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Top Ten TV Programmes... Ever!
by suziedre
1) Lost: I started watching this when it first came onto Channel 4 and gave up halfway through season 1. However after my sister raved on and on about it, I borrowed all her DVDs last year and sped through all 6 seasons within a matter of weeks. It may be far fetched and ridiculous but you end up caring about the characters so much. I ... ended up calling my puppy Sawyer, after (IMO) the best character in the show!
2) Game of Thrones: I only started watching this when it began earlier in the year because my brother in law worked on the show and I was curious (he's working on season 2 at the moment, eep!). From episode 1, I was hooked. Medieval/fantasy stuff with dragons and war SO isn't my usual thing, but it's absolutely gripping. I am now reading the books and eagerly awaiting the new series. Again the characters are so well drawn; there is gore, plot and intrigue galore and it's an amazing show.
3) X Files: My teenage favourite. It tailed off badly in the final few years but it set the bar very high for series of a paranormal nature. So many amazing episodes, such as The Host, Home, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and Darkness Falls. Mulder and Scully are both fantastic characters - even if Scully was way too rigid and Mulder just plain paranoid.
4) Friends: A televisual comfort blanket. Perfect for hangovers, sick days, rainy days, or days when you just feel down. E4 played them to death which has put me off somewhat but so many episodes can still make me laugh. Worth watching for Joey and Chandler alone (before the hideous mistake of putting Chandler and Monica together and destroying Chandler's character that is).
5) I'm Alan Partridge: "Lovely stuff". "Ruddy bloody brilliant."
6) The League of Gentlemen: A acquired taste, perhaps. Sick, scary, and funny. Some of it can be hit and miss, especially series 3 which was so different from the first two, but still one of my favourite comedy shows. Papa Lazarou is compelling yet utterly terrifying.
7) Nighty Night: One that not many people seemed to have watched or heard of. It stars Julia Davis who has worked with Simon Pegg and Steve Coogan. She also wrote the show and it's about as black a humour as you can get. It's about a hairdresser named Jill who pretends her husband has died of cancer while she's also trying to get her next door neighbour to have an affair with her. Very, very dark and sick. I absolutely adore it.
8) Third Watch: A show that was treated very shoddily by Channel 4. It was made by the same people who did ER, and it was about the NYPD, FDNY and paramedics who worked in a police/fire station in NY. Brilliant characters, exciting plots, well written, great stunts. I always preferred it to ER but Channel 4 showed it at stupid times like 11am when it had to be cut, or around midnight when no-one saw it. It ran for 5 seasons but sadly only seasons 1 and 2 are available on DVD. Hugely underrated.
9) Peep Show: Sustained quality across all its season. I heart Mark and Jez.
10) The Mighty Boosh: Another show that's not for everyone. It's another show whose 3rd series wasn't its best but the first 2 are sublime, almost childlike. From the silly jokes and songs, to Noel Fielding's artwork, the Boosh was something so refreshing and different when it first came out.
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Top Ten TV Characters
by shabbating
I watch a lot of TV (probably too much) so I have decided to put up a list of my favourite characters. They are all from US TV shows, this wasn't intentional but I do watch a lot more US shows than UK shows. As much as I do love quite a few shows from the 80s, as I'm in my early twenties, my favourite shows and characters are more recent ... so hopefully you will recognise most of them. So here are my 10 favourite TV characters, in no particular order:
*Liz Lemon - 30 Rock*
Actress: Tina Fey
First off, I love Tina Fey. I think she is one of the smartest writers of American television and who better to play the lead in her own show than herself. Liz Lemon is the affable boss of an NBC comedy show (sounds familiar) who is unlucky in love with a slight obsession with junk food and a love of Ina Garten. I love the randomness of 30 Rock and it puts Lemon in some weird situations which result in comedy gold. Whilst the 5th season of 30 Rock was, in my opinion, its weakest, Lemon still had great moments.
* Ron Swanson - Parks and Recreation*
Actor: Nick Offerman
Parks and Rec hasn't had a UK airing yet so I'm not sure how many of you will know the show but after an iffy beginning, the show came alive in the second season. This was mainly due to the man that is Ron Swanson. Swanson is a government worker who hates government, loves meat, women, breakfast food, sports and whittling. If you take out the love of whittling, I am Ron Swanson in female form (minus the moustache of course). Ron merely giving a look to the camera is enough to get a giggle out of me, his stoic nature fits perfectly with the craziness that goes on around him. I love this man.
*Faith - Buffy the Vampire Slayer*
Actress: Eliza Dushku
I loved Buffy (the show) but I never liked Buffy (the character), Sarah Michelle Gellar was always a bit stiff and boring. I always wished she was more like Faith who actually had some character. I think that's why Faith was such a fan favourite, she was the bad girl. She didn't sit at home worrying like Buffy, she went out and killed stuff. That's what I would do if I was the Chosen One in a land of vampires and demons and evil stuff.
*Gloria Delgado-Pritchett - Modern Family*
Actress: Sofia Vergara
Gloria is probably the most eccentric character on Modern Family, some criticise Vergara for being "too much" but in my opinion, heightening people's eccentricities makes for great comedy. I love the range of comedy that is written for the character of Gloria, she does physical comedy as well as smarter scripted comedy. Vergara's accent is very strong, there are a few jokes based around how she speaks but the writers don't just rest on that, stopping it becoming a one note performance. It doesn't hurt that Vergara is good looking.
*Phil Dunphy - Modern Family*
Actor: Ty Burrell
The second character from Modern Family on my list, and I'll make it the last although to be honest I could have just listed the whole cast. So why Phil? Phil Dunphy is a nerdy goofball and totally awesome. He has a childish innocence to him which is portrayed so well by Ty Burrell. Out of all of the characters on Modern Family, Phil is the one I relate to most as I am also a fool. I am sure if they made a hybrid of Phil Dunphy and Ron Swanson, it would be me, exactly. Worrying that I compare myself to two 40-odd year old eccentric characters but hey ho.
*Walter Bishop - Fringe*
Actor: John Noble
Bishop epitomises the crazy scientist. His character is a big reason why Fringe doesn't come off as another cold, dull procedural drama. Yes the weird science of the week is interesting but it's the relationships between the three leads that keep you coming back for more. John Noble does a fantastic job, especially since the introduction of Walternate, the evil sane version of Walter Bishop from an alternate universe. He pulls off both roles excellently but the crazy bumbling Walter will always be my favourite.
*Lynette Scavo - Desperate Housewives*
Actress: Felicity Huffman
Lynette is my favourite character on Wisteria Lane mainly due to Felicity Huffman being so capable of handling whatever material is given to her. She can switch from comedy to drama so quickly and easily. Lynette goes from housewife to businesswoman and back again, she has dealt with cancer, a failing business and her marriage falling apart amongst many other dramas. Scavo has had a lot to deal with over the seven seasons of Desperate Housewives. An Emmy winning performance by Huffman.
*Roger - American Dad!*
Voiced by: Seth MacFarlane
Roger is the sarcastic alien who is like a surrogate son and best friend to Stan Smith in American Dad! In a lot of episodes of the animation series Roger will don a wig and costume and assume a different identity. The best guise is Roger's Kevin Bacon in the season 3 episode "Four Little Words". This freedom for Roger to be basically anyone makes him the most refreshing and interesting character in the series. Roger is just as good and funny when he is simply being himself.
*Stewie Griffin - Family Guy*
Voiced by: Seth MacFarlane
The evil baby of the Griffin family in the long running comedy Family Guy is another of my favourite animated characters. I love how Stewie goes from being an evil mastermind one minute to acting like a baby the next. Stewie gets some of the best one liners in the show and given that half the family is quite dumb, he gets the intellectual jokes. Not bad for a baby.
*Horatio Caine - CSI: Miami*
Actor: David Caruso
Most people don't seem to like David Caruso in the role of Caine. Caruso hams up the role to the max, he is so melodramatic and I love it. I have never seen anyone take off/put on their sunglasses with such emphasis. Caine is by far the best character in the Miami spin off of CSI, yes he is very serious and dramatic but it adds to the show. The leads in the three CSI shows are all very different and it's this contrast that allows each show to stand apart. Three Grissoms wouldn't be very exciting to watch, as much as I love Grissom. Caruso's low, gravelly voice adds to the melodrama. Horatio always puts a smile on my face, no matter how grisly the death of the week is.
So that is my list of favourite TV characters, there are a load more that I could have included in the list; honourable mentions for the following:
The rest of the cast of Modern Family
Leslie Knope - Parks and Recreation (Amy Poehler)
Jack Donaghy - 30 Rock (Alec Baldwin)
Gil Grissom - CSI (William Petersen)
Richard Castle - Castle (Nathan Fillion)
Gabrielle Solis - Desperate Housewives (Eva Longoria)
Jim Bergerac - Bergerac (John Nettles)
Vila Restal - Blakes 7 (Michael Keating)
Hope you found it a mildly interesting read, I really should watch more "sensible" TV programmes!
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Top Ten TV Channels
by cocolgooh
In my opinion, the best TV channels are as follows:
10. BBC2 - It has a few good shows like Masterchef but it's not the channel I spend the most time watching.
9. Channel 4 - I like the Simpsons. It's one of the shows I always watch. Not much else on there that I watch though to be honest. Well, sometimes I watch ... Come Dine With Me as well actually.
8. More 4 - This often has Ruth Watson's Hotel Rescue on it, along with Grand Designs and Time Team. I like these.
7. ITV 1 - I watch the detective shows on there but not much else. Oh and Britain's Best Dish.
6. Create and Craft - I know it's a shopping channel but they do a lot of craft demonstrations and I do a lot of various crafts (including jewellery making and card making) so this can be useful for getting new ideas. And it's free to watch so it's a lot easier than buying magazines to show you what to do.
5. PickTv - I like Road Wars and other various police shows like that and PickTv has a lot of these which is why I like it.
4. Channel 5 - I like NCIS, CSI, The Mentalist and Law and Order so therefore this channel is basically one of those I watch a lot in the evenings.
3. BBC 3 - I love Family Guy, American Dad and several other shows on there as well so I tend to spend a lot of time watching this channel in the evenings.
2. Kerrang Radio's TV Channel - I like the presenters and the songs that are played on there so in general I'm likely to listen to this channel more than any of the other radio shows.
1. ITV 3 - I like all the murder mystery shows on there, such as Poirot, Rosemary and Thyme, Taggart, Midsommer Murders, Wycliffe, those sorts of things.
So that's my top 10! Hope you enjoyed reading it!
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