I never thought this Challenge really lent itself well to a checklist. While I do watch a lot of different shows, they come from what looks good on Dish or Roku. As for series, I stick with a season at a time.

On another note, another show I plan to watch this challenge is Expedition Unknown. I always enjoyed Josh Gates in Destination Truth, so just recently started watching him on Travel Channel. Just finished an episode right now on Travel Channel On Demand.

Still some time to hash it out, but early reaction seems to be okay with dropping the checklist from this challenge. Also, you may notice I've amended the first post to include most of this year's prizes.

Gah! I totally missed this going up! Travis, I blame you for not telling me!

Now to catch up with the discussion!

I happened on The Walking Dead late one night, first season episode, but not the first one. I was hooked. I grabbed the first season and the 2nd from the library and binged watched it. Black Friday was soon after, so I added those to my collection. Season 3 started getting a little "eh" for me, but those two first seasons are excellent.

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Ha! I was having a convo with Travis and did the same mixup! My favorite Batman quote and I never remember the movie it's from! And hey, I thought I was the only one in the world who hadn't yet watched The Dark Knight Rises! I have to admit, I haven't seen The Dark Knight either. I loved the first one so much and just never got into the theater to watch the sequel. Then Heath Ledger died and the hype for him as the Joker went sky high and I always felt like I'd be disappointed by it so never got to them. I do want to; I even own them! One day...

I agree totally! Though I don't watch them live anymore. I DVR 'em then watch at the end of the season mostly as I hate that 3 month (if not longer!) gap in the middle.

Hmm, if you ever see a guide from Wolverine Lodge or Lynn Lake Outpost (though that one is more fishing), that's my uncle's business in Canada. I know he's done several of those hunting shows.

Prizes look good! (Y) thanks for hosting, Travis!

Great looking prizes Travis.

Started watching early today as soon as I woke up with another episode from the bowhunting channel on Roku.

I'll watch for those guides LJG.

I was starting to feel slightly under the weather last night when I went to bed. This morning I woke up with such a nasty cold that it hit me like a Mack truck. I've decided to spend the rest of the day in bed, and when I'm not sleeping, I'll be watching TV. I guess this is just cold and flu season. Perfect opportunity to gorge on TV I guess. I'm glad my dad took me fishing yesterday, as I couldn't have enjoyed it today.

I've done this checklist in the past, but haven't done any checklist in a couple years.

Nice prizes! They include a couple of favorites: Jeeves & Wooster, totally hilarious, and Birds of Prey, which was cancelled too soon. I'd have liked to at least seen another season of that one. I've not seen the other three although I *have* heard of The Colbys and have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding with a vague recollection of that series name.

I'm assuming the prizes came from Hamilton Book via Goldenwheels?

Nothing like curling up in bed, hot tea on your nightstand, and a dog for company when you have a cold to get get in the mood for TV.

I've had insomnia since 1:00 this morning, so been watching TV all night. Just finished a show on horse training on TVG2.

In preparation for the beginning of the Challenge in a couple weeks I was just on Netflix adding a bunch of TV series to my DVD queue that I plan to sample a disc at a time during the challenge, like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, The Adventures of Superman, and quite a few others. I just wish Batman was available on Netflix.

Well, it's official. My cold has turned into the flu. I've got the muscle aches to prove it. I can barely move today.

You are right, nothing better than a pet for company when you feel miserable!
Hope you feel better soon! Tail end of a cold myself, but I'm glad it didn't get flu bad!

Still focusing on the Holiday challenge which is one of my favorites, but looking forward to the TV challenge to finally get through some of my unwatched pile. I do plan on not concentrating on one series above another as I find that I get bored, but feel like I should be watching one thing and end up not watching anything. So I plan on watching disc by disc rather than season by season. I use DVD Profiler, so it'll be easy enough to keep track of what I've watched.

I also am thinking of syncing up with Travis and watching Batman with him (the original series) through the month. Either way, I'm sure I'll find enough to watch to fill the time!

I've been watching S5 of ST:TNG the past couple of days. I've been surprised that at 9 episodes in I've yet to see one I recall having seen! I'm really liking this season more than the first 4. So far there have been no "lazy writer syndrom" holodeck episodes, a single one with Wesley, which was quite good although somewhat predictable, and a very good 2 parter with Leonard Nimoy and Mark Lenard as Spock and Sarek. Even Riker is less a stuffed-shirt 2x4-up-the-rear type this season.

Thanks. Took some Alka Seltzer Cold and Flu this afternoon and it seemed to help
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The main reason I started working on the challenge early was I have so many series I want to work on, it would take more than 1 month to do it.

On another note, thinking of moving onto another series, as at least right now, I can't get into Knight Rider. Every time I start to think about watching an episode, I decide not to. Don't know what I want to work on yet though. So many good shows to choose from.

I decided on what series to work on for now, Volume One of Voltron Defender of the Universe, the Blue Lion set.

It turns out I'm going to need to get a new HDMI cable. While mine still works, I'm treating it with kid gloves. I was just shifting the position of my TV a few inches, and the plug on my cable bent. I was able to bend it back into shape, but I don't know if any damage was done on the inside.

They did indeed! I've only seen Jeeves & Wooster; it's a favorite of mine, too, which is why I picked it!

I talked about this during last year's challenge when I watched it on Blu-ray, but Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five is one of my favorite single seasons of any show, ever, and probably my single favorite season of all the Trek series.

I started my TV viewing early today with another episode of Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

I'm over my flu, which is good, but I've been extremely depressed ever since I woke up this morning. I even went in my room and just went back to bed after breakfast. I'm up now, and hoping some TV will help cheer me up.

I've now hit a *few* lesser episodes but those are still overall improvements over many of the better ones from earlier seasons. So far I've not been too impressed with:

"Hero Worship" I'm not a fan of kid-centric episodes in general, most Data-centric episodes leave me flat, so combined it's a dud for me.

"Violations" You'd think Troi would be better attuned to what happened than she was.

"The Outcast" This one had some good things to say but then ruined it with its final conformist attitude.

"Cause and Effect" I was extremely tired of the Déjà vu segments by the time they decided enough is enough, put in some true change, and brought the episode to its conclusion. A bit of trivia I read says:


It's also bothered me a bit that Worf shows no signs of the spinal injury which was repaired in "Ethics." I don't think it's even been mentioned and you'd think there would be *some* type of slight impairment or residual effects in spite of his redundant systems.

In spite of those few lesser episodes I've found myself thinking that if they'd hit such a high note during the first few episodes of season 2 I'd have not bailed on the series.

I'll grant that overall it's mostly an "okay" episode, but there are some specific scenes with Data and the boy, and with Troi, that are well handled.

I like the idea of that episode, but yeah, its execution is clumsy.

This is one of the more interesting ones to discuss/debate. I'll just say now that it's a fascinating barometer of how social attitudes have evolved since 1992.

I was far more taken with it when I watched it last year than I remember having been before.

"Ethics" might be the one TNG episode I outright hate. There are plenty of other disappointing episodes (particularly in the first two seasons), but I can't think offhand of any I truly hate the way I hate that one.

I started my next nature documentary series tonight by revisiting Planet Earth. Just finished the first episode.

[re: ST:TNG episode "The Outcast"]
True, but Star Trek has never been one to back down and be conformist as did that episode - at least I don't recall any examples as egregious as this in TOS.

The conclusion took me completely by surprise the way it essentially threw away everything that'd been said just moments before, negating the entire reason for the episode to exist.
I can see that. The episode really serves no purpose other than to give Dr. Crusher a bit of time-in-the-sun and to attempt to show more of the Klingon psyche but that part really doesn't work very well. In spite of Worf being a "warrior" I can't accept the fact that someone as mentally strong as he would ever consider such a "solution" to that problem.

You know, I've had friends keep trying to get me to buy either a Xbox One, or PS4, but seeing as I mostly use my PS3 for TV watching, until Sony drops online support for PS3, I'm perfectly happy with my older console. Case in point, I've been binge watching Built For the Kill tonight on Netflix for the last two hours.

I can actually enjoy myself now. I don't have any more appointments at the VA hospital until after the challenge begins.