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lauraredcloud at 11:04pm on 03/07/2010 under tv
lauraredcloud at 11:04pm on 03/07/2010 under tvWith the advent of hulu plus, the new lame subscription service, this list may soon be obsolete, but on the other hand, these shows are probably so spectacularly unpopular that hulu will never dream of charging for them.
1. Mysterious Cities of Gold: My brother taped the last eight episodes off TV when Nickelondeon was running a marathon sometime in the 80s, and I watched them over-and-over-and-over when I was a little kid. I looked for the other episodes several times since then, but until recently they were only available in French. Until last weekend, I had never seen the early episodes. It's weird, and very nostalgic! The animation and voice acting are worse than I remembered, but the story is actually maybe better.
2. My So-Called Life: This is another one where the sudden availability takes some getting used to, since at the height of my love for this show (granted, later than everyone else's; I saw some episodes late night on "The N" when I was in college) the DVD set was semi-out of print and selling for $100+. I actually have this on DVD now (I did not pay $100+), so it's kind of useless to me that it's online, but still good for, you know, road trips? I guess? While more serious than the other high school shows I like, MSCL's earnestness is kind of infectious and it seems to capture a more accurate teenage balance of smartness and dumbness, joy and angst, optimism and cynicism than any other high school show.
3. Square Pegs: A one-season high school show from 1982 starring Sarah Jessica Parker as a young nerd. Rory and I caught several episodes of this on a TVLand marathon in junior high, and we chanted the theme song--"I wanna wear my glasses, but I can't wear my glasses"--for years after I forgot what the rest of the show was like. It turns out it was surprisingly funny for an early 80s high school show with a laugh track, but it's still an early 80s high school show with a laugh track. (This would be an example of the typical representation of high school on TV: wisecracking mini-adults who end each episode stating the moral and smiling at each other.)
4. Robotech: Macross Saga: Another show I loved so much as a kid that I taped it onto VHS. (I would have been in sixth and seventh grade.) It came on each afternoon after school, and I watched the whole run several times over before Toonami changed their schedule. It's one of the first shows where I can remember actually thinking, "Wow, that's a contrived situation clearly designed less with the story and plot and logical rules of the world in mind and far more to get two unlikely characters to kiss," but, you know, being aware of that didn't make me like it any less. (More, if anything, and nowadays I commit that 'error' all the time!) I have not yet rewatched this to see how it stands up, because I'm afraid doing so will make Hulu believe I want ALL the anime.
5. NewsRadio: I never knew when this was on, but I would sometimes turn on the TV and find it, and I almost always preferred to watch it over whatever else was on. Even though it wasn't all that funny--I recognized this--it was very comforting and comfortable and easy to watch for me, kind of the Boy Meets World (not on hulu, I checked) of the adult working world. (I really do like workplace shows. It's one of the draws of 30 Rock, for me.) It was one of the first DVD sets I bought, although I didn't end up watching it much before I eventually sold it on half.com. Its availability made it less special, kind of like how I never watch it now.
6. Jack of All Trades: Remember the Raimi/Tapert attempt to get into half-hour comedies? It was this and Cleopatra 2525 (which they also have). I remember enjoying this a lot, but I haven't brought myself to rewatch it yet. I wish they would have Xena and Hercules instead. (They only have Young Hercules). Watching TV on hulu is kind of an exercise in trying to remember the most subpar shows you ever loved.
7. The Tick: The live-action show, not the cartoon. I missed this completely on TV (probably because it was only nine episodes long), and ended up watching it for the first time a couple weeks ago. Some of the running gags are irritating, and the sole female character being the boss is kind of ruined by her being shrill, but on the whole it's quite watchable and funny. Patrick Warburton does a great job with the over-the-top, constantly speechifying superhero character of the Tick. He reminds me a lot of a lawful good paladin I used to play. There's also a vaguely racist caricature of a ladies' man who reminds me of Lance Redcloud. I would have really loved this show if I had seen it during its run in 2001.
8. Arrested Development: Finally, a show on this list which is legitimately good! I rewatch the whole run every now and again, and it keeps on being funny. I keep meaning to buy the DVD sets so I can give the creators some money, but it's hard to justify now. Maybe I should just mail Mitchell Hurwitz a nice card.
Please to recommend for me shows I may have missed! I do not have the attention span to go through the whole list, so I have to just be pleasantly surprised when the recommendation algorithm does a good job.
1. Mysterious Cities of Gold: My brother taped the last eight episodes off TV when Nickelondeon was running a marathon sometime in the 80s, and I watched them over-and-over-and-over when I was a little kid. I looked for the other episodes several times since then, but until recently they were only available in French. Until last weekend, I had never seen the early episodes. It's weird, and very nostalgic! The animation and voice acting are worse than I remembered, but the story is actually maybe better.
2. My So-Called Life: This is another one where the sudden availability takes some getting used to, since at the height of my love for this show (granted, later than everyone else's; I saw some episodes late night on "The N" when I was in college) the DVD set was semi-out of print and selling for $100+. I actually have this on DVD now (I did not pay $100+), so it's kind of useless to me that it's online, but still good for, you know, road trips? I guess? While more serious than the other high school shows I like, MSCL's earnestness is kind of infectious and it seems to capture a more accurate teenage balance of smartness and dumbness, joy and angst, optimism and cynicism than any other high school show.
3. Square Pegs: A one-season high school show from 1982 starring Sarah Jessica Parker as a young nerd. Rory and I caught several episodes of this on a TVLand marathon in junior high, and we chanted the theme song--"I wanna wear my glasses, but I can't wear my glasses"--for years after I forgot what the rest of the show was like. It turns out it was surprisingly funny for an early 80s high school show with a laugh track, but it's still an early 80s high school show with a laugh track. (This would be an example of the typical representation of high school on TV: wisecracking mini-adults who end each episode stating the moral and smiling at each other.)
4. Robotech: Macross Saga: Another show I loved so much as a kid that I taped it onto VHS. (I would have been in sixth and seventh grade.) It came on each afternoon after school, and I watched the whole run several times over before Toonami changed their schedule. It's one of the first shows where I can remember actually thinking, "Wow, that's a contrived situation clearly designed less with the story and plot and logical rules of the world in mind and far more to get two unlikely characters to kiss," but, you know, being aware of that didn't make me like it any less. (More, if anything, and nowadays I commit that 'error' all the time!) I have not yet rewatched this to see how it stands up, because I'm afraid doing so will make Hulu believe I want ALL the anime.
5. NewsRadio: I never knew when this was on, but I would sometimes turn on the TV and find it, and I almost always preferred to watch it over whatever else was on. Even though it wasn't all that funny--I recognized this--it was very comforting and comfortable and easy to watch for me, kind of the Boy Meets World (not on hulu, I checked) of the adult working world. (I really do like workplace shows. It's one of the draws of 30 Rock, for me.) It was one of the first DVD sets I bought, although I didn't end up watching it much before I eventually sold it on half.com. Its availability made it less special, kind of like how I never watch it now.
6. Jack of All Trades: Remember the Raimi/Tapert attempt to get into half-hour comedies? It was this and Cleopatra 2525 (which they also have). I remember enjoying this a lot, but I haven't brought myself to rewatch it yet. I wish they would have Xena and Hercules instead. (They only have Young Hercules). Watching TV on hulu is kind of an exercise in trying to remember the most subpar shows you ever loved.
7. The Tick: The live-action show, not the cartoon. I missed this completely on TV (probably because it was only nine episodes long), and ended up watching it for the first time a couple weeks ago. Some of the running gags are irritating, and the sole female character being the boss is kind of ruined by her being shrill, but on the whole it's quite watchable and funny. Patrick Warburton does a great job with the over-the-top, constantly speechifying superhero character of the Tick. He reminds me a lot of a lawful good paladin I used to play. There's also a vaguely racist caricature of a ladies' man who reminds me of Lance Redcloud. I would have really loved this show if I had seen it during its run in 2001.
8. Arrested Development: Finally, a show on this list which is legitimately good! I rewatch the whole run every now and again, and it keeps on being funny. I keep meaning to buy the DVD sets so I can give the creators some money, but it's hard to justify now. Maybe I should just mail Mitchell Hurwitz a nice card.
Please to recommend for me shows I may have missed! I do not have the attention span to go through the whole list, so I have to just be pleasantly surprised when the recommendation algorithm does a good job.
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