Television

[MysticalDescent]

Well, there's a thread for pretty much every other entertainment medium and there seem to be all sorts of posts about things on TV going on, so why not?

The Apprentice is on in around 20 minutes. Apparently in other countries it's a deadly serious exhibition of remarkable business exploits by that nation's finest young business talents. I couldn't imagine anything remotely like that, it's great comedy over here. They seem to only select candidates who are low on both competence and ability to not be a dick.

Now that The Inbetweeners has finished for good (not that that's the sort of thing I'd ever dream of recommending, on account of it being incredibly crude at times and quite probably offensive to all manner of people, so it's better to be safe - their portrayal of sixth formers is impeccable, though, even if my friends do keep comparing me to Will), the best thing on TV over here is almost certainly Spooks. That's some excellent television.

Also, why the hell have I suddenly started to spend my days watching Mythbusters?

[PonderThis]

What you described as The Apprentice sounds pretty much the same thing we have here. But I've never actually watched the show itself, just the commercials.

Also, why the hell have I suddenly started to spend my days watching Mythbusters?

Because it occasionally includes science and they blow stuff up. Or at least that's why I watch it.

It's funny some people mock it for not being "real science" but that's not entirely fair or accurate. It is real science, in that they pose hypotheses and then test said hypotheses. OK, it's not the most rigorous science in the world, and it's rarely useful science. But it is science and it is entertaining so I like it.

I've mentioned The Venture Bros before but I think only Nik and I were watching it.

Anybody catch The Regular Show on Cartoon Network?

Hmmm ... I recently got into Eureka! over on Sciffy. It was so much fun I went out and bought the first season on DVD.

[EvilJekyll]

I've mentioned The Venture Bros before but I think only Nik and I were watching it.

I had been watching it, but I had not heard anything about when it would be airing until a week or two ago, which was already three episodes into this half of the season. So I have not yet seen any of this half of this season.

[Skimba]

I mostly watch Syfy and Food Network. The next group I watch if nothing good on the other two: Travel Channel, National Geographic-Wild, Biography (when it's paranormal stuff), the Simpsons, Fearnet (on demand horror), the channel that shows Man Vs. Food and some Animal Planet. I used to watch a lot of Cartoon Network, but it got boring and repetitive and all the good shows aren't on until after 12:30am and I'm at work by 7:30. I loved The Venture Bros, but I have not seen it in a long time.
I also watch the news every morning before going to work.

[jvcc]

The Apprentice is on in around 20 minutes. Apparently in other countries it's a deadly serious exhibition of remarkable business exploits by that nation's finest young business talents.

HAH. Oh my, no, ours is an hour of poopcakes. I still watch it when there's nothing else on, and I am repeatedly troubled by the sexism of it. Like all competent businesswoman, the female contestants have attempted to sell things using their looks, and are generally catty and uncooperative with each other. The men are overly aggressive and one regularly has mental breakdowns in which he starts swearing at his team members. Argh, I really need to stop watching it, it makes me angry.

I mostly watch Syfy and Food Network.

Aw, man, I miss Cupcake Wars. I only get basic channels at my apartment and haven't found any episodes online. I'll go look for those now.

I finished watching all the old episodes of QI, and The Best of the Worst, which wasn't that good but it had David Mitchell on it. Because my addiction to celebrity panel shows in insatiable, I'm currently going through old episodes of Nevermind the Buzzcocks.

[loofah]

I've mentioned The Venture Bros before but I think only Nik and I were watching it.

Someone on here mentioned it a few years ago, and since then, I have not missed an episode. Other than that, I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report online when I get spare time. That's it.

[MysticalDescent]

The Apprentice is on in around 20 minutes. Apparently in other countries it's a deadly serious exhibition of remarkable business exploits by that nation's finest young business talents.

HAH. Oh my, no, ours is an hour of poopcakes. I still watch it when there's nothing else on, and I am repeatedly troubled by the sexism of it. Like all competent businesswoman, the female contestants have attempted to sell things using their looks, and are generally catty and uncooperative with each other. The men are overly aggressive and one regularly has mental breakdowns in which he starts swearing at his team members. Argh, I really need to stop watching it, it makes me angry.

They're not unlike that here. They're all just so thoroughly incompetent, with exchanges with customers such as this one:

"How much would it be for 1000 bread rolls?"
"errrrm"
*spends 10 minutes puffing and struggling to perform what appears to be a simple matter of multiplying two numbers using a calculator, despite this being her day job, before going outside for 15 minutes to work it out until the customer actually has to come and find where they've gone*

or:

"We've got a standard price for those"
"What is it?"
"errrrrm...I don't know right now"

It's a great laugh, it really is. Asides from one, the women are all hopeless and, as you say, impossibly bitchy, sulky and lazy. The men are all pretty much just kids and mostly behave as such. Last night they were actually arguing over who'd got the best GCSE results when they were in high school. They all talk nonsensical business speak as well that just makes them sound stupid. I'm pretty sure that answering "100%" every time instead of "yes" is actually completely meaningless. I know I'm hardly a skilled writer and I leave rather a lot to be desired sometimes, but the appalling grammar, mixed tenses and completely misused words just makes them sound like morons. All's the better really, because it makes it more comical.

I finished watching all the old episodes of QI, and The Best of the Worst, which wasn't that good but it had David Mitchell on it. Because my addiction to celebrity panel shows in insatiable, I'm currently going through old episodes of Nevermind the Buzzcocks.

Which series? The first series of Simon Amstell is really good, but they dip after that. They're really not worth watching once Bill Bailey leaves and that Fielding creature appears. Anyway, seeing as you've made your way through all the episodes of QI, you must now make the impossible choice: who is the greatest, Stephen Fry or Hugh Laurie, without referring to their ranks in the various Blackadder series?

[ntw3001]

I still disagree with your assessment of Simon Amstell, so you're going to have to change it.

I watched the Apprentice a couple of times, and I rather liked it. It's one of those shows that makes the viewer feel like they could win big prizes really easily by competing against drooling incompetents. There was some kind of going-round-a-market-trying-to-find-specific-items challenge, and one team had to find a bunch of kosher meat. They found halal meat, because that's basically the same right? Do we know what kosher is? It's like, religion... food, or something. Right, yeah, that'll do.

During this episode I found out that Sir Alan Sugar is Jewish and the leader (I think) of that team had described himself as a 'good little Jewish boy' in his application. Yet not a single member of the team, himself included, had been able to scrape together more than the slightest inkling of what 'kosher' was. Our man Alan was not happy. The lesson: Before claiming to be Jewish to ingratiate oneself to a prospective employer, make sure you are at least as familiar with the religion as a primary school leaver.

So, yeah. I could succeed in business. Or at least, I could succeed on the Apprentice.

Anyways. That was a few years ago, and I don't watch TV now because I don't know how this new digital remote with all the buttons works. Also, my TV makes a high-pitched whistling sound. It is very old.

[jvcc]

My shower makes a high-pitched whistling/shrieking sound sometimes. It's very unpleasant.

I like Simon Amstell, and I also like Bill Bailey more than Noel Fielding. I don't hate Noel Fielding, though. But neither can I understand why so many YouTube commenters think he's attractive.

I'm going to say that I like Stephen Fry better, based almost solely on the fact that Hugh Laurie does House. Sure, he's a great actor (the only good actor on the show), but other than that it's completely terrible. The dialogue is painfully unrealistic. If my friends only spoke in the form of glib life lessons I wouldn't be friends with them. Also, and this is a minor point, why are the doctors of that hospital running the MRI machines? Do they only have about six staff members?

[Binkatron5000]

Hmmm ... I recently got into Eureka! over on Sciffy. It was so much fun I went out and bought the first season on DVD.

What a fun show, I love it The format becomes fairly predictable, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

When I turn on the TV I usually watch something on Discovery, National Geographic, Space (basically all reruns of every type of star trek and stargate, with the occasional documentary on the cosmos), and recently we got a new channel called "Science" which has some really cool shows on it. None of which I can remember at the moment. Oh wait I remember one: Sci Fi Science with Michio Kaku! He cuts a lot of theoretical corners but he's really good at breaking things down in a fun and interesting way for the average viewer.

On youtube, I've been watching the new X Factor. Dear god help me. One of my other guilty pleasures is the show Hoarders.

[Nyperold]

There was some kind of going-round-a-market-trying-to-find-specific-items challenge, and one team had to find a bunch of kosher meat. They found halal meat, because that's basically the same right? Do we know what kosher is? It's like, religion... food, or something. Right, yeah, that'll do.

During this episode I found out that Sir Alan Sugar is Jewish and the leader (I think) of that team had described himself as a 'good little Jewish boy' in his application. Yet not a single member of the team, himself included, had been able to scrape together more than the slightest inkling of what 'kosher' was. Our man Alan was not happy. The lesson: Before claiming to be Jewish to ingratiate oneself to a prospective employer, make sure you are at least as familiar with the religion as a primary school leaver.

Wow. I mean, yeah, halal and kosher intersect in areas, but the systems having two different sets of criteria means they're not going to always come up with the same set of animals.

My guess is that they had their respective bar mitzvah ceremonies, and promptly stopped observing.

On the other hand, they might be Reform or Reconstructionist or something like that, which "hold that these laws are no longer binding."

[jvcc]

Ooh, I saw an episode of Stargate at a sci-fi group I attend. It seems like something I could get into, but I don't want to spend an entire weekend watching old episodes when I could be studying.

[ntw3001]

There was some kind of going-round-a-market-trying-to-find-specific-items challenge, and one team had to find a bunch of kosher meat. They found halal meat, because that's basically the same right? Do we know what kosher is? It's like, religion... food, or something. Right, yeah, that'll do.

During this episode I found out that Sir Alan Sugar is Jewish and the leader (I think) of that team had described himself as a 'good little Jewish boy' in his application. Yet not a single member of the team, himself included, had been able to scrape together more than the slightest inkling of what 'kosher' was. Our man Alan was not happy. The lesson: Before claiming to be Jewish to ingratiate oneself to a prospective employer, make sure you are at least as familiar with the religion as a primary school leaver.

Wow. I mean, yeah, halal and kosher intersect in areas, but the systems having two different sets of criteria means they're not going to always come up with the same set of animals.

My guess is that they had their respective bar mitzvah ceremonies, and promptly stopped observing.

On the other hand, they might be Reform or Reconstructionist or something like that, which "hold that these laws are no longer binding."

Nonetheless, you'd expect them to have some broad understanding of what the laws are. They really did seem never to have heard the word before.

many YouTube commenters think

?

[EvilJekyll]

Things I currently keep up with: The Big Bang Theory, CSI, Dexter, House, It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia, MythBusters, The Office.

Other things I am watching: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, QI (almost caught up to current episodes as I started watching from scratch with my grilfriend.)

Shows I will watch when they come back on: Burn Notice, Doctor Who, Torchwood

Shows I intend to watch the rest of: Better Off Ted (Season 2), Dollhouse (Season 2), Monty Python's Flying Circus (a series and a half to go), Twilight Zone (seasons 2-5), Venture Bros. (need to watch this half of the season)

Shows I have seen all episodes of: Animaniacs, Dead Like Me, Fawlty Towers, Firefly, I Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., MASH, The X-Files

[MysticalDescent]

There was some kind of going-round-a-market-trying-to-find-specific-items challenge, and one team had to find a bunch of kosher meat. They found halal meat, because that's basically the same right? Do we know what kosher is? It's like, religion... food, or something. Right, yeah, that'll do.

During this episode I found out that Sir Alan Sugar is Jewish and the leader (I think) of that team had described himself as a 'good little Jewish boy' in his application. Yet not a single member of the team, himself included, had been able to scrape together more than the slightest inkling of what 'kosher' was. Our man Alan was not happy. The lesson: Before claiming to be Jewish to ingratiate oneself to a prospective employer, make sure you are at least as familiar with the religion as a primary school leaver.

Wow. I mean, yeah, halal and kosher intersect in areas, but the systems having two different sets of criteria means they're not going to always come up with the same set of animals.

My guess is that they had their respective bar mitzvah ceremonies, and promptly stopped observing.

On the other hand, they might be Reform or Reconstructionist or something like that, which "hold that these laws are no longer binding."

They'd been whisked off to Morocco with a list of stuff to buy with a Kosher Chicken being at the top of the list. More details are here if you're all that concerned. They saw 'Kosher' on the list, guessed that it meant there was some special religious sort of thing done to it and that they should therefore stumble around asking every merchant they found whether or not they had blessed chicken, or something stupid like that. They ended up with Halal anyway.

[PonderThis]

My local PBS station showed "Sherlock" A Study In Pink last night. I have to say that was much better than I was expecting! They've really got the characters down while managing to transport the whole Sherlock Holmes idea to the 21st century.

ENJOYED: WILL WATCH AGAIN

[Nyperold]

I heard about the series, but I didn't know that was the episode title. But now that I do know, I have a certain theme song by Henry Mancini in my head.

D-do d-do, d-do, d-do d-do d-do d-do d-doooooooo, dada-doodle-do...

[Skimba]

Ohhh, October. The month when I do not have to search hard for horror and horrible horror movies/TV shows. I love thee.

[giantsfan97]

The only live TV I watch anymore is sporting events.

I do watch The Office and 30 Rock online, and usually SNL as well.

Honestly, I think The Wire ruined all "serious" shows for me.

[chrismachine]

Speaking of this, your team is one of the class teams of your conference, and I haven't heard a peep this year. What gives? Ready for tonight?

[ntw3001]

What's tonight? Wait, I'll try and look it up instead of asking. I'm still going to click post when I've done that though.

Oh you are fighting cowboys. I tried to draw a giant fighting cowboys, but I forgot I can't draw lines and have to make pictures out of hundreds and hundreds of tiny tiny dashes. I found the failure discouraging, so I've instead drawn nothing. Enjoy!

[chrismachine]

2 series into the game and I know gf is likely drinking and cursing.

[Nyperold]

2 series into the game and I know gf is likely drinking and cursing.

"Yes, yes, but how is he reacting to the game?"

[PonderThis]

I bet he loved it as the Giants beat my 'Boys and put Romo on his back for the next six to eight weeks.

We were 1-4 before the game and not looking to anything this season anyway, so I can't say as I'm even all that disappointed.

So ... how 'bout those Rangers!

[ntw3001]

I bet he loved it as the Giants beat my 'Boys and put Romo on his back for the next six to eight weeks.

This just happened in Football manager. Hey let's play a friendly against Derby County! CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH and there go the bones of my left and right midfielders and my backup left midfielder. They won't be playing the first half of next season. All in the first half. Derby County are vicious monsters. The only yellow card of the game went to me.