Live Poll: Binge-Worthy Comfort TV to Stream

@mariojacobs

Added the 177 episode count.

House of cards is excellent.

One of my favorites.

But it does not have enough episodes to make the list!

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@K_PAXTON

>But it does not have enough episodes

I wouldn't expect that . I did binge-watched MArried with children, roseanne, star trek and hogan's heroes

I squeezed in Married W. C.

Thanks

@jeorj_euler

"I don't know. Lately, I've been watching a lot of Evil!!!!!"

CNN, MSNBC????

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Haha. Come to think of it, I'm so far off into the fringe, I can't stand to watch any legacy news outlets. I often feel pain whenever I do. I can usually gather more info from several dozen YouTubers and about a dozen banned YouTubers. I'm kind of okay with Stossel and, to a lesser degree, also Carlson. They would probably be more interesting if they parted ways with the corporation.

The previous post is from a little under two years ago. Well, looks like I may have gotten my wish. Perhaps as to be expected, my sentiments haven't changed much.

 In fact, in their debuts, TV shows mirror films, radio shows, and serials in a poor way, just like films mirrored screenplay because no one knew the potential of the new format. It follows roughly the path of features that David Thorburn (teacher at MIT) calls the Fred Ott principle. Of course, it doesn't apply step by step, for example, the technology is already present. That is why I specified "roughly".

 Essentially, TV shows go from being a novelty to being a social form and a very influential medium, as it distinguishes itself from cinema, just as cinema distinguishes itself from stageplays in its early years. 

As counting the number of "great" titles there are in each medium based on personal experiments is both tedious and completely pointless,
Thus, to have a clearer idea of what explains why some love TV shows and others cinema,  I will do my best to compare the codes of each medium and spot the differences between them. But, I will only state facts and not interpret them based on my sensibility.

TV shows are split into episodes. Most of the time, those episodes do not exceed 1 hour in runtime. 

Generally, TV episodes are often part of a bigger ensemble. They share characters, storylines, locations, etc. For that reason, cliffhangers were invented. They ensure that a part of the audience will watch the next episode. Movies are much more stand-alone. As the runtime, the attention span required is longer. But, yet the plot is denser, that is because, of course. Even when films are longer than an overall TV series, they assume (most of the time) that the viewer doesn't take pauses, and consequently, the storytelling remains different. Although, nowadays, this line was blurred. Amid the advent of streaming platforms, films can be paused at any moment (unlike in a theater)

And lastly, technical specifications are different. Films are shot for the big screen,  1.85:1 and 2.39:1. The sound design is also thought for the big screen. Meanwhile, a TV screen is 4:3, and most people (including me) don't have proper speakers.

Almost everything listed in the preceding paragraphs makes me believe that TV series creators are let hand-tied by the very restrictive technical constraints and the viewer's expectations. Perhaps, it explains why most of our great directors are sticking to the cinema. Anyway, to me, television is to cinema what the AHL is to the NHL (a novice league). I have been on a TV series film set, and I can describe my experience in two words: "Not impressed".

PS: There might factual errors, I'm not such an expert in TV series. And there also might be spelling and grammatical errors, even though I corrected my text to the best of my ability.

@daniel_francis_gardecki

"However most of the TV dramas I've seen in the last decade, mainly between 2014 and late 2018, have been better than most films."

I'd have to agree with you. A well written and acted series is "WAY" more satisfying.

Also there are some excellent series that predate your time frame!

@daniel_francis_gardecki

I've only seen.......

Happy Valley by the BBC

Some British shows I watched in the last years

Father Ted 9/10

House of Cards Ian Richardson, better than the American version, which I rated 9/10

Benny Hill

The Prisoner

Black Adder 10/10

I did watch a bit of Mr. Robot, a while ago, but I'm probably going to have to start over. I'm not too good at binge-watching. I only recall really binging shows that only had one season, e.g. Daybreak (starring Taye Diggs) and Persons Unknown (starring Daisy Betts), both from ABC. I may have done this with ABC's V (starring Elizabeth Mitchell) and NBC's The Event (starring Laura Innes) as well, years after watching them live. V had two seasons rather than only one. The first two seasons of The Walking Dead I binged on Netflix, through which I was introduced to it, which is a somewhat different experience from watching it live on AMC. I liked Frank Darabont's work on The Walking Dead, and I've not always been satisfied by the subsequent drop in production value and the excess of things like inconsistencies, absurdities, plot convenience and plot armor. Not too long ago, I binged Amazon Studios' Them, such a bleak, disgusting, ghost, horror drama series that is basically torture "porn" without a lot of gore, and I will probably never watch it again.

@jeorj_euler

If you watch Mr. Robot, the only way to appreciate it IS to binge watch. There are too many things going on for you to take an extended break . I watched it every week when it was new, but it was a better experience binging.

@daniel_francis_gardecki 

Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) I consider the best sitcom ever, together with Married with Children. On the other hand, if you get me in a really cheerful mood, I rate Mister Bean (Rowan Atkinson) at most 1/10 🤣

@daniel_francis_gardecki

great, I'm now watching 1 episode/day of Mad TV (from season 1 on...)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112056/?ref_=ttep_ep_tt

 when finished, I'm moving to 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163507/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

(based on a British comedy show if I'm not wrong)

@Pencho15

I have not "binged" it but I have watched this three times!!

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I guess this does not qualify?

@abcd

I removed "Monk" and added SG-1!

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@Breumaster

I tend to gravitate to the #1 type series!!!

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And maybe the title looks better without "For":

Binge-Worthy Comfort TV to Stream

@Jessica

Fixed the votsing and dropped the for

@Pencho15

Thanks

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