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I was going to wait to post this but then Chuck got pushed back another week, and I said “Eff it, I’m posting it now!”

 

So, as you have read I like to game occasionally.  I also like to watch T.V.  Like…kind of a lot of T.V. Here’s my schedule and what I think about the shows so far.

 

Sunday

Simpsons-  I watch this almost completely out of nostalgia and some weird form of loyalty.  It hasn’t been great in over a decade and barely borders on good most of the time.  The premiere was so-so, and the online voting was so lame.  For those that don’t know, they ended the finale with an online poll.  They wanted the viewer to vote whether or not a couple should stay together.  Wow.  Hilarious.

Family Guy-  It was awesome when it started, but it got pretty bad when they started using the flashbacks like every other line.  They seem to have gotten away from that now though.  The premiere had them winning the lottery (technically they won it twice) and then hijinks ensue.  Nothing unexpected happened, Peter was an idiot and Lois was a nag.  Definitely not their best episode.

American Dad-  I give it points for being so completely random.  The hot tub thing was hilarious, and Stan “died” at the end.  I actually really liked that episode, which is weird for me because normally I consider the show sort of bland.

I thought about watching Pan-Am but decided against it.  I’m not entirely sure why, I just wasn’t sold on it.

 

Monday

Playboy Club-  I’d like to tell you I had a better reason to watch it other than the fact that I find Amber Heard to be incredibly  attractive, but I can’t.  She met all my expectations on the hotness front.  The thing is, I actually started to really enjoy the show.  It’s really a 1960′s Chicago mafia style show.  It’s seedy and secretive, and it was actually really good. Unfortunately the ratings have been terrible, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be cancelled soon.  Normally, I hate NBC for sucking so much, but I feel like they’re getting a bum rap with this show.

Castle -  One of my favorite shows, hands down.  (Side note:  where does hands down come from?)  It’s a great little mystery rom-com show.  I’m a nerd, so obviously I’m a fan of Fillion – even when he’s taking Xander’s eye.  He really shines as Castle though.  It’s a character based almost solely on geekdom and charisma, and Fillion has both in spades.  (Double side note:  What does in spades mean?).  The premiere was pretty good, lots of secrets abound.  Kate (the main female lead) got shot in the finale, and disappeared for a while.  Castle was worried about her, but tried to move on.  She came back, they squabbled a bit, and they were good to go after that.

The thing is they are each keeping secrets;  Kate remembers that Castle told her he loves her, but she’s saying she doesn’t, while Castle is telling Kate to back off her mother’s murder whilst he is secretly looking into himself.  They added a new chief, and I hate her.  I suppose I’m suppossed to but that doesn’t comfort me at all.  I want to turn away every time she shows up.  99% Of that hate stems from residual feelings from 24 though.  They also added a minor character who knows something about Kate’s mom and is talking to Castle.  My only complaint in the episode is the complete 180 turn of Castle’s daughter Alexis.  She’s always been the goody-goody girl, but now they’ve decided to make her edgy.  Which, is fine I guess, except it seemingly happened over night.  It passed development and quickly became a mixture of shock value and over dramatic teenage angst.

Hawaii 5-0 -  This show is what I call a popcorn show.  It’s like a summer action movie, but in series form.  The main character, Steve,  is an ex special-ops guy who kicks unimaginable amounts of ass.  Aside from another show I’ll mention later, he is the most bad ass character on T.V.  This show isn’t on that you really turn into for great development or story telling, but you do turn in for the fights and cliffhangers.  The premiere covered Steve trying to prove his innocence of a murder.  He was set-up in the finale by a man named Wo-fat for the murder of the Governor.  She was a villain and no one knew, so things looked bad for Steve.  Fortunately his team of plucky side-kicks (Danny/Dan-o, Chin Ho, and Kono) had his back.  They also help coming from a few T.V. favorites in Terry O-Quinn (Locke from Lost) and Masi Oka (Hiro from Heroes) playing Steve’s old commander and a M.E. respectively.  Oh, and Alex Mack plays an annoying ex-CIA character.  So, eventually Steve is aided by his old-rival, escapes prison, and proves his innocence.  His old commander is a bad ass and great addition, even though he didn’t really do much.  Masi is OK, his character  is a pretty one-dimensional awkward nerd character- he survives of his adorableness though.  The premiere ended with the viewer finding out the annoying CIA girl was working with the enemy, duh-duh-duhhhhnnn.

Episode 2 introduced a D.O.D. profiler from the mainlands to the team.  She’s a hot blonde who doesn’t take guff from anyone!  Yeah, she’s pretty boring so far, but she’s easy to look at.

HIMYM-  I’m such a fan I get to abbreviate it.  It’s actually “How I met Your Mother.”  It’s basically just a modern Friends, with the mystery of the who the mother is.  The premiere followed them to a wedding where Ted was expected to give a horrible wedding speech, Barney was trying out new routines to run on women, Robin was pining after Barney, Lily was hiding her pregnancy, and Marshall was drinking for Lily.  In the end, Lily tells everyone – so Ted cries during his speech, drunk Marshall tries to defend him but accidentally outs the Bride as being pregnant, and Robin helps Barney connect with another woman.  It’s was funny, like every other episode, nothing too extraordinary happened.  Well, there was a dance number that made Robin look amazing.  The next two episodes mostly dealt with Robin still pining after Barney, who was in turn trying to impress his ex.  It also followed Ted reconnected with an old-flame that he had cheated on, who told him he still loved Robin.  So far, this season seems a lot like an episode from last season except more drawn out.

 

2 Broke Girls – It’s crass, the girls are pretty, and there a few laughs.  It’s nothing astounding.  I like it, but it’s also something I can leave on in the background.  One girl (Max) has always been poor and she’s street wise and jaded.  The other titled character is Caroline, whom has been rich most of her life, but has fallen on hard times.  Her dad ran a ponzi scheme and was found out.  Now she is struggling with the “real world” and is too sun-shiney for her own good.  Together they make the Fairly Odd Couple….except with girls.

 

Hart of Dixie -  A light hearted CW show, that follows Dr. Zoe Hart as a misplaced city girl in a podunk town.  There’s romance, sarcasm, and cliches abound.  It’s not a new Gilmore girls, but it’s still pretty darned good.  It is terribly girly though, and retreading an over used plot-line.  Just fair warning, if you’re planning on diving in.

 

Tuesday

Parenthood -  I love this show.  It’s a dramedy following the Braverman clan, and it actually makes you feel good.  So far they covered Adam (the mostly main character) dealing with looking for a job, while his wife (Kristina) is expecting their 3rd child.  He ends up turning down the safe bet for a chance to work with his passionate, but still a slacker ,brother Crosby.  Haddie is Adam and Kristina’s daughter, and she is busy dealing with the fact that her on the wagon alcoholic boyfriend has a criminal record, and punched a guy at a party because of a misunderstanding.  The guys parents sued, but Adam stepped in and talked them out of it.  The parents are also dealing with the autistic child Max entering public schools for the first time.

The aforementioned Crosby is dealing with the new business venture, and the fact that his baby’s mama is trying to date their new doctor.

Lorlei Gilmore….whoops I mean Sarah is flirting withe her old beau, and almost stalking her daughter- who has just moved out.  Her son (Drew) meanwhile is taking his first steps into the dating world, although he’s mostly tripping on his words instead.  Have no fear though, because grandpa Zeke is helping out.

Julia Braverman and her husband Joel are trying to have a second child.  Unfortunately for them, they can’t conceive.  They’ve been trying to adopt and for some reason Julia thought it would be a good idea to try to buy her coffee-girls baby.  Seriously, this high powered lawyer thought it would be a good to ask if she could purchase a child.  This is the only story line this season that doesn’t make any sense to me.

So far, so good, Parenthood.

NCIS -  It’s a procedural, it’s predictable, and you can normally pick out the killer within the first ten minutes.  I watch it mostly because I’ve followed the characters for so long.  Apparently, most of the U.S. feels something similar because it’s the most watched drama on T.V. right now.  The premiere has Tony dealing with his memories of a secret assignment, and who exactly he shot on said assignment.  It ends up being one big conspiracy with a secret Navy intelligence outfit pulling the strings of the new NCIS head honcho.  Gibbs (the main character) pieces part of it together by the end of the episode.  Like I said, it’s pretty dull but one thing I’ve liked so far is they are finally letting the goofball character of Tony grow up a little bit.

NCIS-LA – Another procedural, but built more for the common 20-30 crowd with shorter attention spans.  The big mystery on this show is the past of the main character “G.”  The preimere dealt with him searching for his boss Headie.  She went to Europe to try to stop some mafia family from killing G.  Instead, she gets shot and the team arrives in the nick of time.  (Side note:  What does the nick of time mean?).  Same-old, same-old mostly, except the characters are a little more fresh and lively than regular NCIS.  Kensei is played by Danielle Ruah, who is mega hot.  Definitely an under-ratted girl.

New Girl – Follows the adorable Zooey Deschanel as the equally adorable Jess.  She loves lord of the rings, and dirty dancing.  She sings to herself whenever she find the opportunity, and doesn’t have the best handle on her emotions.  She moves in with three guys after she finds her boyfriend cheating on her, and that’s the basis of the show.  The other characters are  Nick the bartender who just had his heart broken, Schmidt a loveable asshole, and Coach a trainer who likes to yell.  Coach was replaced by Bishop who was the orignal roommate that moved out to play pro ball, albeit in Europe. They’ve all got her back, but also appreciate that a lot of her friends are smoking hot models.

I love the show, it’s just too adorable not too.  It’s already been picked up for a full season too, which is great, because now I know it’s not a show I’ll be wasting my time watching.

Wednesday

Modern Family -  Always hilarious.  It’s sort of like Parenthood, but strictly a comedy.  It follows the Pritchett clan, and their spouses through random misadventures.  It’s told in the vein of the office, but there’s no documentary crew… but as long as you don’t try to figure out who they’re talking too then you will be fine.  I don’t think I really need to get into the premiere, b/c there aren’t any heavy plot-lines for this show.  It was funny, and that is all that matters.

Revenge -  This show is almost pure cheese.  It’s over the top, it’s ridiculous, it’s dramatic, and it’s SO awesome.  The story is supposedly based of The Counte of Monte Cristo.  I don’t really see it, other than the common theme of revenge through inherited wealth and subterfuge.  The story follows Emily Thorn pretending to be Amanda Clark as she systematically takes down the people who betrayed her father, causing his imprisonment and possibly even his death.  So far every episode works as a one and done revenge arc against a character of the week.  The lasting storylines so far are that the main villainess “Queen,” Victoria doesn’t like Emily, Victoria’s husband Conrad is a cheater, Emily’s old flame Jack still holds a candle for his idealized version of Emily, Jack’s family is hemorraging money, and finally that Emily is trying to get to Victoria through her son Danny.  Whew.

The premiere started off with a glimpse of the future, wherein Emily/Amanda is at her engagement party to Danny.  There are some evil glances sprinkled in, from practically all the characters, and followed by some awesomely bad dialogue.  Eventually, Jack’s little brother Declan and his girlfriend Charlie finds Danny’s dead body on the beach.  Charlie screams because Jack happens to be her brother too.  It jump-cuts to Emily who seems a little shocked.  We’re made to believe that Jack shot him, and that Emily planned it.  I think it’s a red herring though.  I think something along the lines of Emily actually falling for Danny will happen, and Jack kills him out of a jealous revenge or something.  It’s so bad, but so good too.

Happy Endings -  Another half hour comedy that is mostly an updated version of friends.  It’s pretty funny, and all the characters have pretty good chemistry with one another.  The main plot has followed Dave as he deals with the pain of his ex-fiance leaving him at the Altar for a weird guy on roller blades.  Somehow they stay friends after this, and the stories just follow them and their gang doing random things every week.  It’s pretty good, and it’s another sort of feel-good show.

Thursday

Community – A half comedy about a group of people attending Greendale Community College.  They’ve had some of the best one and done episodes of any series I’ve ever seen.  Paintball massacres (twice/thrice!), zombies, and claymation just to name a few.  It’s a great show that not enough people watch.

Charlies Angels -  I wanted to like this show SO bad.  I find the the girls to be incredibly sexy (Minka Kelly = one of my favs), and it’s got Sydney Bristow’s dad as Charlie!  I mean come on, spies + hotties should = awesome.  Unfortunately she show suffers from trying way to hard.  It tries to hard to be dramatic, and it tries to hard to be cool.  Instead, they end up with horrible shots of awful dialogue.  The acting couldn’t be worse.  I suspect that it has a lot to do with the director or producer though.  If they can tweak it, and tone it down, then it could be good.  I just don’t see it happening. Oh, and the “story” is pretty standard- bad girls getting a second chance to do some good.

The Mentalist – Another procedural, and oddly enough it’s on CBS.  Who would have guessed right?  Anyway, it follow Patrick Jane as as the titled Mentalist character.  The premiere found him having to prove his innocence in killing a man in the middle of a mall.  He claimed it was the nefarious “Red John,” who had killed his wife and daughter – among many others.  Somehow he sweet talks to jury into letting get a pass for the killing, and by the second episode he’s back at work.  Does it make sense?  Nope.  Does it completely defeat the purpose of the finale?  Yep.  Even with those anchors, the show is still pretty entertaining.

Grey’s Anatomy -  I used to love this show.  Unfortuantely I loved most of the characters that are now gone.  Those that are left have becoming so boring, that I’ve lost all interest.  I actually decided to axe it from my viewing schedule.  There’s baby drama, dating drama, job drama, lieing drama, and all sorts of ridiculousness.  This is a show that has had bombs go off, psycho shooters, hospital mergers (read: influx of new characters), secret sisters, sex filled ghosts, plastic surgery personality disorders, icicle injuries, and oh so much more.  I just finally reached my tipping point I guess.  The show is officially off my list as of this season.

Person of Interest – This quickly became my new favorite show.  It’s got Jim Caviezal and Michael Emerson (AKA Ben Linus from LOST).  JC plays John Reese, who is another special forces guy.  He’s the only guy on TV that could take on Hawaii 5-0′s Steve McGarrett.  He’s living life as a bum, until M.E.’s character “Mr. Finch,” recruits him.  Finch built a computer to predict and stop terrorism, but it also creates a list of data that has been deemed useless.  That useless data is actually the more common and frequent deaths of every day people.  Finch sets up a a download system that sends him a small file containing the social security numbers of these people, before the computer resets every night at midnight.  The data doesn’t say say if the S.S. number is the person committing the crime, or if they’re the victim.  The show plays out as a mystery trying to figure out which side that person will land on, and whether or not Reese can stop the violence.

Reese stops most of the violence with more violence.  He is a complete bad ass.  The show boils down to an odd mix of Man on Fire and Deja vu.  Both are Denzel movies, and both are great.  I’m all about the damaged guy taking on untouchable bad guys, and doing what others simply can’t.  If you don’t like action, violence, and jump cuts then you’ll hate this show.  If you have even an ounce of testosterone in your body then you’ll love it.

 

Friday

Fringe – Short version is that it’s X-files except all the stuff doesn’t have a normal explanation.  It’s a crazy universe where crazy stuff happens.  Actually it’s two universes now.  The main characters are Walter, Olivia, and Peter.  This season (and quite a bit of last season) has Peter taking a back seat though.  Peter is Walter’s son, unfortunately for him he was a chosen-one character, and that ended up erasing him from existence.  This season is dealing with two universes, and duplicates for all the characters – except Peter.  Walter has Walternate, and Olivia has Fauxlivia.  It’s a little too out there for my liking, but after last season I’m willing to give them some room to grow.  The ratings have been terrible though, so I’m not too sure we’ll get to see how it all ties up.

 

Cartoon Network Shows – I’m grouping these together because they’re cartoons and they aren’t normally plot laden.  So, my Friday line-up is Young Justice, Ben 10, Generator Rex, and Thundercats.  I will say, that as far as remakes go, Thundercats has been pretty damned good so far.

 

There are some other shows I watch that just haven’t premiered yet.  Those include Chuck, Cougar Town, White Collar, Royal Pains, Franklin and Bash, the Mighty Avengers, and Psych.  I’m sure there are some that I’m forgetting too.  Like I said, I love me some escapism.

 

BO-nus Material :

Hands down - dating from the mid-1800s, comes from horse racing, where jockeys drop their hands downward and relax their hold when they are sure to win.

In Spades – This expression alludes to spades as the highest-ranking suit in various card games, such as bridge, and transfers “highest” to other extremes. [Colloquial; 1920s]

 

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