Streaming Recommendations (Netflix, HBO, Amazon, etc.)

Quote: Pacomartin

Survivor is a thriller that was bashed badly by the critics.

I haven't watched it because RT gave it
8% and one critic said he thought it was
a comedy because he laughed so many
times. I'll try it warily, 20 min is my margin,
if it doesn't have me by then I bail.

The first 12 seasons of NCIS are on Nflix.
Never seen the show, know nothing about
it. Watched the pilot, which killed, and the
2nd ep, and am enjoying it so far.

What's interesting is it was barely in the
top 30 shows for it's first 6 seasons and
CBS kept renewing it. Since season 7,
it's been in the top 5 every year, and
was number 1 in season 10. Somebody
is doing something right.

I have 258 ep's to slog thru. Do I dare
look at Law and Order next? Never seen
even one ep, and it's been on since
the 90's.

Quote: Evenbob

The first 12 seasons of NCIS are on Nflix. Never seen the show, no nothing about it. Watched the pilot, which killed, and the 2nd ep, and am enjoying it so far. What interesting is it was barely in the top 30 shows for it's first 6 seasons and CBS kept renewing it.

Top 30 is usually worth getting renewed. CBS renewed every show in the top 40 last year. Stalker was ranked #43 and was cancelled.
Vegas with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis ran for one season on CBS in 2012-13, and was ranked #19 in overall viewership and still cancelled. But it was commented at the time that it was unusual to cancel a show ranked that high. Audience was too old, and production costs were high were the official reason.

Air Force One with Harrison Ford was back in 1997, so it was already several years old and they could use it as a plot device for NCIS.

The four character were introduced in a two episode arc of JAG in April 2003. JAG ran for 10 seasons (Sep 1995-April 2005) and the NCIS special agents were introduced for a spin-off series. Robyn Lively did not make the cut for the new series.
Mark Harmon ... Special Agent Jethro Gibbs
Michael Weatherly ... Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo
Pauley Perrette ... Abby Sciuto
Robyn Lively ... Special Agent Vivian Blackadder

The show had trouble finding a primary female character.
Abby Sciuto played by Pauley Perrette as the Forensic Specialist is now one of the richest character actresses on TV
Caitlin Todd played by Sasha Alexander as the former Secret Service Agent from AF1
Ziva David played by Cote de Pablo as an Israeli Mossad Officer

Cote de Pablo is Chilean born actress playing an Israeli character, Ziva David who appears in season #3. The character was very popular, even among Israelis, and basically is a big part of bringing the show out of the doldrums and into the top 5.

I like Mark Harmon and the McCallum,
but the other characters are mildly irritating
so far. I know they kill off the Caitlin woman
in season 2, which is fine, I don't like her
at all. The goth chick with the black hair
and tats is majorly irritating for me.

TV wants us to believe these people exist in top
positions in the gov't and military, and they
really do not. Extreme people who are just
oh so good at what they do that they can
cover themselves in tats and act like morons
and have kinky hair and makeup. Where you
actually find these people is working in mom
and pop stores in Miami and LA, not in forensic
labs for the Navy.

Quote: Evenbob

TV wants us to believe these people exist in top positions in the gov't and military, and they really do not.
Extreme people who are just oh so good at what they do that they can cover themselves in tats and act like morons and have kinky hair and makeup.

Unlike Eddie Murphy in Trading Places where street life makes you a natural commodity broker, or Mr. Mom or dozens of other movies where raising children makes you a natural executive.

An episode in the sixth season of House was named "5 to 9" . It aired on February 8, 2010. It portrayed a realistic stress filled day for the Dean of Medicine Lisa Cuddy. It was a very realistic view of work in a job such as hers.

Another fantasy is, a kid like the Goth girl
is the best in her field at, like, 23 years old.
This is impossible, it would take decades
to learn everything she supposedly knows.
That's why older professionals command
the most money and kids get paid scraps.
Unless it's on TV. But she's cute and sexy
and wears short skirts and flirts a lot, so
people love it.

There is also a lot of workplace sexual innuendo's
floating around that would never be tolerated
in a any office let alone a gov't office. Even
where my wife works you can lose your job
for the slightest hint at anything sexual or
gender related. In the late 60's in a factory
where I worked graveyard, the old supervisor
would sometimes haul his huge piece of
equipment out of his pants and swing it around
in front of us in the restroom. Today he'd probably
go to prison for it.

Quote: Evenbob

Another fantasy is, a kid like the Goth girl is the best in her field at, like, 23 years old.

The character Abby Sciuto was created by Donald P. Bellisario, who "wanted to create...a character who was seemingly an 'alternafreak,' while portraying her as perhaps the smartest, most capable person on television".

Pauley was quoted as saying "[NCIS creator] Don Bellisario told me that when he created Magnum, P.I. he wanted to introduce a Vietnam vet who defied the negative stereotype. So with Abby, he wanted to take an alternative-style person with tattoos and make her someone who is happy, totally put together and successful. All the script said about her was: black hair, caffeinated and smart...She's completely unaware that anybody thinks she looks weird. She thinks she looks pretty and never calls herself anything other than happy. And I fight for that."

Pauley Perrette was age 34 when she first appeared as Abby, and is now age 46. I don't know if they ever identify the character's age on the show, but she certainly looks younger than mid 30's.

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The president of the company who produces the “Q” scores, Henry Schafer, described their importance this way:
“TV personality Q Score metrics provide unique insight into the momentum that primetime casts bring to the opening of the fall television season. For returning shows, personality-driven appeal is extremely important for determining how strong or polarizing the cast is for maintaining viewer commitment. For new shows, the strength of the personality driven-factor is very important for enticing viewer sampling prior to exposure to the quality of the storylines.”

In 2014 the top spot went to NCIS’ Michael Weatherly, with a “Q” score of 34. The female actor with the highest “Q” score? That would be Michael Weatherly’s NCIS co-star, Pauley Perrette, with a score of 31.

The Wrap explains that the company that produces “Q” scores polls 1,800 people. They ask respondents if they have heard of a certain actor and how they feel about him. While Weatherly had a slightly higher “Q” score, which amounts to likeability, he had only half the recognizability of Parsons. Like Parsons and Weatherly, Cuoco’s recognizability score, at 49, is nearly double that of Perrette, at 25.

Most actors with high Q scores can make a fortune. Possibly the most famous case of an actor deliberately blowing up a high Q score was Woody Harrelson who played Woody Boyd on Cheers. He deliberately took roles of unpleasant characters, and in real life took incendiary positions that brought his Q score crashing down.

With clothes and makeup and perkiness,
they made Goth girl look like she was
early 20's. Schoolgirl outfits with short
skirts.

Woody is an ass, I can't watch anything
with him in it. I don't get the appeal,
he can't act, he always plays some
version of himself.

Just watched The Barkley Marathons : The race that eats its young
Toughest race on the planet
Very interesting, really enjoyed it
Its creation was based on the escape by James Earl Ray from the nearby prison that only got several miles away in 55 hours.
One runner bragged he could run a 100 miles in the time it took James Earl ray to just run a few.
Thus the Barkley Marathons , a course that includes that same prison
Very few have finished the total course in the allotted 60 hours, five 20 mile loops

Getting back into Breaking Bad
Thanks EB, fast forwarding through the Skylar and kid scenes helps a lot
Saul and his PI got me back into it.
2 other characters I like a lot, Gus, wheelchair bell and the brothers with the boots
All great characters.
Been binge watching :-)
Up to S3 EP5