OT: the best show on television...

Submitted by Hotel Putingrad on
Returns tonight for its fifth and penultimate season. The Americans, 10:00pm EST on F/X...What are your nominees for second-most show currently on TV? Or what show's return are you most anticipating? Or, most importantly, what do you think happens this season to the Jenningses,and to Oleg? DISCUSS!

Wolverine In Iowa

March 7th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^

LOL - just talking about The Americans with my mom.  Told her she needs to watch the series.  I grew up in suburban Northern VA during the timeframe of the show, and our subdivision was littered with fed types at different agencies.  My mom was a nurse at the CIA, and I had a summer job there after freshman year at U-M.  Dude on my old street was a psychiatrist who worked for the agency - possibly the funniest and nicest guy I've ever met.  The place was crawling with FBI, DEA, Secret Service and CIA folks.  Well, "State Department" or "DOD" civilians, I should say.

stephenrjking

March 7th, 2017 at 8:18 PM ^

Only problem with it is that I'm at work when it airs locally.

When I want an ego boost I watch the Dan Patrick-hosted Sport Jeopardy variant on NBC Sports, since many of us can get the vast majority of the questions. If Alton is any good on the clicker he would win until they kicked him off.

michgoblue2005

March 7th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^

is my favorite show right now but if I had to pick my favorite shows it would be Justified and The Shield. They both are not on TV anymore which sucks because they both were really good and probably could be still going without losing any luster. But that's like my opinion man.

BeatOSU52

March 7th, 2017 at 9:38 PM ^

I know this sounds like I don't understand complex shows,  but mannnnn, I didn't know WTF was going on half of the time in season 2.  Still a very good show, though.  The best show on USA next to Suits, imo

Broken Brilliance

March 7th, 2017 at 7:55 PM ^

I have a really hard time setting aside X o'clock on X night to regularly watch anything other than sports. Props to those of you that keep up on your show the old fashioned way rather than binge watching like some of us. 

I'm also always super late to the proverbial party. Right now I'm on season 4 of Parks and Rec and it is LITERALLY very enjoyable to watch, other than Rashida Jones.

DrMantisToboggan

March 7th, 2017 at 8:11 PM ^

Sir....Sir....We need to talk. There is almost nothing wrong with Rashida Jones. Her character is kind of a dork sometimes but she is fine as hell. 

 

I love Parks and Rec, it's a great show, but sharing some of thesame producers as The Office (Greg Daniels and Howard Klein) and some obvious styling comparisons, it could never escape how great The Office was, in my opinion. Not to degrade PnR, I would give it a 9.5/10, but The Office is perfect. If you never watched The Office from beginning to end, I highly recommend it. I think it is only rivaled by Seinfeld in the discussion of greatest comedy of all time.

Broken Brilliance

March 7th, 2017 at 8:23 PM ^

She does have a nice smile, but I'm at the point now where she's talking about having a surrogate child with Traeger, and it just seems like they're running out of things to do with this Ann Perkins character other than having her date every regular male on the show for half a season. It is funny how Andy Dwyer is the one who ended up in a meaningful relationship soon after leaving Ann. Great irony.

DrMantisToboggan

March 8th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^

Really? Did you watch the final season of Parks and Rec? It was worse than the first season, which was indeed bad. I think the worst seasons of the Office (and there were not 6 bad seasons, I would say there were 2 that were clearly lower quality) are much better than the 2 bad seasons of Parks and Rec. 

 

As far as characters go, I do give Ron Swanson a slight edge over Dwight. Other than that, The Office's characters were better. 

 

The comedy of The Office is much smarter. That's not a diss on Parks and Rec, there's just different degrees of humor. I love Parks and Rec and I love Brooklyn 99, but The Office is just a cut above in the intelligence and intricacy of the humor. Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak were brilliant writers, and clearly the difference in the quality of shows, since Daniels and Schur wrote for both. I watch the series front to back at least once every year and still find new things to laugh at that I had never noticed before. 

gmoney41

March 8th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^

I will have to disagree with you on that.  Season 7 was not bad at all on P&R.  The last 3 season of Office were almost unwatchably bad for me.    Dwight was so annoying, I found him totally unfunny, and the only character I liked towards the end of the show was Craig robinson's.  Even Steve Carrell's character grated on me in his last season.  The Jim and Pam storyline also killed a lot of that show for me.  I really liked the season 2-6 of the office.  Season 1 was a direct rip off of the british version, and i wasn't huge on 7-9.  We will just have to agree to disagree on this one.

I thought the world of Pawnee and the quirkiness of the gallery of memorable side characters is what made P&R standout for me.  The Office had no Jean Ralphio's, no Joan Calamezzo's, no Dennis Feinstein's, I could LITERALLY go on and on with the awesome side characters.   Amy Poehler was a tad grating, but the rest of the cast managed to make up for any issues she had.  Everyone raves about Veep, but to me, that show is like a poor man's P&R.  They even have a Gerry Gergich character on that show.

Hail-Storm

March 8th, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

The second and third seasons were amazing.  I love how all the characters are consistant and smart.  There have been no dumb out of character crazy actions or events that have been necesarry to move the plot forward. All the actors have been great and the deaths have been all surprising and meaningful.  Again, no shock value.  I am really glad they decided on 4 seasons. so the writers can know exactly where they need to go. Great writing, great acting, action scenes are fun and well dispersed. I wish there were more people who watched it so I could discuss it.  

Can't wait to watch season 4. 

DrMantisToboggan

March 7th, 2017 at 7:59 PM ^

It's Always Sunny is the only running show I watch every week right now. I'm looking forward to the return of Brooklyn 99 and season 2 of The Exorcist. I'll probably binge watch Silicon Valley online after the season wraps up. I enjoyed American Horror Story for the most part last season, but the last 3 seasons have been worse than the first 3 - I don't think they can keep it up much longer.

DrMantisToboggan

March 7th, 2017 at 8:15 PM ^

I honestly think they are getting better, too. There was a season (maybe 9) that I thought dipped and I was worried that they were about to go down, but this season has been as strong as any, and Charlie Day mentioned on Jimmy Fallon that they were signed on for another 2. That would tie them with Ozzie and Harriet for the longest running comedy of all time. Danny Devito is incredible.