This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. I find that exposure to LW ideas makes me less likely to enjoy some entertainment media that is otherwise quite popular, and finding media recommended by LWers is a good way to mitigate this. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules:
Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
If you have a thread to add, such as a video game thread or an Anime thread, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.
Independent of Alejandro1's good suggestions I have a thought about the pacing and lastability of premises for TV shows.
I suspect it would be very difficult for an exploration of just that premise to be stretched out into a full length tv series and would likely be more suited to a standalone novel or movie. Similar for a lot of other tv show premises that are attached to more generic shows.* If the main characters devoted their sole attention to resolving the premise it would be implausible for them not to resolve it within a few episodes, meaning they can't play with it anymore or have to resolve some of the interesting ambiguity of it.
Other examples of the top of my head would be Life on Mars, Tru Calling, contrast to say Primer where the premise is the entirety of the plot, but its over much quicker.
Why they want shows that last a long time rather than one shots probably comes down to the economics of the television industry, which I don't know much about.
4Alejandro1
Excellent question; I have dropped both "Alcatraz" and "Person of Interest" after a couple of episodes because of this problem.
Three hypothesis: a) The procedural formula is easier to pull off successfully with limited writing talent. b) Having a handful of permanent characters and the rest be one-offs is cheaper in terms of casting than a complex plot with many, layered recurring characters. c) We are atypical, and most people prefer the comforting, predictable procedural formula. (In particular, it allows for tuning in and out of a show missing episodes here and there with no great loss.)
This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. I find that exposure to LW ideas makes me less likely to enjoy some entertainment media that is otherwise quite popular, and finding media recommended by LWers is a good way to mitigate this. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules: