Is there anything worthy of your intelligence, left to watch on TV?

SouthPark Is good for me

There’s pretty good stuff on Cable.

I really enjoy the history channel.

Yes there is and here are some of them right here offering quality educational and stimulating material: Discovery Channel, Biography, TLC, the History Channel, and A&E.

Nova and Nova science now is still good

Anybody else been watching Life on Discovery? It’s excellent.

NCIS, Bones, Supernatural, movies

I started to watch a program on the Whale Watchers, but I guess it is off the air now.

@MacBean Life is sweet, but my favorite is still Planet Earth :).

PBS offers a lot of educational and informative programming. Check-out their program selection here

I really enjoy the programs on A&E. Especially Intervention, Hoarders and Obsessed. Learning about addictions and psychological disorders is something I enjoy and watching people overcome these issues is truly inspiring.

Does anyone else scream whenever anything remotely “reality tv” comes on? I yearn for the time when people were famous for having a gift, a talent, not just for living in the big brother house and flashing their breasts (and other bits) at the camera every two minutes.

Yes though, there is decent tv to be found among all of the dross. I love Wallander, which I originally watched because Kenneth Branagh is in it on the BBC. I have been really enjoying the Swedish version currently showing on BBC4 though, and like some other Jellies, I to love the history channel and the biography channel.
hugs xx

Less than 5%. Perhaps less than 1%. Most of television is trash and it keeps people dumb. Many documentaries are good. Some entertainment too, for example Big Bang Theory.

Watching television or a few hours throughout a day or just in the evening for favorites will npt make me dumb, It’s easy relaxation.

@mattbrowne Yes it is! :)

Life on Discovery is breath-taking. But I still find my self watching dumb useless reality shows like ‘LA Ink’.

I’m beginning to convert to just watching TED lectures!

@ShiningToast: I agree 100%!

I enjoy a good natural history series or two.David Attenborough remains king in his field,well knight to be precise.Don’t know or care if that enhances intelligence I just love watching animals in their wild state.

The amount of commercials on TV is a deal killer to me. I was already turned off by lack of intelligent programming, but the commercials added to it, make it aggravating to watch. And I could by a TiVo, but I really shouldn’t spend money on stuff like that.

So I gave up TV a few years ago, and I watch ABC’s Lost on the internet on their website, and it’s a great show, and probably one of the the only intelligent dramas on.

Although so far here, people have listed cable channels and shows that they find intelligent, and I agree with all of them. Nova & Frontline are really great. And History Channel has great content, but way too many commercials, and after midnight, it’s just infomercial crap. At least on my cable system which I do not subscribe to.

@lynneblundell mentioned TED lectures, which are on the internet. Those are mostly all incredible. The very existence of so many TED lectures makes the watching of mind-dulling crap on TV all the more nonsensical. In other words, if nothing good is truly on, and you have to ‘settle’ on something, just turn the stupid thing off, go the computer and watch a TED lecture instead

i hate almost everything on tv. usually i feel embarrassed for the people i see on tv. all i watch is The Office on the netflix website and sometimes South Park online. i dont have tv and don’t ever want to have it because nowaday it is all trash. X Files was worthy, and so was Twin Peaks and Seinfeld, but none of those are on anymore.

I do miss having TV for the discovery channel, though. They always had good stuff on. And the history channel.

Did you have some spare commas that you just had to get rid of? I wouldn’t mention it except that you raised the issue of intelligence. Intelligence normally goes hand in hand with erudition.

I think that Boston Legal is fairly well written, and I enjoy The Office. I’m almost over The History channel. I’ve seen and heard enough mistakes and insufficient research to put my dukes up. Also, any time a narrative is going on, they speak of the past events in present tense and it makes me in sane!

I still enjoy Burn Notice and Criminal Minds. The Pacific looks like it will be good too when it first screens tomorrow night. Apart from that, I agree that most shows exhibit a distinct underestimation of the intelligence of their viewers.

I think Leverage is one of the most intelligent shows out there – and certainly one of the best. I agree with Burn Notice, NCIS and Bones too – I like watching shows with smart characters doing interesting things (although, the writing on Bones is uneven – sometimes it’s incredibly smart, and then some episodes have enormous plot holes…)

What we really need is for Aaron Sorkin to write a new show – he’s the king of intelligent TV. Until then, though, I’ll just have to go back and watch my West Wing DVDs over and over and over…

Are ye ready kids?

Aye Aye, Captain!

Ooooooooh – who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

Dexter is well worth watching.

Bones, house, foodnetwork is fun. scifi and if you have cable fearnet

Sure. What is beneath my intelligence is discussing the elitism and pretense in this thread.

@IchtheosaurusRex… lol :)

Sorry but is the Life show a few of you mentioned on Discovery the one that was a BBC production?

Mad Men!

Lost and Fringe are two of my favorites. They require a lot of thought (and not missing an episode) to really understand, and as some questions are answered, new ones arise. I would consider them both very intelligent shows.

Did anyone see the initial episode of Treme? It held my interest. I haven’t watched any TV in over a year, so I don’t have much to compare it to.

Plenty. There’s FlashForward, Real Time with Bill Maher, Caprica, 60 Minutes, The Ricky Gervais Show (okay, that last one might not be the most intelligent show but Karl Pilkington is slap nuts funny!), and a few more.

House.

Fraggle Rock… that’s still on TV right?

There’s plenty of pretty good programming still on. A lot of the shows have been mentioned previously. One I didn’t see mentioned was ‘Modern Family’. great writing & acting. “entourage’ on HBO is top notch, too.

Commercial network TV? I’ve boycotted it since “Northern Exposure” was killed off.

I watch TV to escape my work life, and to let my brain shut down. I agree that the trend toward reality TV is disturbing, but to each his or her own. Personally, I enjoy 30 Rock quite a bit, and I am mostly unashamed to admit that I really enjoy Glee!

oh, and @PrancingUrchin it is the same series, but Oprah narrates the US version.

The Simpsons, 30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation are all very smart and very funny.

Lost is an intriguing network drama, has any other show really broached the topic of multiple planes of existence?

Cable has a number of dramas and comedy dramas that are well worth watching…Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, Breaking Bad and Mad Men

I still find engaging programming on the History Channel, TLC, Discovery, etc., like The Universe, How It’s Made, and Life After People.

I watch other things that are definitely not worthy of my intelligence (Family Guy, Cleveland Show, American Dad, South Park, Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, Glee) but which are at least well written and ably performed and provide enough escapism that I can retain enough mental energy to enjoy my highbrow TV tastes as well.

I like to think that I possess a very flexible ”intelligence”, and can bring it to bear upon anything that I ”watch”.
However, by choice, I would say that Lost tops my bill.

Machines of Malice was good, and of course, Xena Warrior Princess is the shit.

Intelligent? Fucks if I know, but it’s fun.

Yeah I bloody hate television programming for the most part, but I’d feel a little arrogant if I were to denounce the entirety of cable TV as if I know it all.

Back in 1952, my father use to tell all of us the TV will be the ruination of the family. He would not buy us a TV. All our friends had one, and we fianlly got our first one in 1956. It was just as big a waste of time as it is now. At least with the computer you can look up things and learn something. I must admit there are a few channels worth watching, when my husband isn’t hogging the TV with Fox News.

God, I love TV.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is worth my time. :D Same with Flapjack, MythBusters, and Dr. Who. BBC FTW!

@stranger_in_a_strange_land lurve for Northern Exposure – I miss that show!

There’s about as much good TV on as there are good questions anymore on Fluther.

@eponymoushipster Scan the cable channels. —I might suggest you dawn your thinking cap and write a few “good” questions yourself.—

@lloydbird – Yes, TED is excellent stuff. Good podcasts too. I listen to many of them during my daily commutes.

@Rangie you first.

@mattbrowne oooh didn’t know about the podcasts…excellent thank you!

@eponymoushipster I have been. How many have you written in the last month? At least I am trying, are you?

I second @mattbrowne. The Big Bang Theory is great!

Deal or No Deal does it for me…..inane? Yes….but still better than anything else I see on TV. Of course, now that I have DOND on my Iphone, I just play that. It’s a fascinating life. I did spend 6 years without a TV about 10 years ago. It was great.

Quality ≠ quantity.