Nov 17, 2008
What’s Next?
In The West Wing, whenever President Bartlet was ready to move on to another issue or topic of conversation, he’d say “what’s next?” It was a signal that he was done, and keen for something else.
We’ve coincidentally just finished watching The West Wing, as it happens. In mid-September, with the US election getting (even more) interesting and the weather getting more rubbish, we decided it was time to experience the Wing cycle anew. Our aim was to go through all seven seasons in quick order, culminating with the big Santos/Vinick election battle and subsequent transition just in time for the real-life election in early November.
Alas, my travels in early October put paid to that hope, and we were a couple of weeks over – we finished last night at about 10pm, with a belly full of Thai and a small lump in our throats. Not through emotion – let’s be honest, the series sort of lost its way after Soorkin wandered off, and the plotlines tended towards the mawkish and/or dull especially in the latter seasons – but that twinge of sadness that comes with the passing of something you’ve put a lot of effort into.
So what’s next?
I’ve written here before about my binge-viewing techniques, and while there’s still some truth in that model, there are other things in play, too.
One is the medium: I like watching a different sort of thing on the iPhone on my way into work or while on long-distance travels than I do curled up with cat and P at home in the evening. So, for example, on my mobile device in the last few months, I’ve watched (via the itunes store):
- Gossip Girl
- Chuck
- The Riches
- Greek
- And about two episodes of Psych, which is rather awful, even though I appreciate that the aforementioned can’t seem much better
Previous shows consumed in the same manner include 30 Rock, Journeyman, Grey’s Anatomy and Huff.
The thing is, commutes and long plane journeys and nights in strange hotel rooms go together with pap TV like mince pies and Wensleydale. Very little attention required, so compatible with jetlag and watching in chunks, plus no commitment on either part: you can watch one episode, or a bunch, and while you might feel a bit dirty if you do, you won’t feel bad if you ignore it for ages, either.
After a while, I must confess, the shows do all blend into one strange mass of perfect teeth and shoulder-length hair and high-dramas (possibly involving spies or scheming friends) resolved in a tidy forty minutes, and geeks who really aren’t plus accents which really shouldn’t (Eddie Izzard, Ah’m tawkin’ tew yew, hiyuh).
But the sort of thing we want to watch on the sofa at home is different. It needs to be more involving, with longer story-arcs and more interesting/dimensional characters. In fact, in some ways it needs to be the very antithesis of the crap throwaway viewing on the move: in those, stuff happens and there’s very flimsy linking between one episode and the next, because everything tends to be action-driven.
On the sofa, stuff doesn’t need to happen at all, but the writing and the characters and the interplay of long-running interactions and plots is satisfying. It doesn’t need to be drama, but it needs to work on several layers. And most of all, there needs to be several seasons, because there’s nothing worse than discovering something decent to watch only to learn that some gitwizard at the network decided to cancel it in favour of yet more reality nonsense celebrity setup toss.
We’ve watched – and enjoyed, mostly – M*A*S*H from beginning to (nearly) end, though the latter seasons contained too many soul-searching concept episodes for comfort. I absolutely lapped up Firefly when I was recuperating from my operation earlier in the year, and was irritated beyond reason that a) I hadn’t got around to watching it previously and b) it was cancelled so soon. No fair! I also enjoyed the first two seasons of Heroes (except for the hastily-written end of s2), but haven’t yet got around to watching any of s3 at all. Just can’t summon the enthusiasm at all.
I couldn’t persuade P to watch either of these because he’s got a switch in his head which means when anything relating to science fiction appears on the screen he starts fidgeting and yawning and grumbling. I’m not far off myself, if I’m honest, so was pleasantly surprised to even enjoy these two.
We went through a phase of watching a lot of House and, years before, CSI, but both fail when it comes to watching many episodes in quick succession because they’re so totally formulaic – indeed we soon tired of the 32 minute apex: the mark at which a sudden, dramatic realisation appears on the furrowed brows of the medical/forensic investigators which – phew! – made the whole mystery come together just in time to be solved by the closing credits.
I watched and loved Rome, and was quite taken by Mad Men when it started, but I’m not very good at waiting for next episodes. I’ve liked Spooks in the past, but the last season failed to grip me. I quickly lost patience with Lost a long time ago when it failed to resolve into anything compelling and instead seemed dreadfully pleased with itself for being clever. Ohdofuckorf.
All of which is a roundabout way of getting to the crux of the question: given that we never, ever watch actual live television (or recorded, come to that), what should we watch next?
For reference, our criteria are:
- Ensemble cast
- Plots that you can’t set your watch by
- Not cliched, formulaic or stupid
- Several seasons
- No sci fi (says P)
- Intelligent writing
- Addictive without being overhyped
- Must be new to both of us
- Don’t care where it’s from, but preferably modern rather than historic
- Not about a detective on the channel islands or leather-skinned antique-fondlers or landed gentry gimming about in tweeds
Answers on a postcard…
(and yes, we know The Wire is top of the list. What else?)
Both seasons of Early Doors followed by the only, sadly, series of ‘orrible.
The West Wing: Currently towards the end of series five, which has been a bit of a trial especially with the moments in which Josh decided to yell at a building or most of the cast were yelling at each other. Only now and then has it captured some of the old Sorkin magic — ‘The Supremes’ is as good as anything he wrote and in fact basically anything written by Deborah Cahn who just seemed to get what the show was about more than Elie Attie or bloody John Wells. Good to see the tradition of introducing superfluous characters and not knowing what to do with them was still firmly in place though — what exactly was the point with Jesse Bradford’s intern other than to steal screentime from Donna?
Oh, and on top of all that enormous list I gave you earlier – Chuck. I love Chuck. There’s only a series and a half so far, but it is quite ace, actually.
Oh and to answer the other question, Gilmore Girls, which takes an utterly wanky premise — they’re mother and daughter who are best friends and live in small town america surrounded by cooky characters — and writes it with the care and attention of Sorkin’s end of The West Wing and 30s screwball comedies, doing things like comparing an argument over boy to the Iran Contra affair and having the spot music played by a busker who plays in the middle of the actual street. The criteria:
1. Ensemble cast
As well as the girls, there are the grandparents, the kids as Rorey’s school, the people who live in the town including Luke who owns the cafe.
2. Plots that you can’t set your watch by
Hardly ever and when it does, it sign posts it way in advances and makes fun of the fact that it is a cliche, the characters becoming desperately annoyed with themselves that they are falling into the cliche.
3. Not cliched, formulaic or stupid
See above, also they’d have the odd episode in each season which seem to have twice as much dialogue as any other with the actors hammering the stuff out, allegedly burning through 80-100 pages.
4. Several seasons
Seven. Though the writers left after season six and apparently like TWW it went off the boil.
5. No sci fi (says P)
No.
6. Intelligent writing
Above again.
7. Addictive without being overhyped
Until it appeared on E4 over here, it was something of a cult, only really known in the UK by people passing around dvds. Even now only the first three seasons are out on UK R2 dvd. You can order it from abroad through CD-WOW in R2 in European copies.
8. Must be new to both of us
Have you heard of it?
9. Don’t care where it’s from, but preferably modern rather than historic
Well, the first season is about ten years old, though its not dated too much. There are a few pop culture references but they’re cute rather than annoying.
10. Not about a detective on the channel islands or leather-skinned antique-fondlers or landed gentry gimming about in tweeds
There is an antiques shop in Stars Hollow but that’s about it.
If stuck, I’d say give Lost another go. Sure, it’s pleased with itself, but it’s more inventive than 99% of the schlock out there, and now that it has a limit of two more seasons, things are starting to get tied up, albeit slowly.
Agree with “The Wire”, and follow it up with “Deadwood”, which is pleasingly foul-mouthed as well as being thoroughly engaging.
“Oz”, maybe, which has good and bad episodes (and verges on the soapy/melodramatic at times), but is uncompromising and unflinching in much of its subject matter.
“Carnivale” is one that managed to get itself cancelled through an over-blown budget after just two seasons, but if you like some good old fashioned sorcery and religion mixed in with your depression-era historical study, it’s worth a look.
“24″ is nowhere near as good as any of the above, but is maybe worth a look if you’ve not seen any of them before. Not worth seeing more than one season, really though, as they’re all the same.
Are you open to documentaries? I find Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s “Long Way Round” to be very watchable, but there’s also a whole realm of “Blue Planet”-alike natural history shows out there, if such a thing were to take your fancy.
And finally, I am apparently the only person in the world who didn’t notice a drop in quality when Sorkin left the west wing. The final season is probably my favourite.
Oddly, I would easily have put Grey’s Anatomy in your sofa list – I’d say it certainly has most of your 10 points, and has stayed consistently good over the seasons I’ve watched. The new series of Spooks is good; if you watch 24, I’d suggest series 1 or 5. As an overall suggestion, mine is going to be Desperate Housewives. It’s really rather good.
And Chuck /is/ great.
My name is Pete and I have a BitTorrent problem.
(Hi Pete)
The Wir… Okay. What else.
I’m guessing The Sorpanos is blindingly obvious (though oddly not mentioned on this page) so I’ll leave that.
Just finished binging on Weeds which was surprisingly rather good indeed. Cliched in places but fucks with it nicely. Good ensemble cast full of absurd but believable characters.
Big Love was pretty damn good too, if you’re into Mormon Bigamy drama. Harry Dean Stanton pops up in it occasionally, which is nice.
Those two will tick most of your boxes. Of course they’re dumb but not as dumb as, say, Prison Break.
I do adore Lost (it rewards perseverance), and I’m finding s3 of Heroes every bit as good as you’d hope.
If you’re ok to go a bit cheesy, maybe watch some Buffy? I don’t know. I was the right age for that and love it more than I probably should.
Check out “The Closer” – currently on Season Three on More4, but S1 and S2 are available on DVD. (S1 is about a tenner at the moment, and well worth it)
I’ve been addicted to it since S1E1, simply because the entire concept is ace, but you receive all the clues within the programme/episode. Yes, sometimes you go “Oh, so *that’s* why that happened”, but it’s there – no random ‘it’s the person you’ve never seen, ’til the writers got lazy and dumped in a surprise perpetrator’ guff.
All told, I’d recommend just buying the S1 box set and enjoying it. There are a couple of standout episodes (including the season finale, for non-usual reasons) but the entire thing’s just godlike.
We’ve also found ourselves getting into Burn Notice, currently on FX, just for cynicism and brain-light watching, and I recently quite liked Breaking Bad, an interesting idea, but not *great*.
Oh, and on a West Wing theme, you could also watch the one and only season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – OK, but again, not as good as it thought it was.
I’ll second ‘Deadwood’, although it’s another one of those that finishes suddenly and too early. Oh and ‘Our Friends in the North’, which I’d never seen until last year and I was blown away (only one short series though of course).
A couple of outliers for you, from someone who’s a sucker for American teen dramas (which might not be your cup of tea): ‘My So-Called Life’, which we re-watched again recently and I was relieved to find it was as good as I remembered. Only one series and there’s at least one obviously overly-mawkish episode, but great stuff.
And then ‘Felicity‘. It’s preposterous in that it’s about beautiful kids at college in New York in a vast apartment, and it has a tendency to overly-sincere soul-searching that may have the less tolerant throwing things at the TV. But it’s a lot of fun and at a certain point it gets suddenly so bizarre that you can’t quite believe what they’ve done.
Some excellent suggestions so far – thank you!
As I mentioned above, I’ve watched as much Chuck as I can get my hands on for the moment, and really enjoyed it, though it does stray slightly into formulaic caper mode each episode.
We watched Studio 60 (and, like everyone else, were excited then disappointed in turn) and have also seen every ep of Sports Night, which I’d recommend for anyone if you can get your hands on it, though its short format (25 minutes) and lack of seasons make it a frustrating tease. 30 Rock is the show that S60 should have been.
I saw the first couple of episodes of Breaking Bad but it never really got going for me. Ditto Weeds (plus MLP’s voice makes me want to put my foot through the television – this was part of the problem with the middle seasons of WetWig).
Grey’s Anatomy is my guilty pleasure, but I can’t see P going for it. Back in the day, I watched and enjoyed a lot of ER, too, for similar (though less McFluffy) reasons.
I have heard of the Gillmor Girls – from my lovely sister Anna (also above) though she recommended it was probably more for me than P.
Sopranos is a good meaty option, along with the Wire. And who doesn’t love a bit of Mormon Bigamy drama?
I seem to be watching fewer and fewer shows these days, which may make owning a Tivo pointless…
But until the Shield is a good runner up if you can’t find the Wire. The last two seasons aren’t great but for completeness sake aren’t horrible.
If you’ve never seen “I, Claudius” I would *strongly* recommend it – it lasts for a good few episodes, and it is so brilliantly acted it entirely and absolutely rocks.
I thought I remembered it before I started watching it again, but in fact I only remembered 1 scene from the whole series. We read “Rubicon” around then too which helped get us in the mood, but really, it has all the drama of “Rome”, less the screwing. Oh, and less the bloke who played Mark Anthony, but then you can’t have everything.
Other than that, I have no recommendations for anything recent – tbh, it looks to me like you’ve used up most of the actually good TV.
Oh, yes. The Sopranos. Yes.
Only a six part series, but I’ve been strongly recommended Takin’ Over the Asylum, and am looking forward to watching it myself.
Oh yes, a second for The Shield.
Mind-bogglingly good, particularly the first two seasons. Wholly recommended.
Dexter?
That’s funny thing about GG — you’d think would be v. girly but I’m a 34 year old male and I love it.
I was recommended Summer Heights High by a friend. Written, produced and starring (in 3 roles) a guy called Chris Lilley. It’s Australian, set in a high school and is filmed in the spinal tap/office mockumentary style and it’s very very funny indeed.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-Heights-High-Chris-Lilley/dp/B001B0OFLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1227116522&sr=8-1
Seconding Summer Heights High. Also Green Wing.
Not quite what you asked for, but in terms of something to watch on a commute, have you tried the Daily Show, or the Colbert Report? They’re generally very well written, and they’re regular enough that there’s one available whenever you feel like watching.
I second those mentioned already: the Sheild, Dexter, ER are all good. I would also recommend:
Nip/Tuck – If you can stomach the surgery scenes its amazingly over the top and yet great writing and acting somehow keep you watching. I find it very addicting.
Mad Men – All of seasons one and two are finished now so you could watch all at once. Its getting better as it goes on.
Veronica Mars – Dunno if you have seen this already. First season most excellent. Kind of like buffy only without all the annoying vampire stuff. Sadly only two seasons.
Entrourage – Kind of a guy show but I find it very funny. Working on getting season 5 right now!
Oh and, 6feet under was mostly quite good. Went off here and there but never felt I had wasted time watching an episode. Great cast, characters and writing. Ahead of its time too.
What else but the greatest tv show of all time?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A lot of people look down their nose at it until they start watching it and realise it is the perfect mixed-genre show with the highest quality writing (and such deliciously witty dialogue), acting and characters that actually do develop and change over each of its incredible seven seasons.
Oh – love love love the Gilmour Girls. The production company’s name references Dorothy Parker and her writing is clearly an influence. I also recommend Veronica Mars and it actually aired three seasons (2004-2007).
I know it was a no sci-fi list, but Battlestar Galactica is brilliant. If you are looking at the Vampire genre – then I would take Angel over Buffy.
I recently started re-watching X-files on DVD with my 15-year old daughter (who still mourns the ending of GG), and although it is a bit dated she loves it.
Friday Night Lights. It’s set in Texas and revolves round the local high school’s football team. Yeah, that put me off when I read the premise, but the series is just delightful and really has very little to do with football. It’s one of those rare shows where there’s equal billing for the teenage and the adult relationships in the story. It ticks most of your criteria. Currently in its 3rd season, having been rescued from cancellation by some suits at NBC who fought to keep it on air by brokering a deal with a cable network to premiere the full season there before showing it on NBC.
I’m going to blatantly ignore the rules too and second the Battlestar Galactica motion … lots of dark, moody, twisty-turny bits to sink your teeth into, along with some genuinely disturbed and often downright dislikeable protagonists. P may even forget it’s sci-fi (hehe).
Another second for Dexter which features an in equal measures likeable/dislikeable forensic-expert-by-day, murderer-by-night kinda set up. Creepy, charming, self-righteous – he’s the serial killer you’ll love to … love!
Top find for this current season is True Blood. Vampires in Louisana (who’ve ‘come out of the coffin’ since the Japanese invented synthetic blood), starring a telepathic Anna Paquin (who’s actually passable in this) and a crowd of assorted misfits, and written by Six Feet Under‘s Alan Ball. Plus, it’s only 12 episodes (and it’s been picked up for a second season) so it’s poifect for an intense burst of viewing action.
Enjoy!
Northern Exposure
and Twin Peaks….
guaranteed to do your head in – in a good way. And lovely to look at, natch. mmmm, coffee!
Press Gang. Dangermouse. The Secret Show.
Have you had Dexter over there yet? Definitely worth a look if you haven’t seen it. Non formulaic, story arcs over multiple episodes, quite brilliant imho.