7 Question Curiousity Poll on New TV Shows, Book REC's and Buffy Comics

[shadowkat]

This is a rough poll - because I'm curious. Tried to add categories for Music that you'd recommend and movies - but there are too many and I'm sadly out of the loop on what is good and what isn't at the moment. Also tried to do a rec list for the tv shows...to see what everyone was watching, but ran out of ticky boxes - so chose not to. If you are so inclined feel free to include "music" and "movie" recs in the comments, along with book and comic book rec's. If not, that's fine too. Please be respectful of other's opinions, even if they seem like insane troll logic. No bashing of people. Also keep in mind it is impossible to edit polls and I'm always going to leave something out. Oh and if you don't know what to answer for a question? Just skip it. I certainly will. Thanks!

Hope more than ten people do this. Always tricky doing polls.

[ETA: Sigh. I don't know where my brain's been lately - no, wait, at work in stress hell..that's where. Re-read the poll and somehow I left off Nikita and No Ordinary Family (two shows I actually watch, and one, Nikita - that I actually adore - even more than Terriers). I also put Mr. Carrol instead of Mr. Norrel for the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel book option. Sorry about that. Brain is deleting entertainment files as we speak to make room for new database info.]


[Poll #1656246]

Comments

[rahirah]

The comics started going astray for me in issue 1, and not for any of the reasons people usually list - the helicopters and the guns and whatnot. If I were fighting demons, I'd take helicopters and guns too, if I could get them. What bothered me was that that very first arc, the one that was supposed to hook new readers and entice old ones, kicked off by putting the main character in an essentially passive role, and focused not on any of the things the audience was interested in, but on the not-so-burning question of who Buffy's secret admirer was. Not only was the emotional thrust of the story boring, Amy and Warren were pointless and annoying villains, whose plan was just plain dumb. I mean, what WAS the point of bringing back Warren?

Sadly, the disappointment I felt in that first story proved prophetic. :/

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Nikita is easily the best new show, I've seen.

No comics for me, thanks.

I'd recommend Connie Willis' Doomsday Book. I'm more ambivalent about her latest, Blackout/All Clear.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

I'm a little more ambivalent and a little less positive than in my poll responses--e.g. I wouldn't say "nothing went wrong for me, everything works" but I also didn't have a personal jump the shark issue. But I'm going to keep reading.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

Some of the new shows you mentioned might be worthy, but I have only basic basic cable and so can't comment on some and there are some others I haven't seen.

Of the new ones I have, I'm still enjoying No Ordinary Family, although it's a tad slow at times. But the basic premise is being handled far better than I expected it to be, and the characters are likable. Buffy S1 was a bit strange at times too.

The one show I would recommend that people check out started last season, last spring I think-- Human Target. Far, far better than I ever expected-- very intelligent, clever plots within a very old and normally very tired concept. Great, albeit fairly unknown actors taking their roles seriously and not winking at them. Treats its female characters exceptionally well for the genre, and does so pretty much every show. If you're interested, suggest viewing the show from the first eps this season (I assume you can viddy them online, haven't checked.)


Detailed thoughts on BtVS S8 will be forthcoming after #40 is out this January. I'll make a quicky prophecy right now though-- Faith will be the Slayer in Charge at the beginning of Season 9.

[ubi4soft.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with all the shows/books you listed, so I picked what I knew.

Before #34 there was #33 - the glow that influenced the characters.

I'll be reading/interested in anything that has Spike in it.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've watched any single episode of the listed shows all the way through, except for Sherlock.

I lost my faith with #25, when Dawn is expected to apologize to the asshole who's been keeping her from her own body for years because she didn't sleep with him. Blergh. Before that is was goofy and pointless, but fun.

I'm studiously not thinking about the comics, but like Ubi, I might be swindled into reading things with Spike in them.

Jonathan Strange is interesting, though rather earnest, but Discworld is big fun, if you go in for that sort of thing! My top picks: Feet of Clay, Thief of Time, Night Watch, Going Postal, and Thud! For entertaining Christmassyness, there's also The Hogfather.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I guess most beef I have with the comics was there from the get go, but it wasn't until the P&P arc that I stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt and accepted that it really was that bad.

I couldn't answer on the Spike comic because I'm not reading it. I planned on getting after it was complete but I'm not sure any more. After 40 is over I might be happy to leave them behind as a whole.

one little thing about the books, it's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I really loved it.

[elisi]

Was ambivalent about the comics from issue 1 - esp because of Warren. And the castle. And the outfits. And the GAPS! Oh Lord, all the gaps! - and when we discovered how he was rescued (Joss: Oops, I forgot he was dead dead!), I realised that the comics would probably never be remotely what I wanted, plus it was all so... unengaging. This was only confirmed with the Faith arc (She's on a mission to kill? Wtf? And she and Buffy are fighting like S7 never happened?). Then of course came the bankrobbing reveal and I knew for sure that this person walking around pretending to be Buffy could never ever be her. Kept reading out of curiosity until 'Swell' at which point it stopped being funny and was just awful. Wouldn't have picked them up again if it hadn't been for that essay.

ETA: Re. the Spike comics, then I generally like them but probably won't get the latest one thanks to the change of artist.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

The new show I have most liked is Lost Girl; it's cheesy but it has charm.

I gave up on the Buffy comics around the point when the opponent in the Fray crossover turend out to be FutureWillow - there were a lot of things that irritated me earlier, notably the faux British gentry stuff, but I had liked the GilesFaith/SteedEmma insight.

Pratchett? Small Gods and anything with the Guards in, especially Night Watch. But you have to read some earlier Guards books to appreciate NW.

[liliaeth]

I lost interest in the Buffy comics some time around the first ten issues. But the characters felt so wrong and made me lose whatever love I still had for them from the show almost immediately.

As fot Terry Pratchett, anything involving Death*g*, love him, the guard is cool too.

I would also heavily recommend the Harry Potter books to anyone.

[shapinglight]

I had issues with the comics right from the start, but they were never more than mildly amusing/irritating until the Fray arc. With that one, it really struck home to me yet again that what interests Whedon about his 'verse and what interests me are entirely different and I could never be anything but disappointed with how the story panned out. And that has indeed turned out to be the case, though it didn't go completely down the toilet until the Meltzer arc.

I'm afraid I can't help with the TV shows. I've been watching The Event, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's pretty stupid. I also think that Sherlock is very overrated.

My favourite Terry Pratchett is Small Gods. I think it's excellent. Monstrous Regiment is also lots of fun.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much with flake_sake on the Season 8 comics; they were so-so, with some huge flaws but also some really interesting ideas, up until the "Predators and Prey" non-arc, and then they just kept heading more off the rails with each new installment until they got completely unreadable somewhere around #36.

My favourite Pratchetts are probably Reaper Man, Small Gods, and Soul Music.

One book recommendation: William Gibson's Bigend Books - Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History. Often brilliant trilogy (so far) where he pretty much drops all notions of writing sci-fi and just writes modern novels slightly dressed up as cyberthrillers since, hey, we're all living in a virtual reality these days.

"The pop star, as we knew her" -- and here he bowed slightly, in her direction -- "was actually an artifact of preubiquitous media."

"Of--?"

"Of a state in which 'mass' media existed, if you will, within the world."

"As opposed to?"

"Comprising it."

Oh, and people who like Pratchett should read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series as well (starting with The Eyre Affair). Smart, hilarious metafiction.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I will be buying the season 9 of BtVS, but I'm not excited about it.... so I left that question blank.

And I loved 'Hunger Games' but found it a little dark and depressing (not to mention violent) so I hesitate to recommend it to a lot (most) of my friends....

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I was essentially 'pfft' with the comics with the first arc, much for the reason rahirah mentioned. Buffy is way too passive in the first arc for no good reason. Then of course the odd dialogue such as oh balls and muppity odin, the attire and obvious use of shockplotting.

I kept up because everything about the issues just screamed "something isn't right here" and I figured they'd explain it eventually. You have Buffy outright saying things hadn't been right since Chosen, right? Gotta be something going on. Instead, nothing was ever explained and they just kept piling it on. I finally gave up and quit reading after the bankrobbing ridiculousness, but I came back around 33-34 just to catch the wank (which has been 100x more entertaining than the books).