TV Junkie: A History

I watched a lot of TV shows over the years. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. And I watched accross the board.

Keep in mind that I’m only 35 years old.

I watched The Guiding Light for two years straight (it’s a soap opera whose German title was the Springfield Story). I watched medical shows like Trapper John M.D. and lawyer shows like L.A. Law. I watched the 80s action shows from MacGuyver to Riptide. I even watched Love Boat every weekday on one of the first private channels in Germany: Sat.1. I got up at 6am on every Saturday morning to watch Rawhide (Tausend Meilen Staub, lit. “A Thousand Miles of Dust”) with a very young and pre-Fistful Clint Eastwood. I knew who Daniel Boone was around the same time I met the Cartwrights as well as the men from the Shiloh Ranch.

And last weekend I binge-watched the first Netflix show House of Cards (Big recommendation! Kevin Spacey is a brilliant Magnificent Bastard!) and I got curious as to how many shows I watched intently over the past two and a half decades.

With the help of the list on the German site Wunschliste.de I created a list of “my” shows.

I only counted live-action fiction shows, no animated shows may they be Saturday morning cartoons like Yogi Bear or Scooby-Doo or evening shows like The Simpsons or South Park. No scripted reality (which I’m avoiding to 99% anyway with the exception of Comic Book Men). In this list are only shows which I followed for more than a year unless the show itself didn’t last that long.

And the answer was: 244 246 247. Two hundred and fourty four six seven different shows I watched with active interest since I’ve started watching television. And the worst thing is: Of most of these shows I watched 90% or more episodes at least once.

Read more

Purchase Diary 2013 – May

Adventures of Superman: Season 1 (1952 – 1953)


May 13th – €11.20 ($9.99) @ Amazon.com

Collection no. 12365 – 12369

Superman: The Complete Theatrical Serials (1948 – 1950)


May 13th – €11.20 ($9.99) @ Amazon.com

Collection no. 12370 – 12373

Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos (2011)


May 15th – €0.00 ($12.99) @ Amazon.com (paid via gift certificate)

Collection no. 20031

One for the Money (2012)


May 25th – €7.99 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1041

House M.D.: Season 8 (2011 – 2012)


May 29th – €17.37 (£13.64) @ Amazon.co.uk

Collection no. 12374 – 12378

Read more

Purchase Diary 2012 – November

By the way: I made new pictures of my collection, see My DVDs

This Means War (2012)


08 Nov – €12.97 @ Amazon.de

Indiana Jones 1 – 4 (1981 – 2008)


21 Nov – €39.99 @ Amazon.de

which contains my 1,000th movie:

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Lightning Point: Season 1 (2012)


24 Nov – €24.99 @ Media Markt

The Twilight Saga 1 – 3 (2008 – 2010)


24 Nov – €14.90 @ Media Markt

American Reunion (2012)


27 Nov – €10.61 (£7.44) @ Amazon.co.uk

Read more

Nashville

Nashville @ Wikipedia
Nashville @ IMDb

Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton, American Horror Story) is an aging country star who doesn’t pull in that many concert visitor’s anymore.
Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere, Heroes) is a fast-rising pop star whose concerts are sold out for months.
The record label thinks it’s a good idea to group these two together to pull in the other’s audience.
But both also have family problems. Rayna with her father who seems to solve every problem with money and plans to have her husband running for mayor when the current one doesn’t agree to one of his business plans.
The other with her origins, i.e. her drug-using mother who’s always looking for money for her next shot.

Read more

Purchase Diary 2012 – May

The Blues Brothers (1980)


02 May – €8.92 (£7.43) @ Amazon.co.uk

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)


02 May – €9.48 (£7.93) @ Amazon.co.uk

Castle: Season 3 (2010 – 2011)


02 May – €22.99 @ Amazon.de

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)


02 May – €11.68 (£9.89) @ Amazon.co.uk

Friends With Benefits (2011)


02 May – €8.37 (£6.94) @ Amazon.co.uk

Read more

TV Season 2010/2011 Diary #10

In the last few weeks I didn’t feel much like watching anything. But then the hill turned into a mountain. Luckily some of the series are pausing for some weeks and I decided to play catch up before I have to cross the Alps. Since this was a bigger marathon session I won’t talk about every individual episode but rather about I like the season so far.

Bones
With Bones it’s business as usual. I like their cases and their chemistry and I just enjoy watching them.
And I loved it how Brennan managed to jump over her own shadow for this kids show:

Castle
The same is basically true for Castle. Castle and Beckett are hilarious together and I love the way they solve their cases. Both shows have put the WTWT topic on a back burner which is good for now but it’s obviously still there and will become an issue again. I don’t mind as long as it’s well executed.

Chuck
Chuck’s family tree is becoming more complicated than the one Jennifer Garner had in Alias – and that’s saying something. 😉
Chuck as a person has grown but luckily that doesn’t take away the humour and the appeal of the show. If anything the addition of Morgan as Casey’s “partner” made it even better.

Community
I love it how every episode is mainly about one or two characters but it doesn’t really feel that way because everyone is contributing their own point of view and in the end it’s always an ensemble show.
The zombie movie homage in the Halloween episode was so cool – and I don’t even like zombie movies.

Cougar Town
The show continues where it left at the end of the first season. I’m glad that it doesn’t really matter that Travis is in college because he’s either at home or they are visiting him, so he’s still a full cast member.
I also love how they toy with the series name, for example in episode five the title card read 100% Cougar Free Cougar Town. 😀

Read more

TV Season 2010/2011 Diary #8

Better With You 1×01 / 1×02 Pilot / Better with Firehouse
I watched the first two episodes but I don’t really get it. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t see the irony in not being married and why that’s supposed to be a source for humour.
What also doesn’t work for me are these scenes where they show all three couples doing the same thing – just differently.

Community 2×02 Accounting for Lawyers
Jeff in his natural habitat. It was cool to see the lawyer from the pilot episode back and how he could twist anything to his liking.
It was also cool to see them all in formal wear and going on a Mission Impossible. 😉

$#*! My Dad Says 1×02 Wi-Fight
Shatner as the grumpy old man totally works for me. I’m not sure about the older brother and his wife though. Maybe they need a bit more time to find their pace. They are lucky that they have Shatner and I am willing to give them that time.

Melissa & Joey 1×08 Dancing with the Stars of Toledo
It was an OK episode. I really loved the all-male Tango, it was incredibly funny to watch them dance and they really pulled it off. I also liked the drug-induced dream sequence. It’s of course a staple of these kinds of sitcoms but you also have to find two people that can actually pull it off and I think these two can.

Raising Hope 1×02 Dead Tooth
Even the show acknowledges that it’s weird. And as the cast is getting wider, more weird people come into it. But it also shows the genuine care between father and daughter.
What makes it more fun for me is the fact that I can’t stop seeing Garret Dillahunt as the Terminator from The Sarah Connor Chronicles and then to watch him here.
And Sabrina reminds me a lot of the young Ally Sheedy from WarGames.

Read more