Beautiful Language in TV Shows

[marilyn peake]

I recently discovered the TV series, PUSHING DAISIES, on DVD. I’m blown away by the visual beauty of it, the vibrant colors, and also the exquisite complexity of language and references to literature in the script. I think it’s incredible. I also love the TV series, FIREFLY, for its awesome dialogue and blend of English with Chinese. Any other TV shows you’ve found that have great writing?

[Dankrubis]

Hahah, oh man. TV is having a renaissance right now.

Arrested Development - best comedy ever to grace TV.
Battlestar Galactica - An intense, well-written drama that just happens to take place in space. Many people let this deter them and they miss out on an incredible show.
Deadwood - The dialogue will make you feel like a bad writer, and Ian McShane's portrayal of Al Swearingen will transfix you.
The WIre - Omar strollin'.
Mad Men - I actually have Nathan to thank for watching this one. I caved when he announced contest winners as Donald Draper. It's arguably the best drama currently in production.

I'll stop there cause I just realized you may be talking about dialogue only! Last thing I read was great writing? and I was like OMG SO MUCH! But if you're just looking for dialogue, Deadwood and The Wire are a-ma-zing.

[Nick]

Battlestar Galactica - An intense, well-written drama that just happens to take place in space. Many people let this deter them and they miss out on an incredible show.

As insanely insanely insanely awesome as BSG was, Caprica has been looking so much better ever since the uncut pilot hit DVD back in April. I hope it does shape into something even better. But even if it stays the same quality as BSG, that's a fantastic place to stay. Mind you, I hopped on BSG during a repeat of the two-part finale of Season 2. Still haven't seen Season 1 and finally saw the Miniseries over the summer, so maybe BSG used to be Caprica epic way back when it started. Or maybe Caprica really is just better.

Can't say I agree with the rest of your list, though.

[Jaime]

My favourite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you love Firefly, it's written by the same man, Joss Whedon - an absolute genius, in my opinion! I have them all on DVD, and have watched them all at least five times! My husband is all like, "Again? Didn't you just watch these through?" :P

I absolutely love that one of the writers (I can't remember if it was Marti Noxon or Jane Espenson), when telling her mother that she got a job writing for Buffy, was told: "Oh, don't worry honey. Something else will come along . . ." Ha! She then had to explain that it was a good job!

I also love Big Bang Theory (because I'm actually a science nerd - sad, I know). That, and House (because I'm actually a MEDICAL scientist!), are the only TV shows I watch religiously. Both have great writing - witty and intellectual - especially House :)

[tameson]

I love Supernatural. I think they have done an amazing job at the character's and their relationships. The dialogue has tons of clever references, though mostly like classic rock (the boys aren't spending much time watching tv these days). For me, the big problem is that it is on at a bad time so I have to wait for the DVDs. :( It is more violent then I am comfortable letting my 3 year old watch, so I wait until she is completely asleep before I watch something like that (my violence tolerance level is almost 0 for her though- I let her watch disney princess movies, but think those are a bit more violent then I would like).

[Dankrubis]

As insanely insanely insanely awesome as BSG was, Caprica has been looking so much better ever since the uncut pilot hit DVD back in April. I hope it does shape into something even better. But even if it stays the same quality as BSG, that's a fantastic place to stay. Mind you, I hopped on BSG during a repeat of the two-part finale of Season 2. Still haven't seen Season 1 and finally saw the Miniseries over the summer, so maybe BSG used to be Caprica epic way back when it started. Or maybe Caprica really is just better.

I just watched the uncut pilot of Caprica a few days ago and while it was frakkin' awesome, it was only an hour and a half of television. Not measuring up to BSG's series run just yet, buddy.

Can't say I agree with the rest of your list, though.

If you watched them all (season by season, in order) you would.

[Nick]

As insanely insanely insanely awesome as BSG was, Caprica has been looking so much better ever since the uncut pilot hit DVD back in April. I hope it does shape into something even better. But even if it stays the same quality as BSG, that's a fantastic place to stay. Mind you, I hopped on BSG during a repeat of the two-part finale of Season 2. Still haven't seen Season 1 and finally saw the Miniseries over the summer, so maybe BSG used to be Caprica epic way back when it started. Or maybe Caprica really is just better.

I just watched the uncut pilot of Caprica a few days ago and while it was frakkin' awesome, it was only an hour and a half of television. Not measuring up to BSG's series run just yet, buddy.

Eh, so far I'm thinking Caprica is doing a much better job of fleshing out strong characters and world-building. Sure, I came in kind of late to BSG, but still. Even by the end of the series, some of the characters, to me, felt weaker than characters like Joe Adama and Zoe after just one decent-length pilot. And it's kind of understandable in a way. Caprica more or less has the same creative team, so they know what worked and what didn't work on BSG and can bring the same awesome while fixing the not-so-awesome. But that's just my opinion. You think it's lesser so far, fine by me. Curious to see what you think come the end of the season, though.

Can't say I agree with the rest of your list, though.

If you watched them all (season by season, in order) you would.

Season by season, maybe. Tried watching Arrested Development before. 'twas okay but just never really got into it. I found Deadwood's use of overly gratuitous swearing off-putting (which is funny because I swear waaaaaaaaaaay too much) and on top of that the episodes I saw were mediocre at best (may have been very early episodes, dunno). Mad Men...okay, I'm willing to concede it might be awesome. A lot of people I know gush over it. But just everything I see and hear about the show has really put me off it. No interest whatsoever, no matter how awesome friends insist it is. The Wire is another show I've tried watching and never really got into. It's good, but I was never like HOLYSHIZTHISISEPICNEEDTOWATCHTHISEVERYDAYNOW. But if you dig the shows, you dig the shows. There's a gujabillion shows out there for a gujabillion tastes.

[tameson]

I thought BSG's first episodes were amazingly well done. The series went downhill from there, unable to sustain such amazing levels of awesomeness. :)

[Dankrubis]

Eh, so far I'm thinking Caprica is doing a much better job of fleshing out strong characters and world-building. Sure, I came in kind of late to BSG, but still.

I can't give you the 'but still.' If you started watching from the season 2 finale, you missed half the story.

Even by the end of the series, some of the characters, to me, felt weaker than characters like Joe Adama and Zoe after just one decent-length pilot. And it's kind of understandable in a way. Caprica more or less has the same creative team, so they know what worked and what didn't work on BSG and can bring the same awesome while fixing the not-so-awesome. But that's just my opinion. You think it's lesser so far, fine by me. Curious to see what you think come the end of the season, though.

I agree that the writing team should show some major progression, and I have really high hopes for Caprica. And I'm not saying it's lesser of a show, I'm saying we've only seen an hour and a half of the show. Comparisons are fruitless at this point. Hell, even if you forced a comparison between the first half of the BSG mini-series and the Caprica pilot, it's still unfair because you're coming into the Caprica pilot already knowing the world from seeing its predecessor.

Tried watching Arrested Development before. 'twas okay but just never really got into it.

Different people have different tastes, of course, but make sure you've given AD a fair shake. I watched a couple episodes of AD while channel surfing when it first came on. I thought it was weird. It was like watching a schizophrenic trying to paint a picture using his finger and thin air while laughing hysterically. I could make out a few shapes, but mostly I was like, "You're crazy and this is stupid." Then it started winning awards and blahblahblah, so I bought the first season and watched it in order. I think with this show especially, you need to see the first few episodes to introduce you to the world of the show. After seeing those, I started seeing the pictures the schizophrenic was painting, and I was laughing my ass off along with him.

[marilyn peake]

I’ll have to try the shows recommended here. I’ve seen the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and absolutely love it – the writing is sheer genius! And I definitely need to watch more shows written by Joss Whedon, since I loved FIREFLY, and also DR. HORRIBLE.

[Scott]

Battlestar Galactica - An intense, well-written drama that just happens to take place in space. Many people let this deter them and they miss out on an incredible show.

As insanely insanely insanely awesome as BSG was, Caprica has been looking so much better ever since the uncut pilot hit DVD back in April. I hope it does shape into something even better.

Agree about BSG. Superb. But I just can't get into Caprica. Could be the lack of sci-fi trappings and the abundance of soap-style scenes. And Eric Smoltz. Not right for the part, in my view.

[abc]

Deadwood is pretty freaking awesome in the dialogue department. And you can't get much better than The Wire for pretty much anything. Omar--indeed!

I also agree with the Buffy fans, especially if you like Firefly. Buffy is witty banter to the max.

Of course I have never seen a funnier television show than Arrested Development.

[lac582]

For fans of Whedon's other shows who never watched Dollhouse, the series finale was last night. So it's a complete 2-season arc that will be easy to catch up on. I'm biased (know people involved with the show) but I thought the writing in some of the season 2 episodes was really, really strong. They hit their stride just as Fox canceled them :/

[Dankrubis]

For fans of Whedon's other shows who never watched Dollhouse, the series finale was last night. So it's a complete 2-season arc that will be easy to catch up on. I'm biased (know people involved with the show) but I thought the writing in some of the season 2 episodes was really, really strong. They hit their stride just as Fox canceled them :/

There were some really poor episodes, especially for a Joss Whedon show. But I was surprised how awesome Dollhouse got after the cancellation was announced. Those last six or seven episodes were gold.

[Nick]

Personally I've never liked Joss Whedon. If you remove Dr. Horrible from the mix, I've found his shows to be mediocre at best. Actually only one show to be mediocre at best -- Firefly (oh yes, I went there). Dollhouse, Angel, Buffy, I just find unwatchable. Horrible was great, though considering like the whole Whedon family worked on that, it's hard to say exactly how much was him.

Back to talking about good television...I love a lot of classic Doctor Who. Yes, some Classic Who bites. Sure, it didn't have the best budget. But there were some brilliant writers. William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton were graced with some fantastic scripts (stories like The Aztecs and The Mind Robber are still some of the best television). And Classic Who had Robert Holmes. Yes, some of his stories are weaker than others. But even his weakest stories are very good, and at strongest...well, the man is responsible for The Trial of a Time Lord, for one. For two, the man wrote The Caves of Androzani, considered by many (including myself) to be the greatest Doctor Who story, ever. To be fair, it is helped along by excellent acting and fantastic direction, but without a very solid story all of that wouldn't matter. Colin Baker was, alas, hampered with terrible stories, and Sylvester McCoy had mediocre or shit stories at first, but by the end of his run there was some fantastic stuff, and I still say it's a shame it was canceled when it was; not only because the scripts were getting stronger and because I am a massive Seventh fanboy, but, please, for the love of God do not get me started on RTD. Just, no.

Who love aside, I find Bryan Fuller makes damn good TV, too. Haven't seen much of Pushing Daisies but I greatly enjoy what I've seen, and I love Dead Like Me. Another show that was axed long before its time.