Open Forum

This is Bureau 42’s first open forum for discussion of anything and everything, posted by request. If you want to see these continue, speak up and they will in one form or another.

59 replies on “Open Forum”

    • I’ve been waiting for the whole season to be out before I try watching it. But I might just be skipping it. Is it basically a Disneyfied version of Outcasts?

      • Could say that, it definitely seems to be aimed at a family audience, I gave it two episodes then bailed.

    • I cancelled my cable in favour of a Netflix/iTunes combination in February. I haven’t missed cable any time but Oscar night, given that I don’t follow news or sports. Thus, the only episode of “Terra Nova” I’ve seen was the pilot, which was free on iTunes.

      Short review (as I’m posting from work over lunch): it was a 40 minute story in a 120 minute time slot that felt like it took 200 minutes to watch. Too much Braga, not enough Spielberg. The character “twists” you get in the last few minutes all felt like they were “the character really IS that stereotype!” style twists. I won’t be coming back.

      • They took B5 off of Netflix Streaming, didn’t they..
        I would totally love to revisit that series!! :)

        • I re-watched B5 about a year ago. The SFX, especially at the start, are meh, but DAMN does that show get intense towards season 3…

          • I tried B5, and bailed. I might try again someday, but watching two whole seasons before getting to a good one sounds like watching all of Heroes after liking the first season.

            (Which I did.)

            • It gets INTENSE around season 3, because of all the buildup during the first two. There’s still VERY VERY good stuff in the first two.

              But when it DOES get intense it pretty much stays that way till season 5.

              Now season 5… that was kind of a wash. For a decent reason, but still.

              • Totally agree. Babylon 5 builds on the previous seasons, well up to season 4 at least.

                You can’t stop after the first two!! Don’t you want to know the ending to the great episode Babylon Squared that is delivered in War Without end? Its an absolutely awesome tie in of episodes that are seasons apart.

    • You can visit a dairy and see how milk is handled and prepared for delivery. Or plan a series of window displays on home safety. Or help start a library. Or discuss with your dentist what you can do to make your teeth more attractive!

  1. Wow, that was fast (:

    Am I the only one here who is watching (and really really liking) Lost Girl?

    Also I’m tempted to suggest that the show Pan Am be considered Genre. Sure it’s not scifi but the thing has more CGI than the original Star Wars!

  2. I like open forums. I also almost never post, so what do you care what I think?

    It’s been real sparse for me on the TV front lately. Grim didn’t grab me, and I have never gotten into the modern Doctor Who. I enjoyed Stargate Universe until the decided to axe it.

    • Grimm looks like it’s fixing to set up a “scooby gang” of some kind but is taking its sweet time about it. The allusion to certain series intentional. If it doesn’t get some things settled a bit with respect to who is on whose side in the next couple episodes, I’m not sure I’ll stick with it.

      Stargate Universe was actually quite good and if it had been able to continue with the type of stories it closed out with, I think it could have been even better. Still, no matter how good a show is, when faced with active malice from a very vocal group of so-called “fans”, the show is going to fail.

      • IMO, SGU caused it’s own demise. I did watch the entire series, and was enjoying it by the end. But I found it incredibly slow to get going, and the main reason I didn’t stop watching after the first half of the first season was that I liked the concept and wanted to give them a bit more of a chance. Looking back at it, I can really only say the back half of the 2nd season was actually good. But the show was already sunk by then.

        Sorry, but I just can’t be convinced that a fan campaign – for or against – will have much of an impact on a show’s renewal chances. For SGU, the ratings were there at the start, and declined to levels that just couldn’t be considered a success. If those bitter “fans” had their way, it would have been a flop out of the gates.

    • SGU was a disaster from the beginning. It suffered from the same affliction as Stargate: Atlantis, horrible writing. I call it a “series of random emergencies”. That and most of the time I was groaning at its predictability or horrible interpersonal situations, or horrible characters. The show did have great effects though…

  3. Hey guys, can you go into WordPress and tell it to let us have 10 levels of nesting comments rather than 5? I can’t tell Kiersten how evil she is!

  4. Kiersten,

    Allow me to share a personal note on Babylon 5..

    I’ve kept track of my favorite television episodes of all time.

    I have the top 5 ranked in order. They are

    5 – Devil you know — Burn notice (they are all great on Burn Notice, but this one is the “”Big Reveal””)
    4 – Our Mrs. Reynolds — Firefly
    3 – War without end #3 — Babylon 5
    2 – Exodus #2 –Battlestar Galactica
    1 – Severed Dreams — Babylon 5

    So… It’s just one person’s opinion, the best hours of television ever created, and 2 of the top 5, were on Babylon 5. And since we tend to have similar opinions about shows, I would highly recommend you take the chance to watch B5.

    but that is just my opinion: I could be Wrong.

  5. My recent viewing habits:

    Since cancelling cable, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on shows I own on DVD but haven’t watched yet. These are typically 30 minute shows viewed on a portable DVD player over meals. Nutshell reviews are as follows:

    1) “Adventures of Superman” starring George Reeves: I’ve watched 58/104 episodes. It took a while to get into it, because it’s not what I expected from Superman. The series isn’t about punching Brainiac or outsmarting Lex Luthor (neither of whom have appeared yet, and may never appear), but is instead primarily a crime drama which puts the focus on Clark Kent, investigative reporter. It’s a highly enjoyable take. The first season is showing up for under $10 at my local grocery store quite regularly. If that’s the same where you are, pick it up and start watching with disc two, after the series has found its footing.

    2) “Newsradio”: I just finished season two. One of the best ensemble sitcoms.

    3) “My Name Is Earl”: I’ve also finished only up to the end of season two. Another great, continuity-driven sitcom.

    4) “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” – I picked up a 10 episode “Best of” set rather than the series/season sets because I didn’t know how well the memories of my six year old self would withstand viewing the series now. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the first two episodes. Not enough to pick up the bigger box sets, but enough to finish the set.

    5) “Krypto the Super Dog” – I found volume 2 in the $5 grocery store racks. While clearly aimed at the 5 year old set, it was surprisingly well written by guys like Paul Dini. My intent was to screen a copy to ensure it would be “safe” to five to my six year old niece, but I ended up keeping that one and buying her a copy of her own.

    • +1 for Newsradio. One of the best ever made. So sad what happened to Phil Hartman. The show wasn’t the same without him.

      There are rumors of a My Name Is Earl wrap-up movie to tie up the loose ends left when it was canceled. I’d be all for that.

  6. First!

    *LOL*

    & YR BEING JUST LIK HITLER!!!!! U [EXPLETIVE]!!!!!!!

    Okay, I loves me some Open Forum, but let’s keep it from becoming the kind of online crapitude that stalks many an Open Forum.

    Can we at least agree that trolls should either be ignored or smited? Smooted? Smote? What does one do to a troll in the past tense?

    • yeah! Smite the Trolls!!! :)

      wait, define trolls..
      I’ve known some great Trolls..
      my fav goes by the name CelticTroll.. ;)

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