‘you are watching too many shows.’


(the title is a quote from a friend and i got to hear it after almost every entry i released on tv series. so i had to take this photo.)

well, this was a shitload of tv series i was writing about. and it will not be the last time i wrote about that, i’m just finished with the series i wanted to introduce for now. sure, i could have expanded and also talked about american dad, family guy, simpsons, futurama, malcolm in the middle, scrubs, 24 and so on, but that did not feel right this time. but for sure i will write about the upcoming scrubs and 24 season and whatever comes out.

for now, here is a list of shows i have talked about so far:

i don’t really think these are too many shows, you can easily arrange watching throughout the whole week if you have a tv-recorder. still, it’s a lot to keep track of. that’s why i love www.myepisodes.com.

lost in translation:

also, i’d like to point out the thesis Espy wrote in 2005. topic: The Effects of Dubbing on the Depiction of the United States in American Movies and Television Series in Germany. i asked him and he allowed me to link to the download - pdf with 103 pages. i’ve read his work as a whole and was blown away. there were a lot of arguments about what can go wrong with translating original series for german-speaking audiences - a lot of what i have been telling other people for quite some time. though, if you can live with a translated series, i’m totally ok with it, you just have to consider that you do not see the original work but merely another version, as Espy elaborates in his paper.

what i found most interesting was not the examples of very, very bad translations of futurama jokes (they really did translate a lot quite literally without thinking), but the example movie that he is talking about: Aliens. you might think that in a sci-fi/horror-movie like aliens, where there is not much talking involved, that bad synchronization can’t do that much damage, but you’re totally wrong. and the examples provided are freaking hilarious. hilarious, but also very sad. providing excerpts would be hard, since the examples are in german. yet i know, 99% of my readers are of a german-speaking audience, but still… if you want to, check out the document and just skip the theoretical part right to the comparisons.

there is “proof” that by simply changing the translation you can change a whole character or the whole mood a scene is trying to set up. like when Ripley in Aliens find the little girl Newt:

Ripley: These people are here to protect you. They’re soldiers.
Newt: It won’t make any difference

in the german version, the dialog would be:

Ripley: We all want to protect you. Even/Also the soldiers.
Newt: I don’t care, I don’t want that.

(Ripley: Wir wollen dich doch alle beschützen. Auch die Soldaten.
Newt: Das ist mir egal, ich will es nicht.)

this changes the whole mood of the scene from the creepy child that knows what’s about to happen to a small child rejecting help.
astonishing, yet alarming.

i recommend reading it if you’re interested and the whole point is, that if there’s any chance, stick with the original version - even if you don’t understand every word (heck, sometimes I have a hard time myself) - not only do you learn the language, but chances are good that you end up less confused. like the engineers in the german Apollo 13 version who had to learn how to push a square pig (they translated peg to “Schwein”/pig) through a round hole.

i rest my case.

if you want to share your opinions, feel free to comment on this article or spam Espy directly at alex [at] momoi [dot] de.

Dropped in: tv series around October 28, 2007 at 06:11

how i met your mother

say, what would be a good show to end the tv series run for now? i don’t know? maybe one of the best shows on the screen at this time? you think i’m joking? i’m dead serious. in fact, i’m so serious, i’m gonna proof this with science!*

how i met your mother is currently in it’s third season and hasn’t lost a bit in quality yet. the show is a running gag for itself, since it is about Ted Mosby in the future, telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. of course, this has to be a long story, since the show has to go on and on and right now i don’t care who he will meet and when as long as HIMYM continues in being a great thing to watch.

what makes this show so unique is the perfect mix of an extremely good cast, perfect punchlines and awesome stories. how i met your mother is not quite the short story you may think, but a story full of totally unrelated events in the life of 30-year-old Ted. there even is this one episode about Ted’s parents where he asked his father: “hey dad, how did you and mom meet?” “at the bar.” “wait, what? no that can’t be all? one day i will have children and i’m going to tell them the whole story!”.

Ted lives with his best friends Lily (Alyson Hannigan, best known for playing Willow in Buffy and for having a thing for flutes) & Marshall in New York. and of course, there’s Ted’s wingman Barney Stinson - played by Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, THE Neil Patrick Harris. Dougie fucking Howser. Barney dedicades his whole life in picking up women anywhere, anytime and under any circumstances. and by that he is pretty successfull at times and often goes extreme lengths. still he has yet to find out how to do it while windsurfing at the same time.

the last one to be introduced from the main picture above is Robin Scherbatsky, the girl Ted falls in love with but only becomes a good friend. she’s cool and all but she just isn’t ready for the thing that Ted is after: marriage and kids.

with this setup, how i met your mother is about Ted dating various woman in hopes to find the one lady who will settle down with him. as i said, i hope that’s not anytime soon, because the show could go on like this forever.

so far, there have been many, many great episodes and it would not be right to continue to think of reasons to write “awesome” and “legendary”, so i just put up some how i met your mother stuff for your enjoyment.

if you haven’t seen how i met your mother yet, i would highly recommend to get hold of the show. if words can’t seduce you, then maybe some quotes and youtube videos can!

the it crowd (uk)

almost at the end of the tv series for now, only a few shows left. such as the it crowd.

a show about computer nerds (or geeks) working in the it departement of a company that you don’t quite know what their product is. you’d think there would be plenty of material, but the first two seasons only had 6 episodes each. i still have to consider if this was a good or bad thing. but first things first..

the series follows Roy and Moss as the only two computer guys located in the cellar of a big company. in the pilot, they get a new manager in the form of Jen who has absolutely no clue at all about computer thingies. Jen managed to get her job only because the company boss Denholm has in fact even less knowledge. starting to work with the guys, Jen soon finds out that geeks require very careful handling and are not the easiest guys to socialize with.

and that’s maybe what the show is about: geeks in social context, not geeks and their IT work - there probably wouldn’t be enough audience for such a show. that’s not to say that there aren’t computer related references in the show, but you will get most of the jokes either way i guess. for example the running gag when answering the phone by Roy is: “hello IT?…….. have you tried turning it on and off again? …….. is it plugged in?…………” doesn’t take an expert to laugh about, but still remains funny.

still, for a real nerdy experience i recommend the dvd version, complete with l33t subtitles! hard to watch at times, but *omg* did i *rofl* when Denholm g0t pwn3d! the subtitles of one episode were encrypted for example… i’m sure, if you encrypt them the result would be amusing… but i’m not that much of a nerd.*

now the it crowd has a huge bonus for being a british series because i love the dialect (see jekyll) and also, it was pretty hilarious at times. in fact, there were many great moments and the first six episodes (the first season) were great. also, parts of season 2 were great, but already lacking something. it wasn’t that original any more, some of the 20 minutes felt like they even had to stretch what material they had left and some things just weren’t funny.

the best two episodes i could remember now would be the episode featuring Richmond in season 1 and “cooking class” with a german in season 2. Richmond turns out to be another co-worker of Roy and Moss in the cellar, only that they keep him hid in a seperate room (most probably the server room). Richmond once was a successfull manager at the company but his discovery of the music of Cradle Of Filth turned him into a goth who is depressing everyone else around him. very funny episode, all the Richmond scenes were awesome. maybe the show could have needed a bit more of him. and in my opinion it was a huge mistake to replace the boss of the company after the first season with his “son”, Denholm was by far the better character.

some things may sound a bit negative but maybe i had to high expectations - the it crowd is still a huge recommendation. also it’s short so if you don’t like it you haven’t lost that much time!

according to wikipedia there is/was a localized version planned for the US, but it seems as if that hangs in the balance. but: a localized version for german speaking audiences is already in production, featuring Sky du Mont as the boss. as you may recall from my “the office” article, i’m not a huge fan of localized versions, but i will give the it crowd (US) and the it crowd (DE) a try if they ever come to the screen.

i’ll let you know!

small facts:

* if you know the solution, you have to tell me! i command you! obey!

Dropped in: tv series around at 06:10

weeds

a series about a drug dealer? are you kidding me? at first, i was very skeptical, but that is probably because i am a huge opponent of drugs in real life. never did. never will. have enough experience with people who did since a frightening long time. but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the career of a widowed white lady that earns her money by selling weed, can’t you?

Weeds follows the life of Nancy Botwin, her career choice after her husband died and how she tries to manage the rest of the family: her two sons Silas and Shane and Andy, the younger brother of her husband.

the show is full of great characters and hypocrites and brings every aspect you could think of the life of drug dealers to the screen - this includes aquiring customers, fincancing, rivalry, drive-bys, growing, selling and federal agencies (DEA). in a very nice contrast, the show is settled in an upper-class suburb. all in all the show is comedic with a pretty dark storyline.

although Weeds is very much about drugs it’s also about Nancy desperately trying to run her family, only that not everything goes well and there are huge consequences to her actions and she has to handle a lot of set backs. the spiral of being a drug dealer becomes more and more acute and Nancy is always an the verge of losing it.

also, Weeds goes extreme lenghts in what happens on the screen, not only in swearing, showing nudity and sex and violence, but eventually you see kids doing drugs or selling drugs. not a very family-friendly show to watch.

being in it’s third season, i really started to like Weeds because it’s very well made and always very exciting. the cliffhanger from season 2 to season 3 was probably one of the meanest things the producers could do, only to start into season three with a nice setup for the next episodes.

small facts:

Dropped in: tv series around at 06:10

psych


Shawn Spencer is a psychic. but not just any psychic. he’s a fake one. being raised by a cop, Shawn had a lot training in observing his surroundings and memorizing details. with this ability Shawn tips off the police but because the information he provided was so very detailed they assumed Shawn is involved in the crime. by making a scene in front of a large audience at the police station he manages to convince most of the police staff that he is in fact a psychic.

this action leads to Shawn being hired as a freelance psychic for the police departement. along with his childhood friend Gus they open up their own psychic detective agency.

from this point forward, Shawn constantly has to present all the actual police work he does (gathering background information, checking crime scenes, talking with suspects and victims, …) as mysterious and vague hints pointing to the solution of a crime or the confession of a suspect. makes for some very funny scenes. besides the success rate, head detective Carlton Lassiter is doubting that Shawn is in fact a psychic, although while trying many times he can’t prove anything.

at times, Shawn has to seek help from his father, who he has a troubled relationship with, because Henry wanted Shawn to become a policeman himself, still, they care for each other and Henry is not telling the police that his son is not a real psychic.

there are many funny pop-culture references featured and a few great cameo appearances, for example Tim Curry, Kevin Sorbo, Gina Gershon (clearly as Paula Abdul :D) or Lou Diamond Phillips.

although the episodes are about crimes and solving them with a mix of classic police work, luck and a good observation, the show is much more a comedy than a drama series. Psych is very easy going and it’s just fun to watch James Roday play Shawn Spencer with so much lightness. you really can tell that the cast enjoys making the show. and if you can’t tell by the style of the show and the acting, at least you can tell by the psych-out moments at the end of an episode where most of the times, the main cast members gather to sing. they don’t sing that good, but they have fun.

and fun is what it’s all about!

small facts:

Dropped in: tv series around at 06:09

 

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