Goodman Games

Is anybody else not as impressed with Season Two as they were with Season One?

I've felt like somehow the storytelling is off... but couldn't begin to place it until--

I missed an episode two weeks ago and only saw last week's episode last night (still have this past Monday's ep to watch).

I was much more interested and entertained, which made me wonder if the storytelling has been too much 'telling' this year and not enough 'showing', because I really enjoyed that episode, about as much as last year's average.

Did not knowing what was going on make it better? or did the writting just coincidentally get better with that episode (or the one I missed)?

Additional observations:
Glad they got out of Dublin and away from the s**te accents.
Glad things are sketchy again around Claire's Dad.
Man, was that wallpaper in the cop's childhood apartment awful! Nightmares, indeed.
Do we need Sylar? I'm done with him.

Yeah...my wife swore off Heroes after the last season ended. I think her exact words were "if they don't kill off Syler, I'm done". True to her words, she stopped watching.

I've been catching the episodes online when I get the chance...but this no longer rates as a show that I'd recommend (usually, I only recommend shows that I'm really into...which generally translates to a show with some wit, decent acting, and good storytelling).

Shows that I'd recommend:

Carnivale - I believe it was a Showtime or HBO show that was cancelled...you can rent it from Netflix though. Great acting (with a few exceptions), strange and interesting plot.

Rome - just plain cool as a period piece. Rome is another HBO show (again, I rented it on Netflix). It follows the lives of two Roman soldiers and the events that unfold. Expect lots of violence and sex (in other words, don't watch it with your kids unless you're creepy and/or a bad parent)

Lost - good acting, good story-telling. The plot gets weird (to the extent that I'm having trouble seeing how they plan to tie everything together and have it make sense...if they accomplish that, it will be genius)...but it's still a great show. This one REALLY surprised me, because I wasn't expecting to like it.

GnomeBoy wrote: Do we need Sylar? I'm done with him.

Yeah, I could do without him. I was done with him last season. He should go play Spock.

I totally stopped watching Heroes a few weeks ago. It just wasn't going anywhere. A couple Tuesdays ago, I realized that I had completely forgotten to watch it. It wasn't even like I was doing anything fun or distracting Monday night, I just forgot. And that's when I realized I just wasn't interested anymore.

Tim Kring has already apologized for season 2. I think it's great that the guy can realize and admit when he makes a mistake, but after apologizing for the end of season 1 and then turning right around and apologizing for season 2...well, it doesn't fill me with hope.

fathead wrote:Lost - good acting, good story-telling. The plot gets weird (to the extent that I'm having trouble seeing how they plan to tie everything together and have it make sense...if they accomplish that, it will be genius)...but it's still a great show. This one REALLY surprised me, because I wasn't expecting to like it.

The whole "how are they gonna wrap this up?" factor is part of my main reason for watching, besides the great characters, acting, writing and the fact that they brought back the anthology show in a totally unexpected way.

Season Two was draggy, but still more than just survivable as a viewer. I can't wait until April when it starts up again! Knowing that there are three more 16 episode seasons has built a lot of excitement for me. It's like a countdown!

mythfish wrote:I totally stopped watching Heroes a few weeks ago. It just wasn't going anywhere. A couple Tuesdays ago, I realized that I had completely forgotten to watch it. It wasn't even like I was doing anything fun or distracting Monday night, I just forgot. And that's when I realized I just wasn't interested anymore.

I was pretty much in that camp. My wife watches with me, and while I might have been willing to tape over the episode from last week (after not much caring that we missed one), she asked if we could watch it. We did. And I was hooked again....

I can forgive a slump -- if that's what it is (see Lost comment above) -- and if this season is at least as interesting as last season, I'll keep going.

We'll see....

Rome? Check. Ditto.
Carnivale? Check. Ditto.

All praise Netflix.

Haven't seen anything about Lost...going to wait until it's all over.

Heroes has not exactly lit a fire underneath me. A friend of mine who moved to Scotland tried to razz me the other day, to wit:

"...and I see I've been dropped from the Heroes email discussion."

No, she hadn't. It's not been discussed in my circle 'cause it's not discuss-worthy.

My only must-see show on TV nowadays, the one that I get irritated if I miss, is Pushing Daisies. Yup. I'm a big ol' softie.

Jengenritz wrote: My only must-see show on TV nowadays, the one that I get irritated if I miss, is Pushing Daisies. Yup. I'm a big ol' softie.

Ha. I hestitated to mention that one because I knew it didn't fit well the rest of the recommendations...and I doubted that many other people would enjoy it. My wife and I watch that show regularly (although we never worry about missing it because we don't have cable...we just watch it online when the network puts it out).

Combine Wonderfalls (also on Netflix, created by the same person - Bryan Fuller, and the main character of Pushing Daisies is also in this) with quirky humor and a voice-over by the same person that did the voice-over for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (oddly enough, it's also the same girl as well), and you have Pushing Daisies.

My wife and I have debated how long it will take the network to cancel this show. We love the show, but suspect that most people won't...and Bryan Fuller's shows have a habit of getting cancelled...they are just too unique and have an intelligent wit that most viewers probably can't appreciate.

Jengenritz, just in case you're interested, Bryan Fuller also created Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me (both also on Netflix).

Dead Like Me - they weren't consistent with some of the plot (particularly the rules of the reapers), but we still loved the series. You have to get past the first several episodes in season 1 (we almost abandoned the series early). There is one female actor who leaves the show....after that point, she is replaced by Daisy Adare (character's name)...AFTER that, the show starts to improve. By the end of it, you love the characters and love the show.

Wonderfalls - we didn't enjoy it as much as Dead Like Me (whose deadpan humor we missed sorely), but it was still a good show (actually, some of it's quirky humor reminds me of Pushing Daisies).

-Fathead apparently watches too much TV

I only managed to catch the first episode of Pushing Daisies, but being a big fan of Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me I'm sure I'll buy it on DVD anyway. Wonderfalls is still my favorite of the bunch.

Incidentally, the narrator for Pushing Daisies is also the guy who reads the Harry Potter audiobooks, and he does a fabulous job.

I didn't even realize it until very recently, but Bryan Fuller is one of the writers for Heroes too. He wrote "Company Man", the single best episode of the entire series.

mythfish wrote: I didn't even realize it until very recently, but Bryan Fuller is one of the writers for Heroes too. He wrote "Company Man", the single best episode of the entire series.

Huh. I didn't know that. Pretty cool, actually...

I just realized that I forgot to mention my favorite dearly departed series - Firefly!

Fathead loves him some Firefly.

Hey Gnome! Just wanted to apologize for hijacking your thread with my show recommendations...

GnomeBoy wrote: I was pretty much in that camp. My wife watches with me, and while I might have been willing to tape over the episode from last week (after not much caring that we missed one), she asked if we could watch it. We did. And I was hooked again....

Well, I watched the last couple episodes of Heroes. The last one still wasn't enough to renew my interest. They DID do a better job with that episode...I'm just not sure if it's enough to convince me that I should continue watching the series (especially since my wife has already abandoned it for dead).

Can I call you fat, or do you prefer Mr. head?

No worries on the hijack. It's not like these boards have a multi-million members and things get out of hand, never to return to topic -- it's a friendly family and I think we can handle some meandering....

So, I guess what we watch on TV comes down to our wives... *sigh*

Is this adulthood?

The reinvigoration is not enough to get me to watch through the end of the season, but it does give me hope that maybe they're back on track. Time will tell. If it at least hits the marks of last season and they minimize or dump Sylar, I'll probably watch. But there is definetly less gordian-knot plotting to this season.

And I'd add some of the other shows mentioned right now, if there weren't already 170-something titles in our Netflix queueue!

GnomeBoy wrote:Can I call you fat, or do you prefer Mr. head?

:laugh

Either one is fine by me. My friends call me Fathead because I have an enormous noggin...so you could probably guess that I wouldn't take offense to either Fat or Mr. Head.

GnomeBoy wrote: So, I guess what we watch on TV comes down to our wives... *sigh*

Yep. Luckily, my wife and I tend to have similar tastes in television. A friend of mine has a wife who watches nothing but Felicity. I count myself lucky.

GnomeBoy wrote: And I'd add some of the other shows mentioned right now, if there weren't already 170-something titles in our Netflix queueue!

Well...clearly you need to start watching more television then...

fathead wrote: Well...clearly you need to start watching more television then...

Well, the -- I won't say problem, but rather... challenge -- the challenge is that we have an 8-year-old boy. And One, I don't want to spend an hour or so each night watching TV in front of him, and B, not all of it is appropriate for an 8-year-old. Now, he watches TV, but has a natural ability to just go, "hey, that's enough" and turn off the TV. Not an ability I had as a kid, and something I hope he doesn't lose.

So, by the time he's in bed, there's not a lot of evening left. And sometimes, I and/or my wife are just wiped out or not interested in TV, and so don't watch anything. I have a disc from Fletnix at home right now (Dr Who, Season Two, Disc 3) that I only just started with last night, after its been sitting next to the TV for at least four weeks. So grows the queue.

*sigh*

For the record: Basic cable only, with three-at-a-time. Four-at-a-time during the summer months, when there is really nothing on TV.