What are you watching on TV right now?

rushfan4 wrote: I went to lunch with a couple of buddies today and the one buddy suggested that I try The IT Crowd.  He said it was pretty hilarious.

Snow Dog wrote: I think she started Doc Martin (I love this too) before IT Crowd.

... she also appeared in Doctor Who.

Edited by Dean - January 27 2012 at 13:52

TheProgtologist wrote: Being totally nuts for British tv me and my wife have assembled quite a large collection of dvd sets of the older,classic British series.Now we are starting to look into some recent stuff.Green Wing is very good(recommended to us by Ian).Do you guys like the show Outnumbered?

Have you checked out The Thick of It, Jody? Personally, I think that's the finest sitcom to come from these shores in a while, but it's not to everyone's tastes. Firstly, it's got some very strong language (always used very creatively and to great comic effect, mind you) and because it's set in the world of British politics it might seem a bit of an alien setting at first. It's created by Armando Iannucci, one of the driving forces behind the likes of The Day Today and Alan Partridge, so the quality is naturally very high indeed.

Another recent UK sitcom that's definitely worth checking out is Rev. The central character is a Church of England vicar running a poorly attended inner-city church and it's a lot more realistic than other religious-based sitcoms like Father Ted or the rather naff (in my opinion anyway) Vicar of Dibley.

Sadly, in recent years I think the US has actually been wiping the floor with us when it comes to producing decent comedy. What with Community, Tim and Eric, Louie, Archer, Parks and Recreation, Children's Hospital, The Venture Bros., Delocated, etc. it seems like America is producing way more intelligent, innovative and downright reliably hilarious comedy than us Brits. It's kinda depressing.

TheProgtologist wrote: American tv is just boring me lately,the only sitcom I like is The Big Bang Theory and shows like Dexter,Boardwalk Empire and Psych.

Oh, well if you haven't checked out Community or Parks and Rec yet you definitely should. Both take a few episodes to get going, but if you stick with them the rewards are plentiful.


Yeah, Tim and Eric are a textbook example of "acquired taste", but speaking as a comedy nerd I find their stuff really exciting as well as frequently asthma-inducingly hilarious. I love how Adult Swim has started to push through its initial remit of making adult cartoons and is now just this wonderful testing ground for all kinds of quirky and experimental comedy. I wish the UK had some kind of equivalent to Adult Swim, but right now all the channels are scaling back on their spending so we can expect more cheap reality TV and bland, risk-free comedy and drama.

I never watch TV. I even don't have one.

OT Räihälä wrote: I never watch TV. I even don't have one.

Good for you.

The Hemulen wrote: TheProgtologist wrote: Sometimes we come across some British shows that only lasted for a series or two that makes us wonder why they ended.Perfect example is Lab Rats.That show is just as funny and surreal is The IT Crowd or Black Books.Why didn't it last? Low ratings, critically panned. Personally, I wouldn't say it was quite up there with The IT Crowd but it's definitely in the same mould and could certainly have grown into something great if the beeb had given it a second series. It's a shame how often these days we don't allow shows find their feet, but ultimately there just isn't as much money in the UK system, which is why we tend to do short 6/7 episode series, and if that series doesn't meet a handful of executives' unrealistic expectations then you can kiss goodbye to series two. I recently found out that a pretty decent adult puppet series on BBC3 called Mongrels was axed after its second series for pretty arbitrary reasons. That was pretty much the only show on BBC3 I watched since The Mighty Boosh, I'm supposedly smack bang in the centre of that channel's target demographic, yet they cancel the one show they're currently producing which I actually liked! It's infuriating.

The Hemulen wrote: OT Räihälä wrote: I never watch TV. I even don't have one. Good for you.

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Yeah, but you apparently have a monitor.

I watched a marathon of Burn Notice because I was too sick to change the channel