Monday, February 28, 2011

TV: what I'm watching...

Thanks to the DVR and my movie habit, I'm a few episodes behind on everything, but I'm working on it. =)

FRINGE. X-FILES with a plan. Plays out a bit slower than I'd like, but totally worth it. Everything matters. =)

JUSTIFIED. Frickin genius. The closest thing to a modern day western/gunslinger story I've seen and loved. Also some bonus points for bringing familiar faces in from shows that have passed on, i.e. Olyphant, of course, THE SHIELD's Shane/Goggins, LOST's Tom Friendly, Jack Shepard's grandpa, Locke's pot-growing guru, Bram, and Faraday(!), and Swearengen's henchmen from DEADWOOD. I really hope they get John Hawkes in for a story or as a regular. Maybe in a role not so different from WINTER'S BONE's Teardrop, eh? So glad Natalie Zea's sticking around (she's frickin hott =).

NO ORDINARY FAMILY. Original superheroics for television done right! SMALLVILLE's got its thing, but a lot of its appeal (for me) is that it gets to draw upon, and riff on, existing Superman and DC mythology. HEROES blew it. Sadly, THE CAPE may not have gone far enough with actual super-ness (does his son have to re-read the SAME issue of THE CAPE in every episode?). You can watch the last few episodes online at abc.com.

NOF is like THE INCREDIBLES, but serialized with both comic book and television drama archetypes in mind. They had a BREAKFAST CLUB episode! Which I actually think is more of a borrow from DAWSON'S CREEK than the original film. A good borrow. I also hafta say that supermom Stephanie is the role I like Julie Benz in most now. It suits her. She always seemed a bit "off" as Darla in BUFFY (better in ANGEL, tho), but I saw it as calculatedly "off," because she was playing a centuries old bitch in a schoolgirl's body. Mom Powell is just right, tho. More just right even than her sometimes-too-flat DEXTER role. The show is kind of dangerous, tho, in that it's created Katie Andrews (played by Autumn Reeser), who is just the perfect fanboy dream.

30 ROCK, COMMUNITY, PARKS AND RECREATION, and THE OFFICE are still delivering prime time comedy gold. More people need to watch and appreciate COMMUNITY and PARKS! In an unlikely way, COMMUNITY may be the closest thing to SPACED on American TV in that it borrows heavily from genre TV and film, and different ones in different episodes. Not quite as perfectly as SPACED, but pretty damn well, and with great effect. There's also just plain old quirk in a lot of it, which is something I love.

This is a weird testimonial, but if anyone out there in TV land wants to see how a series finale SHOULD be done, they should watch the end of PARKS AND REC season 2. For a while during season 2, the show was on the chopping block. Me being me, I wasn't quite on top of what the latest scuttlebutt was when the season finale aired. It played out as if it was a SERIES finale, tho. Maybe the writers weren't even sure? I don't know. Of course, as it turns out, the show was renewed, but MAN, that finale... If the show did have to go, well, it would've gone out with well, sadly, but well. After so many crappy, confusing, and disappointing final finales, this non-final one did it right.

I've also got ADVENTURE TIME WITH FINN AND JAKE, REGULAR SHOW, ARCHER, and VENTURE BROTHERS programmed into the DVR, too. =)

Keep on keepin on~

2 comments:

Ted Assur said...

I will watch what you're watching because I don't want to think for my.... er... Waste time sifting through crap.

Seriously though. Also watching the Fringe, but JJ Abrams addiction to loose ends just pisses me off. Seriously. How many times is he going to me like, oh look i have yet another Deus Ex Machina up my butt that just makes everything work, and i don't have to explain ANYTHING. Seriously? What now SAM the BOWLING man is actually GOD or something? And hey don't worry about circling back with it, or Olive's super powers, or... well. anything for that matter.

Still hopelessly addicted to it, but i wouldn't be surprised if some fan just off's JJA out of insanity.

NOF. Bleh. ABC is crapping out feel good serials in the Hero genre? I can barely watch it and K has completely disowned them. Move it to ABC Family Channel or after school specials. What happened this epsiode? oh the same thing as last epsiode, but with another bad guy.

I'm getting my Hero fix of the CAPE. Could Summer be getting any hotter? Either she got some plastic, or her baby fat melted off those amazing cheekbones. Agreed on the kid reading the comic. Maybe they could afford one prop comic.

Check out THE EVENT. It's coming back... oh... tomorrow! from it's winter hiatus. Blonde girlfriend is a little too wimpy "I can't do anything for myself", but the rest of the cast is rocking the show. Nice to see the Ritter boy get a nice cast as geeky hearthrob in a lead role. Plus you've got the I LOVE TO HATE YOU Zeljko Ivanek from True Blood in another lead role.


ARCHER is sheer genius.


Keep on.

joshua said...

Agreed whole heartedly on Community. I am going to dig up S1 of Park & Rec to give it a try, despite the panning it received when it first came out. Wuzzon cred is enough to give it a chance in my book. And yes, Heroes.. blew it. Never has a show gone from so amazing to so unwatchable... so sad.