Re-watchable Shows

[flyonthewall2983]

What's your go-to for reruns? I can get stuck in a Frasier marathon quickly.

[jindianajonz]

I feel like I catch something new in Arrested Development every time i see it, and Futurama never gets old, especially with their commentary tracks (which are sometimes just as funny as the show itself).

[Murdoch]

Seinfeld, of course.

Also, while I've only watched it three times, Caprica gets better each time for me and it's ending (which is the best finale to a TV show that I've seen) never fails to give me goosebumps.

[The Narrator Returns]

American Dad! is always a pleasure to watch. Each episode has its share of big laughs, many of which still produce laughter after multiple viewings (the imploding head and the various close-ups on it during "Cops and Rogers" still make me lose it).

[Andre Jurieu]

Seinfeld, of course.

I had a similar discussion with a co-worker a couple days ago and I think 30 Rock is becoming my new Seinfeld when it comes to flipping channels (or I guess, paging through the menu) while I'm bored at home, in that I'll always make a conscious choice to stop and watch a few minutes of an episode, but then I just wind up watching the entire episode anyway.

[beamish13]

-I'm Alan Partridge/Knowing Me, Knowing You (ah ha!)

-The Critic (it hit the ground running at the same time THE SIMPSONS was going through a transitional phase, and for my money, it was arguably more consistent and re-watchable, dated jokes and references be damned)

-Duckman

-Invader Zim (the last great Nickelodeon show)

-The Kids in the Hall

-Cowboy Bebop

-American Dad

-The Young Ones

-Community

-Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

[mfunk9786]

I go to sleep to an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 every night.

[Drucker]

The Critic is certainly a nice gem of a show.

Simpsons seasons 1-6, Home Movies, and first 4 seasons of Futurama are all gems that I can put on at any time.

[Michael]

For 15 years now, not a day goes by without watching an episode or two of The Golden Girls.

[jindianajonz]

d first 4 seasons of Futurama

Futurama definitely dropped when the movies came out, but they have been getting better and better since. I'd say the most recent DVD volume is on par with their earlier stuff. If you haven't checked them out, I'd give all the non-movie stuff a chance.

Caprica gets better each time for me and it's ending (which is the best finale to a TV show that I've seen) never fails to give me goosebumps.

I haven't seen Caprica, but the end of Six Feet Under is probably my vote for best series finale.

[Drucker]

Futurama was frequently, if not always, a pretty timeless serious (save the celebrity endorsements) and existed in its own wonderful world. I didn't find that to be the case when I watched bits of Season 5, which was pretty unfunny and just sort of dated. Has that element changed?

[swo17]

Wait, people actually rewatch things? I thought that was just a word I made up to explain to people why I buy so many DVDs.

[Professor Wagstaff]

I can't watch Arrested Development anymore because watching one episode means that I'll spend that given week rewatching them all (having now been through the series about ten times now). The same goes for Party Down.

Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, and King of the Hill are like comfort blankets and somehow manage to be startlingly fresh for me despite how familiar I've become with their many episodes.

I'm surprised to see that no one's mentioned NewsRadio (though I'm more than happy to be the first). It may not receive as much play as my other TV discs, but the show's charms have never decreased in value. The show manages to feel handmade for me, a virtue that too few movies/shows have for me these days.

[Murdoch]

I go to sleep to an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 every night.

That's a good policy. As much as I love watching the show at a reasonable hour for a normal person, the show gets exponentially funnier if I watch it sleep-deprived at 1 am.

[colinr0380]

I love Duckman too beamish13! I've got a couple of sixteen year old taped from television VHS tapes that I regularly return to for a good laugh and have been meaning to pick up the DVDs for a good while. I wish that we lived in a world where Jason Alexander was better known for this than Seinfeld!

I especially like the more meta episodes such as the clip show that involves Duckman being tortured by a television critic driven crazy by his show and trying to force him to wake up to the fact that he is only a cartoon character! Or the satire on blunt allegories where Duckman and Cornfeld go on the search for a beautiful model called "America" who has gone into hiding after having been abused by a string of boyfriends, who not very subtly embody the 1950s (black and white pipe smoking suburbia), 60s (hippies), 70s (Travolta-styled disco dancing Italians), and 80s (Gordon Gekko-style stock brokers)! With Duckman slowly becoming obsessed by the missing 'woman' and turning into a 90s Gen X slack-jawed slacker!

[Steven H]

Firefly, for me. I have a horrible weakness for science fiction and that show always gets me thinking about some futuristic concept (including what they left out of the show) like few others. I think I've seen Venture Bros., all of the Le Carre BBC series and Reilly: Ace of Spies multiple times.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

The voice actors on Avatar make it ridiculously easy to watch again and again. I love the animation, but sometimes I'll choose an episode rather than listen to music while I work.

[Roger Ryan]

The original TWILIGHT ZONE series is perfect for popping in a random episode and enjoying 24 minutes of a self-contained story. FREAKS AND GEEKS became a sort-of perfect one season show that works as a miniseries now. Agree that ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and 30 ROCK are great fun to return to.

[feihong]

The Big O is always re-watchable for me. Any episode is interesting by itself, and the style and feel and the philosophical interest of the thing is retained even after one has seen it all.

I recently found that old episodes of Homocide: Life on the Street are still really engrossing--especially the early seasons, in which each episode is pretty unique.

[jindianajonz]

Futurama was frequently, if not always, a pretty timeless serious (save the celebrity endorsements) and existed in its own wonderful world. I didn't find that to be the case when I watched bits of Season 5, which was pretty unfunny and just sort of dated. Has that element changed?

Definitly. I think the EyePhone and Leela's Boil episode were the two low points for me for the exact same reason; they've gone back to the more timeless sci-fi based plotlines and jokes rather than (lamely) poking fun at whatever the latest trend is.

[Drucker]

Yeah the Facebook references after they came back had me running away. I'll give it another shot!

[zedz]

Wait, people actually rewatch things? I thought that was just a word I made up to explain to people why I buy so many DVDs.

I'm in the same boat. Getting the time to rewatch favourite movies is difficult enough, so television is way down the list, but the show I've rewatched the most times and that never gets less funny is The Day Today. Quite apart from the sheer hilarity of many of the gags, and the satire getting more mind-boggling prescient with every passing year, there are just so many loving details in the presentation to appreciate (e.g. the timing of the animated slugs) and various deathless line readings ("the ritual. . . of the bullying ritual") to crack you up.

We're also midway through a (glacial) rewatch of The Wire, and that's a show that virtually demands it, since the beauty of the construction and the incredible complexity of the interrelationships of characters and incidents is only just graspable the first time around.

[Steven H]

We're also midway through a (glacial) rewatch of The Wire, and that's a show that virtually demands it, since the beauty of the construction and the incredible complexity of the interrelationships of characters and incidents is only just graspable the first time around.

I don't know if I could handle the fifth season again, but you're right, I should rewatch The Wire. That's one of those shows that always seems to find new audiences.

edit: should

[colinr0380]

Quite apart from the sheer hilarity of many of the gags, and the satire getting more mind-boggling prescient with every passing year, there are just so many loving details in the presentation to appreciate (e.g. the timing of the animated slugs) and various deathless line readings ("the ritual. . . of the bullying ritual") to crack you up.

I love the line in the soap opera 'The Bureau' where a series of shattering events inspires the manager played by Steve Coogan to announce the shocking news that "I'm CLOSING the Bureau de Change...for half an hour"

While its not really in the same category as The Day Today or Brass Eye, I also liked the series Broken News from the early 2000s (featuring a pre-fame Benedict Cumberbatch as one of the cast!) - that tackles some of the new developments in television news such as the multitude of channels covering more or less the same events, from BBC Breakfast chumminess, to bantering American newsreaders, to the business channels and so on. The most amusing parts of that show were the way in which the ever present ticker tape rolling news headlines or business information and so on regularly change speed and direction as the channel gets changed! There's even one channel where the live action portion is squeezed into the top quarter of the screen while the rest is full of rapidly changing charts and texts!

There's also the standing news, which is tackling that informal policy in the early 2000s of news shows getting rid of the intimidating desks and getting their presenters to matily walk around or sit on couches to chat more casually to their audience.

Oh, and I particularly liked the running gag throughout the series targeting one of the BBC's favourite methods of having a reporter on location start off miles away from their interview subjects, talking all the time while walking closer to them, then introducing the interviewee and then immediately cutting them off because they've run out of time and have to go back to the studio!

[zedz]

Quite apart from the sheer hilarity of many of the gags, and the satire getting more mind-boggling prescient with every passing year, there are just so many loving details in the presentation to appreciate (e.g. the timing of the animated slugs) and various deathless line readings ("the ritual. . . of the bullying ritual") to crack you up.

I love the line in the soap opera 'The Bureau' where a series of shattering events inspires the manager played by Steve Coogan to announce the shocking news that "I'm CLOSING the Bureau de Change...for half an hour"

"WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CLOSE THE BUREAU DE CHANGE!!" is probably the least likely quotable-in-all-kinds-of-circumstances line ever (at least in our household), though "In 1975. . . no-one died" etc. comes very, very close. "Ta-ra, ya shitter," "And what about this? Cool, is it?," and "Fancy Lady!" have a bit more obvious general application. Yes, it's an exciting life chez nous.