TV Show Recommendations

So, I just finished BBC's Robin Hood, and was a little upset about how they wrote out Djaq without really doing anything with her character, because she was awesome. But I've noticed a trend in the shows that I start to love, and that's a female character who isn't really the lead heroine in the show and romance isn't her main story, but is a main character, and I want to watch some more. So far, I really like Djaq from Robin Hood, Willow from Buffy, River from Firefly, Fred from Angel, Ellie from Degrassi, Kenzi from Lost Girl, Claudia from Warehouse 13, and Mac from Veronica Mars (the writers could have done more with her too). Suggestions would be great, thanks!

Once Upon a Time may be what you're looking for.

OUAT could definiteley be what you are looking for, one thing though. The pacing in season 1 can be a bit slow at times, but it gets better in season 2.

Try Farscape. If Aeryn isn't awesome enough for you (which she definitely should be), you might like Chiana.

Any good Sci-Fi shows?

Look at my troper page for a bit more information on what I like

I recommend Firefly. It's a space western. There's also Stargate SG 1 where the team travels through a wormhole to alien planets and moons.

I second. Also try

Anything similar to Leverage? (Tried Hustle already, didn't seem to be to my taste.)

Sorry, wish I knew of any.

Is Seinfeld as worth watching as everyone says? I certainly like what I've seen. I enjoy sitcoms like Friends and, from what I saw, Seinfeld was funnier.

edited 15th Apr '13 4:03:50 PM by Guest1001

I'm bored, so here's a list of five British comedies I'd recommend all non-Brits watch at some point. I'd do ten but I think this is going to turn out quite long. I'll give a synopsis of each one and then a reason it's so great afterwards:

1. Red Dwarf - A sitcom set in space on a mining ship named Red Dwarf. Dave Lister, a complete slob and slacker, disobeys a crew regulation and is sent into stasis (frozen in time) for eighteen months as a punishment. However, while in stasis, a radiation leak wipes out the crew and to keep Lister safe, the ship's AI doesn't let him out until the radiation returns to a safe level ... three million years later. Lister is the last man alive but unfortunately for him, his deceased bunkmate Arnold Rimmer — Lister's immediate superior; career-driven, snobby, a Small Name, Big Ego and a Dirty Coward — is brought back as a hologram to keep him sane.

There are other characters but the real strength in the series comes from the relationship between Rimmer and Lister. It's been described as the Odd Couple in space because of their contrasting personalities and most of the comedy evolves from that. After the first few seasons, it even moved away from just being about the characters and started embracing the sci-fi genre a bit more and it's remarkably good working just as science-fiction. The fandom even sometimes talks about continuity. Great series, I highly recommend it.

2. Blackadder - This is a tricky one for me to explain, so I'll just quote TV Tropes' own page on the series: A deliciously vicious collection of British comedies, all centering around various generations of the Blackadder family as embodied in its sole visible member, Edmund — a cynical, snide and outright caustic British nobleman [...] Each Edmund in each generation is aided by a Bumbling Sidekick in the shape of his corresponding Baldrick, an ignorant and filthy manservant and dogsbody of unhealthy habits and preoccupations. His typical foil is a classic Upper-Class Twit of far higher social station than his own, whom he is forced to serve hand and foot.

Basically, because the series is set over different periods of history, there are various different characters called Edmund Blackadder (played by Rowan Atkinson), who all share the same Deadpan Snarker and Magnificent Bastard tendencies. In the second and third series, many episodes revolve around him trying to raise his social standing — often using unscrupulous methods — but he's constantly hindered by less-intelligent superiors or his own bad luck. He'd be an outright Villain Protagonist if many of the people around him weren't also morally bankrupt. Blackadder is probably the wittiest sitcom I've ever seen. There are so many quoteable lines that I can't even remember them all and every single person is so good in their role that I've come to identify them with the show; I, and many other Blackadder fans, can't watch House because we've come to associate Hugh Laurie as the Upper-Class Twit he was in series three and four. Likewise, Mr Bean might be Atkinson's most famous role (and he is very gifted at physical comedy) but Blackadder is his best, without question.

One thing though, for anyone who wants to seek it out; don't watch the first season. It isn't until series two that it grows the beard. I own all four series' on VHS and even I have only seen bits and pieces of the first series; part of the problem is that it features Blackadder as the dimwitted character and his manservant Baldrick as his brainier sidekick. From the second series onwards, these roles were reversed and it was all the better for it.

3. The Thick Of It - A cynical, cynical satirical show about the inner-workings of the British Government. The TVT page for the show describes this better than I could but it's filmed in a fly-on-the-wall documentary style, features partly-improvised dialogue and a lot of swearing. If I had to describe it, the show revolves around a fictional government department called the Department Of Social Affairs (and later, Citizenship too, or Do SAC for short) and the minister in charge of the department. However, the real star of the show is Malcolm Tucker — the Prime Minister's Head Of Communications and jokingly (but accurately) referred to in the first episode as "the PM's enforcer" — played by Peter Capaldi and his job to stop the ministers in his party from screwing up so badly that they get bad press. Everyone except Malcolm, however, is completely self-serving and desperate to do anything that will make themselves look good.

If you've seen In The Loop or Veep, you'll probably be familiar with The Thick Of It's style. However, I haven't seen much of Veep but I much prefer TTOI to In The Loop because its matters are so much more petty and trivial, which makes the in-fighting and self-serving so much more ridiculous. It does a great job of capturing the Slave to PR nature of UK politics, especially at the time that it first aired, and wringing it for all its worth. Malcolm Tucker is a great comedy character but all of the series' characters are very well-developed. I wish Malcolm's Establishing Character Moment was on Youtube, in fact, because it's one of the finest examples I've ever seen.

The only thing I'll say against it is if you're not from the UK, you might not get all the references. I could probably say that about most of the sitcoms on this list though.

4. Porridge - A sitcom set in a prison, starring Ronnie Barker as a surly criminal by the name of Norman Stanley Fletcher. You might think that a sitcom set in a prison would be about escaping but, apart from the pilot episode, this wasn't the case; it usually revolved around Fletcher teaching his young cellmate, Lenny Godber, how to get by in prison. They were keen to gain "little victories" over the governor and the prison officers (the screws), led by the strict Mr Mackay.

Which leads me to Porridge's greatest strength; the rivalry between Fletcher and Mr Mackay is, without a doubt, the best I've ever seen in a sitcom. Each one is a great Sitcom Arch-Nemesis for the other. Weirdly, neither one is particularly good or bad; you could easily take either character's side in many of the situations presented. Also, one of things non-UK readers should know about Ronnie Barker is that he was one of the sharpest comedy writers there ever was. Take a look at the Mastermind sketch that he and Ronnie Corbett performed, for example.

It received a spin-off called Going Straight, following Fletcher's release from prison. It wasn't as good but the first episode is worth watching at the least.

5. Only Fools And Horses - The most famous British sitcom. Everyone's heard of it. It revolves around two brothers, Derek (or "Del") and Rodney Trotter, two market traders from Peckham, in South London, and their Grandad (or Uncle, in later episodes). Del's main goal in life is to become a millionaire while Rodney, the younger of the two, is much more of a realist. He's also more environmentally-aware, more artistic, occasionally snarky and everything his brash older brother isn't. Neither are particularly bright and Del tends to dabble in minor criminal activities far more often than Rodney would like.

Only Fools And Horses is probably a difficult one for non-Brits to get into but I couldn't not include it. David Jason does such a good job playing Del, and did so for such a long time, that similar characters in other shows have been described as "a bit of a Del Boy" (such as Sawyer from Lost). The earlier episodes probably didn't break many sitcom boundries — Nicolas Lyndhurst, who played Rodney — said that nobody watched the first season and nobody knew what the title meant until the show's writer, John Sullivan, added a theme song featuring it in the lyrics for the second season. Some very iconic, very funny moments cropped up later on though and it's one of the few shows where I feel the writing just got better and better and better (until they brought it back for specials in 2001, 2 and 3. Same with Blackadder and Red Dwarf. You know, there's a reason British Brevity exists, people).

x6 right now Defiance on Syfy is looking good.

I need something watch for the summer. Something that airs once a week so I have something to look forward to. Anyone been following the summer season and knows which works are the hidden gems?

I haven't been able to get into most modern American comedy. I love shows like Seinfeld and recent shows I enjoy include Louie and Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Is there anything anyone could recommend similar to any of those those? I'm looking for stuff from the past 5 years.

I'm aware of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and it's on my "to watch" list. I also know a bit about British comedy, so I won't need recommendations for that. I'm not into shows like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, by the way.

edited 22nd Jun '13 6:19:21 PM by supergod

You could try 30 Rock. At least in my opinion it's much funnier and more creative than HIMYM or BBT. Plus it doesn't have laughtrack, which from my standpoint is always a plus.

I remember catching a few episodes when it first started, but I don't remember being too impressed. I'll give it another shot though. Thanks.

Parks and Recreation is the funniest comedy on air right now, imo. It's a late bloomer, though. Just skip season one, it's awful - the second is much better, and starting with the third, the show is consistently brilliant.

Will I need the first season to get to know the characters, or do the episodes stand alone?

I don't watch much live-action TV in general, so I'm looking for recommendations in a few different areas.

• K-drama. Anyone know where to start with that?
• Any live-action shows that feel like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? Cyberpunk setting isn't critical, a good mix of action and intrigue is. Not interested in CSI-type shows. I know about 24 but I'm worried it'll try to drop Bush-era anvils on me.
• Post-apocalyptic shows. I know about Threads and The Walking Dead, but I'm looking for something a little more Mad Max or Fallout. I don't care if it's 21st-century Prime Time or a low-production value show from the 80s or 90s, as long as it has Scenery Gorn and captures the genre well.

edited 17th Jul '13 1:44:12 PM by LunarNavigator

Under the Dome by Stephan King - was quite amazing

Seriously? Under the Dome was awful.

Well I've nearly finished watching Orphan Black, and am absolutely LOVING the series. On that note, I'm now really interested in finding more intense, thriller-like shows. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

Note that I live in England, so I'm mainly looking for UK-based shows or ones that are available to watch online in some format. Thanks!

edited 18th Dec '13 5:54:14 PM by sturmthedark

On second thought, just look at General Recs.

With all the 11-minute cable shows, I thought there might be something in the format I'm describing out there.

edited 28th Dec '13 11:25:04 PM by TParadox

I haven't seen Orphan Black, but Utopia looks similar to me.

It's a comedy, but I'd still recommend Marion and Geoff. It does have a varied tone though; episodes range from light to very dark, broad humour to drama.

Bit late for the sci fi show recs but anyways... Farscape and Babylon 5. That is all.

What are some crime action drama with a lot of humor, shows like Burn Notice, Person of Interest, and Sherlock?