On Fall TV and Revenge
I watch a lot of TV.
This comes as no surprise to people who know me, but living in the US and owning my own DVR have only exacerbated this sickness. Now it's fall TV season once again and I have committed to this schedule:
Mondays
8pm - How I Met Your Mother
8:30pm - 2 Broke Girls
9pm - House
10pm - Castle
Tuesdays
8pm - Glee
9pm - Ringer
Wednesdays
9pm - Modern Family
***9:30pm - Happy Endings (well, it's in-between the two shows, but not getting DVR-ed)
10pm - Revenge
Thursdays (THE BIG ONE!!!)
5:30pm - Voltron Force (returns on November 3. Ha! I'm not even going to be embarrassed about this. It's a cool continuation of the original series)
8pm - The Big Bang Theory
8:30pm - Parks and Recreation
9pm - Project Runway
9pm - Person of Interest
9pm - Bones (starting November 3...and I don't know how I'll be able to watch 3 shows in the same timeslot, either)
Fridays
9pm - Chuck (starting October 21)
Sundays
8pm - The Amazing Race
8pm - Once Upon A Time (starting October 23)
***10pm - Against the Wall (not really seriously or all episodes, there's just a certain romance here that I'm following...cute guy!)
Let's hope both me and my DVR can cope. *gulp*
But the topic I really wanted to discuss is my new favorite show, Revenge. The show is only three episodes in and I'm a little trepidatious about raving about it too highly since I could end up with some lovely egg on my face. Still, the signs so far are really trending toward this being a great show.
When I was first mapping out my fall TV schedule (yes, I actually got out a MARKER and encircled shows on my EW issue), I really didn't foresee Revenge as being one of them since I really hated Emily Van Camp with a passion when she was on Everwood and Brothers & Sisters. And I didn't even watch those shows! I just saw her smug face on those shows for snippets at a time and she already irked me. Contrast this to today and I can't wait to watch Revenge every Wednesday night, and I believe she was perfectly cast.
What made the difference, you might ask? Again, I never really watched her previous shows so I might have it all wrong, but I believe she used to play these good-girl-but-snarky types (a la Joey from Dawson's Creek) that guys found oh-so-irresistable. On Revenge, she plays a cruel, manipulative girl who pretends to be a sweetheart in order to exact her dish-best-served-cold. For some reason, I find the latter role more believable for her...and a lot more intriguing.
If I had to describe Revenge in one word, I would say "delicious." It's that guilty pleasure kind of show, but then again that might not be fair as I think it's smart, too. It feels very literary and traditional (i.e. in the whole dramatic arc; exposition, climax, dénouement kind of way), and that should be no surprise since it's actually based on Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. Delicious, I tell you!
And I kinda like how "traditional" it feels, like it's in the vein of Dynasty and Dallas but less campy and more intelligent than those shows. I think the plots of TV dramas were starting to get a little too complex because they wanted to be the new Lost, but Lost was kind of the exception to the rule and not the rule. Besides Lost might have a convoluted storyline but it was rooted in its characters (who had a flashback in each episode). Revenge feels like it's a great character drama, too.
And of course, there's the allure of the classic love triangle... What with Emily Thorn (protagonist) torn between Daniel, the son of her arch-enemy, and Jack, her childhood sweetheart who does not know who she really is. Plus, I love the character of eccentric genius Nolan. I'll have him if Emily won't! :D Plus, there is a yellow lab in the series who will break your heart. Hachiko has nothing on this guy. ;)
The only weak link for me is the "teenage" plotline headed by Connor Paolo of Gossip Girl fame. It's just eyeroll-worthy and vomit-inducing at this point. Still, Revenge is the show for me this fall (so far!), and I eagerly await the fifth episode which Emily Van Camp said in an interview was going to be "insane." WOOOT.
My other new show recommendations:
- 2 Broke Girls - 'Nuff said. Just watch!
- Ringer - Evil twin primetime soap opera. Lost a little steam in the latest episode (fourth), but I'm still watching it.
I'm also watching Person of Interest but I'm not 100% sold on the series yet. It still feels kind of cold and impersonal to me (although there's no denying that both Jim Caviezel and the guy who will always be Benjamin Linus are bad-ass). I catch X-Factor here and there, but it's ho-hum. I watch it if I'm free, but I don't waste any DVR space on it.
This comes as no surprise to people who know me, but living in the US and owning my own DVR have only exacerbated this sickness. Now it's fall TV season once again and I have committed to this schedule:
Mondays
8pm - How I Met Your Mother
8:30pm - 2 Broke Girls
9pm - House
10pm - Castle
Tuesdays
8pm - Glee
9pm - Ringer
Wednesdays
9pm - Modern Family
***9:30pm - Happy Endings (well, it's in-between the two shows, but not getting DVR-ed)
10pm - Revenge
Thursdays (THE BIG ONE!!!)
5:30pm - Voltron Force (returns on November 3. Ha! I'm not even going to be embarrassed about this. It's a cool continuation of the original series)
8pm - The Big Bang Theory
8:30pm - Parks and Recreation
9pm - Project Runway
9pm - Person of Interest
9pm - Bones (starting November 3...and I don't know how I'll be able to watch 3 shows in the same timeslot, either)
Fridays
9pm - Chuck (starting October 21)
Sundays
8pm - The Amazing Race
8pm - Once Upon A Time (starting October 23)
***10pm - Against the Wall (not really seriously or all episodes, there's just a certain romance here that I'm following...cute guy!)
Let's hope both me and my DVR can cope. *gulp*
But the topic I really wanted to discuss is my new favorite show, Revenge. The show is only three episodes in and I'm a little trepidatious about raving about it too highly since I could end up with some lovely egg on my face. Still, the signs so far are really trending toward this being a great show.
When I was first mapping out my fall TV schedule (yes, I actually got out a MARKER and encircled shows on my EW issue), I really didn't foresee Revenge as being one of them since I really hated Emily Van Camp with a passion when she was on Everwood and Brothers & Sisters. And I didn't even watch those shows! I just saw her smug face on those shows for snippets at a time and she already irked me. Contrast this to today and I can't wait to watch Revenge every Wednesday night, and I believe she was perfectly cast.
What made the difference, you might ask? Again, I never really watched her previous shows so I might have it all wrong, but I believe she used to play these good-girl-but-snarky types (a la Joey from Dawson's Creek) that guys found oh-so-irresistable. On Revenge, she plays a cruel, manipulative girl who pretends to be a sweetheart in order to exact her dish-best-served-cold. For some reason, I find the latter role more believable for her...and a lot more intriguing.
If I had to describe Revenge in one word, I would say "delicious." It's that guilty pleasure kind of show, but then again that might not be fair as I think it's smart, too. It feels very literary and traditional (i.e. in the whole dramatic arc; exposition, climax, dénouement kind of way), and that should be no surprise since it's actually based on Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. Delicious, I tell you!
And I kinda like how "traditional" it feels, like it's in the vein of Dynasty and Dallas but less campy and more intelligent than those shows. I think the plots of TV dramas were starting to get a little too complex because they wanted to be the new Lost, but Lost was kind of the exception to the rule and not the rule. Besides Lost might have a convoluted storyline but it was rooted in its characters (who had a flashback in each episode). Revenge feels like it's a great character drama, too.
And of course, there's the allure of the classic love triangle... What with Emily Thorn (protagonist) torn between Daniel, the son of her arch-enemy, and Jack, her childhood sweetheart who does not know who she really is. Plus, I love the character of eccentric genius Nolan. I'll have him if Emily won't! :D Plus, there is a yellow lab in the series who will break your heart. Hachiko has nothing on this guy. ;)
The only weak link for me is the "teenage" plotline headed by Connor Paolo of Gossip Girl fame. It's just eyeroll-worthy and vomit-inducing at this point. Still, Revenge is the show for me this fall (so far!), and I eagerly await the fifth episode which Emily Van Camp said in an interview was going to be "insane." WOOOT.
My other new show recommendations:
- 2 Broke Girls - 'Nuff said. Just watch!
- Ringer - Evil twin primetime soap opera. Lost a little steam in the latest episode (fourth), but I'm still watching it.
I'm also watching Person of Interest but I'm not 100% sold on the series yet. It still feels kind of cold and impersonal to me (although there's no denying that both Jim Caviezel and the guy who will always be Benjamin Linus are bad-ass). I catch X-Factor here and there, but it's ho-hum. I watch it if I'm free, but I don't waste any DVR space on it.