What I'm Watching
What's on TV lately? If you look past all the reality crap (which I do because i can't stand any of it except MAYBE Extreme Makeover Home Edition) there actually quite a few good shows on right now. Well, in my opinion, anyway.
1) First up: The return of Lost. Yes, I've heard the jokes about "Lost has lost me". But I'm still watching. I admit that last week's episode came thisclose to giving me a headache and a nosebleed. All that cutting between the island, the island hopping through time and the Oceanic Six-it was, as usual, filled with interesting moments (a young Charles Widmore! Juliet speaking Latin! Locke telling Richard when he will be born and to go see it!). All these individual scenes were cool but the show seemed less than the sum of its parts. But this week, it was very cool. maybe because the people on the island really only interacted with each other, which made their time-travel much less confusing. And the Oceanic Six had their own problems-who wants to take Aaron from Kate? Who sent that guy to kill Sayyid? (like someone could actually KILL Sayyid-he's such a badass). And will Hurley stay in the LA County lockup? But the coolest moment of all was the return of Jin-and the look on his face when he realizes he's talking to a young and pregnant Danielle Rousseau. I have high hopes for what happens next on this show.
2) Fringe. I started off kind of liking Fringe and being amused at its blatant X-Files homage. While it is still doing an homage to the Files, it's still a good show. Anna, Pacey and crazy john all get good lines, the plots, while intricate, are understandable and there's also an underlying overall plot going on, which no one understands yet (yes, I'm referring to the whole "Observer" thing). but what makes this show, to me, are the performances. Anna Torv does a nice job of playing the rational (mostly)FBI agent, Joshua Jackson gets some good lines as the skeptical son of Crazy Scientist, John Noble. John Noble (who I haven't really seen in anything before this-sorry), is awesome in this show. He gets crazy lines, and delivers them with aplomb. In someone else's hands, he might come off as just a crazy scientist, but in Noble's hands, Walter has heart and soul along with the crazy. It's worth it just to watch him.
3) Bones. When I first started watching Bones, it was pretty lightweight, and in some respects, it still is. You know no one will ever die, you know that eventually they'll figure out the crime, you know that nothing really, really bad will happen. But what they do, they do really well-and in some episodes, it's clear they're shooting for more. The episode where we meet Boothe's brother-the navy officer who turns out to have a drinking problem is an example of this-it could have been After School Special-ish but instead was better than that. No one learned a lesson, life went on and the people involved dealt with it and learned a little more about each other-but it didn't help. But I'd like to give a shout-out for last night's ep-The Hero in the Hold, in which Boothe is trapped by the Grave Digger and has to not only escape from the hold of decommissioned ship he's on, but also has to get off the sip before it blows up.
This ep was all about David Boreanaz, who gave a terrific performance-spending the whole time talking to a fallen comrade who is helping him (who is also a ghost), he was equal parts, desperation, humor and pathos. He was great. yes, everyone else was good too-but this show was clearly a showcase for him. The only part I did not like was the scene late in the show that showed Boothe supposedly in a war. His make-up was bad, his "Army" uniform looked silly and the set looked so fake it was ridiculous. It completely brought me out of what, up until then, had been a very captivating show.
4) A quick shout-out to NCIS. No, it's not a show that will make you think. But it's always entertaining. the characters are good and the cast has real chemistry together-there are many worse ways to pass the time.
5) The return of The Closer. I hear Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick lost all their money to Bernie Madoff, so it's a good thing she's got a good show on that can bring in some cash. She's seriously good on it, the supporting (particularly Anthony Denison and Paul Provenza) is great and it's always fun to see Brenda take down the bad guy-and to see how she does it. And every once in awhile, it rises above itself to turn in something really special. Most shows are willing to coast on the strength of its cast, and The Closer is now exception. But when it reaches beyond that, it's something special.
6) Battlestar Galactica. This is just a really, really good show. It turns its ongoing plot about human fighting evil robots while searching for home (not Earth anymore, as Earth is now a radioactive mess) into something that is far more than that. Hope, redemption, loyalty and what it means to be human. Are all ongoing themes in this show, along with power, violence and betrayal-and the effect they can have on anyone who comes into contact with someone willing to use them for their own ends. This show is not only powerful, it makes you think. What does it mean when the robot has more emotion than the human? When the human is willing to torture when the robot is not? When the robot doesn't know what it's like to be human because when it "dies" it can download into a new body? This show is not afraid to tackle tough questions and raise tough questions-it enjoys doing so. And now it's dealing with what it means to be loyal-and what it means to be a traitor to those who served with and beside for years. Who is right and who is wrong when both have valid viewpoints?
7) And a show I've been disappointed in lately: I'm looking at you-Supernatural. The one-offs have always been the weakest part of the show and never more than now. Following the whole Lucifer is trying to break free and bring Hell on Earth storyline, we get Criss Angel is a Douchebag? Last night's ep was a little better because we had some real conflict between Sam and Dean but honestly, where are the demons? The angels? Lucifer is just out breaking the seals and no one is fighting this? I like this show but to bring out such a strong plot and then abandon it for three episodes (are we saving the good stuff for sweeps?) is enough to make me return to CSI and no one wants that.
1) First up: The return of Lost. Yes, I've heard the jokes about "Lost has lost me". But I'm still watching. I admit that last week's episode came thisclose to giving me a headache and a nosebleed. All that cutting between the island, the island hopping through time and the Oceanic Six-it was, as usual, filled with interesting moments (a young Charles Widmore! Juliet speaking Latin! Locke telling Richard when he will be born and to go see it!). All these individual scenes were cool but the show seemed less than the sum of its parts. But this week, it was very cool. maybe because the people on the island really only interacted with each other, which made their time-travel much less confusing. And the Oceanic Six had their own problems-who wants to take Aaron from Kate? Who sent that guy to kill Sayyid? (like someone could actually KILL Sayyid-he's such a badass). And will Hurley stay in the LA County lockup? But the coolest moment of all was the return of Jin-and the look on his face when he realizes he's talking to a young and pregnant Danielle Rousseau. I have high hopes for what happens next on this show.
2) Fringe. I started off kind of liking Fringe and being amused at its blatant X-Files homage. While it is still doing an homage to the Files, it's still a good show. Anna, Pacey and crazy john all get good lines, the plots, while intricate, are understandable and there's also an underlying overall plot going on, which no one understands yet (yes, I'm referring to the whole "Observer" thing). but what makes this show, to me, are the performances. Anna Torv does a nice job of playing the rational (mostly)FBI agent, Joshua Jackson gets some good lines as the skeptical son of Crazy Scientist, John Noble. John Noble (who I haven't really seen in anything before this-sorry), is awesome in this show. He gets crazy lines, and delivers them with aplomb. In someone else's hands, he might come off as just a crazy scientist, but in Noble's hands, Walter has heart and soul along with the crazy. It's worth it just to watch him.
3) Bones. When I first started watching Bones, it was pretty lightweight, and in some respects, it still is. You know no one will ever die, you know that eventually they'll figure out the crime, you know that nothing really, really bad will happen. But what they do, they do really well-and in some episodes, it's clear they're shooting for more. The episode where we meet Boothe's brother-the navy officer who turns out to have a drinking problem is an example of this-it could have been After School Special-ish but instead was better than that. No one learned a lesson, life went on and the people involved dealt with it and learned a little more about each other-but it didn't help. But I'd like to give a shout-out for last night's ep-The Hero in the Hold, in which Boothe is trapped by the Grave Digger and has to not only escape from the hold of decommissioned ship he's on, but also has to get off the sip before it blows up.
This ep was all about David Boreanaz, who gave a terrific performance-spending the whole time talking to a fallen comrade who is helping him (who is also a ghost), he was equal parts, desperation, humor and pathos. He was great. yes, everyone else was good too-but this show was clearly a showcase for him. The only part I did not like was the scene late in the show that showed Boothe supposedly in a war. His make-up was bad, his "Army" uniform looked silly and the set looked so fake it was ridiculous. It completely brought me out of what, up until then, had been a very captivating show.
4) A quick shout-out to NCIS. No, it's not a show that will make you think. But it's always entertaining. the characters are good and the cast has real chemistry together-there are many worse ways to pass the time.
5) The return of The Closer. I hear Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick lost all their money to Bernie Madoff, so it's a good thing she's got a good show on that can bring in some cash. She's seriously good on it, the supporting (particularly Anthony Denison and Paul Provenza) is great and it's always fun to see Brenda take down the bad guy-and to see how she does it. And every once in awhile, it rises above itself to turn in something really special. Most shows are willing to coast on the strength of its cast, and The Closer is now exception. But when it reaches beyond that, it's something special.
6) Battlestar Galactica. This is just a really, really good show. It turns its ongoing plot about human fighting evil robots while searching for home (not Earth anymore, as Earth is now a radioactive mess) into something that is far more than that. Hope, redemption, loyalty and what it means to be human. Are all ongoing themes in this show, along with power, violence and betrayal-and the effect they can have on anyone who comes into contact with someone willing to use them for their own ends. This show is not only powerful, it makes you think. What does it mean when the robot has more emotion than the human? When the human is willing to torture when the robot is not? When the robot doesn't know what it's like to be human because when it "dies" it can download into a new body? This show is not afraid to tackle tough questions and raise tough questions-it enjoys doing so. And now it's dealing with what it means to be loyal-and what it means to be a traitor to those who served with and beside for years. Who is right and who is wrong when both have valid viewpoints?
7) And a show I've been disappointed in lately: I'm looking at you-Supernatural. The one-offs have always been the weakest part of the show and never more than now. Following the whole Lucifer is trying to break free and bring Hell on Earth storyline, we get Criss Angel is a Douchebag? Last night's ep was a little better because we had some real conflict between Sam and Dean but honestly, where are the demons? The angels? Lucifer is just out breaking the seals and no one is fighting this? I like this show but to bring out such a strong plot and then abandon it for three episodes (are we saving the good stuff for sweeps?) is enough to make me return to CSI and no one wants that.
posted by SHbookworm at 5:52 AM
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