds of TV shows, actually, which is that whenever nearly anyone is on screen or has a subplot, I think 'man, they should have more of THIS guy on the show!' Like Jerry. I fuckin' love Jerry.

[jm]

Yeah, I noticed that same change.

One thing I will say that annoys me (though I've seen less of it in recent episodes) is Dude Who Always Gets Shit On No Matter What He Does.  I hate that.  It's maybe the tiniest bit funny the first time, and every subsequent time is a slap in the face to anyone watching with a fucking brain.

[Greg Nog]

I dunno, I kinda found it entertaining when they did that with Zoidberg.

[elpollodiablo]

I find it really adorable that cf likes P & R so much, because I find it to be a really adorable show.

Last night's episode didn't seem anywhere near as funny as the previous week, but I was only 1/2 paying attention.

[Maaik]

Yeah, but in a show that seems to have this undercurrent of goodwill toward its characters, it's a tonal fart that can be pretty annoying.

x-post to Greg

[jm]

The difference is that Zoidberg is, in fact, a fucking doofus.  The guy on P & R, at least on the episodes that I've seen, is capable and not wrong etc.

[ellaguru]

I thought the Futurama movies were supposed to be bad? I've seen the first two now and I thought they were both pretty darned funny.

In other TV news, after catching up on the still-surprisingly-not-terrible Make It Or Break It, I'm starting on season four of Friday Night Lights. It's gonna be a teen sports soap double header tonight at my house!