Weekly Open Thread: What Are You Watching?

How about something a bit different this week in addition to our usual open thread chatter: let’s turn on our TVs.

What TV shows have you been watching lately, be they ones that are currently available on broadcast, or stuff from the archives that you’ve been checking out on DVD or online?

86 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Are You Watching?”

  2. Over the last couple of years I have discovered the reappearance of many old Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? episodes. These episodes inspired me to find thousands of episodes of some other old favorite shows I enjoyed as a kid, including Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles.

  4. Which is the first TV I’ve deliberately chosen to watch in years.  My roommate and I watched the first season of 24 on DVD in 2005.  Other than that it’s just scraps of whatever happens to be on when I go home for the holidays, a lot of which I like, but none of which I’d been willing to actively pursue.

    Netflix Instant is a gift from the mind of God.  It’s the first device to meet my 1) whatever I want, 2) with no commercials, 3) immediately, 4) cheaply threshold for being willing to deal with the medium at all.  Now that it’s met, there’s a huge backlog of amazing content I get to watch.  

    I hear The Wire is good?  30 Rock is good.  

    What I like about Heroes (besides all the obvious eye and mind candy — look, he can melt things!) is that it’s one long narrative, rather than self-contained baby narratives in each episode.  Weeds is kindof a hybrid, with a longer plot line and an episodic structure, but Heroes (and 24, which was total junk food) have one long-ass plot, and each episode ends with a new twist rather than a resolution.  I like that a lot.

    Any other good series that have one long narrative per season?  I never saw the Sopranos, but I imagine it’s more like Weeds, with a long story arc, but each episode also being a neat tidy story.  Is that true?

    Pointers are much appreciated, I’m new here!  ðŸ˜‰

  7. Clone Wars in 30 minutes.

    Battlestar Galactica in 1 hour 30 minutes.

    Also, I’ve been scanning the nets for episodes of Wolverine and the X-men, its been . . . amazingly good. Best animated show since Batman Beyond.

    Trying to catch up on The Office (the episode after the Superbowl was very good). And I’m willing to give this new season of Heores one, last chance (If they have some post-Apocalyptic vision of the future and try to stop it again, I’m out).

  8. Regarding Gregg’s nomination…  I kept thinking:

    Is it possible that Obama is using this as a way to damage Gregg’s reputation, weakening him before going into 2010?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

    If this gets people’s attention, isn’t it possible that Gregg might instead withdraw his nomination before it turns ugly?  While the damage would be done?

    Just a feeling… Granted, it could still be smooth sailing for Gregg’s road to Commerce…

  10. I’ll throw in my two cents worth and comment on the shows I’ve been watching.

    I’m the consummate political junkie so I watch Senate debates and hearings each evening, as well as Larry King Live. But I never (I mean never) miss an episode of my favorite series, Wizards of Waverly Place. Yes, I know it’s a Disney Channel show but I find it to be so funny! That’s a really great cast.

  11. Monk and Psych are perpetual favorites. Get Smart season one on DVD is great. The NBC Thursday is nice. West Wing reruns are usually good.  

    And Arrested Development is still the greatest of all time.  

  12. House, Chuck, Heroes, Daily Show, Colbert Report, The Office, Dexter, and Weeds.  I’m easily amused.  

  13. Bones, Fringe, The Closer, Pushing Daisies, Desperate Housewives, True Blood.

    I usually end up catching my shows when they’re posted online.

  14. Family Guy, Married…with Children, King of the Hill, History Channel shows, cable TV news…

    In fact Im watching Family Guy right now. Peter’s new nation of Petoria has just taken over Joe’s property. And a nude President Clinton has ordered the U.S. Army to the border of Petoria.

  15. Mostly just reruns of South Park and Futurama with some Daily Show, Colbert Report, C-Span, and cable news thrown in. Mission Hill’s back on the cycle on Adult Swim, which will be cool until it cycles out again like next week. Oh, and The L Word and Sex and the City reruns function as guilty pleasures.

  16. My Favorites still on TV:

    Lost – My favorite by a mile, you have to watch it from the first episode to know whats going on though

    Dexter – Amazing show

    Heroes – Amazing first season, gone downhill since ufortunately.  Still a good show though.

    Chuck – Quirky series, but very enjoyable

    Californication

    The Tudors – Solid series based on the life of King Henry VIII

    Weeds – Fantastic first couple seasons followed by average 3rd season and aweful 4th season.  This series WAS good but has really gone down.

    Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

    House

    Life on Mars – New show.  So far I’m really liking it.

  17. Countdown with Keith Olbermann (obviously)

    Monk

    Law and Order: SVU

    House

    Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom

    Wild Discovery (sucks that Discovery no longer plays it weekdays at 8 like they used to)

    I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but I also watch those cheap “SciFi original movies”. Granted, they’re worse than anything Ed Wood could dream up, BUT they are good for a laugh.

    BTW, I’ve been a little ticked that SciFi no longer carries the shows that lured me to that station in the first place (Farscape, Babylon 5, etc).

    I also wish I had HBO. I’m ticked that I missed out on John Adams and Recount and had to wait for the DVDs. Once I’m done with law school and settle down somewhere (most likely in Florida, I’ve had it with the cold in OH), I’m going to subscribe to HBO. By then, they should be ready to debut George RR Martin’s SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. Since each of the books (4 so far, and 3 more still to go) is so long (and rather heavy on adult content), each book will be an individual season.

  18. I’ve been renting the DVD’s through Netflix, and I just finished the entire series. The Wire has got to be one of the greatest TV shows ever made, and I don’t usually like crime/police shows.

  21. Sometimes Family Guy, The Office, Daily Show and Colbert.

    Watching Black Adder is always funny although it’s been off air for years.  

  23. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (Paul Solman is AWESOME)

    whatever evening news

    Law & Order

    Law & Order: Criminal Intent

    Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

    I like serious no-nonsense investigation/trial drama.  Not like the overdramatized stuff that some other shows offer.  Though the character-development focus of SVU lately is kinda disappointing me.

    I watched the entire series of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but not on TV.

    I used to watch The New Adventures of Voltron, and Voltron: the Third Dimension, back when they were on about a decade ago.

  25. What I watch:

    CNN and MSNBC, of course.  But I love women’s basketball, so I’m on ESPN a lot.  Thank god football season’s over, so I can do some work.  I also love Law and Order: SVU, CSI, and House (thanks to my mother).  There was a time I wouldn’t miss a single CSI Las Vegas episode, but the team is disintegrating and I can’t find the willpower. Miami’s not a bad substitute, I suppose.  

  26. Looking forward to that coming back.  The only other current show that really excites me is Friday Night Lights.  I’ve already watched the entire season on Directv.  

  27. Favorite childhood shows.  I was born in 1980 FYI.  

    He-Man

    The Elephant Show

    Sesame Street

    Mr. Rogers (RIP)

    The Muppet Show

    Fraggle Rock (!)

    Reading Rainbow

    Transformers

    Teddy Ruxpin (forget how to spell that one)

  28. The current series (2005 to present) is brilliant. The Doctor (that is to say, the tenth doctor, for those in the know) is quite possibly my favorite sci-fi character of all time, possibly beating out even Mal Reynolds, Spike Spiegel, Vash the Stampede, Hiro Nakamura, Han Solo, Optimus Prime (the original one), and Ford Prefect.

    Also: Chuck, Heroes, Robot Chicken, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Stormchasers, and Time Warp.

    Now, guess which of those are science fiction and which follow actual scientists (maybe science-enthusiasts is a better word) on the Discovery channel.

  29. SC-Gov

    First Democrat announces exploratory committee.

    http://www.thestate.com/politi…

    Shaheen is from a promenient political family. He has the potential to make a real rac eof it.  The three top GOP candidates LT Gov. Andre Baur, Attorney General Henry McMaster and US Rep Gresham Barrett all have drawbacks that could prove troublesome down the stretch.  Plus it could get nasty.

    This is great news.  How about some grassroots love for this guy.  

       

  30. I haven’t been able to watch much on the toob lately. I’ve started doing a radio show once a week on the local community/college radio station.

    I play roots music from around the Atlantic Fringe- Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Canadian Maritimes, and from the Appalachians to the Atchafalaya Basin.

    And of course, it’s all subversive…

    Tune in online via iTunes, under “radio” then “college radio” and then “WBGU FM 88.1” Also steaming live over our website.

    The New Celtic Revival

    Monday Noon – 2:00 PM

    WBGU FM 881

    http://wbgufm.com

    http://www.myspace.com/newcelticrevival

    http://celticrevival.blogspot.com/

  31. The Daily Show (always), The Office, Boston Legal, Entourage.

    Also Pete & Pete and Ren & Stimpy on DVD, always glad to find old Nick stuff.

  33. Can we all meet up sometime, say at the next Netroots Nation, have everyone bring a DVD of their favorite TV show, and just chill and watch?

    OR, for each open weekly thread, James could you post from youtube an episode of a classic tv show? We all seem to have about the same tastes. Heck, I’ve been on the nostalgia bender and I’ve been watching Power Rangers, Care Bear Movies, and CAPTAIN EO (Michael Jackson is coming right at me!) from youtube lately.

    Just a suggestion.

    1. Went to Target with a friend a few months ago. He found a TMNT DVD (old school) and bought it on the nostalgia factor. Went back to his place, popped it in. Watched two thirds of an episode.

      Sadness set in quickly.

      I bought Season 1 of Dragon Ball Z. I enjoyed my purchase more.

    2. i stopped going to hebrew school when i was young so i could stay home and watch x-men on saturday mornings. i know nothing beyond my barukh ata’s but i can still recite all the members of the squad 🙂

    4. I watched Ninja Turtles, but Power Rangers clearly makes you younger than me; that, or you had idiosyncratic tastes in TV when you were a teen.  My little brother watched Power Rangers and he’s just 18 now.  (I’m 26.)

      I have a longstanding curiosity about the demographics of SSP, but I think it may be wise to not ever post real polls to discover them.  We’re probably already seen in DC (Rothenberg et al) as a bunch of punk-ass bloggers; outing ourselves as a bunch of punk-ass blogger kids would be unhelpful I think.  ðŸ™‚

  38. Of course we all know that Kartina Swett is marries to former congressman Dick Swett, but I discovered something even more amusing today.

    From wikipedia:

    His daughter Katrina, who married ambassador and former U.S. Representative from New Hampshire Richard Swett, was a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire, running for the House of Representatives in 2002 against Charlie Bass and in 2008 for the U.S. Senate against John E. Sununu. His daughter Annette was married to Timber Dick, “an independent businessman in Colorado,”[6] until Dick’s death on April 10, 2008 from burns suffered in an automobile accident.

    His daughters married guys names Dick Swett and Timber Dick.  Wow… just wow.

  39. I am also a big fan of British comedies.

    Keeping Up Appearances

    Are You Being Served?

    Father Ted

    My Family

    BBC also makes some really great mini-series: State of Play, Edge of Darkness, Planet Earth, etc.

    BTW, I also forgot to mention that I was, and still am, a big fan of Mystery Sciencer Theater 3000.

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