TV Shows Thread

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Originally Posted by gschwendt

Yes. I watch most of the USA shows... the only ones I haven't watched are the ones they've just recently been putting out (Necessary Roughness, Suits, & whatever that cop show is).

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Suits and Necessary Roughness are pretty good. I've only seen 1 episode of the cop show, so I don't really know much about it.

FYI, the whole first episode of The Newsroom is on Youtube (posted by HBO themselves):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4ZhFDFYvE

So Directv has a new series that they're about to start showing called Hit & Miss. It looks like it's about a hit-woman that has kids, sort of a Leon: The Professional type TV show. So I decided to look more into it...

Spoiler: show

Apparently, the main character is played by a chick, but she's actually a dude that became a transvestite but before he did that, he knocked up some woman so now he/she/it has a kid that he/she/it has to raise.

I'm undecided if I'll watch it or not.

Here's a couple of trailers for Hit & Miss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqW0lfa0hBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JIlHda25KE

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

FYI, the whole first episode of The Newsroom is on Youtube (posted by HBO themselves):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4ZhFDFYvE

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Thanks! I will watch this soon. I've heard good things about it. They said the ratings were okay. About 2M viewers.

Watched my DVRed Sunday night shows last night.

Falling Skies continues to be what it has been, so I won't continue to beat a dead horse and bitch about a show that I get about 90% enjoyment and 10% frustration because I think that it could be much better.

The Newsroom was very good. Very interesting. I'm not sure if it will eventually be one of those shows that start out with a good premise, but turns into an hour long sermon about this or that. So far, so good, and I'll continue to watch throughout the first few sermons, because HBO has earned some benefit of the doubt with their original series.

Also getting caught up on the second season of Boardwalk Empire. Diggin' it, so far.

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Originally Posted by IBI

Falling Skies continues to be what it has been, so I won't continue to beat a dead horse and bitch about a show that I get about 90% enjoyment and 10% frustration because I think that it could be much better.

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I'd be interested to hear what your complaints are. I have some of my own, but they are pretty minor outside of the fact that I don't think the creators of the show really know what they want to do with the aliens yet.

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Originally Posted by IBI

The Newsroom was very good. Very interesting. I'm not sure if it will eventually be one of those shows that start out with a good premise, but turns into an hour long sermon about this or that. So far, so good, and I'll continue to watch throughout the first few sermons, because HBO has earned some benefit of the doubt with their original series.

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It's created by Aaron Sorkin. The guy who wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, The Social Network, and Moneyball. I can guarantee you this, it'll be good for, at the very least, 3 seasons and it's going to be the best damn television he's ever done because he's finally on a network that will let him go as far as he wants as well as the premise of the show is going to allow them to do so many wonderful things

Spoiler: show

since it's set 2 years ago and using current events of that time as their basis for the show's news reporting

which, btw, is BRILLIANT of them to do.

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Originally Posted by IBI

Also getting caught up on the second season of Boardwalk Empire. Diggin' it, so far.

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The second season just ruined that show for me. Not sure exactly where they are wanting to go with it.

A show I didn't think would stick with me, but has been getting better is TBS's Men At Work. Breckin Meyer has done a good job creating a pretty good comedy.

for anyone who likes watching the deadliest catch/swamp people type of shows, SHARK WRANGLERS is on tonight, on the history channel at 10.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

AMAZING television show on HBO called The Newsroom. If you aren't watching this show, you are missing out on GOLD.

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I watched the series premiere. No lie, show's really good. Series is now set to record. The cool thing about the show is that they use real news stories so they can potentially never run out of material.

Last season of Weeds started this week(at least it's supposed to be the last season). 1st episode wasn't bad. Hopefully it gets back to being good for a final go after 2 disappointing seasons.

After losing interest in Falling Skies, you guys are talking me back into it. I still have to watch the first season yet though.

Last night's episode had some interesting things happen in it. More information on how the aliens operate and such.

Watched Anger Management the other night. It wasn't bad. Not earth shattering, but not terrible either. I'll probably stick with it.

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

A show I didn't think would stick with me, but has been getting better is TBS's Men At Work. Breckin Meyer has done a good job creating a pretty good comedy.

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I haven't caught up on my DVR for it. Think I'm on the 2nd episode but I was interested in the build up of the show so set the series to record. Probably will watch them all tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

Watched Anger Management the other night. It wasn't bad. Not earth shattering, but not terrible either. I'll probably stick with it.

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I enjoyed it, it's not "2 and a half.." which I really liked but I did think the first episode was funny.

Really looking forward to the next Burn Notice. Caught the lastest episode last week on DVR. And of course Franklin & Bash.

During the NBA playoffs I watched an episode of Falling Skies, then watched the next one after but hadn't watched it previously or continued watching. Made me wish I would have started watching from when the series started.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

It's created by Aaron Sorkin. The guy who wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, The Social Network, and Moneyball. I can guarantee you this, it'll be good for, at the very least, 3 seasons and it's going to be the best damn television he's ever done because he's finally on a network that will let him go as far as he wants as well as the premise of the show is going to allow them to do so many wonderful things

Spoiler: show

since it's set 2 years ago and using current events of that time as their basis for the show's news reporting

which, btw, is BRILLIANT of them to do.

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Well, it's coming back for at least a second season. I was reading last night's rag, there was a small clip back in the entertainment section, Newsroom has been green lit for a second season, after only two episodes. They said despite mixed reviews, it had a healthy audience for it's premiere with over 2.1 million viewers.

Breaking Bad Season 5 clip

*contains spoilers*

http://www.amctv.com/breaking-bad/vi...ve-free-or-die

Finally had a chance to check out the Pilot of Homeland for free On-Demand. Definitely going to pick that up on Blu-ray and check it out at some point.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Finally had a chance to check out the Pilot of Homeland for free On-Demand. Definitely going to pick that up on Blu-ray and check it out at some point.

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I've been wanting to check out Homeland for a while. Damn not having HBO and Showtime. Miss out on all the good shows and have to hope they show up on Netflix or something or get a chance to preview them before putting the money down for the Blu-ray or DVD sets.

It's edited, but you can watch it here for free: http://www.sho.com/sho/homeland/seas...isode/1#/index

Homeland is pretty good, although...

Spoiler: show

like The Killing...the story doesn't wrap up at the end of season 1.

That might be a negative for some viewers. :dunno:

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Originally Posted by Marlowe

Homeland is pretty good, although...

Spoiler: show

like The Killing...the story doesn't wrap up at the end of season 1.

That might be a negative for some viewers. :dunno:

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... why would that be a problem?

it's not...some people are just impatient...bunch of viewers knocked the Killing for that reason.

Sigh.

Spoiler: show

It's called a cliffhanger for a reason, people.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Sigh.

Spoiler: show

It's called a cliffhanger for a reason, people.

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Those people complaining about the cliffhangers must really hate TV. 24 was notorious for cliffhangers. Same with Dallas and Criminal Minds. CSI: Miami started becoming cliffhanger city from season 4 on, same with CSI and CSI: NY in the later seasons. Torchwood, Lost, NCIS, True Blood, The West Wing, the list goes on and on.

Homeland was incredible. Definitely one of my favorite shows, and if season 2 runs at the same time as Dexter again, that will give me reason enough to subscribe to Showtime for a couple of months.

Just watched what I think were episodes 2 thru 5 of 'Men at Work'. It was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be. It might have to join my "just for me" shows alongside Burn Notice and Justified.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

I'd be interested to hear what your complaints are. I have some of my own, but they are pretty minor outside of the fact that I don't think the creators of the show really know what they want to do with the aliens yet.

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Spoiler: show

Falling Skies is too close to safe, network, fluff...at least it was in Season 1. Like I said in a previous post, I like the larger story, but I'm not pleased with all of the forced "touching", yet unbelievable moments that they try to feed us...much like network television does with nearly all of their dramas.

Another thing that bothered me was the idea that there would be any "civilians" left in this society, and the forced conflict between civilians and militarty (in Season 1). Season 2 has done a much better job of making most of these people useful, but the 2nd Mass started out with ~300 people and they only had a couple dozen people that were actually fighting or contributing. The rest of them were just bitching about not being treated well, and causing problems. There were several times in season 1 where a 30 or 40 something year old man was complaining about the fighters. WHY DON'T YOU HAVE A GUN? If you're not fighting, cooking, repairing stuff, etc., then you're just a waste of space, and you're not vital to the survival of the human race.

I think that my main issue is that I'm just too cynical for anything that looks like it's using a template from network television

Good thoughts, IBI

Spoiler: show

though I think, in the event of such a catastrophic event, it would take people time to adjust to the "we're all fighters, now" mentality. I actually thought that was more realistic than the common portrayal. A lot of people would pick up a gun ... but not everyone.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Good thoughts, IBI

Spoiler: show

though I think, in the event of such a catastrophic event, it would take people time to adjust to the "we're all fighters, now" mentality. I actually thought that was more realistic than the common portrayal. A lot of people would pick up a gun ... but not everyone.

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Thanks.

Spoiler: show

That's true. I really don't know what the timeline looks like. I know that there was an initial attack, then a second attack. I think that the second attack is what got everyone in the situation that they're in now, but I don't know how far apart they were, or how long it took for the 2nd mass to come together after the second attack. There were some comics on the TNT website, prior to season 1, that gave some of the backstory, but I only made it through 9 or 10 issues before I stopped checking for updates. Maybe there just weren't enough guns to go around. It just pissed me off that they had all these young kids fighting, but you'd have an able bodied man just sitting on the sideline.

I guess it could be similar to the remake of Battlestar Galactica (one of my all-time favorite shows), where they had all these civilians, and limited resources. They eventually trained some fighter pilots and other soldiers, but that show had a ton of issues between the civilians and the military.

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Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes

Well, it's coming back for at least a second season. I was reading last night's rag, there was a small clip back in the entertainment section, Newsroom has been green lit for a second season, after only two episodes. They said despite mixed reviews, it had a healthy audience for it's premiere with over 2.1 million viewers.

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Awesome! I'm all-in after 2 episodes. It's an incredibly smart show and everyone talks so fast so you have to stay on top of the dialogue or get lost in the hysteria.

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Originally Posted by IBI

Thanks.

Spoiler: show

That's true. I really don't know what the timeline looks like. I know that there was an initial attack, then a second attack. I think that the second attack is what got everyone in the situation that they're in now, but I don't know how far apart they were, or how long it took for the 2nd mass to come together after the second attack. There were some comics on the TNT website, prior to season 1, that gave some of the backstory, but I only made it through 9 or 10 issues before I stopped checking for updates. Maybe there just weren't enough guns to go around. It just pissed me off that they had all these young kids fighting, but you'd have an able bodied man just sitting on the sideline.

I guess it could be similar to the remake of Battlestar Galactica (one of my all-time favorite shows), where they had all these civilians, and limited resources. They eventually trained some fighter pilots and other soldiers, but that show had a ton of issues between the civilians and the military.

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True. I really dislike how little of the backstory they've fleshed out.

Spoiler: show

For example, both Season 1 and Season 2 opened with a kid talking about where he was when the aliens came. Why the hell haven't we seen that day? I was expecting it at some point in Season 1, for goodness sake.

And any comparison to BSG is a good frakkin' one to me :D

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Originally Posted by souljahbill

Awesome! I'm all-in after 2 episodes. It's an incredibly smart show and everyone talks so fast so you have to stay on top of the dialogue or get lost in the hysteria.

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True of any Aaron Sorkin show. If not for closed captioning, I would never have kept up with half of The West Wing.

Jesus christ. So much to reply to, but here goes!

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Originally Posted by Marlowe

it's not...some people are just impatient...bunch of viewers knocked the Killing for that reason.

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And those viewers were idiots for knocking The Killing and are even dumber for knocking Homeland for it. Most of the vitriol toward the Killing is, unlike British and other European television shows, US television usually tries to milk the hell out of a property, especially if it's popular, thus, the hate toward The Killing because it's based off a Norwegian television show (same basic premise and type of cast from what I understand) but it was all wrapped up in one season and was good to go, unlike The Killing which squeezed two amazing seasons out of the case and looks to be going for a season 3 based on another case (no real information to back this up, just basing it on how US television executives work most of the time).

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Originally Posted by IBI

Homeland was incredible. Definitely one of my favorite shows, and if season 2 runs at the same time as Dexter again, that will give me reason enough to subscribe to Showtime for a couple of months.

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Homeland is AMAZING. I'm TOTALLY blown away by how good it is. I can't wait for it to come back. I'm anxiously awaiting it's return.

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Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes

I've been wanting to check out Homeland for a while. Damn not having HBO and Showtime. Miss out on all the good shows and have to hope they show up on Netflix or something or get a chance to preview them before putting the money down for the Blu-ray or DVD sets.

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That's why pirating stuff is good. I just don't care anymore. I don't have the time to keep track of when the hell this shit comes on TV anymore and I definitely don't have the cash to spend on getting HBO and Showtime to watch these shows, thus, I pirate the hell out of them.

That said, there are ways to watch these shows streaming online (like, this website). Not sure if it has everything you're looking for, but it certainly does a pretty good job covering most things that I would watch if I wasn't just straight up pirating them.

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Originally Posted by IBI

Spoiler: show

Falling Skies is too close to safe, network, fluff...at least it was in Season 1. Like I said in a previous post, I like the larger story, but I'm not pleased with all of the forced "touching", yet unbelievable moments that they try to feed us...much like network television does with nearly all of their dramas.

Another thing that bothered me was the idea that there would be any "civilians" left in this society, and the forced conflict between civilians and militarty (in Season 1). Season 2 has done a much better job of making most of these people useful, but the 2nd Mass started out with ~300 people and they only had a couple dozen people that were actually fighting or contributing. The rest of them were just bitching about not being treated well, and causing problems. There were several times in season 1 where a 30 or 40 something year old man was complaining about the fighters. WHY DON'T YOU HAVE A GUN? If you're not fighting, cooking, repairing stuff, etc., then you're just a waste of space, and you're not vital to the survival of the human race.

I think that my main issue is that I'm just too cynical for anything that looks like it's using a template from network television

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Good thoughts, IBI

Spoiler: show

though I think, in the event of such a catastrophic event, it would take people time to adjust to the "we're all fighters, now" mentality. I actually thought that was more realistic than the common portrayal. A lot of people would pick up a gun ... but not everyone.

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Originally Posted by IBI

Thanks.

Spoiler: show

That's true. I really don't know what the timeline looks like. I know that there was an initial attack, then a second attack. I think that the second attack is what got everyone in the situation that they're in now, but I don't know how far apart they were, or how long it took for the 2nd mass to come together after the second attack. There were some comics on the TNT website, prior to season 1, that gave some of the backstory, but I only made it through 9 or 10 issues before I stopped checking for updates. Maybe there just weren't enough guns to go around. It just pissed me off that they had all these young kids fighting, but you'd have an able bodied man just sitting on the sideline.

I guess it could be similar to the remake of Battlestar Galactica (one of my all-time favorite shows), where they had all these civilians, and limited resources. They eventually trained some fighter pilots and other soldiers, but that show had a ton of issues between the civilians and the military.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

True. I really dislike how little of the backstory they've fleshed out.

Spoiler: show

For example, both Season 1 and Season 2 opened with a kid talking about where he was when the aliens came. Why the hell haven't we seen that day? I was expecting it at some point in Season 1, for goodness sake.

And any comparison to BSG is a good frakkin' one to me :D

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Spoiler: show

Ah, ok. I agree. There are definitely some problems and it definitely seems like a safe network show, but, unfortunately, that's TNT programming for you. Pretty much everything on TNT and safe television. That said, it's probably one of the best science fiction based television shows on TV at the moment and I have to support it in hopes that something else better will come along all the while hoping that the writers have grown a set and actually do something ballsy with the show this season, otherwise, I'll probably give up at the end of this season.

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Originally Posted by souljahbill

Awesome! I'm all-in after 2 episodes. It's an incredibly smart show and everyone talks so fast so you have to stay on top of the dialogue or get lost in the hysteria.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

True of any Aaron Sorkin show. If not for closed captioning, I would never have kept up with half of The West Wing.

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Spoiler: show

It's one of the things I have a problem with in The Newsroom. It makes sense for the characters in The West Wing to talk fast and be able to talk themselves out of situations; they do it for a living. The characters in The Newsroom shouldn't be able to do it as well as they do. Everything is so fast paced it feels like there isn't time to breathe sometimes. I get part of it is portraying how it can be in a newsroom sometimes, but it's all hyper-real to the point that it feels forced sometimes.

That said, after episode 2, I'm enjoying the hell out of the show still, but I hear that episode 4 is a real stinker but, we'll see.


Speaking of The West Wing, I started watching it after The Newsroom just completely blew me away and, needless to say, I have a new 7 season show to watch now and it's blowing me away just as The Newsroom did.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

Speaking of The West Wing, I started watching it after The Newsroom just completely blew me away and, needless to say, I have a new 7 season show to watch now and it's blowing me away just as The Newsroom did.

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Yep, I love The West Wing. I watched most of it on TV when each new episode came out, my parents got me hooked on it, and watched it all the way through. The latter years get a little "meh", not as great of quality as the first 4 or 5 seasons, with the Bartlet administration winding down and the new election and the whole new administration coming in, old administration going out transfer process, but overall it was still an outstanding series.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

Speaking of The West Wing, I started watching it after The Newsroom just completely blew me away and, needless to say, I have a new 7 season show to watch now and it's blowing me away just as The Newsroom did.

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You know, our discussion about Claudia Black in the I'd Hit It thread caused me to restart the entire Farscape series. I swear, if you get me to restart the entire West Wing series (again), I might have to kill you.

That said, it is, by far, some of the greatest TV ever.

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Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes

the whole new administration coming in

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Spoiler: show

Seriously, this is a spoiler, if you're in the middle of watching West Wing (mors), don't read this:

Spoiler: show

Until Obama was elected and, y'know, suddenly the show looking freaking prescient. Oh, and Jimmy Smits's "live" campaign commercial was one of the greatest moments of the show.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

You know, our discussion about Claudia Black in the I'd Hit It thread caused me to restart the entire Farscape series. I swear, if you get me to restart the entire West Wing series (again), I might have to kill you.

That said, it is, by far, some of the greatest TV ever.

Spoiler: show

Seriously, this is a spoiler, if you're in the middle of watching West Wing (mors), don't read this:

Spoiler: show

Until Obama was elected and, y'know, suddenly the show looking freaking prescient. Oh, and Jimmy Smits's "live" campaign commercial was one of the greatest moments of the show.

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Spoiler: show

Yeah, it definitely did then when Obama was elected. And I agree completely, that "live" commercial was definitely in the top 5 greatest moments throughout the entire length of the show for me. Granted, it sort of plateaued for many when Aaron Sorkin left after the fourth season, which the show did change, especially with the contracts of many of the regulars running out in the couple of seasons after. I still enjoyed the later seasons between watching the Santos campaign and because I've always enjoyed watching Alan Alda ever since M*A*S*H, so between Jimmy Smits and the Santos campaign, and Alan Alda in there as Arnold Vinick, I still enjoyed those later seasons.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

You know, our discussion about Claudia Black in the I'd Hit It thread caused me to restart the entire Farscape series. I swear, if you get me to restart the entire West Wing series (again), I might have to kill you.

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:D

You're welcome. ;)

I've been SO tempted SEVERAL times to go back and watch it again, but I just recently did so about 6 or 7 months ago so it's a bit too early to do so again. That said, if it wasn't for new TV (and The West Wing), I'd probably go back and watch Stargate: SG1 and Atlantis again as it's been several years since I last watched them all.


Also, I REALLY hate that I ended up reading that spoiler anyway because I quoted your post. :(

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

Also, I REALLY hate that I ended up reading that spoiler anyway because I quoted your post. :(

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You'll live. It's pretty obvious over the course of the season anyway. The writers claimed it wasn't, but .... I still don't believe them.

I watched 4 episodes of HBO's show Veep this evening (HBO Go on the Xbox is pretty damn sweet). The show has some genuine LOL moments.

Quick premise: The chick from Seinfield is the VP of the US. Every episode, either she or someone on her staff fucks up (sometimes both), and they spend the rest of the show fixing it.

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Originally Posted by souljahbill

I watched 4 episodes of HBO's show Veep this evening (HBO Go on the Xbox is pretty damn sweet). The show has some genuine LOL moments.

Quick premise: The chick from Seinfield is the VP of the US. Every episode, either she or someone on her staff fucks up (sometimes both), and they spend the rest of the show fixing it.

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I downloaded a couple episodes of Veep, mainly cuz I have the hots for Anna Chlumsky :nod: haven't checked it out yet though.

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Originally Posted by souljahbill

I watched 4 episodes of HBO's show Veep this evening (HBO Go on the Xbox is pretty damn sweet). The show has some genuine LOL moments.

Quick premise: The chick from Seinfield is the VP of the US. Every episode, either she or someone on her staff fucks up (sometimes both), and they spend the rest of the show fixing it.

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Watching episode 7 (of 8) now. This shit is legitimately funny.