TV Series I've Been Watching - Part 10

I really wanted to wait a little longer before writing this post, but the shere number of series that appeared forced my hand. So here it goes:

• Doctor Who - As I was saying before, the show is slightly darker now, with the Doctor dying and River Song being somehow involved... It's kind of fun. The new actor, Math Smith, has matured in the show and exudes more confidence on the set.


• Torchwood - Continuing the format of the third "season", that of a continuous miniseries, season 4 explores dark cabals that manipulate the world and use a device to make everyone immortal. Fascist like camps for people who would normally be dead are created, complete with crematoria. Some interesting ideas there, but the acting and scripting were pretty poor.


• The Sarah Jane Adventures - I was surprised to see that the new season of Sarah Jane Smith started with Elisabeth Sladen still in the lead role. As you may know, the actress succumbed to cancer, so these are previously filmed episodes. Sarah Jane adopted new alien child, a girl this time, and she has the curious ability to grow spontaneously. Maybe she will become the next Sarah Jane? The show is pretty nice and doesn't seem so childish anymore. It is almost on par with its progenitor show, Doctor Who


• Eureka - It continues to be brainless fun, a show basically held together by the lead actor, Colin Ferguson. As a funny side note, The Guild's very own (and smoking hot) Felicia Day together with show colleague (and Wesley Crusher from Star Trek) Wil Wheaton. They both act like their Guild characters, too :)


• House MD - The eight season gets rid of useless Cuddy and gains a small Asian girl prodigy who stands up to House and gains his respect. We know she is going to leave dejected and heartbroken, as all the others did, but at least she's a change from the stuck up bimbo role that usually filled the gap. She is not smoking hot, though, and that is an issue that needs resolving!


• Criminal Minds - I couldn't get myself to watch any of the episodes in season 7. It is basically the lack of time that is the cause. I will get to it eventually.


• Dexter - The show is back on track with the usual Dexter, lovable and deadly. As opposed to the fourth book in the series, this season seems to explore religious cultism rather than cannibalism. Works for me. BSG's Edward James Olmos is the bad guy here, joined by Colin Hanks, as his acolyte.


• Fringe - Peter Bishop has healed the wound between the two universes, but erased himself from existence in the process. Or has he? His father and Olivia keep getting glimpses of him. Same old show, in rest. The weird experimentation at the end of the last season seems to have ended. I don't know if that is good or bad.


• True Blood - In the end it was still satisfying to watch. Not great, but certainly entertaining. Tara (finally) dies, as well as the annoying werewolf bitch, the pathetic old witch and the ridiculous gay nurse guy. A culling of all obnoxious characters can be good.


• Men of a Certain Age - I keep nagging the wife to keep watching the show, as we started watching it together, but she keeps delaying. She doesn't want me to watch it alone either. Girls!


• Weeds - After 7 years, the hot MILF Mary-Louise Parker is still hot! Anything else about the show kind of sucks, though. Same old convoluted plots that somehow revolve around marijuana, but have ceased being about the light drug for quite some time. I am still watching it because of the MILF factor, naturally.


• The Good Wife - As Aron Nimzowitsch used to say, the threat is stronger than the execution. The fact that Alicia is finally banging Will removes the thrill of the sexual tension between them. The personal issues of the characters also begin to take a larger role than actual court cases. That is not good. The show is still entertaining, but has lost some of its appeal (pun not intended)


• Haven - still silly, but now has gotten more confrontational, with "troubled" being discriminated against by normal people. Also we learn that Audrey is not really Audrey, nor is she the woman that looked like her and was in the town a few decades ago. Instead, it seems she appears whenever the troubles start and she always has the memories of someone else.


• Royal Pains - I haven't watched it and I don't miss it. The wife doesn't seem to consider it either. It's personally cancelled.


• Lost Girl - A new Ash has been chosen, one that is less lenient than the one before and who is quite annoying. There is a sort of cold war between him and our lovely succubus. An old girlfriend of Dyson also appears. Wrraawr! (or is it Growl! ?) The show is fun enough.


• Nikita - The second season has started with gorgeous Amanda now heading Division. Except the ridiculously good looking actors, the show's got nothing for me anymore. I am discontinuing it from my show list.


• Falling Skies - Still waiting for season 2.


• Southpark - I've just watched the third episode from season 15. It is the only one that was funny from the season. I hope this is the beginning of a trend.


• The Killing - Still on my watch list, didn't get around to it.


• Mortal Kombat Legacy - The web show stopped at episode 9, just when it was getting interesting. Oh, well...


• Suits - The very light courtroom male show is still fun to watch, although it has become sort of repetitive. The betrayed friend that turns on the main character is both exaggerated and an obvious season end cliff hanger.


• Camelot - Claire Forlani and Eva Green, free boobs or not, are not enough to make me watch this series. Sorry, girls!


• Wilfred - Unwatched episodes are rotting in my view list and I could not force myself to watch them. I guess this is another show I will stop watching.
• Breaking Bad - A full season is waiting for me to watch. Whenever I had the time, I didn't have the mood to watch it. Maybe it is still fun, but I don't know yet. I fear disappointment.


• Californication - Waiting for the next season.

And now for new shows:

• King - Beautiful police woman... bla bla bla. I can google the actress and drool at her pictures instead of watching this average police drama. Not a new show, because I mentioned it in the last post, but it is part of a larger group of "do not want"s


• The Protector - Blonde police woman protects the city. Yeah, right.


• Against the Wall - Blonde police woman takes a job in Internal Affairs, much to the dismay of her policeman father and policemen three brothers, who feel she switched sides. Some funny situations and an interesting concept kept me watching this for a few episodes, but that's about it.


• Prime Suspect - Blonde police woman fights to gain acceptance in a misogynistic crime unit. The cases are brutal, so is her mistreatment from her colleagues. That would make for an interesting premise if it weren't for my lack of time and ... because she is a police woman! And like it or not, this is no misogynism, either. There are just too many shows about that at a time when I've had it up to my ears of police dramas.


• Unforgettable - Redhead ex police woman (and smoking hot, too), can't forget anything she sees. She teams up with ex boyfriend to... solve police cases. Yes, he is a cop. If not for the lead actress, a completely forgettable show.


• Ringer - Sarah Michelle Geller is NOT a police woman. I like that. Instead she is a police witness that runs away from testifying and/or getting killed by a drug kingpin. Her solution is to take the role of her twin sister who mysteriously commits suicide. She finds herself married to a gold digging con artist, having a interior decorator best friend, having an affair with the husband of her best friend and so on and so on. I didn't buy it. Sorry.


• Suburgatory - The short plotline sounded interesting: a single dad moves into the suburbs with urban, mischievous teenage daughter. The execution, though, was ridiculous. One of those obvious shows that spoon feed you anything you need to think or enjoy. Pass!


• How to be a Gentleman - Drama from Entourage was one of the lead actors. Unfortunately for him, the show got cancelled almost immediately. It was also one of those background "ha ha" things. Awful!


• Beavis&Butthead - Yes! My childhood show is coming back. I don't know when, but when it will start it will either be disappointing or epic. I am betting on epic.


• American Horror Story - Interesting TV series remake of The Shining. I didn't really enjoy the film and I don't like how King writes his books. I tried to watch the first episode, but stopped in the middle. Not my type of show. Also, the "horror" is one forced by sound effects and obvious film tricks. I hated it.


• Homeland - Haven't started to watch it yet, but it sounds promising.


• Hung - Season 2 started, but I couldn't get myself to watch it. I guess I won't watch it.


• Lie to Me - A lot of people recommended this show. I finally started to watch it. The insights in human behaviour are very interesting, especially since they are showing pictures or videos of celebrities in similar situations to the fictive situations in the episodes. There is much to learn there. However the structure of the show is a combination of CSI and House. All too fast, trying to seem intelligent and smart, but creating a soulless mechanical feel. I will be watching it occasionally for the science alone.


• Terra Nova - Finally a sci-fi show! Humanity has botched the future, so they come back into the past, during the age of the dinosaurs. The main character is a cop. WHY?!?! OH, WHY?!?! The show is ok, but full of clichés and the idea of a father of three fending off for his family in a colony of humans in the Cretaceous... brrrr, who the hell thought that up? The science is nil and the family issues override any decent sci-fi in the show. Too bad. I will watch it, still, but only because of lack of alternatives.


• The Fades - By a long shot, this is the best of the new shows. It is a British horror series involving dead people trying to get back to life by eating living flesh. They are not zombies, they are Fades, and they make a lot more sense than other undead concepts. The main character is a clueless kid who happens to have special powers. Watch this, it is very nice, indeed.


• The Field of Blood - Well, it appears as a series, but for now it was a two parter film. A heavy Glasgow accent makes this hard to watch with no translation, but a nice film anyways. A sort of journalist drama in the 80's, with crimes and family issues and rampant religious ideology.


• The Secret Circle - A tv series remake of The Craft, as far as I see, with good looking teens being... witches! At least they are not vampires. The out of control member of the circle doesn't come even close to the beautiful craziness of Fairuza Balk. Baby, I still love you! Btw, the show is not worth watching, better rewatch The Craft a few times.


• Hidden - Not watching it yet, but it is on my list

Upcoming:

• Grimm - A fantasy series related to fairy tales. To my chagrin this is what Wikipedia says: The show has been described as "a cop drama—with a twist...a dark and fantastical project about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales exist". Cop drama? Really?!


• Once Upon a Time - Another fairy tale series, with actresses from House and Big Love and whatever shows ended or from which people left.


• Hell on Wheels - a Western tv series. Could that work? We'll have to see

I have been pruning away from the TV series I have been watching, in order to gain some control over my personal life. But whenever I do that, more TV shows appear. It's like I need a hot redhead police woman to investigate this serial murders of my time and bring the culprits down in a climactic ending. But with my luck, I will probably find myself in cliff hangers at the end of each season!