Tag: The Simpsons

TV Junkie: A History

Thought Storm, TV Season Diary

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.

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Stargate SG-1: Season 8

DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, SG-1 Marathon

Deutsche Version | Stargate SG-1: Season 7 | Stargate SG-1: Season 9

Disc 1

New Order

Synopsis: Jack is still in stasis and SG-1 has no means of contacting the Asgard because the Stargate project is still undergoing an “evaluation process”. But Sam can convince Dr. Weir to borrow the Tel’tak that Jack had refitted. As soon as Sam and Teal’c arrive in Asgard space they meet Thor and together they encounter escape Replicators. In the meantime Dr. Weir and Daniel meet representatives of the System Lords. Ba’al has “obtained” the Kull warriors and a great many of Anubis’s Jaffa. This poses a potential threat to both the System Lords and Earth.

My Opinion: This two-parter was also presented as feature-length film on the DVD. But this episode showed one of the problems of the series: The 30 Ha’taks that attacked Earth were only a small part of Anubis’s fleet. Considering the size of our galaxy that sounds logical. But it doesn’t explain why Apophis’s position amongst the System Lords was weakened a few years ago, just because he had lost 2 ships in the attack on Earth. This is getting out of proportion and it’s getting worse in the next season and I will come back to this topic then.
(On the other hand only 39 Federation ships engaged the Borg cube at Wolf 359, but later 650 ships tried to re-take DS9 [the Klingons not included].)
After this episode the spin-off Stargate Atlantis starts and Dr. Weir becomes the project’s leader. The newly promoted Brigadier General Jack O’Neill becomes the CO of the SGC and the newly promoted Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter becomes the leader of SG-1. One also sees Replicator-Carter for the first time who is called RepliCarter by the fans.

Lockdown

Synopsis: The newly arrived russian Colonel Vaselov would like to become the fourth member of SG-1. At least he wants to go off-world as soon as possible. But then he collapses and has to be brought to the infirmary. After Daniel has shot two soldiers, Jack seals off the mountain to prevent Anubis (who is responsible for all this) from escaping.

My Opinion: A nice hide-and-seek episode but nothing more.

Zero Hour

Synopsis: In five days the president will visit the SGC but Jack’s problems are mounting: An alien plant overgrows the entire base and is hard to defeat. And Ba’al is holding SG-1 hostage and wants the System Lord Camulus who has sought asylum in the SGC.

My Opinion: I am quite sure that this was supposed to be an homage to M*A*S*H because Sgt. Walter Harriman always answered before Jack had asked his question and he had always everything prepared. That makes him similar to his namesake Cpl. Walter “Radar” O’Reilly. I thought that they matched it very well. And Jack actually reminded me of Lt. Colonel Henry Blake.
I also liked the rest of this Jack episode. Jack hasn’t changed much after all.
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The Pilot Marathon Part 3

DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Pilot Marathon

Deutsche Version | Part 2 | Part 4

Thunder in Paradise

What’s the show about?
R.J. “Hurricance” Spencer has built a very special boat. It is very fast, specially armored and has a lot of special features. He and his partner Brubaker go on special missions for their country.

“Thunder in Paradise”
Spencer is in financial trouble because of the boat he’s built. And the hotel owner Megan Whitaker has the problem of finding a husband within two days. So they make a deal…

My Opinion
Of all the “super machine” series I’ve watched (and I watched them all 😉 [Knight Rider, Airwolf, Street Hawk, The Highwayman, Viper, …]) this one is the cheesiest. The internal measurements of the boat are way larger than the external measurements and the acting is not very good. Ok, what do we expect from a wrestler. 😉 It’s definitivly more a fun series than anything else.
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