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I like to keep TV shows running in the background when I'm by myself and doing things like washing dishes and cleaning and whatnot. It keeps me entertained and allows me to keep up with what's going on culture-wise, especially on Twitter. I watch more TV than I have time for, if truth be told, which is why I am perennially behind on most shows, but I figure it's not a race.
I've been keeping up with Supernatural, although the gilt has faded on that show considerably. I'm more than a little sad about this, because SPN was my first true fandom, and seeing the show go out with a whimper rather than a bang is making my heart twinge. They really should have ended it after Season 5, no matter how heartbreaking it would have been ( spoiler behind the cut ). It would have spawned reams of fix-it fic, and post-canon fic, and then likely the fandom would have dwindled and become, well, a little less crazy. Right now the show is suffering from some very poor writing and what feels like a new show-runner who is ignoring the previous show-runner's two seasons entirely. It's making for, well, mediocre TV.
One show that's bringing me joy these days is Person of Interest, now in its third season, which is well-written enough that I don't feel compelled to write any kind of fic about it. I'm getting all the character development, plotty intrigue, and near-future sci-fi that I could possibly want out of the show, and the writing is very good and very consistent which means I don't have to work out canon problems for myself in fictional format. I'm almost disappointed, because I really do enjoy writing fanfiction. I just don't feel the need to for this show.
Sleepy Hollow became a favourite in its first season. It's fun, quirky, a little twisted and utterly delightful. It's not meant to be taken entirely seriously, and as such I can sit back and enjoy it without thinking too hard about how Ichabod Crane should actually be curled in a foetal position under a table somewhere muttering to himself with his hands clapped over his ears, rather than swanning about the countryside in his old-timey garb solving murders and complaining about the modern state of the nation. Honestly, I could watch the "Ichabod and Abby bicker for forty minutes while nothing else happens" show very happily. The rest is all gravy. What I also adore about this show is that fully 75% of the four main cast on this show are a) not men, and b) not white. Two black women, one black man, and one white guy. A+ on diversity, Sleepy Hollow! This just proves what we all knew: that a woman of colour can carry a show on her own, and that we should have MOAR of this sort of thing on TV.
I started watching Black Sails, but have yet to make it past the second episode. The title sequence is beautiful, but it's somehow failing to truly capture my interest. Also, I am a little over the gratuitous female nudity and "Oooh, look, lesbians! Aren't we edgy?" school of television. Yes, yes, you're very risqué, we're all oh so very impressed. Actually, no, fuck off. :P
I am already a few episodes behind on True Detective, not because I'm not enjoying it, but because I need to concentrate really really hard to catch everything that's going on. It's not a show I can just have on in the background while I putter, because there is so much going on from a visual standpoint. I actually showed my mother the title sequence, and she was quite impressed by the quality of the visuals. If my mother gives it a thumb's up, then you know there's quality work there (my mother, for those who don't know, is a brilliant artist, and has about fifty years' worth of art history expertise under her belt). I will confess that I am not familiar with The King in Yellow, so doubtless a lot of the show's subtleties are being lost on me. So far I've been incredibly impressed with the quality of the acting (though I would kill for a show like this in which the leads aren't necessarily two white guys), the spectacular visuals, and I am very intrigued to see where the plot is going. The show does suffer from the same sort of internalised misogyny that a lot of shows about Angsty and Troubled White Detectives Chasing Serial Killers have, so a fair bit of nudity (gratuitous and otherwise) and some sex that felt a little bit slotted in for the purposes of thrills alone, but right now I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and roll with it.
I've also been watching the new series The Musketeers, though I haven't seen the latest episode. So far it's been a fun romp, and everyone complaining that there couldn't be a "black" Musketeer has obviously never seen a picture of Alexandre Dumas himself. Sheesh. I constantly wonder at the English-speaking world's fascination with this book. How many English screen adaptations are there of this now, I wonder? I can think of at least 6 off the top of my head, and Wikipedia tells me there are at least 26 direct adaptations (not counting animations, or movies about their descendants, or movies in which they are replaced by anthropomorphic animal representations of themselves). Compare this with a handful of French titles. I wonder what it is about this that seems to resonate so much more with the English-speaking world than the French. I don't have a good answer, but I do wonder.
My guilty pleasure for the past while has also been Teen Wolf. Do yourselves a favour and don't watch it. It's actually not very good. The first half of the first season is boring. Then they do interesting new(ish) werewolf mythology stuff for the latter half of the first season, and the second season was a lot of fun. Then the first half of the third season was face-palmingly awful, and now they're limping back into "okay" territory. The show is hugely problematic in how it treats women and POC, though, and just... yeah. The revolving door of interchangeable female characters who get killed off-screen is starting to get old, and I don't even know why I'm still watching, except that it's sort of like a very pretty train wreck. /o\ Kind of like how, back in the day, I couldn't stop watching 24. OMG, I just re-read my entries for my 24 tag, and they are hilarious! Why was I watching that? Oh, self, your life choices are terrible sometimes.
Lost Girl and Orphan Black were both very pleasant surprises. Yay Canadian TV! Especially Orphan Black, which has a really interesting plot. I am intrigued to see where they take it next season.
I will confess to being something of a fiend for police procedurals. They all sort of seem to slot into that lovely niche in my brain that loves to watch other people solve puzzles, especially if those puzzles are other people. So into that category goes Criminal Minds, CSI (though I wish they would put that show out of its misery by now), Elementary (yes, I know it's meant to be Sherlock Holmes, but let's face it, it's a very clever procedural with the same names as in the stories), and more recently Rizzoli & Isles, which is cute so far (I've only seen a few episodes).
There are others, but I think that'll do for now. Otherwise this entry is going to get even more embarrassingly long. :P
I've been keeping up with Supernatural, although the gilt has faded on that show considerably. I'm more than a little sad about this, because SPN was my first true fandom, and seeing the show go out with a whimper rather than a bang is making my heart twinge. They really should have ended it after Season 5, no matter how heartbreaking it would have been ( spoiler behind the cut ). It would have spawned reams of fix-it fic, and post-canon fic, and then likely the fandom would have dwindled and become, well, a little less crazy. Right now the show is suffering from some very poor writing and what feels like a new show-runner who is ignoring the previous show-runner's two seasons entirely. It's making for, well, mediocre TV.
One show that's bringing me joy these days is Person of Interest, now in its third season, which is well-written enough that I don't feel compelled to write any kind of fic about it. I'm getting all the character development, plotty intrigue, and near-future sci-fi that I could possibly want out of the show, and the writing is very good and very consistent which means I don't have to work out canon problems for myself in fictional format. I'm almost disappointed, because I really do enjoy writing fanfiction. I just don't feel the need to for this show.
Sleepy Hollow became a favourite in its first season. It's fun, quirky, a little twisted and utterly delightful. It's not meant to be taken entirely seriously, and as such I can sit back and enjoy it without thinking too hard about how Ichabod Crane should actually be curled in a foetal position under a table somewhere muttering to himself with his hands clapped over his ears, rather than swanning about the countryside in his old-timey garb solving murders and complaining about the modern state of the nation. Honestly, I could watch the "Ichabod and Abby bicker for forty minutes while nothing else happens" show very happily. The rest is all gravy. What I also adore about this show is that fully 75% of the four main cast on this show are a) not men, and b) not white. Two black women, one black man, and one white guy. A+ on diversity, Sleepy Hollow! This just proves what we all knew: that a woman of colour can carry a show on her own, and that we should have MOAR of this sort of thing on TV.
I started watching Black Sails, but have yet to make it past the second episode. The title sequence is beautiful, but it's somehow failing to truly capture my interest. Also, I am a little over the gratuitous female nudity and "Oooh, look, lesbians! Aren't we edgy?" school of television. Yes, yes, you're very risqué, we're all oh so very impressed. Actually, no, fuck off. :P
I am already a few episodes behind on True Detective, not because I'm not enjoying it, but because I need to concentrate really really hard to catch everything that's going on. It's not a show I can just have on in the background while I putter, because there is so much going on from a visual standpoint. I actually showed my mother the title sequence, and she was quite impressed by the quality of the visuals. If my mother gives it a thumb's up, then you know there's quality work there (my mother, for those who don't know, is a brilliant artist, and has about fifty years' worth of art history expertise under her belt). I will confess that I am not familiar with The King in Yellow, so doubtless a lot of the show's subtleties are being lost on me. So far I've been incredibly impressed with the quality of the acting (though I would kill for a show like this in which the leads aren't necessarily two white guys), the spectacular visuals, and I am very intrigued to see where the plot is going. The show does suffer from the same sort of internalised misogyny that a lot of shows about Angsty and Troubled White Detectives Chasing Serial Killers have, so a fair bit of nudity (gratuitous and otherwise) and some sex that felt a little bit slotted in for the purposes of thrills alone, but right now I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and roll with it.
I've also been watching the new series The Musketeers, though I haven't seen the latest episode. So far it's been a fun romp, and everyone complaining that there couldn't be a "black" Musketeer has obviously never seen a picture of Alexandre Dumas himself. Sheesh. I constantly wonder at the English-speaking world's fascination with this book. How many English screen adaptations are there of this now, I wonder? I can think of at least 6 off the top of my head, and Wikipedia tells me there are at least 26 direct adaptations (not counting animations, or movies about their descendants, or movies in which they are replaced by anthropomorphic animal representations of themselves). Compare this with a handful of French titles. I wonder what it is about this that seems to resonate so much more with the English-speaking world than the French. I don't have a good answer, but I do wonder.
My guilty pleasure for the past while has also been Teen Wolf. Do yourselves a favour and don't watch it. It's actually not very good. The first half of the first season is boring. Then they do interesting new(ish) werewolf mythology stuff for the latter half of the first season, and the second season was a lot of fun. Then the first half of the third season was face-palmingly awful, and now they're limping back into "okay" territory. The show is hugely problematic in how it treats women and POC, though, and just... yeah. The revolving door of interchangeable female characters who get killed off-screen is starting to get old, and I don't even know why I'm still watching, except that it's sort of like a very pretty train wreck. /o\ Kind of like how, back in the day, I couldn't stop watching 24. OMG, I just re-read my entries for my 24 tag, and they are hilarious! Why was I watching that? Oh, self, your life choices are terrible sometimes.
Lost Girl and Orphan Black were both very pleasant surprises. Yay Canadian TV! Especially Orphan Black, which has a really interesting plot. I am intrigued to see where they take it next season.
I will confess to being something of a fiend for police procedurals. They all sort of seem to slot into that lovely niche in my brain that loves to watch other people solve puzzles, especially if those puzzles are other people. So into that category goes Criminal Minds, CSI (though I wish they would put that show out of its misery by now), Elementary (yes, I know it's meant to be Sherlock Holmes, but let's face it, it's a very clever procedural with the same names as in the stories), and more recently Rizzoli & Isles, which is cute so far (I've only seen a few episodes).
There are others, but I think that'll do for now. Otherwise this entry is going to get even more embarrassingly long. :P
