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> Do you have specific instances?

Yes. Early on the hark about how rare their photon torpedo are and how many they have; Here's some dialogue from 'The Cloud'

> CHAKOTAY: We have a compliment of 38 photon torpedoes at our disposal, Captain.
> JANEWAY: And no way to replace them after they're gone.

They fired 85 photon torpedoes by shows end. Did they come across a stockpile? No. Did they have an episode that addressed how they made more? No. A stray line of dialogue even? No.

Voyager had a shuttle complement of 8 at full capacity. They blew up 10. Is this ever addressed, no?

More to the point, they are supposed to be lost and struggling for survival in the delta quadrant. That's kind of the whole premise right? Voyager looks brand new from first to last episode. After the first season 'surviving' in the practical sense is nothing more then lip service. For 99% of Voyager episodes they might as well be in the alpha quadrant.

Once the Maquis put on Starfleet uniforms (end of the second episode I believe) they are indistinguishable from the other crew members. Betraying it's premise of having two crews with different ideals and temperaments having to work together to survive. That's what it was supposed to be about. If it took a few seasons for that to happen, fine. That's progress. Two episodes is lazy. The Maquis is only mentioned in passing, maybe half a dozen times after the first season.

I could literally go on and on and on.

> "Can be boiled down to" is a weak argument

Eh, you're right and wrong. Yes, ultimately every character revolves around a few key features. Voyager is worse. Voyager made no attempt to push them out of those boundaries, that's the difference. (The Doctor is the exception here, I will give you the doctor). Need an example? Does Chakotay have any episodes that aren't based around being a native american? I'm not saying none of them should have been- but every single person who tried to do something with a Chakotay central episode that wasn't related to him being native american was shut down. There are numerous examples of this, from the actor himself who practically begged to do more then say 'yes ma'am' to janeway on the bridge to directors. Here are some segments from a Robert Beltran interview:

> ...I think writers have an obligation to fill out all the characters if they’re regular characters on a series. I think several of the characters were diminished – Chakotay and Tuvok and Kim and Neelix.

> I risked being fired because I wasn’t happy creatively.

Here is the director of the season two episode Initiations talking about this issue:

> My problem with the Chakotay character was that I wanted to forget the Indian aspect and make him the Maquis that he was supposed to be. I knew Chakotay would have to eventually cooperate on the ship, but I hoped he would do it unwillingly most of the time. I talked to the writers about it, why we weren't playing that conflict. They went with the Indian thing, which was kind of intriguing, but in my opinion, never paid off because it was done too subtly.

The same case can be made for Tuvok who can be described solely as 'vulcan.'

> I would say having a woman lead a Star Trek show is taking quite a chance.

That was neat, and I can appreciate that. But they cast a woman captain and then what did they do with her? Nothing. When they cast Avery Brooks the fact that he was black actually occasionally made it into the show in a meaningful and respectful way. It was great they cast Kate Mulgrew, but for 99% of episodes they could have given her lines to Archer and it wouldn't have made a difference.

> Bold statement, but it comes down to speculation.

This is patently false. This is not remotely speculation. I'm not going to comb through the book and pull out quotes right now but if you don't believe me read Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN. This is not up for debate. It is a fact.

> I'm going to need some sort of documentation on this. You make them out to be inept at worst, conniving at best and I just don't follow that.

Ok.

Here is Ronald Moore again:

> "When we were working on ‘Equinox Part II,’ I remember the pages coming in, and I would take notes, and send the notes back. There were just pages of it that I have no idea what’s going on. It was just page after page of, ‘Reroute the so-and-so, and engage the blankety-such, and the subspace dewop is doing its other thing.’ Just pages would go by, and in reading the script I’m flipping through it to find something of substance. It just fell on deaf ears.... The show was a little short, so they had to add some pages, which was nothing unusual."

Is that sufficient?

> Now, I think that's just speculation on your part, same as the UPN theory.

It's not speculation. You now have proof.

> The first two seasons of TNG were wildly inconsistent in their writing, performances, and even set design and yet that whole show is lionized among superfans.

Yeah the first season of TnG is pretty tough. I'll stand by season two though as being more good then bad. The difference is TnG got better. Voyager got worse and stayed bad. It never improved.

> Voyager remains to be underappreciated. I'll take "Caretaker Pt. 1 and 2" over "Encounter at Farpoint" any day of the week.

Yeah, well Caretaker was a pretty decent pilot episode with a lot of promise that they show immediately threw out an airlock. I probably would too. But comparing two episodes like that is a pretty bad argument. You can take the best episode of Voyager (which by the way is Living Witness) and put it next to the worst episode of The Next Generation (Sub Rosa) but that doesn't mean Voyager is a good show.

It's not underrated. It deserves the flack.

I am going to disagree because I think you're viewing TDS as a fixed point when it's in truth evolving with the political climate and hosts.

• The Daily Show with Kilborn was much more in the mold of what Weekend Update was. It very much used the format of news to find whacky stories or people. It punched down. When Jon came on board he began heavily modifying the whole structure of the show, top to bottom. For more detail, on this, I would highly recommend The Daily Show ( The Book ) By Chris Smith.
  
  
• Once the structure of the Show was in place it was largely a response to the alienation liberals felt during the years of Bush and success of Fox News. This formula couldn't continue after the resurgence of the Democratic party and the election of Barack Obama. Stewart could no longer attack Fox because it was punching down rather than up, as it used to be. I highly recommend this Vox video on this shift in the tone of The Daily Show in these years. Now to address the host, Trevor Noah. I agree, initially, Trevor did flounder but because he was trying to be Jon. Jon worked in Juvenalian satire. Juvenal satire follows the pattern of abrasively ridiculing societal structures. Trevor Noah is a satirist in the Horatian style. Horatian satire is solving social problems through light-hearted, gentle, humor.
  
  
• Now, look at the legacy of the Daily Show. John Oliver and Samantha Bee all follow a more Juvenal (Stewart) model. Stephen Colbert is interesting because he alone of the former TDS staff follows a more Horatian style. Seth Meyers is very Juvenalian in his delivery in A Closer Look. I agree Seth would be a great fit for TDS but only at the time of Jon Stewart, in the same way, another Juvenalian, John Oliver, was a successful stand in. It will be interesting to see how Noah uses TDS and Horatian satire now that he is in a similar situation that Stewart was early on in the show.

It's not about sitcoms, but Alan Sepinwall's The Revolution Was Televised is a fantastic look at the dramas of the last twenty years or so, and features interviews with the creators and others involved with the shows. Great behind-the-scenes information, and also an interesting look at how TV has changed.

And if you like oral histories, Live From New York is an amazing one all about Saturday Night Live.

Read a book like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Undeniable-Evolution-Creation-Bill-Nye/dp/1250074223

Try to find a copy of this incredible 3 episode PBS series: http://www.pbs.org/show/your-inner-fish/

Visit a good natural history museum

Watch this 4 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFxu7NEoKC8

Go to a zoo.

Read Darwin's On The Origin Of Species...This abridged audio production is fairly easy to follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpU8HfUwdmY

It's easy to say 'I can't see evolution happen', but I could just as easily say 'I can't see a tree grow'. I really can't, but walking through a forest and seeing different sized trees should be enough for me to reasonably assume that they do.

You don't need to be a biochemist to see similar proof for evolution. It can be very clearly inferred from all sorts of things around you right now.

EDIT: Thanks for the gold /u/rjkardo!!

Oz is fine...and a lot of people don't give it enough credit. Tom Fontana was given the greenlight by HBO to make a show about basically anything he wanted without censorship. It was like a pet project for the network. Pretty much anything went. It was unprecedented in its brutality and grittiness. Oz is what gave interest in people like Chase and Simon to work with HBO, knowing that they could have so much creative freedom. It was revolutionary. People like to say there would be no Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc. without The Sopranos, which is true, but there also would have been no Sopranos without Oz. If anyone really wants to learn more about how Oz changed television, you should check out Alan Sepinwall's book.

The show was really great until that mid-season change in four (I think) when a major character died. Then some of the ludicrous storylines came in, like the anti-aging (which Fontana has apologized for since and they obviously got rid of it quickly on the show) bit and those immigrants staying in Oz. I'm not saying the show went to absolute shit (hell, a scene in the final season tore me up), but there is a definite and obvious decline in quality there. Probably one of the worst changes is how frequently people died in the later seasons....do you remember the guy that died in the first episode of season 1? It was a massive deal and there was a huge investigation. Toward the end of the show, people were dropping like flies and no one even cared. It was never super realistic, but it definitely lost a ton of its realism in the later seasons.

However, a lot of the social commentary is still relevant today. Not to mention, the characters were great. The actors were great. Alexa Fogel was the casting director, and she also cast The Wire, so there are a ton of the same actors. The dialogue was sharp and I loved the way they portrayed the religious figures, like Sister Peter Marie, Kareem Saïd, and Father Mukada. For such a nihilistic show, they could have easily have made religion out to be a complete joke, but the religious characters on the show were actually very intelligent which I think contributed it to making it a very clever show.

Not to mention, Schillinger is one of tv's most terrifying and evil villains ever. J.K. Simmons is awesome.

You can get the original 12-issue comic series in a collection here, it is all you'll need to understand the Watchmen world, every other work is just supplementary. The graphic novel is very highly-regarded and popular in the comicbook community so DC obviously wants the world to keep on going in one way or the other.

But it's honestly one of my favorite books, and very thought-provoking too. Would highly recommend.

There's a good one named Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must-See TV. It has stuff about Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, Law and Order, ER - very insightful for someone who has no connections to the network TV industry.

There's also The War for Late Night which is an interesting read.

If you're into behind the scenes stuff, try Desperate Networks.

Have fun reading them!

It's not a video documentary but Sepinwalls' book is pretty known and respected:

> Alan Sepinwall: The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers, and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever
>https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1476739676/

In addition to being an excellent thriller, Hannibal was an underrated cooking show. (No, really, Janice Poon really worked hard to create amazing plates for that show.)

The character description is interesting: "an honest but ambitious FBI agent willing to go to any length for his family." If they're going to make Season 3 like Born Again, then I suspect he's going to be a combination of Nick Manolis and Ben Urich (RIP on TV).

Well, Band of Brothers was based off a book about the men of Easy Company. There is of course The Pacific if you're interested in another Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg/HBO collaboration.

Here you go! The first one just came out recently, and the second will come out later. The audiobook is narrated by Kristen Bell, and you can get it for free on audible.com if you sign up for their free trial. Just make sure to cancel your membership before your card gets charged.

Dick!

I hope that enough people with money managed to see the quality in the Veronica Mars movie, and will give Rob Thomas the wherewithal to do whatever he's interested in.

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line - the Veronica Mars book was actually their first run at what they were considering making the movie about. As a result it seems to be a true sequel to the movie, definitely a good beach read for any VM fans out there.

>Janice Poon, the food stylist for Hannibal and American Gods, has a blog where she discusses how she designs the meals. She also released a book a couple years ago.



Wow that's cool!

There's actually a pretty good book about about the merger and all the behind the scenes drama: https://www.amazon.com/Season-Finale-Unexpected-Rise-Fall/dp/0061340995

The Shield is being released on Bluray in November

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ7MP4K

>Studio description: All 88 episodes from seven groundbreaking seasons of the Emmy-winning series available for the first time ever in stunning widescreen High Definition!
>
>This definitive collector's edition set features 4K RESTORATIONS OF EACH EPISODE, along with dozens of hours of special features including deleted scenes, commentaries from the cast and crew, featurettes and so much more!

SyFy gets a lot of good shows but unlike FX they dumpster them pretty quick. Exhibit A: Amazon's new show, The Expanse!

Don't cut yourself short, man. Maybe try easier things, like this. Or maybe this.

If you get a chance, check out The Revolution Was Televised, such a fantastic book on how the shows came about

It's the comics run that this season is (loosely) based on. There are a few nods/hints to it through the trailer. It's written by Frank Miller and it's fucking excellent. Yours to own for just £11.70!!

THE EXPANSE! Best SciFi I’ve seen recently (after Sense8) https://www.amazon.com/The-Expanse-Season-1/dp/B018BZ3SCM

agreed me too. I just watched this movie PU 239 (was free ondemand) and I am looking into the following material:


https://imgur.com/a/TwY6q

https://www.amazon.com/Chernobyl-01-Incredible-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0993597505/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Highly, incredibly reccommend The War for Late Night by Bill Carter.

First hand accounts of the entire timeline and scenario of the Conan/Leno/Tonight show situation. Very entertaining, good insight into the shows, and a big look into some of the really complicated personalities and business of the TV industry.

According to The Daily Show book published last year, primarily because Viacom completely beefed their previous contract situation prior to them leaving, which kinda exacerbated the situation when the end was near and Stewart was just done with doing the show and needed to stop. Colbert was in a similar situation, but got offered the Late Show, and since their contracts were linked, it kinda all came down at once.

Cool book if you've been a long fan of the Daily Show to read, but really one just for the fans. All told first person from the staff.

Here you go!
https://imgur.com/a/TwY6q

Here is OP's Book/Audiobook about this Post!

Google Play Audiobook: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Andrew_Leatherbarrow_Chernobyl_01_23_40?id=AQAAAIAuOiK6HM

Amazon Book/ebook/Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Chernobyl-01-Incredible-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0993597505/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

My favorites:

Malarkey: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Company-Soldier-Legendary-Sergeant/dp/031256323X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394469882&sr=8-1&keywords=donald+malarkey

Winters: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Band-Brothers-Memoirs-Winters/dp/0425213757/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394469901&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+winters

Babe and Wild Bill: http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Battle-Friends-William-Guarnere/dp/0425224368/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394469927&sr=1-1&keywords=babe+heffron

And Compton: http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Before-During-Brothers/dp/0425227871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394469942&sr=1-1&keywords=buck+compton


http://www.amazon.com/Band-Brothers-Regiment-Airborne-Normandy/dp/074322454X

https://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Hannibal-Connoisseurs-Janice-Poon/dp/1783297662

That book is fantastic.

These are the 1 star reviews. They're all positive, saying that they gave it 1 star so that people who searched for 1 star reviews would see them

This has nothing to do with the show, but he has done some very well written books recently.

Lloyd Braun was not hired back. He was ousted and he stayed gone.

If you're interested in the way TV shows have changed and been revolutionized, I recommend the book The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall. One of the chapters is about Lost.

Yes, http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309 .

I recommend reading The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall.

Amazon Link

https://www.amazon.com/Shield-Complete-Blu-ray-Catherine-Dent/dp/B07FZ7MP4K

I like how Catherine Dent is in the URL.

It's titled "Going Clear" by Lawrence Wright. Sorry I didn't put that in my initial comment. Here's a link for you: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309

Read the book Going Clear. I cannot recommend it enough. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0307745309/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1481120292&sr=1-1

If the fans want to make a big impact, they should buy the seasons (if they can). At Amazon or any of their preferred vendors.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BNVJK3R/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018BZ3SCM/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSZILS5/

People on reddit love to say "speak with your wallet" when trying to hurt a product for one reason or another, but it applies the other way around too.

It's not a long series. The book compiling all of Moore's comics is 450 pages and less than $20: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401245250/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_379WzbJKVHNNT

There's also the prequels, but no one really seems to like those, so I wouldn't bother.

118.99 on Amazon, with an MSRP of 229, which it will never sell for.

 

The Shield - The Complete Series Blu-ray

Here's the link to the Amazon book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/145217380X

Amazon Prime users HAVE AT IT

> they have it amazon prime.

https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Animated-Complete-First/dp/B001BXQ97I

> What can I watch or read that will give me a solid background on Watchmen?

Watchmen.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Link text: The Revolution Was Televised

• UK: amazon.co.uk
  
• Spain: amazon.es
  
• France: amazon.fr
  
• Germany: amazon.de
  
• Japan: amazon.co.jp
  
• Canada: amazon.ca
  
• Italy: amazon.it
  
• China: amazon.cn
  
  
  This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).

It goes back to when Leno "stole" the Tonight Show on Carson's retirement, which "everyone" had assumed would go to Letterman. Letterman had been Carson's preference.

There's a whole book about it.

November 6 so says Amazon. $120

Check this out then

There's literally an official cookbook--thankfully, it's not just a way to make a quick buck (looking at you, GoT video games. The authors ran a GoT cooking blog that did recipes from the books (lemoncakes and all).

I've been thinking about buying this for myself

Janice Poon, the food stylist for Hannibal and American Gods, has a blog where she discusses how she designs the meals. She also released a book a couple years ago.

"Feeding Hannibal: A Connoisseur's Cookbook"
https://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Hannibal-Connoisseurs-Janice-Poon/dp/1783297662/

It's included.

When Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show in 1992, both wanted the throne. There's a book called The Late Shift chronicling it, and it became an interesting yet cheesy HBO film.

Based on the books? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671528904/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501636285&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=mindhunter+john+douglas&dpPl=1&dpID=51EYEcQLZ0L&ref=plSrch

http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934 read the description of this book.

Perhaps writing an eyewitness account would be enough? If I Did It

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/145217380X/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

Here you go.

Edit: not sure why this is being downvoted.

It's been pegged at #1 on Amazon.com since it was released. Please note that sales estimates here are woefully underrepresented due to the methodology (not what the site was built for).

I mean, GRRM did spend an inordinate amount of time describing every meal; there's even a Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook ...

Alan Sepinwall wrote a whole book on this called 'The Revolution Was Televised' featuring The Sopranos, LOST, Breaking Bad, Mad Men etc. Great read from the best TV critic in the business.

What? No, not at all. Here, check it out.

> Feeding Hannibal

Holy crap, how did I not know about that‽

I actually bought that damn licensed cookbook lol I have ASoIaF problem

Anyone who has read Going Clear and Beyond Belief has been wondering where the FUCK have the Feds been on this? It's LONG overdue to raid their compounds. To hell with the Judicial nightmare that waits. Justice is supposed to be blind, not turning a blind eye ...

He also wrote this book where he all but decries hereditary genetics, blaming disproportionate IQs on biased testing and cultural/environmental issues, all of which has been disproved many times before. Unfortunately, he's more of a pop star than a scientist. I've said it before but I'll take an E. O. Wilson over a Bill Nye any day.

EDIT: Downvoted by people who couldn't tell you who E. O. Wilson is.

I think I found it. Mindhunter by John Douglas.
Shit.
> During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life.

> As the model for Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Douglas has confronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability to become both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves.

The stuff of nightmares and he tracked it down. Will be watching that one. And Stranger Things. I won't be sleeping much in October.