Television.

[slemslempike]

Help. Oh help. I have run out of television. Not entirely, there's gbs of the stuff I've downloaded ages ago, but I need series to watch my way through. Especially now I've stopped working on something big, and now that TV's about to stop for Christmas. It would be most helpful if you could suggest TV for me, preferably that I could easily source, but any at all would be useful to know about.

It would preferably be stuff you think I would like, but if you just want to use the opportunity to bang on about television that you love, have at it. Here are some lists to help you:

Awkward
Big Bang Theory
Gave up on 30 Rock a few series ago, did it get better?)
Bunheads
Community
Cougar Town
Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23
Downton Abbey
Fresh Meat
Game of Thrones
Girls
Go On
Happy Endings
Homeland
The Hour
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Louie
Melissa and Joey
The Middle
The Mindy Project
Modern Family
Moone Boy
The Neighbors
New Girl
Nurse Jackie
The Office (US)
Parks and Recreation
Peep Show
Portlandia
Psych
Raising Hope
Rizzoli & Isles
Smash
Suits
Threesome
Up all Night
Veep
Wilfred (US)

3rd Rock from the Sun
8 Simple Rules
Arrested Development
Best Friends Forever
Better Off Ted
Blossom
Boy Meets World
The Brittas Empire
Caroline in the City
Clarissa Explains it All
The Class
The Cosby Show
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Frasier
Friends
Grace Under Fire
Home Improvement
Just Shoot Me
The Larry Sanders Show
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Lucky Louie
Malcolm in the Middle
Mr Sunshine
My Name Is Earl (some)
New Adventures of Old Christine
NewsRadio
Partners
Party Down
Roseanne
Samantha Who?
The Sarah Silverman Program
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sister, Sister
Some of My Best Friends
Spin City
Stacked
Suddenly Susan
That 70s Show
Veronica's Closet
Will & Grace
Wizards of Waverly Place

15 Storeys High
2point4 Children
Absolutely Fabulous
Blackadder
Black Books
Coupling
Dinnerladies
Drop the Dead Donkey
Episodes
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Freaks & Geeks
Gavin and Stacey
Getting On
Green Wing
Inbetweeners (UK)
The IT Crowd
The Office (UK)
Outnumbered
Red Dwarf
Rev
Saxondale
Sean's Show
Spaced
Not Going Out
The Royle Family
The Thick of It
The Vicar of Dibley
Undeclared
Waiting for God
Yes, Minister
The Young Ones

Flight of the Conchords
Kath & Kim
Laid
Lano & Woodley
The Librarians
Outland
Twentysomething
A Very Moody Christmas

21 Jump Street
7th Heaven
Bones
Brooklyn South
Commander in Chief
Eastwick
Hellcats
Joan of Arcadia
Make It or Break It
My So-Called Life
Party of Five
Sea Patrol
Slings and Arrows
Teachers
The West Wing

Save me from boredom!

Comments

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

This is hard because you have a lot of bases covered there. Imagine, though, if you were to watch The Real Ghostbusters. IMAGINE.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I'm trying really hard to, but all I can imagine is NOT watching The Real Ghostbusters. (Is this different from the cartoon I watched when I was little?)

[cakesy.livejournal.com]

HOW IS MASH NOT ON YOUR SEEN LIST? I know FOR A FACT that you have, at the very least, seen the last episode.

I can't think of any other sitcoms to rec because you have watched EVERYTHING I LOVE. Oh! Apart from Luck! It is only nine episodes long and they hardly killed any horses at all!

[cakesy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it's a cartoon and the animation is really not my favourite, but I really enjoyed King of the Hill when I watched it last year. Although it went on forever and I eventually lost interest.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that is true! I have seen quite a bit of MASH, but I don't really think of having watched it because it wasn't really deliberate. I don't want to watch any more, I think.

Also I am watching Tenko, I forgot to put that on the list.

Luck? Hmm, you've never mentioned this before, it can't be very good if you don't talk about it all the time.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Luck to save Cakesy a journey, but she's so prompt. You've seen EVERYTHING, basically. Except Time Team. Time Team's nice. I'm just going to read the DVDs around me. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (quite impressive ensemble writing, first season's the best). Maid Marian and her Merry Men (I LOVE THIS, you must've seen this). The Detectives (reacquainted myself with this last year, and sometimes it makes me laugh out loud). Hamish Macbeth (strange and interesting and has delightful scenery). And I can't see anything else without sitting up straight.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have of course seen maid Marian! I forgot about children's shows. I don't know the Detectives at all, and I had no idea that Hamish Macbeth was more interesting than vaguely bucolic mystery solving! I shall try that.

[gralyn.livejournal.com]

This is a great list!
There's another Christine Applegate sitcom called Jesse, that was on around the same time as Suddenly Susan which I think you would like.
Have you watched any Love/Hate? I've only seen the very first episode and found it a bit too violent for my taste but lots of people are raving about it.
There's another Irish one set in a restaurant called Raw. I don't know much about it but one of the actors was our waiter at a work lunch once!
The first series of Misfits is very good. And I really loved The Wire.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I know Jesse! It has a DeLuise in it, but not my favourite DeLuise so I haven't got around to it yet. Now would be a good time.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

I can't technically recommend it, because I've just downloaded and saved for the end of term, but I've heard really good things about Nashville.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, Pretty Little Liars. Terrible/terribly good show.

[listersgirl]

I'm enjoying Nashville quite a bit - more than I thought I would, really, because I'm not a huge country music person.

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

Season 1 of Treme was some of the best TV I've seen this year, but it's very very not like anything on your list, so I'm not sure you'd like it.

The Almighty Johnsons was recommended to me recently, I've not watched it yet, but it sounds fab.

And choosing this icon just reminded me - did you watch Being Human when it was on? I love the first season, but it does rather forget the comedy side of being a comedy drama later.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I would agree on both Treme and Being Human!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of Treme, nor the Almighty Johnsons! I did watch the first couple of series of Being Human, but then got bored with it.

[listersgirl]

I recommend Veronica Mars! I think it fits in nicely with shows you watch/have watched. And it's excellent.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Veronica Mars is very good. I prefer the first two series to the third, but basically seconding.

[majea.livejournal.com]

Yes! If you've not seen this before, you really should.

I've started watching Scandal, which is an imperfect show but contains the awesomeness that is Kerry Washington, which makes up for a lot.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

We must Tenko again soon, although I think it will have to be after Christmas as this week is v. busy and then I am away from Thursday to Sunday.

I was thinking of suggesting the original Upstairs Downstairs to follow on from our Tenko watch but you might want to get to it more quickly.

How about Dressing for Breakfast, as I don't see it in your UK sitcoms list?

A Very Peculiar Practice?

Call the Midwife? (It has Miranda Hart in it, and she is utterly brilliant.)

ETA: Leverage The lead character is a tosspot, especially when it comes to his manpain over the death of his son, which is far worse pain than his ex-wife, the boy's mother has, natch, but the rest of the ensemble are ace. And it sometimes has appearances by Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager) who is great, and also Mark Sheppard (Badger in Firefly and loads of other things, including Medium which you might also enjoy watching - police procedural with ghosts, and a not bad family drama, with three girls, and the middle one, Bridget, is brilliant and a terrific little butch.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have seen Dressing for Breakfast, it must not have been on the wikipedia lists I was working from! I like Holly Aird a lot. I didn't get on very well with Call the Midwife, but I do have the first series of Upstairs Downstairs to get to, thank you for reminding me! I might have a go with Medium, I like family things.

[slightlyfoxed.livejournal.com]

I may have mentioned this, but I'm fond of Boardwalk Empire (HBO drama about prohibition era) - it's a bit 'Game of Thrones in Spats'. Steve Buscemi is the corrupt official with a finger in every pie, there are gangsters and dancing girls and prohibitionists.
I think it's based around the idea that if you put a chap in a really sharp suit and make him swear a lot, it's funny.

Good luck finding materials.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have heard mixed things about Boardwalk Empire, but I could give it a go!

[gair.livejournal.com]

Okay:

Sitcoms: Cybil. But if you have lived with jekesta and not added this to your 'seen' list, then something is probably going on that I don't know about which for some reason involves you NOT WANTING TO WATCH CHRISTINE BARANSKI AND CYBILL SHEPHERD AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS.

Also, Murphy Brown. You can get Season 1 on DVD but I can't find the other seasons bloody anywhere - well, we got the full set from a dodgy pirate ship ship (that was a genuine typo), but they didn't work and kept crashing my computer SADFACE. But it's brilliant.

Oh! And my brother gave me The Mighty Boosh for Christmas the year before last and I bloody love it. There are those who would say it was sexist and racist, AND THEY WOULD NOT BE WRONG, but it sort of falls under the Morrissey exemption for me, in that it does enough other good stuff which is somehow not organically connected to the sexism and racism, and which is completely unique and not like anything else, that I love it passionately REGARDLESS.

Finally, I completely don't understand why not everyone is watching Warehouse 13, which is the best thing on TV at the moment by about fifteen million miles. It is like a feminist, good-hearted, unpretentious version of Buffy IF YOU CAN IMAGINE SUCH A THING. Very femslashy, enormously competent - 3 x 13-episode seasons and really not a dud one in there so far - and a ton of actors from Star Trek in recurring roles including JANEWAY, SEVEN OF NINE, and DATA. We watched all three seasons about three times in the last year, and it took us till the third rewatch to notice that the female partner gets literally ALL the hand-to-hand combat until Season 2, and even after that the male partner only ever gets unshowy and losing fights: all the good fighting is the girl.

PS: I also like The Good Wife, but again I assume there are reasons you haven't listed it (cf above about jekesta and CHRISTINE BARANSKI etc). It is very good case-of-the-week legal drama interspersed with beautiful women having MORAL ANGST about things and staring into the distance. The lead character is a virtuous femme, like Ekaterin in the Vorkosigan saga, which I always think is a really interesting perspective on interlocking political/moral narratives.

Also Alan Cumming. And CHRISTINE BARANSKI. And Archie Panjabi. And Michael J. Fox. (As a bad guy!) Also, all the sex in it is really good and characterful, like good slash.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I totally have watched all of Cybill! I made this list from various wikipedia lists, so I completely forgot about it. I love it a lot. And I have Muphy Brown s1 on DVD but completely forgot, so I can watch that. I have also seen the Mighty Boosh, but didn't much like it.

I do not think I have even heard of Warehouse 13, but it sounds good, and The Good Wife was something I had been thinking about seeing too! I did not know Michael J Fox was in it, I should get with that.

[terriem.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about the USA network stable of shows? I quite like Covert Affairs and White Collar - both slightly silly spy/FBI shows, with some interesting side characters. Covert Affairs has Piper Perabo as a lead and is about a rookie CIA domestic terrorism specialist with a dark past and a blind techy sidekick. White Collar has Matt Bomer in the lead and is a about a convicted fraudster with a dark past and the FBI guy he helps to solve crime. Both lots of fun.

Alias isn't on your list - would totally recommend that if you haven't seen it. Also, continuing with the spy theme, Chuck is great.

[starfishchick]

I second White Collar, though I haven't seen it yet.

On the same network, and also about spies, how about Burn Notice?

[medland.livejournal.com]

The Good Wife is excellent. Battlestar Galactica, X Files are both good if you like sci fi - they're at the very non sci fi end of sci fi if that makes sense. I really liked the first couple of seasons of Weeds but tailed off after that as I hated what they did with her character. Shelock obviously.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I had thought about Weeds, but I've never seen much about it. I'll try the first couple of series.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched tv regularly since coming to the UK but before I did I loved, and highly recommend if they're available, the sitcoms Mad About You and Caroline in the City.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have never seen Mad About You - do you think it would still hold up?

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

This might be hard to track down (if you can't, let me know), but I think you'd like The Secret Life of Us. It's about Australians flatting stylishly and somewhat bohemianly in Melbourne, and it has lovely Deborah Mailman in it. I also downloaded something called Dance Academy, but I haven't watched it yet. But I feel it has a very promising title.

This is more me banging on about TV than a recommendation specifically for you, but BABYLON 5 IT IS AMAZING IT HAS POLITICS AND EXPLOSIONS AND WONDERFUL COMMANDER IVANOVA AND RIDICULOUS EARNEST SPEECHES. ALSO THERE ARE ALIENS AND LASERS.

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

Pushing Daisies (US) and The Amazing Johnsons (NZ) are both worth a look...