The TV thread

How did you like the ending? The final seasons were uneven, but that still stands out as one of my favorite episodes.

As you can tell from my signature, I am a Toby fan. Richard Schiff was fantastic throughout the series. I thought his work in "25," which was Sorkin's final episode writing the show, was as good as any single performance by any actor in the series.

And yes, Josh is an ass. Yet I still found myself rooting for him throughout the series.

 

I blew through the entire season last weekend.

D'Onofrio has been a fantastic Wilson Fisk since his first appearance.

As always with Daredevil, the fight scenes are excellent. This goes back to the hallway fight in the first season, though nothing has topped the Punisher's prison fight scene during Season 2.

 

I actually dug up the thread to post about House of Cards. Obviously, it's going to be weird without Kevin Spacey, though developments at the end of last season actually fit well into writing him off the show.

I just saw a teaser for the final season today. I hadn't heard that Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear were added to the cast.

 

I liked the ending, very sentimental. I was rooting for Josh to STFU and treat people with respect. I had noticed your Toby stuff. He did a lot of good things.

 

I refer to that quote by Toby regarding prayer in school all the time. I had never been able to satisfactorily articulate that aspect of the issue until I heard that line.

Josh is definitely annoying. I think it is even easier to see when you binge the show. I've watched the entire series four times now, including the original run on NBC. I don't remember being as annoyed by him when I had to wait a week for each episode. That is a lot of what makes the show work. You have these complex, flawed characters. They do and say brilliant things, but they also fuck up quite a bit. I like that.

 

Really enjoyed the first episode of "Patriot Act" on Netflix. Haven't had a chance to watch the second yet (they uploaded the first two simultaneously) and will try to keep up with it.

 

Ratings: “The Conners” Beaten By Everything, Drops in Total Viewers and Demo as ABC Orders Only 1 More Episode

 

The author's bio: "Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals." In contrast, Hollywood Reporter says it had the #2 ratings for the night behind This is Us: TV Ratings: 'The Conners,' Other ABC Comedies Improve Tuesday

 

I'm at the gym today watching football, but kept getting distracted by a Law and Order marathon on the We network. I realize they needed to make the show more appealing to women in order to boost ratings, but the first few years of that show - the Moriarity years - were golden. Tight scripts, great dialogue, plots that went from the gutter to the penthouse...the reappearances of certain lawyers and judges (Arthur Gold, Rothenberg, Shambala Green et. al) so good.

 

The first couple of seasons were a little uneven. I never cared for the Logan-Greevey pairing, and the show was obviously still finding its exact formula. I think poor Logan was beaten by his parents, molested by his priest, and had several other childhood horrors inflicted on him before they settled into the self-contained episode format that carried through most of the rest of the series.
There were also some obvious character touches they were going for early on that seemed heavy handed, and too many "ripped from the headlines" plots that just didn't work for me -- basically, what wound up dragging the show down in its later years.
They dialed that back some with Paul Sorvino. Once Jerry Orbach came on board it was just perfect. The Logan/Briscoe and Robinette/Stone/Kincaid seasons (as well as the first few with McCoy) are when that show really hit its peak. Good cases, perfectly self-contained episodes you can jump into without having ever watched another episode, and as you noted a wide range of plots with good scripting.
Seasons 3-8 (approximately) are timeless TV that still hold up 20-25 years later. It's amazing how, if I'm dozing off at 2 a.m. and catch the start of a Law & Order episode from 1995 that I've seen 30 times over the years, I'm still awake at 3:05 and forcing myself to turn off the TV when the opening credits roll.

 

The opens were what always hooked me. I still remember the episode that locked me in - Logan and Grevey are hanging out waiting to pick-up someone from Rikers and the door to the van opens and there is a a dead guy lying between a Palistinean and an IRA guy. Fascinating episode.

 

Anyone gotten to Homecoming on Amazon yet? Finished it last night. Loved the tone, great acting, a 30-minute drama(!), from the setup, I think Season 2 can be even better.