Summer is ending this weekend and so are all our summer shows. It wasn't a fling, more like research [and I say this with a straight face] I watched a lot of it for fun. Prerequisite is definitely low brain activity.
Mostly, I am looking for help while on a quest for inspiration: Stuff like good scripts, directing, character developments and good plots. I selfishly try to understand how to put a good story together. I got my own thing going.
Some of the shows feel like fill-ins and miss the mark, others are actually worth something.
And then, there are the guilty pleasures. In general, the summer choices are limited -- I deal with it.
THE CLOSER [season 5]
The classic well acted, well written, witty, funny show I will watch until it ends.
Ooh yeah, I really like that show. I fell into it randomly when I was in Europe. I was just looking for anything that wasn’t dubbed. Even though I speak french, I get angry when I have to watch something dubbed in ANY language really. And French television automatically "dubbs" everything [Is that a word?]. That’s just a shame. I keep thinking that they would be better served by limiting the amount of American shows they keep playing thus avoiding the "constant dubbing effect." Luckily the Dutch are still using subtitles [not enough people speaking that language to justify dubbing the shows] and so The Closer was one of the shows I watched. Once I got back in the US, I immediately added it to my DVR and have been taping it ever since.
Every episode this season was good and oh so deliciously classic. The body stuffed inside the cooler episode just says it all. It really looked like they made a real effort. Just like CSI did after loosing William Petersen [Grissom]. The guys on The Closer are pros, they know what they’re doing and it shows. And now Kyra Sedgwick’s got her daughter involved in this. With Kevin directing, this is becoming a real family affair. The only annoying thing about the show is that Kyra Sedgwick has really really ugly hands. I noticed it a couple of seasons ago [Kim Bassinger has the same problem]. I was kind of getting over it when "someone" who was watching it with me made a comment. THAT was funny.
DEFYING GRAVITY [new]
The surprise -- Anonymous show I don’t know what to think of.
This one snuck up on me. ABC never really advertised it and so it came as a surprise when I flipped the channel one day and discovered it. I just don’t understand that. It’s like they want it to fail, just like Virtuosity [this one did fail]. Defying Gravity is one of the new shows FOX studio filmed in Vancouver in order to lower the cost. I have seen all the episodes, thanks to HULU. I have no idea if it will be canceled, although I would not be surprised if it was. [Go there for synopsis]
I hope that this season ends with some kind of answer because I could not handle yet another “Lost Wannabe.” Too many questions and too many unknown can be overwhelming sometimes. I actually stopped watching Lost a few seasons ago for that reason. The last 2 seasons I saw, I actually taped every episode and then watched everything at once because the wait between episodes was just too much. And even then, I was still getting frustrated. Anyway, my hope is that Defying Gravity will have more resolution and answers at the end of the season.
Do I like it? That’s another frustrating thing. Even though I am watching the thing, I still can’t decide. I am currently leaning towards “No.” I do tape every episode or if I miss one, I’ll just watch it on HULU. I skip a lot of parts, as usual to avoid the commercials, but with this series, I have been skipping actual portions of the show. I am not necessarily bored, just ready to move on.
EUREKA [season 3]
The “coup de coeur” -- Better late than never.
This is the revelation of the year for me. I have always avoided it after trying to watch it a couple of times. The problem with SYFY shows, is that they are often a too soft and turn to comedy rather than take itself a little bit more seriously. In this case, it took me a while to get into it and the only reason I started watching it in the first place is because there isn’t much of anything going on during the summer. Most shows are on hiatus and so I find myself “lowering my standards” and exploring the channel lineup a little bit more. That’s how I find little gems here and there … Such as Eureka. The season finale is coming up, too bad. I barely had time to get into it. I have however 2 more seasons of the series to watch and Colin Ferguson, genius that he is, started a Eureka podcast commentary for the show.
WAREHOUSE 13 [new]
The disappointment – that I continue to watch.
Too soft. Way too soft. I mean, I like it but at the same time I feel it’s a little bit of a “quickly put together – summer filler” type of series. The fact that it is doing really well is at least in part due to the fact that people are starving for new material and they [like me] will watch things they would never have considered watching in the Fall or Spring seasons. They are lucky to have come one when they did, because I am not sure how it would have fared against the Fall lineup and Stargate Universe. [Go there for synopsis]
The story itself is not that unique but it definitely allows for a wide range of stories. The problem is that it doesn't know if it wants to be a drama or a comedy which makes everything bland. And yet, I am still watching it.
FLIPPED OUT & HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA
The guilty pleasures someone could watch at night with the shades down.
If someone were to watch any of those shows it would be because they portray people that are so outrageously in denial, completely full of themselves and definitely out of touch with “our” reality, kind of like SciFi. I can’t say too much because I haven’t personally seen it [ah!] but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t get a chuckle out of anyone seeing it for the first time, actually it's much more than that, those shows are hilarious.
The real question is this: If this is so bad, why would anyone waste any time watching this tripe?
Anyway, this is in part what I was doing this summer. Now I wait impatiently for Stargate Universe, Sanctuary, Fringe, House, CSI, NCIS, Dexter, Family Guy, American Dad, Southland, The office and Community. Already annoyed by The mentalist, Parks and Recreation, Dollhouse, The Cleveland Show, Castle, Flashforward, Medium and on and on. Some of these have already started by the way.
1 comment:
looove eureka tooo
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