Guru Guide™ recommendations
Flight of the Conchords
The A.V. Club Says:
New Zealand's fourth most popular novelty band tries to make a go of it in New York City in this droll, delightfully deadpan meta-comedy littered with hilarious pastiches and infectious musical sequences. Co-creators Bret Mackenzie and Jemaine Clement star as a charmingly/creepily co-dependent duo launching a very sleepy attack on show business with help from their hilariously clueless manager (Rhys Darby) and single overly devoted fan (Kristen Schaal). It’s altogether the most delightful Kiwi export since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Doctor Who
The A.V. Club Says:
Anyone entertaining visions of rubber-suited monsters and robots with suction cup attachments can.. Well… Okay, the show still has that.. But this 21st-century revamp also has a bristling sexual energy, a healthy sense of humor, and, yes, improved special effects. Both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant have excelled as the shows Doctors, men driven by a need to explore and a boundless enthusiasm for humanity tempered only by the melancholy knowledge that they'll never really be able to join it.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
The A.V. Club Says:
Stephen Colbert’s spin-off The Colbert Report has undoubtedly stolen some of its heat but The Daily Show remains a beloved daily ritual for fans who hungrily lap up comedian Jon Stewart’s irreverent take on news, politics and popular culture. Stewart’s ad-libbing and improvisation are the stuff of legend but he regularly plays the humble straight man to a rotating cast of tongue-in-cheek correspondents and interview subjects heavy on newsmakers and deep thinkers. In its own strange way The Daily Show gets at profound satirical truths news shows bound by stodgy old “facts” and “genuine reportage” routinely miss.
The Colbert Report
The A.V. Club Says:
Second City alum Stephen Colbert makes the jump from beloved Daily Show correspondent to talk show host with this smash-hit parody of right wing, self-aggrandizing TV blowhards like Bill O’Reilly and demagoguery, Fox News-style. Like Andy Kaufman, a clear inspiration, Colbert never breaks character yet cheeky graphics that comically contradict O’Reilly’s super-macho bluster give the game away. It’s a high-wire act of satirical daring that’s become a cultural phenomenon, even worming its way into the Webster’s dictionary through Colbert’s famous championing of the concept of “Truthiness,” an idea central to the show’s scathing satire.
The Office
The A.V. Club Says:
The Office is that rarest of television anomalies: a remake that lives up to the original. That’s no small feat given its deified source material, Ricky Gervais’ cultishly adored BBC classic. Daily Show alum and part-time movie star Steve Carell stars as the cheerfully incompetent boss of a Pennsylvania paper company. John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer co-star as one of the most talked-about television twosomes since Cheers’ Sam and Diane. The show’s mockumentary deconstruction of everyday angst and office politics is painfully funny and depressingly universal. If you don’t see yourself in at least one of the characters, well, consider yourself lucky.
Aliens in America
The A.V. Club Says:
Don’t be fooled by the rock-bottom ratings, because this brainy and charming sitcom stands apart from the weak crop of Fall ’07 network premieres. The premise of a Pakistani exchange student in suburban Wisconsin may sound like the recipe for a grotesquely broad culture-clash comedy, but Aliens In America doles out its messages in sharply satirical ways. Though it owes an obvious debt to Freaks & Geeks and Malcolm In The Middle, the show has a sweetly offbeat tone that’s entirely distinctive, thanks largely to Adhir Kaylan’s bright performance as Raja, a 16-year-old Pakistani who refuses—sometimes to his peril, always to his host Justin’s embarrassment—to compromise his foreign values in order to fit in.
Friday Night Lights
The A.V. Club Says:
Expanded from Buzz Bissinger’s book about a football-crazy Texas town, NBC’s beautifully textured drama has shown a stronger feeling for everyday life than any other show on network television. Though the game draws a tight network of players, coaches, and supporters into its orbit, Friday Night Lights isn’t about football so much as the ordinary problems of families trying to stay together and high-school kids looking forward to an uncertain future. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are especially affecting as the head coach and his wife, but there are plenty of other reasons to check out this ratings-challenged gem.
The Wire
The A.V. Club Says:
Television doesn't get more ambitious and intricate than creator David Simon's brilliant serial of crime and punishment in Baltimore, which is heading into its fifth and final season. Each season has been like a novel unfolding, but with an ever-widening scope: What started as a detailed study of the war between the authorities and drug dealers has expanded into a devastating look at Baltimore’s crumbling institutions, from the educational system to corruption within city government. Season Five brings the Fourth Estate into the picture, and given Simon's background as a journalist, it should be as riveting as ever.
The Shield
The A.V. Club Says:
With Tony Soprano out of the picture, The Shield's Vic Mackey (played by the pugnacious Michael Chiklis) reigns supreme as TV's greatest anti-hero, a terminally corrupt yet oddly sympathetic L.A. detective whose Strike Team regularly finesses their way around the law. For six seasons, Mackey has been slipping the noose, but the seventh and final season promises to deliver his moment of reckoning, especially with an estranged and volatile ex-partner Shane (the great, unheralded Walton Goggins) out to save his own hide. It's unusual for a show to keep coming back to a sin committed in the first episode of Season One, but The Shield has been building up to a serious payoff.
The Soup
The A.V. Club Says:
For those who don't have the time or inclination to watch a whole week's worth of talk shows, reality TV and viral videos—but still want to keep up with everyone's talking about—The Soup offers a handy half-hour clearinghouse of pop culture weirdness, presided over by charming, witty host Joel McHale. By combining enthusiasm, insight and just the right touch of shame, McHale and The Soup's writing staff give smart people permission to enjoy the ridiculous junk that TV and the Internet keep spitting up.
Merv Griffin's Crosswords
The A.V. Club Says:
While primetime game shows feature contestants taking five minutes of airtime to make blind guesses, daytime TV is still asking hardcore gamers to work for their money. Merv Griffin’s Crosswords offers a new clue roughly every 30 seconds. The clues aren't gimmes either—they're legitimately tricky crossword clues that the contestants have seconds to answer, lest they be unseated by one of the "spoilers" who stand behind them, ready to take over their podium and their cash. Fast-paced, challenging and unpredictable, Crosswords is a marvelous throwback to how game shows used to be.
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
The A.V. Club Says:
Fox's version of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant-makeover show is entertaining enough, but the British version is far less pat and formulaic. Where the American version presents Ramsay as an officious agitator, the one that airs on BBC America shows him more as “one of the lads,” meeting hapless chefs on their own turf and their own terms, and taking a genuine interest in turning their businesses around for good. The British version is also more riotously foul-mouthed, and doesn't always end happily. It's like the grown-up version of what Fox airs.
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
The A.V. Club Says:
Bad-boy chef Bourdain has developed his culinary travelogues into reflections of his personality: raw, acerbic, and surprisingly puckish. When he visits Italy, he pretends he's in a '60s art film; when he tours Cleveland, he presents cartoon versions of himself, in the manner of Cleveland comic book writer Harvey Pekar. In other words, No Reservations isn't just about exotic locales and bizarre indigenous cuisine. It’s about Bourdain's punky, adventurous, recklessly curious approach to life.
Unwrapped
The A.V. Club Says:
What better way to escape the stresses of the modern world than to watch hundreds of candy nougat balls travel down an assembly line toward the chocolate enrober? Or to see 10-pound bags of powdered cheddar dumped into a device that will blast the dust onto freshly fried corn chips? Or to witness the evolution of a state fair corn dog? Oh, Unwrapped…you satisfy the machinery-obsessed 8-year-old kid in all of us.
MythBusters
The A.V. Club Says:
While Mythbusters seemingly ran out of "classic” myths (does a duck's quack echo?) to either bust or confirm several seasons back, the Discovery Channel show has not suffered from a lack of material. In fact, the freedom that comes with a relatively long tenure (six seasons) has allowed ballistics-happy special-effects gurus Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage to train their pseudo-scientific lens on inquiries ranging from fascinating (can the human voice break glass) to quasi-useful (how to survive a sinking car) to juvenile (can farts kill?). The current season has been a doozie, with several themed episodes (superhero myths; baseball myths) buoyed by an obviously increased budget, the playful supporting cast, and access to even more explosives.
Good Eats
The A.V. Club Says:
Good Eats is a cooking show for people who can't stand cooking shows, in a class apart from its gastroporn brethren on the Food Network. Along with a stable of hammy character actors, homemade puppets and props, and a punny, pop-culture-influenced sense of humor, host Alton Brown picks apart food to its very core (often getting right down to the atomic structure) in service of explaining culinary processes in approachable, entertaining ways. While episodes usually include one or two simple-ish recipes based around a particular ingredient, it's not unheard of for Brown to devote an entire half hour to brewing a perfect cup of coffee, substituting ingredients, or exploring the most humble of ingredients, water.
Last One Standing
The A.V. Club Says:
From its opening disclaimer promising violence and "indigenous nudity," it's obvious Last One Standing is gonna be hardcore. Ostensibly a reality competition, the Discovery Channel show follows six male athletes (a strongman, a BMX racer, a rugby player, a kickboxer, an endurance athlete, and a "fitness guru") as they live and train with third-world peoples in order to participate in their traditional, almost always violent, tribal competitions (Zulu stick fighting; Mongolian wrestling). Wins and losses are tallied, and a "winner" is eventually declared, but the real entertainment comes from watching the men struggle with the physical, cultural, and emotional barriers they encounter.
Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job
The A.V. Club Says:
On the surface, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's show might look like the most non-sensical 15 minutes in television history--and some of it is. But it's also ridiculously funny and occasionally pointed. Fans of Mr. Show should dive in and embrace characters like Casey And His Brother, Jan and Wayne Skylar, and guest stars like John C. Reilly, Jeff Goldblum, and Rainn Wilson.
