Television Notes
I've been giving a few new television shows a go, so I thought I would collect my thoughts here.
1. I've heard great things about 30 Rock, but... I didn't like the pilot. :/ Now, I wasn't blown over by the pilot for Graceland either, and I actually kind of disliked the pilot for Castle (in fact the first ten episodes or so grated on me; she's not interested, Castle, leave her alone!), so this is not necessarily the kiss of death, but...
Has anyone watched this show? Is the pilot pretty much of a piece with the rest of it, or is there a great tonal shift? Does Tina Fey shove Jack Donaghey out a thirteeth-floor window, for instance?
This is also giving me second thoughts about giving Invincible Kimmy Schmidt a try.
2. I watched the first two episodes of Wolfblood, which is cute but didn't blow me away. Possibly I've outgrown teen dramas? But I'll probably give it a few more episodes to find its feet; I think five episodes is usually a good number, especially with half hour episodes.
3. Orphan Black. Oh my GOD, you guys, this show is amazing, and Tatiana Maslany is an absolute revelation. If I didn't know that she was playing all these different characters, I never in a million years would have guessed, because she's so good at making them all different - obviously with help from wardrobe and the writers in giving them different speech patterns, but still, the accents! The body language! The facial expressions! That's all her, and it's all amazing. And her control is so perfect.
I've only seen the first four episodes so far, so I don't have much of an opinion about the unfolding mysteries yet - although I will say, I loooooved the way that Sarah had to figure out Elizabeth Childs' life in the first few episodes after unwitting stealing her identity. The way that they set up this smaller mystery within the bigger mysteries of the season gives me a lot of hope for good payoffs: they clearly understand the pleasure of unraveling a mystery when the question is not whodunnit but "what the heck has been done and what does it mean?"
1. I've heard great things about 30 Rock, but... I didn't like the pilot. :/ Now, I wasn't blown over by the pilot for Graceland either, and I actually kind of disliked the pilot for Castle (in fact the first ten episodes or so grated on me; she's not interested, Castle, leave her alone!), so this is not necessarily the kiss of death, but...
Has anyone watched this show? Is the pilot pretty much of a piece with the rest of it, or is there a great tonal shift? Does Tina Fey shove Jack Donaghey out a thirteeth-floor window, for instance?
This is also giving me second thoughts about giving Invincible Kimmy Schmidt a try.
2. I watched the first two episodes of Wolfblood, which is cute but didn't blow me away. Possibly I've outgrown teen dramas? But I'll probably give it a few more episodes to find its feet; I think five episodes is usually a good number, especially with half hour episodes.
3. Orphan Black. Oh my GOD, you guys, this show is amazing, and Tatiana Maslany is an absolute revelation. If I didn't know that she was playing all these different characters, I never in a million years would have guessed, because she's so good at making them all different - obviously with help from wardrobe and the writers in giving them different speech patterns, but still, the accents! The body language! The facial expressions! That's all her, and it's all amazing. And her control is so perfect.
I've only seen the first four episodes so far, so I don't have much of an opinion about the unfolding mysteries yet - although I will say, I loooooved the way that Sarah had to figure out Elizabeth Childs' life in the first few episodes after unwitting stealing her identity. The way that they set up this smaller mystery within the bigger mysteries of the season gives me a lot of hope for good payoffs: they clearly understand the pleasure of unraveling a mystery when the question is not whodunnit but "what the heck has been done and what does it mean?"