TV Poll! I don't watch enough to know what's on!

[beccatoria]

Okay so. When I started hating The X-Files, it was right around the time I fell for Farscape. When Farscape got axed BSG very kindly showed up to steal my heart. Now that BSG is over (and my heart is in tatters; nope, still not over the surreal anti-intellectual reactionary technophobic crap: after all the stuff it pulled and the wars fought in its name they should have kept the tech and thrown GOD into the sun) I find myself adrift.

My cunning plan was to jump on the Terminator train and develop wallow in an enormous crush on Agent Ellison and an intellectual crush on Weaver/Cameron/John Henry. However, it's looking increasingly and depressingly likely that it won't get renewed. *commences wailing*

And for real, I watch like, no television. Occasionally I'll catch an episode of House or Bones or something but other than that, my TV schedule consists pretty much exclusively of BSG, Terminator and, when it's on, Dexter. So I need advice on what to start watching next.

I know you can't force fannish love, but I can at least start, um, "seeing other shows," and finding out if there's a spark, right?

So, my personal ad! Sorta.

Basically I like science fiction/fantasy/magic realism/SOMETHING that means its not just...our normal, ordinary world. This makes me feel like a really huge geek, because I don't watch shows everyone tells me are amazing like The West Wing or The Wire because I'm like...blah. It's not crazy or magic or epic enough! Boo!

I love brilliant acting and interesting character arcs. I like narrative story arcs.

I also like shows that make me think. I like shows that try to talk about big, complicated issues, and I have a special weakness for techy cyborgy religious weirdness and moral relativism done well (i.e. NOT as an excuse for the hero to do reprehensible, selfish things just because it's "dark" which MUST make it "cool" and "more mature.")

I mean, I enjoy TV that doesn't make me think lots too; I do completely get that "I just want to have fun with it!" mentality. But I find it hard to be truly fannish about those shows because, well, I end up with nothing to say, or vid.

Similarly, I can love shows that are set completely within the bounds of the "real world" (Dexter and Breaking Bad are both ace) but similarly, it's hard for me to really connect on a total geek-out level.

I think the problem is that I'm a science fiction fan in the tradition of LeGuin or Ghost in the Shell. I want everything. I want all the big issues we face combined with world-/civilisation-spanning alien fascinating stuff that punches these issues out into an arena other than the one we're familiar with, and as such, allows us to examine these issues from new angles.

I guess what I want is intelligent science fiction, with a side-order of character-arc and extra epic.

Do any of you know where I might be able to find such a thing these days?

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Redacted.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Okay, cool - that's the second time Castle's been recommended to me so I think I should at least read a little more about it. I think the problem is that I'm doing okay for escapist faire; I'm more interested in something big and plotty and thinky, but perhaps there's just nothing out there at the moment that satisfies my incredibly specific and picky tastes. :(

In the meantime, I will just be entertained by your icon, which never gets old... ;)