The Official Television Thread

[arewethereyet]

I started watching The Tudors...yeah, I am way behind on that one. I'm still deciding if I am going to stay with it or not.

[Rev. Rye]

Currently a third of the way through Blue Mountain State. It's a good show about a college football team and how depraved they can get (in one episode, Thad actually gets around restrictions on performance-enhancing drugs by injecting himself with rabies).

And part of me is a bit disappointed by one aspect of Season 1, Episode 6:



Why? Well, funny thing is that in this episode, most of the comedy surrounding this girl is basically her failing to use the arms she doesn't have. Like, for instance, the instance she's revealed to not have any arms when Sammy throws a beer to her and she doesn't even bother to catch it. In real life, girls with this problem tend to find ways around it:



To be fair, the actress who played her does have both arms intact, and to get her to master shit like that on such short notice may be a bit much, but, still, if they actually hired someone who could actually do it, well, the decent person in me would at least be relieved that she can at least cope with living without arms, the writer in me can hope that this is a sign the writers might find some room to add to her character if she has any other episodes (she does not; we can't all be Katawa Shoujo, especially when this is the sort of college show where the Dean Wormer type is 100% right about antagonising the protagonists), and the foot fetishist in me can rejoice at the content...

I waited a while to find a way of expressing this without coming across as gross... but then I saw Thad demonstrate an oil change and I figured "Eh, can't be worse than that."

Apart from that, it's a good show.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Halfway through ‘Broadchurch’. David Tennant investigates the murder of an 11 year old boy in a small Dorset village and makes a right mess of things (so far).

Not great, but good enough to keep watching.

Boru

[Silver]

Halfway through ‘Broadchurch’. David Tennant investigates the murder of an 11 year old boy in a small Dorset village and makes a right mess of things (so far).

Not great, but good enough to keep watching.

Boru

The first season was good, but I lost interest in the middle of the second season.

[Silver]

Might have to check out this new show on Netflix: Alien Worlds

Applying the laws of life on Earth to rest of the galaxy, this series blends science facts and fiction to imagine alien life on other planets.

[Rev. Rye]

So, I'm watching The Prisoner and one thing I'm seriously starting to wonder: is there a way to arrange playback on Amazon in a specific order, besides the one they give as default? I ask because Wikipedia lists a total of five episode orders, and Amazon has chosen the broadcast order, which is universally agreed to be the order that makes the least sense.

What we know (from my research into the subject):

• The Prisoner was originally intended as a seven-episode miniseries, but ITV requested a total of 26 episodes to sell it more easily internationally. They eventually settled on 17 episodes because they just gave up on the show (to the extent that when the script editor left, they never replaced him) and wound up airing the episodes in an order that makes no sense.
  
• The three whose place everyone agrees on is the first episode (Arrival) and the last two (Once Upon a Time and Fall Out).
  
• The closest thing to a canonical order is the one Patrick McGoohan gave for the episodes that would have corresponded with the original seven episodes: "Arrival," "Dance of Death," "Free For All," "Checkmate," "Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out." Given that this is the creator/star's order, and I'm inclined to give authorial intent priority (especially in the case of something this strange and inexplicable), I'm going to assume that this order for the first five episodes is the true one. These are generally agreed to be the first few episodes because they establish the rules of the Village, still have #6 trying to escape from The Village like it's a normal prison, and he still regularly states he's new.
  
• In the middle group of seven episodes, there's only one pair of episodes I can place in a particular order: "The General" and "A, B, and C." Unlike any episodes besides the last two and "Chimes" (which use Leo McKern), these two episodes share the same No. 2: Colin Gordon. In the former episode, he's confident, but in the latter, he's a neurotic mess.
  
• That said, it appears "Hammer into Anvil" should probably be closer to the end of the pack, since it's here that it becomes clear that No. 6 is gaining the upper hand.
  
• "The Schizoid Man" and "Many Happy Returns"  should probably be placed before "It's Your Funeral" and "A Change of Mind," since No. 6 is still trying to escape in the former  two episodes.
  
• Of the last five episodes, the triad of episodes "Living in Harmony," "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling," and "The Girl Who Was Death," which are strange even by the high standards of the series, should be put towards the end, with its bizarre mind games, to help acclimate the audience for the high weirdness of the finale.
  

I might be able to put my own order together in time, but it appears that the most plausible order of the five on Wikipedia (the one that fits all the clues I've been able to glean) is the one chosen by Zack Handlen of the AV Club.

[Silver]

Almost done with season four of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I am going to take a break to watch the fourth season of Big Mouth.

[arewethereyet]

Started watching Outlander last weekend.  Watched a few episodes but haven't gone back to it yet.  It really didn't grab my attention.  Who has watched it that can let me know if worth investing the time and attention?

[Silver]

Checking out the third season of Mr. Iglesias

A good-natured high school teacher working at his alma mater works with gifted but misfit and disinterested students.

For those unfamiliar with the comedian who goes by the nickname Fluffy, he's pretty funny.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The Flight Attendant, with Kaley Cuoco.

An alcoholic, emotionally immature flight attendant has a one-night stand with a man she met on a flight to Bangkok, and wakes up to find him dead with his throat cut. Since she’s a blackout drinker, she thinks she may have killed him, and complications ensue.

This is wicked good television, a psychological thriller of the first rank. Cuoco has turned out to be a much better actress than I ever expected.

SPOILER ALERT

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In the season finale, a LOT of stuff happens. Made you look!

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Boru