Looking for new Netflix series

[dreamshark]

My current obsession is Mad Men, but I'm caught up through Season 3, which I guess means I'll have to wait another YEAR to see Season 4 *sob*.  I'd like to see the second season of Dollhouse, but apparently it's not released yet.

We finally finished Veronica Mars.  I gave Gilmore Girls a try, as it has been recommended by several people. I was disappointed - I couldn't even make it quite to the end of the pilot. I found it teeth-achingly cutesy with a nasty aftertaste.

This left me idly wondering why, if that's the way I feel,  I liked Northern Exposure so much yet disliked this show so immediately and intensely.  Like Gilmore Girls, Northern Exposure was a show built around a not entirely likable protagonist plopped into the middle of a town full of over-the-top Quirky Supporting Characters. However, in Northern Exposure the QSPs were mostly pretty likable. And their quirkiness, while not exactly subtle, was introduced gradually as the first season evolved.  None of them were just walking caricatures, like the Accident Prone Cook, or the Snooty French Hotel Clerk, or the Health Nut Diner Employee who spends all day trying to discourage customers from consuming anything sold at his diner. Even in the sitcom world you have to wonder how these people keep their jobs.

But my main problem is Lorelei. I am neither amused nor charmed by adult women who act like children, in fiction or real life. I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to see her as flawed but nonetheless adorable. I didn't. In fact, I found her relationship with her daughter to be intensely creepy. I realize that there are mothers in this world that are no more mature than the children they are supposed to be raising, but I don't find them cute. So.... no. I sent the disc back largely unwatched.

Maybe I'll just queue up another disk of Northern Exposure. We've been watching that on Netflix off and on, and it holds up surprisingly well.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I watched an episode or two of Gilmore Girls and felt pretty much the same way you do.

I really don't know your tastes; I like Burn Notice and Leverage and Bones.

[hakatrip.livejournal.com]

I've been watching Eureka on Netflix, and in mid-season 3 moved to watching it on Hulu. It's sci-fi, but light, our main character being a man who takes on the job of sheriff in Eureka... a small company town filled with scientific geniuses. Suspension of belief is required, but I really enjoy it. There's quite a bit of humor, and he's clearly in over his head with the science. But, (as I was trained in science I know this to be true), genius does not equal common sense and practicality. Einstein could not find his way across his hometown. Carter is good at his job and they need him. The series starts up again soon on ScyFy.

[drblkcrab.livejournal.com]

I never could get into Gilmore Girls myself but Northern Exposure, Moonlighting, McGyver, Burn Notice, Castle, Psych, White Collar yes...

I've always wanted to get into Eureka and even Fringe but I need to start from the beginning.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Never got into Gilmore Girls, and even the current Parenthood is sometimes hard to wade through. Still, if you liked Northern Exposure, I'd recommend Picket Fences. On at about the same era, the two of them traded off for best show on tv (in my estimation).

[carbonel]

If you haven't already watched Due South, I think it might be your sort of thing.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I will recommend Farscape and the U.K. version of Life on Mars. If you like Horror at all, I found Dexter to be much better than it had any right to be, and I'm enjoying True Blood so far.

Edited to add: Bones is overall pretty good, but has a few weak spots occasionally.