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Current TV Boxset Addiction

Started by radiator, 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PM

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radiator

Doesn't quite fit the remit of the 'Last Movie Watched' thread, so here's a new one where you can bang on about the TV show that you're currently gripped by.

I just had to express my praise for Breaking Bad, which I've got bang up to date with over the last month or so, which has entailed many nights marathoning episodes into the wee small hours.

Finally watched the latest episode of series 5 last night, and what can I say but - Wow. It's almost cliche to say now, but what a piece of work this series is - just an incredible achievement. I'm consistently in awe of the writing, how the writers gradually build a house of cards, then just when you think it's all going to come crashing down, they somehow keep stacking it up to reach heights you never imagined. It feels as if it was all meticulously planned out years in advance (which I know it can't have been) and, unlike so many other great shows - it doesn't get bogged down by occasional poor story choices, or boring subplots, or inconsistent character scripting. Every episode is more absorbing than the last. While everyone will tell you "The Wire/Game of Thrones/Boardwalk Empire is great, but you have to watch twenty episodes of it before it gets good", Breaking Bad really get's it's hooks into you from the opening shot - in fact the pilot episode is like a self-contained movie.

So you have to forgive the occasionally far-fetched plot, and the regular deus ex-ish get-outs, but it's totally forgivable in a show as entertaining as this one. The episode involving a train is a damn sight more entertaining and exciting and beautifully realised than most similarly themed big budget movies. And what a cast...(!).

Can't recommend it highly enough!

golledge100


radiator

I'm hearing good things about Justified, anyone recommend?

COMMANDO FORCES

I thoroughly enjoyed that series and he's the coolest cop ever!

JamesC

It's been a while since I've really gotten into anything but I've had a hankering just lately to pick up the boxsets of The Equalizer.
I haven't seen it since I used to watch it on telly when I was about 10 but I really liked it and am curious to re-visit. Great theme tune too!

Link Prime

Totally agree about 'Breaking Bad' Radiator, I absorbed Seasons 1-4 in the same number of weeks.
One of the best shows ever, ever made.
No sign of Season 5 on DVD yet though...where on earth did you get that from?  ;)

I'll throw 'Sons of Anarchy' into the box-set arena...I've gorged on Seasons 1-4, and would reckon its as addictive as Umpty Candy!

SmallBlueThing

Who needs dvd boxsets when you have back to back endless Mock The Weeks, Would I Lie To Yous and HIGNFYs on Dave? Mind you, they do shove the odd night of Gavin and Stacy or Red Dwarf to push me to Radio 4 Extra, so...

SBT
.

michael kennedy

i know what you mean SBT but when theres a series that needs to be permantly on your shelf, you just gotta buy it.

heroes series one

luther series one and two

Professor Bear

I avoided Caprica for two years because it seemed to embody everything bad about BSG, but got caught up in the last week or so and was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually does embody everything bad about BSG.  It's essentially a sci-fi series aimed at - or possibly just written by - 13 year old boys, about a sexy schoolgirl robot and virtual reality where kids have loads of sex and play Grand Theft Auto while discussing what is really reality, maaaan.  There's also some stuff about the Space Godfather and monothistic religion being totally heavy "because", and some 911 references.
It is horseshit of the worst kind, because it comes so damn near to being a good show but blows it in favor of wallowing in cliches beloved of dyed-in-the-wool sci-fi nerds, like using the word "frac" as an analogue of "fuck", yet everything else isn't an analogue, it's just the regular world transposed to another time and place, including sports stadiums, talk shows, digital broadcasting, the internet, mobile phones, licence plates on cars, the meaning of the word "Trojan" and so on, and of course, the whole series is also ultimately about [spoiler]a man making an anatomically correct sex robot of his dead 15 year old daughter[/spoiler].  As one does.
Also been watching The Flash, which is lowbrow hokum.  The production design pulls in one direction (the superhero costume and Shirley Walker's score are straight from the Burton-era Batman films) and the script pulls in another (most stories veer between camp, melodrama, and camp melodrama), but it's an impressive failure even if it doesn't know what audience it's aiming at.  None of it would stand up to a second viewing, I'm thinking.

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 20 November, 2012, 05:54:16 PM
Who needs dvd boxsets when you have back to back endless Mock The Weeks, Would I Lie To Yous and HIGNFYs on Dave?


Dark Jimbo

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 20 November, 2012, 05:54:16 PM
Who needs dvd boxsets when you have back to back endless Mock The Weeks, Would I Lie To Yous and HIGNFYs on Dave?

Because those are comedy panel shows, which isn't really the same as getting involved in a good drama.
@jamesfeistdraws

Frank

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 20 November, 2012, 05:54:16 PM
Who needs dvd boxsets when you have back to back endless Mock The Weeks, Would I Lie To Yous and HIGNFYs on Dave? Mind you, they do shove the odd night of Gavin and Stacy or Red Dwarf to push me to Radio 4 Extra, so...

The comedy panel show format is the devil's work, but I still watch some of them depending who's on. There's nothing inherently more worthwhile about something just because it's a drama - Hollyoaks is (technically) a drama. I've just started Breaking Bad on netflix, and I'd agree that it's more immediately accessible than the holy trinity of The Sopranos/The Wire/Mad Men, but I'm not sure that won't work against it in the long run.

This Is England shits in the hat of everything else mentioned here.

Ancient Otter

Got Spartacus: Vengence for my birthday recently and before that, Miami Vice Season 1....

I, Cosh

Quote from: radiator on 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PMWhile everyone will tell you "The Wire/Game of Thrones/Boardwalk Empire is great, but you have to watch twenty episodes of it before it gets good",
You mentioned this about not getting into The Wire a few weeks ago. It got me thinking about it and I decided to watch the first episode again to see if I agreed. I didn't: as far as I'm concerned, if you weren't gripped by the end of that I wouldn't see any point in persevering. Incidentally, the first episode of Boardwalk Empire bored me rigid so I've never bothered with any more. Anyway, the following weekend I watched the rest of the first series and I'm now halfway through the third series again. Should be finished them all by the end of the month, although I might slow down if the fifth is as irritating as I remember it being.

This is just a bit of a sidetrack thought as my real current boxset of choice is Buffy. It's not much of an addiction though. The odd episode with dinner one evening during the week and maybe a couple on a Sunday afternoon if I'm hungover and feeling sorry for myself. I finished the third series a couple of weeks ago and am on a temporary hiatus until I can get hold of the fourth for under a fiver.

I've also heard good things about Justified but haven't gotten round to trying it. Started watching the new series of The Killing the other night but got bored twenty minutes into the first episode and switched it off.
We never really die.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Is Breaking Bad the one about a chemistry teacher who makes drugs?
Lock up your spoons!

radiator

This Is England was indeed fantastic. Looking forward to the new series.

Which reminds me: I really need to watch Misfits.