My friendly neighborhood video store

[james_davis_nicoll]

Rents entire seasons of TV for ten dollars a week, tax included. With the writers' strike on, I suspect broadcast TV will play a smaller role in what I watch. What shows should I be tracking down to rent from MFNVS?

Comments

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Carnivale, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Firefly, Dexter, Vicar of Dibley.

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

It Crowd, Torchwood, Penn & Tell's Bullshit, Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipes, The Oblongs,The Tick

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I own it: got it for Christmas one year. In fact, I think I've received a pretty high fraction of series about cranky women with supernatural talents over the years: Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Buffy, and although she doesn't have magical powers, Veronica Mars isn't too far off.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, are there any recentish shows along the lines of Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Buffy, and Veronica Mars?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I should add that I am aware of Pushing Daisies.

[zeborah]

There's Tru Calling (with Eliza Dush-- er, what's her name, who was Faith on Buffy), in which she regularly gets Groundhog Days in order to keep dead people from dying. Helpfully she's interning in a morgue. Don't know if that fits your criteria. In a lot of ways it's very similar to Early Edition, except at some point some guy with equal-but-opposite powers to hers comes along as love interest cum Big Bad.

I wouldn't say it's good. I mean, they like to show her running a lot in slow motion. But it's not terrible.

[tacithydra.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, my DVD library is pretty much a xerox of that.

Although I just saw the first (and only) season of Invasion and loved it. But I might be the only one.

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

Bones is good
as is
House
for the new take on the holmes mythos via hospital genre.

I second Torchwood, although i dont thonk its out yet on dvd until end of Jan.
(although there is a bit much in the crying dept there)

the cartoon series Avatar is quite nice as well.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Seconding the House recommendation.

And Heroes. Love me some Heroes.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Not that it is out on DVD but even second season?

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Up until the writer's strike brought it screeching to a premature halt, yes.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No way. Heroes was acceptable, not great, up until close to the end of the first season. The end of the first season and the entirety of the second was totally unwatchable frustrating shit.

I'll second Deadwood, however, and Band Of Brothers if you haven't yet seen it, and House if you don't mind repetitive-thematically-but-awesome stuff.

[tacithydra.livejournal.com]

Agh, yes! I LOVED Heroes right up to the climax... and wow, did the finale drop the ball.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

We got the smalls the first season of Avatar the Last Airbender for Christmas last year. They finally aired Season 3 starting in September of this year. So hopefully season 2 Book of Earth will be available as a boxed set.

It's very very good.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Season Two has been out as a boxed set for some time (a few months at least).

[faeelin.livejournal.com]

Rome.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

House: very clever writing and good acting. Great lines, well delivered.

WKRP in Cincinnati (recent rerelease of the 70s show). It actually is still amazingly funny. Unfortunately, the release replaced some of the soundtrack for copyright reasons, but I found I enjoyed the show regardless.

The last three seasons of Doctor Who (slight preference to the Ecclestone year, but YMMV). Particularly the episodes written by Steven Moffatt.

MI-5 (aka Spooks in the UK). We're currently enjoying season 1.

Second Sight (a British mini-seriesx2 years starring Clive Owen as a detective who is slowly losing his vision and trying to hide it from everyone while continuing to solve major crimes.) Excellent.

Hornblower.

Due South.

Slings and Arrows (any of the seasons): a satire on Stratford, Shakespeare, acting, and life. With Paul Gross and large numbers of other brilliant Canadian actors.

If the Canadian TV show _Intelligence_ (S1 or S2) was out on DVD, I'd certainly recommend that, but I haven't been able to find it yet.

Foyle's War: excellent British mystery series set during WWII. Not cozy.

M*A*S*H.

Veronica Mars.

There's enough good stuff out that it's more a question of picking what appeals to you.

[zeborah]

Ah, if we're counting not-quite-so-recent stuff as Due South and Hornblower, then grab Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister while you're at it. Not so many hours for your bucks, but they're very *good* hours.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

The Wire isn't just the best show on television. It's the best show that's ever been on television.

[mhacdebhandia.livejournal.com]

Correct!

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I think I'd take issue with the second claim, but not with the first. I actually prefer Homicide to The Wire myself. And everyone knows the best television show that has ever been on TV is The Prisoner... 8)

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

The Sopranos is better, but The Wire is a strong #2.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I tried The Sopranos and actually couldn't really get interested in it. I found no characters in it I could sympathize with.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs.

[avram]

Deadwood: Western about the spread of law in a lawless western town. The show is notable especially for the dialog, which sounds like something Shakespeare might have written if the Bard had been especially fond of the word "cocksucker". (See here and here for more about the use of language. Not quite Shakespearean blank verse, but something many people mistake for it. And unlike anything else on TV.)

The Venture Bros: Animated parody of superheroes, featuring a middle-aged Johnny Quest parody, his two idiot sons, and a great cast of supporting characters. Hilariously funny, and much of the humor is driven by the relationships among the characters.

[avram]

A scene from Deadwood.

Unfortunately, Turner Broadcasting forced YouTube to take down the Venture Bros clip that got me hooked on the show.

Houses of the Heroes

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

House and Heroes should see you through and make great trades to swap with others. My daughter promised to swap me just about anything for Dead Like Me S1, and I have a Sopranos OD.

This strike thing -- is it going to have any effect on what I get on the rabbit ears? (CBC, PBS, TVO, and sometimes CBS)

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Monk, Carnivale (although they killed this after the first season without a proper ending), Deadwood (watching the third season now myself), The Closer (this has a somewhat cranky woman, but no superpowers).

[casaubon.livejournal.com]

Carnivale (although they killed this after the first season without a proper ending)

After the second series. Still no proper ending though.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

You know, I debated that and decided not to look it up. Bad Marilee.

I do still think it was worth seeing even without the ending.

[casaubon.livejournal.com]

It's definitely worth seeing.
I just wish it'd got the planned 6 seasons. That would have be amazing.

[james-angove.livejournal.com]

In terms of simply quality television, The Wire is incredible. Bleak as all hell, but brilliantly executed.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is certainly very well done indeed. If it has any fault at all, I think that it lies in a melodramatic compulsion to throw absolutely every character's life into the toilet at some point. All in the tradition of tragedy, I suppose, but if you're going to keep me watching for more than a season or two, it helps to have characters who can anchor to whose lives don't entirely suck. I've watched three seasons now and the general suckness of McNulty's life is starting to grate on me (although, granted, the end of season three looks up a bit, however, given the general trend, I fully expect all that to go straight to hell in the fourth season...)

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Life On Mars.

A police detective is hit by a car and ends up in a coma. He also wakes up in 1973. Has he gone mad, or is this real? How can he get back? Brilliant, brilliant stuff. And some really good laugh-out-loud moments as well.

Oldie but goodie

[mamatiger.livejournal.com]

Deadwood Pancakes (NSFW vocabulary, but if you know Deadwood, you knew that already.)