Favorite tv shows

[joost]

Buffy is my all time favourite series, and I like spreading the word. The brother of my sister's BF and his GF borrowed my Buffy and Angel boxes awhile ago, and they're loving it too.

I've hardly watched series lately, apart from season 3 of True blood. I like TB, but the first season is still the best. Still waiting for some boxes from Amazon (Neon genesis evangelion, Ghost in the shell: Stand alone complex volume 2, How I met your mother season 6, Big bang theory season 4), they should all arrive within a few weeks from now.

Oh, I did watch three episodes from Mitsudomoe. A bit too childish for me, so I'm not gonna watch the other episodes unless I'm really bored.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

My box set of Frascape arrived today, along with Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, an anime based on.. well, guess what.

(How popular is the Highlander franchise anyway? It's not terribly well-known, and many people who are aware of it have only seen the first movie. Many of the sequels are regarded as being of poor quality, although the television series has its fans, including me. And yet there has been a slow but steady trickle of new material since the first film came out in 1986.)

['thul]

These beings have seen the movie, but never gotten around to series/sequels. Are they any good?


These beings are now a bit over halfway through season 4 of true blood, and enjoy it. Only need to wait some more weeks and they can finish it. (HBO have yet to release episode 8 through 12)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

The sequels have a reputation of being bad, especially Highlander 2. In addition, they are mostly inconsistent with each other. I'll give you a quick rundown:

Highlander: The original movie, featuring Connor MacLeod.

Highlander 2: The Quickening, a reportedly (I haven't seen it myself) horrible sequel featuring Connor MacLeod in the near future.

Highlander 3: The Sorcerer, a movie featuring Connor MacLeod that ignores the second film. It never happened! Apparently this movie is bad too.

Highlander: The Series, featuring Connor's kinsman Duncan MacLeod and running for five seasons. It's not very spectacular, but I liked it well enough. It ignores both the second and third film.

Highlander: The Raven, a series featuring Duncan's on-and-off girlfriend Amanda that ran for ony one season. I haven't seen it, but I think that speaks volumes.

Highlander Endgame: Sequel film to the series in which Connor and Duncan team up. I haven't seen it yet, but supposedly it's bad.

Highlander: The Source. Sequel to Endgame, with an even worse reputation.

Highlander: The Animated Series, featuring Quentyn MacLeod and set in the future. Connor cameos. Ignores everything but the first film. Very obscure, I believe it can be found on Youtube.

Highlander: The Search for Vengeance: an anime starring Colin MacLeod in the future, which was received well for a change. I'll let you know what I think of it when I've seen it. I have just watched the first few minutes and it seemed alright. My dad is a Highlander fan too, so I'm waiting for him to watch it together.

['thul]

sounds like most of it is either horrible or at best mediocre...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

That's why the fact that they keep producing new material baffles me. SOMEONE must be buying it all. I don't regret watching the series though, that one was alright. Apparently the original film is up for a remake now...

['thul]

a remake of the original film could be good. The special effects could use some enhancement. Compared to other special effects from that time, they were decent, but compared to todays, not so good. Hopefully they'll build some more to the story as well...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I am defintely optimistic. I hope that they will look to the series for inspiration too - if you're going to do Connor, why not throw Duncan into the mix as well? But still, I am amazed at how much material there is, considering both the obscurity and low quality of most of it.

Just for fun, I decided to make a list of all the series I've watched the last decade and rank them. I've placed each into one of four categories: excellent, good, okay and terrible, but within those categories they are (mostly) in alphabetical order. I have started watching Farscape, but haven't seen enough yet to judge. Ditto for the Thundercats remake. Feel free to agree or disagree with my assessments.

EXCELLENT

Angel
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Battlestar Galactica (remake)
Babylon 5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Friends
Lost
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Yes, it really is that much fun!)
The West Wing

GOOD

24
The Adventures of Merlin (only seen the first season though)
Gargoyles
Heroes (Quality actually varies wildly per season. S1 is excellent, S2-3 are okay and S4 is downright terrible, so I placed it here as a compromise.)
Highlander
Lois and Clark
Rome
Sliders (only seen the first season, I understand that it gets pretty terrible as the series goes on...)
Smallville
Sonic SatAM
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Universe
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise

OKAY

Alias
Charmed
Cheers
Crusade (The Babylon 5 spin-off)
Fringe
Quantum Leap
Robin of Sherwood
W.I.T.C.H.
The X-Files

TERRIBLE

Battlestar Galactica (the original)
Firefly (I know I'm going to get some flak for this, but I really didn't like it.)
Galactica 1980

EDIT: I completely forgot about Quantum Leap and Robin of Sherwood. Apparently they didn't make that much of an impression, so I've placed them into the okay category, even though I'm quite fond of Sherwood's music.

[joost]

OKAY
The X-Files

As a whole? I agree they went on about 2 seasons too long, but S1 to S6 are excellent in my opinion.

TERRIBLE

Battlestar Galactica (the original)
Firefly (I know I'm going to get some flak for this, but I really didn't like it.)

You should be punished for this I agree that Galactica 1980 was bad (although it had its moments, expecially the last episode with Starbuck and a Cylon who crash on an uninhabited planet), but the original BSG was good, IMO. Of course, the special effects look laughable these days, but at that time they were not too bad. But perhaps my view of the series is coloured because I saw it in the '80s, as a child.

Firefly.... there's just no excuse for that. No excuse at all.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Just watched the latest episode of Thundercats and I have to say: that's more like it! After those plain weird fishmen in a ship in the desert, it's nice to see the story getting back on track. The story arc so far reminds me a bit of Avatar - band of heroes journeying to a remote destination while being pursued by enemies. I hope it will become as epic as Avatar.

About X-Files: amusingly, the good seasons are the only ones I've seen so far. I have yet to see the bad seasons 7-8-9. I enjoy the show most of the time, but it has never truly grabbed me. Maybe I came to the show too late - I only started watching it last year, starting at the first season. I just don't understand why this show was such a phenomenon. And Glactica 1980 is an abomination that should be burned.

Anyway, I just finished Highlander: The Search for Vengeance and I liked it. It can easily be watched without prior knowledge of the franchise. On the other hand, it does feel at home for older fans - it adheres to the rules as set out in the tv series. Interestingly, one of the characters is voiced by Jim Byrnes, who played Joe Dawson in the series. The plot is reminiscent of the original movie, albeit with more violence - and no Gathering, which is probably for the best.