I'm torn, the 1st season has better plot devices, but the 2nd season with the chemistry between Thomas and Carlie is off the charts. Plus during the 2nd season you get more Felix, a highly under used character. Why can't I choose?
BOO-YEAH!
I'm not certain I can compare the two to make one better than the other.
When watching "The Greatest Collection Of Them All" reminded me that there are two things which are borrowed for "Horse Of A Slightly Different Color" the switch and "If Max Is So Smart, Why Can't He Tell Us Where He Is?" hiding things into a wall.
I think the Carlie interaction is good, but I think the fact Banacek was rotated with a fairly long period of time between episodes made it easier to not have to worry about continuity from one episode to another, let alone across a story arc.
You could have a story arc in those 90 minute episodes. Look at Carlie and DeWtt, they went from dating to engaged to the wedding is off in 2 episodes. And only 2 episodes earlier Carlie and Thomas were doing the nasty.
BOO-YEAH!
But those are fairly short arcs. Imagine an entire season of 1 hour episodes (okay, 44 minutes of show with the rest of the hour consumed by ads) - that would be 13 episodes (1/2 season) if you're lucky to get that much (eventually) picked up ... one each week where you have to have some continuity, not a few weeks between 90 minute episodes.
Here's how things can change: The management team of Arrow had laid things out for Barry Allen to appear in episodes 8 and 9 (before he was the Flash), then in episode 20 have him become the Flash and spin off to his own series. TPTB liked what they saw in #8 & #9 such that they decided to take The Flash away from episode 20 and give The Flash a standalone pilot. So we'll see Barry Allen tomorrow night and next week, and I have no idea what they're going to do with #20.
When Flash was on in 1990, I couldn't believe how bad it was. They made four (yes, 4!) padded Flash suits - as in the entire suit was puffy - - at a cost of $25,000...each. And the special effects were worse than something from South Park. From what we saw with Bart (one of the Kid Flashes in the DC Comics universe) on Smallville, the special effects *are* available to make it a matter of relying upon stories, like Smallville, ala "No flights, no tights" (until the final episode). No, I haven't forgotten about Kal-el flying he wasn't Clark Kent then. Black kryptonite split Clark and Kal-el...
But those are fairly short arcs. Imagine an entire season of 1 hour episodes (okay, 44 minutes of show with the rest of the hour consumed by ads) - that would be 13 episodes (1/2 season) if you're lucky to get that much (eventually) picked up ... one each week where you have to have some continuity, not a few weeks between 90 minute episodes.
Here's how things can change: The management team of Arrow had laid things out for Barry Allen to appear in episodes 8 and 9 (before he was the Flash), then in episode 20 have him become the Flash and spin off to his own series. TPTB liked what they saw in #8 & #9 such that they decided to take The Flash away from episode 20 and give The Flash a standalone pilot. So we'll see Barry Allen tomorrow night and next week, and I have no idea what they're going to do with #20.
When Flash was on in 1990, I couldn't believe how bad it was. They made four (yes, 4!) padded Flash suits - as in the entire suit was puffy - - at a cost of $25,000...each. And the special effects were worse than something from South Park. From what we saw with Bart (one of the Kid Flashes in the DC Comics universe) on Smallville, the special effects *are* available to make it a matter of relying upon stories, like Smallville, ala "No flights, no tights" (until the final episode). No, I haven't forgotten about Kal-el flying he wasn't Clark Kent then. Black kryptonite split Clark and Kal-el...
I love that show FLASH. I have it on dvd. I know the acting was hammy and the special effects were cheesey and the humor was very wry. But hey, who doesn't love a ham and cheese on rye?
BOO-YEAH!
Sorry, haven't been checking in here for a while--I definitely prefer the first season. They did some interesting things in the second, but I think they had the better stories and the better guest stars in the first. Yes, more Carlie in the second, but that story never went anywhere after the second time they hooked up in "No Stone Unturned." They never developed the character, as I've complained in the past. And they wanted Banacek to remain a free agent, so they never developed his relationship with her.
There was a freshness to the first season--you could see them running out of energy and ideas in the second.
>> There was a freshness to the first season--you could see them running out of energy and ideas in the second. <<
Well put!
I think part of the development issues is that by being in a long rotation, all of the episodes are singletons - no need to have any carryover from the others. You know the theme and watch it play itself out.
Someone on here mentions them as movies. That's a good label. It wasn't my idea (I wish it had been). To a certain extent, Columbo had a common recipe - even though there were some characters who were reused in some episodes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1466074/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm - scroll down), they could produce a Columbo at any time as a TV movie - probably whenever the people (plural) who decided they had a worthwhile script...just like a movie.
I've been careful to avoid the "Ripped from the Headlines", as I know shows - not just Law & Order - do it. If you watch "The Good Wife", I can present a case where they didn't come up with it on their own. In that episode, a judge decides to hold two cases at the same time - two different juries, etc. The place they got that was here in Indy (Indianapolis - and no, I don't regret letting Peyton go, but that's another story): a prosecutor has been requesting what I call a three-ring circus: three trials with 3 juries and the defense attorneys are going nuts because something might be said or done intentionally to implicate (truthfully or not) a conspirator.
Here's the story in a rather one-size-fits-all: http://fox59.com/news/stories/south-side-disaster/#axzz2rlhxLhUe
On top of killing two people (it could have been dozens), several dozen - as in forty or fifty houses were basically death traps - people weren't allowed to go back into their houses, even if it were to be to retrieve the winning PowerBall ticket. They were leveled demolished, despite looking like there wasn't that much wrong with them. Oh, two things which betrayed them: 1) the homeowner's daughter was sent to stay with her babysitter; and 2) they sent the cat to be boarded for the weekend, despite not leaving town for the weekend. Both of those things happen to take place when they were unscheduled and all hell broke loose.
That's good that you don't regret Peyton getting away, but do you regret David Letterman getting away? Or worse how about letting Bobby "the Brain" Heenan get away?
BOO-YEAH!
You'd think Peyton founded a fertility clinic - tons of kids (both genders) named Peyton and Payton. In the case of the latter, parents seem to think they would be original. People from outside of Central Indiana want to know how Irsay could have let him go. People within Central Indiana (which I label the Brady Bunch) persist in saying, "if we still had Peyton, that could be us going to the Super Bowl". They overlook the fact the Colts beat three of the final four (losing to NE twice). Andrew will win at least two SBs before he's 30.
Letterman? No. I enjoyed watching him for awhile, was time-shifting Leno, and eventually switched to Leno (it took some time). The question is: who will replace Letterman? Besides, we still have his mom.
Heenan? Old-style wrestling? I'd put it a couple of notches beneath soap operas. I'd rather mount head-cams on custodial crews and watch them clean every night.
E, custodians do wonderful, if thankless work. I'm not saying it's god's work, but it's a honorable profession. I'm glad to be a part of and trust me, some of my staff are entertaining, but no flying elbows or figure four leg lock going on. At least as far as I know. BTW, go Seahawks.
BOO-YEAH!
I'm not saying anything against them - I know it's honest work - because I've done it.
My summers in high school (until my senior year, when I started a software company - crap, that was 34 years ago) were spent doing janitorial & cooking in a hotel. The first day I was in the kitchen (the "head cook" was illiterate - every so often, she'd be reading the newspaper upside-down and didn't realize it. (no pictures on the page, no clues that it wasn't oriented.) She didn't known FF meant French fries...sort of like those who are learning Japanese[1] or Chinese think of "drawing characters", not "writing" - and that makes a big difference in the process of learning either language.
My first day in the kitchen and I about blew chow - (I also worked as an EMT in high school & college, so when I could handle watching body parts go through an auger or combine on a farm, it takes a lot to get to me). They'd mopped under the equipment as far as the mop would go without bending down (at all); IOW, about six inches underneath, all o. I went back in that night, emptied the kitchen, scrubbed it from floor to ceiling, then put everything back. Two weeks later, they shut down the dining room to re-carpet and I started taking pieces of equipment apart, cleaning, and reassembling (#1 was the dish-washing system, #2 was the fryer). I never figured out how the SBOH hadn't been made aware of all of this.
Finally, back to the -cam reference. This was before there were iPods and there were times when I couldn't have a radio blaring. So it was make sure I had several sheets of paper & a pen in my pocket to write ideas down when they occurred to me.
I'd go nuts on an assembly line...any more, I hate doing repetitive work unless it's because I'm keying in massive quantities of data to be used for some reason later on... I'm sure most people would get tired if I wore a head-cam when I'm working at a keyboard.
[1] Every time I hear someone pronounce karaoke as carry-okay, I have to wonder, if oke is okay, then how does one get carry out of kara?