I've seen all of the Alphas, except last week's. The problem is that the show is surely going to get canceled. Its ratings are awful.

First episode of season 2 was quite a departure from season 1, but was still good. The second episode got kind of back on track with what we knew and loved from season 1, and makes it look it was going to head into a really good episode 3, where they would get back to basics of season 1. As I said, I haven't seen episode 3, yet, but I'm looking forward to it. As long as the minivan sticks around, I'm cool with anything they do. It's only made one appearance, so far, but it was an appearance, and I was relieved.

Alphas is ok. It's Heroes light, it has neither the highs nor lows of Heroes. I do wish they'd find some other storyline than X-Men though.

It did annoy the hell out of me last episode when one of the Alphas expressed skepticism about Magneto-uh I mean Stanton Parrish's age. WTF? Why would any power surprise you at this point?

I'm not usually much into that genre, but I like the humor, and I like the characters. I think that's a very good point that it doesn't have highs and lows. It's just a solid show, inside a heavily exploited genre, that is cast well, and, for the most part, well thought out. I don't think season 2 has been as good as season 1, but that happens a lot in this type of show. Again, the minivan pushes this show over the top for me.

what do u mean by the 'minivan' i must be missing something lol

In season 1, Dr. Rosen is basically having the Alphas do what they do as group therapy. As such, he doesn't have cool government vehicles (you know, the standard black Suburban, or whatever it's called now). So, whenever they would go on an "operation", they would all pile into Dr. Rosen's minivan. I thought that was a hilarious touch, and something you would almost never see in a show in this genre.

It's probably the second best use of a minivan as a "character" after the bizarre use of minivans in Get Shorty.

ohok duh

Cadillac of minivans.

Travolta was perfect as a "Producer". He believed it (he didn't really), he sold it, and made others believe it...lol.

The Pillars of the Earth is pretty good after the 2 episodes ive seen thus far.

Anyone know if Political Animals is done after these 6? One more ep left and they've set it up pretty well for an end, or a cliffhanger.

But I doubt they got the luxury of changing the last ep for either scenario not being what they figured.

They put the show on in an EMMY wasteland (there's a period of time you do not want your shows airing, if you're interested in consideration, and I believe it's June and July, but it's been a long time since I looked at the "date"). If they're interested in putting together a likely expensive miniseries, each year, that has terrible ratings, then it will be back. It would already have to be back before next year's EMMYs would be announced, so it would be all risk, and potentially not much reward. It's what you would call a "prestige" show that isn't eligible (this year), for the awards notice that could sparks its renewal.

Part of it was probably just trying to capitalize on election season, so once that's over, it will "lose" timeliness. I think if the show picked up a bunch of EMMY noms, it would have been an easy renewal, but I just wrote why that isn't possible this year, and how it won't be a factor for next season's chances of renewal.

Did anyone catch the other NBC sitcom pilot, Animal Practice?

Not bad. The first ep was really good and I'm expecting to be a pretty decent show overall. It'll take a few eps to find out whether this or Go On has more promise, but both are damn good.

I think they're supposed to be showing it again, sometime soon. If you happen to see it coming up somewhere, will you post about it? I was planning on just waiting til the season starts, but I guess I can make 23 minutes in my schedule somewhere.

Sure, but I saw via alt methods.

Liked the Alphas discussion. Have been seeing a lot of print ads for it in magazines that I read, and that kind of turned me on to seeing it and actually came into this thread to see what the general consensus was. Didn't realize they had started the 2nd season, so I guess I got to get caught up. However, I have got sidetracked by Bar Rescue which I am now watching, I'm just a sucker for these "turn your business around in an hour" shows.

Is Spike a recurring food expert on Bar Rescue? Got real excited when I saw him, as I enjoyed him on Top Chef.

BULLET IN THE FACEEEE!!!

Just finished up watching this (5x1hr eps), enjoyed it a lot and glad to hear they've been greenlighted for a second series

I'm gonna start a new show, but I don't know which one to start with first? I don't know anything about either of the shows.

What should be my next show between(?):
Deadwood
The Walking Dead
Chuck

deadwood in terms which is unquestionably the best of the 3, ainec.

Chuck is great but just stop after S03E13 IMO. Make that your last episode. After that point they never really knew whether they were being canceled or renewed and they just didn't sort out their writing at all. It was a mess, a mixture of resolved and barely begun storylines that were just utterly uninteresting.

Up to that point it's one of my favorite shows.

The finished it off very very well though. It's worth going through season 4 to get to 5.

I disagree. The very end was solid but it was too little too late for me. I don't regret watching seasons 4 and 5 (there's no possible universe where I would've decided not to) but neither are on the same level as the first 3.

thanks for the input, guys. I've been looking at starting Deadwood and Walking Dead for around a year. Now, most of my non-comedies are over (for good), so looking for something else to balance out the comedies. Chuck was a last minute add after browsing IMDB and seeing it's rated 8.0 over 30K ratings. I knew Deadwood was the most critically acclaimed. I guess I'll start there.

Edit: The version I have isn't in HD! I'm a HD snob/nit, so I may not be able to watch this until I find a HQ version. :/

Of course they're not the same level, but why only watch 3 seasons of a 5 season show? It doesn't fall off a cliff like Dexter or something. Even at Chuck's worst, it was still fun to watch. And Sarah is worth watching all the time.