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joescrivens

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just seen that this is coming to channel4 soon. If there is only one show you watch this year, make it that one, it's excellent, especially if you liked 24.
 
Awww, wish they'd started with a double episode.

Are they on series 2 in the US then?
 
Was pretty good, I get very bored of TV quickly these days but that kept me watching, didnt even wander during the ads!
 
It's a bit meh to be honest, I'll watch the next season, but it's not a classic.
 
joescrivens said:
Disagree, most definitely a classic. The golden globes agree :thumbs:.
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Hollywood is far from a good measure of what's good.

Of the last 12 months, Game of Thrones was a magnitude better, but then I guess the locations and cast were too British for real success at the Golden Globes.

Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, all superior. Not saying Homeland was bad, it's just got plenty of competition.
 
I thought series 1 of the walking dead was excellent, series 2 was like the studio bosses got the zombie makeup bill for series 1 after the second episode and said, right make camp

I really hope when series 3 comes along they get off that bloody farm
 
A good start, though I thought David Harewood's accent was all over the place. But it starred one of my favourite actors: Mandy Patinkin, and Damian Lewis is always good, so I'll be watching it.
 
Damien Lewis came from the Roger Moore (frozen face) school of acting and he bores me which kind of spoiled it.
 
redddraggon said:
Of the last 12 months, Game of Thrones was a magnitude better
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Love game of thrones, thats probably the second best tv series I have ever seen after Band of Brothers.

boardwalk empire was dissapointing, not scorsese at his best.
 
joescrivens said:
This starts tonight. Make sure you watch it. It's excellent.
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Yes - most impressed with it. 12 parts too, which is good. Got tired of those series that only last 3 parts.
 
Yeah I like it too, but am only half way through the series. It is a bit slow. Other stuff I'm watching usually takes precedent. (Person of Interest, Fringe, Nikita etc)
 
I thought it was utter carp after all the hype. IMO nothing like 24
 
I saw most of Homeland when it was shown in the US... have to say turning over to watch some form of american sport channel in the end was more interesting.... and thats not saying much.

Without spoiling it, the story seesaws backwards and forwards without appearing to make much progress and just when you think it might you find out they're making season 2 so it can't possibly finish!

This would have been better as a straight mini-series....like Sleeper Cell (which not only was excellent, but had an end....AND a sequel!)
 
desantnik said:
Without spoiling it,
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Oh, I bet Wikipedia has an entire article describing in great detail what happens and to whom. Which I'm not going anywhere near. :)

the story seesaws backwards and forwards without appearing to make much progress and just when you think it might you find out they're making season 2 so it can't possibly finish!
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I read somewhere that it has a good ending, so I assumed that it was one series. Oh, well. I enjoyed Rubicon which was another of this kind of spy pot-boiler, so I'll take it as it comes.
 
I watched it after the hype and was left a little disappointed. It didn't grip me like I expected to but I'll watch the next episode and see if it picks up at all, I often think the first episode of a series can be a little underwhelming so tend not to have a little patience with them.
 
joker2006 said:
I thought it was utter carp after all the hype. IMO nothing like 24
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I would agree, nowhere close to the quality of plot writing of 24.

It was drama dumbed down to the lowest level unfortunately, I prefer to see a story develop over time, not reveal itself within the first few minutes.

These days whenever the Americans produce a decent show it is too complex for their fast food audience and gets dropped after one series, Chicago Code was really well written, acted and filmed but it got low ratings so got the chop.
 
I found it to be slow burning much of the way through, until the last, say. 3 or 4 episodes when it picked up. It was ok but nothing to get worked up about. I've enjoyed 24 much more. I don't find a Homeland v 24 comparison is justified. They're too different. Homeland did end the series well. I will watch the second one.
 
garryknight said:
I read somewhere that it has a good ending, so I assumed that it was one series.
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It does have a good ending, whilst it leads in to another series there is a definite end point that leaves you excited waiting for season 2

Martyn... said:
I would agree, nowhere close to the quality of plot writing of 24.
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The first 3 seasons of 24 had good plot writing, then the rest of it got worse and worse until the last season which got better. After 3 seasons it just became the same thing again and again - which middle east or eastern european is going to attack the US this time and how many times is jack going to be pulled back in :shake:
 
joescrivens said:
The first 3 seasons of 24 had good plot writing, then the rest of it got worse and worse until the last season which got better. After 3 seasons it just became the same thing again and again - which middle east or eastern european is going to attack the US this time and how many times is jack going to be pulled back in :shake:
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while i LOVE 24 i have to agree, it was a very generic formula and you knew what you were getting (terrorist attack, bauer on the case, mole, torture, bauer saves day.. laver, rinse, repeat..).

knowing me i'll probably wait until its about 4 seasons old and then catch up. did it with 24, watched 6 seasons in a very short amount of time. started fringe season 1 last weeked, got grimm on series link.. :lol:
 
Martyn... said:
These days whenever the Americans produce a decent show it is too complex for their fast food audience and gets dropped after one series, Chicago Code was really well written, acted and filmed but it got low ratings so got the chop.
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The thing they need is something not so complex that you can't miss an episode and pick it back up again. If its too complex then you loose viewers as the series goes along.

I didn't know Chicago Code was binned? Ho-hum... thats a shame, it was one of the better things I watched a while back.

My current faves are Justified and Spartacus :cool:
 
desantnik said:
The thing they need is something not so complex that you can't miss an episode and pick it back up again. If its too complex then you loose viewers as the series goes along.
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have you ever been to north america? :lol:

There are so many repeats of shows that isn't a problem. In fact sometimes they show the first 4 or five episodes of the show and then they stop and repeat them for those that missed it. Then there is the christmas break where shows just stop until march or something, in that time they reshow everything again

it's insane
 
desantnik said:
I didn't know Chicago Code was binned? Ho-hum... thats a shame, it was one of the better things I watched a while back.
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Fox dropped it as it was not getting the ratings, there was some talk of the writers trying to get another network to pick it up.

Shame as it was well written and acted.
 
joescrivens said:
have you ever been to north america? :lol:

There are so many repeats of shows that isn't a problem. In fact sometimes they show the first 4 or five episodes of the show and then they stop and repeat them for those that missed it. Then there is the christmas break where shows just stop until march or something, in that time they reshow everything again
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True, but if I watch something its because I have a slot in my life to do so, remembering to watch it some other time is a problem :)

Tivo is how a lot of 'merkins overcome this, but not enough people have them and their TV is absolutely commercial, needing to hit promised numbers for advertisers and target demographics.... or its the axe!

For example, the rather good Blade TV series got binned...because... the audience figures were great - far better than promised, but it was aimed at 18-25 year old men and the massive audience was female vampire pr0n fans... so it got binned.

They operate nothing like UK TV schedulers...
 
desantnik said:
For example, the rather good Blade TV series got binned...because... the audience figures were great - far better than promised, but it was aimed at 18-25 year old men and the massive audience was female vampire pr0n fans... so it got binned.
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That doesn't make sense

So they aimed a series at 18-25 year old men.

The viewing figures were good.

But because different people were watching it, it got binned? Why? If they were making money why did they care who was watching it, and how did they know the age of the people watching it and whether they were male or female?
 
joescrivens said:
But because different people were watching it, it got binned? Why? If they were making money why did they care who was watching it, and how did they know the age of the people watching it and whether they were male or female?
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They get detailed demographics back from audience surveys and some sort of electronic monitoring boxes people agree to have.

The show is funded by block booked adverts and they pitch to the advertisers what the audience is going to be to accurately place the adverts.

When Suzuki don't sell motorbikes or Remington don't sell shotguns or Ford don't attract new pickup truck owners because girls watch it mainly, those people are p*ssed and the contract is torn up, pulling the funding.

Its about really tightly targetted advertising, thats how it works...
 
interesting. I actually wonder how advertising even works on tv anymore. Does anyone watch adverts these days? I record everything and fast forward through all breaks.
 
joescrivens said:
That doesn't make sense

So they aimed a series at 18-25 year old men.

The viewing figures were good.

But because different people were watching it, it got binned? Why? If they were making money why did they care who was watching it, and how did they know the age of the people watching it and whether they were male or female?
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People are hired to carry out surveys. E.G. a thousand people may be stopped at random and asked to help with a questionaire concenrning viewing habits/personal info. The results are then extrapolated to give a figure for the entire country/region. Not a 100% accurate.
 
joescrivens said:
interesting. I actually wonder how advertising even works on tv anymore. Does anyone watch adverts these days? I record everything and fast forward through all breaks.
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I keep waiting for an advert that plays really slowly at normal speed so they make you watch it when you're at 30x
 
USA viewing figures and demographics are produced by a company called Nielsen.

Its viewer diaries and electronic monitoring boxes. The merkins place great sted on this being accurate and its the foundation of their commercial model for TV...
 
Edit : Removed.
 
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