Pan Am 1.1 + returning shows
Pan Am:
The second episode aired today, but I've been catching up with almost-everything airing US tv for the last week and need a switch. Probably to Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei, as I'm behind on both.
Anyway:
Downside: To all appearances, by the people who think Mad Men is about the aesthetics and nostalgia.
Upside: To all appearances, not by the people who think Mad Men is about how 60s ad men were cool and charming and that Don Draper is a brilliant and awesome and amazing man who's lucky enough to get laid whenever he wants by whoever he wants.
Pretty, a bit lighter than I really like my period dramas, but not so much that it's a turn off. Lots of girls and Bechdel passing and the women all appear to have positive relationships, and I don't hate the men. It's also a nice counterweight to both Revenge and Ringer.
Returning shows.
Haven: I'm current. Based on the end of the latest episode, I assume it's time for a midseason break? Aside from the show's general inability to keep any woman but Audrey around for more than a few episodes, I remain very fond of the show, and contrinue to like the metaplot a lot. However, what they did in episode 2.9 pissed me off so much that I watched the next 3 episodes ready to drop it forever if it did a singlething to annoy me. (The tail end of 2.10 did help a bit with the RAGE though.)
Nikita: Also current. Apparently, I disliked certain things in the tail end of season 1 that I now just watch for Maggie Q's fight scenes. Honestly, I do still enjoy the show a lot when it isn't reminding me of the things that annoy me, but it doesn't inspire the passion or "OMG EEE!" that the first season did until about the midteens.
The Vampire Diaries: Let me know when Bonnie comes back.
The Secret Circle: Ok, not returning, but I read the books? I watched part of the second episode and decided that life was too short to watch Kevin Williamson take another woman-positive text with inoffensive men and turn the men into assholes who treat women like crap and focus on how INTERESTING and FASCINATING the men are and eventually quit giving the women any scenes together, and this has the same earmarkings of that that early TVD did, if with less rape. I may come back if I hear it it beats my expectations, or check out the DVDs just in case. (Yes, I too am sad that my bitterness over what TVD has spilled over into what might turn out to be a perfectly decent show if I could separate Kevin Williamson projects in my head.)
Basically, I want Once Upon A Time to start, and The Borgias and Covert Affairs to come back. And White Collar, but not quite as much as the other two.
Spoilers for all shows welcome in comments.