Wednesday, September 21, 2011

New to me

TGFN.  Thank goodness for Netflix.
John Paul is an Apple addict, and we bought the new Apple TV right when it came out.  It's a handy little device that allows you to rent movies and TV shows, as well as stream video content from youtube and...Netflix!  We don't have cable, so this is how we catch up on our favorite shows.  Well, this and Hulu.
Each month, I pay the streaming fee and we have access to HUNDREDS of television shows and movies.  Old  (Cheers, The Dick van Dyke Show) and new (Pushing Daisies, Battlestar Galactica).  Good (The Cosby Show, Party Down) and bad (Laguna Beach, The Hills).  I love it!  Here are some of the shows I get all couch-potato for:
The Cosby Show
I didn't grow up watching the Huxtable's family antics (it stopped airing when I was 6, so I don't know how much I could have appreciate it anyway), but really wish I had.  Clair and Cliff have a great, honest relationship, and their kids aren't super crazy; the whole show feels relate-able and familiar.  I'm about halfway through the first season, and was soooo glad when JP told me that the theme song changes each year.  I skipped ahead a bit, and love the 6th season opener best!

Oh, this show is dangerous.  I can already picture a marathon viewing the next weekend JP goes out of town.  FNL just finished its fifth and final season, although it always had a problem keeping viewers and switched networks after the second season (from NBC to DirecTV).  Although I can understand why some people might not be super into it, the acting is superb, with characters you feel for right from the pilot episode.  Yes, the focus is on football, but it's more about the relationships between the characters, especially coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami, who I already think have one of the most realistic marriages on TV.
Oh, I resisted Battlestar.  John Paul has tried on three separate occasions to get me into the show, and it finally stuck once I realized we could just watch it anytime on Netflix.  The sci-fi fan in me rejoices with everything about this: great character development, epic plot (Cylons basically killed all but 50,000 humans, and they are trying to eke out a democratic existence in space while they search for a new home), romance, suspense, action, political intrigue...yes, yes, it aired on Sci-Fi (SyFy?  I don't have cable these days, so don't know these newfangled network names), but don't let that stop you from checking it out. I just started the fourth season and am DYING to know how this story ends! 
via
Party Down is seriously making me fall in love with Adam Scott.  He plays Henry, a guy who is well-known for some beer commercials from a few years ago and hasn't had any luck as an actor since.  His old friend, Ron, gives him a job at a party catering company, where Henry acts as a bartender.  Each episode focuses on a different event, and each of the two seasons is only 10 episodes long (so it won't take too long to get through the series).  It's a completely ridiculous show, with heaps of sarcasm, nudity, drug use, and language (Mom, I'm warning you now).  However, all of the characters are trying to break into the acting business but continue catering because...perhaps they like it.  I think the moral of this show is to not judge unconventional careers.  That's pretty deep for a 30 minute sitcom.

What have you been watching lately? 

1 comment:

  1. I don't watch much TV at all - a few minutes of the Today Show in the morning and that's it. Recently, while working on an all day sewing project, I had the TV on ALL day. I caught a few episodes of some of my old favs - Seinfeld, Cheers,...Little House on the Prairie (embarrassing I know). I was a very happy girl.

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