Fully Myelinated

Tuesday November 17, 2009

Best TV of the 00's

As ABC's ad campaign was argued, "TV is good." Many critics (and I agree) argue that we are in a golden age of television and that much of the smartest writing in entertainment is going on in modern television. The Onion AV club (the serious part of the Onion) put together this nice list of the top 30 shows of the 00's. I'm certainly a big fan of the top 3 choices (I'd question their credibility if The Wire was not #1). Interesting list and will certainly affect what shows make it into my DVD queue. I really need to get around to Mad Men one of these days.

Posted by shgreene ( Nov 17 2009, 08:09:52 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Thursday October 05, 2006

The other best show on TV i.e., Battlestar Galactica starts its third season on Friday night. If you didn't listen to me on The Wire, at least give this a try. I know, I know, you don't watch Science Fiction, but this show completely transcends the genre and has little in common with the 1970's series from which it took its name (on a side note, I still remember that, as a 6-year old, I was watching the original BSG when my first dog, Tammy, died).

Anyway, the reason you should watch the new show is that it deals with the post 9/11 world in a more direct and provocative manner than any show on TV. Don't believe me, here's what Rolling Stone had to say:

Civilization is under attack by religious fanatics -- and the fanatics are winning. There are suicide bombers, a clueless president and prisoners who get tortured by the good guys. No, this isn't a particularly grim night on CNN: It's Battlestar Galactica, the smartest and toughest show on TV. In its second season, this remake of the 1978 camp classic has become -- no joke -- TV's most vivid depiction of the post-9/11 world and what happens to a society at war.

Here's what Entertainment Weekly had to say about "the best TV drama you've never seen":

The series' sophisticated stories have also attracted a distinctively new breed of fan, one who's not necessarily a sci-fi buff. ''Some of the smartest people I know are addicted to this show,'' says McDonnell. ''All it takes is one or two episodes and you're hooked.'' Though routinely snubbed by the Emmys (yeah, it stings them), Galactica recently won a prestigious Peabody award, and the affirmation has the cast and crew psyched. ''The last thing that I wanted to be doing was science fiction on cable television,'' says Olmos. ''But this, to me, is a real gift. I'll be in science fiction every day of my life if they can give me this kind of drama.''

Still not convinced, try the Salon.com article from last year that persuaded me to give it a try.

And if you are now thinking, well okay, but I'm two seasons behind, the SciFi network is one step ahead of you. You can watch a 3 minute recap of the first two seasons, or for the truly intrepid, a 44 minute recap, here. Posted by shgreene ( Oct 05 2006, 07:06:59 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Saturday July 15, 2006

Book Reviews! Well, I promised "politics, life, culture" in this blog, and so far it has been mostly politics with a bit of interesting science thrown in. Time to add a little culture. I just finished updating my book reviews for the first time in about 6 months. I haven't added all that many new books for a half a year's worth of reading, but the fact that Evan is 6 months old is no coincidence with my reduced quantity of reviews. Anyway, if you are curious, my updated reviews are here. Among the recently added include a book told from the perspective of a child soldier in an African civil war, one of Vladimir Nabokov's lesser-known works, and the story of the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. My favorite of the recent additions is Spin, a novel about what happens when unknown alien forces cause time to on earth to move millions of times slower than the rest of the universe.
Posted by shgreene ( Jul 15 2006, 01:18:14 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Sunday June 11, 2006

Baghdad ER I finally got around to watching Baghdad ER on HBO. What a brilliant documentary. It was just do horrific to see the day-after-day human devastation of the war over there and also inspiring to see the heroism and commitment of the Army medical personnel. The biggest reason that American deaths have stayed so low, in relative terms, is that they do an astounding job of treating battlefield injuries these days. Over 90% of the injured survive. What I do not think we hear enough about is the many lives turned upside-down by serious injury, amputation, etc. There may be "only" 2000+ killed so far, but there are over 17,000 wounded, many in life-altering ways.

Whatever you think of the war, this is something well worth watching.
Posted by shgreene ( Jun 11 2006, 11:46:41 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]