The TV show thread (many spoilers)

[_Ed_]

Loving Castle so far.

[pasag]

Deadwood starts on ABC2 tonight at 9.30 for Aussies. Trust me when I say you will not regret giving it a go.

[NZTailender]

Deadwood on ABC. Lovin' it.

[Adamc]

Just finished season five of The West Wing, disappointed with it tstl. Seemed to consist entirely of overly simplistic storylines with convenient last-minute solutions supplemented by side stories that go nowhere. Figured it would be a bit different due to Sorkin's departure but didn't expect to see Bartlet and co. robbed of their complexity and reduced to dumb caricatures. Are six and seven better?

[pasag]

Just finished season five of The West Wing, disappointed with it tstl. Seemed to consist entirely of overly simplistic storylines with convenient last-minute solutions supplemented by side stories that go nowhere. Figured it would be a bit different due to Sorkin's departure but didn't expect to see Bartlet and co. robbed of their complexity and reduced to dumb caricatures. Are six and seven better?

Disagree, really enjoyed it esp the Shutdown storyline which is the best of the series. The Gaza thing was a bit iffy though. 6 and 7 are excellent and go in a totally different direction but don't really want to say too much without giving the major storyline away.

[Adamc]

There were a few good episodes and some interesting issues raised, but they were generally poorly resolved. Found myself having to suspend disbelief a bit too often at the last-minute solutions. [spoiler] (e.g: Josh plucking Turner's name out of thin air; a drunk Israeli military officer (or whatever) revealing nuclear secrets to Russell; the conservative judge who everyone hates turning out to be not such a bad guy after all.)[/spoiler] No shortage of scarcely-believable situations in the Sorkin episodes but they never seemed so obviously fudged. Also felt it didn't address the tension between idealism and pragmatism nearly as well as the previous seasons. The episode on the free trade agreement was particularly poor in this regard. Ideologically and intellectually the season went off in a different direction (particularly Bartlet, which is my main problem with the season really), which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't done in a way that was believable and consistent with the rest of the series IMO. I also found the episodes quite disparate, there wasn't really a coherent narrative running through the length of the season. The new characters (Rina and Ryan) were poor and added nothing, and the Access episode was flat out terrible.

Will still watch six and seven though, have seen a bit of seven previously and looks interesting with the new candidates.

[blahblahblah]

any suggestions on crime and fbi involved tv series?

[G.I.Joe]

White Collar.

[sledger]

any suggestions on crime and fbi involved tv series?

Avoid them.

[age_master]

Disagree, really enjoyed it esp the Shutdown storyline which is the best of the series. The Gaza thing was a bit iffy though. 6 and 7 are excellent and go in a totally different direction but don't really want to say too much without giving the major storyline away.

Pretty much this for me. Season 5 is probably the season with the most weak bits but i think it really picks up again with seasons 6 and 7 which in some ways are 2 of my favourite seasons.

[Marcuss]

Avoid them.

Have a soft spot for Criminal Minds

[Prince EWS]

any suggestions on crime and fbi involved tv series?

Chuck.

[NZTailender]

Fringe isn't bad. Can't take it seriously though.

[_Ed_]

Have a soft spot for Criminal Minds

Nothing wrong with that. It's pretty good, IMO.

And as I mentioned earlier, Castle is an excellent crime drama/black comedy.

[Marcuss]

Nothing wrong with that. It's pretty good, IMO.

And as I mentioned earlier, Castle is an excellent crime drama/black comedy.

Was more about the way those sort of shows tend to be received on CW.
Season 6 starts sometime in August IIRC