Maximum safe dosage

[mrph]

I have a nasty habit of watching DVDs in blocks - 2-4 episodes of something at a single sitting. Depending on the show, this may have... side effects...

Too much West Wing (4 episodes or more) definitely warps my speech patterns and sense of humour for a little while. But it's remarkably easy to watch...

More than two episodes of Deadwood and it starts to get to me. Somehow. Or maybe that's just the accompanying whisky...

Two episodes of Mad Men seems to be about as much as I can watch at once.

And I've never been able to watch more than a single episode of Six Feet Under at a time. It's just too bleak - mostly due to the way it's filmed, I think.

I've just started watching season one of Dexter. I think I could happily watch quite a lot of this in a single night. I'm not entirely sure what that would do to my brain, though...

Comments

[mrph.livejournal.com]

About six or seven and I end up with a running commentary from Londo Molari and/or Ivanova in the back of my brain. :)

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

When I first watch a series, I try to watch the whole thing practically in one sitting. When I come back to it I tend to pace myself. A good series gets you so involved with the characters that you live and breathe it for a while.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

The problem, at least for me, is that large doses of dark/bleak stuff leave me in a slightly odd state of mind.

Some things I'll watch for hours on end... with others, I really need to take a break after a certain amount of trauma, nastiness and emotional turmoil... :)

[velvet-nothing.livejournal.com]

When Graham and I were watching a lot of Six Feet Under, I sooo started speaking like Claire!

I watched the first episode of Dexter the other night, but am so far undecided on it...

[mrph.livejournal.com]

I've seen the first three now - I think two is probably the right number to watch in one sitting - and I'm quite sold on it.

I tended to pick up Toby-isms from the West Wing, I think. Haven't seen enough Six Feet Under to really be swayed by it...

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

I tended to pick up Toby-isms from the West Wing

"I stepped off the edge of the world".

"Did you fall on your head? Did you fall down and hit your head on something hard"?

"Of course not, she replied wisely"?

And all those are from one episode. Point if you can tell me which one. :-)

[mrph.livejournal.com]

I don't get the point, alas. Not sure which episode this was.

But I'd guess that this is Sorkin-written Toby, because it sounds like Toby ought to sound...

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

Season 1: Celestial Navigation. My favourite TWW episode. :-)

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

A few months ago, I took to my bed (well, actually I never really got out of it) and watched the entire seventh season of The West Wing in one go. It were great. :-)

[mrph.livejournal.com]

I pretty much did that with the first season. I'm really very fond of the West Wing.

What did you reckon to Studio 60? I wasn't quite so impressed, but it started very well...

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

I only caught the first two episodes but enjoyed it well enough. I'll get the DVD box set when I'm a bit more flush. I always thought Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry worked well together from their first scenes in season 4 of TWW.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

It's a good show. It suffers a little from the realisation that everything would need to be resolved in a single season, though - and the ensemble cast evolves much more slowly that the West Wing mob.

Having said that, it occasionally feels that it's run out of things to say about television. A lot of the really good episodes are back to politics, in one way or another...

[aardvarkoffnord.livejournal.com]

A whole season of Dexter would not be good for anybody's brain. It would turn even a SAN 99 person into a homicidal maniac.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

This is the point where I don't comment to say that Dexter's monologues are awfully close to some of my own thought processes, right? :-)

[hex61.livejournal.com]

Watching all of DethKlok season one over one weekend did serious damage.

Just warnin' ya.

[souldier-blue.livejournal.com]

I watched the first two seasons of Boston Legal over the course of a few weeks; my internal dialogue switched to Alan Shaw, and then I realised my external dialogue was heading that way too (including body language)

[redandfiery.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnort*

For someone who usually loathes smarm, I find Alan Shore ridiculously engaging, and his interaction with *Denny Crane* is pure comedy gold.

Think I need the DVD boxsets, actually.

[crashbarrier.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem, with teh advent of the dvd "box set" i will quite happily chew my way through the dvds whilst doing "stuff".

Deadwood gives me potty mouth.... Adam says I channel Calmity Jane.

This weekend I mostly been watching Stargate sg-1 seaosn 6 and 7 and re watching NCIS seaosn 1 I now have a duo of Colonel O'Neill and Agent Gibb's sat being sarcastic in the back of my head.

I can't get on with Dexter, I tried a couple of episodes and didn't really get on with it. Not becuase of the subject matter but because I don't find the main character all that engaging.

[sciolist.livejournal.com]

Deadwood does affect my speech patterns and perception, so unfortunately does The Wire, leaving me saying such remarkably non-white things as 'aight' occasionally.

Thankfully it wears off after a while.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Deadwood does tend to make me think of most people as cocksuckers

Dexter looks curious....

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Dexter's odd.

Ok, so he's a serial killer who only kills bad people. And it's neatly paced and stylishly filmed (the 'early morning' titles are a work of genius - fried breakfasts have never been so sinister...).

But there's no getting away from the fact that he doesn't simply 'execute' people, vigilante-style. It's not Deathwish. He takes them to his lair and kills them in unpleasant ways (almost entirely off-camera).

There's an argument that this is ok, because simple death is too good for these people. But that's not why he's doing it. He's doing it for his own gratification.

He's also mostly unconcerned about their victims. The season one arc seems to concern another serial killer - and Dexter views the thing as a game, admiring his skill and artistry, without a hint of concern for the victims...

Unsettling. But quite watchable.

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

Watching a 24 season in a short period of time left me paranoid for a while that anyone around me could be a terrorist about to blow everything up...

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I watched the first 4 series of The Gilmore Girls in 3 hour blocks for weeks.