I have to break it down into comedy and drama.

Drama

The Wire
Deadwood
Carnivale
Mad Men
BSG/The Sopranos
Breaking Bad/Twin Peaks
X-Files

Comedy

Arrested Development
The Office UK
Seinfeld
The Simpsons (the first 9 or so seasons)
Slings and Arrows 

Not in any particular order:

Dr. who
House
Bones
Monk
Athf
king of the hill
Something else on adult swim I forgot. 

But I somehow forgot always sunny in philadelphia. 

What nitin said. The purgatory doesn't start before the atom bomb goes off - that's the point where we start to have two realities, one of which is the off-the-island purgatory where everyone has to remember their greatest love.

Also, nitin: Interesting that you have Carnivale up there. I would put that in my top five also. It's a great show which was cancelled too soon. 

I would have loved to see the 5 planend seasons of Carnivale come to life.

Also re: Lost, I must admit my impression was that the flash sideways wasnt an alternative reality related to the bomb going off but something that followed once Hugo became the caretaker of the island and changed the rules (from Jacob's rules). 

Well yeah i'm aware that the ISLAND isn't purgatory, or limbo, whatever you want to call it. It's when certain characters return to the real world and get off the island. Well, most anyway... some of them we never got to see how they really died so maybe they did get back to America, ie Hugo. But it's still the same concept of "they're in purgatory". Which isn't really that original for a twist.

Unfortunately they had this storyline set right from the first episode. It's good but if I was a writer I wouldn't have bothered with that, and instead explained the damn island. The subplots for each character once they were back in America were boring anyway. Each episode that did that (and the first season suffered the same thing) was another "fuck sake just go back to the island plot I don't give a shit about Jin and his daddy woes! and that every second character is a murderer in their past". Still a great series though, if you string the 'island-episodes' together. 

I preferred the charcater stuff rather than the plot stuff, so aybe thats where the different reaction is coming from. 

 

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Strangers Tide whatever.

120+ minutes of rubbish. Save yourself the time and do something worthwhile instead. 

Stop watching crap movies and complaining about it here. Seriously, either you're a masochist or you're really bad at judging which movies you might like. 

not have a good morning poop? 

i appreciate the bad reviews. it's nicer when they are a little more descriptive than simply "rubbish" though 

the illusionist (2006)
pleasantly surprised by this given the negative reviews further up. not as good as the prestige but a cute little story in its own right; nicely directed & shot with a mysterious air and token surprise ending

pitch black (2000)
if you're randomly crash-landing a team of badly-acted misfits on a planet full of flesh-eating aliens that only come out at night, then surely it makes sense to NOT do it on a planet with two suns that has one night of darkness every 22 years! but nope, as luck would have it that night is mere hours away and all the monsters are ready & waiting, despite having not eaten or even seen the outside world in 22 years. in essence it's kind of a poor man's aliens, but with too much stupid to even enjoy on a popcorn level. it's even badly shot (daylight is ridiculously over-saturated and the shakycam is nauseating in places)

the thin red line (1998)
really enjoyed this up until the point where they take the japanese camp; magnificently shot and convincingly acted. seemed to lose momentum after that though and got a little too caught up in flashbacks and 'poetic' philosophical ramblings, without really developing the characters (witt & tall were the only ones i ended up caring for). not sure i'd have the patience to give it a second viewing

the beaver (2011)
if you can get past mel gibson donning a glove puppet, putting on a ray winstone impression and demanding everyone address him as 'the beaver' then this is actually quite a touching study on mental illness and its effects on family. my only problem was that the subplot with the older son didn't really have much connection to the main story, but on the whole good

angel heart (1987)
unsure how i managed to go so long without even knowing about this, let alone seeing it. loved it.. dark, disturbing & mysterious, totally my kind of movie. that said, the 'reveal' with de niro's character at the end could have been a lot more subtle and allowed the viewer to piece together the clues to his identity themselves.. which would have probably elevated it to a 10/10 in my book

blitz (2011)
very standard 'gritty' british police/murderer thriller with jason statham playing dirty harry. it was barely okay. fun in places but a bit naff in others. not sure i'd recommend it

last, and definitely least:

your highness (2011)
seriously, anyone in two minds about seeing this cos it looks like a fun pineapple express type stoner comedy, don't. it's an amateurishly cobbled together humourless mess of wanking and sex references aimed squarely at schoolboys. there is literally nothing good about it (save for a few boobs maybe? if, like me, you were tempted by that shot of a scantily clad natalie portman in the trailer, just watch the trailer again. that's the only time you see her like that) 

regarding Your Highness, Angel Heart and The Thin Red Line - disagree regarding Illusionist (boo) and Pitch Black. I have a total weakness for cheesy sci fi horror action stuff though. Then again, haven't seen Pitch Black in years... 

I've always subscribed to the theory that the island is the Empyrium, though not in the strictly Christian sense.

The purgatory theories, the flash-sideways, the afterlife fall in line nicely following the original premise. 

is cool, very atmospheric. 

Mickey Rourke. Even when he's speaking in a fairly terrible russian accent. 

The whole movie was let down by the child's eyes at the end. Having said that, it was a great movie, I would recommend to anyone lol ;D 

Watched
Insomnia (2004) (or was it 2002)
yesterday. Was not as good as I hoped, but still good. Somehow it felt on the one hand incomplete/undeveloped while on the other there was a lot of unncessary stuff. The detective (Al Pacino) character did not convince me. The insomnia itself was well presented but felt almost completely superfluous to me since the character was screwed up in the first place. Robin Williams was ace. 

although Chris Nolan's weakest movie. The original NOrwegian film is also better (especially the ending). 

even know it was a remake 

Three days of the condor

Redford was a terrible choice for that character and the character itself was terribly introduced. I hated him for the sheer stupidity and idiocy with the girl. It got better after they had sex. Ultimately felt like one of those movies where you had to analyse the book in school and then watched the movie with the teacher and said ah, this is that scene and oh, interesting how the director did this. I really did not get into it nor did I like it in the end. 

 

found something off about 3 Days of the Condor, its decent enough but the pacing is not great. But I'm a big Faye Dunaway fan and whilst this isnt her best role, she's still good in this.