Pleasantly Surprised: Shows That Were Better Than You Expected

[bmasters9]

I recently purchased the third and fourth seasons' worth (1957-59) of Highway Patrol from Amazon (this w/the late Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews of the titular police squad). I'm on the first disc of the third season's worth, and I've already seen 5 of the 8 episodes on that first disc. Each episode goes by so fast that you don't even know that 25 minutes have passed when you see one-- it's just that good. This might be up there as another one of my most favorites, along with Barney Miller, M Squad, Perry Mason, and the like. I would have gotten the first and second seasons' worth, but they were insanely overpriced on Amazon (the first one, at $55, was understandable because it was an MOD from MGM, but the second one was first $200, and now is unavailable).

[Ohwell]

As a kid (I'm old) I watched Highway Patrol with my grandmother.  That was our "special time" together.  It was her favorite show, and I still cherish those memories.

Ten-four!

[roamyn]

I just started watching Breaking Bad, and love it!

I knew Bryan Cranston would be good, cause he won several Emmys, but I never saw Aaron Paul act, and he's just as good.  Anna Gunn is also very good.  Dean Norris surprised me.  His acting range isn't very wide, but he makes a mucho manly character very likeable.

It's hard to only watch one episode a day (I'm on Season 2).

[Ohwell]

1 hour ago, roamyn said:

I just started watching Breaking Bad, and love it!

I knew Bryan Cranston would be good, cause he won several Emmys, but I never saw Aaron Paul act, and he's just as good.  Anna Gunn is also very good.  Dean Norris surprised me.  His acting range isn't very wide, but he makes a mucho manly character very likeable.

It's hard to only watch one episode a day (I'm on Season 2).

Fasten your seatbelt!

[DearEvette]

1 hour ago, roamyn said:

It's hard to only watch one episode a day (I'm on Season 2).

Oh man.  We didn't get in BB until after S3 had already aired so we got to watch the first three seasons semi-bingeing on Netflix.  There was a point in season 3 when my husband and I would look at each other after watching an episode and say "just one more?"  After having already watched two or three in a row.

[Cranberry]

MTV's new show Sweet/Vicious. I'd seen links to its promos on YouTube, and I (wrongly) assumed it was just another "odd couple" teen show about a sorority girl and her green-haired, pot-dealing friend. I've liked a few shows MTV has done, but I've been burned lately by shows that started going around in circles (Awkward) or went off the rails (Finding Carter), so I was reluctant to give anything else a chance. However, Variety's Maureen Ryan put Sweet/Vicious on her list of the best new shows of 2016, which piqued my interest. I Googled it and found a full review from Ryan plus complimentary articles on The AV Club and Slate, among other publications, so I decided to give the show a try. I watched all six current episodes in one evening and was pleasantly surprised by how smart, funny, well-acted, and respectful of difficult subject matter it was.

[Kromm]

One Day At A Time (2017) is approximately 151 times better than I assumed it would be.

[dargosmydaddy]

Had no plans to watch Emerald City until I read the PTV review, and I'm very glad I did.

[DangerousMinds]

On 1/7/2017 at 5:15 PM, roamyn said:

I just started watching Breaking Bad, and love it!

I knew Bryan Cranston would be good, cause he won several Emmys, but I never saw Aaron Paul act, and he's just as good.  Anna Gunn is also very good.  Dean Norris surprised me.  His acting range isn't very wide, but he makes a mucho manly character very likeable.

It's hard to only watch one episode a day (I'm on Season 2).

When I binge watched BB, I wound up staying up all night many times. Just could not stop watching!

[talktoomuch]

Same pre-watch aversion to BB, but watched one S6 episode and had to see another. This was during that break in the middle of S6. So...I ended up doing a week-long binge of every episode when they ran a marathon right before the finale. It was the most exhausting but gratifying and bittersweet week of my tv-watching life.

[zxy556575]

On 1/8/2017 at 0:36 AM, Cranberry said:

MTV's new show Sweet/Vicious. I'd seen links to its promos on YouTube, and I (wrongly) assumed it was just another "odd couple" teen show about a sorority girl and her green-haired, pot-dealing friend. ... I watched all six current episodes in one evening and was pleasantly surprised by how smart, funny, well-acted, and respectful of difficult subject matter it was.

I started watching because of your recommendation and found the characters to be relatable and the plot intriguing. I had given the show a pass because MTV and middle age usually aren't so matchy, but I think this has broad appeal. Thanks!

Edited January 10, 2017 by lordonia

[paulvdb]

The Mick. I had very low expectations for this new comedy on Fox, but I actually ended up enjoying it.

[TaraS1]

Definitely Good Behavior with Michelle Dockery.  That show is just SO freaking good.  I've never been able to get into any of TNT's original shows, but I vowed to force myself to at least sit through the first episode because I loved Michelle so much on Downton.  By the end of the pilot, I was in love with everything about it.  By the season finale, I was obsessed.  And thankfully, they were picked up for a second season, so there should be ten new episodes this fall.

MD is absolutely brilliant in it (as is her American accent), and her co-lead, Juan Diego Botto, has been a total revelation to me.  I'd never heard of him before, but damn...he's spectacular.

[Chaos Theory]

Salem was an awesome show on a newish network.  Should have gotten better ratings but at least it ended awesomely.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[bmasters9]

I purchased through Amazon the releases from Olive Films of a 1987-89 ABC detective dramedy called Hooperman, w/the late John Ritter as the title character, San Francisco Police Department Inspector Harry Hooperman, and just got the first one in (1987-88), and two episodes in, I think it'll be a pretty good show. For a half-hour show, it seems to have a good many action-packed scenes, but there's also a liberal helping of comedy and pathos as well. This might be the first series that I see all the way through in quite a while (being that it only lasted those two seasons and had just 42 episodes).

Edited February 6, 2017 by bmasters9

[Irlandesa]

I remember loving Hooperman. I  think it was ahead of its time.  

[bmasters9]

3 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I remember loving Hooperman. I  think it was ahead of its time.  

I'd never seen it before-- it started when I was 6, and ended when I was 8. The title track (at least IMO) is another part of its appeal.

Edited February 7, 2017 by bmasters9

[Chaos Theory]

Most recently Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet.  I am not a zombie person (I hate Walking Dead and IZombie) and can name maybe a handful of comedies I have enjoyed but the Netflix  original just worked for me on almost every level.  The pilot was a little weak and the puke gag went on a little too long (I mean Family Guy gag long) but other than that it had had a dry dark and yet strangely sweet wit I enjoyed.  

[mishy]

I know we watched Hooperman but I the only thing I remember is the dog might have been called Bijou?

[bmasters9]

59 minutes ago, mishy said:

I know we watched Hooperman but I the only thing I remember is the dog might have been called Bijou?

True-- except that the spelling was Bijoux (note the italicized X).

[bmasters9]

Just purchased the first release of a 1957-63 CBS Western called Have Gun, Will Travel, w/the late Richard Boone as Paladin, a seeming jack-of-all-trades in the Old West. I just started seeing it last night, and I'm through four episodes' worth of the first season (1957-58). Ordinarily, I'm not the Western fan, but this Western is an exception; it's actually pretty good, IMO. The reason is because it's more of a philosophical or "thinking"-type Western, as opposed to the "shoot-em-ups" that were Gunsmoke, Bonanza, et al.

Edited March 3, 2017 by bmasters9

[Ohwell]

As a kid, I never missed an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel.  I also liked that he wore black because that's usually associated with "bad" guys in Westerns. 

[bmasters9]

31 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

As a kid, I never missed an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel.  I also liked that he wore black because that's usually associated with "bad" guys in Westerns. 

True-- in fact, the good guy in Knight Rider on NBC (Michael Knight) also seemed to wear black a lot, and also drove a black Trans Am.

[festivus]

I'm currently binge watching Person of Interest (or as I like to call it; T-Bones and Kneecaps) and it is good, soooo good. I always thought it was just a procedural but it is very sci-fi (which is my genre). It has really great actors and all the acting is top-notch. It also makes me have the feels for a machine. That's quite a trick right there. I'm about to start season 5 and I'm sure I'll be devastated by the end. (No spoilers please :)

[CoderLady]

Not a spoiler: it's good all the way to the end.

[FormerMod-a1]

Agree.  POI was never just a procedural, even in the first season.  And there is so much world building there, too.  One of my all time favorite shows.

[Chaos Theory]

Most recently and so far Riverdale.  I wasn't really expecting to like it.  I have mostly grown out of teen angst dramas but this has a weird PLL feel to it which has always been my favorite of the genre even with its many flaws.  

[zxy556575]

My babyish "icky food" phobia and gag reflex won't allow me to watch Santa Clarita Diet, but I'm enjoying Imposters a lot. The actors are appealing and the plot has taken a clever turn. I have no idea where it's going next, in a fun way.

[ratgirlagogo]

13 hours ago, bmasters9 said:

a 1957-63 CBS Western called Have Gun, Will Travel

AKA one of the best television shows ever made.  Interesting also to watch today because we no longer have half-hour dramas, and watching HGWT you can see the strengths of that format.

[paulvdb]

I had very low expectations for something that airs on Bravo, so I am very pleasantly surprised by Imposters. I've copied the series description from IMDB in case anybody else is interested and wants to know what it's about:

Quote

Con artist Maddie is as beautiful as she is dangerous. Over the years, she has left a trail of unwitting victims who become tormented upon realizing that they have been used and robbed of everything -- including their hearts. Her latest assignment threatens to be derailed, though, when she meets Patrick, a potential love interest. Further complicating Maddie's work are three former targets -- Ezra, Richard and Jules -- who realize they have been scammed by the same woman and team up to track her down. When the victims choose to embark on the quest, they don't realize that they must face their own truths and find new versions of themselves along the way.

[bmasters9]

Right now, I'm seeing a two-season 1974-76 NBC series called Petrocelli; it's about a Harvard-educated big-city defense lawyer named Anthony J. "Tony" Petrocelli (Barry Newman), who apparently got tired of the grind of the big city, and moved out to the fictional town of San Remo, AZ to set up his practice there (the series was filmed in Tucson, AZ). Susan Howard (who would later be of Dallas) played his wife, Maggie, and the late Albert Salmi played the investigator, Pete Ritter. Basically, Petrocelli is Perry Mason out in the sticks, as Tony Petrocelli is the Mason character, Maggie is the Della Street (who was married to Tony, unlike the Della on Perry Mason), and Pete Ritter is Paul Drake in a cowboy hat. I've finished one disc, and the similarities to the CBS Mason series seem to be very striking; I think I might actually find this a pretty entertaining takeoff on what Perry Mason was. 

BTW, it was a rare dramatic series from the Miller-Boyett production family, who, with Paramount (as Miller-Milkis-[Boyett]), and later with Lorimar (as Miller-Boyett), made some very long-running comedies (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Family Matters, et al.). Petrocelli was from Miller-Milkis IAW Paramount Television, and VEI's DVD release of it has the Paramount logos of the time (the red/blue Split Box on the first go [1974-75], and the Blue Mountain on the second and final [1975-76]). 

Edited April 11, 2017 by bmasters9
Actual filming location

[HoboClayton]

Mr. Belvedere.  They have been running this show for the past few months, and I am really enjoying it so far. It's really funny. 

[Jaded]

2 minutes ago, HoboClayton said:

Mr. Belvedere.  They have been running this show for the past few months, and I am really enjoying it so far. It's really funny. 

I've been enjoying it too. According to the guide for Uverse and Google there are 3 more episodes until the two part series finale starts airing on Antenna TV. The first part will be the 2nd episode on Wednesday morning.

[HoboClayton]

Hey! Good lookin' out. Thanks.

[DisneyBoy]

I can still remember watching the ads for Ugly Betty when it premiered ("killer poncho!"/"....thanks!!!"/ *gag*) and thinking I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. It seemed like an instant televised version of The Devil Wears Prada too soon after that came out in theaters. I didn't really like that movie so I had zero interest... and then I think I saw the episode Fey's Sleigh Ride and got really engrossed in the mystery of the bandaged woman, all the while seriously enjoying the cattiness at Mode and the colorful life of the Suarez family. Suffice it to say I love the show and was happy to be proven wrong. The series was not a copy of that movie in the least - it was about a million times better. I revisit it often.

Someone suggested Carnivale to me and I didn't think I would get into it but then I completely did. I'm not so sure why I resisted. I guess it's because Dust Bowl era drama was of no interest to me. Of course now I love the show for all of its attention to detail and era specificity.

[Moose135]

On 4/9/2017 at 5:42 PM, bmasters9 said:

Right now, I'm seeing a two-season 1974-76 NBC series called Petrocelli; it's about a Harvard-educated big-city defense lawyer named Anthony J. "Tony" Petrocelli (Barry Newman), who apparently got tired of the grind of the big city, and moved out to the fictional town of San Remo, AZ to set up his practice there (the series was filmed in Tucson, AZ).

I remember watching Petrocelli when it first aired.  I didn't know it was out on DVD, I'll have to check it out.

[NutMeg]

Imposters has been a very good surprise. 

[TaraS1]

My new one is Trial & Error with John Lithgow on NBC.  It's got that The Office/Parks & Rec vibe, and it's hilarious.  TV sitcoms very rarely make me laugh out loud, but there was a scene last night that was so funny I had actual tears streaming down my face.  Such a great little show!  (And I'm usually not a Lithgow fan - I thought he was kind of awful on The Crown - but he's really fantastic in this.)

[DisneyBoy]

I just caught that for the first time! Well, the last five minutes, with a rather funny bleeped out dialogue gag. Not a big fan of the format, but it was alright.

[tennisgurl]

Trial and Error is surprisingly hilarious! I thought it looked pretty lame in the commercials, but when I actually decided to watch an episode, mainly out of boredom, it was hilarious and really smartly written.

I didn't have much interest in Legends of Tomorrow over on the CW at first. It was made up of characters from the various DCUCW shows, most of whom (with the exception of Sara Lance) I either didn't care about that much, didn't know, or actively disliked, involved time travel, something that is VERY hit or miss, and had a pretty lame cross over to get it started. I mainly checked it out because I was a complecionist who wanted to know everything going on in a TV universe I was already pretty invested in, God help me. The first part of the first season was decent, but was hampered by a boring villain, some nonsensical plotting and an inconsistent tone. However, starting around the mid point of the first season, the characters started gelling more and getting more developed, and the plots started becoming less self serious and it became more fun and likable. After seeing the second season, I now think its the best superhero show on TV, and one of the most underrated TV shows in general. The characters have become really well rounded and likable, and have interesting and complex relationships with each other, and, at the end of the first season, they get rid of the boring main villain and some of the extraneous characters and focused on cool new villains and just getting its characters into wacky time travel superhero scenarios and having fun adventures, with an impressive mix of comedy, drama, and action.

I wont say its a perfect show, but its a ton of fun, especially as the other DCUCW shows have drowned in angst and romantic melodrama, and its taken characters that I either disliked or didn't care about and made me love and root for them, or made them interesting and compelling, and that's VERY impressive to me.

Edited April 16, 2017 by tennisgurl

[festivus]

I wasn't even going to watch LOT until I found out Sara Lance was going to be on it and now it has turned into my favorite CW DC show and I love all the characters on it. I'm about to drop Arrow and The Flash which have become grim and depressing (and boring) to me now, while I find LOT lots of fun. 

[amaranta]

I've been watching Selfie on Hulu and am now thru episode 8.  Boy, do I feel stupid that I didn't give this a shot when it was on the air.  So cute, so funny, and I think I'm in love with John Cho (I was in like before.)  He and Karen Gillian are wonderful together.  Dammit, I'm going to be sad when I finish my mini-binge.  And belatedly sad that it was cancelled so quickly.

Edited April 17, 2017 by amaranta

[vibeology]

Selfie was such a cute show and I was so bummed at the time that it didn't catch on. John Cho needs to be in everything because he is so charming and funny and plays romantic so well. The fact that he isn't one of the biggest stars in Hollywood is baffling to me.

[festivus]

3 hours ago, vibeology said:

Selfie was such a cute show and I was so bummed at the time that it didn't catch on. John Cho needs to be in everything because he is so charming and funny and plays romantic so well. The fact that he isn't one of the biggest stars in Hollywood is baffling to me.

I love John Cho. Selfie is like Go On to me. Really good show with a great premise, great cast with charismatic actors that for some reason fails to catch on while so many unfunny shows stay on the air for years. Both shows also had John Cho. I just don't get it. 

[memememe76]

I am shocked at how much I love Riverdale. 

[spaceytraci1208]

Ashton Kutcher isn't exactly a stellar actor, but he's just perfect as Kelso on That 70's Show .  Maybe it's the enthusiasm he seemed to have in performing the foolishness he had to do lol.

[Misslindsey]

Anne or as I believe Netflix's is labeling it Anne with an E. I adore the Megan Follow's version of Anne of Green Gables, but this series pleasantly surprised me. The cast is great especially Amy Beth McNulty as Anne. It is darker than the 1985 version, which worked for me. I looked forward to watching it every week. It also has gorgeous opening credits.

[Sandman87]

I'm surprised that I've found Mike Tyson Mysteries to be somewhat watchable. I expected it to unbearably painful at all times, but it manages to rise to the level of occasionally being amusing.

The nice thing about having low expectations for shows is that it's easier to be pleasantly surprised.

[bmasters9]

I've just now started into another Western, Wanted: Dead or Alive (also on CBS, and, like Have Gun, Will Travel, also on Saturdays [at least for its first two seasons' worth, from 8:30-9; in its final season, 1960-61, it went to Wednesdays, but stayed in the 8:30-9 slot]). I purchased the all-in-one DVD of that Western (Mill Creek made the release) from Amazon, and I'm two episodes in; from what I've seen so far, it seems that Josh Randall (the late great Steve McQueen) is sort of like Paladin was on Have Gun (he used an 1892 Winchester sawed-off shotgun which, IINM, he called his "mare's leg"; like Paladin, he didn't use it unless he had to). From what I've read, he always tried to get his quarry either way (as befit the title), although it would seem that more were taken alive than dead. 

Anyway, 2 episodes in, it seems that this might be another one of those that I see all the way through; I never saw it on Encore Westerns, but I'm looking forward to really enjoying it with this all-in-one DVD. 

Edited July 5, 2017 by bmasters9

[Dee]

The new One Day At A Time. I quite enjoyed the original and tend to dislike most reboots, but Rita Moreno and Justina Machado won me over.