Twitter address update

I changed my twitter ID from @marshallgeoff to @geoffmarsh.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #12:Star Trek: Deep Space 9

First off, I'm not a Trekkie/Trekker/whatever you want to call it. I have to state that from the outset, lest people think I'm prone to attending conventions, speaking Klingon, and kneeling at the shrine of Roddenberry. I will admit that am a Star Trek fan, I'm familiar with the Star Trek universe and I watched most of the shows and movies, but I'm not a hard-core fanatic. My Star-Trek viewing is selective; I've never watched an episode of the original Star Trek, and I doubt I ever will. I've seen all of the modern movies, some of the older ones, and I watched some of Voyager and very little of Enterprise. The two main Star Trek shows I really watched were The Next Generation (TNG), and Deep Space Nine (DS9), and for my money, Deep Space Nine was/is the best Star Trek series ever produced. TNG admittedly has the more iconic crew (thanks mostly to Captain Picard, Worf and Data) but DS9 had more interesting characters and situations and was a much more interesting show for it.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas #13: Boomtown

There aren't many "mainstream" cop shows on my list; you won't see any of the CSI's or L&O's. Its not because I actively hate those shows, but in my experience those shows are mostly about catching and cooking the bad guys, with very little room for overarching stories or character growth. I watched Law and Order reruns religiously in my sophomore year, but only because they came on at lunchtime so I could eat and watch 'em. I like NCIS a lot, yet I don't follow it or watch it often because I know it will be in re-runs perpetually; its more of a guilty pleasure that I'd watch more if I had a TV and more time. So, the normal cop shows don't really do much for my critical TV watching mood.

Boomtown (NBC, 2002-2003) was not a normal cop show.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #14: ED

ED (NBC) was a dramedy that ran from 2000 to 2004, just before the Internet TV critic craze broke out. The premise behind this show is that the titular Ed Stevens(played by Tom Cavanaugh), a lawyer in New York gets a double whammy in losing his job at a law firm, and coming home to find his wife banging a mailman in his bed. He decides to return home to Stuckeyville, Ohio (admittedly the squarest name one could ever imagine) where he meets his high school crush Carol Vessey (the lovely Julie Bowen) who is now a teacher at the Stuckeyville High School. For some reason, he decides that he’s going to win her heart now, so he decides to return home for good, buys a bowling alley and sets up a law practice. He runs a bowling alley, and he’s a lawyer. Two separate things. Other characters include his best friend Josh and Josh’s wife Nancy, Carol’s best friend Molly (also a teacher), the bowling alley employees Phil, Shirley and Kenny, plus Warren (Justin Long’s breakout role) who’s a high school student.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #15: CHUCK

SPOILERS BELOW.

Chuck (NBC) will go down in history as "the little show that could, and did persevere". On paper, it looks as the type of show that wouldn't garner much ratings (it hasn't), that has a limited appeal (I wouldn't agree but I admit that its audience is pretty set at this point), and that would be canceled after its first season. Yet, from its premiere in 2007, at the end of each season, this show has stared cancellation in the face. Each time, cancellation blinked.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 2: Almost made its...

Welcome back. This post series looks at my fave TV shows and why I like 'em. This particular post is the last one before i actually start the countdown, and focuses on the shows that just missed out on making the list. Many of the shows in this post are shows I followed regularly and liked/still like, but for one reason or another just didn't make the cut. These include:

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 1: Honorable (and dishonorable) Mentions

Welcome back to my analysis of the top 15 TV dramas I've watched. If you want to know the background behind this series, take a look at the post previous to this one. In this post, I will do a brief analysis of shows I watch (or used to watch) that for some reason don't make the top 15. These can be grouped into three groups: Guilty Pleasures, Used to Love 'Em, and Almost but Not Quite.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas: the beginning

To jumpstart my attempt at regular blogging about various things that interest me, I decided to examine the various TV shows I've watched and followed. I usually read other persons reviews (like Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan, the AV Club, TWOP, etc etc) and enjoy their thoughts but never got into looking at my own views/thoughts on these shows. Thus, I've decided to list the top 15 dramas I've seen and rank them up to #1. I won't be doing them all at once, probably one per day.

This list will cover only 1-hour dramas that I have actually seen and can comment on. Thus, there are shows like "Treme", "Mad Men", "Boardwalk Empire", "Men of a Certain Age" and "Dr. Who" that I am confident will find a place on the list, replacing other contenders...however, since I haven't been able to watch those shows for one reason or another, I can't place them. Yet. Edited July 24 to add The Good Wife to this list, I'm pretty sure I will like it, once I start following it more.

I've also left off sitcoms and comedies. I find that I don't really watch the live-action ones anymore, but I lean more towards the animated ones like "Archer", "South Park", Fox Sunday Nights, and others. "Archer" is one of the best shows on TV though, and I'll give it it's own analysis one day. Maybe I will get back into the live action comedies like "Parks and Recreation", "Cougar Town" and others, but at the moment they just don't really grab me like the dramas and animated comedies do.

There are also shows I watch regularly and like, but I know that they are either guilty pleasures, or they aren't deep enough to be on a ranked list of TV dramas, as well as shows that were ALMOST good enough to make the list but didn't, for one reason or another. This category will be the first detailed blog posting, and I'll post it up soon.

So, here goes something! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my views.

Blogging...

Why don't I blog more? I have a lot to say and the skill to say it, yet I don't. Why not?

Laziness and procrastination are the main ones, but I can change that. I do believe I will change that.

But, what to blog about?

Whatever's on my mind :)

Watch this space...