[nir] by leaps and bounds better than seth macfarlane's original creation family guy (or at least family guy in its current state), american dad shows macfarlane's sense for political and social satire is just as keen and as cutting as his ability to formulate new levels of absurdity by tweaking the most mundane and immutable parameters of common situations.

[nir] hurray julia louis dreyfus!

[nir] a great spoof of british educational shows from the 70s. each episode in the first series (two alogether) is ten minutes long and pretends to scientifically study subjects such as math, sulfur and ghosts. exceedingly funny and clever, see for yourself using the youtube link above.

[apopheniac] "You're my wife now..." The darkest, weirdest, most disturbing comedy series ever made. It's fairly safe to say that this macabre little show is unlike anything else on television. Welcome to the town of Royston Vasey, where the local shop is for local people, where a visit from the circus brings with it the nefarious machinations of Papa Lazarou, and where absolutely anything can happen if it's twisted enough. Plagues of nosebleeds? Been there, done that. Spoofs of "Delicatessen" and "The Wicker Man" in the same episode? Check... Not only has the show spawned a full-length feature film, it also escaped into the parallel universe of British stage pantomime, and is doing very nicely thank you.

[apopheniac] There's no middle ground with Little Britain - you'll either love it or loathe it. The mutant creation of David Walliams and Matt Lucas, it's a TV sketch show like no other, featuring a selection of twisted characters that make the cast of "The League Of Gentlemen" look like the Brady Bunch. There's Lou (Reed) and Andy (Warhol) - A disabled guy and his carer in one of the most destructive relationships you'll see on TV. There's Carol, the bank/travel agent computer operator (Walliams) who only uses her computer to inflict pain and humiliation on her subjects: "computer says no..." There's the woman (Walliams again) who throws up when confronted with foreigners. There's Dafydd (Lucas), the "only gay in the village." Walliams also plays Sebastian, a rather-too-jealous private secretary to the Prime Minister (Buffy's Anthony Head). And there's motormouth teen nightmare Vicky Pollard (Lucas): "Yeah, but - no, but - yeah, but..." The whole thing is gleefully narrated by former Doctor Who Tom Baker.

[apopheniac] Look, it's impossible to describe this show as it would just sound silly. "It's about a couple of zoo keepers called Howard and Vince" doesn't give you the slightest indication of the demented, hit-and-miss genius of the thing. A "cartoon with real people", or "surrealist television" might just about cover it. But then, how do you explain the entire episode where the two characters are cast away on a desert island and invent a bewildering variety of imaginary friends for themselves, build an increasingly ludicrous number of items out of twigs, coconuts and bits of grass, have arguments because one character's imaginary friend fancies the other character, and then have a massive fight at an (imaginary) cocktail party, accidentally "kill" one of the imaginary friends, and get put on trial for murder? Can't be done. Just watch the show!

[apopheniac] Graphic artist Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) are a couple of twentysomething singles who pretend to be a couple in order to rent a rather nice flat that they've got their eye on. Sounds conventional, but it isn't. In fact, Simon Pegg pitched it as "a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure." The character of Tim Bisley is named for Simon Bisley, one time member of the Motorhead Fan Club and now one of the mightiest comics artists on the planet. The majority of the artwork for the show is actually drawn by another 2000AD comics artist, Jason Brashill. The show is a film nerd's dream. Aside from many homages to Sam Raimi's camera work, there are soooo many snippets of dialogue borrowed from cult films it's surreal. Bizarre little moments include Duane (played by Peter Serafinowicz, who supplied Darth Maul's voice in "The Phantom Menace") riffing on the line "at last we can reveal ourselves to the Jedi, at last we will have our revenge" to one of the other characters. And then there's Tim's friend Mike... If you've seen "Shaun of the Dead" you should recognise just about every single person in this series, as it's pretty much the same team. Oh, and Bill Bailey crops up as Tim's boss "Bilbo" from time to time.

[nir] larry david comes back to tv as the real george costanza and all the better for it. bit of a different kind of one sided self absorbed, anal and manipulative character, the focus here is a little less on larry david's personality (although there's still plenty of that) and a little more on convoluted plotlines dealing with the tiniest details of daily life nevertheless coming together in the best of seinfeld traditions. curb out-seinfelds seinfeld exponentially. aside from the usual per-episode fare each season includes one or more running stories that are visited, sometimes only briefly in each episode. the last season episode is typically dedicated to concluding the running stories, and those seem to just keep getting better and bigger as the show proceeds. in one, larry jointly ventures to open a new restaurant with the likes of ted danson and others, but unwittingly engineers one business related catastrophe after another including hiring a chef inflicted with a severe case of tourette to work in the restaurant's open kitchen. a later season features an incredibly ambitious and equally well executed plotline whereby larry is chosen by mel brooks to take the lead role in the long-running broadway show "the producers". in the last season to date larry discovers he is not jewish as his long lost parents are actually christian, something that gives him great hope and inspires in him a spiritual transformation that leaves him an entirely different person. newfound morality drives him to agree to a kidney donation for his friend comedian richard lewis which he's resisted, until then, to the point of criminal offense. the surgical procedure does not go well and larry david dies. curb your enthusiasm is rumored to come back for a seventh season in 2007.

[Ortali] you will never be able to look at a suburban housewife the same way again...and we're NOT talking "desperate housewives" here! i LOVE this show...the acting is amazing, plots are plausible, and each episode ends with a cliffhanger without making the show seem too soap-opera-y. some really hilarious moments...i REALLY need a "chris died for your sins" tshirt now.

[nir] tina fey brings her years of experience as the first female lead-writer for SNL to an upcoming show on NBC with a severe case of write what you know about. alec baldwin plays some version of lorne michaels i think, and tracy morgan is back as tracy jordan, ascertaining what we all thought during his days on SNL, that he is quite seriously mentally ill and had been known to be so at the time of his hiring. looks like bags of fun!

[nir] definitely something to a sitcom that feels like everybody loves ray and has jokes about freckled cocks and punching your mom in the face. louis C.K.'s time has finally come. this just debuted on HBO so you can still catch the pilot, check it out if you can. if you don't have HBO i'm betting you'll be able to find it on eMule.

[apopheniac] David Bowie, Orlando Bloom, Germaine Greer, Sir Ian McKellen, Daniel Radcliffe and Chris Martin are on board for the next series, apparently. So nothing special, then.

[apopheniac] Hugely irreverent UK TV comedy created by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews about three priests who live in the Parochial House on Craggy Island with their housekeeper Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McGlynn). Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan) has ended up on Craggy Island after a misunderstanding over some church money that was just "resting" in his bank account. Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon) is there because most of the time they can keep him away from parishioners or anything sharp, and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) is there because nobody dares do anything about moving him without full NBC gear and a hazmat unit. Plotlines were insane: one episode featured a re-enactment of the plot from "Speed" but featuring a milk float that had to keep moving at four miles an hour to keep from blowing up. Another featured a priest with a morbid fear of rabbits who comes to stay just as Craggy Island is struck by a plague of rabbits courtesy of Father Dougal's pet bunny, Sampras. All three series had brilliant writing and featured cameos from a bizarre selection of people including Graham Norton and Brian Eno. Father Dougal: What's going on? Priest: We're in Ireland's largest lingerie department Father Dougal: No, I mean in general. Mrs Doyle: Won't you have some cake, Father? It's got cocaine in it. (The priests look startled.) Oh no, hang on, it's not cocaine, is it. What do I mean now? The little things? Raisins!

[apopheniac] UK comedy show that ran three seasons, centering on the exploits of Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), the misanthropic and alcoholic owner of the world's worst bookshop. Things are kept on an uneven keel by his assistant Manny (Bill Bailey) and the woman who runs the shop next door, Fran (Tamsin Greig). Example quotes: Bernard (on being introduced to the son of some friends): Oh thank god. I thought you had a disease! It's a child! Manny: I have a condition. Bernard: What? What's it called? Manny: Dave's Syndrome. Bernard: Nonsense! You're making this up. It's like that fudge thing of yours. What is it? You have to have lots of fudge because- Manny: It stops me going deaf! Fran: Oh my god. Mickey Rourke had another facelift. He looks like his trousers.

[nir] top of the line suck humor.

[nir] top shelf existential philosophy posing as meaning-free random comedy. in some respects the most honest and realistic television out there, surprising for a show that doesn't normally go a whole minute without a daydream sequence or some absurdity or another. missteps plenty but that's normal when you're constantly treading new territory.

[Ortali] this is one of my favorite "comedies". it's so earthy, you can practically hear the trees growing as you watch. oddly, there are very few completely likeable characters on the show. everyone has their baggage and misdeeds, some more than others. it tackles the concept of eating disorders very honestly. one of the characters is obese, and his honest love of food, as well as his using food to stuff his emotions is very easy for many veiwers to identify with. his "hot" wife is an anger junkie who veers violently from co-dependent to independent. it's really unlike any sitcom i've ever seen when dealing with issues of marriage. the acting is awesome, and the scripts rarely disappoint.

[aka_randomchick] Jason Lee is awesome :)

[sierracat] This show has slowly built into one of the best things on TV. It surpasses the British one quite a bit now imo. I just need to get caught up on the newest episodes to see what's up with the romance.