What's Good on TV right now?

I have been really digging for some shows lately, here's my current favorite's. I like the grittier shows.

Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Homeland
Hell on Wheels
Boss
Sons of Anarchy

Started watching Breaking Bad and got hooked, currently into Season 3 on Netflix. In between watching that, I am going to try out The Wire, and Leverage, looking forward to any other suggestions from the like minded folks here =)

 

I hate cliffhangers, that is why tonight's season finale of Burn Notice irritated me. I hate cliffhangers because you have to wait so long to remember what happened before you get to see the result. See now Psyche didn't need one. But then again the shows are very different. Psyche has excellent humor and decent writing, Burn Notice has excellent writing and some humor.

After a week of trying to guess (from the previews) which character was working with Anson, I was highly disappointed to find it was a character they just introduced to that show.

I was sad to see what appears to be the end of Fiona and the ever so sexy Gabrielle Anwar.

Overall the season was good, I enjoyed the twists and turns that Jere Burns' Anson brought to the table. The CIA Pearce chick added more sexiness but was limited. Sam (Bruce Campbell) was his ordinary sarcastic helping supporting character, as was Jesse, but his character is far too similar to Micheal's, I'd like to see a darker side to both Jesse and Sam.
--- merged: Dec 16, 2011 7:36 AM ---

Try Burn Notice and White Collar. Both have exceptional writing and both have great casts. They may not be as "gritty" as some you listed but, I doubt you'll be disappointed. If you want some laughs go for Psyche (it's similar to Monk).

 

Hey Pan, and I've told others this as well, when you're posting details of a newly aired episode please use spoiler tags. I added some to your post. It gives the reader a chance to watch the episode prior to reading stuff like who's working with who etc...

And now a spoiler of my own-

In an interview released last night Anwar talked about the season finale and her character, she also speaks about her future and the shows future. Her contract is not up, neither are any of the other main characters, and she stated "we'll just have to wait until next season to see how much time behind bars, if any, Fiona spends behind bars. So I doubt you've seen the last of her or her character.

 

I used to watch Burn Notice, and the wife and I really enjoyed it, but I think we both became a little tired of the show never really advancing the underlying story arc fast enough, the format being the same with what seemed just a few minutes of the primary story arc which is what we were most curious about. I think the writing is great, and the cast is good, just dropped below our radar for now.

 

I admit that the show is tedious in some aspects, but for me the acting and writing detailing what is going on through narrations by Micheal outweigh the problems. This season they carried that main arc and had it forefront How is Micheal going to get back in the CIA?

If possible, I would suggest you and your wife watch a few episodes from this past season and see the changes they made.
--- merged: Dec 17, 2011 10:13 PM ---

I didn't even think of adding the spoiler, thank you for correcting that oversight.

As for your spoiler, that is interesting and thank you for sharing it.

I'm glad everyone is coming back, but I wish Gabrielle would have been a little more vague about her contract. Maybe she's taking a break to film a movie.

 

Why would you want her to be vague about it and what makes you think she's taking a beak to do movies? I mean it wouldn't surprise me if she did a movie while on break from BN, lots of actors do that. But she made it very clear she'll be back in some context, either behind bars or not, next season. My guess is Michael will let Peacre know she's about to be burned, she/he will team up to stop it and Anwars character will be out of jail by the end of the first episode... again just a guess.

 

I like your guess. I just thought maybe with her being in jail/prison it would give her that time to make a movie, that the hiatus may not allow. I guess I wanted to drive myself nuts wondering what would happen and if Pearce would be Micheal's next squeeze. I have a feeling you are close in your guess. The chemistry between Micheal and Fiona is too great to lose. As for Pearce and company being burnt, it all depends on if Jess got there in time to destroy the laptop. I think Micheal will come clean with Pearce about Anson and I have a funny/weird feeling she may actually be working with Anson. In fact I was expecting her to be the one in the previews where you saw the 2 guns and Micheal asking if the other had been working for Anson all along.

 

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Awesome!

 

I'm bummed Boardwalk is done for the year. Didn't care much for the end of Homeland, feel like they kind of ripped off the viewers. Wasn't that thrilled with the entire season of Dexter. Felt like they've been doing "lather, rinse, repeat" with their plot lines all year. But the last minute left me with "Holy Crap!" That will change things big time... but will it be a good change plot wise? Have to wait and see to find out I guess. But I think it's best days are behind it, hope I'm wrong.

I look forward to the new seasons of "Justified" and "Southland." Just a couple more weeks for both.

 

Huge Justified fan here as well, but more importantly, new season of Archer starts on the 19th! Haven't seen any dates yet, but hoping Louie follows suit.

 

I miss Boardwalk Empire, too. The season seemed to go so fast!

Looking forward to the rather raunchy Shameless on Showtime on Jan 8, will probably watch Californication too, though Duchovny looks horribly old this year (for the first time). I will also ogle Lucy Lawless in Spartacus: Vengeance on Starz at the end of January then pick up part 2 of season 2 of The Walking Dead in early February.

Gonna watch The Doctor Who Christmas Special on BBCA on Christmas night with my 81 y.o. dad, an original Whovian and the rest of the family.

 

There is a show called Being Human that airs on the SciFi channel. It's about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost that live together and try to live a normal life. It's actually a great show! The second season starts February 16. I'm in the process of rewatching the first season online.

 

Being Human was a great BBC show for the first few episodes, but it got really emo after awhile. In interested to see how the US version goes. I enjoy Misfits and Whites from across the ditch, too. And we've been enjoying Grimm at the moment.

 

Three more days until the return of "Southland" and "Justified." I'm looking very forward to both.

 

At theater watching the descendent.

 

Spartacus: Vengeance (STARZ) in a few hours...woot!
(with Lucy Lawless--yum!)

 

This is going to be a failure without Andy.

I know Starz was already committed and it's not like they could help it, but the disconnect is going to be too difficult in the end for people. I was never huge into the series (the wife is.. no surprise there) and she's not too concerned with it since she was a big Andy fan. I found the part was perfect with Andy and his intensity during the bitter moments, and I'll watch to see if Liam can match this, but it's really difficult for a sitcom in it's infancy to continue with stellar ratings with the lead being changed. Gannicus was a better character anyway I like my "heroes" to be arrogant.

 

Doesn't anyone watch SHAMELESS, this is the most outrageous show on TV.
This series can never appear on regular TV...so....

 

Fangirl I forgot to mention that I watched the first episode and "meh" is all I can say. I've always had a hatred of the horrid special fx of the show and during the first ep. of the new season, I wasn't 5 minutes into it, and I had two handfuls of things that piss me off. I hate when fx editors or post editors do shitty work. It's not hard to feather, move match, pin and key shit how it needs to be done. Fucking do it.

/grumble.

 

Yep. I have watched it from the start. Love it.
--- merged: Jan 30, 2012 10:36 PM ---

I understand why you feel that way, especially after just re-watching "Blood & Sand'. Still, we all have different degrees of the feeling of the importance of the characters and the actors who play them. I was more 'attached' to Naevia (Lesley-Anne Brandt), despite her much smaller significance to the show. To me, most of the men are nice eye-candy, the fighting's ridiculously over-the-top (fun) and the special effects which I despised in the film 300, work just fine for me here on the smaller scene. Of course, they are unrealistic, but my unprofessional/untrained eye and I'd be willingly to bet much of the audience with untrained eyes, don't care. I mean really, how can one not laugh at a huge slice to the throat and then spurting of blood until the whole screen goes red?
EDIT/ I LOVE Dustin Clare as 'Gannicus'--can't wait to see him in action once more.