The Best Show on the History of Television

[JazzGal]

fair enough. This isn't an important theory, obvi. I don't personally share your relationship between likability and humor though.

And thankfully we don't all like the same things and have the same tastes. Although if we did I wouldn't have to pay so much for the few TV shows I watch. I miss the days of three channels.

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[ConradA24]

Trust me, all options have been explored.

Is this the explanation for the weird FB name?

 

[sirkickyass]

What? Your life is like a movie? Too bad it isn't always a comedy. How terrifying.

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Trust me, there's nothing funny about figuring out people have broken into your house looking for your banking information and you have to move now.

Holy **** dude! Has it blown over yet, i.e. is he locked up or deceased?

There is some evidence that he's deceased, but the thing about people with fake identities is that it's very difficult to prove that they are definitively dead. Particularly when foreign entities are involved. I will basically never know. And I cringe every time someone rings the bell at my office. And it's going to be that way for years.

It is also shockingly hard to get local authorities to prosecute crimes that are even remotely complex. I literally handed the local police and the FBI hundreds of pages of documents, that I personally indexed and summarized, and submitted to several interviews. That included written death threats and handwriting samples and the whole deal. No charges. Too difficult to prosecute/too many man hours required.

Random aside: This experience more than any other really destroyed my faith in law enforcement. It also really changed my opinions on the Clintons. This whole thing happened to me, at least in part, because Bill Clinton pardoned a bunch of people that REALLY should not have been pardoned right when he left office. The guy who threatened to kill me was involved in this scheme: https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99807,00.html

Having dealt with these people, and having read the House report on exactly what they did, it is unconscionable that Bill Clinton pardoned them. So yeah, I'm ****ing voting for Bernie Sanders and do not envision voting for Hillary in the general.

Frasier was better than Seinfeld IMO ...

It certainly had higher aspirations.

Is this the explanation for the weird FB name?

Yes. I'm not taking a lot of chances. It's also why all my state bar communications go to a PO Box in a city I don't live in and I have special court permission to seal up most of my court filings. There are unfortunately a handful of public documents that have my name and work address on them that I can't do anything about. But until it's confirmed that this guy is dead I have to be pretty vigilant.

 

[JazzGal]

This strengthens my resolve to caucus for Bernie tonight. I'm so sorry you have to go through all this. Horrifying.

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[fishonjazz]

This strengthens my resolve to caucus for Bernie tonight. I'm so sorry you have to go through all this. Horrifying.

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My wife and i are going to caucus bernie tonight too!

 

[Duck Rodgers]

I had a client threaten to kill me. It was pretty crazy. Turned out he had two identities and gave me an Israeli passport under an assumed name to hide the fact that he had done time for money laundering for Colombian drug cartels. He gave me a whole bunch of forged documents and tried to collect on a judgment he wasn't entitled to. I figured it out after I already had the money and I gave it to the people who were actually entitled to it. They were very grateful. He was convinced I owed him $200k and made it very clear he was going to sic the cartels on me. I went into hiding for awhile. Not a great experience.

Did you ever pinpoint what country he was actually from?

 

[RandyForRubio]

My wife and i are going to caucus bernie tonight too!

Threesomes. Kinky.

 

[fishonjazz]

Threesomes. Kinky.

Lol.
I hoped someone would pick up what I was putting down

 

[sirkickyass]

Did you ever pinpoint what country he was actually from?

He was definitely born in the United States and he has some form of Israeli citizenship. It turns out Israeli citizenship is complicated.

Quasi-anti-Semitic aside: One of the things that made my life difficult during this whole process is that I tried to do another older Jewish attorney in town a favor. During this process I discovered that this older guy was getting chatted up by the scam artist and he was probably going to try to use his services as well for another scheme. I reached out to him and gave him a full document dump that included all the information related to death threats, money laundering convictions, false names, the whole deal. Wrote him a letter explaining what the scam was and all the ways his potential new client had ruined my life. I did that because, in all honesty, it would have been the best favor anyone could have done me.

Turns out, blood is thicker than everything. The older Jewish attorney took the money launderer's side and assisted him in filing a bar complaint against me. Turned out he hadn't even bothered to read the stuff I'd sent him and just defaulted to helping one of the tribe.

I try very hard not to let that experience color the way I view Israelis, but it is difficult.

 

[RandyForRubio]

You and Jamezz are gonna get along real well. He hates Jews too.

 

[ConradA24]

He was definitely born in the United States and he has some form of Israeli citizenship. It turns out Israeli citizenship is complicated.

Quasi-anti-Semitic aside: One of the things that made my life difficult during this whole process is that I tried to do another older Jewish attorney in town a favor. During this process I discovered that this older guy was getting chatted up by the scam artist and he was probably going to try to use his services as well for another scheme. I reached out to him and gave him a full document dump that included all the information related to death threats, money laundering convictions, false names, the whole deal. Wrote him a letter explaining what the scam was and all the ways his potential new client had ruined my life. I did that because, in all honesty, it would have been the best favor anyone could have done me.

Turns out, blood is thicker than everything. The older Jewish attorney took the money launderer's side and assisted him in filing a bar complaint against me. Turned out he hadn't even bothered to read the stuff I'd sent him and just defaulted to helping one of the tribe.

I try very hard not to let that experience color the way I view Israelis, but it is difficult.

That stinks!

We had a similar situation in that someone with Israeli citizenship (but he was kicked out of Israel?) became obsessed with my dad and stalked my whole family and had plans to kidnap my dad and demand a ransom of like 10 mil. (cause we all have stashes of money like that) He ended up kidnapping a neighbor and long story short, the neighbor was able to fight and get out of it, nothing happened to the crazy guy except he got deported... which is scary considering they can just come back. We never did get to the bottom of his real story, because same deal, he had so many identities you never knew what was real and what wasn't.

We have a lot of Israeli/ Jewish friends though, so he has been the anomaly.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

That stinks!

We had a similar situation in that someone with Israeli citizenship (but he was kicked out of Israel?) became obsessed with my dad and stalked my whole family and had plans to kidnap my dad and demand a ransom of like 10 mil. (cause we all have stashes of money like that) He ended up kidnapping a neighbor and long story short, the neighbor was able to fight and get out of it, nothing happened to the crazy guy except he got deported... which is scary considering they can just come back. We never did get to the bottom of his real story, because same deal, he had so many identities you never knew what was real and what wasn't.

We have a lot of Israeli/ Jewish friends though, so he has been the anomaly.

Where did the guy get introduced to your dad in the first place?

 

[ConradA24]

Where did the guy get introduced to your dad in the first place?

Long, complicated story that I don't want to delve into too much. He was literally dumped on our doorstep. He was crazy. He would write letters to the Queen of England (because they were related ) wanting her to appeal his case to Israel for wrongly kicking him out of the country, etc...

 

[franklin]

I don't think I've enjoyed a show more than Heroes. My wife and I watch very little t.v. but we binged that entire thing out in short order.

If we are going on single seasons like someone mention about Dexter 1, the first couple SOA seasons were damn good. It went south fast when they went to Ireland and I could never get back into it after that season.

Also, good call on Law and Order. That series changed television and led to countless knock offs. As far as that goes, I guess I have to point out The Real World (harrumph!).

 

[sirkickyass]

I don't think I've enjoyed a show more than Heroes. My wife and I watch very little t.v. but we binged that entire thing out in short order.

I am VERY conversant in superhero lore and mythology and there isn't a show I've ever seen that bothered me more than Heroes. Back when I used to write for basketball websites occasionally I did a lengthy breakdown of heroes (and when I found it, it was much lengthier than I remembered).

An excerpt:

Ali Larter’s storyline isn’t the only one where the powers of the characters involved make absolutely no sense with how the characters are acting. Officer Matt Parkman is supposedly psychic but is repeatedly caught off guard when characters betray him or do something unexpected. Shouldn’t it be impossible to surprise him?! The aforementioned Peter Petrelli supposedly has the ability to fly, but apparently needs his brother to carry him into the sky when he’s about to explode because he can’t do it by himself. The teaser for season two indicates that the other Petrelli (whose character traits bounce so all over the map I can’t even rationally write about him in this space) somehow survives a nuclear explosion even though nothing about his powers should lend him invulnerability. The Haitian has the ability to make people forget things but for some reason has to run away from the “Corporation” and be in fear of his life. Couldn’t he just make his pursuers forget they were supposed to be chasing him?


This points to a larger problem with the way in which Heroes is written: Plot inconsistencies don’t seem to be caught in advance through any sort of editing process and large segments of plot seem to disappear entirely. For example, during one series of episodes it is revealed that repeated exposure to the Haitian has made Mrs. Bennett develop a brain lesion which has drastically affected her ability to make new memories and retain old ones. While this is an interesting implication of the Haitian’s powers on its own merits, the writers also appeared to be using it to place an emotional wedge between Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennett) and her father for authorizing the Haitian’s habitual use of his powers on Mrs. Bennett. However, as soon as the emotional void between Claire and her father was resolved the brain lesion apparently disappears, Mrs. Bennett acts normally again, and no explanation of what happened to the brain lesion is ever made.

This becomes particularly problematic when the writers forget that there are interesting questions raised by the use of their characters powers. In the first episode of the series, it is revealed that one character can predict future events through his artwork. Upon discovering this power, two other characters (Hiro and Ando) begin following instructions through a comic book drawn by the prognosticating painter in order to save a girl’s life who the comic predicts will be put in danger by a runaway truck. While following the comic book’s artwork to the scene of the future accident, Hiro and Ando spot the vehicle in question and attempt to flag it down while it is driving away causing it to swerve directly at the girl in the comic book. As a result, it’s questionable whether the artist’s work actually predicts the future or whether Hiro and Ando’s belief that the comic book told the future made the events in the comic take place; after all the truck would never have threatened its potential victim’s life at all if Hiro and Ando hadn’t arrived at the scene comic book in hand. For the entirety of the first season I kept waiting for this issue to get addressed because it would be very interesting indeed to explore whether the artist is seeing the future or creating it. Whole plot lines could have been developed about the nature of free will and constructed reality. Somehow the writers of the television show never managed to get there, killing off the artist and leaving the viewer with little to no explanation of the actual implications of his powers.


Similarly, the writers missed another golden opportunity with another character who could be described as a “shapeshifter.” In one episode, it is suggested that the shapeshifter’s “default look” (predictably, a hot woman) isn’t the way that the shapeshifter usually looks. In fact, given how much the shapeshifter seems to eat on the show, she might be larger than a Macy’s Day Parade balloon. All of this is forgotten in a later episode when the shapeshifter is knocked unconscious and the images she generated disappears only to turn her back into the same familiar hot woman. So much for finding out that the shapeshifter really looks like the sort of “alternative beauty” that not even the Suicide Girls would showcase.


(As a side point, the concept of a “shapeshifter” has always annoyed me; after all, in order to copy another person’s appearance you’d have to have a very good idea of what they looked like to get all the details right. Time after time in movies and television shows, shapeshifters are able to instantly replicate the exact features of anyone they’ve seen even once accurately enough to fool all their friends and loved ones. They even manage to copy their mannerisms. I’m just stunned I’ve never seen a movie where a shapeshifter gets caught as an imposter because they continue to use their right hand and the person they’re copying is left handed. That’s all I’m saying.)

So yeah, Heroes is not my favorite show.

If we are going on single seasons like someone mention about Dexter 1, the first couple SOA seasons were damn good. It went south fast when they went to Ireland and I could never get back into it after that season.

The writers of that show reached a point where they HAD to kill Clay Morrow and failed to do it. That broke a fundamental promise of trust with the audience and the show never recovered.

 

[franklin]

I am VERY conversant in superhero lore and mythology and there isn't a show I've ever seen that bothered me more than Heroes. Back when I used to write for basketball websites occasionally I did a lengthy breakdown of heroes (and when I found it, it was much lengthier than I remembered).

An excerpt:

So yeah, Heroes is not my favorite show.



The writers of that show reached a point where they HAD to kill Clay Morrow and failed to do it. That broke a fundamental promise of trust with the audience and the show never recovered.

I'm not overly analytical or technical when I try to enjoy a show, movie or book but I'm having these sorts of flaws issues with Dexter. I just finished season 1 and am a few into season 2. Some of the stuff makes absolutely no sense. I'm worried the rest of the show will rest on the laurels of the first half of season 1. I loved it, then it started going down hill.

I don't recall Heroes' flaws bothering me at all. It has to be important to an extent, but expecting perfection is kind of against the nature of any superhero or fantasy story.

 

[fishonjazz]

I don't think I've enjoyed a show more than Heroes. My wife and I watch very little t.v. but we binged that entire thing out in short order.

If we are going on single seasons like someone mention about Dexter 1, the first couple SOA seasons were damn good. It went south fast when they went to Ireland and I could never get back into it after that season.

Also, good call on Law and Order. That series changed television and led to countless knock offs. As far as that goes, I guess I have to point out The Real World (harrumph!).

Good all around post.

I especially agree about SOA when they went to Ireland.

The song that played at the very end of the last episode

Spoiler

when jax was committing suicide

was awesome btw

 

[Douchebag K]

Game of Thrones

Vikings

Hannibal

Sopranos

 

[RandyForRubio]

I know this doesn't go with the thread cause it's a dumb show, but I love Chuck.

 

[JazzGal]

I know this doesn't go with the thread cause it's a dumb show, but I love Chuck.

Me too.

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