diesel_powered is watching The Rachel Maddow Show (via GetGlue) [New TV Thread]

[elpollodiablo]

Did you guys talk Downton Abbey? Because I am eating this shit up.

[mixed cats]

YES, IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD.

[Thermofusion]

on july 1 when all of every star trek series goes live on netflix streaming im going to start watching TNG and im not stopping until its all watched. not all in one session you know, but it will be my ongoing project.

Is Deep Space Nine a part of this? Cuz while I've seen every episode of TNG multiple times (thanks to show's never-ending syndication), there are whole seasons of DS9 I've never seen.

[Greg Nog]

Some years back, I bought the entirety of DS9 on eBay, in Hong Kong bootleg versions.  I hadn't watched any of it in years until just the other day, when I watched a few episodes from mid-Season-5.  It's great!  I'm now thinking about maybe going through all of that, start to finish.

[ellaguru]

I did that, for the first time since, like Thermo, I'd only seen chunks of it, a couple years back. It starts off pretty weak, but the good stuff is pretty durned good.

[Dick]

I watched both TNG and DS9 all the way through back to back about 5 years ago.  It was a great experience.  DS9 in particular benefits from watching it that way.  I started on Voyager, and made it about 5 minutes into the pilot and was all, "No, fuck this.  I've got some dignity left."  That dignity probably took off a couple of years ago though, so maybe I'll give it another go.  Or I could watch TOS, which is on netflix already (I thought).  I'm sure there are episodes of that I haven't seen.

[ellaguru]

Or I could watch TOS, which is on netflix already (I thought).  I'm sure there are episodes of that I haven't seen.

Man, there might be episodes of this I haven't seen at least six times.

But probably not.

[YojimboMonkey]

I watched both TNG and DS9 all the way through back to back about 5 years ago.  It was a great experience.  DS9 in particular benefits from watching it that way. 

Yeah, later seasons of TNG start to work in some continuity and expand the universe a bit but DS9 is really all about continuity, even though each episode stands alone there are season-long and seasons-long arcs that you won't get at all with haphazard viewing order.

Now I just have to work out how I can either 1) get the entire month of July off work, or 2) use the second monitor on my desk for watching Star Trek.

[Dick]

According to this excellent book I read called the four hour workweek, for about $5 / hr you can hire an obliging chap in India to watch DS9 for you on your monitor at work.  I assume there are some minor software issues to be worked out, but that's why you come in those 4 hours / week.

[Antero]

I just realized that Treme starts up again this month!

[mixed cats]

If I could get away with putting my ipad on a stand and watching all the Netflix instant I wanted at work, I would do that. Unfortunately I share a wall with my supervisor and she's sensitive to noise so I wouldn't be able to have it at a decent volume. Wah.

[jebreject]

I just realized that Treme starts up again this month!

Man, I still never finished the first season. I only have a couple episodes I didn't watch, so I really should do that.

[davy]

I watched the pilot of Reaper last night on Netflix with L, and I liked it! Could definitely see myself wading through the first couple seasons.

[ellaguru]

I just realized that Treme starts up again this month!

Man, I still never finished the first season. I only have a couple episodes I didn't watch, so I really should do that.

I liked it.

I finished series 5 of Skins. I think it was the weakest of the bunch - OK, but they didn't any real galvanizing characters like Tony or Effy or Cook, and so there was something missing.

Going on Friday Night Lights. I'm thinking I'll start at the beginning and go 1,3,4,5. I've seen them all except the new season, but not since they came out.

[dieblucasdie]

Just a couple days!  I'm even more psyched now that almost every critic who's seen it has given positive-to-rave reviews.  I do wonder if the first episode or two might make for slow going, though, given the clips they've put out and the fact that they sent critics the first 6 episodes.  But anyway, I mostly came to post this awful, condescending NYT review, pretty much the only outright pan I've seen:

http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-begins-sunday-on-hbo-review.html?smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

With the amount of money apparently spent on “Game of Thrones,” the fantasy epic set in a quasi-medieval somewhereland beginning Sunday on HBO, a show like “Mad Men” might have the financing to continue into the second term of a Malia Obama presidency.

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

There's also a bit where she jokes about going back to Sex and the City reruns because her lady-brain can't keep track of all the characters.  Ugh.

[elpollodiablo]

I just realized that Treme starts up again this month!

Man, I still never finished the first season. I only have a couple episodes I didn't watch, so I really should do that.

I doubt I'll ever double back on this one. I can respect what it was trying to do, but watching it was like a chore.

[Ignatius]

Just a couple days!  I'm even more psyched now that almost every critic who's seen it has given positive-to-rave reviews.  I do wonder if the first episode or two might make for slow going, though, given the clips they've put out and the fact that they sent critics the first 6 episodes.  But anyway, I mostly came to post this awful, condescending NYT review, pretty much the only outright pan I've seen:

http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-begins-sunday-on-hbo-review.html?smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

With the amount of money apparently spent on “Game of Thrones,” the fantasy epic set in a quasi-medieval somewhereland beginning Sunday on HBO, a show like “Mad Men” might have the financing to continue into the second term of a Malia Obama presidency.

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

There's also a bit where she jokes about going back to Sex and the City reruns because her lady-brain can't keep track of all the characters.  Ugh.

I didn't perceive the Sex and the City thing to be about how lady brains can't count, just that most people wouldn't be able to keep track... The 'fantasy is for dudes' schtick was pretty obnoxious, though - I thought she was leveling legitimate charges of pandering, until she revealed that her problem was that said pandering simply wasn't strong enough to entice ladies.

[davy]

Well, I mean, shit, if it is pandering, then it's Martin's fault, not HBO's.

[Ignatius]

It must be Tolkien's fault for giving people the idea that fantasy is essentially sexless in the first place. It's pretty arrogant to make assumptions about an adaptation when you're unfamiliar with the original work outside of the bit you quoted from the book jacket or whatever.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, I'm sure there are legitimate criticisms to be made--I'd actually be quite interested in reading them. It's just that this thing relies on a bunch of half-assed assumptions about fantasy ("It's for boys!" "LOL Dungeons & Dragons!").  And that whole "book club" schtick is *way* more patronizing than anything in ASOIAF

edit:  I mean, I will admit that early on in the books, I did see some of the stuff with Arya and Dany (and even Catelyn) as a forced "Hey, look!  Strong women!  Eh? Eh?"  Part of why this infuriates me is that I'd actually, you know, like to see an intelligent discussion of that!

[Greg Nog]

It says something about current American attitudes toward sex that with the exception of the lurid and awful “Californication,” nearly all eroticism on television is past tense.

What the fuck is she talking about?

[Greg Nog]

Ha!  I just googled Ginia Bellafante's name, and the sixth link down is a blog entry called "Ginia Bellafante Needs To Be Fired."

[Thermofusion]

It says something about current American attitudes toward sex that with the exception of the lurid and awful “Californication,” nearly all eroticism on television is past tense.

What the fuck is she talking about?

I think she's commenting on the recent rash of sexed-up historical dramas on the premium channels. Someone get this chick a Cinemax subscription, all the bonin there appears to take place in contemporary times.

[charlie]

Did you guys see the slate review? I couldn't read more than a paragraph of it.
http://www.slate.com/id/2291119/

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, I couldn't, either.  I don't think there's ever been a Troy Patterson column that hasn't annoyed the fuck out of me, even on the rare instances where I've agreed with the substance.