pensnest | December Meme: Favourite TV (Reply)

sperrywink asked for my favourite TV show of all time. The trouble is, I'm not sure that I have one…

There are a few I could nominate. The BBC Pride and Prejudice series, which I can watch again as often as I like. It's an excellent adaptation of the series and, as a good adaptation should, it gives me a slightly different perspective on some of the characters and events.

In a more fannish vein, how about Buffy? My daughter introduced us to this show, and the four of us would sit together and watch Buffy and Angel on Friday evenings until they were switched to Thursdays, at which point they had to tape them for me so that I could watch each episode when I got home from rehearsal. I still recall my delight when I realised that tonight's episode was the musical one, which was wonderful. But Buffy the Vampire Slayer would probably have been *perfect* television if it had ended with the blowing up of the school/graduation. And perhaps been followed by a Buffy In College sequel, which would have lasted four seasons but wouldn't have been as good…

By contrast, Firefly just didn't get a fair go at all. I loved that show. I think I'd have written fanfic for it, had it gone on longer. It was flawed, but it was also magical, and all the episodes were above average (at least). Ah, Firefly.

Babylon 5 also had network problems, and it baffles me to this day that they didn't want to let it run through the fifth season on the original network so that the scripting shenanigans could have been avoided. It's a fascinating show with a really cool arc, from a time when there weren't really arcs as such, and a lot of it is very inventive and exciting. It does suffer somewhat from having such a huge proportion of the scripts written by JMS himself. That may sound like heresy, but his writing tics become really obvious with repetition, and I think he'd have done better with a team of writers. However, perhaps he couldn't afford them. In any case, good job. And the final episode is brilliant.

We recently re-watched B5 from the beginning, and then moved on to The Wire, which is stunningly good.

nopseud lent us seasons 1-3 on the grounds that we must see Idris Elba as Stringer Bell (she was absolutely right about this), and we're now watching the last two seasons. It's so different from the formula procedurals—I mean, I'm fond of Castle and enjoyed Lie To Me and House and several others, but The Wire is a completely different deal. I never know when to expect the episode to end, because it lacks the 'American rhythm' of commercial breaks, but also because it feels unscripted. It feels like a slice of life, as though we are watching something that is going its own way, not because someone has written it but because this happened, then that happened, then these things happened, and those people over there have an agenda too and therefore… It is brilliant.

However, I'm not sure I could describe it as my favourite TV show of all time, because I kinda like things to be a bit more uplifting. I mean, Rome was another really awesome series, in which everyone had their own aims and purposes, but it was a bit too grim to be 'go to' material. The Good Wife is another show I very much enjoy, but it's a bit too glossy for me to care enough to call it my favourite.

I think I'll settle on my favourite for another reason: it got me into fandom. I got addicted to Star Trek: The Next Generation in the early 1990s, when I would get back from rehearsals and watch an episode or three (on video tapes borrowed from a friend) before bed. This is, of course, a good way to get addicted. I would sneak into the local book shop and buy background books on the making of ST:TNG. I bought the official Star Trek magazine, carrying it furtively in a brown paper bag and devouring it at home. Thus I discovered the IDIC newsletter, and fanfic zines and the joy of writing those stories down, and online fandom, and really, isn't that the best thing a television show can do for anyone?

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