Firefly was mistreated, then canceled, and then had to shove a bunch of exposition into a movie (and also some comics) just to kinda sorta wrap up its plotlines. It was amazing TV but it was also murdered before it could approach any definition of perfect.
And that’s honestly the distinction I’m interested in. There’s lots of TV that is truly excellent, but fewer shows that also manage to stick the landing.
I think a baseline for a perfect show has to be one that leaves you a little bit sad when it’s over, but also very satisfied. No resentment, no confusion, no anger. Like the end of a great meal, when eating more would simply ruin the experience and maybe even make you sick.
I was only vaguely aware of who Musk was at the time of his appearance. It was a sort of “Oh, yeah, it’s that Tesla guy” reaction from me.
The irony is that Musk (playing himself) is seen volunteering at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, and has dialogue about how good it feels to help out the less fortunate. Hard to imagine him being willing to take a part like that these days.
NCIS Origins has been gangbusters so far, knock wood; I guess we’re meant to restrict ourselves to series that have completed their run already.
Regarding The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the prospect of Mary and Ted ever dating: They did have one hilariously disastrous date, the episode guest-starring Jack Cassidy as Ted’s compulsively competitive brother. Ted talks Mary into a double date with Rhoda involved. My favorite line from it: Ted keeps Mary awake all night on a work night because he thinks his brother got lucky with Rhoda elsewhere in the building and he doesn’t want to be the first of the two to go home. When the sun comes up, he tells Mary “Minnesota is the land of the midnight sun.” She replies "No, Ted, Minnesota is the land of a thousand lakes…and I think I see one of them!"
I’m curious as to how far you got? If you didn’t like it at all that’s you’re own personal taste and it’s fine. You hear a lot about how some shows you have to give it some time to get good. The Good Place is unique in that when you get to a certain part you retroactively see how good it’s been the entire time.
At least 4 eps. Looking at IMDB, it might have been as many as 6. But it is hard to tell from the ep descriptions. They all seem to be variations of “X turns out to not be what everyone thought he was,” and “a bunch of weird stuff happens to various characters.” I did not care for it enough while watching for it to stick with me.
I tried to give it a fair shot, but it just seemed like a lot of weird, not terribly interesting stuff happened to a bunch of characters I didn’t really care about. And I never perceived any really worthwhile philosophical themes of the sort folk seemed to rave about - and which had made me think it WOULD appeal to me. The philosophy impressed me as somewhat sophomoric musing.
If a show doesn’t catch my attention in 4-6 episodes, it would be surprising for me to give it more of a chance. Especially when, as I said, I tried it at least 3 times.
My sister recently watched it to the end. She enjoyed the final resolution, but up until then she said it was just a lot of weird stuff happening to these 4 characters.
NCIS is perfect because most episodes are so easily forgettable that I can watch them again and again whenever it’s on one of the dozen or so channels that runs it.
It was weird, but often hilariously funny, and the thing is I think it had to be what it was to complete the story. They didn’t try to drag the show’s premise out in an effort to keep making money. On another network the central premise of “low rent hitman wants to be an actor” would have been dragged out, season after season, with increasingly absurd excuses for why he keeps avoiding death or law enforcement and picking up acting gigs and maintaining his relationship with his pretty girlfriend. Instead they actually had the guts to have the house of cards collapse - as it would.
Not to put to fine a point on it, but he is a South African in the US on Thanksgiving. Everything is closed. What is he gonna do? watch the damn parade?
Nothing like spending a useless day seeking a little publicity.
Monk is one of my favorite shows of all time, but I don’t think it quite makes it to “perfect”. Partly because in later seasons, the character became less of a “quirky guy with many phobias” and more of a “cartoonish alien who has no idea how human beings act”.
If she did, the screenwriter should have known that Minnesota is “The land of 10,000 lakes.”