and every version after
"No Tele For you." - The Tele Nazi
Ha! Tele-ish now inbound.
Steve Thompson
Sun Valley, Idaho
Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
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love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
- j. johnson
You can go ahead and add Treme to my list, right at the top just below The Wire.
Not having HBO, I had to wait until this past week's DVD release of Season 1 to finally see it but given the fact that it's much of the same production and writing staff from The Wire, I expected I'd be as addicted to it as I was to The Wire. I was right.
While there are many stories weaving in and out of one another in this show, the primary focus of the show is musicians, specifically New Orleans musicians.
I'll say this as simply as I can... if you consider yourself a musician and you can't dig this show, something's wrong with you.
"I happen to have perfect situational awareness, Lana. Which cannot be taught, by the way. Like a poet's ... mind for ... to make the perfect words." - Sterling Archer
I never heard of Treme until your post. I just finished watching the first episode and liked it quite a bit.
It has such a real feel to it, warts and all. Nawlins is such a unique place and this production has captured it well. I haven't been there since the year before Katrina, though.
That's the David Simon trademark. I've joked with my wife that thanks to The Wire I can no longer watch any other cop shows because while I always knew they had unrealistic elements to them, once I've seen a show that took the time to do things correctly, those things in the other shows just seemed so glaringly off. He's mentioned on commentary tracks that he meets a lot of police who tell him that they love the show because it's the only tv cop show they've ever seen that accurately portrays the way law enforcement works from the office politics on down to the street policing.
Simon and his people just have a different approach to doing television, an approach that trusts the audience to not need its hand held.
FYI, here's an excellent interview with Simon about why he chose New Orleans as the subject of his current project and some of the things he hopes to accomplish with Treme. Even down to the depth of his answers to interview questions Simon comes across as radically different than pretty much any creator/writer of any other television show.
http://www.alternet.org/culture/1507...o_new_orleans/
"I happen to have perfect situational awareness, Lana. Which cannot be taught, by the way. Like a poet's ... mind for ... to make the perfect words." - Sterling Archer
I'm watching episode 7 and have really enjoyed the story telling. You get an insider's view which allows you to appreciate the cultural nuances New Orleans has. Thanks for exposing us to this series, R_of_G.
//After Katrina, we were swamped with N.O. refugees. Many were good people, full of thanks, but a few gained the nickname, "Katricians", due to their destructive path. Trashing the apartments and hotels rooms that were provided for free, buying dope with aid money, murders, and all the fine activities that unfortunately give the rest of the people a bad name. It is nice to see an insider's view to understand the bigger picture.
Next week the Mississippi River will crest near N.O., and no one knows if the levies will hold this time.
After five seasons of The Wire I realized that the "star" of the show wasn't any of the actors, as spectacular as they were. The star was the city of Baltimore.
It seems Mr. Simon and crew are doing the same with New Orleans. If you create authentic characters and have them act in realistc ways, the culture of the setting has to influence that. That's why more than any other show, these characters feel like real people to me.
Too many other shows use their settings as nothing more than background for establishing shots but don't really portray the city/region that is home to the world of the show.
"I happen to have perfect situational awareness, Lana. Which cannot be taught, by the way. Like a poet's ... mind for ... to make the perfect words." - Sterling Archer
off the top of my head...
Arrested Development
Six Feet Under
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Cheers (before it 'jumped the shark')
Treme season 3, episode 1 has finally aired.
It still has teeth enough to get you mad at times and enthralled during others.
Seinfeld! I win!
Firefly and Stargate TV series franchise too. I wish they bring those back.
Also announced this week that HBO has given David Simon a shortened fourth season which will be Treme's last. I'm curious to see if they jump forward a bit in time to cover the BP oil spill in the Gulf.
Oh and since the last time I replied to this thread, you can go ahead and add Breaking Bad to my list as well. There are very few shows as well done as that one.
My favorites that are currently on the air:
- Game of Thrones (I'm currently reading the first book)
- Sons of Anarchy
- Grimm
- Boardwalk Empire
- The Walking Dead (a guilty pleasure)
- Treme
- History Detectives
- Copper
- Falling Skies (so-so, but entertaining)
- Hell on Wheels
- Touch (incredible writing)
I just started watching season 1 of Homeland, which might make the list.
OZ !! ...Mean ..wicked
Deadwood ... Astonishing
Oz was an excellent show. I re-watched the whole run of it last year, and it amazes me how many actors the show featured who were virtually unknown at the time that have gone on to appear in many many more things since then. I had to stop myself from playing "that guy was in the Wire... he was on the Sopranos... etc..." because if you did it for everyone on that show, you'd miss a whole episode by the time you were done.
Since I finally have Xfinity High Speed Internet I've been streaming all the good ole programs mentioned plus some cool new ones. One of my favorites right now is "Breaking Bad". Filmed here in Albuquerque. It's fun for us to watch cause we recognize all the scenes and know where they are. We finished season 4 so we have to wait till next year to finish season 5 which is the last season. We have HS Internet but not AMC channel on purchased television.
"I am the one who knocks!" - Walter White aka Heisenberg
I'm not a big tv watcher (if we didn't own one it wouldn't bother me), but there are a few shows I don't mind...
Friends - for the humor
Star Trek Voyager - 7 of 9 mmmmmm
Star gate SG1 - not the others
Warehouse 13 - it's just wacky
Top Gear & Mythbustets
As a kid I enjoyed
Dukes of Hazard
A-Team
The Fall Guy
Hardball
All time? I'll skip when I was a kid...Galactica was a must back then. Once made my dad drive 60 miles to reach a TV when ours broke at the cottage...could not miss the episode. Which I still remember clear as day (it was the one where Starbuck gets stranded on a planet with a cylon who he repairs and befriends).
But as an adult...maybe Sopranos...also liked Frazier a lot. More recent ones, the 1st season of Walking Dead rocked. Sons of Anarchy was great too.
But, ultimately...I guess my favorite ones are Mythbusters, How it's Made and pretty much any well done documentary series on either some serious tech, science or nature stuff.
Anything with weird machines, technology, old weird things and such, underwater, wrecks, history to some extent...
I suppose as one grows older the less one gets excited by fictional stuff and gets more and more interested in science etc.
Not to say I don't enjoy fiction enormously too, just that I'd often rather watch a very well made program on the birth of the universe or secrets of the deep sea or understand more about psychology or economics, whatever.
Dee
"When life's a biatch, be a horny dog"
Amps: Marshall JVM 410H w/ Plexi Cap mod, Choke Mod & Negative Feedback Removal mod, 4x12", Behringer GMX110, Amplitube 3/StealthPedal
Half a dozen custom built/bastardized guitars all with EMG's, mostly 85's, Ibanez Artwood acoustic & Yamaha SGR bass, Epiphone Prophecy SG, Vox Wah, Pitchblack tuner plus assorted pedals, rack gear etc. for home studio use.