Looking for tv show recs

[fleurlb]

Himself and I have exhausted all of our available mutually-acceptable television shows and are looking for new shows to watch.

We both found the pilot of In Plain Sight to be tiresome and boring, which was disappointing because we both found Mary to be smoking hot. He loved Burn Notice, I hated it and spent most of the time wanting to punch the main guy in the face. I loved Lie to Me, he hated it. We both got bored of House somewhere around Season 3, although he still watches because he delights in watching Hugh Laurie be an insufferable grumpy prick. He's watched all the seasons of Dexter, I only watched bits and pieces after Season 2.

He loves Breaking Bad, but I found the pilot too depressing to continue watching. (Although I've seen bits of other episodes since then and might be persuaded into continuing to watch, but that's not going to help us because he's seen them all too recently to rewatch.) He came around on both Friday Night Lights and Leverage, but only after I'd watched all the episodes many, many times. He hated Sons of Anarchy, I loved it. Same with Supernatural and Veronica Mars.

So what has worked for us? Ummm...... we both loved The Shield, Heroes (until it started to suck), The Wire, and the first season of Damages.
Any advice on possible shows to watch would be much appreciated!

Comments

[elzed.livejournal.com]

Definitely try Justified - awesome writing, not formulaic, great characters (and uber hot Timothy Olyphant for your eye candy...). One of the best shows I have ever watched, imho.

Otherwise White Collar is fun; True Blood has excellent moments (and not so good ones, but it's generally intriguing)

Battlestar Galactica has awesome elements (and a lot of it is about survival and politics and morality in the face of extinction rather than hardcore sci fi). But I suspect you might not want to delve into scifi fandoms...

[fleurlb.livejournal.com]

True Blood is another of my guilty pleasures that I only watch when Himself is out of town. :)

I've tried to watch BSG a few times and have been utterly unable. Himself loved it though and watched them all religiously.

I wish I could identify what turned me off about the first two Justified eps. Although I did like the second better than the first.

[themonkeytwin.livejournal.com]

So I wandered over from your comment, and discovered the first person other than myself, apparently, on lj who isn't crazy about Justified (admittedly, I don't get around much). Like you, I watched the first two and it just didn't grab me. I pondered about it, and pilot eps, in an entry, but the main thrust of it was

"The writing was clunky. The other characters were standard and cardboard-thin, all existing solely to interact with Raylan, except for the antagonist, who manages a little more autonomy. Not only that, they exist solely to draw out some aspect of Raylan, or maybe set him up for a one-liner, making sure no one misses that Raylan is a cool, smart, badass mofo who shoots to kill, who’s cool and badass and did we mention badass and cool?"

Don't know if that helps jog some thoughts. I eventually watched a few more eps, and they seemed to be getting into their stride a little more, but I'd lost interest.

As far as recs go, most of what I'd say seems to have been covered. I don't know if you're interested in Brit tv beyond Dr Who, but if you both enjoy Leverage, you might like Hustle. And it sounds weird, but I recently gave Glee another shot, and really enjoyed it. It's so bright and sparkly but so knowing about itself and its subject matter, and ruthlessly sharp and funny; it's not perfect but it's fun. Also? Cowboy Bebop is awesome.

[fleurlb.livejournal.com]

Yay, welcome.Funny enough, but I just gave Justified another chance over the last few days and am enjoying it more. I think you're totally write about the characters in the first two eps. I still have a hard time telling Ex-Wife and The Sexpot apart. And I really didn't like the character that Walt Goggins (whom I loved on The Shield) played in the first two.

So yes, I totally agree with your assessments and maybe I haven't lost interest yet because there's nothing else to lose interest to. I keep meaning to check out Hustle, since I'm curious. Thanks for reminding me.