Squee TV!
In the honorable name of procrastination I give you, Television I have been Watching: (insert echo-y announcer voice here)
Shows now on hiatus
Damages: Love this, love Glenn Close, love Rose Byrn. This is a lawyer show that's not really about the law. It's about evil and how to spot it and how to fight it without becoming it and how to claw your way back out if you do. It breaks so many gender-cliches, which is lovely. And the two leads are filled up full with slashy goodness (seriously, they dream about one another). I have realized that I adore arrogant female characters just as much as I adore arrogant male characters. I cannot rec this show hard enough. The one big honking negative is you really do need to see it from the beginning and we've just finished s3.
Caprica: This is my sleeper show. I went into it fully expecting to be bored out of my mind. I wasn't. I have fallen very hard for Lacy Rand, the classic "pretty girl's best friend" who is (I think! I hope!) slowly, slowly pushing out of her shell. She's in a bad spot right now (if anyone's going to put a teenage girl into a bad spot it's James Marstars, amiright?) but I have faith she'll pull through. I'm also very taken with Tamara Adama and her story. I rec this thing with bouncy eagerness for its return. (I think you can catch up on HULU if you're so inclined.)
Human Target: Starring Keen Eddie! :) It's an action/adventure show, heavy on the comedy, and with a lovely relationship between the three leads. I've been massively entertained by it. But it's very guy heavy in that the only female characters are recurring at best. And, the show will suddenly go dark. Like, it's all lolz with the banter and then it's kill every baddie in the room. It works for me, but... Unfortunately, it may not get renewed, so this is more of a nudge than a full out rec. You know, if you're bored and Fox does a marathon. Or something.
Shows now playing
Doctor Who: I came this close to giving up on the franchise the ending of last season turned me off so badly. The treatment of Donna was nauseating and I actually started to hate the Doctor. But I'll stop that rant. ;) I've seen two episodes of the new Doctor and I love him! I think the show has embraced a more fairytale side to the Doctor and that really works for me. (Kind of explicitly, I'd say. What with the Doctor commenting on Amelia's fairytale name and Amy Pond waking up surrounded by fairy lights the night she leaves.) And I adore Amy Pond. (I grew up with "Anne of Green Gables" so I kind of have to. Plus, who hasn't felt like a Scottish girl in an English town every once in a while?) I wholeheartedly rec this show.
Justified: A police procedural, this show is the opposite of Human Target in that you go in expecting dark and keep getting hit with the funny. It takes place in Kentucky (different side of the state than the area I lived, I'll point out; Appalachia is its own country in a lot of ways). It's similar to Damages in that it seems to be exploring the difference between good and evil and the ease with which someone trying to be good can slide into evil. I think it's been doing an excellent job introducing us to the characters and the themes and... Okay, when I squint I can see a Batman-vs-Joker dynamic between the protagonist and the antagonist. Which is always happy making. :) I recommend this strongly with the caveat that it is violent (I'd say it's about online with Dexter in that it hasn't slipped into overly gory - which is why I'm able to watch).
In Plain Sight: The other Federal Marshall show! (And I'll point out, Mary did come first.) This is a lot lighter than Justified, though not a comedy by any means. The two leads (Mary and Marshall) are perfect partners and filled with banter-y goodness and I adore watching them. Mary's caustic-ness can sometimes slip into caricature, but usually they treat the issues that cause her anger very seriously. I was won over while watching a scene where Mary, her co-dependent sister, and her alcoholic mother talk about the father that abandoned them. It should have sent me screaming from the room, instead it sucked me in. And that is huge. I think the trick was they treated each character fairly. Each had their say, each had valid grief, but each also had culpability. No winners, no losers, and in the end, not everything was fixed. But each character was affected by the fight, and they're each making their own way. (What's doubly awesome is that Mary, the family fixer, is actually having to step back from helping. I love that it's recognized that this is a problem for her and not what makes her awesome. This is so rarely done for female characters.) I definitely recommend this one.
"V": I've only seen the first few episodes but talk about a CAPSLOCK show! It's like everyone is screaming at each other while highlighting plot points with a giant neon highlighter. It's very: "YOU HAVE STUCK ME WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!" "YES. I HAVE STUCK YOU WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE. MWAHA." "OMG, PERSON STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO US! THEY HAVE STUCK ME WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!" "OMG! I SHALL RUN AND TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN STUCK WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!!" They've even managed to make the camerawork capslock-y. I was trying to identify an actor (Lexa Doig) but the camera wouldn't pull out from its extreme close up of her eye. Because I like sci-fi tv I'm more amused than annoyed by the stomping form of story telling and I'm going to keep watching, but I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone not similarly biased.
Aaaand, I'll stop before this gets too embarrassingly long. (Too late?)
Shows now on hiatus
Damages: Love this, love Glenn Close, love Rose Byrn. This is a lawyer show that's not really about the law. It's about evil and how to spot it and how to fight it without becoming it and how to claw your way back out if you do. It breaks so many gender-cliches, which is lovely. And the two leads are filled up full with slashy goodness (seriously, they dream about one another). I have realized that I adore arrogant female characters just as much as I adore arrogant male characters. I cannot rec this show hard enough. The one big honking negative is you really do need to see it from the beginning and we've just finished s3.
Caprica: This is my sleeper show. I went into it fully expecting to be bored out of my mind. I wasn't. I have fallen very hard for Lacy Rand, the classic "pretty girl's best friend" who is (I think! I hope!) slowly, slowly pushing out of her shell. She's in a bad spot right now (if anyone's going to put a teenage girl into a bad spot it's James Marstars, amiright?) but I have faith she'll pull through. I'm also very taken with Tamara Adama and her story. I rec this thing with bouncy eagerness for its return. (I think you can catch up on HULU if you're so inclined.)
Human Target: Starring Keen Eddie! :) It's an action/adventure show, heavy on the comedy, and with a lovely relationship between the three leads. I've been massively entertained by it. But it's very guy heavy in that the only female characters are recurring at best. And, the show will suddenly go dark. Like, it's all lolz with the banter and then it's kill every baddie in the room. It works for me, but... Unfortunately, it may not get renewed, so this is more of a nudge than a full out rec. You know, if you're bored and Fox does a marathon. Or something.
Shows now playing
Doctor Who: I came this close to giving up on the franchise the ending of last season turned me off so badly. The treatment of Donna was nauseating and I actually started to hate the Doctor. But I'll stop that rant. ;) I've seen two episodes of the new Doctor and I love him! I think the show has embraced a more fairytale side to the Doctor and that really works for me. (Kind of explicitly, I'd say. What with the Doctor commenting on Amelia's fairytale name and Amy Pond waking up surrounded by fairy lights the night she leaves.) And I adore Amy Pond. (I grew up with "Anne of Green Gables" so I kind of have to. Plus, who hasn't felt like a Scottish girl in an English town every once in a while?) I wholeheartedly rec this show.
Justified: A police procedural, this show is the opposite of Human Target in that you go in expecting dark and keep getting hit with the funny. It takes place in Kentucky (different side of the state than the area I lived, I'll point out; Appalachia is its own country in a lot of ways). It's similar to Damages in that it seems to be exploring the difference between good and evil and the ease with which someone trying to be good can slide into evil. I think it's been doing an excellent job introducing us to the characters and the themes and... Okay, when I squint I can see a Batman-vs-Joker dynamic between the protagonist and the antagonist. Which is always happy making. :) I recommend this strongly with the caveat that it is violent (I'd say it's about online with Dexter in that it hasn't slipped into overly gory - which is why I'm able to watch).
In Plain Sight: The other Federal Marshall show! (And I'll point out, Mary did come first.) This is a lot lighter than Justified, though not a comedy by any means. The two leads (Mary and Marshall) are perfect partners and filled with banter-y goodness and I adore watching them. Mary's caustic-ness can sometimes slip into caricature, but usually they treat the issues that cause her anger very seriously. I was won over while watching a scene where Mary, her co-dependent sister, and her alcoholic mother talk about the father that abandoned them. It should have sent me screaming from the room, instead it sucked me in. And that is huge. I think the trick was they treated each character fairly. Each had their say, each had valid grief, but each also had culpability. No winners, no losers, and in the end, not everything was fixed. But each character was affected by the fight, and they're each making their own way. (What's doubly awesome is that Mary, the family fixer, is actually having to step back from helping. I love that it's recognized that this is a problem for her and not what makes her awesome. This is so rarely done for female characters.) I definitely recommend this one.
"V": I've only seen the first few episodes but talk about a CAPSLOCK show! It's like everyone is screaming at each other while highlighting plot points with a giant neon highlighter. It's very: "YOU HAVE STUCK ME WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!" "YES. I HAVE STUCK YOU WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE. MWAHA." "OMG, PERSON STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO US! THEY HAVE STUCK ME WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!" "OMG! I SHALL RUN AND TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN STUCK WITH AN ALIEN SUBSTANCE!!" They've even managed to make the camerawork capslock-y. I was trying to identify an actor (Lexa Doig) but the camera wouldn't pull out from its extreme close up of her eye. Because I like sci-fi tv I'm more amused than annoyed by the stomping form of story telling and I'm going to keep watching, but I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone not similarly biased.
Aaaand, I'll stop before this gets too embarrassingly long. (Too late?)