There is a new set of pictures. Discuss. (Among other things)
An open thread to discuss a new quasi-logo, summer programming, etc.
For a variety of reasons, the old rotating logo from the previous blog had to go away, but I had gotten to enjoy the weekly Guess the Logo game. So I'm going to try to keep it going, sort of, by doing a weekly collection of four TV pictures, like the one above, and again invite you to guess the theme of the grouping. (This one is obviously made up of "Survivor" contestants, but what do they have in common beyond that? It's not that hard, but we'll again switch between the easy and the esoteric.)
Meanwhile, we may as well also use this post as an open thread of sorts for any questions you have on recent TV developments not otherwise covered by my other posts, and also to take some early suggestions on what show, if any, might join "The Sopranos" "The Wire" season 3 as a summer TV-on-DVD project. (Doing three at once last year with "Wire" season 2, "Sports Night" and "Band of Brothers" was too much, so at most it'll be "Wire" and one other.)
I'll try to answer as much as I can throughout the day (at least until 5 p.m. Eastern) if the questions are simple. If it requires a more elaborate response, shoot an e-mail to sepinwall@hitfix.com and perhaps we can answer it on an upcoming Firewall & Iceberg segment.
Please save any technical concerns/complaints about HitFix for now. We've gotten plenty of those over the past week, and as I've said before, everyone's comments have been noted by the powers that be, and the ones that can be addressed will be in time. So right now, let's just focus on what's been happening lately on the tube, okay?
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About This Blog
All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Our summer rewind will take us into season 2 of 'Deadwood'Thursday, May 24, 2012
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Next 148 CommentsAntonio
May 10, 2010 at 1:45AM EST Reply to CommentI've got mostly nothing on the pics, except it's obviously two of Amanda and one of lazy Donaldson. I haven't watched every Survivor season so I don't recognize the other.
I'm sure I'll be a quiet voice on this one, Alan, but I'd love to see you summer with The West Wing. I'm sad that I never got to read along with your criticism of my favorite show ever. I loved discovering BSG after the series end and being able to go back and read along with your reviews. To do so with West Wing (especially early stuff since you're archived on some of the S7 stuff) would be awesome. But I am sure there are other shows that will garner more support.
But, as long as we continue to get The Wire Redux, anything else is gravy.
chi I just finished BSG with Alan's reviews!
May 10, 2010 at 10:28AM ESTsdfx I would LOVE to read your thoughts on the first season of The West Wing. Maybe it's not the newest show out there but the first season is such great television.
May 10, 2010 at 10:48AM ESTRoovs Yes PLEASE do The West Wing.
May 10, 2010 at 1:09PM ESTfimcricket I would definitely love to see you comment on TWW, Alan, if not this summer then sometime in the future.
May 10, 2010 at 1:17PM ESTCan I also put a vote in for S1 & 2 of Deadwood?
Tobi Huge vote from me for reviewing the first season of West Wing this summer! Please?
May 10, 2010 at 1:28PM ESTrosengje I selfishly would love to see Buffy Season 1-- only 12 episodes!
May 10, 2010 at 6:58PM ESTOtherwise, I'm going to reiterate some earlier suggestions of: The West Wing, Veronica Mars, and Firefly.
The first two are slightly over the episode limit but each has some throwaway episodes or stories spanning multiple episodes that you could do one blog post on instead of individualized ones.
DevdogAZ Another thumbs up for The West Wing, S1 suggestion. I realize it's longer than what you want to do, but it's a great show that deserves your critical review at some point. Now's as good a time as any.
May 10, 2010 at 7:07PM ESTIf not The West Wing, then I'd fall back on Firefly.
megan I also want to say that The West Wing would be a great summer rewind...I know its too long, so maybe just the highlights. And if we could throw in some season 2 highlights it would be perfect!
May 10, 2010 at 8:35PM ESTBinny I'm not the type to use comment threads as a place for self-promotion, but seeing fellow West Wing fanatics clamoring for some WW recaps and analysis kind of makes it hard to resist. My friend and I have a blog where we break down every ep of WW (we just finished the first season, and will start the second one very soon). I had never seen an episode and he had seen them all dozens of times; the blog takes the form of a correspondence between us about each episode. Check it out at http://bloggingthewestwing.com.
May 11, 2010 at 10:00AM ESTKelliAdams
May 10, 2010 at 8:13AM EST Reply to CommentI'm new to you Alan, just since this season of Lost. But I'm guessing your summer thing may be an off-air show/season? Might I suggest Wonderfalls if you didn't cover that while it was on? I see we're fans of many similar shows and this is probably my all-time favorite.
sepinwall Hey Kelli,
May 10, 2010 at 9:03AM ESTEvery year, someone suggests Wonderfalls, and every year I have to break the bad news that I really didn't like the show very much when it (briefly) aired on Fox. Pushing Daisies is really the only Bryan Fuller show I've gone all-in on.
Fienberg, on the other hand? LOVES Wonderfalls:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-the-fien-print/posts/tv-s-best-of-the-decade-no-17-wonderfalls
fred Alan,
May 12, 2010 at 10:01AM ESTSome nice suggestions already. If you allow me:
- Dan is right, Wonderfalls is awesome. Maybe one day you'll realize how wrong you were all this time... :P
- Firefly being the best thing ever, that would be pretty cool.
- The West Wing also sounds like a good idea, although it has quite a few more episodes.
- What I would LOVE to see you do, because I'd love to read your thoughts about the show and because I believe it's one of the best show on TV right now, is no other than Supernatural.
Supernatural is really awesome, evolved from a simple little procedural show filled with demons to a heavily serialized show dealing with fate vs free-will, good vs evil, etc (sounds familiar? yes it has similar topics than the almighty Lost, though I feel it handles things better).
It's a 5-season ride, but it is worth every minute of it; and I think you would like it.
Maybe it should be split over time, or - especially for the first season(s) - you could not review every episode, focusing on those you liked best/that dealt with the serialization more. I don't know, but I'd love to read you thoughts on what is truly a great and underrated show.
belinda
May 10, 2010 at 9:07AM EST Reply to CommentPeople who bombed in final tribal? (Just taking a shot, since I don't watch Survivor on a regular basis)
Hm...how about something really old, like My So Called Life?
sepinwall "Really old"? Way to hit a middle-aged guy (who watched that show in college) where it hurts, Belinda. :)
May 10, 2010 at 9:11AM ESTMSCL is a possibility. Though I should add the addendum that it's going to be really tough to do a show that had a full broadcast network season. Freaks and Geeks did 18, and that was pushing it at times. Sports Night wound up being so many episodes (particularly in a summer when, again, I was trying to do three shows at once) that I kept falling behind and ultimately had to recruit Linda Holmes to help me out on a bunch of them.
So we're probably better off either with a cable show or with a network show that got canceled before it got into the high teens or even 20s.
sab Alsn, "My So-Called Life" (unfortunately) only had 19 episodes. So it would fit your criteria. And yes, this is another vote for MSCL as your "summer project" :)
May 10, 2010 at 9:47AM EST
May 10, 2010 at 9:53AM ESTbelinda Aw, you're still a youngish stallion, Alan. :D
May 10, 2010 at 10:08AM ESTTWOP does have an excellent set of recaps of MSCL, but having read Alan's Freaks and Geeks recaps, I'd love to read his take on its predecessor of sorts. It is 19 episodes, so...just maybe? It'll be a heck of a summer with The Wire S3 and MSCL!
If not, then perhaps a UK show since they usually run shorter seasons - a season of Spaced or Coupling?
Mandy My So Called Life would be, like, completely and totally awesome.
May 10, 2010 at 11:25AM ESTKathryn My So-Called Life would be fabulous! Another vote for this to be one of your summer rewind series.
May 12, 2010 at 2:06AM ESTMichael K.
May 10, 2010 at 9:14AM EST Reply to CommentHey Alan! Summer show has got to be the original Prisoner.
May 10, 2010 at 9:15AM EST Reply to CommentSince you are going back and filling in the missing seasons of the Wire, why not season 1 of BSG? 13 episodes seems right up your summer alley
May 10, 2010 at 9:39AM ESTWish I hadn't lent my brother my Wire set. He's on Season 3, so I can't take it back now.
Aw, who am I kidding? I'm always glad to get somebody to watch The Wire.
Loretta Great idea. I fully support this one. And since it's a first season, it could potentially have a large audience, since new viewers could join in on the discussion.
May 11, 2010 at 10:02AM ESTchuchundra
May 10, 2010 at 9:24AM EST Reply to CommentAny thoughts on the Penny/Leonard break-up on BBT? I was surprised how much it bothered me and I think that if this is the way things are going to be from now on I may just stop watching the show entirely.
sepinwall Since I felt like there was no point to the relationship in the first place - other than the writers feeling like it was something they should do after having Leonard pine over her for two seasons - and no attempt to make them in any way interesting as a couple, I wasn't particularly bothered by the break-up.
May 10, 2010 at 9:43AM ESTPaul C
May 10, 2010 at 9:24AM EST Reply to CommentHow about starting from the beginning of 'The Shield'? You only seem to have bits of Season 5, then all of Season 6 & 7 on the other blog.
The show is deep enough that you could possibly do a Newbie/Veteran editions a la 'The Wire'.
Or for something completely different, maybe 'Arrested Development'.
sepinwall Love The Shield, but that's something I'd rather do in a summer when I'm not also doing The Wire. Again, trying to mix things up.
May 10, 2010 at 10:24AM ESTKevin
May 10, 2010 at 9:27AM EST Reply to CommentAlan you said above you covered season 2 of the Sopranos last summer and are doing season 3 this year. Did I miss something because I don't see that anywhere on your site. Did you mean The Wire Season 2?
Kevin I don't see it on your old site, I mean
May 10, 2010 at 9:29AM ESTsepinwall Typo. Every reference to Sopranos should have been to The Wire. Wire season 2 was last summer, Wire season 3 will be this summer.
May 10, 2010 at 9:36AM ESTMPH
May 10, 2010 at 9:30AM EST Reply to CommentPeople who made ridiculous decisions right before the final jury that arguably cost them a million dollars?
sepinwall And since the conversation is already drifting away from the Guess the Theme game, I should say that MPH nailed it: contestants who had a solid shot at winning the million bucks but made a bad decision at the end: Ian in quitting the final challenge to save his friendship with Tom, Colby in picking Tina over Keith as his opponent, and Amanda (twice!) wimping out at the final Tribal Council and refusing to own up to all her strategizing.
May 10, 2010 at 11:00AM ESTandythesaint Ian definitely gave up his shot at winning (literally), but I'm not sure he was going to beat Tom anyway. I think Heroes Vs Villains has helped change the idea that Amanda had her seasons won until Tribal Council. She certainly didn't help herself at either council, but the weak-willed way she played HvV (she constantly let others have their way in the group strategically, only voicing her objections in testimonials) suggests that perhaps one of the reasons she couldn't own up to her strategizing was that she never had as much strategizing to own in the first place.
May 10, 2010 at 11:20AM ESTAs an aside, she really looks different from one season to the next in those pictures, even though they were only separated by months. I guess Survivor really does age a person.
sepinwall It's not a question of whether Ian could have beaten Tom in a final vote - and I suspect he had a shot, as Tom would have absorbed more of the bitterness from people like Coby and Janu - but that had he stayed on the buoy, he would have voted out Tom and guaranteed himself a win against Katie.
May 10, 2010 at 11:29AM ESTI didn't watch China, but people like Dan insist she was at least as responsible for the decision-making there as Todd, and that was definitely the way things came across in Micronesia: that she, Parvati and Cirie played a roughly equal role in everyone who went home. And in both cases, her jury opponents gave speeches that owned those moves, where Amanda instead decided to bust out the crocodile tears and be all apologetic for, you know, playing the game.
andythesaint Odd... I've never even thought of the possibility of Ian BEATING Tom in the buoy challenge. Which, yes, would have given him the chance to win. I guess I was too caught up in Tom's invincibility by then.
May 10, 2010 at 12:12PM ESTWhen watching China, I too thought Amanda was a key stakeholder with Todd (and trumped him by pushing to eliminate James when they did). In Micronesia, she only became a player once they eliminated Ozzy behind her back and she was targeted (she seemingly had no relationship with the fans and relied on Parvati/Cerie's relationship with them), but I still thought she did some things well there (and thought she was going to win as the more likeable contestant). But watching her a third time with her passive play has put some of my earlier assumptions in doubt - maybe people didn't give her game play credit because they were there, watching her passively let other people do the dirty work. Of course, every season is different, so how she played this time might have nothing to do with how she played in China or Micronesia, but some of the exit interviews this season have not been particularly favourable on how Amanda plays Survivor.
Kevin
May 10, 2010 at 9:31AM EST Reply to CommentAre there any plans to go back and rewatch the seasons of the Sopranos you didn't cover?
sepinwall At some point, perhaps. Maybe I'll even give season 1 a spin this summer. We'll see. That show and the first two seasons of Deadwood are always in my back pocket as easy summer choices, but at the same time I like to balance things out a bit, and doing two of the Holy Trinity of HBO David shows at once seems a bit much.
May 10, 2010 at 9:44AM EST
May 10, 2010 at 9:32AM EST Reply to CommentIt's contestant's that got to the final three of Survivor and basically gave the game away with stupid decisions. (I don't think Ian made it to Final Tribal Council.)
csobel
May 10, 2010 at 9:36AM EST Reply to CommentHello, Alan!
I initially thought that perhaps, in light of the series finale, a re-view of "Lost", Season One would be totally appropriate -- but apparently there were 25 episodes that season (according to Wikipedia) -- so that's probably asking a bit much. Would you consider picking 13 (or so) pivotal "Lost" episodes from the first few seasons ("pivotal" being much easier to determine with the knowledge we'll have in the next couple weeks)... Just a thought. Thanks for all your writing. I enjoy it very much.
sepinwall Hmmm... Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
May 10, 2010 at 9:38AM ESTI don't know if that's what I'd do (I suspect I'm going to feel Lost'ed out by the time we get to June), but I'm curious how other people would feel about an approach that cherrypicked episodes, either from a single season or a series run. I like the idea of doing all the episodes, in order, of a batch, but it does eliminate a lot of shows due to the workload involved.
andythesaint I like this idea as well. I understand if Alan will be too Lost-ed out to do it, but the opposite could be true: maybe the finale motivates you to go back and see how well certain loose ends were tied up, or if moments from this season invalidate previous ones.
May 10, 2010 at 1:48PM ESTIt'd be a break from form to cherry pick episodes, but that could be a different kind of fun. If you were to do this, it'd probably best to announce which episodes you're watching in advance.
kny789
May 10, 2010 at 9:43AM EST Reply to CommentFirefly? Or Season 1 of the Sopranos / The Shield? Or how about Entourage as it airs this summer?
For a total random choice would love to hear your opinion on South Park
sepinwall Entourage ain't happening. Even when I liked it, I never liked it THAT much.
May 10, 2010 at 9:45AM ESTFirefly's always a contender (and we could tack on the movie to complete the project).
jwalz Somebody already suggested Firefly, which I'd like to second. I'd also be interested to see your thoughts on Undeclared. I'll admit, it didn't live up to my highest expectations, but I was basically looking for a spiritual successor to Freaks and Geeks, while Undeclared is very much its own creation.
May 10, 2010 at 9:49AM ESTAJ I will add my vote to Firely
May 10, 2010 at 9:59AM ESTrachelmed I'm another vote for Firefly! The Wire and Firefly for the summer? Sounds pretty awesome to me.
May 10, 2010 at 1:47PM ESTchi I would love it if you did Firefly/Serenity.
May 10, 2010 at 2:30PM ESTWhatTheFDidIDo I'll throw in my vote for "Firefly" as well. Either that or "Deadwood" Season 1 are pretty much perfect choices imo. Both are under 15 episodes and absolutely deserving of taking another look at.
May 10, 2010 at 8:20PM ESTdudleysmom Yes, please, Firefly. If anyone's a fan but hasn't listened to the DVD commentary tracks, they are well worth it.
May 10, 2010 at 11:58PM ESTZach L
May 10, 2010 at 9:43AM EST Reply to CommentHow about Undeclared? A little off the beaten path, but really enjoyable show that helped push the careers of jay baruchel, Seth rogen and Jason segal, amongst others. 20 eps, but all half hour ones.
My other suggestion would be Ed season 1, but that could be impossible as it's not on DVD. My favorite show though, and I'll always keep my hopes up it comes out in the next 15 years haha
sepinwall Undeclared brushes up against the episode limit, but it's also a half-hour show, so I could conceivably review them two at a time, like I started doing with Sports Night after a while.
May 10, 2010 at 9:46AM ESTBut you know I love me some Apatow, so...
LowLight21
May 10, 2010 at 9:48AM EST Reply to CommentHow about Six Feet Under?
sepinwall Liked the show, never really loved it - and, in particular, never loved any one season of it (as opposed to isolated episodes/moments) to want to revisit in that way.
May 10, 2010 at 9:51AM ESTHaines
May 10, 2010 at 9:49AM EST Reply to CommentYou recently boasted that you haven't been watching "In Plain Sight" and don't miss it.
When a network fires a show's creator and charges someone else with taking it in a new direction, you don't think it's, y'know, your job to pay attention?
sepinwall Only so many hours in a day/week, etc. I watched the season premiere (from the new showrunner), and it didn't feel different enough for me to make the effort - particularly during one of the busiest stretches of quality TV that I can remember - to keep watching.
May 10, 2010 at 9:50AM ESTdudleysmom 'In Plain Sight' has really improved (especially after the first episode this season), particularly in the areas that you were complaining about, Alan (the family). Moreover, the cases-of-the-week seem to be much stronger. (And I am a tough sell.) However, it's not ever going to be on anyone's top-ten-series of the aughts list, so I can't really blame you for concentrating on the truly great shows.
May 11, 2010 at 12:03AM EST
May 10, 2010 at 9:57AM EST Reply to CommentHow about Arrested Development? You could do season 1 this summer and seasons 2 and 3 next summer.
sepinwall A pure comedy like Arrested has never really seemed the right fit for the summer rewind approach. Very, very funny, but not a lot to unpack. (Whereas half-hour shows like Sports Night and Undeclared have enough dramatic/character growth elements to give me more to work with then just, "Wow, that was funny!")
May 10, 2010 at 10:07AM ESTHugh Russel
May 10, 2010 at 10:02AM EST Reply to CommentAlan,
I was thinking about the old "Supersized" episodes that NBC would sometimes run on Thursdays when each sitcom episode would run 40 minutes instead of 30. Is there any particular roadblock that would prevent a network from using some sort of adjusted viewing time for broadcasts for a full season? Say, build a 2 hour comedy block (or any genre) built around 3 strong shows instead of 4? Why do all shows still limit themselves to just 30 minutes or 1 hour air time (outside of the occasional extra minute or two)?
sepinwall While NBC did a lot of those 3 shows in 2 hours nights early in Jeff Zucker's tenure (it always seemed to me like an excuse for them to not show Scrubs), doing it for a full season strikes me as more trouble than its worth. Most shows shoot more material than they can fit into their timeslot, but it's not all *good* material.
May 10, 2010 at 10:20AM ESTIt's also something that's easier to do when you're the dominant network (which NBC still was when Zucker started) than when you're in fourth place. If one of your shows is going to run from 8:40-9:20, and the shows on the other networks that start at 9 are more popular, you may have just reduced the number of people willing to make the effort to watch you.
spotupj I thought the biggest reason against supersizing was syndication... once a show hits syndication, it has to fit into a half-hour or hour slot. So rather than hack up every single episode after it's already run, it's easier to just make episodes without the extra time.
May 10, 2010 at 1:02PM ESTbybrandy I think the argument against really doing it is syndication... how much would have to be taken out for non network broadcast.
May 10, 2010 at 1:10PM ESTBut wasn't eventually revealed that the episodes that were super sized just had more commercial time? Wasn't that a mini-scandal at the time?
Hobart "But wasn't eventually revealed that the episodes that were super sized just had more commercial time? Wasn't that a mini-scandal at the time?"
May 10, 2010 at 1:33PM ESTThere were definitely some cuts made for syndication. The episode that always sticks out for me is Casino Night from The Office. My favorite Toby joke ever (I'm gonna chase that feeling) got cut for syndication and the pace of the episode feels completely off since most of the jokes get cut so that they can keep the Carol/Jan/Mike and Jim/Pam plot points.
May 10, 2010 at 10:07AM EST Reply to CommentI'm definitely on-board with West Wing and think the idea of "cherry picking" the highlight episodes of Season 1 (the first few episodes of that season are really interesting, if just to compare and see how different the show became by mid-season).
Arrested Development is a great idea, too. It's a nice contrast with "The Wire".
ryan
May 10, 2010 at 10:07AM EST Reply to CommentAlan, Deadwood Season One seems to fit all requirements - it's good, it's brief, there's a lot to discuss, you weren't blogging when it first aired (that I can tell, at least), and there are still quite a few people out there who've yet to see it.
john
May 10, 2010 at 10:11AM EST Reply to Commentgood to hear you've been getting complaints on the layout.
for the TV on DVD, how about First Season of The Rockford Files, or the Fugitive?
ZacharyTF
May 10, 2010 at 10:13AM EST Reply to CommentI've never watched Survivor, so I'm not going to guess what the theme is.
What about American Dreams? The first season is 25 episodes and all are one hour long, so I'm guessing that's pushing it.
May 10, 2010 at 10:14AM EST Reply to CommentFreaks and Geeks?
sepinwall The series that started me on the whole summer DVD revisit idea:
May 10, 2010 at 10:37AM ESThttp://sepinwall.blogspot.com/search/label/Freaks%20and%20Geeks
Devin McC
May 10, 2010 at 10:14AM EST Reply to CommentHow come I get Feinberg's Tweets annoucing your new posts before I get your Tweets?
sepinwall I'm often asleep or away from the computer when my posts go up, so I'm using dlvr.it to automatically tweet the links. Sometimes, the service is slower than others.
May 10, 2010 at 10:25AM ESTSam
May 10, 2010 at 10:15AM EST Reply to CommentSam For the logo, Survivor people that made it close to the end but then somehow put friendship before winning the money. I know that applies to the Palau guy, and sort of Colby, not sure about amanda both times, maybe they all just made bad choices at the end.
May 10, 2010 at 10:23AM ESTAs for a question, on the Hurley episode of Lost, Libby was not on the plane as she saw the plane crash, does that confirm that she was not a tailie and was an other? I think that was speculated here, amongst other places. I know shannon wasn't on the plane but they had a boone explain that away.
raff
May 10, 2010 at 10:22AM EST Reply to CommentI think the first season of the west wing would be a great summer project.
Schnurpsischolz
May 10, 2010 at 10:31AM EST Reply to CommentMy take would also be BSG S1, it will be my project for the summer and it would be great, if I could do it with the coverage vom Sepinwall. The Wire and BSG are the 2 shows I'm awfully behind, so I want to take the summer to get into these two, but I don't think I will catch up with The Wire so soon.
alanw42
May 10, 2010 at 10:38AM EST Reply to CommentFirst off, props for the right spelling of Alan.
Community's recent episodes have thrown me for a loop continuity-wise, and I'm hoping you could shed some light. They've been fun, but the inconsistent characterizations because of out of order episode airing are really confusing me. As a viewer should I be taking my timeline cues from the actual airing order or the production order (if it's possible to know that)? For example, the mafia episode had Abed very insecure about his social incompetence, but the earlier aired pool episode was about how Abed is actually very sure of himself and his social interactions. It hasn't been so terrible as to annoy me, but mostly it's just hard to follow any linear character development. What's the best way to approach timeline issues like this? Thanks!
sepinwall Dan Harmon did a long blog post about how the episodes are being shown out of production order, but in the order in which the creative team intended them to air. In other words, they knew NBC would likely ask them to produce more episodes, but in the event that didn't happen, they wanted to end their season the way they had always planned to. Then they came up with a handful of episodes (including Goodfellas and paintball) that could be inserted before the finale, and go along with the continuity they had already established.
May 10, 2010 at 12:49PM ESTSo if you're finding fault in the continuity, it's not because of the air order.
Chaddogg
May 10, 2010 at 10:43AM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I know you're not an Anglo-phile, but what about doing a summer recap of a great British series? Like, perhaps, "The Office"? Or if you want to go shorter, the brilliant British mini-series "State of Play"? Or, even, perhaps, the amazing comedy that is "Spaced"? (I should note that for readers following along, all of "Spaced" is available on Hulu, meaning it would be easy for people to watch along as you review).
sepinwall Gervais Office? Hmm...
May 10, 2010 at 10:56AM ESTAs for Spaced, while I like the stuff Wright, Pegg and company have done since, the few episodes of the show that I watched never did that much for me - striking me very much as the kind of show Community is always in danger of becoming when it trends more towards parody than characterization.
Andrew
May 10, 2010 at 11:01AM EST Reply to CommentAlan, what about Slings and Arrows? Canadian show did three seasons of 6 hour long episodes each. Could easily knock it out in a summer, and the characters are rich enough that it would invite plenty of analysis. Technically a comedy, but deeper and richer.
Johnny Assay Seconding "Slings & Arrows" — you could do all three series (six episodes each) in a summer. If you're looking for something lighter to balance out "The Wire", it's hard to imagine something better than this.
May 10, 2010 at 11:49AM ESTThat said, S & A has come up before when Alan's been soliciting suggestions, but hasn't yet been selected. I don't think Alan has ever rejected it outright (cf. Wonderfalls), but I could be wrong.
Adam Slings & Arrows would absolutely work -- a smart, smart comedy that combines inside jokes about theater with humor that works for everyone and arcs that span all three seasons about youth and age, madness and creativity, art and commerce.
May 10, 2010 at 1:31PM ESTJason Potapoff Ooh I strongly vote for Slings and Arrows as well. I would love to see what you think of that series.
May 10, 2010 at 9:04PM ESTnic919 Another vote for Slings and Arrows. The first season even has Rachel McAdams in it just before she broke it big in The Notebook. And Paul Gross should be familiar to those who have seen Due South.
May 11, 2010 at 12:00PM EST- 1
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