Yes, it's a less than stellar season with more than its' fair share of clunkers. Many of the higher rated episodes are not really *that* good when compared to the better episodes in S1 & S2. IMHO, The Enterprise Incident and The Tholian Web are the highlights of the season. I also like Plato's Stepchildren, mainly because of the presence of Michael Dunn, perhaps best known for his role of Dr. Miguelito Loveless on The Wild Wild West. Another episode I enjoy is All our Yesterdays from late in the season. Many feel The Empath is a very good episode but I've never liked this one and rank it lower than most. At least you've already seen the worst episode of the entire series with And the Children Shall Lead so there's really nowhere to go but up even though it's a short journey.

All this Trek discussion finally got to me and I got out my S1 set to watch Balance of Terror and perhaps a few others from that season... after all, The Galileo Seven and Shore Leave are on the same disk as Balance of Terror so it'll be a easy choice.

I made it through 3 blind buy comedy series and then put a couple of others on hold while I watch a few things I really want to watch. Mainly completing The Greatest American Hero, which I did. The western talk got me wanting to watch some of that genre so I worked in a few episodes of Wanted: Dead or Alive. When I got out the DVD I'd left off with on that one I saw the Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) DVD I'd left off with on that one too so I watched a couple of those for variety.

The blind buys:

Community: Very good series. I commented about this one earlier so I'll leave it at that.

'Til Death: This is a standard, cliche, rote, "by-the-book" sit-com. Nothing special with plots you've seen many, many times before and dialog predictable enough to cause boredom. I *did* get a few chuckles now and then but nothing I saw makes me want to pick up further seasons. Being somewhat of a completist, I probably will *if* they are cheap enough but considering I only paid $3 for S1 they'll have to be $5 or less. Frankly I don't see how this survived 4 seasons. Better programs have been cancelled after only 1.

Case in point:

Kath & Kim: Based on the Australian comedy, this US remake got fairly poor reviews. I guess I saw something different than every one else because I really enjoyed it. I should say that I've never seen the original so that could be significant. I *can* say that if the original *is* better, as many reviews indicate, then it should see a US release. I know I'd buy it. The entire premise is about a disfunctional Mother and Daughter obsessed with celebrity culture who share *lots* of "likes", have many differences, but seem to mostly get along. I've read many reviews stating that the dialog is horrible but that's the high point IMHO. You *really* have to listen as both leads severely mangle the English language on a regular basis. Frankly it's the many malapropisms and mixed metaphors spewing forth that kept me watching more than anything else. I've also read complaints that "nobody learns and there's no character growth" but that's another thing that makes this series so much fun. Nobody ever learns and there's *no* growth. This one should have been given a second season. It's sooo much better than 'Til Death. Oh yeah... I only paid $3 for this as well. An excellent purchase and great value.

Now off to watch some Trek...

I watched some of Kath & Kim when it first aired and found it enjoyable, but wasn't terribly upset about its cancellation. Fast forward a couple of years and I watched the entire series on DVD and found it to be a really great series. Perhaps it was because I had the chance to watch all of the episodes in a row, but I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Made me sad that it was canceled since it fits in nicely with NBC's Thursday lineup.

Checklist question: for 'Watch shows originating from 3 different countries,' I'm assuming this applies to countries outside the US?

I'd like to word it differently now but no. I'm basing it on the opinion/my imagination that we have at least a few people that aren't in the US. If I could change it, I'd say "outside your native country" or something similar.

JUst watched my first episode of Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight as part of an Anime Sample disc that had 2 episodes on it. Enjoyed the show. When I go to New York Comic Con in October, I'm going to have to look for the set.

I have about 15 minutes left of the Elizabeth R mini-series, 2 episodes left of Land of the Lost and then I start in on the Criterion set of The Golden Age of Television.

I just checked off "Stunt Guest Star" off the checklist with an episode of The Bionic Woman where 70s daredevil Evel Knievel guest stars and performs actual stunts! How's that for a literal interpretation of the category?

I counted Leonard Nimoy's turn as a dispassionate, methodical research doctor in Season Two of Columbo as a "Stunt Guest Star." I'm not sure it quite qualifies, but the similarities between this character and Spock were definitely a reason for the casting.

I got off to a good start with this challenge. I'm trying to get a lot of watching in before the school year starts next week. Then it is thesis writing time!

It's really tough to watch shows when people are on different schedules. Knowing that you're a semi-single parent to four kids makes it even more impressive that you contribute your time to this board . Much appreciated.

I've been trying to finish The Fugitive and just started the color episodes. Boy, that intro got real ugly! But the episode was still good. Also, have a lot of Westerns to watch(The Virginian, Have Gun-Will Travel, Wagon Train,Wamted: Dead or Alive, The Big Valley, Lawman).

A few new shows i've discovered so far:
Downton Abbey
Covert Affairs
Suits
Revenge

Gotta say, the Star Trek episodes I've watched the last couple days have been less than note-worthy. "The Tholian Web" holds up really well and hats off to the effects folks because the restoration of that episode looked amazing. The rest of the episodes are a hot mess. I don't know if the writers were just phoning it in or there was a mandate to lighten things up, but wow. I thought that first season of TNG was bad. I should be able to finish up the rest of TOS episodes before the Oscar Challenge starts and then I can start The Animated Series next month. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the comment

I finished Land of the Lost last night. Now I need to figure out what to start up with my kids tonight.

Since I can't listen to fantasy football podcasts on the bus any more, I've been knocking off some free iTunes pilots: New Girl, Whitney, Charlie's Angels (yeah, sue me for watching women). (I actually stopped watching Whitney the first time because the person next to me looked like she wouldn't approve.). CA was sometimes laughable, but not unwatchable. My first experience with Minka Kelly other than her baseball thread. She's a little annoying but (WARNING: actual content spoiler, not hot picture of Minka Kelly) .

You should check out the last season of 'Til Dealth' - it is such a bizarre show at that point. You could tell the writers knew that nobody was watching and they did some pretty wild things for a sitcom.

And the kids have spoken.

Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

You can partly blame that on Roddenberry taking more of a back-seat for S3 somewhat in protest over the time slot in which NBC placed the program (Friday at 10pm EST - a kiss of death for a show whose primary viewers were very likely to *not* be home watching TV at that time). It also didn't help that the budget had been cut... again, and that NBC wanted the show "broadened" to attract more non sci-fi type viewers. In spite of the semi train-wreck of Season 3 many episodes improve upon repeat viewing. I still like it better than S1 of TNG.

Watched another pair of blind buys:

Better off Ted - This is another very good series which was killed too soon. It reminds me quite a bit of Arrested Development in pacing and zaniness. I especially like the corporate commercials for "Veridian Dynamics". The episode with motion sensors that do not detect black people (E4 - satire which demonstrates in an excellent manner how stupid corporate decisions can be) and the one with the Medieval Fight Club in the sub-basement (E8 - just plain fun) are a couple I really enjoyed.

Hot in Cleveland - I was prepared to not like this (it *is* after all a TVLand production) but found it to be quite funny. Betty White is great as the somewhat snarky caretaker of the house the other three (Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick) rent after their plane did a forced landing in Cleveland while on route to Paris. It doesn't hurt that I like the four leads. There's a strong exterior resemblance to The Golden Girls but it's quite a bit different in execution. Some plots bring out the "fish out of water" characteristics of the three younger ladies being from L.A. and now in Cleveland. I enjoyed it enough that I went out and picked up S2.

took a little break the last two days and caught up on a couple movies i been wanting to see.

kicked things back in and watched the new episode of Face Off. gonna start up justified s2

What happened to your anime series?

im still planning on watching a couple series put it on the backburner for a moment bc for the first time i can catch up with a series before the new season starts (s3 of justified)

Went through a few more episodes and this batch wasn't as bad as the previous one. "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" has always been one of my favorite episodes from a story standpoint. I really noticed the camerawork this time around and it's quite different from other Star Trek episodes. I was really surprised by "The Mark of Gideon" because it seemed to have a very pro-choice, pro-contraception message (even though the Gideon's endgame didn't make that much sense). "Requiem for Methuselah" was also interesting despite some leaps in logic and timing.

I've seen the box set of that series in Book Off in Manhattan. I didn't check the price, though. It would be something like $25 or $30--used. (They've raised the prices on used anime DVDs recently. Single volumes used to go for $7, now they're up to $10.)

Slight lag over the past couple of days, but I'm sick at home now and need to return to the watching. I'm enjoying the hell out of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Only a few left in the first season. Glad to hear pagefrance is watching Bionic Woman. It was a childhood favorite. I have the first three seasons and may squeeze some episodes into this challenge, but I'm really trying to watch shows/seasons that are entirely new to me for the most part. I've a couple more to start.