What's the point in watching TV series anymore?

[5-0]

Sure, there's a lot of crap on TV. But there always has been. You just have to find the good stuff. Scandinavian drama delivers on this front:
The Killing
Wallander
Borgen
The Bridge
And the US has The Wire and The Shield.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Are you serious?

Have you actually be watching television? 'Cause, if you were looking any any proper level, you'd know this was dead wrong. A sliver of the stuff I've been seeing...

Doctor Who
Generator Rex
Young Justice
Adventure Time
Regular SHow
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

...and just about anything The History Channel brings out.

 

[CommanderL]

the legend of korra is one so thats one awsome thing

pysch has been renewed
breaking bad
game of thrones

 

[DoPo]

Meh, I think you're just confirming Sturgeon's Law. TV series have never been overwhelmingly awesome. They've always been mostly "meh" or even "bad" with the occasional show worth watching and some who are tolerable. Part of why I don't watch TV.

Game Of Thrones
Spartacus
The Wire
Sons Of Anarchy
Band Of Brothers
The Pacific
The Walking Dead

Either you have horrible tastes, or you're just not looking hard enough.

Thanks for the subtle dig at me there. I don't think it was necessary, though. It's these shows compared to how many other shows there on TV? No, remind me, please - go and turn that into a percentage of the total TV time. I'll wait.

 

[The_Waspman]

I haven't watched TV since I started uni. And considering I graduated ten yearsd ago, thats saying something.

Not to say I don't watch TV shows. But only on DVD. As the OP points out, there is far too much 'reality' tv, and the reason for that is because - in comparison - it is ridiculously cheap to produce, and millions of people watch it. Here in the UK (and yes, I realise by extention other countries too) we gave birth to the abomination that is Big Brother. Frankly, if I wanted to watch a group of inbred, attention-seeking retards trying to fuck each other, I'd head for the local concil estate. And thats one of the things that kicked off the reality tv epidemic, isn't it?

I have some vague idea of how TV operates in the states, and frankly, I think the system is a bit fucked up. Like I say though, since I only watch TV on DVD, I don't have to go through the drama of getting invested in a show only to see it cancelled midway through its first season.

There is quality TV out there though. Shame a lot of it gets either cancelled (before it can find a legitimate footing) or is dragged out waaaay past its sell by date (House has suffered this terribly.)

 

[necromanzer52]

Are you serious?

Have you actually be watching television? 'Cause, if you were looking any any proper level, you'd know this was dead wrong. A sliver of the stuff I've been seeing...

Doctor Who
Generator Rex
Young Justice
Adventure Time
Regular SHow
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

...and just about anything The History Channel brings out.

Dude. You forgot about Phineas & Ferb.

OT: Awake got cancelled? I was planning on getting into that one. Oh well.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Well House is finishing soon so that'll leave Big Bang Theory as the only thing on TV I would watch (besides sports) until the seventh season of Futurama eventually makes it over here (probably quite some time) Well, besides re-watching the Pokemon anime online anyway =P

 

[Vivi22]

The problem is too many people thinking 'I wont watch it till it gets a 2nd season' or 'I wont watch it cos its on NBC so it will get axed' and these people are part of the reason they don't get a 2nd season.

Not really. While I agree that if a show interests you you should just watch it regardless of whether it will be cancelled, a shows Neilson ratings aren't affected by how many people actually watch it. Just how many people within their not really random sample of households which keep viewing journals for them or allowed them to install their monitoring boxes affect it.

Unless they asked you to let them monitor your viewing and you said yes, whether or not you actually watch a show doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

[pilouuuu]

It's weird that several series I'm following ARE going off the air this year.

Eureka & House are both in their final seasons and rumor has it that The Avenger's: Earths Mightiest Heroes is going to be taken off and replaced with a new series placed with in the Ultimate Spider-man universe.

Nooo! The Avenger's: Earths Mightiest Heroes is amazing! It'd be another sad loss. I couldn't care less about Spidey series.

 

[pilouuuu]

Dude watch the following TV series

Misfits (Uk series)
Being Human (UK version)
Underbelly season's 1-3 (Australian series)
Blue Mountain State
Skins (UK series, USA version is an abomination. Oh and make sure you watch the first two seasons first)
Pioneer One (free to watch and download)
Breaking Bad
Walking dead
Shield of Uruk
Aegis of Uruk

And DANGER 5!!!

Seriously there are so many good series out right now. You just have to look out side the US of A from time to time.

Interesting. Thanks! I haven't heard about most of these. I already watch Walking Dead and while it's boring and slow at times, it's mostly quality TV and one thing that gives me hope.

 

[rayen020]

Waht do people have against the big bang theory?

 

[Richardplex]

Sturgeons law is sturgeon's law. You have to wade through crap to reach the gems in books, anime, graphic novels, films, games and visual novels (not so much so in the west since the crap doesn't get fan-translated but I digress), shouldn't be a surprise tv shows follow suit.

 

[Antitonic]

Waht do people have against the big bang theory?

Humour is subjective?

 

[pilouuuu]

OK, maybe I need to clarify because some people understood that I think there are not many good things on TV. I think TV is better than now with such amazing things as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Fringe... Even animated series like Legend of Korra are totally amazing and state of the art TV.

We rarely before got proper endings for series or something beyond formulaic series that basically had the same episode each week. Remember Magnum P.I., Mc Gyver, Alf, Scooby-Doo? While each had its charm, we can surely say that TV is so much better nowadays.

After Lost I was expecting every single series to have well acted series, with amazing characters and a great story. More than that, I would have expected TV networks to change the way they produce series, and defining from the get-go how many seasons each series would get, so they could all have proper and well thought out endings, to solve one of Lost's few shortcomings which included a messy last season and a disappointing ending.

That's why I fear, because networks keep on stopping TV from its whole potential and they keep on cancelling great series, simply because they don't have good rating. And honestly, Reality shows should be removed from TV for the sake of avoiding humanity's downfall!

 

[pilouuuu]

Waht do people have against the big bang theory?

Humour is subjective?

I still enjoy TBBT, although I must admit that all the romantic relationships are working a bit against it, but it's still good fun. And what other series had Leonard Nimoy and Stephen Hawking as guests? Well, besides The Simpsons that's it. XD

And for anyone that likes it, I'd recommend the british comedy The I.T. Crowd. You may find it even funnier.

 

[Starik20X6]

The TV shows I'm watching at the moment:

Mad Men
The Walking Dead
Boardwalk Empire
Curb Your Enthusiasm
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Adventure Time

All of them are top notch.

Also, The Big Bang Theory is one of the worst shows I have ever seen. It's about as funny as watching a child have an aneurism. After seeing various snooze-worthy clips I was finally made to watch an entire episode. As far as I could tell, the only joke they had was "nerds are a thing that exist". EDIT: And I really like The I.T. Crowd. Nerd humour done correctly.