Summer Television Shows
I feel like a homeschooled kid on her first day of high school and in absolute awe over the novelty of turning the dial on her locker. I haven't watched actual TV in a while. Maybe it's been a year or so? Not since all my shows died in various fabulous fashions in May 2010? So, this week, all of a sudden, I'm watching these shows--some of them I know and some of them are airing for the first time. And it's crazy. Television. What a thing.
Torchwood. I never thought that the show would be accessible to me, you know? I idly started watching it in early 2010 by downloading it episode by episode wherever I could find it. I felt like I was so behind on the fandom and the show. And now it's on Starz. Which I'm not subscribed to, of course. But that's not the point. I don't think I've ever done this thing where I've caught up on a show in time to watch the new episodes as they come along. So this is cool. Even though I have no one to talk to about it. This is what happens when you basically disappear from the internet for a whole year.
This has probably been covered a hundreds times, but... This season is a whole new thing and it feels so weird. It's definitely not the Torchwood I've come to know and love. I know, that's kind of a hasty judgment, but if you push the returning characters back to what seems like supporting roles, shift the overarching tone and premise, and put the show on an entirely new continent, then what do we have left? There's no Torchwood in my Torchwood. And the occasional nods to the previous seasons only feel like they're dangling a cookie above our heads.
Right, right. Cry moar. Moving on. Gwen and Rhys and babyyyy. Their presence in the show is what holds things together, as it should be. Gwen and Rhys still bicker. Then Jack comes in and Rhys is still pissed off. :D I am indeed interested in where this goes. Judging by how old Anwen is, they haven't been off the grid for too long. But everyone looks so much older. It's amazing.
Now, them Americans. Bill Pullman is an interesting addition. Mostly because he's Bill Pullman. I am curious about the role that his character will play in the show though. He's like this looming, menacing character that hasn't quite gotten to the looming part. This Esther character. I don't know what to say about her, but it looks like she's taken over Gwen's job. She's done an excellent job with the "investigate, meet Jack, drink retcon water" routine so far. Now, Rex. The whole time he hobbled out the hospital all the way to Wales, he was making me very nervous. Hopefully they figure out a way to make him less in pain or else I won't be able to focus on his scenes.
Maybe it was a bad idea writing down my thoughts about Torchwood so far. Oops?
Warehouse 13. Good, light fun. I was mildly surprised when I read that Aaron Ashmore was joining the cast this season. I became aware of his existence a couple weeks ago during my Veronica Mars marathon. There was some slight confusion regarding him and his twin brother Shawn Ashmore who I know from the X-Men trilogy. So now the former is here in another show I watch, but he's neither Veronica's ex-boyfriend nor a surprise drug dealer. Oftentimes a plus.
Alphas. Oh my god, I enjoyed it. A new show for me to watch! I wasn't planning on watching the show because I hadn't heard of it until I caught glimpses of the commercial during Warehouse 13. After dinner, I just plopped down in front of the TV, watching whatever was on. So, for the first ten minutes, I'm like "What's going on? What's going on? What's gonna happen? What am I watching?" Then I realize I'm watching Alphas and I see that Jack Bender directed the episode.
This reminded me of that TV show idea I had to put together for scifiland a while back: Landslide. But Alphas is ten times better. With Alphas, the characters and abilities are much more creative than what I thought up. Except, you know, I still kind of wish they threw a stoic, muscular Korean-speaking family man in there instead of this outspoken, muscular English-speaking family man Bill Harken. But that's just me.
I like the idea of Gary's character. First, his powers impressed me. Seeing electromagnetic waves. Sure beats pyrokinesis. Then I started to learn about his role with his people. He's sort of out of place and yet he's important to the group. That's what interests me. He's this autistic teenage boy in a group of moderately serious 25-years-old-and-up instruments of the government. This can either go very wrong or very right.
In other news, holy god, it's a Tintin trailer, from director Steven Spielberg, producer Peter Jackson, and writers Steven Moffatt, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish. Be still my inappropriately reactive heart.
Torchwood. I never thought that the show would be accessible to me, you know? I idly started watching it in early 2010 by downloading it episode by episode wherever I could find it. I felt like I was so behind on the fandom and the show. And now it's on Starz. Which I'm not subscribed to, of course. But that's not the point. I don't think I've ever done this thing where I've caught up on a show in time to watch the new episodes as they come along. So this is cool. Even though I have no one to talk to about it. This is what happens when you basically disappear from the internet for a whole year.
This has probably been covered a hundreds times, but... This season is a whole new thing and it feels so weird. It's definitely not the Torchwood I've come to know and love. I know, that's kind of a hasty judgment, but if you push the returning characters back to what seems like supporting roles, shift the overarching tone and premise, and put the show on an entirely new continent, then what do we have left? There's no Torchwood in my Torchwood. And the occasional nods to the previous seasons only feel like they're dangling a cookie above our heads.
Right, right. Cry moar. Moving on. Gwen and Rhys and babyyyy. Their presence in the show is what holds things together, as it should be. Gwen and Rhys still bicker. Then Jack comes in and Rhys is still pissed off. :D I am indeed interested in where this goes. Judging by how old Anwen is, they haven't been off the grid for too long. But everyone looks so much older. It's amazing.
Now, them Americans. Bill Pullman is an interesting addition. Mostly because he's Bill Pullman. I am curious about the role that his character will play in the show though. He's like this looming, menacing character that hasn't quite gotten to the looming part. This Esther character. I don't know what to say about her, but it looks like she's taken over Gwen's job. She's done an excellent job with the "investigate, meet Jack, drink retcon water" routine so far. Now, Rex. The whole time he hobbled out the hospital all the way to Wales, he was making me very nervous. Hopefully they figure out a way to make him less in pain or else I won't be able to focus on his scenes.
Maybe it was a bad idea writing down my thoughts about Torchwood so far. Oops?
Warehouse 13. Good, light fun. I was mildly surprised when I read that Aaron Ashmore was joining the cast this season. I became aware of his existence a couple weeks ago during my Veronica Mars marathon. There was some slight confusion regarding him and his twin brother Shawn Ashmore who I know from the X-Men trilogy. So now the former is here in another show I watch, but he's neither Veronica's ex-boyfriend nor a surprise drug dealer. Oftentimes a plus.
Alphas. Oh my god, I enjoyed it. A new show for me to watch! I wasn't planning on watching the show because I hadn't heard of it until I caught glimpses of the commercial during Warehouse 13. After dinner, I just plopped down in front of the TV, watching whatever was on. So, for the first ten minutes, I'm like "What's going on? What's going on? What's gonna happen? What am I watching?" Then I realize I'm watching Alphas and I see that Jack Bender directed the episode.
This reminded me of that TV show idea I had to put together for scifiland a while back: Landslide. But Alphas is ten times better. With Alphas, the characters and abilities are much more creative than what I thought up. Except, you know, I still kind of wish they threw a stoic, muscular Korean-speaking family man in there instead of this outspoken, muscular English-speaking family man Bill Harken. But that's just me.
I like the idea of Gary's character. First, his powers impressed me. Seeing electromagnetic waves. Sure beats pyrokinesis. Then I started to learn about his role with his people. He's sort of out of place and yet he's important to the group. That's what interests me. He's this autistic teenage boy in a group of moderately serious 25-years-old-and-up instruments of the government. This can either go very wrong or very right.
In other news, holy god, it's a Tintin trailer, from director Steven Spielberg, producer Peter Jackson, and writers Steven Moffatt, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish. Be still my inappropriately reactive heart.