I think that would be fun *and* could easily work "within" the existing challenges without taking away from them. I also like the idea of marking off viewed seasons rather than episodes (keeps things more compact).
And that's where we just use the "Rank 'Em as You Watch 'Em: TV on DVD*" list thread for keeping up with *just* the TV content viewed but talk about 'em in the current challenge thread.
Personally, I'd rather not limit January to any genres, but at least with those three there's still quite a bit of latitude.

I'm tired but couldn't sleep, so I put on "What's My Line?" an old game show. It's not often on, but the last few days or so, Game Show Network has been airing them. One of the shows is from the 70s, I'd say, and the mystery guest was Leonard Nimoy. It just made me a little sad and I wanted to share.

We had an early Christmas for my sister and my nieces yesterday since they would be at their other grandparents for Christmas, and we couldn't do it after the holiday since their dad is taking them on vacation to Florida. But one of the gifts I got was a Visa gift card which I used to buy Season 1 of Batman. Supposed to be here Wednesday. Looking forward to watching at least some episodes next month.

I like this. I'll create a Rank 'Em: TV list thread in the TV subforum, then.

There really isn't much time to throw together a replacement challenge at this point, so we'll do TV on DVD* as scheduled, but I do think that those three each merit consideration. If we do decide to spin-off TV on DVD* from the rest of the challenges, then I would certainly advocate designating January for one of those themes.

As for my personal participation, I intend to dive into Batman, and I also think I'm going to borrow my friend's file cabinet set of Homicide: Life on the Street. I haven't revisited that series in quite some time, and I'm as eager to go through the DVD bonus content as I am to go back to the shows themselves. Not sure how much of those two series I'll get through, but those are my chief objectives this year!

For what it's worth, I agree with every word there and I've very much enjoyed the first couple of Arrow seasons. It's not quite comics-OQ, but it's well done and does a great job with Slade Wilson and a variety of cameos.

Flash seems sub-Arrow after the few episodes I've seen, but I have high hopes.

Gotham I just got (for $13), and haven't seen yet.

While I'll largely disagree with you on Batman, - a good 75% of the Nolan trilogy is excellent Batman - Supermam Returns is a tolerable film but based on a completely cockeyed plot and mild-severe misunderstanding of Superman. Man of Steel is a terrible film, with a terrible plot and predicated on a totally wrong interprettion of the Kents and hence Superman. It is just awful. Watching Returns is painful because of the child and the absence and the spying, but also because Routh could have done a reasonable job in better circumstances. MoS with it's utterly appalling versions of the Kent's instilling fear and secrecy over trust, hope and love; with it's unZod and final solution, crazy boat trailer and all the rest makes me too annoyed to even consider whether Cavill could be good in a better film.

Makes me terribly worried for B vs S and WW, too...

Superman is near perfect both as a film and as a Superman film. II could have been greater, but the behind-the-scenesy bits resulting in depoweredness and a throwing S cripple it at the end. III's a comedy, and therefore enjoyable, but IV... I barely remember!

I was amazed by how much I enjoyed B and R more than Forever when rewatching recently - it's SO over-the-top and stupid that it loops round back into fun and enjoyable! But the first two are solid, not great, takes - guns and death mar them, but a crazy-scary Penguin and phenomenal Catwoman elevate the two.

Adam West and Jack Nicholson (with Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones) in DKR would be amazing.

I remember not hating Supergirl, and thinking there was as much good as weird in GL, but little truly bad..

You will. No contest!

There are many changes in the Supergirl backstory, but they are - to me - intriguing rather than irritating. The biggest flaw (which they try and address admirably, but.. it's tricky) is when they try to explain why Supergirl is necessary in circumstances where Superman would probably be called/step in....

Do try to find time to try Arrow and Supergirl, if you can.

Bleak, dismal and fundamentally out of character. On a (far) lesser level, they show the Warner characteristics so evident in Catwoman - making a film about existing characters for an existing audience... that bears little-to-no similarity to the character(s) and therefore disenfranchises the core audience. And then either making a rubbish or tolerable film on that idiotic foundation. (See also: F4ntastic Four) Almost the opposite of the Marvel method - keeping the core and feel of the characters AND making a good film on that steong base.

Who would havw thought such an idea would pay off...?


It's a poor finale. And suffers from the same hubris and flaws as the Spider-man trilogy - they tried to pack in way too much: Knightfall, No Man's Land, Catwoman and Talia. Any of those plots would have made a two hour film a tricky prospect; all four (and a fistfight, and a fairly rubbish nonRobin) were far too much and it collapses under it's own weight. If that third film were expanded into a teilogy of it's own, and maybe without the rubbish retirement opening gambit... the five-film Bale Batman would have been brilliant rather than a pretty good trilogy.

I watched an episode of Psych several years ago and wrote it off as puerile and poorly done... did I judge it too hastily..?

I've decided to resume watching Season One of Knight Rider for one of my shows, and plan to watch Arrow on Netflix. I'm not really too interested in The Flash, but might give it a chance. I have too many shows to list that I really want to sample.

I like Superman III a) because Pamela Stephenson's in it, b) for the manmade Kryptonite's effects and c) because Richard Pryor apparently was too in awe of Superman to comedy it up as the producers had hoped. So it's a very uneven almost-parody, but with a genuine layer of seriousness on top!

My view is that IM3 is a logical continuation of Avengers, an excellent (attempt to produce a) portrayal of PTSD, but a bad Iron Man film. Just like the Edward Norton Hulk is an excellent examination of the pain and fear Banner feels and has to deal with, and a great psychological treatise... but a very bad 'Superhero Movie'.

You can at least leave Flash until he debuts in Arrow, because that's how they align.

Jeeves & Wooster is excellent, BoP I haven't got round to, but I was one of the (very) few who watched Pan Am when it was briefly on, and I really enjoyed it. Not sure why, mahbe the cast, but it was very enjoyable. Did not remember it was available...

When is the list thread gonna be up?

Probably mostly alone...!

That said, the checklist is the most Challenge-y aspect (negated few/none follow it, but...) since it broadens the viewing from "watching what we want/already are" towards 'trying something new' or 'shifting focus'.

One obvious, if not necessarily easy, idea might be to try and align some viewing with other challenge-rs so there can be communal focused new discussion rather than just memories or personal reviews...?

I like Theme Weeks.

I vote to keep January Pure TV. All genres, all lengths, all countries, all formats, but TV. I don't see drama, foreign or musical either being universally popular, sustainable for a month or necessary to spin off from challenges where eligible works already fit. Only "drama" may not fit into existing challenges, and yet "drama" is so vague a genre that almost everything would... or would wind up crwating a potentially depressing month of viewing for some/many participants.

I just want to point out, as creepy as the Superstalker scenes are, much like in Man of Steel, it isn't without precedent in the comics. Here's a few panels from Lois Lane #24 as an example:



This story was also used in the daily comic strip (where I first saw it), and it's even creepier, because they spent the better part of a week covering what happens in the four panels above.

I was wondering the same thing.

TV on DVD* Challenge - The Sixth Season List Thread & The 2016 Rank 'Em as You See 'Em: TV List Thread are both now live, y'all.

Unless you happened to catch one of the small pool of clunkers, you likely watched a fair representation of the series at large so in truth, your judgment is likely to stand if you watch more of it. Either it cracks you up or it doesn't; it does, me.

Your position is noted, though I think you're projecting your personal taste. As for talk of aligning TV themes with movie challenges if we expanded to year round, I'm all for it, particularly as I do believe that helps promote discussion. If we expanded to that, that's the kind of planning that would need to be undertaken by more than just one host. I'd happily participate, but it certainly would not be my show alone.

True. There are also Imaginary (and other) Tales with children in them, the - actually not-all-bad - Exile storyline and dozens of suitors for Lois.

But brief, occasional or ill-fated precedent doesn't excuse the boy, the abandonment (of child, Lois, mother, Earth) to, allegedly, look for a planet known not to be there anymore... And even if any of that got a pass, using your powers to try and find flaws in Cyclops to try and ruin Lois' (alleged) happiness is VERY UNSuperman!

Just to be clear here, I'm just goofing around. Believe me, I'm not trying to excuse anything in Superman Returns. But to say it's "VERY UNSuperman" kind of depends on which Superman you're talking about.

Who's to say Superman would never leave Earth to go to Krypton?


Or use his powers to show up one of Lois' suitors and ruin her happiness?


Neither of those were "Imaginary Stories" or "Elseworlds."

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, Happy Holidays to those who don't.

One more day till the Challenge starts and I can't wait. I don't even know what I'm going to start with yet. Does anyone else know what they plan to start with? I know I am really going to enjoy next month as if this is the last challenge, I plan to dive in head first.

I started the challenge off with a double credit entry, Duck Dynasty: I'm Dreaming of a Redneck Christmas, since I had the DVD from Netflix, and hadn't watched it yet.

I managed to drag myself to my friend's Christmas party yesterday, and borrowed from him his file cabinet box set of Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Series. It's long been a favorite of mine, though I can't claim to have watched from the beginning. This same friend brought it to my attention around its third season. Getting caught up wasn't hard, since there were only nine episodes in the first season and just four in the second.

The make-or-break element of the series is its sense of humor. It can be appalling for some people, but I've always understood and appreciated the value of gallows humor as a coping mechanism. In some respects, I see a kinship in character relationships that I see and love so much in Cheers. There's some awkward, obligatory expository dialog in the early episodes, but cutting through that is the clear sense that these people have developed their relationships organically over years before we meet them. Each character has a distinctive personality, and they interact with one another differently, just like real people. Credit goes partly to the guidance of the show creators, but also to the brilliant ensemble casting.

The show's filming and editing aesthetics were unique at the time on TV. The camera isn't always on the person speaking, or even on anyone at all while dialog is being spoken, and there are the jump cuts and multiple angle repeats. Those things made sense to me at the time, though on an unconscious level. In recent years, as I've explored things like French Expressionism, I've found my background as a viewer of Homicide helpful in accepting those kinds of things without being distracted by them as I hear is common for some other viewers.

Seasons 1 & 2 Disc 1 also features a commentary with Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana on pilot episode, "Gone for Goode". They play off one another, and off the episode, entertainingly and throw out insights casually. I've found I favor commentary tracks recorded after the fact rather than ones recorded while the movie or episode is still new. There's more "big picture" perspective and a lot less of the "he's so good/it was really cold that day" kind of stuff. There are several moments, though, in which the two get caught up watching the episode and forget to keep talking.

Disc 1 also includes cast & crew biographies (the only DVD bonus feature I hate more are photo galleries) and two commercials NBC ran during Super Bowl XXVII to promote the series (it was the game follow-up show that year). They're a perfect illustration of how little NBC understood what to do with Homicide; almost all of the excerpted dialog is humorous, but the music is ominous. Even loving the show as I do, I have a hard time imagining those two TV spots really piquing my interest enough that I'd have bothered watching that first episode.

Oh! Lest I forget! One new thing I've learned is that the Homicide episodes "A Ghost of a Chance" and "Three Men and Adena" were both directed by Martin Campbell - the same who directed the Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale!