TV meanderings.
May. 5th, 2009 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynCastle, House, In Plain Sight, Life, Knight Rider, Eureka, Chuck Psych, Burn Notice, Leverage....
Recently I started watching Castle. It was recommended by a younger friend. I try not to be ageist or sound like Grandpa Simpson or John McCain shouting at the kids to get off my lawn, but some of the stuff for mid-20s people is brain-explody to me. Worse yet, if it's supposed to be funny. So anyway, the friend rec'd Castle, so I tried it out (it's the Season Pass below The Daily Show, so you know it's only rarely recorded.) I like some of the banter on it, but usually find myself reaching for something to do.
If I'm watching House, it doesn't matter whether I've started with the lacework sock in my hands, nothing gets knitted. If I'm watching Castle and start with empty hands, I'll go through the bins and visit with my yarn. I never actually watch Castle.
I suppose it is sexist of me to say that women-cops shouldn't be Hollywood-attractive, but Beckett is so thin it's hard to credit her with enough muscle to hold her gun up. She's a hard-talking no-nonsense cop? Really? You could knock her over with a feather.
I like In Plain Sight better for that reason, the no-nonsense marshall is a beefier looking woman. I'm sure in real life Shannon's actress looks just as much like a famine victim. Speaking of In Plain Sight, Sunday's episode was horrible. I never like them when the daughters enable Jinx, but the interminable speechifying by Brandy was just nasty.
I think I'm going to miss Life. I came to that very late. I saw one episode, then borrowed the DVDs of the first season from Netflix. Then I watched all of Season 2 on Hulu. (And if TV wants to grow up, I'd like it all to be Hulu-like. I'm sick of deliberate scheduling conflicts on the part of network executives. Everyone complains about the low-quality from Hulu, but I've got an old TiVo so my recordings are mid-grade anyway.) Life was just starting to be coherent. But considering the closure to all their plotlines, I'm pretty sure the hammer came down early and just hasn't been announced yet. I loved the replacement for Reese. Crews's actor's makeup was a little Hasslehoff for my taste, too much clumpy mascara.
Speaking of which, it looks like the new Knight Rider is dead. Color me unsurprised. They spent 85% of the first season perpetuating evil on the part of the government, it was clear that they didn't understand this was a superhero story. They shifted gears and burned rubber in reverse, but I think they'd already lost everyone.
I wish Eureka could get its act together. I just don't understand why they write a show about really smart people being idiots and have to have a "normal guy" there (in the form of the sheriff) to translate for the viewers. It seems like viewers can understand idiocy without assistance. I'm still really squicked by the father-daughter thing because originally the official site for the show listed the character birth dates so the math worked out that Sheriff Carter got a girl pregnant when he was underage. There was a bit later when they talked about his ex-wife being younger than he was also. Sure, 17-ish isn't necessarily too young for sex with someone of a similar age, but how hard would it have been to make him a year older? Having this daughter be really smart and pretty and funny and all... it just promotes poor life choices.
It's unclear whether Chuck will continue, but I hope it does. Despite the humor intrusions, it has been consistently well-written and interesting. It's like watching the origins of a superhero seeing Chuck learn to be part of the spy team.
I really like TV, and there have been some great things, but it's so hard to find new things when you DVR everything and the big promotion dollars go to sitcoms and crap like Fringe.
I am looking forward to the Summer season on cable networks. More Leverage, more Burn Notice. Both of which are awesome. The voiceover monologues on Burn Notice really tickle me. But Leverage could easily be my favorite show, if they'd stop letting their D-list writers do whole episodes at least.
I miss The Mentalist whenever I watch Psych, but I love watching them pull off phenomenal leaps of logic and blaming it on being psychic.
Recently I started watching Castle. It was recommended by a younger friend. I try not to be ageist or sound like Grandpa Simpson or John McCain shouting at the kids to get off my lawn, but some of the stuff for mid-20s people is brain-explody to me. Worse yet, if it's supposed to be funny. So anyway, the friend rec'd Castle, so I tried it out (it's the Season Pass below The Daily Show, so you know it's only rarely recorded.) I like some of the banter on it, but usually find myself reaching for something to do.
If I'm watching House, it doesn't matter whether I've started with the lacework sock in my hands, nothing gets knitted. If I'm watching Castle and start with empty hands, I'll go through the bins and visit with my yarn. I never actually watch Castle.
I suppose it is sexist of me to say that women-cops shouldn't be Hollywood-attractive, but Beckett is so thin it's hard to credit her with enough muscle to hold her gun up. She's a hard-talking no-nonsense cop? Really? You could knock her over with a feather.
I like In Plain Sight better for that reason, the no-nonsense marshall is a beefier looking woman. I'm sure in real life Shannon's actress looks just as much like a famine victim. Speaking of In Plain Sight, Sunday's episode was horrible. I never like them when the daughters enable Jinx, but the interminable speechifying by Brandy was just nasty.
I think I'm going to miss Life. I came to that very late. I saw one episode, then borrowed the DVDs of the first season from Netflix. Then I watched all of Season 2 on Hulu. (And if TV wants to grow up, I'd like it all to be Hulu-like. I'm sick of deliberate scheduling conflicts on the part of network executives. Everyone complains about the low-quality from Hulu, but I've got an old TiVo so my recordings are mid-grade anyway.) Life was just starting to be coherent. But considering the closure to all their plotlines, I'm pretty sure the hammer came down early and just hasn't been announced yet. I loved the replacement for Reese. Crews's actor's makeup was a little Hasslehoff for my taste, too much clumpy mascara.
Speaking of which, it looks like the new Knight Rider is dead. Color me unsurprised. They spent 85% of the first season perpetuating evil on the part of the government, it was clear that they didn't understand this was a superhero story. They shifted gears and burned rubber in reverse, but I think they'd already lost everyone.
I wish Eureka could get its act together. I just don't understand why they write a show about really smart people being idiots and have to have a "normal guy" there (in the form of the sheriff) to translate for the viewers. It seems like viewers can understand idiocy without assistance. I'm still really squicked by the father-daughter thing because originally the official site for the show listed the character birth dates so the math worked out that Sheriff Carter got a girl pregnant when he was underage. There was a bit later when they talked about his ex-wife being younger than he was also. Sure, 17-ish isn't necessarily too young for sex with someone of a similar age, but how hard would it have been to make him a year older? Having this daughter be really smart and pretty and funny and all... it just promotes poor life choices.
It's unclear whether Chuck will continue, but I hope it does. Despite the humor intrusions, it has been consistently well-written and interesting. It's like watching the origins of a superhero seeing Chuck learn to be part of the spy team.
I really like TV, and there have been some great things, but it's so hard to find new things when you DVR everything and the big promotion dollars go to sitcoms and crap like Fringe.
I am looking forward to the Summer season on cable networks. More Leverage, more Burn Notice. Both of which are awesome. The voiceover monologues on Burn Notice really tickle me. But Leverage could easily be my favorite show, if they'd stop letting their D-list writers do whole episodes at least.
I miss The Mentalist whenever I watch Psych, but I love watching them pull off phenomenal leaps of logic and blaming it on being psychic.
