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What are your favorite TV shows?

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DavidV

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Here is what I enjoy:

Law and Order – original stories, real issues, all over New York, and coherent, self-contained plots

CSI – witty characters, (mostly) real science, fast action

NYPD blue – too naturalistic at times, but the characters are engaging, and I like watching the detectives get the perps to confess.

The History Channel - Modern Marvels & “The Tech of” – some of the featured technologies are very cool

Edit: There is another version of this thread here.

Ilike the news shows especially foreign news. I believe they-foreign news - show a different perspective then American news..

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Has anyone been keeping up with Prison Break?

I stumbled into a marathon of the first half of season one several months ago, and I'm hooked. It reminds me of what Ayn Rand said about hero-motivated plots being esthetically preferable (to her) to villain-motivated ones. The fact that the series's protagonist is a brilliant structural engineer makes it even that much more enjoyable, even though they tried to play his genius once as some kind of mental anomaly (they haven't brought it up since, so I'll pretend that scene was written as a filler sequence :dough: ).

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Well, House Season 3 premiered tonight. Without spoiling, I will say that the premiere continued Season 2's disappointing backpedal into the realm of emotional subjectivism by plunging headlong into the depths of "the truth doesn't matter, it's what you feel that counts."

Let's just say I really dislike Wilson and Cuddy now, and I think they're starting to affect House in a slightly less than positive way. Perhaps things will get better.

Also, Nip/Tuck premiere was, in a word "ordinary."

<sigh>

-Q

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Well, House Season 3 premiered tonight. Without spoiling, I will say that the premiere continued Season 2's disappointing backpedal into the realm of emotional subjectivism by plunging headlong into the depths of "the truth doesn't matter, it's what you feel that counts."

Although I will note that, based on the preview of next week's episode, it seems clear that reality remains real in spite of Cuddy and Wilson's refusal to mention it. I expect consequences.

It's also worth noting that the line "just because he was right doesn't mean he wasn't also wrong" can easily be interpreted in a sense compatible with a rational epistemology. House was correct to say that he didn't have a proper objective basis for the conclusion that he drew. He really did get lucky. And Objectivist epistemology is pretty clear on the point that the 'right' conclusion held for the wrong reason is not the right conclusion. Right treatment, but the method was arbitrary.

If you want to pick something to be concerned about, I'd go with the signs that House is losing the ability to objectively assess his own mental processes in the face of strong emotions. Of course, this could be a seed of good drama, if it eventually leads to House killing a patient through lack of objectivity about diagnosis and/or treatment.

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Has anyone been keeping up with Prison Break?

I stumbled into a marathon of the first half of season one several months ago, and I'm hooked. It reminds me of what Ayn Rand said about hero-motivated plots being esthetically preferable (to her) to villain-motivated ones. The fact that the series's protagonist is a brilliant structural engineer makes it even that much more enjoyable, even though they tried to play his genius once as some kind of mental anomaly (they haven't brought it up since, so I'll pretend that scene was written as a filler sequence :P ).

I really enjoyed Prison Break when it first started too, but I don't know if it will continue to be good. A lot of the interesting conflict seems to have dissipated now. If they kept the story focused on Michael Scofield and his brother, instead of bothering with the other prison breakers, I think it would be better.

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My favorite TV show of all times is Profiler.

I was hooked pretty bad :lol: .

The show was about a special Violent Crimes Task Force that was composed of brilliant minds, each in their own field, to catch serial-criminals, criminals that repeat the same crime with a certain pattern.

The lead role was of the psychologist Samantha waters (Ally Walker) who had a talent for recreating the crime through the eyes of the criminal, to try and figure out the criminal's mind, motives, and next moves.

The show itself didn't provide those clues about the motives of the criminal so that the viewer can figure out the criminal as well (maybe just a little bit) and it left more room just to watch someone else do it, but the viewer is able to follow the line of thought that leads to the psychologist's conclusions. I think if each chapter had more time they could have got that element into it as well (of giving a chance for the viewer to be impressed by the crime scene).

Ally walker played the role amazingly. She was the main reason why I loved watching the show.

The character she played was of a woman who obviously had to be very strong mentally, because she ventured into the "dark side" of human mind, and because of the things she had to see (distorted bodies and stuff), but she was able to deal with it coldly, yet she had a special, childish vulnerability about her which was fascinating. I never seen anyone play a role so well. She has a genuine . "thinking face".

Other than solving crimes she was also personally hunted by a serial killer "Jack of all trades". Another brilliant mind that played with the VCTF's minds. They tried catching him for years. He was leaving clews for Sam in crime scenes as a part of what he imagined as his relationship with her.

Another show I really like is Dragon Ball Z. It is an anime show (supposed to be for kids, but I found some very mature things about it), about... well, mainly about fun and humour. The show created an entirely different universe, with many different species of intelligent lives, and amusing or disgusting villains, and a special race that was especially (physically) strong: The sajyans. The main heroes of the show were all Sajyans. The main character, Goku, had an extraordinary benevolent sense of life: he was very innocent and childish and basically did whatever he darned pleased, even if it pissed other people off, but eventually everyone forgave him because he was so happy and likable. He was a very moral character, always standing up against evil to protect what he valued, even if the fight seemed hopeless, he would never give in to evil. He was the inspiration of everyone else who knew him. There were also Sajyan kids in the show, that contributed a lot to the humour by their naughty behavior. There was a special sense of "honor" about the characters, and that honor was sometimes "broken" to produce hilarious results: for example, Piccolo, a very proud and tough, rough martial arts trainer had to teach the boys a certain magical skill, that involved doing the most silly dance on the tip of his toes, like a ballerina. the result was that you see this tough trainer trying to scam his way out of it using the most childish, silly excuses. I just loved it.

Another aspect about the humour in the show that was special is how ruthless and direct some of the characters were. For example, Gohan, the son of Goku, had just been made orphan from his dad. he was a spoiled little brat, and Piccolo was his trainer. Whenever Gohan started crying Piccolo would get mad at him and teach him a lesson, by, say, tossing him to a near hill of rocks so that Gohan learns to deal with it :P . Eventually he made a tough man out of the little wimp, and the process was very funny.

The most interesting thing, however, was presented in the character of Makita, another Sajyan. Makita used to be the prince of all Sajyan. After a while that he met Goku, Goku constantly defeated him, which cause Makita to develop strong admiration for Goku, but created inner-conflicts in him since he learned that no-matter what he does he will never be able to reach Goku's level. Makita was the proud, lone type, that nobody dared to address. Therefor his "breaking of will" was a very powerful event. Eventually he changed his philosophy, got married and enjoyed life, and became distant-friends with Goku. The whole process was interesting to watch.

In short it is a very life-affirming show. It basically encourages things like enjoying life, not giving in to evil, always doing one's best and working hard to get what one wants, optimism, benevolence and daring.

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l love the show Criminal Minds. lt affirms an aspect of reality that is rarely mentioned in society though rampant. It revolves around people getting their "jollies" or "release" as they call it in the show, by eg committing arson or murdering innocent people. l'm convinced that many professional movie reviewers are in this catagory. Under the veil of intellectualism, all they do is urinate on peoples pop corn movies whilst also secretly craving to urinate into peoples pop corn as well. This is real life folks, not the veneer people show the world. So watch the series and learn about the real world.

Regards

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Am not really a TV shows person, that hanging for a whole day and wait till the next show is no longer what I can schedule for but, seems like everyone is all over Prison Break. I got the 1st Episode DVD 2 weeks back but I have only managed to watch 2 Episodes. It’s nicely stylized maybe I will watch more.

So…

Prison Break (maybe)

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I forgot to mention The A team. Smashing!!

I like the show because of the creativity and intelligence of the plans that the A-team makes, because of how skillful they are in doing things (like building an armored car from zero :lol:), I like the craziness and daring of their plans and their execution.

I like "Murdock" the most - he's the crazy type, and also Hannibal, the "brains" of the group.

That show brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

180px-Ateam.jpg

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I also like the A team.

But something always confused me about that show:

Is it for kids, or for adults?

Nobody ever seems to get shot, despite the insane amount of lead flying around. So it's definitely been set up for kids.

But the plot lines often make reference to nasty crimes/criminals and political events or vietnam war stuff. All stuff that would clearly go over the heads of kids.

So what is up with the A Team?!?

(Also, Dirk Benedict. Now, that's a name to match that face, LOL)

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Another show I really like is Dragon Ball Z. It is an anime show (supposed to be for kids, but I found some very mature things about it), about... well, mainly about fun and humour. The show created an entirely different universe, with many different species of intelligent lives, and amusing or disgusting villains, and a special race that was especially (physically) strong: The sajyans. The main heroes of the show were all Sajyans. The main character, Goku, had an extraordinary benevolent sense of life: he was very innocent and childish and basically did whatever he darned pleased, even if it pissed other people off, but eventually everyone forgave him because he was so happy and likable. He was a very moral character, always standing up against evil to protect what he valued, even if the fight seemed hopeless, he would never give in to evil. He was the inspiration of everyone else who knew him. There were also Sajyan kids in the show, that contributed a lot to the humour by their naughty behavior. There was a special sense of "honor" about the characters, and that honor was sometimes "broken" to produce hilarious results: for example, Piccolo, a very proud and tough, rough martial arts trainer had to teach the boys a certain magical skill, that involved doing the most silly dance on the tip of his toes, like a ballerina. the result was that you see this tough trainer trying to scam his way out of it using the most childish, silly excuses. I just loved it.

Another aspect about the humour in the show that was special is how ruthless and direct some of the characters were. For example, Gohan, the son of Goku, had just been made orphan from his dad. he was a spoiled little brat, and Piccolo was his trainer. Whenever Gohan started crying Piccolo would get mad at him and teach him a lesson, by, say, tossing him to a near hill of rocks so that Gohan learns to deal with it :P . Eventually he made a tough man out of the little wimp, and the process was very funny.

The most interesting thing, however, was presented in the character of Makita, another Sajyan. Makita used to be the prince of all Sajyan. After a while that he met Goku, Goku constantly defeated him, which cause Makita to develop strong admiration for Goku, but created inner-conflicts in him since he learned that no-matter what he does he will never be able to reach Goku's level. Makita was the proud, lone type, that nobody dared to address. Therefor his "breaking of will" was a very powerful event. Eventually he changed his philosophy, got married and enjoyed life, and became distant-friends with Goku. The whole process was interesting to watch.

In short it is a very life-affirming show. It basically encourages things like enjoying life, not giving in to evil, always doing one's best and working hard to get what one wants, optimism, benevolence and daring.

In the English translation that I am familiar with, Makita was called Vegeta. I am not sure if it is accurate to say that Vegeta actually enjoys life as he mentally tortures himself for not being nearly as powerful as Goku and he secretly harbors some unwarranted animosity towards Goku despite Goku's unrelenting kindness and understanding towards him. A lot of Vegeta's bitterness stems from his perceived sense of entitlement to being the most powerful warrior in the universe because he was born a Saiyan prince. The existence of a commoner like Goku who is a more powerful warrior really infuriates Vegeta.

I always was amused by the contrast between Goku and Vegeta as fathers. Goku would act very warm and encouraging towards his son Goten while they trained together while Vegeta would bark orders at Trunks for not training enough despite Trunks' concerted efforts at training.

Another great Vegeta moment was while all of the characters were taking the strength test to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament. All of the other uberpowerful characters were hiding their strength so as not to alarm the other competitors while Vegeta thought they were being silly and just annihilated the strength testing machine with one punch.

I am surprised that nobody mentioned how humans are invariably portrayed as dumb, panicky, clumsy, unwitting and overconfident on the show. This is personified in the human martial arts champion: Hercule. :)

Majin Buu was hilarious. Buu eat you up! Buu eat you up!

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  • 4 weeks later...
I am not sure if it is accurate to say that Vegeta actually enjoys life as he mentally tortures himself for not being nearly as powerful as Goku and he secretly harbors some unwarranted animosity towards Goku despite Goku's unrelenting kindness and understanding towards him. A lot of Vegeta's bitterness stems from his perceived sense of entitlement to being the most powerful warrior in the universe because he was born a Saiyan prince. The existence of a commoner like Goku who is a more powerful warrior really infuriates Vegeta.

All this is true. Don't forget that Goku admires strength too. He too enjoyed the fights with vegeta because vegeta was powerful. I always thought of their relationship as something like Roark and Wynand's relationship. Just like Wynand was "in love" (not sexually) with Roark, so is vegeta "in love" with Goku, and in both cases they realize that they are surpassed by strength and that they have been living a bad lifestyle.

The peak of vegeta's inner conflict is in the chapter that he fights Goku, and kills himself to save his son and the people he loves from Majin Buu. That was awesome.

Here are two videos that show vegeta's best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axy1vzuUnh8.

I love how in the first vidoe, after vegeta chained Goku to the rock and beats him up, Goku, unable to break the chains themselves, eventually uproots a piece of rock attached to the handcuffs and smashes it on vegeta, saying (wordlessly) "I will not be bound".

Another great Vegeta moment was while all of the characters were taking the strength test to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament. All of the other uberpowerful characters were hiding their strength so as not to alarm the other competitors while Vegeta thought they were being silly and just annihilated the strength testing machine with one punch.

Yeah!! It was very characteristic of him: the indifference in which he just walks over to the machine and do what he came to do, without hiding his power. That was funny.

I don't think it is true though that vegeta did not enjoy life. It's just that he enjoyed certain things, that he did not always have.

He has an appealing character nonetheless: his determination, how his emotional world is hidden (unlike Goku, whose every action reveals his mood immediately), his power of will, his pride.

I also found it funny, and very characteristic of them, when they were inside Buu's body, how vegeta was the smarter one among them, while Goku would be silly and light-headed as usual. When that creature told them that they were going to potty, Goku heard it as "we're going to party" and then vegeta told him "no you idiot, he said potty, not party".

I am surprised that nobody mentioned how humans are invariably portrayed as dumb, panicky, clumsy, unwitting and overconfident on the show. This is personified in the human martial arts champion: Hercule. :D
Yeah... it was especially funny when Mr. Satan, making a big fuss about going to finish Buu off eventually stayed in his house and became his made (with the apron and all)!

Majin Buu was hilarious. Buu eat you up! Buu eat you up!

Buu make you dead! Buu make you chocolate!! Brillient bad-guy. Buu's my favorite bad guy.

Edited by ifatart
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I also like the A team.

But something always confused me about that show:

Is it for kids, or for adults?

Nobody ever seems to get shot, despite the insane amount of lead flying around. So it's definitely been set up for kids.

I love this show, also. It may be geared more for kids, but actually, I think the lack of real violence is simply a product of TV making in the 80s. It wasn't as acceptable as it is now. Little House on the Prairie is loaded with bad guys, but also pretty benign. These shows have a good message but are not very realistic.

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My favorite shows include MacGyver, Star Treks TNG and DS9, Firefly and Angel. Any History channel special that explains a battle or some general's war strategy is good for me also.

I've been introduced to some new shows that have come out since this thread has been active. I liked Lost because of its depiction of some of the survivors' will to live, but now it seems to be degenerating into the realm of fate filled mysticism or paranoid conspiracy thrillers. I'm still hooked on it, but I am definitely less impressed with it now than I was with the first season.

Another new show that I like is called Heroes. It is a superhero show that is less like a comic book and more like some of the new dramas. Tomorrow there are going to be reruns of the first three episodes, followed by the premiere of the fourth episode. I was really impressed with this one, but I fear that the writers will run out of solid ideas fast - like two to three seasons from now.

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SpongeBob has always been a bit too post-modern for my tastes (much like The Simpsons, though generally more inane, banal and absurd). He is, however, a generally happy character who works for his own benefit most of the time, so I don't object to him entirely.

The previews I saw for Heroes disinclined me to watch - it looked like it had a similar premise to The 4400; to wit, mundane people 'chosen' to possess special abilities which they are then charged to use to 'the betterment of mankind,' a premise I find excessively altruistic and fatalistic. However, I have not actually watched it, so my impressions may be way off.

Someone mentioned Angel, but not Buffy, which I loved for the most part.

-Q

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  • 1 month later...

House

Dexter

Dr. 90210

Flip This House

Property Ladder

Designed to Sell

House and Dexter keep me in stitches. Dr. 90210 I like because of the surgeries. I just get really annoyed by constantly hearing some of them talking about 'giving back to the people'. I mean really, what are they giving back? What did the 'people' DO to EARN it? Did the 'people' learn the medicine for them or work their butts off all the hours necessary to pay for their college and everything else that goes in to it? One guy went to a foreign country to do volunteer work, which is fine, until I heard him say he was 'giving back' to them, ugh :worry:. That isn't the only thing that gets to me, it just stands out right now.

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There just isn't anything better than House although i've missed just about every episode of the current season. One of these days, i'm going to through a 'House' party and what every episode up to the current one.

Also, when I can find the episodes online, Bullshit! with Penn and Teller is awesome. I really like the one about the validity of the bible.

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House, M.D. is the topic of an essay in this quarter's issue of The Objective Standard, titled "Mr. Jekyll and Dr. House: The Reason-Emotion Split as Manifested in House, M.D.," by Gena Gorlin, which will be accessible to subscribers online on December 18th. From the blurb on the website, it looks to be very good.

-Q

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American Idol: I'm a singer and I enjoy watching other talented people sing.

anything on Discovery Health: I love learning about medicine.

Grey's Anatomy: I enjoy the rare medical stories they offer and also the character development.

Law & Order: I like justice being served.

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