Supernatural considered kick-ass
“You’re sorry you started Armageddon?”
Ok, I still have a metric crapton of tv episodes sitting on my server, waiting for me to grab enough time to watch them. I’ve watched some of them, some are still in the pipeline. Some observations follow.
Supernatural continues to kick ass. Seriously. Sure, the first season was a bit hit and miss, and based on a “monster of the week” idea… but the writers soon realized that they had something a lot cooler in their hands and started working on a bigger plot, using the (somewhat unexpected) talents of the lead actors. Last season (the 4th) was… pretty awesome, not to mince words. This new 5th season looks to be just as good.
Last season they had angels. And not some wimpy “play harps on clouds” versions. No, the “smite it from orbit with extreme prejudice” kind. The kind that’s not interested in justice, or anything “good” (necessarily). This season, they have… well, something worse. Much worse.
From a “sort of fun” show, this has risen to be one of my current favorites (from what’s currently active). Muchos recommended. Supernatural is the best “World of Darkness” version on TV, without being “WoD” in any licensed sense.
Apart from that, my “worth watching” list now includes Stargate Universe. I’ve always liked the Stargate series… it’s good entertainment, and does not take itself too seriously. This new series seems to be better than “Stargate Atlantis”, at least. The characters are interesting, and the setup is pretty cool… if not totally original. It’s a mishmash of Star Trek Voyager and Stargate… but unlike Voyager, the script is (at least so far) not written by drunk baboons and the acting is at least decent. The three-part series pilot was pretty cool, waiting to see where this one goes.
Suprisingly, Fringe has taken off and become quite fascinating. I almost gave up on it… sure, it had some nice moments, but it was just so corny and filled with pseudo-science and technobabble. The background “metaplot” was pretty cool, though, what little of it we saw. This second season, they seem to have dumped most of the crap and concentrated on the big plot. And it works. At best, it reaches the level of X-Files (before it turned into crap). Not sure where this one will go, but I’ll be watching. For now, at least.
A side “hooray” must also be given to Burn Notice. It (also) seems to have found its stride, and is damn funny and entertaining. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which always helps.
Other that that, nothing has impressed much so far. On the other hand, I have lots of stuff still on the waiting list: Dexter seasons 3 and 4, Californication seasons 2 and 3, True Blood season 2. I expect most of those (at least) to rock. […]
Dollhouse, Burn Notice
Spent a lazy weekend (those are nice now and then) and mostly just read some books and watched some TV shows. Oh, I did do some light “useful” stuff (mowed the lawn, cleaned kitty litter, washed some clothes, installed a crypto partition on netbook, organized some backup stuff)… but mostly, I took my cues from the cats. That is, eat and laze around.
Some quick notes on a few TV shows. First off, Dollhouse, Joss Whedon’s new series. It’s been getting so-so reviews, and after watching the first four episodes a month or so ago, I wasn’t totally thrilled either. I mean, it was ok, but it didn’t really grab me. Well, now I watched the rest of the series and I’m happy to say it improves, a lot. I’d say episode six (“Man on the Street”) is the turning point, that episode and the stuff after it puts things in gear. It’s still not in the “utterly fantastic” category, but it is very good. I’m looking forward to season two, this first season ends on a very interesting (and somewhat unexpected) note.
I think that the most interesting thing about this series is the intentional shades of gray it plays around with. Sure, what the Dollhouse does is prostitution. However, the “dolls” are (to some extent) volunteers, and they are compensated very well. The Dollhouse is presented as a very ambiguous entity… in some ways, it’s the antagonist here, and in others, well… it’s hard to say. There is also a lot of plot centered about the fact that we really don’t know who is on which side, or even what the “sides” are. To be honest, I suspect many of those issues are a bit too complex and uncomfortable for the large audience (“what? no simple good/evil? me no play!”), but the good thing is that after a very slow start, the series works fine as “just” an action/intrigue series.
Secondly, I have to just remark on how much I’m enjoying Burn Notice this season. The show seems to have found its tone and it’s just a huge amount of fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but neither does it give in to crazy-comedy. The subtitles that appear next to characters during freeze-frame moments are often hilarious… I’m still chuckling over “Michael’s worst nightmare” overlaid on top of a certain police officer.
Good lightweight spy action stuff. Just the thing for lazy summer weekends. […]
Juhannus
…was fun. We didn’t really intend to hold a party as such, but that’s kinda sorta what happened. Lots of people came over, tons of food was grilled and eaten, and large quantities of alcohol were imbibed. The weather didn’t really cooperate, but sauna compensated pretty well.
The thing where you notice you’re getting a bit older is that it takes you longer and longer to recover from aforementioned large quantities of alcohol. Our whole household spent Saturday in lizard mode, and I didn’t see much vigorous activity on Sunday either. That’s not a complaint, it was very pleasant to just lie around in the sun and read; when it got too hot I went inside and watched some TV show episodes on the computer. At some point we were wondering if we needed to go buy groceries for Sunday… and then when we raided the fridge, we discovered we still have huge piles of leftover food there. So we cooked a meal of sausages plus steaks, along with a bacon-vegetable hash thingy. Oh, and some grilled corn. Yum. Life is good.
Managed to finish watching Dexter season two (good) and started watching Chuck season one (no-brains-required spy comedy, not-bad entertainment). Also noticed that Burn Notice season three has started, the first few episodes were very enjoyable. I was a bit so-so on this show during season one, but it really grew on me during the second season. It’s still not in the “fantastic!” category, but it is good fun and seems to have found its stride.
“You know spies. A bunch of bitchy little girls.” […]
