Quality TV Shows to Help Procrastination

[RandomMusings]

Right now for me:
Spooks - so so good (although probably unrealistic)
Heroes - so so good (although certainly unrealistic)
Top Gear - gets funnier (and less environmentally friendly) every week that goes by
House - working through the DVD box sets
Father Ted - can't avoid a good Father Ted repeat, even all these years later
Never Mind The Buzzcocks - not as good as the last couple of series - missing Bill Baily

Any other suggestions for me to get into?

[orudge]

Some love it, some hate it, some have never heard of it, but The IT Crowd has started a new series, Fridays on C4 at 10pm. Written by Graham Lineham, writer of Father Ted, it's about the exploits of two computer support technicians in an office, and their manager who knows nothing about computers. It's not quite as dull as that description may make it sound - if you like Father Ted, you'd probably like this.

[Frank]

Mock the Week
QI

These, and NMTBC have been staples for me over the last few weeks. Well, that and Heroes. My Wed/Thurs/Friday routine includes Heroes at somepoint. I make a big pot of tea, sometimes crack open a brewskie or two. It's a fun time of the week. It's Heroes time...

But most importantly!



I've watched more Frasier in the last year than I've watched anything else lately, I think.

One thing is certain: Someone is very dead

[CheeseDaddy]

Any other suggestions for me to get into?

Disseration going that well huh?
Personally I guess I must fall into the 'dont really find the IT crowd that funny' bracket, as far as Im concerned its vastly inferior to the antics of a certain Irish priest. Although I must concur with Frank, Frasier is awesome.

[RandomMusings]

Any other suggestions for me to get into?

Disseration going that well huh?

Dissertation not due until April (yay for Joint Honours)

[Cain]

I'll recommend Veronica Mars and How I Met Your Mother.

Veronica Mars is about a teenage girl who solves mysteries and manages to do season long arcs and done in one episodes in together. It also stars Kirsten Bell, if that's a factor for you. It's funny, sharp and the detectiving actually works.


How I met Your Mother is a standard sitcom that manages to hit a few standard tropes and subvert a few others. Most episodes will get at least one good guffaw out of me.

[Pan]

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

[James.C.]

Prison break
Dexter - seems creepy at first but i think it is a class show.
Family guy
the big bang theory
Scrubs

You have listed several others that i watch already, yes, i watch way to much

[Wonderboy]

The I.T. Crowd rocks my world. Moss is simply a class act.

[Thalia]

To entertain myself through the week i currently watch:
True Blood (actually just finished last week) - Southern vampire mysteries is how the books it's based on are described. Started off a bit silly, with more sex than was necessary, but entertained me for 12 eps once they got into the murders.
Created by Alan Ball, starring Anna Pacquin.
The Big Bang Theory - a comedy about geeks, i love it
Two and a Half Men.
How I Met Your Mother - only got into this recently but i'm finding it quite funny.
Heroes.
House.
Fringe - a rather good twilight zone/ x files type series. The main characters include a crazy scientist and his son (with a mysterious past of course) played by Joshua Jackson. I started watching it just cos I always loved Pacey and haven't quite gotten over it but it's got potential to end up awesome.
Dirty Sexy Money - second series doesn't draw me in as much as the first but it's still worth a look.
Grey's Anatomy.
Supernatural - Jensen Ackles, I love you
Stargate Atlantis - yeh, so it blatantly copies half its storylines from SG-1 but it has Rodney McKay in it and he's much better than Sam Carter.
Sanctuary - the show Amanda Tapping moved to about an apparently immortal scientist who helps abnormal creatures who're nice and kills the bad ones
Legend of the Seeker - based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, which was a bit hit and miss at the best of times and the series is coming across as Hercules/Xena without the fun side but i'm hoping it works out cos high fantasy has never really made it on TV before.
Eleventh Hour - based on the British TV show, most episodes appear to be about some silly person taking advantage of a scientific breakthrough to kill people or accidentally kill people. But it has Rufus Sewell in it and he keeps it going well enough despite the fact his character is meant to be a biophysicist but apparently writes papers about dark matter in his spare time
CSI - I prefer NY but i'm getting into the original again now they've finally gotten rid of annoying Sarah.
Law and Order - there are 18 series so if you're looking to completely fill your time there's plenty to get through - it's the default show i watch when i don't have much else to do.

And this isn't including the anime i watch when i run out of American things, or my saturday night obsession with Merlin, the X Factor and Casualty, or Mock the Week, QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You... - i, rather obviously, have too much time on my hands

[orudge]

So that's where all our bandwidth went, eh? I'm just watching Heroes, House, Smallville, Supernatural, The IT Crowd and Top Gear these days, although I've also watched a few episodes of the US version of Life on Mars - it's not too bad, although the British version was much better in my opinion.

[RedCelt69]

Dexter. One of the best TV shows I've ever seen. Can't recommend it highly enough.

There's something altogether compulsive about "broken" main characters.

House, Monk & Dexter... all very different shows, yet all benefit from not having archetypical main characters.

If it's DVD box sets you're interested in, I can't think of any better than The West Wing or the Sopranos for top-quality televisual experience.

[WashingtonIrving]

I cannot imagine anything more procrastination friendly than buying all the series of The Wire. Pretty much defines the word quality. If you want the intelligent description, its like a russian novel with a huge cast of properly developed characters and handling some pretty deep questions. What I like most about it is the incredible dialogue. Words really cannot describe how much better this is than most American shows. You'll end up wanting to be a drug dealer on the streets of Baltimore though.

[careba2010]

Top Gear
Long Way Down/Long Way Round:-
Spooks Box Set

[Aureliano]

I cannot imagine anything more procrastination friendly than buying all the series of The Wire. Pretty much defines the word quality. If you want the intelligent description, its like a russian novel with a huge cast of properly developed characters and handling some pretty deep questions. What I like most about it is the incredible dialogue. Words really cannot describe how much better this is than most American shows. You'll end up wanting to be a drug dealer on the streets of Baltimore though.

I'm feelin ya... mos def.

Thanks to the slightly shorter HBO mini-series format (i.e. 12 episodes per season, rather than your usual 20ish for american serialised tv), I was able to work my way through all five series of this over the past few months. And I can't agree more with the characterisation and dialogue. Quite simply, this is some of the best character development i've ever seen on film/tv in my entire life. Granted you have some slightly heightened heroes and anti-heroes (with the likes of Omar and Brother Mouzone), but in general everyone seems so amazingly true to life.

You really get the sense that you know these people inside out, from the street-smart drug dealing teenagers to the big wigs in the city bureaucracy. And as each series covers a different environment (the streets, the ports, the politics, the schools, the media), in the end it's really the portrait of a city rather than a crime show.

And finally because the show covers some gloriously and painstakingly slow undercover criminal investigations, it hardly ever slips into unnecessary plotlines.

I cannot recommend this show highly enough.

[Spike]

Spike is currently addicted to:
SURFACE!

also...
Top Gear
Merlin
Family Guy
Scrubs
House
Heroes
The I.T. crowd
Futurama
American dad
Malcolm in the middle

Bleach (anime)
Rurouni Kenshin (anime)
Trigun (anime)
Coyboy Beebop (anime)
Death Note (anime)
King of bandit Jing (anime)
Hellsing (anime)
Elfen Lied (anime)
Samurai Champloo (anime)