Tv Series

I will give you a list of Tv series I like and recommend.

I sorted them by year of the last episode that aired (or the last episode I watched). In front of the names is my personal rating going from one * (I like it) to five ***** (I really, really recommend it).

American TV Series:

Still running:

• ** State of Affairs (ongoing since 2014): Espionage thriller about a CIA analyst who is assembling and presenting the President’s Daily Briefing on the most vital security issues of the US. The series in general is nice, but I kind of dislike Katherine Heigls character. Heigls playing is just not really plausible in my opinion.
• **** Stalker (ongoing since 2014): Police procedural  drama about the LAPD’s Threat Assessment Unit who investigate stalking incidents. Starting watching because of Maggie Q from ‚Nikita‘. It’s good. Her character has something from her ‚Nikita‘ character and the series in general reminds me a bit of Criminal Minds (but somehow better).
• ***** Scorpion (ongoing since 2014): Drama series about a genius and computer expert solving global problems together with other geniuses. I totally love it. The main character somehow remindes me of Chuck (the Chuck at the end of the series) and he also looks a bit like Chuck.
• **** Forever (ongoing since 2014): Crime drama / Fantasy series about a medical examiner who is immortal. He has very good observation skills and helps a female detective with cases. This series remindes me a lot of Castle. Especially the friendship between the main character and the detective. Let’s see what direction the series takes.
• *** The mysteries of Laura (ongoing since 2014): Police- procedural comedy drama about a NYPD homicide detective and her strugle with life as a single mom with two twin kids, her soon-to-be-Ex-husband and her working life.
• *** Madam secretary (ongoing since 2014): Drama about a female secretary of states. Kind of like it! It’s a bit strange that she always explains stuff of her work to his family. Especially her children seem odly interested in her work. 😉
• ** Resurrection (ongoing since 2014): Fantasy drama about dead people that return to life several years after their dead.
• **** The Blacklist (ongoing since 2013): Crime drama about a former government agent that is now one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives. He suddenly surrenders and makes the FBI an offer to work together in getting rid of dangerous criminals under the condition that he co-operates only with Elizabeth Keen, a rookie FBI profiler.
• ***** Person of Interest (ongoing since 2011): Crime drama about Reese, a former CIA officer, and Finch, a billionaire software genius, that solve crimes predicted by a machine build by Finch for the government. It was intended that the machine predicts terrorist attacks, but it predicts „ordinary“ crimes as well, the government considers irrelevant, so Finch is determined to stop those.
• ***** Castle (ongoing since 2009): Crime drama about the best-selling mystery novel writer Richard Castle that starts shadowing NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett.
• ***** Glee (ongoing since 2009): Teen musical comedy-drama about a school glee club.
• ** Criminal Minds (ongoing since 2005): Crime drama about a team of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) that solve crimes by profiling the unsub.

Finished series (or series I stopped warching after some time):

 

• ** Selfie (season 1, 13 episodes, 2014): Romantic comedy about a woman obsessed with social media platforms. She gets worried that online friends are not a substitute for real friends and seeks help from a marketing image guru.
• **** Black Box (season 1, 13 episodes, 2014): Medical drama about a neurologist that has bipolar disorder that nobody knows about (only her therapist and her brother’s family know). It remindes me a bit of Dr. House.
• * Bad Teacher (season 1, 13 episodes, 2014): Comedy about a woman that is divorced from her husband and starts working as a teacher at a Middle school to find and marry a rich, single father.
• ***** Intelligence (season 1, 13 episodes, 2013-2014): Cyber-themed action-adventure about an operative of the U.S. Cyber Command enhanced with a super-computer microchip in his brain with that he can get into any of its data centers and access key intel files. Secret Service agent Riley Neal is assigned to protect him on his missions in protecting the U.S. from its enemies. The show has some similarities to Chuck and Person of Interest.
• *** Star-Crossed (1 season, 13 episodes, 2014): Sci-Fi romance about a human girl and an alien boy. She helped him in the past when the aliens were arriving. They meet again when he is integrated with other alien kids in the local high school.
• *** Mind Games (Season 1, 5 episodes, 2014): Comedy drama about two brother that run a firm employing psychological techniques to influence outcomes for those in need. The show has some similarities to Leverage. Sadly canceled after just 5 episodes. But at least some kind of a fitting ending….
• *** The Tomorrow People (1 season, 22 episodes, 2013-2014): Sci-Fi about a group of humans that have psionic (telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis) powers (the Tomorrow People) as the early instances of the next state of human evolution hunted by Ultra, an organization that uses Tomorrow People to find others and neutralize their powers.
• ***** Nikita (Season 1-4, 73 episodes, 2010-2013): Action-drama, Spy-fiction about Nikita, that escaped the secret government-funded organisation Division and wants to bring down Division.
• **** Fringe (Season 1-5, 100 episodes, 2008-2013): Sci-Fi about the Fringe Divison of the FBI using fringe science, FBI investigation techniques to investigate occurrences related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe
• ** Smash (Season 1-2, 32 episodes, 2012-2013): Musical drama about a New Yorker musical theater community and the creation of a new Broadway musical
• ***** Chuck (Season 1-5, 91 episodes, 2007-2012): Action-comedy/Spy-drama about Chuck, the average computer-whiz-next-door that receives an e-mail that embeds him with the only remaining copy of the Intersect (database of CIA&NSA spy-secrets) in his head. Afterwards a CIA and a NSA agent get assigned to look after him.
• ***** Leverage (Season 1-5, 77 episodes, 2008-2012): Drama about a group of five people (thief, hacker, grifter, retrieval specialist, former insurance investigator) using their skills to fight corporate/government injustices.
• **** Dr. House (Season 1-8, 177 episodes, 2004-2012): Medical drama about Dr. House, a medical genius that is misanthropic, has a drug-addiction and uses unconventional methods
• ** Simpsons (ongoing since 1989, I stopped watching after Season 22 in 2011): Animated sitcom about the middle-class family (the Simpsons) in Springfield.
• **** Outsourced (Season 1, 22 episodes, 2010-2o11): Sitcom about a call center in Mumbai where an American firm outsourced its order processing. An american call center manager recently send to India must explain the American popular culture to his indian employees and tries to understand the Indian culture. There is also a film called „Outsourced“ from 2006. The Tv series idea is based on this film.
• *** FlashForward (Season 1, 22 episodes, 2009-2010): Sci-Fi about a worldwide blackout where each person saw what might be his/her life a few month in the future.
• ** Heroes (Season 1-4, 77 episodes, 2006-2010, revival miniseries planned for 2015): Sci-Fi drama about people who discover superhuman abilities and must cope with that new development in their lifes.
• **** Numb3rs (Season 1-6, 118 episodes, 2005-2010): Crime drama about an FBI agent and his mathematical genius brother that helps his brother with solving FBI crimes.
• *** Dollhouse (Season 1-2, 26 and original pilot, 2009-2010): Sci-Fi about the Dollhouse, a corporation that programs people (called Actives/Dolls) with temporary skills and personalities that get hired by clients for various purposes.
• ** Mythbusters (ongoing since 2003, I watched it for 4 or 5 seasons around 2009): Science entertainment program that tests the validity of myths, movie scenes, internet videos and so on use elements of the science method.
• ** Dexter (ongoing since 2006, I stopped watching after Season 4 in 2009): Crime drama about Dexter a blood spatter pattern analyst of the Miami Police Department that lives a secret life as a serial killer hunting down criminals not brought to justice through the justice system.
• * Navy CIS (ongoing since 2003, I stopped watching after Season 6 in 2008): Police procedural about a team of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service with crimes involving U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
• **** Moonlight (Season 1, 16 episodes, 2007-2008): Paranormal romance drama about a private investigator that was turned into a vampire
• ***** Dead like me (Season 1-2, 29 episodes and 1 TV film, 2003-2004): Comedy drama about a girl dying in the pilot and becoming an undead grim reaper that helps souls of people dying move into their afterlife.
• ** Dawson’s Creek (Season 1-6, 128 episodes, 1998-2003): Teen drama about four friends in a small seaside town called „Capeside“ from their sophomore year in school till after university
• *** Dark Angel (Season 1-2, 43 episodes, 2000-2002): Biopunk/Cyberpunk Sci-Fi about a genetically enhanced super-soldier that escaped a government facility as a child and tries to live a normal life trying to not get caught again and find her genetically enhanced brothers and sisters
• ***** Babylon 5 (Season 1-5, 110 episodes and 6 TV films, 1994-1998): Sci-Fi Space Opera about the Babylon 5 space station. Really loved this show!

German TV Series:

• **** Türkisch für Anfänger (Season 1-3, 52 episodes, 2006-2008): Comedy about a German-Turkish patchwork family that focuses especially on the teens of that family.
• ** Doctor’s Diary (Season 1-3, 24 episodes, 2007-2010): Medical about the young doctor Gretchen Haase that wants to make a career in the hospital and focuses also on her love life that especially involves two other doctors of the same hospital.

Film-Stöckchen

Ein Fragebogen, den ich mal im Jahr 2007 beantwortet habe. Ich habe mal ein kleines Update gemacht:

1. Ein Film, den Du mehr als zehnmal gesehen hast…

mehr als 10 Mal? Also „Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“ habe ich vielleicht 5 Mal gesehen und das übertrifft bei mir schon sämtliche Rekorde. Jeden Film, den ich überhaupt ein zweites Mal anschaue, muss schon überragend gut sein.

2. Ein Film, den du mehrfach im Kino gesehen hast…

Ich habe noch nie irgendeinen Film mehr als einmal im Kino gesehen….

3. Nenne eine/n Schauspieler/in, wegen dem/r Du eher geneigt wärst, einen Film zu sehen…

Filme mit Josephine Preuß, Ellen Page, Diana Amft, Diane Kruger, Joshua Jackson und Moritz Bleibtreu sehe ich im Allgemeinen recht gerne.

4. Nenne eine/n Schauspieler/in, wegen dem/r Du weniger geneigt wärst, einen Film zu sehen…

Da fällt mir so spontan gar niemand ein. Adam Sandler vielleicht?

5. Ein Film aus dem Du regelmäßig zitierst…

Ein Zitat aus „The Mexican“ finde ich sehr schön. Aber regelmäßig zitieren tue ich es nicht: “I have to ask you a question. It’s a good one so think about it. If two people love each other, but they just can’t seem to get it together, when do you get to that point of enough is enough?” „Never“

6. Ein Musical, von dem Du alle Texte der darin gesungenen Songs auswendig weißt…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Ich habe in dem Musical selbst mitgespielt und kenne folglich alle Songs auswendig. Ansonsten kann ich von vielen Musicals ein oder mehrere Songs auswendig, aber nicht alle.

7. Ein Film, bei dem Du mitgesungen hast…

In einem Film eher nicht. Aber bei Glee (oder den zugehörigen CDs) singe ich manchmal mit.

8. Ein Film, den jeder gesehen haben sollte…

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Erst nach diesem Film kann man richtig beurteilen, ob Film-Storylines verwirrend sind..

9. Ein Film, den Du besitzt…

Ich besitze nur sehr wenige Filme, die ich dauerhaft behalte. Wenn ich mir mal eine DVD kaufe (meist leihe ich mir nur Filme), verkaufe ich sie meist wieder, weil ich Filme in der Regel ohnehin nur einmal anschaue. Ein paar Filme, die ich besitze: Free Rainer, Oldboy, Rain Fall, Türkisch für Anfänger, Stadt der Engel und noch einige wenige TV-Serien Staffeln.

10. Nenne eine/n Schauspieler/in, die ihre Karriere nicht beim Film startete und die dich mit ihren/seinen schauspielerischen Leistungen positiv überrascht hat…

Josephine Preuß z.B. hat in einer TV-Serie angefangen.

11. Hast Du schon einmal einen Film in einem Drive-In gesehen?

Nein, aber das würde ich gerne mal ausprobieren.

12. Schonmal in einem Kino geknutscht?

Ja. 🙂

13. Ein Film, den Du schon immer sehen wolltest, bisher aber nicht dazu gekommen bist…

Da wären bestimmt einige zu nennen. Ich habe eine Wunschliste, die immer so etwa 20 Filme enthält. Ich schaue auch ab und zu einen davon an, aber es kommen halt auch regelmäßig Neue dazu. 😉

14. Hast Du schon jemals das Kino verlassen, weil der Film so schlecht war?

Kann ich mich jetzt nicht dran erinnern. Ich überlege mir lieber vorher, ob sich der Film wirklich lohnt.

15. Ein Film, der Dich zum Weinen gebracht hat…

Mhhh, eigentlich keiner. Am nächsten kam da vielleicht noch „Stadt der Engel“.

16. Popcorn?

Im Kino: Hin und wieder. Zu Hause lieber Schokolade oder getrocknete Früchte (am liebsten Mango), im Winter ein heißer Tee und ganz wichtig: Schön gemütlich auf der Coach oder (noch lieber) im Bett.

17. Wie oft gehst Du ins Kino?

Je nach Zeit und Lust. Als ich Kind war, bin ich bestimmt 10 Jahre nicht ins Kino gegangen. Danach bin ich einige Jahre öfters (mehrmals im Monat) gegangen. Momentan bin ich schon wieder einige Jahre nicht im Kino gewesen. Ich ziehe es eher vor Filme gemütlich zu Hause auf dem Sofa oder dem Bett liegend zu schauen. Ist einfach gemütlicher. 🙂

18. Welchen Film hast Du zuletzt im Kino gesehen?

Puhh, keine Ahnung. Das ist schon so lange her. Das könnte vielleicht Iron Man 2 gewesen sein. Den habe ich jedenfalls im Kino gesehen. 😉

19. Welches ist Dein Lieblingsgenre?

Generell schließe ich kein Genre aus. Es kommt für mich eher darauf an, ob der Film und die Story gut gemacht und überzeugend sind. Das Genre ist mir dabei egal. Außerdem mag ich Abwechslung. Generell mag ich intelligente Storylines, was zum Nachdenken. Manchmal will ich aber auch nur etwas seichte Unterhaltung. Generell mag ich Sci-Fi/Action-Filme und Komödien (oft) sehr gerne

20. Was war Dein erster Film, den Du im Kino gesehen hast?

Gute Frage… Vielleicht „Der König der Löwen“?

21. Welchen Film hättest Du lieber niemals gesehen?

Mhh, vielleicht einer dieser Pro-Sieben-Film-Produktionen mit schlechter Story, die auf irgendwelchen Hollywood-Produktionen basiert?

22. Was war der merkwürdigste Film, den Du mochtest?

Definitiv „Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“.

23. Was war der beängstigendste Film, den Du je gesehen hast?

Oldboy. Den hab ich damals mit einem guten Kumpel mitten in der Nacht im Kino geschaut. Und wir waren auch noch fast (es war noch ein weiterer Gast im Kino) ganz alleine im Kino. Ja, das war schon irgendwo beängstigend. Vorallem ging es dann mit einem ziemlich wild rasenden Taxifahrer nach Hause. 😉

24. Was war der lustigste Film, denn Du je gesehen hast?

Da gab es einige. „Death at a Funeral“, „Ein Fisch namens Wanda“ und „Pappa ante portas“ um mal einige Beispiele zu nennen. In letzter Zeit kann ich mich nicht daran erinnern was äußerst lustiges gesehen zu haben.

Best tv series ‚proposal‘

I must say I really liked the ‚proposal‘ Michael did to Nikita. It came quite unexpected, although it was obvious that it would happen someday.
It might seem unromantic to most, but it was not only perfect for a ‚agent‘-couple, but also romantic and sweet from a Geek’s point of view:
Michael: „Give me the damn glock!“
Nikita: „Where are you going?“
Michael: „To get your damn engagement ring“.
After this conversation the look and distracted behaviour of Nikita was just perfect in the situation.
Later on the more ‚classic‘ proposal with Michael on his knees.
Nikitas: „You had me at ‚give me the damn glock“.

I always liked Birkhoff (at least in season two) the most and sometimes was a bit sad that they did not pair him with Nikita. But I think an agent guy like Nikita joining her on missions is a more suitable guy for her. So it fits like it is…

Whoah, I think I can not decide which tv couple I like the most at the moment: Castle & Beckett or Nikita & Michael. Both are completely different, but just enjoing to watch. I just hope they spare us with too much relationship drama… Especially spare us with splitting them up…

Castle

Ahhh, Castle and Beckett are just too sweet together! Definitely one of the best tv-series couples. Hope the show makers are not destroying these two like they destroy couples in other shows…

Glee

Today I will write about the tv series Glee. I think that most people now at least the name of the series, because Glee already won lots of awards like the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2010 and 2011. But nevertheless I want to sum-up some of the important facts about Glee: Glee is some kind of a Musical series with comedy and drama elements. It focuses on a high school Glee club named „New Directions“. The new Glee club director and Spanish teacher Will Schuester wants to restore the club to his former glory and must compete against cheerleading coast Sue Sylvester that wants to detroy the Glee club. The Glee club members must deal with social issues like there kind of non existing popularity and relationships. So the story does not sound that different than any other high school related series or film, but nevertheless the characters are very detailed, well elaborated and some are kind of crazy. And the musical scenes are just well performed. First I was unsure if I should give Glee a change and watch it. Yes, I love Musicals, was part of the school choir and like singing, but I was not sure if all this high school stuff would interest me. But I am glad, that I started watching. I must admit, that Glee will not become one of my overall favourite tv series, but it is just fun watching and I am kind of curious what happens next. So if you like music/singing and/or dancing, I encourage you to just give it a try (if you haven’t done that already 😉 ) and find out if Glee is a tv series you like.

Chuck

Do you like super hero stories? Do you like funny and not serious situations in a film? Do you like action movies? But do you also want romantic elements in a film? Do you like this computer nerd/ geek stuff or want to find out more about it? Than perhaps you should have a look on the tv show Chuck!

Chuck is just the ordinary computer geek type of guy who works as a computer expert in the local Buy More store, a retail consumer-electronics chain. His sister is a doctor and encourages him to make more of his life and love life. At the beginning of the show Chuck receives an e-mail of his former roommate in Stanford university with the world’s greatest spy secrets. They are the only copy of it and get embedded into Chuck’s brain. So NSA and CIA both send one agent to Chuck to return the information…

Castle

Today I want to recommend the TV series Castle to you. The
story follows the mystery writer Richard Castle that has the
writer’s block at the beginning. When he is counseled to help the
NYPD with an open murder investigation, he meets Kate Beckett, a
NYPD police detective. Castle sees Kate as an inspiration for the
main character Nicki Heat of his new book and decides to follow her
on her cases. Kate isn’t that excited about it first, but finds
out, that Castle can be kind of helpfull in solving cases. All in
all „Castle“ is a good detective story with lots of funny
situations and dialogues with kind of lovely main characters that
have some kind of a love and hate relationship.

Türkisch für Anfänger – Die Zukunft – Part 2

Nun gibt es auch auf der offiziellen Homepage von der ARD einen Beitrag zum Thema der Fortsetzung von Türkisch für Anfänger. Im wesentlichen enthält dieser aber nicht mehr Informationen, als nicht ohnehin schon bekannt: Durch die Umstrukturierung des Sendeplatzes 18:50, ist eine vierte Staffel nicht geplant, wohl aber ein Kinofilm. Als möglicher Inhalt des Filmes wird ein Türkeiurlaub der Familie angegeben.

Und auch wenn heute abend um 18:50 die letzte Türkisch für Anfänger-Folge startet, haben Fans der Serie noch einmal Gelegenheit alle Folgen im Fernsehen anzuschauen: Die ARD sendet ab 27.Januar eine Wiederholung aller Folgen. Alternativ bleibt dann noch der Kauf der DVD’s um die alten Folgen wieder und wieder anschauen zu können. (Die drei DVD’s zur dritten Staffel erscheinen übrigens am 15.12.2008).

Die Zukunft von Türkisch für Anfänger – 3 Staffel und was dann?

Seit Dienstag Abend läuft in der ARD die dritte Staffel von Türkisch für Anfänger. Leider waren die Quoten (bisher) auch nicht viel besser als in den ersten beiden Staffeln. Doch laut einem Interview mit Bora Dagtekin mit der Website „DWDL“ stand ohnehin schon von vorneherein fest, dass es keine Fortsetzung in Form einer vierten Staffel geben wird und somit die dritte Staffel die Letzte ist. Das mag für Fans der Serie eine Enttäuschung sein, eine Hoffnung bleibt allerdings: Planungen für eine Fortsetzung in Form eines Kinofilmes würden, laut wunschliste.de, immer konkreter.

Weitere Details zu dem Interview mit Dagtekin und den Quoten der ersten Folge der dritten Staffel sind unter den beiden Links in den Quellen zu finden.

Quellen:

• „Türkisch für Anfänger“ geht in die letzte Staffel (wunschliste.de, Michael Brandes, 17.11.2008)
• Schwacher Auftakt für „Türkisch für Anfänger“ (wunschliste.de, Michael Brandes, 19.11.2008)

Türkisch für Anfänger – Staffel 3 – Start

Nachdem sich in diesem Beitrag bereits einige Vorabinfo’s zur 3. Staffel finden lassen und die erste und zweite Staffel von Türkisch für Anfänger gerade in der ARD wiederholt werden, möchte ich hier auch noch einmal auf den genauen Sendetermin der dritten Staffel hinweisen: Dieser ist am 18.11.2008 mit der Folge 37.

Wer zudem neugierig geworden ist, was in den neuen Folgen passieren wird und sich nicht überraschen lassen will, dem sei dieses Forum empfohlen. Dort finden sich detaillierte Beschreibungen zu allen neuen Folgen der dritten Staffel.