TV show reccomendations?, what's next? Options

[stuart]

Heroes is easily the best, and also Dexter. I have watched pretty much all them programs you have suggested, and Heroes tops them all - Dexter coming second.

[Maria S]

I'm just wondering, what do you mean that it's hard to watch?

I mean its a very serious, often very sad show. Its totally amazing in every respect, and the possibly best quality show out there. But just thinking of people being used like that is creepy. And the one show where they showed that frightening future was very sobering. Its hard to watch the same way that its harder to read "Hamlet" then it is to read "Dead in Dallas" by Charlene Harris. Obviously Hamlet is better, but its tougher to get through it because you really need to think. Its not a show that helps you escape. Did that makes sense?
I can't believe that some people thought we were supposed to see Topher as being a protagonist. In my opinion, no matter how charming, or how well intentioned, only a monster could be the staff of that establishment. No moral person could be there without insisting they stop what they are doing that very second. And I think the director is trying to get us to look at the handsome male dolls, and the pretty female dolls, and to ask ourselves how often do we objectify people in our lives. I think the show is actively "talking" to the audience, not just showing us stuff. I find it disturbing. But good.

[Maria S]

I just watched Primeval. It is so totally awesome. Wanted to thank whoever mentioned it.

[Maria S]

Obviously you understand nothing for commenting like that!!
I'm gonna start my rant by telling strecker that the scots know jack crap bout the Arthur stories coz they were half of his enemies.
If anybody knows anything about the Arthur stories they will recognize that the BBC have defiled the most famous british folklore ever.
For a start the Lady Guinevere was no little serving girl called Gwen she was a Welsh princess who married a great king. Morganna was never Uthers ward and what they did with nimue was just pure horrible and Uthers hatred for magic, where did that come from? The last of my rant is this because it really annoyed me. Merlin (myrddin) Was Uthers adviser and taught arthur as a child and that is why Arthur trusted his wisdom

I agree.
I understand you being angry because this show is VERY untrue to the legend of Arthur. But I don't think it is trying to be accurate at all. I mean the show has characters that speak and think in totally modern day ways. No one at that time would have had that kind of outlook, of course. Also, Guinevere is black for Gosh's sake. Hello? The show is about the opposite of accurate historically. But the legends aren't very accurate either. The real Arthur was very likely a Roman, Arturus.
So, lets compare.
The real legend is thus:
Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon and Ygraine, however he was not raised by Uther. He was raised by Sir Ector, his stepfather, with his stepbrother Sir Kay. Arthur never met his real father Uther. Arthur was the product of a rape by Uther Pendragon on the wife of King Lot, Ygraine.
Guinevere(Gwyn the fair) "the golden" was a princess, daughter of a very powerful Welsh king, well known for her beautiful BLOND hair. Fell in love with Lancelot after drinking a magic potion. Cause of the downfall of the round table.
Myrddin(Merlyn) was indeed Uther's advisor, and helped tutor Arthur.
Morgana Le Fey was Arthur's half sister, by the same mother. She is the legitimate child of Lot and Ygraine. Merlyn was said to have made Uther look like king Lot so that he could impregnate Ygraine, Morgana's mother, thus Arthur is born.
Nimue was Merlyn's apprentice and the love of his life. Betrayed him after being seduced by Morgana Le Fey, and trapped him in a cave forever.
Uther Pendragon was a rapist and a tyrant, at least that much they kept from the real legends.
The whole hatred of magic is NONSENSE. But, it may be inspired by the clash of Christianity and the old Pagan Druidic religions that it replaced. OK.
So, now if someone thinks that show has an ounce of history in it, think again. No crime enjoying it, I guess.
Btw..to the guy that thinks Morgana was an evil witch, and Arthur was a big hero...not quite true either. It depends on wether you think being a Christian is necessarily heroic, and if you believe being Pagan makes you an evil witch. Maybe look it all up before making judgements.

[TheMovieSTU]

I agree.
I understand you being angry because this show is VERY untrue to the legend of Arthur. But I don't think it is trying to be accurate at all. I mean the show has characters that speak and think in totally modern day ways. No one at that time would have had that kind of outlook, of course. Also, Guinevere is black for Gosh's sake. Hello? The show is about the opposite of accurate historically. But the legends aren't very accurate either. The real Arthur was very likely a Roman, Arturus.
So, lets compare.
The real legend is thus:
Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon and Ygraine, however he was not raised by Uther. He was raised by Sir Ector, his stepfather, with his stepbrother Sir Kay. Arthur never met his real father Uther. Arthur was the product of a rape by Uther Pendragon on the wife of King Lot, Ygraine.
Guinevere(Gwyn the fair) "the golden" was a princess, daughter of a very powerful Welsh king, well known for her beautiful BLOND hair. Fell in love with Lancelot after drinking a magic potion. Cause of the downfall of the round table.
Myrddin(Merlyn) was indeed Uther's advisor, and helped tutor Arthur.
Morgana Le Fey was Arthur's half sister, by the same mother. She is the legitimate child of Lot and Ygraine. Merlyn was said to have made Uther look like king Lot so that he could impregnate Ygraine, Morgana's mother, thus Arthur is born.
Nimue was Merlyn's apprentice and the love of his life. Betrayed him after being seduced by Morgana Le Fey, and trapped him in a cave forever.
Uther Pendragon was a rapist and a tyrant, at least that much they kept from the real legends.
The whole hatred of magic is NONSENSE. But, it may be inspired by the clash of Christianity and the old Pagan Druidic religions that it replaced. OK.
So, now if someone thinks that show has an ounce of history in it, think again. No crime enjoying it, I guess.
Btw..to the guy that thinks Morgana was an evil witch, and Arthur was a big hero...not quite true either. It depends on wether you think being a Christian is necessarily heroic, and if you believe being Pagan makes you an evil witch. Maybe look it all up before making judgements.

For goodness sake, whats with all the negative feedback? why cant you just leave it out. All im saying is i like the people who like the real historical side of things (there is a huge FACT elemant of the show) and also enjoy the fiction. LIKE ME!

[Strecker]

Obviously you understand nothing for commenting like that!!
I'm gonna start my rant by telling strecker that the scots know jack crap bout the Arthur stories coz they were half of his enemies.
If anybody knows anything about the Arthur stories they will recognize that the BBC have defiled the most famous british folklore ever.
For a start the Lady Guinevere was no little serving girl called Gwen she was a Welsh princess who married a great king. Morganna was never Uthers ward and what they did with nimue was just pure horrible and Uthers hatred for magic, where did that come from? The last of my rant is this because it really annoyed me. Merlin (myrddin) Was Uthers adviser and taught arthur as a child and that is why Arthur trusted his wisdom

I know all that, but that doesn't mean the BBC "defiled" the story. The stories about Arthur and the knights of the round table have been changed over and over again. Merlin wasn't even in it until 1136. There is no such thing as a true version.
Every single version has been adjusted to the time it was told or written, so their readers or listeners were able to find access to it. And that's exactly what the BBC series is doing. Maybe they've changed to much at once. That's certainly discussible. But changing the story is absolutely necessary. Just conserving a story would mean killing it.


@ MariaS

May I ask which which of the many versions tells the REAL legend in your opinion? Do you consider the stories about Parceval and the gral "real" too, or are they fake?

[Maria S]

I know all that, but that doesn't mean the BBC "defiled" the story. The stories about Arthur and the knights of the round table have been changed over and over again. Merlin wasn't even in it until 1136. There is no such thing as a true version.
Every single version has been adjusted to the time it was told or written, so their readers or listeners were able to find access to it. And that's exactly what the BBC series is doing. Maybe they've changed to much at once. That's certainly discussible. But changing the story is absolutely necessary. Just conserving a story would mean killing it.


@ MariaS

May I ask which which of the many versions tells the REAL legend in your opinion? Do you consider the stories about Parceval and the gral "real" too, or are they fake?

Hmmm.. Well, I think King Arthur was probably a Roman, who quite possibly married a local royal(Guinevere) and protected the province in the name of Rome. Merlyn just got added on later, from somewhere else. Mostly the stories were written for a very specific purpose, to sort of codify the ideals of chivalry. As for the Grail lore I can tell you what I think, which isn't much.
I know the original poem that was never finished. I have heard many strange reasons as to why, but most often something to do with God not wanting it finished.
Ok in the poem... Perceval heads of to Camelot against his moms advice. He rescues a princess named Belafluer(some times called Blachefleur). Sir Kay said some mean stuff to him because he is young and inexperienced, but he becomes a knight. He sets of on an adventure and comes to the Fisher Kings castle, here people(or faeries?) carry mysterious objects with obvious Christian significance around from room to room. One of these things is a bleeding lance(which I understood to be the Spear of Destiny), a candelabra(no ideawhatthats about) and of course the Holy Grail. So then Perceval after eating goes back to Camelot. Then a lady comes to Arthur to give out these missions to all of the knights, and we follow Gawain who goes off to rescue people in a castle, his mother and grandmother amongst them. Then the poem just stops.
Thats some weird stuff. Its supposed to be the first mention of the Holy Grail. Like most of those poems it shows you how a chivalrous knight is supposed to act, particularly with the example of Gawain.
I think maybe the guy who wrote it ( I don't recall his name) must have been inspired by some stories coming out of the Crusades, maybe? He hints at a lot of the relics that were popular then. Stuff that might well have been in Jerusalem.... What do you think? Do you think he was describing the actual Grail? Like do you think the Grail really exists? Wow. That would be cool. But I am a skeptic by nature, and I do not believe in it being much more then stories. I wish I knew more about that.

[Maria S]

For goodness sake, whats with all the negative feedback? why cant you just leave it out. All im saying is i like the people who like the real historical side of things (there is a huge FACT elemant of the show) and also enjoy the fiction. LIKE ME!

LOL! It wasn't really feedback to you. Your statement just surprised me. Shimstar and I were discussing how the show was very different then the Legends of King Arthur, and nothing in common with history in general besides the names. Its certainly understandable to enjoy it as fiction, but now that you mention it, what do you mean it has a huge fact element and historical side? Maybe we just don't understand what you mean. The story in the legends is more or less that King Arthur was never raised in a palace, and never knew his father, Uther Pendragon, but was raised not wealthy by Sir Ector, and tutored by an elderly Merlyn never knowing he was royal. So thats why he created the round table, cos he was more ok with people being equals then some other kings. It had very little to do with any kind of magic, except a little bit here and there on both sides. But no one was for or against it. I don't totally understand your post. So, Im certainly not disagreeing with it!

[coach_p]

Deadwood!
Rome!

Anything HBO...

[Strecker]

Hmmm.. Well, I think King Arthur was probably a Roman, who quite possibly married a local royal(Guinevere) and protected the province in the name of Rome. Merlyn just got added on later, from somewhere else. Mostly the stories were written for a very specific purpose, to sort of codify the ideals of chivalry. As for the Grail lore I can tell you what I think, which isn't much.
I know the original poem that was never finished. I have heard many strange reasons as to why, but most often something to do with God not wanting it finished.
Ok in the poem... Perceval heads of to Camelot against his moms advice. He rescues a princess named Belafluer(some times called Blachefleur). Sir Kay said some mean stuff to him because he is young and inexperienced, but he becomes a knight. He sets of on an adventure and comes to the Fisher Kings castle, here people(or faeries?) carry mysterious objects with obvious Christian significance around from room to room. One of these things is a bleeding lance(which I understood to be the Spear of Destiny), a candelabra(no ideawhatthats about) and of course the Holy Grail. So then Perceval after eating goes back to Camelot. Then a lady comes to Arthur to give out these missions to all of the knights, and we follow Gawain who goes off to rescue people in a castle, his mother and grandmother amongst them. Then the poem just stops.
Thats some weird stuff. Its supposed to be the first mention of the Holy Grail. Like most of those poems it shows you how a chivalrous knight is supposed to act, particularly with the example of Gawain.
I think maybe the guy who wrote it ( I don't recall his name) must have been inspired by some stories coming out of the Crusades, maybe? He hints at a lot of the relics that were popular then. Stuff that might well have been in Jerusalem.... What do you think? Do you think he was describing the actual Grail? Like do you think the Grail really exists? Wow. That would be cool. But I am a skeptic by nature, and I do not believe in it being much more then stories. I wish I knew more about that.

Based on your posts, I would say, that you're mostly referring to the story, as presented in the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chretien de Troyes. As you say, Chretiens "Perceval" just stops during the tale of Gawain. What you probably don't know, is that Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote another version of the tales of Parzival and Gawain. He probably based his writings on Chretiens work (allthough he gives some unknown author named Kyot, as a reference), but changed and expanded it significantly.
The thing is, that Wolfram's poem isn't any less original, than the writings of Geoffrey and Chretien. None of them invented their stories completely. They all took parts from others, put them together and changed them as they pleased or thought their audience would like it. We just don't know all the former versions, as a lot of medieval books got lost and many versions of old legends were never written down, but just told by storytellers.
My point is, that there really is no true story about Arthur and his court. It's in the tradition of those legends to be changed constantly, to make them accessible to the audience of their time and place.


P.S. I don't wanna sound, like I'm comparing the BBC show's artistic quality to the great works of Geoffrey, Chretien and Wolfram. The show just isn't THAT good. But they aren't tainting the legend either, but rather play a small part in keeping it alive.

And I don't think, the grail is a real object. It's probably just a symbol for a life of virtue. A price, which nobody can own, but everybody should try to achieve. But that's just my opinion. There are quite a few interpretations of the grail. As far as I know, the origins of the grail lie partly in old Celtic myths. So the grail wasn't even originally Christian and predates the Crusades. But noone knows exactly, what kind of stories were woven together to create the holy grail. There's not much, anybody knows for sure.

[jdizzle]

Hi I'm Stuart (stu) and i wanna ask you all what i should watch.

I like a variety of TV shows, heres what i've seen all of (so far)

Friends
How I Met Your Mother
Ultimate Force
Prison Break
Lost
The Simpsons
Family Guy
South Park
Futurama
Flashforward
Merlin
Doctor Who
Torchwood



So as you can see I have a variety of likes lol ( no sense there )


so if you can reccomend what to watch i'll be grateful

Thanks

- Stu

P.S - NOT TRUE BLOOD

The Philanthropist is a good program but could do with more episodes. I think there is only 6 at moment also the reaper is very good but seems to have stoped amidst season 3 i think dunno wether this is due to people not uploading it ne more or they are having problems with the show its self ?? Also i think the unit is good and stargate universe

[jdizzle]

The Philanthropist is a good program but could do with more episodes. I think there is only 6 at moment also the reaper is very good but seems to have stoped amidst season 3 i think dunno wether this is due to people not uploading it ne more or they are having problems with the show its self ?? Also i think the unit is good and stargate universe

Actualy i think its season 2 for the reaper...tbh i have no idea what heppend to it but it is a good watch either way.

[Strecker]

Actualy i think its season 2 for the reaper...tbh i have no idea what heppend to it but it is a good watch either way.

The Reaper has been cancelled. I read, that there might be an animated series coming, but I don't think there's anything for sure yet. Anyway, the show is definitely dead.

[Strecker]

Stargate Universe is worth a try.

I've just started watching Sanctuary (US) and like it so far.

And I guess you know Malcolm in the Middle? Sadly it's not going on anymore and there's not that much of it on TvShack at the moment. But it's still my favourite comedy show.