Travis McClain

Finished Homicide: Life on the Street Seasons 1 & 2 just now. The first six episodes cover one arc, which wasn't the standard story structure thereafter and the shift is a bit jarring in marathon viewing. Some of the show's social commentary is perhaps even more poignant today than it was when the series debuted in January, 1993; I watched "See No Evil" and "Black and Blue" and thought of how those episodes might play today given how many prolific police-involved shootings have torn apart so many communities in just the last two years alone. What I appreciated about those episodes (two of my top three ranked episodes of the first two seasons) in particular is how "raw" they were, especially in the clashes between Gee and Pembleton. It's hard to imagine a show producing those two episodes with the same scripts today. They might reassign Gee's reluctance to pursue investigating another cop to a higher-up who wasn't a regular, but they would surely flee from having our own series regular commanding officer take the position that Gee took.

"Bop Gun" is the episode that always gets discussed. I can appreciate its themes and specific sequences, but truthfully I've never really been in love with it the way so many others are. I feel like it was too ambitious for its 46:38 run time, for one thing. The manhunt for the assailants and whittling it down to Vaughn goes by so effortlessly that the matter of which of them actually pulled the trigger isn't as compelling a draw as it should be. Howard's investment in thoroughness is meant to propel us, but I just didn't share that investment. I hate to say it, but when Felton objects to even caring why Vaughn wrote his letter of apology, I sided with him - not because I agree that's the appropriate attitude for an investigator to take, but because as a viewer, that's where I was.

Overall, though, this is thought provoking TV at its finest. Some of the conversations are embarrassingly dated - Gee literally laughing off the very idea of complying with OSHA standards and establishing a no-smoking break area, for instance - but for the most part, even the frustrating ones (pretty much anything with Felton complaining to Pembleton) are worthwhile if only as a sort of barometer for what kinds of things we have collectively decided to no longer approve of as legitimate conversation.

Also: because no time spent reflecting on Homicide is complete without it, I want to again object to the injustice of Andre Braugher not having seven Best Actor in a Dramatic Series Emmy awards - and yes, I'm aware he wasn't even in the seventh season. He's just that damn good.

shadokitty

I just finished Part 3 of the pilot of the original Battlestar Galactica on Netflix. I've had a lot of trouble trying to decide what I want to watch lately, but I think for now I plan to watch a lot of sci-fi shows, as I've always loved that genre anyways. I only wish Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was still on Netflix, but I plan to buy the series when I get paid. This will also give me a chance to catch up on Game of Thrones.

On another note, I have a free Amazon Fire TV Stick on its way to me as a promotional gift for when I tried PlayStation Vue for a month. It will be interesting to compare the channel selection with Roku.

BobO'Link

I *finally* opened and started watching S4 of Enterprise. I was quite relieved that the "temporal war" stuff ended after a couple of episodes and that it's apparently back to "normal" type Trek stories. One was on Dr. Arik Soong and genetic experiments which may have been the result of the Eugenics wars. While I found it a bit difficult to accept Brent Spiner in the role of Dr. Arik Soong he did a fairly good job.

I also watched a couple of episodes of Love American Style and found it's much better than I recalled. I've not seen it since the original airings and recall liking it although my memories are that the stories were rather predictable and forced at times with too much emphasis on being timely or "cool." In the two episodes I've seen so far (both from 1969) the stories have mostly been entertaining and humourous (in that late 60s way).

shadokitty

I was listening to the weather forecast on the radio a little while ago, and it sounds like provided we don't lose power, tonight and tomorrow will be made for gorging on challenge content. Freezing rain with a 1/4 inch tonight, and half inch by morning, combined with a high wind warning with gusts of up to 60 mph. The perfect time to curl up in bed, wrap myself in a blanket, coffee on my nightstand, and enjoy TV. I've had second thoughts about concentrating on sci-fi however. I just don't know what I want to focus on yet. I'm still jumping around. Watched quite a bit of sports however.

davidh777

Catching up on the discussion with a few thoughts.

I definitely treat the TV challenge differently from other challenges, though TV is the majority of my backlog so I do try to work some into every challenge other than Criterion, Oscars, etc. And of course I watch TV year-round, so it's nice to get credit for every show I watch, even the NFL (as horrible as that is for efficient counting numbers).

I like the idea of the perpetual TV thread. I've never participated in the "last show you watched" thread, but this seems like a better way of record-keeping. I've been making my way through Buffy for at least a couple years now, and I have to track back to the last sci-fi or horror or action or TV challenge to see where I need to resume. Right now I'm trying to make my way through Friends, which I started in November and took a hiatus from in December, and now I can resume in January. But maybe I'll be able to continue past January with the new thread.

We've often talked about other genres for challenges. For me, international would be a more lenient Criterion without Michael Bay and Silence of the Lambs. Do I have enough British and Japanese and French content to keep me busy for a month? Sure, but I probably don't have the time and patience for doing heavy watching where I have to pay attention to subtitles. Drama has always seemed to broad to make for good discussion. I would love musicals, and a few of us did them for MYO, but half a dozen people doesn't make for a good challenge.

Travis McClain

I'll keep my fingers crossed it's "just" unpleasant outside and that you don't lose power!

I take it, then, that you don't presently use any kind of cataloging system to track your viewing? DVD Profiler is terrific for that.

Outside of Horror, which is basically like forum within the forum that only reveals itself for two months of the year, most challenges don't have more than, say, 30 participants in any given month. Of those 30, probably five or six sign up for the list thread and never add more than their first day's viewings. Of the remaining 25-ish, maybe a third contribute to the discussion thread with regularity throughout the challenge.

Right now, for instance, the list thread for this challenge has 30 posts. Two are my host posts, and a third is my personal list. Of the remaining 27, seven members have yet to add anything to their lists. A week from now, a handful of the active 28 participants will stop updating. By the end of the challenge, 15-18 will have kept up with watching and listing. And of those 15-18, maybe a dozen of us will still be chatting in the discussion thread. Maybe.

I suspect there are enough musical fans on this forum - and enough others who might try out such a challenge just for the change of pace - that it could field a solid enough turnout to be rewarding for those who did choose to wade into it. I'm anti-musical by default, but even I might give it a whirl if only because I know there are a whole lot of check marks on iCheckMovies.com to be had from the genre and on my own, I'm unlikely to choose to watch more than a few of them.

Darkgod

Why did it start on the 26th... this crossing over with other challenges is getting crazy.

Travis McClain

We started on the 26th last year because basically, after Christmas interest in the Holiday Challenge wanes for most participants and with the Oscar Challenge starting before January ends, it seemed the sensible accommodation to make. Plus, participants often get some TV seasons for Christmas they're itchy to crack open.

Trevor

I'm not starting until the 1st because I'm protesting everyone voting against my idea of having a Rocky Challenge every 12/26.

BobO'Link

Color me guilty on that one! Yesterday afternoon I started to add what I'd watched Saturday but decided to just watch more stuff instead! Today I played games with the grandkids plus made them breakfast, lunch, and snacks and cleaned the kitchen for my wife. I just finished my first qualifying viewing of the day - Episode 5 of Enterprise S4.

In addition to the previously mentioned viewings I finished watching S1 of Hazel Saturday night. I really hadn't planned on picking up that series as it's a show I remember really liking the first season but which quickly fell into the "same-old-same-old" formula more so than other 60s sitcoms, feeling rather old and weary before season 2 ended. But I was also rather young at the time of the original airings and honestly didn't remember any specific episodes, just that I remember thinking that it was a lot of the same thing each week, especially towards the end of the series. It *was* one of those series my sister and I always watched. It's one of those series for which I've only seen a handful of episodes since those original airings. I finally caved when I recently got a good price (under $10) on a "like new" used copy figuring if it was as formulaic as I remembered at least I'd not spent much.

My rememberances from those first run viewings is basically that Hazel doesn't like something her boss has said/done/attempting for some reason or there's something she wants that her boss is opposed to, she winks to the camera, connives to get her way, frequently with the help of the bosses wife (her old "charge"), and all comes out good... well in Hazel's favor but everyone's happy with the outcome. While there is a goodly amount of such episodes there're enough that are different to offset that overall feeling. Hazel also helps others in her quest to obtain what she desires more than I'd remembered, with many episodes having her working for the "common good."

Maybe it *does* get more formulaic in later seasons but S1 was pretty good with more give-and-take than I recall and some fun, and funny, scripts with good acting. I really enjoyed the viewing. Enough so that I'm considering purchasing another season or two.

Dimension X

It looks like I started on the 29th last year, but I'll probably wait until Jan. 1 this time. I have some stuff I want to catch up on before I start on this challenge, and while some of it would "count," this is one challenge (maybe the only one) where I don't list incidental stuff I just happen to watch.

shadokitty

I woke up early, and saw the wind had died down. We only lost power last night for one minute. Still icy though.

I started today's challenge viewing with a hunting show on Sportsman Channel.

Cardsfan111

I went through the 3rd season of Dexter over the last couple of days. If all goes well, I plan to watch the next few seasons this month. I'm really enjoying the show--for those that have seen it, does the series maintain a consistently high level or should I expect a drop off at some point? Any input won't change my intentions, but I'm curious.

davidh777

Nope. I've thought about cataloging my collection (and maybe viewing would spin off of that) but the thought of getting started is too intimidating.

I expect your numbers are accurate, and I'd certainly be in for a musicals challenge. Some people could even spin a few Disney movies to qualify. I'd just be wary of having a ghost challenge like my ghost Sheep games.

And I expect that this challenge's numbers will start climbing. There are probably some people who are on vacation or aren't aware that we've started already.

mrcellophane

So far, I've been trading off between three very different series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, True Detective, and Loveless (a 2005 anime in which virgins inexplicably have cat ears and tails). I've been working my way through the first throughout much of the year. It was the only Star Trek series that I hadn't really watched, and unless they completely lose it in the last season, it's my favorite series. Between this and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's interesting to see the transition to more serialized television.

I'll post more about the series when I finish them.

shadokitty

One thing I like about Hulu is the classic anime. I just finished the first episode of Battle of the Planets.

MrTerrific

I really wanted to hate The New Batman Adventures, mainly because of the way that they changed the looks of Joker and Catwoman, but I must confess that I'm loving it!

shadokitty

I've run into a quandary. Every time I start to watch something I turn it off today. I want to binge on TV today, but I just can't settle on something to watch. Maybe I'll just browse Dish. First world problems I guess, when you have too much to choose from between Dish Network, DVD's, Roku, PlayStation, and Fire TV.

Travis McClain

Nah, you're good. The seventh season has some relatively wacky episodes, but it also has some true gems. I went back a few months ago and streamed my way through DS9 and created a ranked list of each episode as I went. Three of my top ten were from the seventh season.

Well, don't worry; just as with DS9, I created a ranked list of Batman: The Animated Series when I went back to that show a few years ago on DVD. The lowest two episodes on my list came from that revamped season. Of course, two of my top ten (including my #2 overall, just behind the movie, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) also came from that season.

Also, I've updated the prize list, adding complete series box sets of The Nanny and The Bold Ones: The Lawyers!

MrTerrific

You are correct, sir! The episode Over The Edge was amazing! Probably my favorite single episode.

Travis McClain

It's one of the few stories I've ever seen where that kind of explanation for what we'd been seeing didn't cheapen the story. Incidentally, I also wrote a blog piece about all four DVD volumes, in case those are of any interest:

Volume One | Volume Two | Volume Three | Volume Four

shadokitty

I had plans to spend last night watching Bowl games, but things didn't work out as planned. Sleep got the better of me.

Started today's challenge viewing with the 'Hunters & Hunted' episode of Life, as I started right in as soon as I woke up.

mrcellophane

That's good to hear! I bookmarked your list and will review when I'm done with the series. I may even reciprocate with my own. However, it is better to do things like that while you are watching rather than afterward.

Travis McClain

Yeah, I've also found it's a lot harder to do if I don't go through the entire series at once. Spacing out seasons makes it harder to remember how I felt about specific episodes.

As for me, I finished Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Season 3 late last night/early this morning. There are some brilliant episodes, including the heartbreaking "Crosetti". Not gonna lie, I reflexively cried in the last ten minutes, and that's astonishing not just because I had already seen the episode a few times over the years, but because as a general rule, I'm not a crier. That isn't machismo; I have no embarrassment about crying whatsoever. I just rarely do it, even on occasions when I desperately want to. That's the highest praise I can offer that episode.

There's a two-parter in which a youth is killed during a police raid of a drug house and evidence points to a cop shooting. Having witnessed so many of those incidents in real life over just the last two years, that one was a bit surreal to watch. There are some elements that seem rawer than what I think a network would put on screen today, but there are also areas where I feel it came across as tame and even naive. There's almost no depiction of a public outcry beyond expository dialog that people are upset, except for some protesters with signs outside police headquarters.

Still, the second half, "Black and Blue", features one of the greatest performances by Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton. It's emotionally charged and it's a damning indictment of the pressure to find a fall guy. My heart broke for Frank, throwing that guy under the bus, knowing the entire time that he was going against everything he knew to be true. It's a brilliant demonstration of the need to use power responsibly; Pembleton's ability to extract a confession of guilt from someone not guilty is almost as destructive as the cop who used his gun to arbitrarily kill the victim.

There are arguments to be made which is the more destructive, of course; most anyone can get and use a gun, whereas we have greater expectations of what it takes to earn a badge. Conversely, a wrongful conviction can be appealed and overturned, whereas there is nothing to be done for the dead. In any event, that kind of debate is what the show prompted better than anything else on TV at the time.

"Every Mother's Son" wades into melodrama, but by God, it's some of the most captivating melodrama I've ever seen. That scene of the two mothers sitting together unknowingly is absolutely heart wrenching. It's amazing how sympathetic each character in that episode became, even the antagonistic 14 year old shooter once he finally begins to understand the gravity of the consequences of his actions. The B-story of the guys's ongoing problems with buying The Waterfront is amusing, but detracts from such a hefty A-story.

Another one is "Colors", in which the antagonist is a white supremacist played to smarmy perfection by Steve Buscemi. What's brilliant about him playing the role is that he's so unlike the stereotype of what such a loathsome bigot is considered to look and sound like. It's important to remember that that ugliness exists in people of all ilks, and that's something this show highlighted often.

What resonated with me more than that, though, was the B-story in which Gee is rejected by Russert's friend for being "too black". I remember reading at the time that Yaphet Kotto had experienced that kind of rejection and racism in real life, and the hurt that he carried shows in his performance. It's heartbreaking, and it's something that has stayed with me ever since. These are the kinds of racial issues that are less discussed than something like the police-involved shooting depicted in "Black and Blue", or even the A-story of "Colors", but they matter and need to be discussed. Homicide didn't have to discuss it, but I'm glad it did because it helped to open my eyes to yet another issue that African-Americans face on a daily basis.

And that, I think, is what made this show so special to me. I suppose in some ways, I see it as an extension of the commentary that I admire in Star Trek. Whereas Trek is about theory, Homicide is about application of that theory, and shows just what we're up against in trying to get to that more harmonious coexistence that Gene Roddenberry envisioned.

There's one commentary for the DVD, on the season finale. It's a complete dud, with very little insight and several passages of complete silence, letting the episode audio play.

I'll delve into The Complete Season 4 perhaps tomorrow; tonight, I'm going to have pizza and go through the Terminator movies. I could count them for this, since they spawned The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but since I don't have either season of that and I'm unlikely to get hold of them, I'm gonna pass on adding them to my list.

shadokitty

I found a couple Christmas episodes still on my DVR, so for double credit, I started today's challenge viewing with the Christmas episode of Make Room for Daddy.