Ricky Gervais podcasts to become cartoon series on US channel HBO
In one way I’m extremely excited – but in another I’m scared. These shows were dear to me and now everyone will have them. But I guess everyone needs to know about Karl (the man for whom this blog is named.)
Here’s a little teaser if you’re out of the loop:
In case you don’t read the comments on my blog, the new question is not “Who are the Oceanic 6?” it is “Who are the Eli 5???” That would be the five people that watch Eli Stone. George and Brad (The Kraw) have already fessed up, who is left?
You’re suing God!
I’m not suing God!
You’re suing God!
I’M NOT SUING GOD!!11!!
YAY, hopefully the original 16 episode season will air as planned.
So at last the long-awaited list of my top 5 returning shows for 2007. There are probably only five shows that I watch regularly so this was pretty easy.
5) Entourage
Although it got a slow start and they started to overuse the Billy Walsh character that I originally loved, it makes the list simply because I don’t watch THAT much TV. What a glorious recommendation, right? It was still funnier and more entertaining than most shows out there. During the middle of the season I think the writers were running out of ideas and just had Turtle and Drama do outrageous things while E and Vince were trying to get their movie out. But after a great finale, I’m still interested to see where they go with the Medellin plotline.
4) Extras
I downloaded all these episodes when they aired in the UK, but it didn’t hit the US until 2007 so I can use it. Extras returned much stronger than the first season and had great guest stars such as Chris Martin, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, and Robert De Niro. It’s interesting to see how Gervais & Merchant delved deeper into Milman’s character this year making it much more dramatic. The series Christmas special/finale was almost more dramatic than comedic, and it makes me curious to see what they have in store for us in their next series.
3) Curb Your Enthusiasm
What Would Larry David Do? Larry David’s real life crossed over into his fictional TV life in one of the funniest episodes of television I’ve seen all year, entitled “The Tivo Guy.” Rather than leave his real-life divorce off the table, he chose to write it into the show and it was nothing short of hilarious.
2) The Sopranos
I have to admit, I hated the series finale at first. While most people thought their cable went out, I thought the finale was split into 2 parts to download and I only got the first part as it just cut off at the end. I mention a lot about downloading TV – I’m just trying to make a point that the internet is the future of television. Hopefully one day we can cut out the cable companies altogether. But back to The Sopranos! After I realized that was in fact the ending, I was pissed. I could see David Chase’s point of view. As the artist he wanted his story to live on forever. But I kind of hated the way it was done. After I thought about it, I realized the ending fit perfectly with the show. The Sopranos was pretty much a window inside this family’s life. And we could see that through thick and thin, pretty much every character stayed the same. None of them changed for the better; stuff just happened to them. And I think Chase showed that in the finale. I also think that if he showed Tony getting killed, then that’s all anyone would remember about the show. Chase probably let it be ambiguous to keep his name in people’s mouths longer. Just a thought. Regardless of the finale, this final season of The Sopranos was probably the best it’s ever been.
and if it was any surprise at all…
1) Lost
I consider this the best television show of all-time so how could it not be my number one returning? The last five minutes of the season three finale gives me chills every time I see it. January 31st can’t come soon enough.
This top 10 list will be about my favorite TV shows of the year. I’ll do a top five for new and top five for returning. The new was actually easier than I thought, because I only tried a few new shows and I liked most of them. There were some I watched and turned off halfway through, or in five minutes, and there were some I watched a few episodes of but just never really got into (Pushing Daisies.)
New:
5) Chuck
To me this is like a modern-day Charlie’s Angels. Action/adventure/spy plots mixed with goofy comedy and pop-culture. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but it turned out to be very entertaining. Now who knows how long until we’ll get another new episode. Damn you writer’s strike!
4) Big Bang Theory
This is another show I didn’t think I would like just based on the premise (two nerds live together and a hot girl moves in across the hall.) The sitcom has pretty much died in my eyes, but I guess this is the latest one I’ve watched regularly. It’s also the only show I watch that has a laugh track and I cringe almost every time I hear it. Either way, this show is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny at times just because of the nerdy humor.
3) Tell Me You Love Me
I originally watched this just for Sonya Walger. Any other Lost fans will know her as Penny Widmore, Desmond’s long-lost love. This show got me hooked pretty fast, because it has great writing and dialogue, an overall interesting set of characters (although there are two I could do without), and an incredible sense of realism on the topics of love and relationships.
2) Flight of the Conchords
It’s hard to put this at number 2 instead of 1, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The musical-comedy duo of Bret and Jermaine had me loling every Monday night. ( I downloaded the episodes. ) Each episode seemed to get better and better, but the finale left a little to be desired. One of the things holding the show back was the amount (and length) of songs in the earlier episodes. They seemed to find the perfect mix around halfway through. I’m hoping next season will be as good as the first.
and finally
1) Mad Men
There’s so much I could say about this show. I wonder about the popularity of it, because it seems kind of hard to find (does anyone watch AMC for tv shows?) Also, it seemed to be pretty slow in the beginning, but as soon as I saw the ending of the first episode I knew this was going to be a show that I would like. It had an almost Lost-like twist that was set up all along, but the writers only let you see it when they wanted you to. There is also so much detail put in the show; you feel like you’re in the 1960′s when you watch. It doesn’t hurt that one of the writers from The Sopranos is the creator & writer for this show. It almost has the sort of “family” arc from The Sopranos translated into the story of a group of company ad men and their lives.
There are also a couple of other shows that aren’t from this year but new to me through Netflix. Hustle is standout in my mind. It’s like Ocean’s Eleven with a new heist every week.
