TV Shows You Love/Hate

Okay, so I admit I probably watch too much TV. One issue is that by the time I get home from work, I'm usually knackered. I have a few shows that I watch, or try to watch on a regular basis, but others are just when I happen to catch them. Here are some I like:

1/ The Shield - very good show, although in Canada we are a season behind. Very gritty show, sometimes quite violent, and one that has you both liking and loathing the main characters.

2/ Dr. Who - I really enjoyed the first season (I'm a fan of the old show). I thought that Christopher Ecclestone (sp?) did a great job, but he will only do one season so as not to get "typecast." The new guy looks like a wanker, but I guess time will tell.

3/ ER - yes, it's gone downhill, but I still like it. With Dr. Carter gone, it may drop off my list.

4/ Miami Ink - new show on TLC about guys running a tattoo shop. Makes me want to get another tattoo! That reminds me, does anyone have Bob the Rhodentman's email address? I always appreciated his sense of humour and play on words.

5/ Scrubs - seriously underrated show - very funny.

6/ Lost - Evangeline Lilly - need I say more? I want her......badly......must stop thinking about her right now! Sorry about that - I had a "moment"

There are others, but that's as much as my fried brain can think of right now.

My wife likes "House." I've been watching it in reruns with her, and it has the potential to be a good show. However - I can tell you exactly how each episode plays out.....A person with a serious illness is brought to the hospital. Dr. House and his team make a diagnosis that they are 100% sure is right, but the patient does not respond, and may get worse. They go on to make a second diagnosis, with the same or similar results. With about 15 minutes left in the show, they make a third, final, and finally correct diagnosis, just in time to allow the patient to fully recover.

Along the way the doctor - who has a terrible bedside manner that would surely get him discharged for his comments in real life - runs up against the administration that "does not understand" his methods, and there is usally a number of times where he berates his apprently incompetent team members for all being complete idiots. Along with these predictable items, this is the only hospital in the world that I know of where one person is treated by up to 5 doctors all at once (not including any specialists), where those doctors go to people's houses and places of work to "investigate" what those patients are up to, and where all the lab tests needed are done by the doctors themselves. In addition, there is usually a family member of the sick person who interferes at first, but eventually leanrs their lesson (that the good cotor is a genius). This is about as far away from reality as any medical show on earth....yet my wife still likes it.

Fortunately, since I have pointed out these continually repeating characteristics to my wife, she is starting to dislike the show (or me, I can't quite figure out which it is yet....)

[padi56]

Rant mode.

Hate big brother, and all shows like I'm a so called celebrity get me out of here. It seems that these days all thats on the UK telly is Reality TV its like chewing gum for the brain.A bunch of useless tossers in a house/on an island/in a dog kennel, and the whole country is glued to it because they're desperate to catch someone sh@ggi#g on live TV.!!!
I cannot understand how people find watching, a bunch of fame chasing dick-heads argue, fight, getting p*ssed and doing pathetic stunts entertaining.
Reality TV in general is cr@p, particularly; 'I was a celebrity get me on television' Joe f**king Pasquale, what a tw@t that man NEEDS to be beaten with a large stick. What were they thinking giving him a show; 'An audience and with words to say defies me.
Phew, I'm done, rant over, feels pretty good now actually.

Al I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. By the time we get home, feed baby C (not a baby anymore really), play with her, bathe her and put her to bed, it's 7:30 and I'm beat. Needless to say, we watch a lot of TV.

My faves are Coronation Street (I know, I know but all those brits can't be wrong, me ole china). Granted some plot lines are dumb-ass but hey, some are stupidly gripping.

I also like Scrubs and find it very underrated and very funny. We're into "reality" TV, so I do watch Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race. My wife watches a plethora of others that I only hear while reading a book or the paper.

I watch 'educational' TV like stuff on Discovery, TLC, National Geographic. I'm a big fan of SEA HUNTERS, which is a Canadian show and well done.

I always watch Le Tour de France coverage and am currently wrapped up in CBC's coverage of the IAAF Track and Field Championships. I'm also a slave to Olympic coverage (love em both but kinda prefer the winter games).

[JJ Irani]

Good thread starter, Al.

I'm with Johnny on this one...prefer the documentaries on NG, Discovery and Animal Planet. Some of them are truly superb and very informative. I mean, you like learn something new each time you view one of these channels.

Sports channels, especially swimming and athletics, are my favourites.

[Sam]

So Padi...how do you really feel?

Agreed that reality TV has gotten WAY out of control....especially on FOX. Our next door neighbors were even on that damn Trading Spouses show, and yes she's as big a bitch as FOX made her out to look. It was the first one....The blond lady (using the term "lady" generously here) Tammy married to Yuki the Japanese cosmetic surgeon. I'm sure someone saw it. Gives me the chills just thinking about her.

The wife and I like Survivor & The Amazing Race but that's it for reality based stuff.

Sopranos is a must watch. Alias is pretty good, too.

Sam, I did happend to see that episode and yes, that woman was a b#tch!

My wife eats up that 'reality' crap like it was candied apple on hallowe'en. Some of the shite shows like The Bachelor, Trading Spaces, and all the others are mind-numbing.

However, I have this darwinistic voyeuristic twing to see shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race and BB, because I like to see how people react to the 'survival of the fittest' theory of social behaviour.

But I WILL NOT watch another reality show (even if it's the above three) that have any more celebrity seeking tossers who have appeared on other reality shows (like king a$$holes Rob and Amba) or Rupert who is alledged to be on the next Amazing Race.

But I can't believe I didn't include Sopranos, Seinfeld or The Simpsons on my viewing list. Three of the best shows on TV bar-none.

[Sam]

Yeah, I thought putting Rob and Amber on Amazing Race was a little much. Eeeuw....Rupert on Amazing Race...don't need to see that. Hopefully he won't be wearing his skirt!

Seinfeld is definitely one of my all time favorite shows....how'd I forget that one.

[JJ Irani]

We've had a few re-runs of "Friends" and "Home Improvement"....always good for a few laughs!!

Sorry, in my brain fart I forgot to include "some" reality shows. We usually watch Survivor, and The Amazing Race, but none of the others - oh yes, The Apprentice, although it's getting weaker all the time.

Re: Rob and "Amba" on the Race, what cracked me up time and time again was Rob talking about when "they" won the money on "Saviva" - hey dickhead, SHE won the money, not you!!! LOL! Having said that I was kind of hoping they would win.......what I really wanted was give that Kelly chick a slap in the head, which is what her boyfriend should have done. I could not believe it when she told him he could not commit to anything, and accused him of being a POW to get out of military service....what a bitch!!

I can say from personal experience, you really don't know someone unless you have travelled with them, which is one reason I like the Race. I have met some pretty "tough" individuals who crumble under the pressures of a long trip (and by long I'm not talking about NA to UK).

I also watch many science and technical shows. I love "How It's Made" on Discovery - you get to see many manufacturing processes, and I've actually picked up some things for work from this show. I also like MythBusters - probably a job that would be heaven for me.......I also used to like Junkyard Wars.

Of course calssics like Seinfeld are up there, but I was thinking more about shows that are still on, and not just in reruns.

John, I am sorely dissappointed in you bud - Coronation Street? Really? For sure one thing we don't agree on is the soaps.......

[Sam]

I watched Mythbusters for a little while.....reminded me of my college days. Getting drunk and seeing what we could blow up!

I too halfway wanted to see Rob and Ahmba win....just because so many people on the show hated them. Especially that gay guy couple. And I can't even believe that Kelly chick was ever a beauty queen! Comeon! Maybe she won a pre-teen pagent before she "bulked up".

[AJC]

Hey Guys,

Love a show here called "Spooks".A drama about the British MI5.The Sapronos when it ocassionaly shown and the West Wing are shows I like but rarely see them due to only having free to air TV(No cable here as I have a hard time keeping up with 5 channels as it is.)

Another show that I like that is a mini series here, is Taken.

Cheers Aaron

[dman]

LOL!! Al, Andie was watching that Miami ink show and I told her it was giving me the itch to get another tat as well. My brother used to surf with Sonny, the Hawaiian dude that had the islands tatooed on his side on one of the shows.

I have not had the inkling in about 7 or 8 years. That habit was switched to watches, LOL!!

[dman]

Originally Posted by Atomic

I also like Scrubs and find it very underrated and very funny. We're into "reality" TV, so I do watch Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race. My wife watches a plethora of others that I only hear while reading a book or the paper.

John, my wife watches all the reality show and it never fails I get sucked in as well.

I am more of a sports on the tube (especially playoff hockey) or a movie guy. I can watch old Bond films all night long.

Hey Aaron - we were getting a cut down version of Spooks here for a while - they called it MI5 (such an inventive title, but hey, it was on A&E after all....). It was quite a good show, but I can't seem to find it any more.

Daren, the itch grows with each episode I watch..........

Al, I've been exposed to "Corrie" since I was a kid, but when my wife was on bedrest while preggie, she started watching it and I got sucked into the vortex. It's the only soap I can watch.

I also watch The Apprentice, but agree... it's getting weaker by the series. Donald Trump is proof positive that money can't buy style (see his apartment? It looks like a place P Diddy would be more comfortable in. LOL

I hated Rob/Amba on Survivor the first and second times and despised them in The Amazing Race. I was also floored by how stupid the other contestants were in buying into his lies, when they KNOW he lies. Glad Uchenna and Joyce won (btw, the gay guys got married here in Ottawa a couple of months back, other cast members were here too). And yeah... that b#tch 'beauty queen' should have had her face slapped when she told the guy that he became a POW to get out of the army... yeah what feckin' planet did you come from twit?

I agree about the idea knowing someone better by travelling. My trip to Portugal with my wife was quite a 'ride'. Stuff better suited for email, but I learned quickly that if I was ever to do The Amazing Race, that it wouldn't be with her and she agrees.

Oh, also a big fan of Mythbusters. What a sweet gig that would be!