Step off, George.

Yes…I blame the El Rey Network for filling my DVR with Shaw Bros. stuff.

Well, Shaw Brothers' China is tricky….if you're one of the nobles you're definitely dying in a horrible manner eventually, and the odds aren't terrific for the monks either. Being a regular old citizen meant being poor and hungry, whilst being some sort of merchant/blacksmith/innkeeper will eventually bring you the…

I want to be a low-wage worker for one of the Manchu nobles in the Shaw Brothers' version of medieval China. One of the dudes who like sits at the bottom of the House of Traps for a 12-hour shift every damn day, both hoping and fearing that today might finally be the day one of those pesky Shaolin monks shows up.

I'm a person just like you,
but I see that dress as black and blue

I can't imagine there's many others, unless his family adheres to the George Foreman rules of naming.

Interestingly enough, though folks keep using that example I don't even recall that scene very well….so maybe the problem is that I'm just not paying enough attention, though like @exiledjerseyite mentioned upthread, episodes of the Americans kind of bleed together for me, as the tone is so consistent. I guess I'd…

Yeah, upon consideration (and some good conversations from AVClubbers) it's probably not fair to call it humorless, rather it's humor is usually subtle and in small enough doses that it can't break through the overwhelming bleakness that is practically the lead character of the show. The humorous stuff on The…

That mirrors pretty well how I feel about Burn Notice as well, down to the fact that I stopped watching at about the same time. I was going to describe it as "a mediocre spy show" and then thought to myself "that's totally not fair", since I enjoyed it for a bit. Then I had the exact opposite reaction, when I went to…

A pulpy (ex)spy show on the USA Network from 2007-2013.

Yes, that's a good point. There's a bit of "one voice"-ness to The Americans' characters. They all seem to be at about the same level of intelligence, and pulling from the same vocabulary. There are no Dewey Crowes or Choo-Choos in the Americans' world.

I feel like I can laugh at those elements from other shows, but I personally have a hard time finding those moments in The Americans….which certainly doesn't mean they don't exist (or that I don't enjoy the show, just to be doubly clear).

The Sopranos is another good example of a show that managed to work in an awful lot of humor out of a potentially bleak setting ("This is the conversation of the future, Meadow!"). You're also right that the spy genre seems to go one way or the other, either campy or completely straight. Something like Burn Notice is…

I've watched every episode of this show since it started, read every review….and yet it still doesn't stick with me. It's certainly not a bad show, and I obviously get some enjoyment out of watching it, but when I see people gush over it and compare it to other great dramas I appreciate, I just don't get it.

Wrangler buttz drive me nutz (Zs for Jericho).

Moon is a great example.

I'm intrigued, and also had completely forgotten about that movie's existence.

I'll check that out, too! Black Death really only has the slightest sliver of fantasy in it, but it still has the feel of a sword and sorcery flick, if only for the medieval setting.

Yeah, books might have an easier time of it just because they don't have the same constraints of time/money/whatever and can better bide their time when building a story, whereas it's probably easy for producers/directors to think that they have to grab the viewers attention with massive set pieces and galactic…

Compute! sounds legit to me. Good call! Did you have Rat Race on tape? Rat Race and the Vic 20 tape drive will forever be linked in my mind even though I had neither…they may have been the first personal computer products I coveted. I did spend a lot of time on Vic 20s (and TRS80s) at various '80s computer camps…