Band of Brothers. Best miniseries ever.

Different strokes I guess? I don't know how anyone who enjoys Frasier can't enjoy most classic britcoms.

America did strike gold with "Sanford and Son", "All in the Family" and "The Office" but yeah most british remakes never work out, such as Coupling. The British version despite being raunchier was at times very innocent and natural while the American pilot episode reused the same lines exactly as well as having shitty actors. The cast was way uglier which doesn't help on a sitcom based on sex. The whole thing looked like a group project at an adult drama class

Aside from the game of thrones series, I've also gotten into watching Miranda. Nothing too good but something a bit lighthearted to help me get through my meals.

I'm hoping Terrance and Phillip will be a pretty big part of the episode since it's all about Canada. Those two have grown on me over the years, and I actually think Not Without My Anus was a great joke.

The only two British shows I'm familiar with are The Office and The Inbetweeners. I don't have cable or satellite, so most of my TV watching is from shows that I've been familiar with for a while. What British shows would you recommend?

Counts on if you like awkward and dry humour or perhaps something more traditional and witty.

That being said, I have not met anyone who did not enjoy IT Crowd.

I disagree. Pretty cheesy remake i found pretty unnecessary, and of course has gone on far too long, in true American style. It's not the worst show in the world, but especially at first i found it pretty cringeworthy. A few laughs here and there, but Steve Carell is just awful. I have quite a few of the episodes but can't really watch much of it without having to turn it off. I just can't really se how a 2nd rate remake of a quality, original British show can get so much praise, while much better, smarter British sitcoms are constantly ignored, or assumed not worthy of watching. I thought the Office (US) was average at best.

There's plenty. Older shows like Young Ones, Fawlty Towers & Red Dwarf set the precedent, but the best show i can think of is I'm Alan Patridge, along with IDEAL, and Peep Show - the three best of British Comedy, arguably.
while Saxondale, Green Wing, Armando Ianucci Shows, IT Crowd, Man to Man With Dean Learner, Episodes, Whites, The Trip, PhoneShop, Black Books, Is it Bill Bailey, Nathan Barley, Men Behaving Badly, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle are all worthy of mention.

Seriously though, if you're a TV fan, and you're looking to explore some British stuff, try one of the first 3 i mentioned. I'm Alan Patridge, IDEAL, and Peep Show. All brilliant.

we have a version of The Office here, called La Job, better than the US version imo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7PG_LSxDcg (warning it's in french)

Well, regardless of how much you like it, it was a success though unlike most britcom adaptions that are canceled before they even air. I enjoyed it up to season 5 or so. Now it lost any all of its charm it had to begin with.

DRD's list is great stuff, especially Peep show.

Some more "classic" and "traditional stuff that DRD didn't mention is :

Blackadder, Thin Blue Line, Mind your Language, Father Ted, YES PRIME/MINISTER, Allo Allo

DRD: Have you seen Last of the Summer Wine. I know its weird but I really love dated shows, especially stuff I watched when I was a child and I've been thinking of tackling the series. That being said, is it actually funny?

^ Good shit, yeah i know/love all those shows you added, apart from Thin Blue Line, Mind your Language, which i havent seen. I remember liking Allo Allo in the 80s/early 90s, but i havent seen it since then, you know? The girlfriend and I were just talking about it yesterday actually. Yes Minister was pretty cool, i think i have the episodes somewhere.

Last of the Summer Wine - same deal as Allo Allo, just havent seen it since then. I would mind rewatching it, i know it;s been constantly voted like the best British sitcome of all time and all.

Another show i forgot to mention was The Thick of It - another sweet modern political satire which reminds me of Yes Minister.

Totally agree about the US Office. Seasons 2-4 were gold, season 5 was still really great, but these past two seasons have been largely dull. I'm optimistic that with Carell gone, they will rework the show and get it back on track, though likely it will get worse. I think they just made every character too ridiculous.

I'll start checking out a few of these British shows.

Something being successful = doesn't mean it's good.

Anyway, trying to watch more Bob's Burger's, but this show really is pretty lame. I wish it werent, but it just is pretty weak. It doesn't have any flow, seems really ill-thought out and badly fit together - like it doesn't flow and mould perfectly like an old Simpsons or a Futurama. The fact that it has to have a member for every Family member of The Simpsons Family Guy or American Dad, and doesn't really even try to make them different (weirdo sister who doesn't fit in) is pretty lame too, but it's also just not funny. H. Jon Benjamin has a great voice, and i love his other voice acting work, but this just isn't the right vehicle for him - or at least it seems poorly executed. I iwsh it were better coz i'd enjoy having another quality animated type show, but alas.

I personally watch very little television. I can't stand many of the lame commercial ad's that are present and many of the shows don't interest me. But there are a couple, namely stuff like Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes and even Hell's Kitchen. All three of which I think are very highly entertaining, but yeah I mostly watch movies instead of any kind of 'proper' television or so to speak. A few years back, I used to be a pretty big WWE/TNA fan, but then it just got too damn stupid for words and I haven't watched it since.

I haven't watched a great deal of this, but I did like it. It was quite funny, in a more slapstick kind of way, but I found it very entertaining. The movie adaptation with Steve Carrell wasn't too bad, either.

Man, I tried to watch an episode of this show, but I couldn't stomach it at all. I just turned it off about half way through the episode. There was just nothing funny about it that I could find, and the characters just didn't interact well together. I've just totally lost interest in Fox's animation block.

British TV? Yes, (Prime) Minister is excellent as is The Fast Show. Also, Jeeves & Wooster is pretty much unbeatable. From not on the comedy side, there's Agatha Christie's Poirot with David Suchet, the Pride & Prejudice adaptation with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, the Prime Suspect-series with Helen Mirren. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but those at least have always entertained me.

Yeah Bob's Burgers is terrible, i think it's fallen into the realm of of "People only watch it coz it's on TV" garbage, which i just won't stand for. Who watches "TV" anymore anyway? For 10 years i've only watched DVDs of shows i like and downloaded episodes. I've never heard of The Fast Show or Jeeves & Wooster

New South Park. I didn't like it as much as Funnybot. I was really hoping that it was actually Osama who captured the princess, and a helicopter squad had to swarm his compound. I think it would have just been funnier to be direct, and depicted Osama the way they did Saddam. Although, on second thought, who knows if Comedy Central would let them do that anymore. The funniest moments of the episode were the narration during the wedding: "Oh no, and the princess is floating away! This is not keeping with the Canadian tradition!"

The Fast Show is a sketch show from the mid 90s I think. I'm not sure since I watched it on TV back when it aired here in the late 90s and all that comes later to this place. Or at least did back then. You'll recognize a lot of the faces if you've watched other British sketch shows from the 90s. But The Fast Show was the funniest of the lot.

Jeeves & Wooster is based on P.G. Wodehouse's writings of the misadventures of a fop in the high society of the United Kingdom during the inter-war period and his extremely able man servant who is able to overcome any trouble. It starts the comedic pair of Hugh Laurie as the fop and Stephen Fry as his servant. Excellent writing - both the originals and the adaptation - and splendid acting. Just too much fun.

For sketch shows i quite like Big Train and Mitchell & Webb Look - both British shows featuring familiar faces for British comedy fans. Pretty good stuff, but sketch shows are never as good as good sitcoms. Peep Show is far more preferable to Mitchell & Webb look, from the same duo.

Just watched the South Park and i thought it blew. Just boring and lame for the most part - and i hated the childrens play sub-plot - that was super weak, and didn't provide one bit of humour. Just had to listen to awful childrens singing over and over - it sucked. That episode kinda made Funnybot look good, although i didn't care for the episode much. This season has been pretty weak thus far - hope things pick up.

Has anyone else seen Nathan Barley? For those of you interested it follows Dan Ashcroft (Julian Barratt - better known for Mighty Boosh), a columnist for a trendy edgy urban magazine, and his life, cringing at the pretentious ironic hipsters that surround him at work, and in his central city neighbourhood - particularly Nathan Barley - the bane of Dan's existence. A really original kinda show, this one is a good, and early (2005) pisstake on ironic hipsters, their ridiculous culture and clothing. Only 6 episodes were made, in true British style, and it features a lot of familiar faces including Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's & Claire KeelanThe Trip, Dead Set.

Whoever brought up Twin Peaks - thank you. Started it about a week ago and I'm on the home stretch - great characters, atmosphere, etc. Show was god up until LP's killer was revealed though now it seems kind of pointless with boring/unnecessary subsplots, but I hear the finale is worth sticking around for.

Yeah Twin Peaks is sweet and i really need to get back into watching it as i havent even seen the whole thing. Maybe get onto that today.

Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, Twilight Zone etc. Any fans?
Always loved these horror serial series, theyre amazing. Been watching some Tales from the Crypt today, first time in a little while, i have all the episodes, well worth looking into.

Certainly do. One of my favourite shows; Chris Morris/Charlie Brooker are gods. Wonderful writing and lovely acting from Julian Barratt and Nicholas Burns, despite the fact he plays just about the biggest twat in the universe. Dan's rant in the first episode about the rise of the idiots is fucking amazing. Really hope they eventually do the second series that's been talked about for so long now. Their other stuff is fantastic as well; Screenwipe, Brass Eye, Jam, Newswipe are all hilarious.

Yeah, Nick Burns is pretty awesome in that show, and yes, what a monstrous twunt indeed. I wasn't aware there was *any* chance they'd remake the show - i thought there was no enthusiasm for the idea from the creators? I wish they did - easily plenty of places to go with that show, tonnes more infact - and it also ended on a note which set up for a second series, but alas. I'm a longtime fan of Brass Eye but i havent seen the other two you mentioned, i'll look into them and see if one of my fellow TV nerd buddies is interested.

Anybody watch That metal show? I personally can't stand the fucking program. They say they are all about heavy metal and all they do is kiss the feet of Gene Simmons and all the glam metal bands from the 80s. I have yet to see one death metal artist or black metal artist on that sad excuse of a metal show on they're yet.

Well, there are more people who listen to Glam than underground Death and Black metal. I wouldn't blame VH1 for not pandering to the kvlt crowd. At least they had Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Mustaine, Rob Halford etc.

p.s. All the hosts are huge posers, especially Jim Florentine (at least judging by his Five Finger Death Punch shirt and his defense of St. Anger.)

Yeah, I remember seeing Charlie Brooker mention a while back that a second season was still a possibility and that they had an idea for what the second season would be. That doesn't mean it will get made, but I seem to recall there being a slight possibility it was still being considered which is a plus because it really is magnificent. Brass Eye is indeed brilliant, Chris Morris would have to be one of my favourite satirists. And Screenwipe and Newswipe are both Charlie Brooker's shows which are fantastic, although I can imagine probably wouldn't appeal to everyone. It's essentially a televised version of his Guardian articles, where he just tears apart TV and news programmes for the horrid schlock they are. If you like his cynical, sardonic humour you'll love it. Hearing him call Big Brother contestants 'cockrings' and stuff is magic.

Yeah i've got Screenwipe and i love his cynicism and dark sense of humour - it's about time some rather recognized critic just absolutely blasted shitty TV like what he does. The only thing he actually seems to like is The Wire, which is a great show, but he hasn't mentioned anything about any of the the other good British shows or anything. I have this show where British comics and writers vote for their favourite comics and actors and Morris was mentioned in that. Some pretty outlandish stories about him too.

They don't have to have extreme underground bands on the show, but they don't even mention the big bands within Death and Black metal. They had the singer of White Lion before they even thought about bringing in somebody like corpsegrinder or Shagrath from Dimmu.

Yeah i'd never expect a show like that to have underground bands (not that i've seen it, but i've heard a bit about it), but even if it did have them, the kvlt dudes would just think that's unlegit anyway and call the bands sellouts or something. Personally, the fact it has glam bands on there doesn't bother me too much, as a do like some of them, but i guess the ones i like would likely be a little lesser known, and wouldn't be mentioned. I'm not really into White Lion. A show with proper extreme metal bands, or in my cae USPM/traditional kinda heavy metal bands would be good but just isn't really a realistic thing that's likely to happen, in the commercial television world and all. I've heard that presenter is a real dick though, they could at least try to get someone less of a poser asshole, for starters. Also unlikely.

They are all kind of weird. I remember one episode when a guy said that he love all forms of metal, from Slipknot to err... I forgot the other band, but it could have been Iron Maiden. I was like WTF!!!

I don't care how gay this is about to make me look...

Right now, I have a huge boner for Make It or Break It.

I've always been a fan of gymnastics. That shit is fucking brutal and hardcore as hell (and no, I'm not joking).

It's amazing.

And yeah, Lynch only revealed the killer because he was forced to by the network airing the show.

Fucking, bullshit God damn producers and network execs, they don't know shit about making good movies/shows. >:C

Any fans of The Office (US) here? How do you think the show is holding up with Steve Carrel out of the picture?

Workaholics! Who has seen it so far? I had zero expectations when I watched the pilot episode, and I was laughing my ass off right off the bat. It is absolutely hysterical! There are 6 episodes out so far, and it's already been renewed for a second season. I guess if I had to make a comparison, I would say that it bears resemblance to It's Always sunny, seeing as the main characters are all pretty dysfunctional, stupid and rude and pretty much do what they feel like without considering any consequences. It's not as funny as IASIP yet though, but this show has some serious potential. Read any of the reviews on imdb if you are in doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa9zIBCmPww
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610527/



You know, I gotta say, I didn't even notice he was gone when I was catching up yesterday, watching ep 22 and 23. I knew he was going to leave and all, and actually knew he was gone, as I had watched the farewell episode. I think The Office will be fine. Carell was awesome in The Office, but I don't think they need him to keep the show running.

I'm not totally sure yet. I didn't like the episode where Will Ferrel was in charge after Carrel left, but the episode where Dwight was in control was much better. I guess it really just depends on who they get to be in charge of the office.

Edit:

Just found out that Two and a Half Men won't be cancelled. It's the show that just won't die. If there was any doubt before, I can now assuredly say that there is no god.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/05/13/offic ... -half-men/

Does anyone else in here LOVE documentary series? I've got shitloads. Everything from Megastructures to Ross Kemp on Pirates to Human Weapon, Deadliest Warrior, Tales of the Gun, The Death of Yugoslavia, World at War, Secrets of the Dead, BBC Space Race, Ascent of Man, Discovery Turbo, Building the Biggest, The FBI Files, Gangland, Greatest Ever, Special Ops Mission, Battleplan, Modern Marvels and shitloads of other ones. National Geographic does the best documentaries i reckon. Really well pieced together, classier and more interesting than other channels.

"It is kind of the same. I mean, aren't we supposed to be living in a multicultural democracy? And isn't that the point? You know, the Jews, the Muslims and the racists all living together happily side by side, doing and saying whatever the hell they like? "

Man, I love Peep Show so much

Holy shit! Great news for British Comedy fans:
IDEAL series 7 to kick off May 26th!!!
http://www.tvrage.com/Ideal/episodes/1065043464

Anyone else excited for this? I'm thrilled. Along with new Peep Show, Curb, Breaking Bad, this is one of my most anticipated TV shows of the year.

Currently watching Weeds, Dexter and Big Love.
Great story lines and great acting-no complaints from me so far!