Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

oh don't get me wrong, Peg + Cat and Odd Squad are actually both flat-out awesome and I'd recommend either to anyone, almost regardless of whether they have kids or not

(there is a special place in Hell reserved for everyone involved with Thomas and Friends, though)

these days it's

Octonauts
Wild Kratts
Zoboomafoo
Super Why
Magic School Bus
Creative Galaxy

Octonauts is the best of that bunch though they're all pretty damn solid kids' shows

oh and

Lily's Driftwood Bay
Puffin Rock
Tumble Leaf

and then Game of Thrones I guess, I haven't been watching much TV for adults lately apparently.

I have substituted Diablo III for a lot of the time I was spending on television, apparently

I think it's just Bojack Horseman and The Returned (french version obv.) for me, everything else is just OK

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, April 13, 2016 4:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've got to watch the 2nd season of the Returned tv series yet. I picked up the novel and hadn't previously realised it was by a black american author so not sure what that's going to mean.

(there is a special place in Hell reserved for everyone involved with Thomas and Friends, though)

i work on thomas and friends ebooks once in a while and imo they're actively evil

sir topham hatt is a monster

if i'm remembering right there was an episode where Henry didn't want to come out of a tunnel or something and Topham Hatt decided to wall him up inside the tunnel, 'cask of amontillado' style, as punishment.

I have complained (only partly facetiously) about Thomas and Friends' monstrous pro-coal agenda on some other thread

oh its only a coincidence that the cleaner-burning diesel fuel engines are typically the "bad" engines, you say?

xp: oh my god I saw reference to that in an episode we were watching over the weekend; I think I was so startled that I was momentarily paralyzed

i have deeply confused british friends of mine by referring to him as "sir topham hatt" instead of "the fat controller." anyway yes literally everybody in thomas and friends is a horrible asshole and he's the worst

it was in the episode/movie that introduced Luke, who was harboring a TERRIBLE SECRET, and Thomas was asking all of the other engines what the worst thing they'd ever done was and Henry's was "get walled into a tomb by The Fat Controller"

although tbf if I was running a system full of talking trains and they all called me "The Fat Controller", I'd be walling up some motherfuckers too

oh yeah Blue Mountain Mystery

also if you watch that show long enough you'll realize every single plot is set into motion by a train chugging away from another train two seconds too early and not hearing an important bit of information that would have avoided the whole bloody mess. usually it's like "thomas don't go down that abandoned track" and then thomas merrily steaming away to certain doom.

usually exacerbated by Diesel telling another "steamie" that thomas intends to take his job or something.

I found Day of the Diesels very confusing because I'd seen a bunch of stories with Mavis, Paxton, Dart and Den portrayed as friendly allies to the steam engines so I had no idea why any of them would actively participate in Diesel 10's plan

there are occasionally some kind of sinister genocidal aspects to the Diesels' view of the Steamies imo

when Luke was all excited to go to Sodor you want someone to warn him, it's an island full of whisper campaigns and punishment levied by a single dictatorial figure with a short fuse.

Things I have on series link on my TV right now:

OJ Simpson thing
Limitless
Line of Duty
The Muppets
Scandal (which I basically hate, but still watch)
Masterchef
Elementary
Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America
Heroes Reborn
Houdini & Doyle

That, plus all the quiz shows (well, The Chase, Pointless, University Challenge and Fifteen to One), Coronation Street and Have I Got News for You and Graham Norton are pretty much it.

And we're still only halfway through season 3 of The Americans, so I need to get back to up to date with that ASAP.

Oh, and Scott and Bailey is back tonight, for fans of Sally Wainwright telly.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/abc-comedy-child-actor-roundtable.html?mid=twitter_vulture

possibly not the right thread for it but a bunch of my favorite current child actors participated in an awesome interview

all those kids are awesome counterexamples to my preconceptions about child actors

like i used to absolutely despise children acting in film/television and these kids are all really good at their jobs so now i don't so much. thanks, child actors, for this

oh yeah when it comes to what my kids and I watch together it's Portlandia and Worst Cooks in America

Oh, and Scott and Bailey is back tonight, for fans of Sally Wainwright telly.

― ailsa, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 7:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That was the series that went really downhill after she stopped doing the writing.
I think there's 4 seasons where she's in charge, one of which has other people coming in and doing the writing. I think it's season 5 she's stopped altogether and it just seems like a soap or something and not a very good one

http://www.avclub.com/article/unreals-season-2-teasers-crank-manufactured-drama-236227

Game of thrones
Star Trek: Voyager
The Americans
Vikings*
Brooklyn Nine Nine
Fear the Walking Dead*
That OJ trial American Crime story thing

*these are shows Ive come to late that the bf watches so ive only seen like 2-3 recent episodes and am slightly lost.

Gotham
Game of Thrones
Silicon Valley
The Americans
Love
Person of Interest (gets good apparently)

In order of quality:

The Americans
Full Frontal
Veep
The Detour
Silicon Valley
Inside Amy Schumer (hit and miss but the hits are solid)
Adventure Time (though it feels weaker than it has in years... not much good since the "Egress" episode really)

Also Jeopardy. Always Jeopardy.

Beyond that, Game of Thrones has been just okay to ridiculous and Last Week Tonight has had a month of really unfunny and self-referential episodes.

Dice, Archer and The Carmichael Show are all reasonably diverting but I can't quite get over Carmichael's studio audience laugh track, Dice's WHATTAYAWANT I'M WALKING HERE and Archer's sneering little boy humor.

Still need to watch: Fear of the Walking Dead / The Path / The Girlfriend Experience / Vikings

Upcoming of varying interest: Preacher, Lady Dynamite, Vice Principals, Outcast, The Night Of, Queen of the South, Feed the Beast

also: Seasons 2 of Catastrophe (Amazon) and Happy Valley (Netflix) are excellent and Hulu has the original UK "Getting On" so I've been binge watching those as well.
Still going through All in the Family, about two eps a night.

detour def has some laughs, good joke abt holding a phone horizontally when shooting video that made me recall ilx

Wait, Full Frontal? I'm going to assume you DONT mean the terrible 90s australian comedy show.

full frontal with samantha bee. it's a weekly cable makin' fun of the news show starring a former longtime daily show correspondent. also i think it's the only american late night show whose host is a woman.

that's the one.

good to see I am the not the only person enjoying the totally OTT but fun Gotham show.

The final season of Scott and Bailey was rubbish.

Currently watching:

Limitless (probably my favourite show right now)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (though agree it's losing its way atm)
Elementary
Scandal
Angie Tribeca
Billions

New season of The Americans starts on UK telly tonight, so I'd better get on with season 3.

Only UK TV shows I watch now are panel shows, quiz shows and the increasingly-terrible Coronation Street.

Idk why I can't seem to dig into any hour-long dramas lately, once the NBA playoffs are over hopefully I'll catch up on The Americans, House of Cards, Night Manager, Last Panthers, and the last four or so episodes of Better Call Saul I missed. as of right now though all I'm watching are comdies:

Silicon Valley
Full Frontal
Kimmy Schmidt
Archer
Bob's Burgers
Amy Schumer

I really like Gotham this season

Limitless has def become top tier. v smart show. Just finished the double ep finale with the wife last weekend.

Also watching Black Sails due to forks thread, loving that. about halfway through the latest season.

Just wrapped up the latest season of iZombie which is pretty fun.

All caught up for the series finale of Banshee. This season def the worst but still good and gonna miss the show.

Finished the latest Rectify still a great slow show

Game of Thrones is still fun

Finished up The Good Wife which up through season 5 is one of my fav shows ever but really piddled out after that. glad it ended.

Lots to catch up on: Americans s4, Happy Vally s2, Daredevil (altho not hearing good things) s2, Hannibal s3, Leftovers s2

imo, fast track hannibal season 3 over everything else on your list

alright

glad black sails has been treating you well. I think they wrap up season three very well and have the table well set (literally in the final episode!) for A+ Game of Thrones shifting allegiances / internecine warfare for another year or two

seems like the kind of show that can sustain a good long run. there's been big reveals but you can always introduce more back story with other characters or bring in new villains and what not.

and they're willing to kill major characters and then have them back on irregularly as ghosts which i always think is the best way to handle fanservice vs. lowering the stakes
exhibit a: game of thrones. if you're gonna start resurrecting characters (and at least one more major one is likely on the way based on my understanding of the books, yes?) it becomes hard to give a shit about people being killed or not.

aye

I really like Gotham this season

its soo dark and nasty, and yet still hugely enjoyable.
i think it's much better than any of the other comic book spin offs that i have seen.
the bloke who play penguin is just fantastic to watch, and pee wee h as his dad was a stroke of casting genius.