Up until recently, I could say that I didn’t watch TV. At all. Sure, I had a TV, but no cable, so it was only ever used for movies on DVD. I moved out of my mother’s house in 2005 and hadn’t watched much of anything since.
Then, about a month ago, we got Netflix. (I did mention I’m a late adopter, right?)
We haven’t been binging like most people do — one or two episodes a week is about all we watch. So far, at least. (My media addiction of choice is the Internet.)
So we’re catching up (very very slowly) on Doctor Who, Sherlock, and of all things, Buffy, which I never watched when it was on…and enjoying them all thoroughly.
Oddly enough, all of these series have some things in common, if you squint.
They’ve got clever, snarky dialogue. They’ve got a small, tight-knit core cast. They tend to revolve around mystery plots. Two of them are SF&F, but they play fast and loose with rules — the speculative element is only there to play with, not to rigorously examine…unlike Sherlock, which is of course all about details, though not of the speculative kind.
(For the record, I like both “hard” SF and…not-so-hard SF. For example, I love Star Wars, but I’m currently reading and loving a very hard SF novel, Starfish by Peter Watts.)
Past TV loves of mine over the years have included Battlestar Galactica (until it got too depressing for my taste), Firefly, Star Trek (mostly TOS, TNG, and DS9), Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Seventh Heaven, Corner Gas, Due South, The Girl From Tomorrow, Road to Avonlea…and then we get into the Saturday morning cartoons, so I’d better stop there.
I’m not quite sure what common elements can be gleaned from that list, though.
Over to you! Do you watch TV? Can you pinpoint any common elements among your favourite shows? What else should I be watching?
[b]Castle[/b] is clever if somewhat more vapid. It’s a good choice if you’re in the mood for some junk food entertainment with some nutrition.
In a similar vein, [b]Community[/b] is a clever, entertaining comedy with frequent bizarre plots in the best sense. The same can be said of [b]Black Books[/b] and [b]Spaced[/b], which share the added benefit of being British.
Of course, while you’re on Buffy, you may as well complete the Whedon set with [b]Angel[/b] and [b]Dollhouse[/b]. Angel is hit-and-miss; Dollhouse likewise has moments of brilliance hampered by the constant threat of cancellation.
[b]Heroes[/b] is excellent as long as you stop after season 1. The first season is one of the best in television, while the second one just turns strange.
[b]Babylon 5[/b], of course. It is to epic science fiction what The Velvet Underground is to basically every popular music genre.
Thanks for all the recommendations, Mikkel! I had heard that about Heroes. I’ve seen Black Books and it didn’t really grab me, but I’ll check out the rest…
Siri
I like shows that aren’t afraid to be silly. Star Trek, Doctor Who, Merlin, stuff of that ilk. (Man, have you ever seen the animated series of Star Trek? It is just ridiculously over the top and I love it to death.)
Also, apparently speculative fiction. I can’t think of a non-speculative show I’ve watched with any regularity since Friends.