30 TV Questions
Thirty days of TV? No. But I want to answer, because it's good stuff to do during my breaks from editing, besides reading The Fire in Fiction.
1 - A show that should never have been canceled:
The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- there were points wherein the explorations of the psychology of the characters were almost too deep (the truth/lies/truth/lies loop of the episode where Sarah kills one of the (human) men who are after her (or does she?)). But by god, that ultimately made me pretty happy, even if I felt I was suffering a bit too much with the characters now and again. The season 2 cliffhanger, which ended up being the last episode, just kills. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BRMFwgFLm0
Carnivale - for most of the same reasons.
2 - A show that you wish more people were watching:
Drop Dead Diva So, young model dies, a mistake is made, and she ends up alive again--in the body of a plus-sized lawyer. She remembers the law, but that's all she recalls from Jane's life. The lawyering is wrong, I'm quite sure, and there are some seriously steep logic problems, but the sheer, hopeless optimism and romanticism of it all is just refreshing.
3 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season):
Cougar Town This matches my sense of humor too well, perhaps. Everything about the show just works for me. There's just enough heart to balance the meanness, and just enough smart to balance the goofiness. They make up songs about Mariska Hargitay! And I love Busy Phillips.
4 - Your favorite show ever:
What's the criteria? I've never loved a show the way I loved Quantum Leap when it aired, but I don't really love it that much now--it's hard to rewatch episodes. Perhaps because I know how it all ends. I don't know. For rewatchability plus earnest first-time love, I guess it would be Star Trek: The Next Generation. No, for serious. I may have enjoyed many other shows on a more elevated basis afterward, but your first loves are your first loves, and it was concurrent with Quantum Leap *and* I can rewatch it.
5 - A show you hate:
Wonderpets, I guess? It's not a fair question because if I hate something, I don't watch it, so I don't find out how much I REALLY hate it. But I've had to watch this with my niece and nephew, and I know I hate it.
6 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show:
Well, "Data's Day," of course. DUH. And sure, I love "Inner Light," too, and "Yesterday's Enterprise," but it's really "Data's Day." Slice of life on the Enterprise, very little techno-babble, and lots of great robot-trying-to-be-human bits.
7 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Oh, there was so much fail on that show at times, it's hard to pick just one. Throw darts at a show list from the first season. I'm sure it's that one.
8 - A show everyone should watch
I'm not a prescriptivist TV watcher. But if I could convince the world to give Community, Cougar Town or Drop Dead Diva a chance....
9 - Best scene ever
Well, that would probably be on Lost when you realize what happened to Locke when he first came to the island.
10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Big Bang Theory--some initial attempts to watch it failed, but man, I dig Sheldon so hard now.
11 - A show that disappointed you
They all do, in the end. Don't they? But sure, the obvious one, which is Heroes. Almost every punch was pulled, and the ones that followed through sucked in the end, or were reset.
12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
You mean, besides "Data's Day"? And I assume you mean on purpose, because I've accidentally/less on purpose seen a lot of Friends any number of times exceeding 5. I've probably seen the first couple episodes of Lost that many times, and possibly a few episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 by token of not offering resistance when Dann turned it on, but 5 times is a lot of times.
13 - Favorite childhood show
You mean, that I watched during my actual childhood? You Can't Do That On Television. Hands down. Green slime. Bad jokes. So Canadian.
14 - Favorite male character
Ever? Well, sure, that's Sam from Quantum Leap. Which is perhaps why that show should be my favorite show, I guess.
15 - Favorite female character
Probably Ambassador D'Lenn from Babylon 5. "Only one Human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!"
Otherwise, maybe Lorelei Gilmore. Because she actually feels like a real person, most of the time.
16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Again, scripted TV... Quite possibly iCarly. I too easily allow myself to sit down with Kayla and watch it when I really don't have to... Either that or Enterprise. SHUT UP. IT'S GUILTY.
17 - Favorite mini series
Depending on what qualifies as a miniseries... the 1995 A&E/BBC Pride and Prejudice OF COURSE.
18 - Favorite title sequence
Carnivale's was pretty great, but did wear on me after a while. I like Scrubs's, too. I'm not a huge title sequence fan. I did not mind when shows started going to those 3 second thingies.
19 - Best TV show cast
Does anything get any better than the cast of Firefly? Well, possibly the casts of Cougar Town and Scrubs.
20 - Favorite kiss
Oh, you mean, that actually aired?
21 - Favorite ship
Canonically, as they actually showed it happening on TV? Aerin Sun and John Chrichton, probably, from Farscape.
In my head, Barney/Robin on How I Met Your Mother was MUCH better than how it actually happened.
22 - Favorite series finale
You know what? Fine. I'll admit it. The O.C..
23 - Most annoying character
Ross from Friends. I can't think of a time I ever actually rooted for that guy... well, maybe for three seconds, but barely that. (Pretty much only during the "when were you UNDER me?" moment.)
24 - Best quote
The best one ever? Really?
"It's not lupus."
Hahaha, it's not only not lupus, it's not the best quote, either!
25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Some day, I'm totally going to watch Freaks and Geeks.
26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
That midpoint one of Lost with the flashforwards. I mean, I would say the "I'm Locutus of Borg" one from TNG, but that was Dave's answer.
27 - Best pilot episode
Possibly Community:
28 - First TV show obsession
Wait, I already talked about Quantum Leap! But seriously. This was the only show I ever fought my mom on my bedtime about. The only one that I sneaked back downstairs after she went to bed to watch, and sat in the cold house with the heat turned down and shivered while I watched it because I just had to know if Sam was going to get home this time.
29 - Current TV show obsession
Perhaps Castle? Though I'm older now and I don't have to sneak TV past my bedtime, so I'm hard-pressed to say what my obsession is. It used to be How I Met Your Mother but that kind of started to... go downhill. :(
30 - Saddest character death
OH MAN. There are a few, of course, but the one that gets me every time is Mark Harmon in The West Wing, and how CJ finds out, and yeah.
1 - A show that should never have been canceled:
The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- there were points wherein the explorations of the psychology of the characters were almost too deep (the truth/lies/truth/lies loop of the episode where Sarah kills one of the (human) men who are after her (or does she?)). But by god, that ultimately made me pretty happy, even if I felt I was suffering a bit too much with the characters now and again. The season 2 cliffhanger, which ended up being the last episode, just kills. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BRMFwgFLm0
Carnivale - for most of the same reasons.
2 - A show that you wish more people were watching:
Drop Dead Diva So, young model dies, a mistake is made, and she ends up alive again--in the body of a plus-sized lawyer. She remembers the law, but that's all she recalls from Jane's life. The lawyering is wrong, I'm quite sure, and there are some seriously steep logic problems, but the sheer, hopeless optimism and romanticism of it all is just refreshing.
3 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season):
Cougar Town This matches my sense of humor too well, perhaps. Everything about the show just works for me. There's just enough heart to balance the meanness, and just enough smart to balance the goofiness. They make up songs about Mariska Hargitay! And I love Busy Phillips.
4 - Your favorite show ever:
What's the criteria? I've never loved a show the way I loved Quantum Leap when it aired, but I don't really love it that much now--it's hard to rewatch episodes. Perhaps because I know how it all ends. I don't know. For rewatchability plus earnest first-time love, I guess it would be Star Trek: The Next Generation. No, for serious. I may have enjoyed many other shows on a more elevated basis afterward, but your first loves are your first loves, and it was concurrent with Quantum Leap *and* I can rewatch it.
5 - A show you hate:
Wonderpets, I guess? It's not a fair question because if I hate something, I don't watch it, so I don't find out how much I REALLY hate it. But I've had to watch this with my niece and nephew, and I know I hate it.
6 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show:
Well, "Data's Day," of course. DUH. And sure, I love "Inner Light," too, and "Yesterday's Enterprise," but it's really "Data's Day." Slice of life on the Enterprise, very little techno-babble, and lots of great robot-trying-to-be-human bits.
7 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Oh, there was so much fail on that show at times, it's hard to pick just one. Throw darts at a show list from the first season. I'm sure it's that one.
8 - A show everyone should watch
I'm not a prescriptivist TV watcher. But if I could convince the world to give Community, Cougar Town or Drop Dead Diva a chance....
9 - Best scene ever
Well, that would probably be on Lost when you realize what happened to Locke when he first came to the island.
Click to view10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Big Bang Theory--some initial attempts to watch it failed, but man, I dig Sheldon so hard now.
11 - A show that disappointed you
They all do, in the end. Don't they? But sure, the obvious one, which is Heroes. Almost every punch was pulled, and the ones that followed through sucked in the end, or were reset.
12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
You mean, besides "Data's Day"? And I assume you mean on purpose, because I've accidentally/less on purpose seen a lot of Friends any number of times exceeding 5. I've probably seen the first couple episodes of Lost that many times, and possibly a few episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 by token of not offering resistance when Dann turned it on, but 5 times is a lot of times.
13 - Favorite childhood show
You mean, that I watched during my actual childhood? You Can't Do That On Television. Hands down. Green slime. Bad jokes. So Canadian.
14 - Favorite male character
Ever? Well, sure, that's Sam from Quantum Leap. Which is perhaps why that show should be my favorite show, I guess.
15 - Favorite female character
Probably Ambassador D'Lenn from Babylon 5. "Only one Human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!"
Otherwise, maybe Lorelei Gilmore. Because she actually feels like a real person, most of the time.
16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Again, scripted TV... Quite possibly iCarly. I too easily allow myself to sit down with Kayla and watch it when I really don't have to... Either that or Enterprise. SHUT UP. IT'S GUILTY.
17 - Favorite mini series
Depending on what qualifies as a miniseries... the 1995 A&E/BBC Pride and Prejudice OF COURSE.
18 - Favorite title sequence
Carnivale's was pretty great, but did wear on me after a while. I like Scrubs's, too. I'm not a huge title sequence fan. I did not mind when shows started going to those 3 second thingies.
19 - Best TV show cast
Does anything get any better than the cast of Firefly? Well, possibly the casts of Cougar Town and Scrubs.
20 - Favorite kiss
Oh, you mean, that actually aired?
21 - Favorite ship
Canonically, as they actually showed it happening on TV? Aerin Sun and John Chrichton, probably, from Farscape.
In my head, Barney/Robin on How I Met Your Mother was MUCH better than how it actually happened.
22 - Favorite series finale
You know what? Fine. I'll admit it. The O.C..
23 - Most annoying character
Ross from Friends. I can't think of a time I ever actually rooted for that guy... well, maybe for three seconds, but barely that. (Pretty much only during the "when were you UNDER me?" moment.)
24 - Best quote
The best one ever? Really?
"It's not lupus."
Hahaha, it's not only not lupus, it's not the best quote, either!
25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Some day, I'm totally going to watch Freaks and Geeks.
26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
That midpoint one of Lost with the flashforwards. I mean, I would say the "I'm Locutus of Borg" one from TNG, but that was Dave's answer.
27 - Best pilot episode
Possibly Community:
28 - First TV show obsession
Wait, I already talked about Quantum Leap! But seriously. This was the only show I ever fought my mom on my bedtime about. The only one that I sneaked back downstairs after she went to bed to watch, and sat in the cold house with the heat turned down and shivered while I watched it because I just had to know if Sam was going to get home this time.
29 - Current TV show obsession
Perhaps Castle? Though I'm older now and I don't have to sneak TV past my bedtime, so I'm hard-pressed to say what my obsession is. It used to be How I Met Your Mother but that kind of started to... go downhill. :(
30 - Saddest character death
OH MAN. There are a few, of course, but the one that gets me every time is Mark Harmon in The West Wing, and how CJ finds out, and yeah.