urn:lj:insanejournal.com:atom1:_jems__jems__jems_jems00@gmail.com_jems_2010-04-12T00:02:35Zurn:lj:insanejournal.com:atom1:_jems_:37668Read more, less TV2010-04-12T00:02:35Z2010-04-12T00:02:35Z<font size="+1"><b>Shows that I have given up this season</b></font> <br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><b>Castle</b><br />Nathan Fillion's charm made this show stay on my schedule for much longer than it would have had he not starred in it. But even that wears thin after a while when there's nothing of substance to cling to. I'm not sure if I'm totally done with the show, I might marathon it this summer, but for right now, I'm done with this season.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid2"></a><b>Chuck</b><br />I lasted three episodes and then I packed it in. Again. I just don't care about these people, and the annoying way they went about keeping Chuck and Sarah apart did the show no favors with this non-'shipper. I really wish I could see what everyone else sees in this show, because apparently I'm missing something brilliant? I just don't see it at all.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid3"></a><b>Flash Forward</b><br />When it returned from hiatus I couldn't even remember what had happened, who the characters we were supposed to care about were (except for The Cho) or why I should care. I took it as a sign that I had better things to do. <br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid4"></a><b>Life Unexpected</b><br />While I liked Baze and enjoyed the novelty for a while, I just can't bring myself to get invested in this show. It's too...I don't know, cutesy or something? While at the same time thinking it's edgy. It just feels kinda fake, like it's trying to rise above itself when they'd be much better served keeping it true to itself.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid5"></a><b>The Mentalist</b><br />When Van Pelt and whosit got together and I <i>still</i> didn't give a damn I knew it was time to pack it in. It had been on the bubble for a while, but I hadn't had a reason to stop. Strangely enough, something happening that I <i>wanted</i> to happen gave me the push I needed.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid6"></a><b>Shear Genius</b><br />The new host was a dud. Bring back Jaclyn and I may reconsider watching this show.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid7"></a><b>Survivor</b><br />I had a bad feeling and spoiled myself for the show. Now that Rob's out, my interest has plummeted and while I enjoyed watching the rest be wretched when I had someone to root for, I'm not about to waste my time on people I disliked for the most part.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid8"></a><b>The Vampire Diaries</b> <br />This show is pretty much Chuck v.2 for me - everyone keeps insisting that it's brilliant and I just don't see it. Not only do I not see it, I'm mostly just bored by it. When I couldn't even be bothered to figure out what the last episode I'd watched was I knew it was time to pack it in. Maybe marathoning it will help?<br /><br /><br /><hr><br /><font size="+1"><b>Shows that I'm behind on</b></font><br /><br /><a name="cutid9"></a><b>Damages</b><br />I almost always fall behind on Damages. I love the two female leads, but I'm pretty much bored by the storyline (at least post-season 1). I have no doubt I'll be marathoning the remaining episodes one weekend in the not-too-distant future <strike>when I'm out of stuff to read</strike>.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid10"></a><b>Fringe</b><br />I haven't watched since it came back from hiatus, but I'm actually more intrigued by the story this season than last season, so I'll be doing a mini-marathon soon. I usually like this show better when I have chunks of episodes to watch anyway.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid11"></a><b>Legend of the Seeker</b><br />This season is all about Cara for me. I mean, I love Kahlan a lot, but this season seems to be all about the Kahlan/Richard melodrama and since they bore me I'm less than invested in her right now.<br /><br /><br /><hr><br /><font size="+1"><b>Shows that I'm up to speed on</b></font><br /><br /><a name="cutid12"></a><b>The Amazing Race</b><br />Go Cowboys! And leave Catie and Brent! (I think that's their names.)<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid13"></a><b>Bones</b><br />The 100th episode has sure elicited a lot of different responses, both on my flist and beyond. I feel like I've got one leg in each camp. On the one hand, there was a lot of handflapping and flailing and eeeeeking (of the good kind) during the episode, even if it did have to come at the expence of handwaving a lot of stupidity, continuity issues and retcons. <br /><br />On the other hand, while a lot of people loved the last scene, I really didn't enjoy it. Sure, for the characters that might have been important, but I can't help being annoyed that they're doing yet another reset. If you're not going to give me anything, I'd rather not have the not-so-coy hints either, thank you very much! <br /><br />And stop bandying the Moonlighting name around as if it was still relevant. Or ever relevant, for that matter! Stop being so chicken shit about writing a romance storyline, you don't actually have to make it boring. I swear, the viewers would happily let you write compelling episodes where the two main protagonists are a couple. You don't even have to harp on it, just let them be a couple while doing the things they would normally do, no pandering required!<br /><br />(Actually, I don't have a leg in each camp, because what annoyed me is way more superficial than what annoyed the camp that despised the episode almost as much as I despised the seasosn 4 finale [NOTHING will ever be as bad as that!])<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid14"></a><b>Community</b><br />Best new comedy of the season, bar none. Can't wait for it to return.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid15"></a><b>Criminal Minds</b><br />My favorite procedural, not a doubt about it. After five seasons, some plots are starting to feel a bit stale, but they're far outweighed by the excellent ones.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid16"></a><b>The Good Wife</b><br />I'm not really joining in the Will/Alicia squee. I just can't bring myself to 'ship them, not because I don't like them or the storyline they're doing right now, but because I just don't have a feel for Will. Like, at all. I don't know what makes him tick, I don't know how he feels about anything, really. And while I love that the women on this show are as awesome as they are, I really think they need to introduce the male POV so that the we can also identify with the men. Right now, they're feeling very "other" to me.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid17"></a><b>NCIS</b><br />I'm about ready to give up on this show. What works pretty well when marathoned becomes pretty damn boring when only watched once a week.<br /><br /><br /><a name="cutid18"></a><b>Parks & Recreation</b><br />I feel that this show parallels The Office quite a bit. Not in it's storylines or anything, just in how the seasons mirror each other - season 1: boring, season 2: MADE OF AWESOME. Let's hope season 3 doesn't follow this same pattern, though.<br /><br /><br /><hr><br /><a name="cutid19"></a><b>Buffy</b><br />The way some Spike/Buffy 'shippers bandy around the terms "pedophile" and "statutory rapist" when it comes to Buffy/Angel has always made me scoff (and think that it's defensive posturing about the whole rapist!lover thing). I don't believe that, because I think that Buffy knows her own mind and heart when it comes to her relationship with Angel.<br /><br />However, the relationship has always squicked me along those very same lines, because while <i>I</i> may think that Buffy is mature enough to make up her own mind in this matter, it's pretty clear to me that <i>Angel</i> doesn't. The way he completely overrules her when it comes to decisions made about their relationship makes me sooooo uncomfortable, as if he's the adult and she's a mere child who has to be told what to think/feel because she couldn't possibly understand grown-up things. Complete with the requisite head-pat and collusion with mommy behind her back. (The adults know what's best for you!)<br /><br />So yeah, it makes me extremely uncomfortable that Angel would have a relationship with someone he doesn't feel is mature enough to make decisions about being in a relationship. Which is why the next step in my thought process usually becomes: Angel isn't really being paternalistic or patronizing, he's really just selfish because he can't bear to be with her and not <i>be with her.</i> And he's also not willing to sacrifice a few years of his unlife to make her short life as a Slayer a happy one, because the price for him would be too high. So he hightails it out of there not because of what <i>she</i> will gain from it, but what it won't cost <i>him</i> down the line. <br /><br /><hr><br />On a final note: Dreamhost moved my site to a new server this morning with hardly any notice, and while the only difference I've noticed has been that it's become much zippier, there may be issues somewhere that I'm not finding. If you see something amiss, can you let me know (this goes double for you, <span class='ljuser' lj:user='bellanut' style='white-space: nowrap; text-decoration: line-through;'><a href='https://bellanut.insanejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0;' /></a><a href='https://bellanut.insanejournal.com/'><b>bellanut</b></a></span> and <span class='ljuser' lj:user='typicrobots' style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://www.insanejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=typicrobots'><img src='https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0;' /></a><a href='https://www.insanejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=typicrobots'><b>typicrobots</b></a></span>)?urn:lj:insanejournal.com:atom1:_jems_:28041miscellanea2009-02-22T21:41:22Z2009-02-22T21:41:22ZI feel like I hardly have enough going on right now to cobble together one entry. Let's see if this list of Things Going On Right Now proves me wrong:<br /><br /><ol><br /><li> I'm siiiiiick. Ugh, I hate it so much. At least I'm over the hump (I think). From now on it'll just be a few weeks of coughing, sneezing and general mucus issues. <b>Lovely!</b> </li><br /><li> I'm currently translating season 2 of The Office, which is having the effect of making me fall in love with the show again. Not the new episodes (unfortunately), but I'd forgotten how much I loved it back in the day - and how much better Michael was before he became this caricature of a person. <a name="cutid1"></a> Not that I ever really liked him, but lately I just can't stand him. I think that's why I'm having such a big issue with the show this year: I've reached my Michael tolerance level. As soon as he's on screen, I start disconnecting from the show immediately because I just can't stand to watch him. And it's hard to reengage when the people I do like come back on. <br /><br />Of course, the atrocity that was the Angela/Dwight storyline this year didn't help. </li><br /><li> As per usual, I'm watching lots of TV. *is currently at 332 episodes watched* <a name="cutid2"></a><br /><b>Dollhouse</b><br />The premise still squicks me like hell, but I'm coming around to the idea that it's supposed to. I saw some people saying this after the pilot episode, but I wasn't convinced, it glorified the subject matter too much, in my opinion. But after the negotiations at the beginning of this episode, with them talking about a human life as nothing more than a monetary issue, I'm feeling like I'm either supposed to think that the Dollhouse is the sickest thing human beings have come up with in a looooong time, or Joss Whedon & Co. really <i>are</i> the sickest people ever. I have to believe that they're well aware of how atrocious it all is, and that they're working to make it clear to the audience. The alternative would probably make me lose all faith in the human race.<br /><br />My problems with Eliza Dushku remain. I don't think she's a strong enough actress for this part, and as I feared, her inability to display vulnerability is really doing the character a disservice. Which isn't saying much since there isn't really a character there. But even Echo's empty shell persona rings false to me.<br /><br /> <a name="cutid3"></a><b>Life</b><br />I am just not warming up to the idea of Reese/Tidwell. If anything, it's gotten <i>worse</i>. It's completely made me stop caring about Dani the way I did last season, when she was such a fascinating, damaged individual. <br /><br />And it's made me realize that she was my main draw on this show, because these days I can barely be bothered to pay attention to what's going on. The cliffhanger episode right before Christmas was <i>really</i> good, and had me hoping that we were finally going to have something interesting happen, but since we came back, it's just more of the same, and more of me tuning out.<br /><br />Of course, it hasn't helped that I've also come to realize that Tidwell is nothing but an exposition fairy. All he's good for is "telling, not showing". Instead of seeing them investigate, or them letting the audience draw conclusions based on tidbits, suddenly, all we need in order to find out every minute detail about the case of the week is Tidwell demanding a status report. <br /><br />They're making me feel stupid for watching this show where everything needs to be spelled out for me - often twice! - and I'm about ready to give up. I'll finish the season, but unless they make Dani Reese as interesting as she used to be, I can't see myself giving this much more of a chance. If it even gets a third season, that is, I have no idea what the ratings are.<br /><br /> <a name="cutid4"></a><b>Top Chef</b><br />Well, they certainly noticed how much people hated that they threw out better chefs to keep their "romance" hook, didn't they? Cheap stunt, I thought, but at this point, do I care? Not so much.<br /><br />I would have been much happier if Stefan had gone home, but I never thought Fabio was that fabulous of a chef, so I'm okay with him leaving. Now I'm just going to spend the entire finale rooting for Carla, who's grown on me so much, not just as a participant, but as a chef. I'm really surprised that she's actually as good as she's been these last few weeks, considering what a rough start she had.<br /><br /> <a name="cutid5"></a><b>NCIS</b><br />I am basically watching this show for Abby, and that's okay with me, I don't need much more. And after that season finale, I'm pretty darned bummed that the shipping of the season 3 DVDs have been held up for weeks. Damn that Amazon! Except... </li><br /><li> Today I got an email from Amazon.co.uk, informing me that the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pushing-Daisies-Complete-Season-DVD/dp/B001FOQJQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1235336955&sr=8-1">Pushing Daisies season 2 DVDs will be released on May 25th.</a> I preordered that puppy so fast heads were spinning. Even though I still haven't watched the last aired episode (I don't want to be out of episodes to watch!), I think that three months gives me enough time to come to terms with watching the end of the series. *sniff* </li><br /><li> I've been making icons that I'm not hating on entirely. I'm not loving them either, but I consider this a definite step up from the months and months and <i>months</i> of crap. </li><br /><li> Oscar night, huh? For once, I've actually seen quite a few of the movies. Still can't bring myself to care very much. I mean, it's not as if it's the Emmys, which has just become a <i>farce</i>, but I just don't feel the Oscars are all that much more relevant at this point. </li><br /></ol>