5.20.2008

Swearing and Boobs

One of the lifestyle upgrades B and I indulged in when we moved to SC was Netflix.* We burned through (no pun intended, MPAA) loads of movies we'd meant to see and/or wanted to see again. Then we hit the inevitable Netflix wall, the point at which you've watched all of your A-list movies and are wondering how to best spend your 16 bucks a month subscription. Urged on by our homies, we started in on HBO shows.

Now, I love me some HBO shows. The thing is, there are really only three things that they can't do on regular television that they can do on HBO:
  1. Swearing.
  2. Boobs, and so on.
  3. Really gnarly violence.
But the thing is, number three is questionable - there's tons of really gnarly violence on mainstream television.** What I find remarkable is that, along with good writing and acting, what really makes HBO shows stand head-and-shoulders above network television shows is really numbers one and two. People swear in real life. People get naked. The inclusion of those factors makes everything on HBO shows seem so much more real, especially when you're talking about a setting like the so-called Wild West, which takes on a distinctly un-wild demeanor in TV shows since everyone is basically going around screaming "darn you!" and keeping their pants on.

The best shows we've done so far have been Deadwood (yes, E, we made it all the way through and loved it), Rome, and Carnivale. The former two are well-known and did well in their day. Carnivale is, for some reason, much less-well known but is easily the equal of the other two. It was abruptly canceled after two seasons, so it kind of rushes to its climax, but it's still worth summoning via the interweb. All three benefit enormously from the inclusion of swearing and boobs.

Now we're on The Wire, which everyone won't stop freaking out about but so far just seems like a good cop show (with swearing and boobs, granted.) I'm keen on seeing Sopranos at some point, but B's hesitant. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, Tuesday is my 9am - 9pm day on campus and I've still got about 5.5 hours to go.

* The others were cable TV, cable internet, and me getting a cell phone.
** This is my longest-standing complaint about American culture and American media. Violence is bad and sex is good, but the logic of American media censorship implies the opposite; you can crack open a guy's head on primetime TV, but god forbid anyone takes their clothes off...

7 comments:

clumsygirl said...

I loved Rome. I enjoyed Sopranos, but I love all mob movies. I haven't yet seen Carnivale. We've been hooked on the new Dr.Who recently. The Dr.Who writers are very clever and witty. Such a way with words...

Ransom said...

I like BBC comedies as a use for Netflix. Maybe I'm a sucker for accents. We've been alternating Black Adder with Jeeves and Wooster for nighttime watching, with a recent tendency towards Hamish MacBeth with dinner. Watched some Ripping Yarns (Terry Jones and Michael Palin series) on the Netflix on-demand stuff the other night, and it was fun as well.

Your mileage may vary. While I like boobs, really I do, I really haven't had much use for any of the shows that *everyone* has been on about (or in most cases, even tried them). I mention this in case it makes sense to use my recommendations as an exclusion list.

noncoupable said...

I seem to remember watching Oz for a while and not thinking it was so bad. I heard Six Feet Under is good, but I never saw... I watched a couple Sopranos episodes, it wasn't too shabby either.

Last summer in France my friend had me watch a few episodes of the FX series Nip/Tuck which wasn't bad, but his Battlestar Gallactica addiction meant that we ended up watching all three complete seasons of that instead.

hardcori said...

I love The Wire! It is a really good cop show, but also it gets better..... especially in the third season! I really like watching it with Jeff 'cause the Baltimore connection makes it more fun. If you need another good show to watch, there's always Buffy!

kungfuramone said...

"There's always Buffy" is like the motto of my generation...

Dolce Vita said...

B should give Sopranos a shot. I was repulsed by the misogyny but ensnared by the story (admittedly, I only went three seasons). At its worst, it can't surpass Deadwood.

I am with you on the violence. It is insane (even on the channels young S watches). I think there's a bunch of chimpanzees running network TV. Where are the Bonobos when you need them!

pulpshopgirl said...

I bet you would like Battlestar Galactica. Sexy robots! As far as HBO is concerned, I liked the Sopranos but the beginning was way better than the middle and end. Six Feet Under is my favorite but it made me cry about 90 percent of the time...beware.