TV Series I've Been Watching - Part 8

Ok, time for a summary of TV shows I have wasted my time with since I've written the last post. As usual, my opinion is king and everybody else's sucks... or so I think the usual disclaimer should have sounded. So, here it the dough:

• Doctor Who, Torchwood and even The Sarah Jane Adventures - these British shows are a bit ridiculous, but they are meant to be. I continue to watch them. Torchwood is the only one that goes towards the classic team of professionals battling the forces of evil or whatever, so it was bought by the American Starz channel. The other two are goofy and non violent, which is what I actually like about the Who concept.
• Eureka - nothing has changed, really. There were some stirrings in the storyline, where time travel has changed the future and only some of the people involved are aware of it. I think it's a courageous thing to do in a story, but also a pretty lame cop-out for previous script errors. It's all in the motivation, really.
• House MD - wife watches it, I mainly just fall asleep at it. It has become almost completely non medical and totally confusing. Did you catch the one minute romantic relationship between Cuddy and House? OMFG, OMFG!.. not
• Criminal Minds and Criminal Minds - Suspect Behavior - I like Thomas Gibson and I have always felt like he was the one "making" the Criminal Minds show. What better way to test that theory than make a Criminal Minds spin-off, while taking him almost off the original series episodes? The result is a slightly more boring Criminal Minds and a horrible, horrible Suspect Behavior. And the thing is, I like Forest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo, so I can't for the life of me understand how a spin-off of a show I like starring these two can fail so miserably!
• Dexter - the show went in a rather boring direction for a while. I mean, you start with a serial killer and you make him a father of three that has a family, all the while trying to make it exciting. Yes, he was almost caught a thousand times and each time the solution was more and more outrageous. Towards the end of season 5 it seemed as Dexter was back on track killing people, but who knows that they will do to him in the sixth season? The latest Dexter book is about cannibals. Yumm!
• Big Love - this show started as interesting, mostly because it was about a culture I know nothing about: polygamist Mormons, and because it starred Bill Paxton. Towards the end, though, it became so repetitive, with all kinds of moronic twists to keep the viewer interested, that I never got the will to watch it end. The episodes of season 5, last of the series, are waiting for me to watch them.
• Fringe - Peter and Fauxlivia are having a baby! Yay! Once I stopped bitching about how lame the show is, how ridiculous the science and how bad the scripts are, I actually enjoyed it. The best show to end a hard day or to start a morning when nothing seems to work. It requires no brain power to watch. Actually, having brain power available makes it unwatchable.
• True Blood - I still enjoy the series, mostly because people are making an effort to act well and keep the script interesting. Also because I started liking it for the vampire/werewolf Louisiana atmosphere mixing the supernatural with the superstupid and the superredneckness and they are still going strong. (yeah, I make up words as I go along)
• Californication - the original smartness of the character spiced with a little sex turned into a lot of gratuitous sex and not too much smartness, but then it turned both sex and smartness up. (What a turn on!) I can't say if that is good or bad, but I've watched season 5 and I am looking forward to the sixth
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl - the show ended, but left avenues open for a continuation. Billie Piper playing a prostitute was a guilty pleasure in itself, but the show was actually very enjoyable. The last season was not nearly as good as the ones preceding so I guess it is a good thing the series ended when they did.
• Entourage - can one keep a show consistent for eight seasons? A lot of people have tried, not many actually succeeded. I enjoy Entourage still, but I feel that the original spunk and friendly youthful energy of the show has dwindled to nothing. Let's see what happens in the eighth and last season.
• Stargate Universe - used to the other two Stargate shows, I was expecting that the last episodes of Universe be ridiculous, self referential, "screw you, we are done" style, below average quality episodes. But no! They are actually going strong and some of the mid season script and acting is making me angry for the show's cancellation. Whoever heard of great episodes in mid season AND when the show is cancelled? Blasphemy!
• V - the second season (and probably last) ended up in a Mortal Kombat way: Shao Khan wins, muhahahahaha! It was a no brainer, really, and I won't feel bad whether it continues or not. The things that I found funny was to use some of the actors in the original series. (yes, indeed, there was another V series in 1983. And yes, I was old enough to watch it then and I did watch it and I don't really care if you don't watch anything created before 1990 :-P )
• Men Of A Certain Age - the show is still smart, funny and tasteful. I keep wondering why is it still on. I can't wait for the second half of the second season
• Weeds - I have to agree with the wife here: enough is enough. The show isn't even about marijuana anymore! And it gets more and more ridiculous by the episode.
• The Good Wife - another great Tony and Ridley Scott work, pun not really intended. Characters are consistent, complex, while the story keeps me interested. Just enough human relationships to make it real, but not too much to make it soapy.
• The Walking Dead - I was expecting a bit more from a zombie series. Apparently it is based on a comic book strip and someone told me it pretty much follows the story there. Well, it doesn't have to! [hint! hint!]
• Haven - the first season of this supernatural "loosely" based on a Stephen King short story ended in an unexpected twist (which was to be expected). Am I waiting impatiently for the second season? Not really.
• Rubicon - show was cancelled. I can't remember anything remotely interesting about it.
• Royal Pains - doctors. That about says it all. This particular brand still has three unwatched episodes waiting for when both me and the wife want to watch it. It doesn't seem likely to happen soon.
• Lost Girl - waiting for the second season. Does not require brain. Still sexy. Canadian.
• Nikita - inertia. That's the only reason I keep watching. I have big mass, you see.
• A Game of Thrones - oh yes! Finally something I want to talk about. Hasn't started yet, but I've read the books and they are great. A feudal fantasy world that is focused on the political machinations in the Seven Kingdoms, with a little magic thrown in to spice things up, but kept nicely in the background. I can hardly wait! It is set to start on the 17th of April
• No Ordinary Family - about a superhero family, I have not really followed the show and meanwhile it was cancelled. bye bye!
• Better with You - it started as a funny show to watch with the girls. It seemed as a humorous comparison of the different stages of marriage. But it became the usual background laughter at people's blatant stupidity thing and I am not enjoying it anymore.
• Shattered - interesting concept, bad execution. Cancelled.
• Falling Skies - a replacement for V? Aliens attack again and a resistance is formed. Set to start in June.
• The Cape - Batman's poor little brother is trying his luck in a city that looks more like Robocop's Detroit than Gotham. Show was lame and has been cancelled, too.
• Outcasts - oh, the humanity! A show with so much promise and so little in the way of proper execution. The premise is that humans fucked up the Earth and in a last ditch effort sent a few colony ships towards a distant planet they named Carpathia. I expected something akin to Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri (yes, old enough to have played that, too!), but in the end it became the quasi mystical "planetary alien entity" thing, mixed with really bad acting and inconsistent scripting. So it got cancelled. It was British, it was cheap, it has potential. They still screwed it up.
• Endgame - I am yet to find the time to watch the pilot of this show. Apparently, it is a Canadian show about a chess player that uses his skills to... you guessed it, solve crimes! If it is anything like Numb3rs, I'll watch the hell out of it. Something tells me it won't be quite like that, though.
• Southpark - still funny as hell and I continue watching it

There are the usual anime shows, too, but I won't list them. The blog entry has gotten long enough.