No, I didn't not-watch a show called Various Suspects. I'm just being silly.
Every pilot season, I worry that I'll miss out on something great. Like Scandal. I watched the first episode and liked it well enough, but not enough to keep watching. But then everyone was like "eeeeeeeeee Scandal is the best LOLOLOLOL" and I was annoyed I'd stopped watching. HOWEVER. Netflix put up the first season on streaming and then Hulu had the second season up, and I caught up and didn't even get spoiled on any major plot points. So now, I'm feeling less anxious. If I miss something and it starts getting a lot of buzz, I can catch up.
But even knowing that, I still DVR'd a lot of new shows. Some, like the Avengers Variety Hour, were a given. Whedon? IN. Others were not, but I thought I'd give them a try. So here are the shows: Mom (Anna Faris!! Alison Janney!!!), Trophy Wife (Josh Lyman!!), The Michael J Fox Show (BUNK!!), Hostages (Toni Collette!!!), and The Blacklist (UH, Spader?). So, I actually watched some of the first three shows.
Mom is on CBS and has a studio audience. Something has to be really, really good for me to put up with that. And it was .... bad. I didn't even make it to Alison Janney. Maybe it'll get better and I can catch up later. Or it'll get cancelled and I'll be happy I didn't bother. Trophy Wife had a lot of positive buzz, and it was okay, it was just ... a family show. I don't really watch family shows. I might watch genre shows that have good family stuff, but just straight family shows just aren't my thing. I don't have kids and don't really like them, so there's just so much I can't relate to. I mean, I love Josh Lyman, but even if we fell madly in Love? He's got like three kids and two ex-wives and I'M OUT. So, even though it had potential, it just wasn't the kind of show I'd be likely to watch. And the Michael J Fox Show? Similar stuff. Mostly a family show. Just not my thing.
Now, Hostages and The Blacklist are kinda more up my alley. Thrillers. However, neither really looked very good, and I just decided not to take the time to watch them. They are the ones that I'd be most likely to get spoiled on plot points, but eh. I'll live. I watch a LOT of teevee and there are other shows I'm more likely to get into. And other shows that haven't even come back yet! I just don't have to record everything.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Pilot Watch: The Crazy Ones
Hubbie made me DVR the new Robin Williams show, so I did. Well, he didn't make me. Like he has that power!! I was vaguely interested cuz Buffy is in it and so is "Not so great" Bob Benson from Mad Men. So I recorded it and we watched it and we laughed, but yeah. It was funny in that "oh, I have 30 minutes to kill, I could watch this" kind of way, but not in a "I must DVR this and watch it every week or I will DIE" kind of way.
I suppose if I were actually a TV critic, I'd actually give a synopsis of the show. It's basically a half-hour sitcom about an ad agency. Robin Williams is the head of the agency, and Buffy plays his daughter. And I like them both, and I definitely like "not so great" Bob Benson, but I dunno. I have a feeling it will be frequently shmoopy and that is intolerable to me. Hubbie decided he liked it enough that I feel obligated to give it a series recording, but I'll probably make him watch it by himself.
I suppose if I were actually a TV critic, I'd actually give a synopsis of the show. It's basically a half-hour sitcom about an ad agency. Robin Williams is the head of the agency, and Buffy plays his daughter. And I like them both, and I definitely like "not so great" Bob Benson, but I dunno. I have a feeling it will be frequently shmoopy and that is intolerable to me. Hubbie decided he liked it enough that I feel obligated to give it a series recording, but I'll probably make him watch it by himself.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Books I wish my liberry didn't own, pt. 2
UGH:
The ultimate Obama survival guide: how to survive, thrive, and prosper during Obamageddon, by Wayne Allyn Root.
The summary of this gem:
"In this book, you'll learn how to use your personal Obama defense shield (as designed by Root) to protect yourself and your family, how you can create a precious metals defense system to preserve your assets, how you must educate your children to prepare them for the Depression to come, how to protect your family and turn your home into a fortress in Obama's second term."
Yeah. Right. Uh-huh. Liz Lemon, take it away:
Pilot Watch: Marvelous Avengers Variety Hour
Yeah, I know. The show in question is called Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't care, I'm never calling it that. It's going to be "that Avengers show" or "Shield" to me.
Anyway, I don't have much to say about it yet. It needs a little time to cook before I'll know if it's actually good. It had a lot of good elements in it, and I liked most of the people. It was just kinda generic in some ways. But it's Whedon and I'm legally bound to give it time to get better. I wasn't so sure about Dollhouse at first, either, and it turned out to be a pretty decent show.
Anyway, I don't have much to say about it yet. It needs a little time to cook before I'll know if it's actually good. It had a lot of good elements in it, and I liked most of the people. It was just kinda generic in some ways. But it's Whedon and I'm legally bound to give it time to get better. I wasn't so sure about Dollhouse at first, either, and it turned out to be a pretty decent show.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Pilot Watch: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
I'm not ashamed to admit I love Andy Samberg. Tall, goofy and doesn't mind looking like a damn fool. I may go on and on about the hotness of the Idris or the Tatum or the Statham, but what really gets my motor running is a tall, goofy-looking dude with brown hair. Maybe it's the sense that if I met him in real life, there might actually be a chance he'd talk to me. Anyway, I love Samberg. I loved Hot Rod, which basically means I am actually a 14-year old boy. So be it.
All of that is to say I was pre-disposed to like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The presence of Samberg guaranteed I would at least watch one episode. The presence of Andre Braugher meant that it might actually be a quality show. And guess what? I liked it quite it a bit. It was funny, it had Samberg being goofy, Andre Braugher said "meep morp," and I am so in. It's also kind of nice to watch a cop show that's not heavy.
All of that is to say I was pre-disposed to like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The presence of Samberg guaranteed I would at least watch one episode. The presence of Andre Braugher meant that it might actually be a quality show. And guess what? I liked it quite it a bit. It was funny, it had Samberg being goofy, Andre Braugher said "meep morp," and I am so in. It's also kind of nice to watch a cop show that's not heavy.
Pilot Watch: Sleepy Hollow
When I first saw the trailer for Sleepy Hollow a few months ago, I figured it was too good to be true. It looked silly and crazy and just up my alley, but so did other shows like The Cape (which I bailed on 30 minutes in). I'm happy to report that the show was definitely silly and crazy, and it might actually be good.
The pilot wasn't perfect by any means. A little too on-the-nose cheesy at times and a little too much character shorthand. But it was fun and it was never boring. And come on. Mother-fucking SATAN shows up at the end. I saw that and said, "I'm IN." I don't really see how it can work as a show long-term, but I'm willing to watch for a while and see. I didn't think Grimm was going to be much good in the long run, but it turned out to be a fairly decent little show. And hot British guy alert! Hot and funny. Like I said, I'm in.
The pilot wasn't perfect by any means. A little too on-the-nose cheesy at times and a little too much character shorthand. But it was fun and it was never boring. And come on. Mother-fucking SATAN shows up at the end. I saw that and said, "I'm IN." I don't really see how it can work as a show long-term, but I'm willing to watch for a while and see. I didn't think Grimm was going to be much good in the long run, but it turned out to be a fairly decent little show. And hot British guy alert! Hot and funny. Like I said, I'm in.
Friday, May 31, 2013
I Watched This: Hemlock Grove
Hemlock Grove (available on Netflix Instant) is the kind of show that seemed meant for me. Supernatural show, created by Eli Roth, yes, okay, I'm in. Even so, I didn't watch it immediately when it dropped on Netflix. The regular TV season was still in full swing and I just didn't feel like adding another show. In retrospect, it might have been better for me if I had watched it then. Most likely I would have been put off by the truly atrocious pilot, and would have never watched more. But this week when I decided I wanted to watch it, there was just enough in the pilot that made me interested, I had an evening to kill, and so I watched more of it.
All I really knew going in was that there was something about werewolves. And I assumed it would be a nice little horror show, maybe a little campy, maybe a little scary. Either of those would have been fine. Both mixed together would have been fine. However. There is very little real horror in this show. And it was NEVER scary. As for camp, there has to be a sense of humor, a sense of FUN for that to work, and there is no real fun in this. It isn't even a "so bad it's good" situation. It's just mostly bad and no fun.
So, why did I keep watching? Mostly because there was a mystery, and I'm a sucker for a mystery. Who was the werewolf who killed the girl in the pilot? Why are these gypsies interested in the Godfrey family? What's up with the weird Frankenstein sister? (And why is Famke Janssen inflicting this bad British accent on us???) Also, there was a clip circulating of what was termed "the grossest werewolf transformation EVAR," which I decided not to watch in advance. This scene was NOT in the pilot, so I kept watching. Now, that scene? Was worth waiting for. It was interesting, it was gross, it had life. If the rest of the show could have matched that, maybe it would have been worth something.
Random observations:
All I really knew going in was that there was something about werewolves. And I assumed it would be a nice little horror show, maybe a little campy, maybe a little scary. Either of those would have been fine. Both mixed together would have been fine. However. There is very little real horror in this show. And it was NEVER scary. As for camp, there has to be a sense of humor, a sense of FUN for that to work, and there is no real fun in this. It isn't even a "so bad it's good" situation. It's just mostly bad and no fun.
So, why did I keep watching? Mostly because there was a mystery, and I'm a sucker for a mystery. Who was the werewolf who killed the girl in the pilot? Why are these gypsies interested in the Godfrey family? What's up with the weird Frankenstein sister? (And why is Famke Janssen inflicting this bad British accent on us???) Also, there was a clip circulating of what was termed "the grossest werewolf transformation EVAR," which I decided not to watch in advance. This scene was NOT in the pilot, so I kept watching. Now, that scene? Was worth waiting for. It was interesting, it was gross, it had life. If the rest of the show could have matched that, maybe it would have been worth something.
Random observations:
- Bad accents. I love Famke Janssen, I really do, but her accent was distracting and bad. Dougray Scott always sounded constipated, and Bill Skarsgaard? OMG. It was all he could do to form words. Truly bad.
- I didn't care one bit about any of the characters besides Frankenstein sister. A major character died in the final episode and I felt nothing. Nothing!!
- This show was full of portents that led nowhere. Slow, ponderous scenes that went nowhere.
- Lack of clarity. Famke Janssen is a vampire? But she had a tail? What??? Why???
- Gypsies. A major plot point was that the people in this little Pennsylvania town were racists towards gypsies. Huh? Is that a thing now?
Friday, May 24, 2013
Books I wish my liberry didn't own
Purity, by Jackson Pearce
"Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother's dying request to live a life without restraint with her father's plans for his "little princess," which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live "whole, pure lives."
UGH. Just UGH. Father-daughter purity dance things are just fucking gross.
Our occulted history: do the global elite conceal ancient aliens? by Jim Marrs
"Marrs shifts through the historical, scientific and cultural record, showing how numerous ancient texts and tables tell of visitors from the stars colonizing the Earth. Were these visitors simple observers-- or did they play a much more active and controlling role?"
Um, no. That's the answer. NO.
"Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother's dying request to live a life without restraint with her father's plans for his "little princess," which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live "whole, pure lives."
UGH. Just UGH. Father-daughter purity dance things are just fucking gross.
Our occulted history: do the global elite conceal ancient aliens? by Jim Marrs
"Marrs shifts through the historical, scientific and cultural record, showing how numerous ancient texts and tables tell of visitors from the stars colonizing the Earth. Were these visitors simple observers-- or did they play a much more active and controlling role?"
Um, no. That's the answer. NO.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Best book summary EVER
"It began as an entertainment for a winter weekend. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi, and most a motive as well. But Inspector Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman."
Okay, the book is called Death and the Dancing Footman. But I saw the summary first and it was just so delightfully random I had to share.
Okay, the book is called Death and the Dancing Footman. But I saw the summary first and it was just so delightfully random I had to share.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Graphic Novels
I have been reading the crap outta graphic novels this year. This is what happens when you move to a city big enough to have a good public liberry. I'm reading a lot more than usual and I'm finding new stuff and it's just friggin' awesome.
Transmetropolitan is now one of my favorite graphic novel reads EVER. I'm thinking of getting a Spider Jerusalem tattoo but I don't know how that would work. I could just get the spider tattoo he has on his head and get it on the inside of my wrist. That'd be cheaper than anything else. I just feel the need to permanently remember these books and how wonderful they are. Profane, sick, wrong, and also sometimes moving. It's like Preacher, except it doesn't go to quite the extremes that Preacher does.
Transmetropolitan is now one of my favorite graphic novel reads EVER. I'm thinking of getting a Spider Jerusalem tattoo but I don't know how that would work. I could just get the spider tattoo he has on his head and get it on the inside of my wrist. That'd be cheaper than anything else. I just feel the need to permanently remember these books and how wonderful they are. Profane, sick, wrong, and also sometimes moving. It's like Preacher, except it doesn't go to quite the extremes that Preacher does.
Monday, March 4, 2013
TV 2012: Odds and ends
New
Arrow
Eagleheart
The Fades
The Hour
Grimm
Key and Peele
Lost Girl
Switched at Birth
Cancelled
Awake
Best Friends Forever
Bent
Boss
Eastbound and Down (?)
The Life and Times of Tim
The Secret Circle
Stopped watching:
Being Human (U.K.)
Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23
Episodes
GCB
House of Lies
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
Luck
Once Upon a Time
Political Animals
Up All Night
Warehouse 13
Arrow
Eagleheart
The Fades
The Hour
Grimm
Key and Peele
Lost Girl
Switched at Birth
Cancelled
Awake
Best Friends Forever
Bent
Boss
Eastbound and Down (?)
The Life and Times of Tim
The Secret Circle
Stopped watching:
Being Human (U.K.)
Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23
Episodes
GCB
House of Lies
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
Luck
Once Upon a Time
Political Animals
Up All Night
Warehouse 13
TV 2012: Runners-up and summary judgments
Most disappointing:
Boss - I never quite knew how I felt about this show. At times I liked it quite a bit but most times it kinda bored me. It was the kind of show where I kept looking at how much time was left and it always felt like it was taking for-fucking-ever to be over. Then the finale just fell flat and lay there dying and gasping and I was happy when it was cancelled so I wouldn't have to dither over whether or not to watch a third season.
Homeland - Man. When this show is good? It's one of the best things I've ever seen. When it's not? It's worse than a particularly bad episode of 24. Why? Because it has soooo much potential to be great, when it fails it just feels worse. And this season, while it had a few really great highs, had some pretty great lows as well. Enough lows that while I doubt I will stop watching, I'm not really looking forward to season 3. I never would have predicted that when the season was young and the episodes where at their peak.
House of Lies - I was looking forward to this show quite a lot before it aired. Don Cheadle, Kristin Bell, Jean-Ralphio?? I was so in. And it ended up being just kind of meh at best and unpleasant at worst. So annoying.
Most improved:
New Girl - Last year this was on my list of shows I thought I'd be giving up on soon. Well, I didn't give up on it and now it's one of my favorite shows.
Parenthood - I've always thought of this show as good, but messy. For some reason this season feels a lot less messy.
Sons of Anarchy - I almost didn't watch this season after last season ended so stoopidly. But I did and I'm glad for it because it was a pretty good season of television. Maybe not as good as the excellent second season, but definitely better than the third and fourth seasons.
Just plain fun:
Children's Hospital
Community
Cougar Town
Eagleheart
Happy Endings
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The League
NTSF:SD:SUV::
Revenge
RuPaul's Drag Race
Sherlock
Honorable mention:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart/The Colbert Report - These are the only shows that never sit around on my DVR. I suppose that's partly because there are four episodes each per week. But both are consistently good, consistently funny, and I just enjoy the heck out of watching Jon and Stephen.
Most fun new shows:
Key and Peele
Arrow
Ending on a good run:
Fringe
30 Rock
Died too soon:
Best Friends Forever and Bent - I watched all of these and I think they both could have developed into something had they been given the chance.
What's wrong with me that I don't love this show?
Game of Thrones - I love parts of this show quite a lot. And hell, the thing just looks good. It's well-written, well-acted, all of that. But I've never fallen in love with it. I just don't really CARE enough about the characters to love it.
What's wrong with me that I love this show?
American Horror Story: Asylum
Finally losing steam:
The Vampire Diaries
Slowly losing me:
Suburgatory - This is one is suffering from what I might call the "Glee virus." Glee was a show that I loved and hated and loved and hated and finally the hate was more prevalent than the love and I had to give up on it. If you watch ten episodes and two of them are wonderful, that's still eight episodes of dreck you're putting up with. Suburgatory has shown that it's capable of wonderful episodes, but it can't maintain any consistency with it. I'm not willing to put up with yuck for one or two stellar outings.
Raising Hope - Similar to above. I'm finding this show to be more pedestrian and typical than I'd like.
Still good for at least one or two excellent episodes per season:
South Park
Most testosterone:
Strike Back - If there were more depth to this show, it might have qualified as one of my top favorite shows. It suffers in comparison to Spartacus, which is even more over the top in its sex and violence, but amazingly enough, does have some depth to it. But this show is just a lot of fun and fills my need for silly action sequences with hot men running around in tight t-shirts.
Boss - I never quite knew how I felt about this show. At times I liked it quite a bit but most times it kinda bored me. It was the kind of show where I kept looking at how much time was left and it always felt like it was taking for-fucking-ever to be over. Then the finale just fell flat and lay there dying and gasping and I was happy when it was cancelled so I wouldn't have to dither over whether or not to watch a third season.
Homeland - Man. When this show is good? It's one of the best things I've ever seen. When it's not? It's worse than a particularly bad episode of 24. Why? Because it has soooo much potential to be great, when it fails it just feels worse. And this season, while it had a few really great highs, had some pretty great lows as well. Enough lows that while I doubt I will stop watching, I'm not really looking forward to season 3. I never would have predicted that when the season was young and the episodes where at their peak.
House of Lies - I was looking forward to this show quite a lot before it aired. Don Cheadle, Kristin Bell, Jean-Ralphio?? I was so in. And it ended up being just kind of meh at best and unpleasant at worst. So annoying.
Most improved:
New Girl - Last year this was on my list of shows I thought I'd be giving up on soon. Well, I didn't give up on it and now it's one of my favorite shows.
Parenthood - I've always thought of this show as good, but messy. For some reason this season feels a lot less messy.
Sons of Anarchy - I almost didn't watch this season after last season ended so stoopidly. But I did and I'm glad for it because it was a pretty good season of television. Maybe not as good as the excellent second season, but definitely better than the third and fourth seasons.
Just plain fun:
Children's Hospital
Community
Cougar Town
Eagleheart
Happy Endings
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The League
NTSF:SD:SUV::
Revenge
RuPaul's Drag Race
Sherlock
Honorable mention:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart/The Colbert Report - These are the only shows that never sit around on my DVR. I suppose that's partly because there are four episodes each per week. But both are consistently good, consistently funny, and I just enjoy the heck out of watching Jon and Stephen.
Most fun new shows:
Key and Peele
Arrow
Ending on a good run:
Fringe
30 Rock
Died too soon:
Best Friends Forever and Bent - I watched all of these and I think they both could have developed into something had they been given the chance.
What's wrong with me that I don't love this show?
Game of Thrones - I love parts of this show quite a lot. And hell, the thing just looks good. It's well-written, well-acted, all of that. But I've never fallen in love with it. I just don't really CARE enough about the characters to love it.
What's wrong with me that I love this show?
American Horror Story: Asylum
Finally losing steam:
The Vampire Diaries
Slowly losing me:
Suburgatory - This is one is suffering from what I might call the "Glee virus." Glee was a show that I loved and hated and loved and hated and finally the hate was more prevalent than the love and I had to give up on it. If you watch ten episodes and two of them are wonderful, that's still eight episodes of dreck you're putting up with. Suburgatory has shown that it's capable of wonderful episodes, but it can't maintain any consistency with it. I'm not willing to put up with yuck for one or two stellar outings.
Raising Hope - Similar to above. I'm finding this show to be more pedestrian and typical than I'd like.
Still good for at least one or two excellent episodes per season:
South Park
Most testosterone:
Strike Back - If there were more depth to this show, it might have qualified as one of my top favorite shows. It suffers in comparison to Spartacus, which is even more over the top in its sex and violence, but amazingly enough, does have some depth to it. But this show is just a lot of fun and fills my need for silly action sequences with hot men running around in tight t-shirts.
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