TV shows - Stress test results - Part 2

Continuing with the amazing TV shows stress test results. I apologise to my readers who have had to wait for many hours for this sequel. You guys must have been sitting in front of your computer all the time. I hope you took toilet breaks. Its OK to feel that you have lost more than a day of your life, but I will not keep you waiting any longer.



Southpark
Definitely the most imaginative of all the series I have watched. But its selling point is toilet humor and that takes away a few points, cause not everyone enjoys it like I and other maladjusted guys (including its two creators) do. Sure the animation is crappy and every other word uttered by the eight year old lead characters is an expletive. Sure sometimes it's tasteless, racist and even repulsive. But you see thats the whole idea. Its a show like no other. Some of the episodes are social satires taking on issues that the rest of the entertainment industry avoids. They seem to draw inspiration from real life events. Nothing is off limits in this one as you might guess when you see that Jesus is a regular character.

To be fair I have to say that this cartoon series is more real than most TV shows. To add to its credits it has been running for 11 seasons and there was a smash hit movie made of it. If you don't mind toilet humor this definitely is the best series for you.



The Simpsons
Another long running cartoon series, this one with 19 seasons and more than 400 episodes. In my opinion its the quintessential American TV series. The usual storyline is Homer screws up and makes his family mad and by the end of the show he somehow fixes things. They even made a movie with the same theme and there is more than one simpsons PC game out there.

What makes it so successful? I guess there are a few good laughs in there. Good for regular watching.



Heroes
This X-men clone was interesting at first. I mean they have super heroes who wear their underwear the right way, thats something I think. But like many others it got boring as the series progressed. I lost interest in it and havn't watched the second season. Definitely bad test results.



My name is Earl
I like this one. The hero is a total loser. Hes not a charmer and his friends are all losers too. The two lead girls are pretty and that only adds points. Nice, simple plots and funny dialogues. The lead actor does get on my nerves sometimes with his put-on loser mannerisms, but mostly its good fun.

Definitely good for regular watching. It has enough variety to me keep interested enough to watch the remaining 43 episodes in a couple of days. (As you can see I am a very dedicated person)



30 Rock
Tina Fey is really funny and smart which makes her a rare kind of women IMHO. She is the only reason to watch this series. Alec Baldwin does shine once in a while. But the series has very little variety and fared almost poorly in the stress tests. Some of the supporting characters have irritated me so much that if I see those actors face to face I might slap their face.

Watch an episode once in a blue moon and you will be entertained, anything more is a waste of time.



The Office
Pretty good series actually. But themes have been repeating and some episodes are just not funny. Anyway I somehow got hooked onto the Pam-Jim office romance. I stopped watching it because I couldnt stand the micheal scott character anymore. That and the writer's strike meant I didn't have anymore episodes to watch.

Its good for regular watching and office goers will particularly enjoy it.


Series not worth mention (well almost not worth mention):

Californication - As far I could make out its about agent Fox Mulder fornicating with each and every girl he meets in California.

The Apprentice - You are FIRED.

TV shows - Stress test results - Part 1

I havn't had a TV for most of this year and for entertainment I watch TV shows on my laptop. I watched the entire episodes of season 2  & 3 of Lost in 3 days. I consider that an achievement, but unfortunately I cannot put things like that in my resume. So I am going to brag about it in my blog. Watching episodes back to back is in my opinion a kind of abusive stress test. That is when recurrent ideas in these shows become apparent and the jokes just aren't funny anymore. It really tests the script writer's variety.

Just remember that I am being magnanimous by sharing the results of my stress tests here. Who knows this might really turn someones life around. So here goes.

Lost
Pretty good series and probably the one with the highest ratings. Excellent production values and cast. Season 1 was very good. Each episode was like a block buster hollywood movie with many thrills and fresh ideas. But then seasons 2 just dragged on with nothing worth mentioning. In season 1, the viewers were clueless as to whether it was science fiction or fantasy. But protracting that theme made it boring. May be the writers themselves were clueless. The recurrent themes such as the impending strife between Jack and Locke, new characters appearing out of nowhere and disappearing at the same pace they came and the invincibility of the 'others' started annoying me. But towards the end of season 3 with many more plot revelations things got interesting. The ongoing season 4 sees a lot of new experiments, new characters and plot twists. Also they introduced the new format of putting something like subtitles to explain the plot intricacies (but sometimes they overdo it). They seem to have successfully catered to several audiences at once. Its got romance, violence, science fiction and spirituality. It even had a few court room scenes (US viewers love that).

All said I feel the initial excitement and intrigue is starting to wear down and I might not watch the forthcoming episodes. Nah.....who am I kidding?



Scrubs
Everyone likes to watch a show about losers. Scrubs is yet another of those shows. Although all the lead characters are doctors or medical interns, they have enough quirkiness to make people forget that fact. This show fared very poorly in the stress test. In fact I think they repeated a season 3 episode in season 5. The first season was entertaining but it got too repetitive and predictable after that.

I don't recommend it even for regular watching. Watching an episode once in a while is fine. And the acting isn't great either. I guess they ran out of ideas and resorted to gimmicks (like making poor Dr. Elliot get a boob job).



How I met your mother
Belongs to the same category as scrubs. Its about a bunch of friends who meet regularly at a bar (as opposed to a coffee shop). Few of the episodes are funny and there are a lot of crazy ideas by Barney, but the episodes all seem too familiar. I mean apart from a few highlights there is not much else to watch out for. And sometimes the idiosyncrasies of the characters are really annoying. It must be an attempt to make them more realistic but that is not the end effect. I used to like Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie howser) before I watched this show.



The Big Bang Theory
I would give this one five stars. Hmm...... I didn't give any stars to the others, did I? . But anyway this new series is very promising. I don't think theres any other series like it. It has geeks as heroes. Not as a tease like in revenge of the nerds, but really the lead characters are all geeks. A beautiful (but slightly dumb in a blond kind of way) Kaley Cuoco moves in next door to two Caltech physicists and they and their two friends begin to have new experiences. I guess I really like this one cause I identify with these characters very well. When I am not leonard or Sheldon I am Koothrappali.

The Indian geek Koothrappali is a very believable portrayal of a desi student in the US. Kudos to the writers for that. They deserve applause for not succumbing to employing the stereotype. A very entertaining show indeed. That said there have been only eight episodes of it so far and it might be presumptuous of me to give it such a high rating. But I enjoyed those eight very much.