Scenery Porn/Live Action TV


 * Any Science Fiction show, when they leave their station/ship/plot device. And sometimes when they're still on it.
 * Every establishing shot ever on The Amazing Race. Watch the Opening Credits from one of the later seasons, every scenery shot is a place they've visited over the course of the series.
 * Breaking Bad. The cameras take every opportunity to show off the deserts of New Mexico.
 * Boardwalk Empire; the jaw-dropping re-creation of Atlantic City's boardwalk is this all over, and more than a few establishing shots give a sweeping view of it.
 * Burn Notice is full of shots of Miami in every single episode, often accompanied by girls in bikinis, which makes it an odd combination of Scenery Porn and actual (softcore) Porn. So did CSI: Miami and (possibly) for the same reason. And, indeed, most shows set in Miami fall prey to Scenery Porn. It's almost like there's a reason. Some other show they're referencing... Some other show set in Miami. Some other show that looks like a 45-minute music video of cars and guns and bikinis and scenery porn.
 * Carnivale has perfect cinematography. At least, the first season had it nailed down pretty fine.
 * Most episodes of Charmed open with some magnificent, view-from-the-sky establishing shots of San Francisco. The White Lighters have also been known to have meetings with the main characters on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.
 * Doctor Who, for all of its Special Effects Failure, also employs sweeping vistas. Especially in the new series, where we've had some really lovely alien planets, gorgeous shots of outer space, and most recently, some amazing location shooting in Utah.
 * Both Kingdom and Doc Martin have long shots of their (Norfolk and Cornwall respectively) scenery.
 * Supposedly the reason why Last of the Summer Wine was initially popular was that people would watch with the sound off, ignore the Plot, and just gaze at the beautiful scenery. The people who watched the unfunny "comedy" A Year in Provence generally did the same thing.
 * Life had great cinematography, and also showed the LA area to good effect.
 * Life On Mars went out of its way to establish its version of the Seventies, down to copying lighting and cinematography techniques from Seventies films and television. A prime example of Real Is Brown.
 * Lost. The directors of the show not only use the gorgeous vistas of Hawaii (where they actually shoot) really well, but they also create really meaningful establishing shots. No generic, CSI-style flyovers here, folks.
 * Mad Men has ridiculous amounts of detail in the backgrounds and props, things that add character but never, ever get used. One hotel room gets a suit valet (thing you hang a suit on), a bottle of liquor in the background, clothes and pocket-stuff, cuff links... and none of it is used or referred to, but captures the era.
 * The scenery in Australian drama McLeod's Daughters is lush and beautiful. The sweeping shots over the farms are stunning.
 * The Dutch version of The Mole seems to have taken a page from The Amazing Race (above), using gorgeous scenery for Establishing Shots.
 * Many of the sketches in Monty Python's Flying Circus written by Terry Jones/Michael Palin were set on location in beautiful countryside locations. (It got to the point where as soon as they began reading a sketch, John Cleese would go 'here we go, pan over beautiful countryside'). Lampshaded in a sketch at the end of one episode which starts with an image of the ocean roaring onto a beach, at which point John Cleese comes on and apologises for the fact that there's no actual jokes at all, but at least the scenery is lovely.
 * The Ken Burns mini series The National Parks: America's Best Idea is essentially six episodes of old photos, talking heads, and lots and lots of this.
 * No Reservations is as much Scenery Porn as it is Food Porn.
 * NYPD Blue really liked its slice-of-life shots of the titular city. Law and Order and its offspring occasionally indulge too.
 * Literally the entire reason that Planet Earth and associated series exist.
 * Ever since Power Rangers moved to New Zealand, they've been taking advantage of the beautiful landscapes the country has. Mystic Force and Ninja Storm are especially good for it.
 * The Santa Barbara police station on Psych falls into the Architecture Porn category. Many of the exteriors, whether filmed in Vancouver or Southern California, are also very pretty.
 * Pushing Daisies not only has this (including a beautiful CGI-enhanced graveyard), it also has architecture Porn. Can't... stop... drooling! The episode "Window Dressed To Kill" has, towards the start, a shot of a massive prison in the middle of an icy area that qualifies as Scenery Porn among Scenery Porn. Seriously, it's gorgeous.
 * The Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett is pure Victorian Scenery Porn, down to every last detail. It was one of the last ITV series that got given a big enough budget to reproduce this kind of detail--when you look at their later dramas, there simply isn't as much stuff on tables, walls, on the streets because they can't afford it anymore. And considering how the Victorians loved their bric-a-brac, every elaborately decorated inkwell, every Orientalist screen, every Arts and Crafts wall-hanging, every lead ornament on a window, every mother**** ing Symbolist painting whose height of popularity matches the story year exactly is enough to make the history geek pass out in ecstasy. And that's before we see the ominous print of the frickin' Reichenbach Falls on Holmes's mantlepiece, and the way the directors framed numerous shots to match the original Sidney Paget illustrations... excuse me, I think I need a lie-down.
 * Stargate Atlantis: The city of Atlantis is beautiful in its own right, but several later-season nighttime establishing shots are breathtaking.
 * Star Trek Voyager has a ridiculously gorgeous opening title sequence -- so much so it broke physics
 * On Top Gear during their overseas specials, at least a few minutes of reverent attention is paid to the surroundings. The Vietnam special was particularly devoted to this, at least in part because the presenters wanted to show the country as "more than just that place where a war happened".
 * Twin Peaks has some truly beautiful cinematography. The opening also gives you a good first look at some of the breathtaking nature scenery you're going to see in the show.
 * Torchwood is full of beautiful shots of Cardiff. And in "Countrycide", the countryside.
 * The Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Wallander, set in southern Sweden, is heavy on the Scenery Porn, with countless lingering shots of beautiful Swedish landscapes.
 * Wheel of Fortune can get very elaborate with its set designs, which change every week. They especially love Halloween week, where the set is replete with gag tombstones, an animatronic gargoyle, smoke and lights, etc.
 * The BBC documentary series Planet Earth has a ton of this. Aerial views of mountains, deserts, and forests, waterfalls and oceans, large migrating groups of animals, and more, all shot in HD, no less! Just let this video explain for itself.
 * The Straits revels in the contrast between its action-packed and violent crime premise, and the pristine natural beauty of northern Australia and the tropical coast of Papua New Guinea. The opener alone contains plenty of this.
 * This is one of the primary draws of HGTV and the Travel Channel. You could say the two are glorified screen savers in TV network form.
 * The reality TV Show Survivor likes to film in tropical locations, often using some beautiful aerial views during the torch walks (or in the case of "Palau", downright beautiful shots of the ocean). It was already darn beautiful, especially during some of the tribal council sets. (Especially "China", which had the most elaborate tribal council set as described by the show staff) However, it went Up to Eleven in "Gabon" when they made the jump to HD. While people have gotten bored of having four seasons filmed in Samoa (Within two years), they really do showcase that the world can be a very beautiful place.