True! I will go weeks & even months without turning on my regular cable connected telly here. I watch mostly all UK programing (gives me something to chat about with my friends & family there). I like Downton, Starlings, Torchwood, For the Love of Dogs, Love & Marriage, Luther,...as well as the reality shows like BB, CBB, TOWIE, MIC, (tonight I'm watching Geordie Shore ) and comedies like Miranda, Spy, and Russell Howard.

I watched a couple of shows & just couldn't get into it either. Not my cuppa tea!

Donna, I missed this post somehow earlier! I use just small windows so I guess I scrolled down past it. So Kazzy is here now but has access - ohhhhhh, I want that access. How in the world does she do it? That would be so wonderful to just get right into UK TV!

I agree that I was disturbed, too, in the Breaking Bad episodes I watched. I even watched the last one and I guess when hype is built up so high, you just expect too much. It never hooked me at all. I thought it was nicely written as to the characters staying true to form and well shot with some artsy, metaphorical touches and all that but couldn't escape the fact that I just don't like shows like that with frequent foul language, showing gross physical things thugs do to people and leading characters usually at their evil worst ruining lives right and left and a trail of despair after them. But I don't like Mad Men, either. It just bores me silly. I don't think MM is brilliant at all - just portrays a lot of mostly unhappy, aimless people on a treadmill living lives that pretty much have little meaning to them and undermining one another given half a chance, sending such a hopeless message to viewers. Same with BB - just sent such a hopeless message to its audience. Not that DA sends out some hugely noble message either but at least it's pretty to watch, gorgeously photographed, the period and history interwoven in the story are fascinating and the characters wind up trying mostly to do the right thing, fight for what they think is right and support each other in good times and bad. Some of the interaction of the characters on DA, especially downstairs, is quite touching and uplifting in the way they pull for one another to make it through the bad times in life and seem like a family of sorts there in the servants' quarters even though quite poor and with little time off their jobs to spend time with their real family or live their own lives.

:) I'm sorry, I've tried SO HARD to watch and enjoy Breaking Bad....but I just hate it, find it soulless and depressing.

And yes, there are LOADS of American shows on tv over here....give me a bit of Judge Judy any day....;) :D

Hee hee!! You're all going to LOVE the new series of DA...I won't give anything away, I promise :D Sally x

Can't wait, I am officially hooked.

I have now been able to catch up with all three seasons, except number 5 and 6 in season 3. So, still have a few holes.

:) If you like DA, then you'd also like a series we used to have over here called 'Upstairs, Downstairs'....very similar in many ways.

It's absolutely donkey's years old - but, because it's a period drama, it doesn't really matter! :rolleyes: :D Sally x

Nothing too complex. You know how if you work from home (or if you travel for work), you remotely connect with your work's network? It's basically the same thing. I just remotely connect to my existing tv/puter network in England.

Biggest problem for viewing is the time difference. I have friends (often my Nan about the latest Corrie or Eastenders drama...lol) that will call me in the evening (UK time), and I'm only just getting out of work our time, and they'll be "did you see ......" and I'm yelling, "NO!!! Hush! I've not got home to watch it yet!"

Did you like the new Ups/Downs, btw? I was so hopeful/excited for the series! I thought Ed Stoppard was perfectly cast, but I really couldn't stand Keeley Hawes in it at all - she ruined the chemistry for me. So sad it didn't go into another season with better writers and cast. :(

It was good but production values on it were like a local TV station's! haha. As were many productions back during that time. It was very like a stage play, wasn't it? Rather intimate and stage-y. Looking back, it was an overall disappointment compared to today's work on DA and such but I did enjoy it. Paid and arm and a leg to buy it but I'd say it really was worth it. That cook in that episode where she just went totally off the rails early on!!!!!! What in the world was that all about, especially since she became a paragon of sorts later. Funny how the writers take their turns, isn't it.

I LOVED the new UD but they cancelled it since apparently ratings weren't that good early on and I was so mad. Plus, the lady who played Rose or Mary in both - that maid or housekeeper? - had a stroke? or something and as she was sort of one of the main forces behind the new one I read, I guess the project just went south after she got so ill. Sure wish that the new one had worked out. It had glorious production values to me. Loved the war angle and all once that came into it and then the way they flirted with the pending abdication, Wallis & "Eddie" and all, etc. Just loved it.

:D Personally....no! I found it a 'cheap' imitation...and I just couldn't be bothered with it, and didn't watch every episode....I'm sad to say! :(

Oh Jeanie - it's all so sad, isn't it....it makes me wonder how we'll look back on Downton in years to come....:D

Plus I HATE the latest series of Foyle's war....so boring and complicated and repetitive I actually turned it off....:eek: Poor Andy - missing out on all this stuff....!!! :D Sally x

Please post to let me know if they show past seasons of DA. I only saw a few episodes of the last season. I would love to see the ones I missed. Its on PBS right? Sunday nights?

Oh, you think we will get better than DA some day? Wow! Imagine when the ultra sharp picture, glorious color and fine staging, art direction and production quality of DA is considered blase(can't add my accent symbol to the "e" darn it). Oh, my, that will be the day when TV gets better than that!

Kinda like latest Cold War FW but then I love spy/cold war stories. Actor who plays Foyle is aging, isn't he?

I'm afraid to ask, Sally - what do you mean poor Andy missing out?

Just found this thread.
We're halfway through series4 now here but won't give away any plot.

I hated the updated version of Upstairs Downstairs, so wooden, but the old ones are still worth watching if you can get them, period series don't really date & the scripts & acting were much better.

If you like the Phillipa Gregory books, try Alison Weir. She doesn't take the ludicrous liberties with English history that Phillipa Gregory does.

I was never aware that you got so many of our TV programmes over there or that they were so popular!

PBS in Dallas just restarted DA from the first episode. I am recording the whole thing again I think and just re-watch it over the fall.

PBS in St. Louis is picking up with episode 61 on Oct 13th. I wish they would start from episode 1.

I didn't like Death In Paradise much at first, skipped one or two after a bit and now I'm loving it. Ben Miller is just a hoot as an emotion-starved, driven workaholic, button-ed up, staid, cold-fog-/rain-loving Brit who wears full office attire of shirt, tie, suit and carries his briefcase like a security blanket as he lives and works on the small island of Guadeloupe, just south of Puerto Rico in the southern Caribbean Sea. I'm now really enjoying the characters, story plots and divergence of the personalities as British stiff clashes with laid-back islanders whose ancestors date back to slave days along with some of the same superstitions. Ben Miller's character seems to hate everything about it from the frequent carnivals to the sand everywhere, lack of modern policing techniques and the oppressive heat. The Brit even has to put up with a perky lizard that just shows up about his beach house from time to time but at least he's civil with it.

Does DA take a bit to get into? I'm kinda... bored. *hides* but I'm only on 2nd ep. Don't have a desire to watch more at the moment tho?

It's a little more sedate than Breaking Bad, I imagine. :D I haven't seen Breaking Bad.

It takes a while to know and understand the DA characters, their motivations, etc., but usually, a series is your thing or it isn't - it either hits that sweet spot of your interest or it doesn't. I had that problem watching BB - the characters bored me and I didn't care about the Walt guy's intrigues as street, drug or gangster type stories or the characters that get involved in that life are a giant yawn to me in terms of entertainment. I just have no interest in that world even in documentary form.

On the other hand, DA and shows like it that reveal different world societies, such as the U.K.'s social class system, and which also involve a certain take on actual international history, reveal an earlier, unfamiliar lifestyle, unfamiliar cities, etc., are almost instantly to my liking so I'm usually hooked by that part of a series and then time and the writing, direction, production takes care of the rest if the show turns out to be well written, directed, acted and produced. So DA's time period, the fact that it revealed another lifestyle and culture, a different take on the history of the times, the interesting social mores and so forth grabbed me first and then in time the characters and plot kept me interested. Part of the reason I liked the first one or two I saw was just my interest in the British and the gorgeous cinematography and sets - so superficial but that got my interest. For someone who really liked BB and exploring that aspect of American society, DA might never really appeal to you so something less period, slow-paced and genteel is probably what you'll really like best next in the way of entertainment - something with more edge and raw tension, especially coming off BB so recently. With Netflix and all of the movie channels running their niche series right and left, I hope you can find yourself another good series or two to tide you over until something more equivalent to the quality of BB comes along for you. I love political drama so Scandal interests me as it's lightweight and I wonder if House of Cards will be something I'll like even though it's a heavier pol. drama. I tried Homeland but that blonde, too-intense woman protagonist just above drove me crazy watching her drive herself and before long, I just couldn't take any more of her character. All that looking over one's shoulder at EVERYBODY else suspiciously and knife-edged existence was too OT for me to enjoy - the constant tension finally just got silly and comical. Hoping HOC will be good - I'm trying it next. I just hope all the characters in it don't turn out to be caricatures.

Thanks! Yeah I don't mind slow-paced, and definitely don't expect anything to be as exciting as BB lol, to me, no show compares. After BB, I did watch Nip/Tuck and loved it, and even watched all of 24 which could be quite corny and unrealistic at times but it definitely kept you wanting more. I do like Once Upon a Time too even though it can be very cheesy lol.

I kind of want to check out Homeland a bit more. I watched the pilot episode when it aired on TV the other day and think I could maybe get into it, but I don't know. It still didn't give me that 'want more' feeling.

It's kind of funny, in general, I actually like and prefer slower-paced, very character driven real life type movies, but I guess my shows have to keep my attention and be a bit more fast paced if they're going to keep me for more than a 2 hour movie, ya know?

I do like history a lot, always have, but don't know a lot about British history, so I think I'm still going to give DA a chance... maybe learn something.

lol just found this list, never seen any of these, maybe I'll have to try and watch these

5 TV Shows to Watch Now that Breaking Bad is Gone - IGN

:D Hello you! :D

From what I've learned about you, over the years (!!! :D !!!) I'm not too sure that Downton is your 'cup of tea'. But I might be totally wrong!

Jeanie's totally right - either the era and pace and slow evolution of the characters grab you - or they don't! The settings, the clothes, the manners, and the complete 'above/below stairs', are portrayed to perfection.

It doesn't really pick up pace, but might be worth sticking with (just for a little while - I know life's too short!!! :D) - I actually find it very calming...I promise you we don't still dress like that here - but some of the mentality still remains in 'upper class' British households....:eek: :D Sally x

I tried 2 episodes of Homeland and could not get into it. One of the main characters, the red head man, played a bad guy on "24" and I didn't like him on that show either.

Karan....did you see the episode that aired on Sunday 6th?!!!!? :eek:

I'm not going to be a killjoy, or spoil anything for anyone - BUT - MY GOODNESS!!!! :eek: Sally x

TEASE!!! No worries, DA starts here Jan. 4th so as it's always kind of sad after all the holidays are over, we've got DA to look forward to. Plus, looks like our PBS channel here is going to be re-running the whole thing so I might just re-watch it and pick up all the things I've totally forgotten. Can hardly remember much at all about the first episode.

Yes! Grrr! :eek: I hope they don't start using a lot of shock value story lines like that. I know they need to stir up drama between people to keep the program going, but surely there could have been a better way of introducing friction between people than that?

I'm not sure how I feel about this particular story line. It is believable, but I don't know if it fits with previous seasons of the show . . . except maybe the death of the Turkish diplomat in Mary's bed. Even that seemed more subtle.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this show! Can't wait for new season.

Does anyone watch 'Call the Midwife' ? I really like that one too.

The new American Horror just started LOVE that creepy show for sure! This year is themed "Coven" and is looking good. It is in New Orleans, and has a lot of real history in it. It is fun to see the places I like to go when I am down there.

So many good shows, it's hard to record all of them! Will surely miss Breaking Bad.

I like this show...I've watched Season 1 & 2. I love the songs from the fifties playing in the background in each episode.

Are you watching the new season already? How are you watching it, do you have BBC or something? SO JEALOUS.

Me, too, so jealous, Ann. But in a way I'm glad, as when DA starts here, the fall season is over, holidays over and then DA steps up to tide us over through the last of winter. I hate it in a way that it's such a wait but it is good to have it to look forward to.

Rage Against the Minivan: How to watch season 4 of Downton Abbey in the U.S.

That's such a good point...it's a good post-holiday show. I can't wait to see it!!!!