4 TV Shows You Can Watch in a Weekend

Show 1: Arrested Development

One of those shows that ran on Fox for a while and then died, Arrested Development received high praise while it aired and ran for three seasons. I'm not really sure why the show didn't get better ratings. It's as well-written as Seinfeld (which ran forever) and as funny as the currently successful The Office. Regardless, Arrested Development is a show to pick up.

Arrested Development tells the story of the Bluth family. They're living the typical wealthy life when the patriarch of the family, George Bluth, is arrested for embezzlement. (His charges are later raised to light treason.) George's son, Michael Bluth, is thus forced into the leading roll in the family and must somehow hold them all together.

The show is filmed in a one-camera style, features Ron Howard as a narrator (his commentary alone makes this show a worthwhile buy), and there's no laugh track. Each episode is a standard half an hour slot. So the episodes themselves are just over twenty minutes.

Arrested Development ran for three seasons. The first season had 22 episodes, the second had 18, and the third had 13. It's the sort of show you can put in the DVD player and just watch and watch. And it's a show you'll come back to.

Show 2: The Office (BBC Version)

The inspiration for the current NBC sitcom, Ricky Gervais's The Office ran for two seasons of six episodes each and culminate in a 90-minute Christmas Special. Fans of the NBC remake simply must see this show. Those unfamiliar with the American Office must still watch this one.

This is clean-cut comedy. There's no laugh track, none of the cheesy features of more traditional comedies -- the sort filmed on sound stages. It's filmed in a documentary style, complete with interviews. The Office follows a pathetic little office in Slough, England, part of the Werham-Hogg paper company. The office is horribly mismanaged by the incompetent David Brent (Gervais). He leads a cast of employees who really don't want to be there.

The show manages to achieve awkward-situation humor without being annoying, and taps into an everyman motif that doesn't come across as disingenuous (as television and cinema attempts so often do). The interplay between Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman) and Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook) is especially hilarious, often taking the form of a forever-undeclared prank war.

Show 3: Firefly

Here's another show that died on Fox. Joss Whedon, of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, created this sci-fi/western. It features all the elements his fans have come to expect: cool action, characters you'll fall in love with, and genuinely talented writing. Unfortunately, Fox ran the episodes out of order and under-advertised the show, with the result that Firefly was canceled after only completing fourteen 40-minute episodes. Whedon has since gone on to make Serenity, a feature-length film that serves as a sort of remake and completion of the original show. This movie was made in direct response to Firefly's incredible DVD sales.

Firefly takes place roughly 500 years in the future. Earth is a distant memory. Humanity has now settled onto a loose collection of moons and planets. A few years before the show begins, the prosperous but highly regulated Alliance worlds attacked and conquered the much less affluent but free Independent worlds.

Firefly follows Captain Malcom Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a veteran of that war (he was an Independent volunteer) and his crew onboard Serenity, a Firefly class freighter. They're freelancers by trade, doing everything from crew transport to smuggling to get by. They don't have much. But they're free. In the show's one hour pilot, River (Summer Glau) and Simon Tam (Sean Maher) join the crew. Simon is young doctor from the central planets. His sister River was an incredibly gifted child who had been abducted into a government program. To rescue his sister, Simon spent his whole fortune and turned his sister and himself into fugitives. To the crew of Serenity, these two quickly become part of the family and the crew prove many times that they are willing to protect Simon and River, whatever the cost.

Firefly was undoubtedly cut down during its prime. The show doesn't conclude. It just ends. The movie helps provide some closure, but it's not quite the same. Still, it's one of the best shows out there, and it is short, easily watchable in a weekend.

Show Four: Extras

This too comes to us from Ricky Gervais. After his success with The Office, Gervais went on to make Extras. This show is filmed in a very similar style to The Office but doesn't feature the interviews and particular camera moves of The Office's documentary style. Extras follows Andy Millman (Gervais), a movie extra who tells people he's actually a serious actor who's just doing the extra thing on the side. We also follow his close friend and fellow extra Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). The show turns a critical eye toward the film industry and movie stars, exposing how pathetic and unglamourous they can be. Each episode features a celebrity guest star -- the list extends from Ben Stiller to Patrick Stewart -- with each celebrity playing what Gervais has called "twisted versions of themselves." The show ran for two six-episode seasons, and concluded with a 90-minute Christmas special.