The Vine: March 18, 2011
My fiancé and I are huge fans of “marathoning” shows (as in get a show we’ve never seen that’s got at least 3 seasons on DVD and start Netflixing them until we’ve either caught up to live episodes or the show ends). We’ve been doing this for several years and absolutely love it. Our most recent successful pick was Burn Notice, but we’ve finished the episodes available on DVD and now have to wait for more.
I’m looking for recommendations on other shows we can do this with. I’m including a list of shows we love and some minimal criteria and hopefully you and the rest of the nation can give us some ideas. I’m going to say one more thing, and please don’t hate me…no Mad Men. We’ve tried…twice. Gotten through 2 discs. CANNOT get into it. We just don’t get it. I’m not sure why, it’s a well-written show, but we just don’t love it.
Major criteria: Preferably an hour-long show. We really like dramas that are snappy and mixed with humor/smart-ass remarks, basically we’re fans of snark. Also fast-paced dialogue (a la Sorkin…love it). Our other firm preference is that if it’s a show that is no longer on the air, we want it to have been a planned-out end (as in West Wing, or Buffy); not so excited about watching a show that has 2 great seasons and then gets canceled so you’re left hanging (Joan of Arcadia and Dead Like Me, I’m looking at you).
Some of our favorites are:
- West Wing (LOVE LOVE LOVE)
- Psych
- Studio 60
- Lost
- Dr. Who
- Stargate
- Stargate Atlantis
- Supernatural
- Buffy
- Firefly
- Angel
- Deadwood
- Burn Notice
- True Blood
- Dead Like Me
- ER (but only to a point…you know what I mean)
- Dawson’s Creek (ok that’s just me, not the fiance)
Hopefully you get the gist of what we’re into. Basically it can be any genre, what we’re interested in is quality entertainment value, we’re not married to a specific subject.
Thanks in advance for the help!!
Lis
Dear Lis,
I’ll confine myself to three recommendations here (and I’ll ask that readers do the same, so that comments don’t get too unwieldy in length):
1. Sports Night. I’m a bit surprised not to see it on your list, since you like Sorkin; in my opinion, it’s his best work (i.e., the highest proportion of what makes his writing good, without some of what can make him off-putting). It may not qualify for you guys, as it’s only two seasons and only half an hour…and Dana’s dating plan is maddening, but if you know it’s coming, you can take it less seriously, and Guillaume is tremendous.
2. Six Feet Under. A wildly uneven show, but at its best, it’s extremely rewarding.
3. White Collar. Still in progress. Charismatic leads and a fun premise.
Readers, help us out here. Your three top marathonables, based on Lis’s list. Go.
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
So many of the shows I loved and love still have already been mentioned. Sports Night – Sars is right. It is the best thing Sorkin ever wrote. Loved B5 for the first four years; loved X-Files, and suffered through to the end. Love Firefly still. Castle is sparkling and fun. Adding on to the recommendation of White Collar; the dialogue is elegant and snappy and smart.
If you like The Wire, you’ll probably love Homicide – although I’m iffy on the 2-hour finale/movie. And one of the few I haven’t seen mentioned is Miracles – eerie, stylish, noir-ish fantasy with an apocalyptic gleam. Cancelled too soon, so be prepared for loose ends.
Flashpoint – Canadian show, mostly aired in the US now, but all of it came through on CTV.
Third Watch, if you liked ER. Same producers as ER.
I can’t think of any other’s that haven’t already been suggested. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t mind going back a decade, Due South was classic.
Oooh, I definitely second Life On Mars, BBC version. The following/follow-up series “Ashes to Ashes” was pretty good too (although I haven’t seen the last season of that one yet). Justified. Veronica Mars.
I think I actually might be married to you. Your list is my husband’s favorite list of marathoned shows. So I asked him and he said The Wire without question, and then added Torchwood, MI6 and Weeds. Have fun!
Veronica Mars, The X-Files, and Battlestar Galactica. Seriously, if you like sci-fi even a little, XF and BSG are some of the best shows ever written.
I think my comment was either eaten by the internet or just taken away (because my reading comprehension is not that great, and instead of 3, I hit on, like, a zillion shows. Oops and sorry). Anyway, I’ll try again (and I’ll follow that 3 rule this time…)
1. Jeeves and Wooster: In the late 80s/early90s, geniuses Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie did four series (=24 episodes) of an adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster stories. They are magnificent. Fry and Laurie play off each other perfectly, and much of Wodehouse’s lighthearted, clever language is kept in the show. It’s definitely worth the watch. It’s comedy, set in the 1920s in England (though two of the series do spend a little time in NYC).
2. Peep Show: Another Brit show, this one a half hour comedy starring comedy partners Dvid Mitchell (my pretend celebrity husband) and Robert Webb (also sexy). It follows two roommates, Jeremy (an aspiring musician/slacker) and Mark (a history nerd whose life is a shambles) and their various relationships. It takes a few episodes to get into, but it’s hilarious if you like your comedy a little embarrassing. All seven current series are available for free on Hulu, unless Hulu has decided to be a jerkhole and change availability on a show that I like again.
3.Jonathan Creek: A Brit drama from the 90s. Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies) designs tricks for magic shows (his douchey magician partner/boss is played by the beloved Anthony Steward Head, AKA Giles from Buffy). He teams up with a true crime novelist to solve crimes that nobody else can. There is sexual tension and Britishness, and it is awesome. In the interest of full disclosure, the partner changes after the second series– I haven’t gotten there yet, so I don’t know how it turns out.
Seconds: Not the title of the show, I’m just seconding other people’s suggestions for Alias, White Collar (actually, just check out all of USA’s offerings. They’re pretty similar in tone and format, and I like almost all of ’em), Arrested Development, Veronica Mars (YES), Chuck, the first few seasons of House, and
Veronica Mars.
Veronica Mars.
and, did I mention Veronica Mars?
Not exactly highbrow but fun and marathonable would be Eureka and Warehouse 13. Both on Syfy but are more on the funny snark and less on the sci.
I really did How I Met Your Mother – funny, charming, and contains both Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris.
I would like to second both Six Feet Under and Northern Exposure.
NE comes with a caveat or two: Season 1 episodes (all 6 of them) are clunky, pacing-wise. And you should also stop watching after Rob Morrow leaves the show, and make up your own ending, because the one the writers came up with suuuuuuuuuuucked. Seriously. The writers lost their collective shit when he left the show.
P.S. N.E. (and West Wing) are why I have added “Terri Pollo is cast as the passively-aggressively bitchy wife” to the list of “How to Know When Your Series Has Jumped the Shark.”
I’ve been reading the vine for years and have never commented. But I can’t miss an opportunity to mention that you should do nothing else in your life until you access and digest Friday Night Lights.
I’m a girl who has no interest in sports of any kind. This is the best show on TV.
Oh, but if we’re being asked to put down three…
2. Rescue Me (not necessarily the best show ever, but pretty engaging and fun to watch back to back. some rather hilarious characters.)
3. Skins (British version)
Bones!
Foyle’s War – British detective show set in Hastings during World War II. Brilliantly written and acted – not too snarky, but has a quiet sense of humour. Lots of nuances. Shows are an hour and forty minutes, but in an irritating fashion there are only a couple per season, so it evens out.
1. Castle
2. Bones
Whoo, it was a bit of work to find three that haven’t been said already.
1. The Border. I only watched the first season because my main interest was Alberta Watson, but it was good and I keep meaning to go back and watch the others.
2. JAG. The first show I can remember watching regularly, now eclipsed by NCIS but still a fond memory.
3. Medium. Funny and creative, but word of warning – DO NOT watch the series finale. Or if you must, save a different episode to watch last to get the bad taste out of your mouth.
omg FARSCAPE! (If the first few eps don’t appeal, push on … suddenly you’ll see :)
and Battlestar Galactica.
Leverage – only 2 seasons but so good!
Friday Night Lights – and I’m so not into football
Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes – British show, only 40 episodes between the two, but it’s also amazeballs
More praise for:
Torchwood
Pushing Daisies
Veronica Mars
I own the DVDs for all of these shows an still go back and rewatch frequesntly…
Many good recs in the list! Personally, though I love all of the Farscape-adjacent stuff (the Whedonverse, BSG) I just couldn’t get into Farscape itself.
Another vote for Veronica Mars (available for streaming from Netflix) and also Prime Suspect — HELEN MIRREN, zomg.
And put Pretty Little Liars on the list for a couple of years from now; it’s a new show so not marathonable — yet.
Time to stream Torchwood, again.
I’m so glad that a bunch of people recommended my picks:
1. Alias – uneven, but ultimately kind of great
2. Chuck – still brilliant, funny, and ridiculous
3. Six Feet Under – I didn’t love every episode, but I loved the vast majority of them.
Definitely get “Six Feet Under.” If you liked “Dead Like Me,” you’ll love it. Like Sars said, it’s uneven (the first two seasons are amazing, the third is very soap operaish and then it gets steadily better until the end of the final season), but overall it’s worth watching.
Also, I’m sure I’m about the 50th person to recommend this, but watch “The Wire.” It’s very violent, yes. But it is SOOOO good. The characters are just amazing. There are two or three characters that are among the best ever on any TV show. The first few episodes don’t hook you, but power through. Keep watching. Keep going through the second season, which feels like a completely different show, and watch all five seasons. It’s worth it.
Coming late to the party with a few thoughts:
— about “Slings & Arrows” — the bonus about this series is that each of the 3 seasons is only 6 episodes long. Fantastic show.
1. Therefore, I also recommend for marathoning: “due South”. I never watched it while it was on, and marathoned it myself recently. I found I really, really enjoyed its early-90s nostalgia, sweetly optimistic outlook, and wit. You have to just sign up for the premise, but IMO, it’s so very worth it.
2. “Black Adder” — if you like comedy, and British comedy at that, try this 4-season British classic. I think the eps are only half-hour, and like many British shows, each “season” is a limited number of eps. Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson…
3. “Garrow’s Law” — this is a quite recent British production, consisting of 2 4-ep seasons of hour-long episodes. It is set in the late 18th century, and tells a fictionalized account of the early career of William Garrow, the man who was responsible for creating many of the precepts of modern law that we take for granted today. (Like, you know, actually mounting a defense for the accused.)
And finally, another note about “The Wire”… I don’t know if it’s possible, in a non-spoilery way, to create a sort of “character guide” for the first season — even just one that had the various characters’ pictures, names, and affiliation (“cop”, “drug dealer”, “lawyer”). Because I honestly think that might help. (Does such a guide already exist somewhere?)
I don’t want to insult the intelligence of anyone who just watched the show without needing help… but my friends and I have been marathoning it for the last year (we’re in the middle of season 3 now), and I think one of the hardest things for us was keeping all the characters straight at the start. We are lucky in that we have at least one person who has seen the entire thing, so at any give moment we can pause and say, “now, wait… who is this again?” That helped a lot. As he said when we started the first season’s pilot, “okay, now, in this episode, they are going to introduce about 28 characters… and they are all important”. The show really does expect you to pay attention and remember who’s who.
Being Human (British version) – a truly outstanding show
Jonathan Creek (also British) – slow-paced but lots of snark and humor; did a marathon on that just recently
In Plain Sight – brilliantly foulmouthed female main character
Misfits. It’s a British series, so you might have to look around for it, but it’s fantastic. There’s only been one season so far, though.
Absolutely agree with the Torchwood recommendation.
(I’m a Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dr Who/ER-to-a-point fan.)
Oh and I 17th the Veronica Mars recommendation as well.
I’m trying to come up with things that haven’t already been mentioned….
1. I have been told if you like The Shield (gritty police thriller), you’ll like The Wire. DH and I love The Shield and don’t want to finish watching it because then it will be over. :(
2. Veronica Mars (echoing Lisa M. and others. If you liked Nancy Drew growing up, this is like the modern version.)
3. And to throw in a rec for British comedy, Spaced (with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, loads of general pop culture references) or Coupling (likened to Friends, but way dirtier and more hilarious because of it).
1. Leverage – sooo much fun. Really well written and acted; dialogue is a lot like Buffy
2. Bones – still running, but a good procedural
3. Babylon 5 – if you like Stargate and shows like that, you’ll like this
Rescue Me (still going on for at least one more season)
The Shield
Arrested Development
Wow…lots of fantastic recommendations. One I haven’t seen yet is Kidnapped. It’s only 13 episodes but, as they knew they weren’t getting a 2nd season, they were able to adjust filming and wrap it up satisfactorily. It’s got a hot, smart, and snarky Jeremy Sisto among others (T. Hutton, D. Lindo, D. Delany). With so few episodes it’s a great long weekend marathon.
1. Friday Night Lights (as noted, hang in there through season 2, it eventually gets terrific again
2. Dexter.
3. The Shield
LIFE: please please give into the pleasure that is Life. It was canceled, but they knew in advance and wrapped it up. Why should you? So much humor, a good 50% of it snark. Amazing performances. I hope you like it.
Seconding (thirding?) British version of The Office (extra special long-form finale) and adding Ricky Gevais’ Extras (extremely good finale there, too).
Go back, back, back in time to Twin Peaks — I think a predecessor to the sci-fi/supernatural/quirky-mystery genre. Some are amazing, some are not so; a bit dated but still a moody joy.
Watched all of Six Feet Under one after the next throughout the last part of my pregnancy and into the first weeks of sleep-deprived motherhood… riveting and wonderful with an excellent and satisfying finale.
I’m cribbing the original list for my own future “marathoning”, as I’ve already watched about 1/3 of the list and want to watch another 1/3 or so…
As for my own suggestions, add yet another vote for Farscape – if you’ve seen all of Stargate, you’re already familiar with the chemistry between Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and the dialog in Farscape is just as snappy.
I’ve also gotten hooked on NCIS and NCIS:LA in spite of myself – the characters are a lot of fun, as long as you don’t take the science too seriously. Plenty of story to chew on, and both hour-long shows with several seasons to get through.
1. Veronica Mars, for sure. Season 1 is, seriously, the best season of television I have seen in my life.
2. Cosign on MI-5/Spooks. SO excellent.
3. It’s only one season, but Harper’s Island is spooky, mystery-y, murdery fun. You’ll down it like candy, but it won’t leave you feeling sick.
Gah! 3 choices are so difficult. I agree with many of the suggestions so far.
1. Veronica Mars – snarky goodness
2. Chuck – winsome, charming, awesomely geeky guest stars. Plus, Adam Baldwin!
3. SportsNight – Just so, so, so good. Do your best to ignore the laugh track.
I love everything on your list, so I’m just reccing two.
1. The Wire, obvs. I know, I know, it’s a fairly serious show, but as a couple commenters have mentioned, it can be pretty funny. Keep in mind the following chronology of Your Brain On The Wire:
First few episodes: “Man, this show has NO exposition and I have no idea who’s who.”
End of first season: “This is a pretty fantastic TV show.”
End of second season: “This might be the best TV show of all time.”
End of THIRD season: incomprehensible gibbering about shotguns and Hamlet and awesomeness.
And there are even two more seasons after that.
2. Friday Night Lights. Five seasons, planned ending, funny and sweet and heartwarming and inspiring but not insipid. Also featuring Tami Taylor, whom all of us aspire to be when we grow up. Just ignore the second season.
Repeating recommendations for
Veronica Mars
Alias
Battlestar Galactica
MI-5
Coupling (the British version, 40 minute shows, but dialogue so fast and funny you will be in danger of wetting your pants)
I second Battlestar Galactica (the reboot) and Slings and Arrows.
And although, this is an animated series, ostensibly for kids and only about a half-hour per episode, I also highly recommend “Avatar:The Last Airbender”. My boyfriend and I just finished marathoning that show, and it is an amazing series. I’d say it has a good amount of snark, and the writing and pacing is amazing.
1) Babylon 5
2) Castle — third season is airing now, so maybe wait to watch it until that DVD set gets released (only 3 episodes left to air), but it’s been renewed for a fourth season.
I agree with most of the previous suggestions. Surprised to hear about all the folks who “marathon” shows. My girlfriend and I do the same.
Surprised I haven’t seen this recommendation though. This was one of the first series we “marathoned”.
The Shield – We also marthoned The Wire and the Shield was better.
1. Breaking Bad
2. Freaks and Geeks
3. The Riches
The Closer – will be entering its seventh and final season in 2011.
Monk – ran for 8 seasons, planned end.
Hex (BBC) – only ran or 2 seasons, I think. So, a short marathon, but excellent!
Wow, nearly everything that came to me off the top of my head has been mentioned. My husband and I do exactly the same thing and have a major taste overlap with you, so there are some great ideas in this list. I did want to mention, though, that we tried Veronica Mars and hated it (too much time spent with loathsome SoCal people…PARIS HILTON? REALLY?) and we absolutely loved Wire in the Blood until it pulled a totally unforgivable stunt in season 3, I believe, that left us totally cold and we ended up dropping it. Other than that, we’ve watched and loved nearly everything mentioned in these comments.
Things you may like that I didn’t see mentioned:
Bones
The IT Crowd (half hour and British but HILARIOUS)
Heroes (declines in quality in later seasons, but the first one is AMAZING and the next few are still quite addictive.)