The X-Files is my #1 suggestion for a streaming (re)watch. The mythology loses its steam near the end, but the chemistry between Duchovny and Gillian remains great. There's also the newcomers Moonlighting and Northern Exposure (please give the latter another chance!).
I remember you mentioning you didn't complete the DC shows on the CW wh…
The X-Files is my #1 suggestion for a streaming (re)watch. The mythology loses its steam near the end, but the chemistry between Duchovny and Gillian remains great. There's also the newcomers Moonlighting and Northern Exposure (please give the latter another chance!).
I remember you mentioning you didn't complete the DC shows on the CW which still contained high adrenaline components in later seasons, even when things became too convoluted. In similar realm, also recommend Angel, House, or even Discovery if you want to be completest. Or the missed seasons of the Doctor Who revival.
P.S. I have a few ER questions, but I'll save those when you're done watching the final season.
Fire away with your ER questions! I remember the later episodes well enough that you won't spoil anything, and it's driving me nuts finding someone to talk about my niche opinions on 16-year-old episodes of television. Like, Simon Brenner is introduced as a serial sexual harasser who then discards and mistreats his coworkers after sleeping with them, and in the following season they show him being nicer to one of those women, but never (at least not so far) present a scene where they talk about why he's acting differently.
Also? Tony and Sam were exasperating enough when they were part of a larger ensemble. When it's only six regular characters in the final season, it is just a whole lot of those two. Yeesh.
Brenner's behavior does get explained later although it's a clear Emmy-ploy for David Lyons. When an episode isn't focused on returnee cast member (main or recurring), the final season does really drag (such as the Tony & Sam relationship and Neela's personal struggles) for the most part. Production seemed so much more motivated for the special episodes.
As for my ER questions, it's in comparison to NYPD Blue as you're the foremost expert on it and two fought for the Best TV Drama title in the '90s:
1. Which show did you find it better/enjoyable at its peak (ER 1-6 or NYPD 1-5)?
2. Inversely, which one did you find more satisfying/less struggle to complete post-peak and all the way through?
P.S. Do you know what happened to Amanda Wilson? I can't find any writings of hers post-2005.
Oh, I've gotten to the child molestation thing (and remembered that from the original viewing). It's more the specific nature of how he's a total heel when introduced in season 14, particularly with how he deals with the students and residents, and then is acting like a good guy, as if he was all along. The stuff where one of his former conquests — to whom he was just AWFUL after they slept together, and dismissive of her medical abilities — is surprised that he's now being nice to her is the only acknowledgment at all of the shift. And even that episode seems to be missing a scene where either 1)she confronts him more directly about their past, and he apologizes, or at least 2)she discusses it with another doctor. It's weird.
1. At the time, it was obviously NYPD Blue for me. In hindsight, I'd say that ER was more consistently great, and for longer, since NYPD's peak is really only the first three seasons, with a lot of unevenness for the rest of the Milch days.
2. While I didn't watch all of ER in the original run, this particular binge has been more satisfying for me than the post-Milch years on NYPD. But I'm also approaching latter-era ER with extremely lowered expectations, and have already moved past my incredulity with some bad choices along the way.
You're right about the awkward character transformation of Brenner. I'm guessing the producers just hand-waved and moved on quickly so they could justify/focus on his next storyline (relationship with Neela which was another annoying soapy thing in the later seasons) in final stretch.
The X-Files is my #1 suggestion for a streaming (re)watch. The mythology loses its steam near the end, but the chemistry between Duchovny and Gillian remains great. There's also the newcomers Moonlighting and Northern Exposure (please give the latter another chance!).
I remember you mentioning you didn't complete the DC shows on the CW which still contained high adrenaline components in later seasons, even when things became too convoluted. In similar realm, also recommend Angel, House, or even Discovery if you want to be completest. Or the missed seasons of the Doctor Who revival.
P.S. I have a few ER questions, but I'll save those when you're done watching the final season.
Fire away with your ER questions! I remember the later episodes well enough that you won't spoil anything, and it's driving me nuts finding someone to talk about my niche opinions on 16-year-old episodes of television. Like, Simon Brenner is introduced as a serial sexual harasser who then discards and mistreats his coworkers after sleeping with them, and in the following season they show him being nicer to one of those women, but never (at least not so far) present a scene where they talk about why he's acting differently.
Also? Tony and Sam were exasperating enough when they were part of a larger ensemble. When it's only six regular characters in the final season, it is just a whole lot of those two. Yeesh.
Brenner's behavior does get explained later although it's a clear Emmy-ploy for David Lyons. When an episode isn't focused on returnee cast member (main or recurring), the final season does really drag (such as the Tony & Sam relationship and Neela's personal struggles) for the most part. Production seemed so much more motivated for the special episodes.
As for my ER questions, it's in comparison to NYPD Blue as you're the foremost expert on it and two fought for the Best TV Drama title in the '90s:
1. Which show did you find it better/enjoyable at its peak (ER 1-6 or NYPD 1-5)?
2. Inversely, which one did you find more satisfying/less struggle to complete post-peak and all the way through?
P.S. Do you know what happened to Amanda Wilson? I can't find any writings of hers post-2005.
Oh, I've gotten to the child molestation thing (and remembered that from the original viewing). It's more the specific nature of how he's a total heel when introduced in season 14, particularly with how he deals with the students and residents, and then is acting like a good guy, as if he was all along. The stuff where one of his former conquests — to whom he was just AWFUL after they slept together, and dismissive of her medical abilities — is surprised that he's now being nice to her is the only acknowledgment at all of the shift. And even that episode seems to be missing a scene where either 1)she confronts him more directly about their past, and he apologizes, or at least 2)she discusses it with another doctor. It's weird.
1. At the time, it was obviously NYPD Blue for me. In hindsight, I'd say that ER was more consistently great, and for longer, since NYPD's peak is really only the first three seasons, with a lot of unevenness for the rest of the Milch days.
2. While I didn't watch all of ER in the original run, this particular binge has been more satisfying for me than the post-Milch years on NYPD. But I'm also approaching latter-era ER with extremely lowered expectations, and have already moved past my incredulity with some bad choices along the way.
You're right about the awkward character transformation of Brenner. I'm guessing the producers just hand-waved and moved on quickly so they could justify/focus on his next storyline (relationship with Neela which was another annoying soapy thing in the later seasons) in final stretch.