Yeah, *24 * is good, especially the first season.
Big Bad Voodoo Lou, I think I’m going to check out those other two based on your say-so. Several times I’ve been tempted to find out if you’re actually my husband and just claiming to live somewhere else (Jeremy?), and I find I often agree with your taste like I do with his.
I’ll third Lost. A bit of trivia: David Fury who was involved heavily with both Angel and Buffy is one of the co-executive producers on Lost, and also has written one of the episodes.
I wish they would release St. Elsewhere on DVD. I would also recommend that if it were available. After going out and buying it first, of course.
I love Buffy too and since Babylon 5’s being thrown around, I might as well suggest its cousin, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Very similar concepts and story arcs, enough that there are people that believe one (usually DS9) ripped off the other (B5).
Even if you aren’t a Trekkie, it’s a show worth getting into. It’s got a lot of the same mixture of seriousness, quirkiness, and just oddball humor that *BtVS *does and is just … well, awesome.
Aw shucks! I’m blushin’ ear to ear now!
Judging Amy …STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! It’s on TNT everyday. I work from home. I love it.
Oh, and Third Watch which I have just started watching.
I’m not going to pretend it’s Masterpiece Theatre (Or even MasterJoss Whedonatre), but I’ve been really getting into Hex. It’s like Buffy met Harry Potter and got turned into a soap opera.
I love “Strangers with Candy”! And there’s gonna be a movie!
I don’t think it’ll be made available on anything but Region 1 DVD because it was never aired outside of America as far as I know (maybe in Canada). If you have a region-free DVD player, though, you could watch it.
Strangers with Candy used to be on the Comedy Channel here in Australia but I didn’t watch it.
Oh, I didn’t realize they had Comedy Central there. Well, maybe you can get the DVDs, then.
Go with Angel after Buffy, that just gets better too. Thanks for the tip on Firefly, haven’t seen that one. My fav all time series tho has to be The West Wing.
Gilmore Girls , of course, and I’ll stick another vote in for Scrubs . Ain’t so popular here in Australia and gets shown at midnight. I expect that’s to make room for the excellent, excellent programs shown during prime time. :rolleyes:
What a great idea for a thread!
I, too, caught on to Buffy late, but now it’s my favorite show ev-ar. In fact, to me there’s just nothing that could ever compare. The shows here (many of which I’ve seen and enjoyed, and the ones I haven’t, I’ll be checking out immediately) are good, but for me nothing will ever live up to Buffy. That’s just how it is. 
Anyway, for other good shows, I’d enthusiastically second (third, whatever) Scrubs and especially Veronica Mars.
Veronica Mars is like Buffy crossed with Alias (which I also like, but agree with Peter that it definitely went downhill after the first two seasons) - it’s got a very strong, likeable female lead, who just happens to be an ex-popular blond teenager, her wacky friends, and her great relationship with her single parent (a father, in this case). The gimmick is that her dad is a private investigator, and she helps him out with his cases, and takes on cases of her own at high school. Plus Veronica’s best friend was killed (before the show started) and there’s an overarching plot thread about who killed her. Kind of Harriet-the-Spy meets Twin Peaks. Or something. Some of the lines seem very Buffy-esque to me, such as this exchange between a student at Neptune High and the principal:
Principal: I’d like a word, Logan.
Logan (without missing a beat): “Anthropomorphic.” It’s all yours, big guy.
Principal: [looks bewildered]
That one had me rolling. Just, to me, struck that Buffy note that I’d been missing. Anyway, that show’s a bit uneven, still finding its feet, but I have very high hopes for it. (Of course, since it’s a quality show, that means it’s doomed for sure.) I’d highly recommend checking it out.
And I forgot to mention my other recommendation, My So-Called Life. Where Buffy always made me laugh remembering how much high school sucked, MSCL always, always makes me cry. But it’s soooo good. Tragically short, though. And available on dvd.
Don’t miss *Dead Like * Me - I didn’t expect to like it, and found up not only a convert, but a true believer.
All these mentions of Scrubs and Reno 911! and Strangers With Candy, and no one mentions the live-action Tick? Granted, it only aired a few times, but the entire series is available in one DVD set.
Your experience with Buffy mirrors mine with Futurama: ignored the show during its entire run, rented the first season, and now we bought the entire run.
I’m almost done with the entire run and found them all to be at least amusing, and several threw me into fits of laughter that was almost painful. The sci-fi parody stuff was fine, but really enjoyed the characters, the humor and the animation.
Synchronisity alert: my wife and I just watched the Buffy movie on DVD. Great concept and it had a few good moments but horribly executed, and by the time of the climatic ending at the senior dance, it felt like just gave up trying to make some sense out of this. I can’t believe it went on to become a successful series.
If you read interviews with Joss Whedon, he is pretty critical of BtVS movie. He wasn’t given creative control of the movie and felt his vision was ignored. So he decided to do the t.v. series in part to take back that creative control. He’s terribly critical of the movie making process, and especially of Donald Sutherland as an actor and person. 
IIRC, he wanted Kristy Swanson as Buffy but she wasn’t available.
I was a huge Buffy fan for most of its run. I tried to get a number of people to watch it but for some reason they never gave it a chance. I guess you either “get” it or you don’t. I’m glad you get it. One of the best shows ever on television.
You should at least try an episode or two of Deadwood, Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Lost. I always get sucked back in to 24 – try to watch it from the beginning or you will be very confused – moreso than if you miss episodes of Lost.
I highly recommend Arrested Development. The first season is on DVD. I admit I’m not a huge comedy fan though but this show is great.
If you like cartoons try Venture Brothers, it’s very clever, and for adults. I also like another weird adult cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force. At first I hated it but now I love it. Tom Goes To The Mayor, another very odd cartoon that has the involvement of Bob Odenkirk from Mr. Show.
I never watched Buffy because I always got the vibe that it was just a stupid teeny-bopper show that had vampires thrown in. A boring excuse for a pseudo-diva to show off her goods in various vampire-slaying outfits, with some stupid teenage romance bullshit thrown in on top.
But considering so many people on this forum and many others that share my interests in other TV shows have recommended it I may end up giving it a chance eventually.
Do so. I discovered it early, kept running across it on Sunday evening, picking up the last 10-20 minutes and kept watching longer and longer until eventually I started looking for it and made it a regular habit. Now I own all 7 DVD series collections - you can pick these up at a decent rate these days and it’s a far superior way of watching the series, more like reading a book. The first 3 seasons sort of make one complete epic story, and the series gains a lot of strength if you watch it completely from the first episode as there are a lot of references and it has great character build-up.
I think Mr. Whedon, the original writer of the series, pulled off something of a Dubliners here, setting up a Joycean multi-layer form of entertainment. It would make sense, as he’s an English Major (like me). It shows. The dialogue, story references, build up, it’s all there and all that. Carry on, Mr. Giles.