REC POST

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REC THINGS

- Pick a show or theme and tell us why we should watch it!
- Rec icons, vids, fic, etc.

ASK FOR RECS

- Ask for Show recs based on what you DO like
- Ask for icons, vids, fic, etc

Have fun! and go nuts. (if you're not sure its allowed based on my guidelines above, just go for it!

Comments

Top 5 Short Cancelled Shows you should consider watching

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1. Wonderfalls [one season, 14 episodes]

This show is perfect and amazing and actually doesn't have a bad ending even though its canceled WAY before its time. Especially essential if you like Dead like me, Pushing Daises or Hannibal.

2. Firefly [one season, 14 episodes]

Because everyone should consider watching firefly.

3. Flashforward [one season, 22 episodes]

Because you will hate your life a little after because THIS SHOW GOT CANCELLED. so interesting and well done. Also John Cho.

4. Legend of the seeker [2 seasons, 44 episodes]

I'm probably pushing it because of the short factor on this one, but it is very very good and the cutest and cheesy fantasy but its also just amazing and funny and everyone in the cast are the best.

5. V [2 seasons, 22 episodes]

I really like scifi and fantasy (duh this list) but this had a slow start and then got REALLY goodddddd. Sadly cancelled on a not so great end though :(

Re: Top 5 Short Cancelled Shows you should consider watching

[colls]

Because everyone should consider watching firefly.
*nods*

A couple of my RL friends watched Flashforward and raved about it. It's been sitting in my tv queue for some time now. ONE DAY I WILL GET TO ALL THESE SHOWS
ha!

Re: Top 5 Short Cancelled Shows you should consider watching

[csichick_2]

Flashforward, Legend of the Seeker, and V are on my list.

Wonderfalls I don't think I've heard of before.

And Firefly is Firefly.

Re: Top 5 Short Cancelled Shows you should consider watching

[jiokra]

And John Cho.

SOLD

I haven't heard of Wonderfalls, but it sounds so good! And I adore Legend of the Seeker. Silly fantasy shows are my weakness. :D

Re: Top 5 Short Cancelled Shows you should consider watching

[veritas_poet]

I LOVED 'V' AND THEY LEFT US HANGING FOREVER AND NOW WE'LL NEVER KNOW HOW IT ENDED!
*twitch*
/rant

Yes, I'm still bitter.

top 5 currently airing/not cancelled shows you should consider watching

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1. Orphan Black [1 season, next in 2014]

If you want to see the greatest perfomance by an actress i've ever seen in my LIFE you should watch this. The show is about cloning but also humanity and individual people and askdg;aj its just really good. The plot is SO TIGHT and its very fast paced.

2. Elementary [1 season, next later this year]

This show is a delightful crime show. The growing friendship between holmes and watson is probably the best frienship i've seen on TV in a long time. The cast and crew are great, and the cases aren't always predictable and it does well on the diversity front.

3. Teen wolf [Currently in season 3]

I left this one til last because i can't even explain how good teen wolf is. It has so many tropes and subversion of tropes and the cast is delightful and its a fast paced mystery show and honestly there aren't many of those about now adays in the same genre. It really does surprise you and while it is set in a teenage setting they aren't annoying? I dunno its good.

4. Arrow [1 season, next later this year]

I hated this show at first. I have issues with DC and i think green arrow isn't really the best superhero to have his own show, BUT it got really likeable later in the season. If you can handle hanging in there, there are some great friendships and actiony stuff.

5. Nikita [3 seasons, final season soon?]

I'm sneaking this in here because technically it's not cancelled its got a final season of 6 episodes to go. But if you like Alias or spies or just generally like girls kicking ass, you should watch this. Such a fun show.

Re: top 5 currently airing/not cancelled shows you should consider watching

[eevilalice]

Nikita! ♥ I'm so glad they're giving it a little finish.

Also, Orphan Black has blown me away for all the reasons you mention.

Re: top 5 currently airing/not cancelled shows you should consider watching

[csichick_2]

Nikita's final season is only 6 eps? :(

Elementary I was eh about at first but I picked it back up towards the end of the season. Considering the end of the second RDJ movie and the end of season 2 of Sherlock, I was a little underwhelmed by the end of Elementary's season. IT JUST SEEMED TO NEAT AND EASY. It's still on my list for fall though.

I keep hearing people say I should watch Orphan Black. *adds to list*

Re: top 5 currently airing/not cancelled shows you should consider watching

[veritas_poet]

Orphan Black - The only place I keep hearing of this show is on the interwebs! I've not seen any promos or anything. If not for people's comments, I wouldn't even know of its existence.

Hm, I may have to get hold of it somehow. Thanks!

Re: top 5 currently airing/not cancelled shows you should consider watching

[unightfog]

ah need to catch up on Elementary!
will get onto that this week!

5 tv shows with female protagonists with depth

[naushika]

All of these are currently airing! :)

5. The Killing (US)

The first two seasons of this have aired and are great for marathoning, as those seasons cover one homicide case. It's in its third season, and a new case. But the main character is a detective named Sarah Linden, who is obsessive, intelligent, and stoic. She gets to be the sort of cop on tv you only usually see men being. Linden is partnered with younger, street-wise, smart-mouthed Stephen Holder, and their odd-couple style partnership is a delight. A slow-moving yet simultaneously tense plot coupled with lots of realistic characters and lovely cinematography.

4. Homeland

Okay, you've probably heard of this show, but it's got two seasons out (3rd airing later this year), and is a fast-pasted, action-packed, political thriller. CIA agent Carrie Mathison is an excellent agent, but suffering from mental illness, which impacts her life and her job in realistic ways. The antagonist of the show is Nicholas Brody, suspected terrorist, but the relationship between these two becomes twisted and unhealthy and is all sorts of addictive to watch.

3. The Americans

The first season of this show just finished airing a month or so ago, so it would be quick to catch up on (only 13 episodes in the first season). The show takes place in the 1980s, and centers on a pair of Russian KGB agents who live undercover as a married couple in America, Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings. There's an enjoyable role reversal, where Elizabeth is the one who is more loyal to Russia, more focused on the work, and Phillip is the more emotional one. The show has lots of spy stuff, and is part thriller and part family drama.

2. Continuum

The second season of this is almost finished airing. It's about a law enforcement official from the year 2077, Kiera Cameron, who is accidentally transported back in time (our present) along with a group of terrorists. The show is mainly about Kiera's attempt to interface with the local police and to capture the terrorist group, with the secondary goal of trying to find her way back to her own time (and family, who are back in the future). There's lots of fun time travel shennanigans with characters in both the past and the future and how changing the past affects the future, and this season has some on-going mysteries. Also I might just be weird but I actually really love the terrorist group, I think their story is very interesting and like many real life terrorist organizations, they have a good underlying message but their methods can sometimes be despicable.

1. Orphan Black

This has already been rec'd BUT I'M RECCING IT AGAIN because if I could get anyone to watch only ONE new show, it would be this one! It's about a woman, Sarah Manning, who, while at the train station one day, sees a woman commit suicide. And that woman looks exactly like Sarah. Dun dun dun!! The show blossoms into an amazing fast-paced thriller/drama about these clones that have found each other, and who made them, and why. It has a really amazing cast, most importantly is Tatiana Maslany who plays several characters and basically she is amazing. I constantly forget she's playing several different people. PLEASE WATCH ORPHAN BLACK! :D

Re: 5 tv shows with female protagonists with depth

[colls]

I LIKE YOUR THEME

Re: 5 tv shows with female protagonists with depth

[csichick_2]

Homeland is the only one of these I've seen so far.

I've heard mixed reviews on The Killing, but that was mostly about how they dragged stuff out the first two seasons.

Re: 5 tv shows with female protagonists with depth

[timetobegin]

watching the killing season 3 atm. wish i had the patience to wait and watch it when it ends!

[malicat]

For now I just have two shows,will maybe be back for more. Also,I suck at explaining,sorry ^^

Spartacus: (three seasons,one prequel)

It ended in January but technically it wasn't really cancelled,it was meant to be the last season and it ended that way.
Spartacus has lots of pretty people (which is not the biggest reason to watch it but I'm mentioning it first as the first episodes are kind of really bad and I only kept on watching for shallow reasons *lol*), the greatest characters who almost all have so much depth and development and especially the female characters are SO great. Seriously,this show features some of the best written female characters I've ever seen <3 Also several super awesome gay characters (and same sex couples) who are treated completely equally as the other characters,the acting is brilliant (Lucy Lawless in in it or John Hannah,to name some more well known actors. But the ~newcomers are equally great) and just when you think this show is just a silly,guilty pleasure you will learn that Spartacus is one of the best shows ever and will give you all the feelings!

Oh,and if you decide to watch it (WHICH YOU TOTALLY SHOULD) then in this order 1. Blood and Sand 2. Gods of the Arena (it's the prequel and comes before Blood and Sand timeline wise but it's better to watch it after B&S!) 3. Vengeance 4. War of the Damned

Hannibal: (first season literally just finished,renewed for a second season)

Best new show of the season and IMO also one of the best in a long time. It's incredibly beautiful (and it's done in a way that makes the gore more bearable IMO),so well acted - seriously,Mads Mikkelsen who plays Hannibal and Hugh Dancy as Will Graham deserve ALL THE AWARDS - and it just sucks you right now. Also,the fandom is the best and always comes up with the most creative and hilarious things :D

[colls]

I keep hearing AWESOME things about Spartacus from everyone who's watched it - I wish it were streaming on netflix.
Thanks for the tip on what order to watch it in.

[naushika]

I really need to watch Hannibal! Cannibals gross me out though. It's a mental hurdle.

[unightfog]

SPARTACUS!!!!

4 historical dramas

[naushika]

I find a lot of historical dramas to be intensely boring, and I've tried many of them. These are the ones I really enjoyed.

4. Boardwalk Empire

Taking place in America during prohibition (beginning in 1920), it mainly centers on Nucky Thompson, who runs Atlantic City, and the world he occupies. He's a criminal, as are most of the characters on the show, and it's a rather dark look at the world of the illegal alcohol trade in the 20s.

3. Downton Abbey

Need I even say anything about this show? Haha. Tons of people are watching this show and for good reason. The writing is delightful, there are plenty of characters to pick faves from, and the plots are super addictive. The classiest soap opera you will ever watch.

2. Vikings

A very short 9-episode first season has aired, so this is quick to catch up on. It's about the Vikings (of course), more specifically following the story of Ragnar Lothbrok, a viking who wishes to sail west and find the mythical England. It's also about his family, and the political machinations of the vikings. The plot moves very quickly, and the characters are really interesting, and it's shot really beautifully. The fight scenes are amazing, and despite there being a lot of them, somehow the violence doesn't seem gratuitous or romanticized.

1. Deadwood

Set in the old west town of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s, this is an extremely entertaining and addictive show. It features a lot of well-known real life figures (along with fictional ones), and has a very large ensemble cast. The plots are detailed, and the entire show is really hard to stop watching. You wouldn't think a show about miners and cowboys would be very interesting but I promise this is the funnest (and at times, most heart-wrenching) historical drama ever.

Re: 4 historical dramas

[timetobegin]

i have heard only good things about deadwood

Re: 4 historical dramas

[csichick_2]

Deadwood is totally on my list already because it was one of my dad's favorite shows and everything he's recommended to me I've liked.

Boardwalk Empire I'm planning to add to my massive list of shows. I've seen an episode here and there when I've been visiting my parents and what I've seen has caught my interest.

Even people I'm in karate with watch Downton Abbey, so I will check it out at some point.

I don't think I've heard of Vikings.

Things you should watch

[acari]

Some Girls

It's a British show about four girls who are best friends and go through the trials and tribulations of school, family, love and growing up together. It's screamingly funny and irreverent, and feels very real: they swear, they have sex, they talk shit, they look and act like actual teenagers. These are the protagonists and they are all amazing in their own way. Viva (my favourite) is the POV character and a little miss overachiever who goes through life with a perpetual raised eyebrow. Her dad is dating the girls' football coach AKA "Miss Bitchcock". Saz's approach to everything is sarcasm and watching her trying to flirt is the most hilarious/cutest thing ever seen on this planet. Holli has a serious anger management problem and is basically raising her siblings on her own since her mom is perpetually high on some pill or another. Amber is the girliest girl who ever girled and a little dense, but the sweetest person ever. She is also a total pushover (especially when it comes to her boyfriend's puppy dog eyes).

S1 has finishing airing and it has been renewed for S2.

Bomb Girls

It's a Canadian show about a group of women who work in a munitions factory during WWII. I would call this a feminist show because it is actually about the specific struggles each of these women face because of them being women. Kate ran away from her physically & emotionally abusive preacher father and has to unlearn a lot of crap she had been taught about herself. Betty (my favourite) is assertive and has a lot of swagger but she also knows she does not like boys the way she is supposed to so she is painfully aware that she can never really fulfill the typical female role of wife & mother society expects of her. She falls for Kate, which is at once wonderful to watch because they get very close as friends but also utterly heartbreaking. Gladys is a spoiled little princess who wants to do her part and work on the factory floor like the other women. She struggles with family expectations and her desire to do actual work instead of swanning around like a socialite. Lorna is in charge of the women working in the factory. She is strict and no-nonsense and keeps herself mostly apart. Her husband came home from WWI in a wheelchair and a serious case of PTSD so he can neither physically nor mentally support her. She is basically holding it all together while trying not to fall apart. Vera is confident, loves men and sex, is very into fashion and makeup, and is the center of every party until she has a terrible accident on the factory floor. She has to put herself back together in the aftermath when the person looking back from the mirror is not the same anymore.

S1 is amazing and I can rec it without qualifiers (though I wish at least one of the main characters had not been white to add that dimension to the show), but S2 did lose its focus for me and the writing suffered. It's been canceled.

Re: Things you should watch

[colls]

Bomb Girls sounds really good, it's too bad to hear it struggled in season 2. Would you say watching season 1 alone would be satisfying enough or are there plot threads into season 2 that are worthwhile despite the lack of focus?

OLDER STUFF - IN SPACE ('cuz I'm old)

[colls]

1 - Farscape 4 seasons, 1999-2003
IMO, the best scifi series to come out of the 2000's decade. An earth astronaut is flung into space, encounters a slew of aliens who are CRAZY ex-prisoners and is just trying to find a way home. Adventure ensues. This show has it all -- it plays with pop culture, has a dark and edgy side and TRUE LOVE.

2 - Andromeda 5 seasons, 2000-2005
Based on unused Gene Roddenberry material, this show considers the fall of a "perfect" civilization and the resulting chaos and anarchy. Our intrepid leader decides to restore things and recruits a band of misfits to help.
It's a campy space opera with questionable wardrobe choices - what's not to love?

3 - Space: Above & Beyond 1 season, 1995-1996
Marines in space. Deals with some classic scifi tropes like "what it means to be human" using artificial intelligence (there was a war with AI's set pre-series) and human 'cloning' or at least breeding humans in petri dishes. Also has plenty of action/adventure with unknown alien hostiles and shadowy government involvement. Made by the creators of X-files.

4 - Babylon 5 5 seasons, 1994-1998 (also a couple made-for-TV mini-movies and a spinoff)
A space station meant to be a diplomatic outpost for keeping peace between several races, it becomes a hotbed of political intrigue. There was a pilot movie before the series (I think?). This was a planned series, so the over-reaching story arc actually makes sense.

5 - Earth 2 1 season, 1994-1995
Earth's surface is largely uninhabitable, people live in space stations orbiting the planet. A small expedition arrives on 'Earth 2' crippled, in the wrong site and without most of their supplies. On top of that, they find the planet already inhabited.

Re: OLDER STUFF - IN SPACE ('cuz I'm old)

[acari]

Space: Above & Beyond! I loved that show so much. I had such a crush on Coop and wanted to be Shane when I grew up. I still remember how the finale gutted me.

5 Favorites--New and Currently Airing

[eevilalice]

1. Nashville (just finished its first season)

One, Connie Britton, who's amazing in everything. She plays an established country music star who sometimes clashes with the younger Juliette Barnes, played by Hayden Panettiere, who's also wonderful. But I promise both characters are fleshed out (Juliette's actually my favorite, though she can definitely be prickly), and it's not catfight central. It's really an ensemble show, offering some soapy goodness, plus gorgeous or fun music (and this is coming from someone who's not generally a country music fan).

2. The Mindy Project (just finished its first season)

Here's the thing. I try with sitcoms; I really do. But I rarely find one that I actually like, let alone love, and I'm totally charmed by Mindy Kaling, who plays a doctor here. The show is essentially a workplace sitcom, but you also see her struggling to find and maintain a relationship (she's a real romantic) in her 30s. Mostly there are hijinks. Great cast (my personal favorite is Ike Barinholtz, who plays the nurse) and guest spots.

3. Pretty Little Liars (fourth season just began)

I recently became obsessed with this show and am catching up to the current season. It's a mystery and high school drama in one, with a group of female friends who are being terrorized by an anonymous person who seems to know way too much about them and their murdered friend. The best thing about the show, though, is the friendship between the girls; however much "A" messes with them, they stick together.

4. Venture Bros. (fifth season just began)

This is an animated show on Cartoon Network, and one of my favorites, ever. It reminds me of an Edgar Wright movie (like Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz) where it's a parody but sort of serious about genre at the same time--taking the boy detective or scientist action-adventure and seeing what would happen when that kid grew up with a family--and an archvillain--of his own. I can't stress how funny, clever, and creative this show is.

5. Adventure Time (fifth season airing)

Late to the party on this one, too, this may be the hardest show to describe. It's animated, also on Cartoon Network, but ostensibly for a younger audience. Finn and Jake, the dog, are heroes in a fantasy land with some truly wacky citizens. The show often plays with the tropes of such a genre (like the guy who's constantly stealing princesses to marry). I've laughed and grinned at the sheer cuteness AND cleverness--it's one of those shows that make you wonder where the writers came up with things. And then sometimes, things are surprisingly dark.

Re: 5 Favorites--New and Currently Airing

[colls]

I've heard a few people say they really like Nashville and Pretty Little Liars, I might have to give those a try!