So the second episode of this series of Sherlock was at least better than the first one but god damn does it seem this show has jumped the shark something fierce. Once again, the mystery is relegated to the background (and the solution really rather silly if you actually ponder it) as the episode meanders around like an hour and a half long episode of a sitcom. I don't want to see this kind of stuff from this show. I want to see Sherlock and Watson solving interesting mysteries, piecing clues together etc. I understand that shows have to change and evolve, and Cumberbatch is still a great actor, but this direction is just bad. It's like they were inspired by fanfics written by 14 year old girls.

I thought it was charming, I had a smile on my face for the whole episode. I agree with your criticism of the plot though, the show isn't as good as it used to be but it's still great TV. Something cool is that, contrary to American series, won't be able to waste the show too much considering its length, the third episode will hopefully be classic Sherlock.

Dammit you guys, just watch the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes produced by Granada in the mid-80s starring Jeremy Brett. Shit is awesome. None of this contempo-mystery-sitcom nonsense you keep talking about, just pure, straight up Victorian-era crimesolving with one of the best casting choices of all time.

Couldn't disagree with more with Necro, the wedding episode was hilarious. The mystery's always had a stupid "solution" anyway and it's never been remotely realistic, I enjoy the show for Sherlock's shenaginans and his absurd relationships with the others around him, particularly Watson of course (like House and Wilson who were obviously inspired by these two).
The drunken night out was some of the funniest TV I've seen. "Sitty thing?" had me in stitches.

So David Lynch might be filming something new for Twin Peaks. If this happens, oh man.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/11851-da ... series-end

Also, what are peoples thoughts on House of Cards? I binged my way through it this weekend and rather enjoyed it. From time to time I thought the writing wasn't quite as strong as the performances, but it had great tension and pacing. Spacey is just awesome, and the way they break the 4th wall is excellent- you've really got to have chops to pull something like that off without it seeming stupid and Spacey nailed it.

Okay in Peep Show, Jez's explanation of taking ecstasy was pretty fucking hilarious. "And then when you're going down, you sort of talk about how we're all the same, but there's these systems keeping us apart."

Bearer of bad news http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox ... cited.html

Mark's rant at the end of that episode was apparently written entirely by David Mitchell.

I'm enjoying series 4 quite a bit. The attempted affair episode was great. His plot to get out of the marriage via couples counseling uncovering his subconscious objections is genius.

God, the scenarios just get worse and worse.

Many consider series 4 to be the best; I think that particular accolade goes to series 6, although the dog episode is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen ever.

Can't wait! Great choice of music for the trailer too, Chelsea Wolfe is awesome.
The 4th season of Game of Thrones trailer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ZY43QSx3Fk

Ray Wise (Leland) confirmed it's real the other day so...
http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/news/twin-peaks-promo-casting-call/

OK, what the fuck at the Sherlock after-credit sequence.

Good episode though.

Judging by your reaction, I'm guessing they finally brought the whole "listening to Tumblr fangirls" thing to it's logical conclusion and had Sherlock and Watson bang.

Would have been cool, but no. Nah, it's just that at the start of the credits there's a voice-over that says something like "Sherlock is not over until after the credits are ended!" or whatever, so you wait until the very end and there's some sequence that's... I don't know, it didn't even look related to the show at all. Sorta looked like a teaser trailer for something else entirely actually. Maybe it was just some weird BBC marketing stunt. *shrugs*

Oh, HellBlazer watches the BBC Sherlock, too? Cool!



I was forced to watch the show by the firstborn. The only thing I've watched on TV in a long time has been GoT, now I'm hooked on both Sherlock and Dr Who. Since there's only like 800 episodes of Dr Who, I must find something new to watch in early 2035.

You're in for a good time, Nappy! I've been watching Doctor Who for months now, starting with the new series and also going back and watching classics. I'm quite fond of what remains of the Patrick Troughton era and I've yet to see a Tom Baker serial I haven't enjoyed in some form. Massively addictive show. Abominatrix is quite knowledgeable about it.

Yeah. We've bought DVD boxes of 1st, 5th and 6th series of the modern era, plus the Day of the Doctor special, and my intention is to get the 7th series as soon as it's affordable. Also, the Tennant series are a must, once I can locate a box of the 2nd series to keep the timeline in order. We might move to the older stuff once the modern era has been waded through.

I love the goofiness and anarcist mentality of the show, but only because they're connected to an ínternal consistency and rules. The universe works according to its own rules, and while they may be flexible to the point of sheer plasticity, the thing holds together.

I wish someone would update Sapphire and Steel in the same way as the newer Doctors have been modernized. That would be awesome.

I REALLY tried to like Matt Smith, but I gave up. Peter Capaldi will be great though.

David Tennant will always be my Doctor.

I wish I could like the goofiness. How does one appreciate the goofiness?

I've always liked my scifi on the serious side I guess.

On that note, I watched S05E16 of Adventure Time today and it was TOTALLY a tribute to the incredibly sad TNG episode where Picard lives an alternate life on this planet, complete with kids/grandkids and stuff. AKA the flute-ish instrument episode. The AT episode also had Jonathan Frakes voicing an adult Finn. Yeah, I love me some AT.

How could one not appreciate good old-fashioned British goofiness? Does not compute...?

I know that a lot of people like their sci-fi serious, and that's OK. Different approaches are welcome. Science fiction, as a wide umbrella term, is about as varied as "metal", if not even more so. The most serious hard sci-fi can be tedious, unless done extremely well. I have trouble appreciating space operas, and there are few things more arduous to watch than Deep Space 9 or the first season of Babylon 5, for example. But Doctor Who combines a frolicking and unpredictable fantasy with a nice bunch of internal lore and rules, and mixes that with a British kind of sense of humour and self-ironic touch. I can't help it, it's endearing.

For the record, I also consider Star Wars rather goofy, too. In a good way.

The weird thing is that Deep Space Nine is actually what got me watching Star Trek consistently. Granted, the friend who showed it to me first picked some of the more action-packed episodes later in the series, but it was enough to get me to start at Season 1. Early DS9 is definitely very slow and dry, but it just has this weird charm that keeps pulling me back.

As for Doctor Who, my gf started me on it about a year ago. Napero's assessment is pretty much spot-on in my book. I'm most of the way through the first Smith season, and I agree with others that it doesn't have quite as much flair as the Tennant seasons, but the recent "big episodes" and upcoming new doctor are making me want to gun through it.

And while we're on the topic of excellent British television, I'd like to throw out my continued love of The Mighty Boosh. "I'm a crazy man. I break boundaries. When I see a boundary, I eat a boundary, and wash it down with a cup of hot, steaming rules."

I'm Old Gregg! Classic.

My favorite Dr. episodes were the Satan Pit ones. Those were cool. I don't actively dislike the show much, but I couldn't get into it like I can Star Trek and whatnot.

Something about the Cosmos reboot. I'm quite excited about it.
http://www.space.com/24243-cosmos-tv-se ... 3_16982104

Also, I need to watch that Sherlock episode.

Matt Smith is a great Doctor; in fact, I think he's the best technical actor to play the role. Of all the new Doctors, he did the best job of portraying someone who is centuries old and has seen some shit. He often has these moments where his eccentricity and playfulness is clearly a charade and he shows the mannerisms of an old man.

The problem with 11 is the writing. I think Steve Moffat has figured by now that he sucks at writing arcs and he'll focus more on individual stories with Capaldi.

Indeed! He wrote himself into so many corners and his solutions aren't always satisfactory. Also, I much prefer Smith to Tennant. You can really see how much he was inspired by the second doctor through his mannerisms and hand gestures. I'd warn you against most of the latter 7th series episodes. There's a few good ones, but then there's stuff like Nightmare in Silver which completely ruins the cybermen.
As for the old series, it's like a completely different show. Much more deliberate pacing, which is good in the interest of storytelling, but you can tell some of the Hartnell stuff is filler.

@ Nashil, seconding the Satan Pit two parter. Some of my favourite episodes of the new series.

Christopher Eccleston 4 Lyfe

The only doctor I can truly enjoy. Tennant's a good actor but I never really cared much for his take on the character. Matt Smith is such an incomparable douchebag both behind and in front of the camera I can't possibly understand how anyone could possibly find him watchable, much less likable.

More like Sylvester McCoy 4 lyfe.

New season of Duck Dynasty starts tonight! Who's excited?

If I could make a wish on the future Dr Who episodes, I'd like to see a story similar to that with Vincent Van Gogh in it. Except featuring H.P.Lovecraft.

That episode was really amazing. That ending.

They'd have to find some way to make it original - I feel like they've avoided it because the whole "Lovecraft being haunted by his eldritch abominations" story has already been tackled in various media. But it would be amazing if they put a creative spin on it.



99% agreed except I wasn't a fan of the Doctor's "good things and bad things" speech; seemed like they were trying to force the feels, though the rest of that ending sequence was excellent in that regard.

I watched the latest Sherlock sometime back and while I liked it to an extent, I still felt that some of the plots/villains were low-key and were seriously lacking in the 'sinister' department. It's got its moments but I guess many would agree, it's not the show's strongest season at all.



I largely agree with this reviewer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kate-ro ... ertainment

H.P. Lovecraft is actually from a distant galaxy who escaped from a monstrous threat that eventually consumed his home planet. His stories are actually inspired by what he saw. Boom.

In all seriousness, there's also the challenge of treating a historical figure with respect as to not cheapen them. That's probably why there's been so few historical figures in the show despite how long the show has been going on.

Alright, so the third Sherlock episode of this series was a marked improvement over the others. No, the fact that they both had some low level set-up/build up doesn't make them any better.
Anyways, the villain was great (can EVERYONE in Mads Mikkelsen's family play chilling characters with such menace?), the interactions were great, there was some actual funny stuff, we got to see a lot more of Mycroft, relationships were explored in a better way than the almost solely relationship focused episodes, yet it still mostly focused on the mystery at hand. Which wasn't very much of a mystery at all, really, but still.
Also

Ok, so there must be some Star Trek nuts in here, right? I'm rewatching the Original Series right now, alternating between that and House of Cards in my newly-setup Netflix account. I say "rewatched"...I saw many of these as re-runs when I was a kid, but that only really left me as a fan of the movies, and I've got no memory of the majority of the episodes. My sister's boyfriend is a huge fan though, and suggested I give them a spin, and so-far I am completely hooked. There is an amazing innocent quality about the stories throughout, the sense of discovery and the excitement of that is conveyed really well. The threats can be serious but you never really doubt that Kirk will come up with something shrewd (or failing that, punch something) to escape the particular foe of that episode: and often, I like the way that there's been some misunderstanding, and rather than just blowing the shit out of the aliens encountered, they will forge some *understanding*. I also love Shatner's cod stage acting persona, especially on his big monologues, and the rather more restrained counterpoint that Nimoy offers. There are obviously issues, in some of the scripting, the guest stars, the treatment of women (a major one, but I am holding out for some improvements as we go through...), but overall I am really enjoying the show. I guess there's not much discussion to be had here that likely hasn't already happened a tonne of times, but if there's anyone out there who, like me, hadn't seen these ever or in a while, I highly recommend them.

House of Cards is a lot of fun too. I'm about 8 episodes in, and the characters are coming along nicely. Most are highly unsympathetic, but I enjoy seeing them succeed in their scheming and backstabbing, if only because at some point there must be a payoff. The main story arc so far feels less interesting that the little asides we encounter throughout the episodes so far, but it's bubbling along well enough, and things seem to be picking up. The writing is strong though, and the acting is pretty terrific: I'm a big fan of Spacey, particularly since seeing him on stage as Richard II a year or two back in London. Lastly, I'm living in DC right now, and it's always fun to see a city you know well shot for TV, and trying to identify where all the scenes are taking place.

Honestly I haven't seen a lot of TOS. I've seen most of the first season...it's a shame because I LOVE TNG/DS9 and even some VOY/ENT. I'll get around to it eventually.

House of Cards is great. I'm looking forward to the new season.

Bout to finish season 1 of Six Feet Under. It's drastically improved from the pilot, some really dynamic characterization and whatnot going on. I love the themes and complexity.

Tyler Perry's House of Payne is such a weird-ass sitcom. It's like, mega-generic recycled sitcom characters, plot-lines and jokes... and then one of the main characters will just up and get addicted to crack, and it goes into major melodrama mode for several episodes, with either no comedy or insanely dark jabs at it (e.g. making jokes about how crackheads steal from their parents). Like, I realize almost every sitcom has its 'serious' moments, but this show just jacks up the severity and longevity of those moments to levels I never thought possible. It's not a great show (or even sitcom) by any means, but there's a heart to it that most modern comedy TV shows so often lack, and I'm finding myself really getting attached to it.

Also, Demetria McKinney. Holy Jesus Christ on a bendy bus, Batman.

I just watched the first episode of the new series called Black Sails, obviously a pirate themed show! It's pretty good, it's a reinvention of the story of Captain Flint (played by a very good Toby Stephens known for being the bad guy in the atrocious Die Another Day. The show is quite HBOesque and Gameofthronesque, lots of sex and violence and political intrigues. I'll follow it! Shit, I already follow too many TV shows...