TV!

[icepixie]

I know one of you people would like to take on the task of addicting me to Gilmore Girls. See, now that I've finished rewatching all the seasons of Northern Exposure that I consider my personal canon, I'm looking for shows with similar qualities. (Yes, Twin Peaks is at the top of my Netflix queue. I don't know why I didn't watch it earlier. And I tried a couple episodes of Men In Trees, which is billed as NX-meets-Sex & the City. Yeah, well, it's way more S&C than NX, and I can't stand that show. Hence being unable to make it through a complete episode of this series without rolling my eyes and changing the channel.) The TV Tropes Wiki, a fascinating site in its own right, cites both GG and NX under the category of "Quirky Town."

My question is, how quirky? And what's the show about, besides, "Single mother in small town; massive UST with some guy named Luke"? (I know nothing about this show beyond what I've gleaned from skimming y'all's posts about it over the years. Well, that and the fact that whoever plays the daughter bears a remarkable resemblance to Sasha Cohen.) I've never been able to get into a show about high school students, so I'm wary of that angle. And I get the impression that this season took the express train to hell. Should I bother if it'll all end badly?

I'm willing to try out a variety of shows in order to find one or two to fill the NX void in my life. I'm already a fan of Wonderfalls and Ballykissangel, and neither Corner Gas nor Ed are on DVD in any way that I can access them, so in absence of those particularly good candidates, I'm looking for suggestions. Broadly, the three things I'm looking for most, singularly or in combination, are:

1.) Quirky characters/quirky town
2.) Magical realism (this can include dream sequences)
3.) Stories obviously written to make English majors happy. Basically, writing that's already excellent, but also with a penchant for metaphor, symbolism, and/or quotation from and allusion to literary/philosophical/mythological works. The ability to play games like "Spot the Jungian Archetype" can only be a plus.
...4.) Okay, the UST and ensuing 'ship doesn't hurt.

...This means I should really give Buffy a fifth try, doesn't it? I don't know what my problem is with that and Angel. I don't actively dislike them; I just can't get into them. Firefly was a near thing as well.

Anyway, if you know of something I should try, let me know. Perhaps Slings and Arrows? I've heard good things about that one...

Book and movie suggestions along these lines are welcome as well!

(Okay, now that I've actually taken steps to make use of my unemployed free time, surely I will get a dozen calls offering employment, my dead-in-the-water freelancing career will take off, and I'll start racking up volunteer hours. This is the rule of the universe.)

Comments

[alto2.livejournal.com]

GG was great until last year, IMO. This year was the final nail in the coffin for me--I watched the first episode, was bored out of my mind by the middle, and haven't turned it on again this year. I would think that the town, which is definitely quirky, and the fact that it's not exclusively focused on teenagers should help get you over that hurdle. And hey, it's on ABC Family every evening (I think--used to be on at 5pmET each night) so there's no financial investment there if you can start somewhere in the vicinity of the beginning.

I really liked it, coming to it late thanks to my crackdealing flist, but yeah, skip the last two years' worth. It's worth bothering for the stuff before then, though, which is clever and fun.

[orangetango.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the last season of GG has gone all to hell, but the first three are entirely worth it and wonderful. It will definitely, definitely, definitely make an English major happy.

The show is really hard to describe. Or maybe because I wrote a really long post describing a book I just read, I am all out of descriptive abilities for the day. But trust me on this one.

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

*points up* What they said!

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I lost track of GG around season 4, and didn't like it enough when I checked back in to start watching regularly again. But up through season 3 is definitely brilliant. It has some high school situations, but (a) isn't really about that per se, and (b) the school in question is an extremely competitive private prep, so what high school stuff there is doesn't really fall into the "typical" TV high school category.

As far as your list, I can't think of any examples of 2, but you'll get 1, 3 and 4 in truckloads. Especially 3. This is the show whose creator said "Your audience is as smart as you allow them to be," and her show lives up to it.

[spleeny.livejournal.com]

I will go away from the crowd a bit in terms of one thing: while I think the show dropped off a lot last year, it was also the season that got me back into the show. I really liked the show when it started, but once Buffy moved into its time slot it was no contest. I had to watch Buffy. Then there were other things and real life and while I caught a few episodes here and there during those intervening year, I was hadn't watched it regularly for years three through five. On a whim I gave it another shot early last year and it wasn't as good as it used to be. Rory was annoying. Luke was being mishandled. But the dialogue was still very sharp, the acting was still up to par, the quirkiness was still what I remembered... Basically, I got back into the show in spite of the story because everything else still clicked. Sure, I wanted to strangle some characters here and there, but it made me care enough again to want to strangle them.

This year the characters continue to make annoying decisions, but I don't really want to see them get strangled for those decisions anymore. Except for Logan. I want him dead. But I've largely been happy this season as somebody who loved the show early on and had to come back and get caught up.

But other than that, I'm with everyone else and think that you'll love it.

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

The first season of GG is beautiful. I stopped watching for a while, though, because I couldn't find a tv in the quad freshman year (hadn't yet learned of the Mather Wonder way back then). I'd pick it up again, but I haven't heard anything at all good about the last few seasons. I got the impression it devolved into boring, frustrating soap-opera-ness. But I would definitely, definitely recommend the first season, at the very least. Watch GG in a "Choose Your Own Seasonal Canon" sense. As for the teen/school factor, the daughter figures prominently, but her life at school is way down on the list of things they devote screen time to, luckily. And there is snark like you wouldn't believe.

It's such a shame Ed isn't on DVD. I loved loved loved the first season. It was exactly what you're looking for: quirky, bizarre, and full of writing!love. Sigh.

Another try (heh, very tempted to say "stab," but no) at Buffy couldn't hurt. Very high-school centered, yes, but in a "I hate high school, so let's blow it up!" sense. That, and most of their early plots were taking classic high school woes and making them supernatural, to varying degrees of anvilific, and that was fun. The important thing to remember is that you've got to approach the show with very low expectations and a tolerant sense of humor. (And try starting somewhere other than the first season. I recommend the fifth. Backstory isn't too hard to catch up on - the details are insane, but all you need is the gist of it.)

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Slings and Arrows! I'm about to watch it myself, so I'll report to you on it. It's supposed to be fantastic.

I'm something of an anomaly because I've never been able to get into GG--I also have the prejudice against high-school/teenaged-character shows, but what bugged me about GG was that it seemed too self-consciously (and maybe unjustifiably) clever and cute. But people's mileage obviously varies.

Have you seen Dead Like Me? I always think of it as being in the same category as shows like NX and Wonderfalls and Twin Peaks. And it's wonderful.

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, random thought, and this seemed like as good a place as any to put it - have you tried Ugly Betty? I can't remember exactly why I tried it in the first place, since, you know, fashion world = ugh, but... it's weirdly good? The tone is a little bipolar: there's Betty's work life, which is absolutely hilarious and snarky and full of fabulous villains, and then... there's Betty's home life, which tends to devolve into sappy grossness. And yet the snark is still worth it. (Also, fast-forward is your friend.) It's on... ABC? Maybe? And if you want to catch up on the first 11 episodes, I can email you... sources...