Recommend me a tv show

[kcdusk]

I'm looking for a tv series to get into. Something worthwhile, non-CSI related, hopefully with a t2k bent.

Can you recommend me anything? Is the Colony any good? What are the options?

[HorseSoldier]

Colony, seasons 1 and 2, aren't bad but aren't superb. Recognize going into them that it's lower case "reality."

Survivors, from the UK, is pretty good -- apocalyptic plague, not war, but still pretty good post apocalyptic show. (I'm speaking for the new version, I have never seen the 1970s? version, but have heard it's good for 70s TV as well.) And it's Netflixable and watchable on demand through that company, maybe others.

Walking Dead was zombies, but good apocalyptic stuff for all that.

I never got into Jericho, but it's also available on Netflix these days and seemed to be about as close to a show about the Twilight War (or effects CONUS side, anyway) as Hollywood is ever likely to roll out.

[Panther Al]

Jericho was surprisingly good all things considered. Yes, its Hollywood. Yes, it plays loose with a few things. But the focus on a small town, where the info available to (most) of the people there is very limited, and how they deal with food shortages, marauders/contractors, health, deserters (Sorta), and what have you makes me think of what it would be like in any small town off the beaten path of the major military ops in the T2K 'verse.


Heck. More I think about it, it should be the official T2K show: In addition to all the above, you have two US governments, fighting each other, as well as two towns fighting each other, one with homemade mortars (Wojo anyone?), and the other with a scrounged M1 with little fuel and no ammo. Damn. It is Twilight 2000 in America.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

Heck. More I think about it, it should be the official T2K show: In addition to all the above, you have two US governments, fighting each other, as well as two towns fighting each other, one with homemade mortars (Wojo anyone?), and the other with a scrounged M1 with little fuel and no ammo. Damn. It is Twilight 2000 in America.

And one of the towns has a nuke. Well, not town, but someone in it

The problem with Jericho is that it only had one full season, plus one seven episode "wrap-up" season, so you're only looking at ~30 episodes.

[Arrissen]

Anything HBO - quality viewing; from scripting, casting, acting, prodution values the lot.

Generation Kill - read the book first - then Nate Fick's book; One Bullet Away - both are accounts focusing on the same USMC platoon in Iraq and the seven part mini series follows both books quite closely. Rudy Reyes, a Scout/ Sniper plays Himself in the show.

Here are some I've really enjoyed, not all HBO and not T2Kish but still good:

Deadwood
Trailer Park Boys
True Blood
Sons of Anarchy
Breaking Bad
Dexter
The Sopranos
Spartacus
Entourage
Californication
Burn Notice
Walking Dead
Parks And Recreation
Carnivale
Burn Notice

[adimar]

A very cool (Literally) TV series is Game of Thrones, a HBO writeup to Song of Fire & Ice.
Note that this seires is currently being showed for the first time so no multi season downloads (though the spaceballs instant cassette would have been quite welcome)

Adi

[TiggerCCW UK]

Game of Thrones is pretty good. One of the guys who works for me is in it and I worked on set for a day as an event medic, when they were filming in the paint hall here in Belfast. Very impressive sets!

[Rainbow Six]

Boardwalk Empire has just finished screening in the UK.

By HBO and set in Prohibition Era Atlantic City with Steve Buscemi in the lead role. It's obviously not a T2K setting per se, but with a bit of imagination I think some of the plots / characters could be adapted to fit into a CONUS based T2K game.

First series was 12 episodes, but pretty sure a second is due this year.

Perhaps a bit dated now, but there's also the Sharpe series based on the books of Bernard Cornwell and set in the Napoleonic Wars. With a bit of adaption virtually every episode could be used as the basis for a T2K scenario.

Jeremiah aired in the UK a few years ago. It had a fairly strong T2K theme (again, based on plague rather than War), but like Jericho had the plug pulled on it after one and a bit seasons.

Also, +1 for Game of Thrones.

[WallShadow]

First and foremost, another 2 thumbs up for Jericho. Main characters actually died, and it covered many situations that we would hope never happen between Americans. Oh, and there were several pretenders to the throne of the Presidency, one of which was backed by the megacorp that may have had something to do with the underlying plot.

Firefly, while set 500 years from now in another star system has a gritty "just tryin' to get by" feeling. Survival by dealing with less-than-honorable clients, evading the military government of the area of operation, smuggling/trade--lots of good plot fodder.

While I never watched it, "Jeremiah" dealt with a PA scenario where a bioagent wiped out nearly all the adult population.

[kcdusk]

Thanks guys. Theres a couple of names i'll chase up from here.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

While I never watched it, "Jeremiah" dealt with a PA scenario where a bioagent wiped out nearly all the adult population.

I did. During season one, they made good use of being on Showtime with extremely gratuitous nudity. Season two had less, but the story was meddled with to the point there was no third season.

To a large extent, the series was set in a world 15 years after a bioweapon had caused a (semi) Lord of the Flies situation.

[Legbreaker]

I agree that season two was screwed around with far too much. If they'd stuck with the 1st season forumla they'd have had a damn fine post apoc series.

[Targan]

I enjoyed Jeramiah. I'm a huge fan of Firefly/Serenity (own all of them on BluRay).

If you can find the old UK series Threads that is a very realistic and gritty portrayal of life after a nuclear war. Very grim though. Don't expect too many laughs.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by Targan

I enjoyed Jeramiah. I'm a huge fan of Firefly/Serenity (own all of them on BluRay).

If you can find the old UK series Threads that is a very realistic and gritty portrayal of life after a nuclear war. Very grim though. Don't expect too many laughs.

I thought "Threads" was a film, and "The Survivors" was the BBC series about a bioagent that depopulated the world.
I would call "Threads" more than gritty--it made you want to take a bath after watching it.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

I would call "Threads" more than gritty--it made you want to take a bath after watching it.

It gave both me and my girlfriend at the time nightmares.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Same here Paul. Terrifying film. Its available on youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQo0BQM3OlQ

as is its forerunner The War Game;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58NmAzQzRjk

[95th Rifleman]

I remember threads, it gave me goosebumps. Very much recomended

[HorseSoldier]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I agree that season two was screwed around with far too much. If they'd stuck with the 1st season forumla they'd have had a damn fine post apoc series.

Dark Angel got the same network "fixing" -- how can you screw up Jessica Alba as a kick-ass super assassin in a semi-apocalyptic world? I mean how can you screw up a show where Jessica Alba just sits there watching paint dry? The geniuses at Fox found a way to screw it up and season 2 was a radical departure and tanked the show.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I agree that season two was screwed around with far too much. If they'd stuck with the 1st season forumla they'd have had a damn fine post apoc series.

I'll have to take your word for it...season one got such low ratings when it was broadcast on Sky One that I don't think season two ever got shown in the UK.

[copeab]

Here are some series I own, which are not T2K related at all, but worth watching:

Dexter: I only have seen own season one, but S1 is self-contained and, had the series not been renewed, would have left you feeling everything important was wrapped up. I only saw it because CBS was desperate for programming back during the writers' strike a couple of years ago and were airing edited episodes on Sundays nights. The first episode hooked me to the series and after the second I ordered the S1 DVDs from Amazon. Never regretted it.

Tales Of The Gold Monkey: Another show that suffered from network interference, but was mainly canceled because it cost too much, despite decent ratings. It's a pulp series, set in the South Pacific in 1938, with the pilot of a Grumman Goose as the main character. A Japanese princess and German secret agent also factor into the series. There are some technical mistakes (mostly involving the Flying Tigers) but mostly forgivable given the genre. There is even one episode which is a remake of a Battlestar Galactica episode

Day Break: One of many shows that followed Lost on ABC over the years and failed. It was pulled after 6 or 7 episodes but was only supposed to run 13 episodes anyway. It was a bit like 24 mixed with Groundhog Day, as a cop was reliving the same day over and over. The series was a little tedious at first, but after he accumulated enough knowledge about what was really going on, the series began to pick up. There was also one twist to his time loop I hadn't seen in previous stories of the type.

[HorseSoldier]

I remember Tales of the Gold Monkey very vaguely from early childhood -- I think it followed Magnum PI in timeslot (?). The cost angle makes sense, since otherwise it kind of seems to have been a nice combo of then very trendy Magnum/Hawaii 5-0 enthusiasm for the far Pacific plus Indiana Jones.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

I mean how can you screw up a show where Jessica Alba just sits there watching paint dry?

Mmmmmmmm, Jessica............

[Arrissen]

Ha! Tales of the Golden Monkey, I loved that show as a kid. Very Indiana Jones. Baa Baa Black Sheep about the the Black Sheep Squadron and later called Black Sheep Squadron, set in the South Pacific in WWII was classic too.

And yeah Dark Angel was good at first til they stuffed it up. Ahh really good memories!

[kcdusk]

I have Threads, looks ................ old! I actually thought this was going to be something else, the program/movie i thought it was going to be is "The Day after" which is something else i'll look up.

I want to watch Deadwood and The Wire but dont think the wifey is going to watch it with me due to language.

I have seen the first series of Jerico and thought it was the closest thing to T2K we've seen, but i dont think the second series made it to australia.

[Arrissen]

The Wire was really good and yeah it has bad/street language but Deadwood takes the cake in the bad or filthy talk category. Funny as hell bad language though IMO. If Shakespeare had of wrote a western I reckon it would have been like that show! I think they really managed to capture the vernacular of those good ol' times. Very gritty stuff.

Chris Ryan's Strike Back was not too bad. A BBC series about an ex-SAS bloke. They are making another season of that later this year.

[kcdusk]

I've seen Strike Back. Good tv series. But i havent been a fan of Ryans books. Glad to hear theres another series of it coming.

Kidnap and Ransom was a 3 part teleseries that was good too.

[Rainbow Six]

Another one that just sprung to my mind is the reboot of Battlestar Galactica...

[rcaf_777]

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltec’s, or the Mayans, that they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Another one that just sprung to my mind is the reboot of Battlestar Galactica...

Awesome show.

[kcdusk]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Awesome show.

Really? I've never seen the new one. I always thought it would be a bit campy. Startrek lite. And i never liked star trek. Maybe i need to watch an episode or two.