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shadowkatWell, I binge watched television today, and did laundry. Felt crampy (time of month or whatever euphemism you choose for it -- let's just say my body has decided to stay in a perimenopausal state for as long as it possibly can get away with it -- so I decided to rebel and have chocolate, potato chips, and of course for breakfast banana pancakes. Hah. Weirdly I'm not ill. Of course I didn't have it all at the same time), irritable, and I needed a people free day. (Which of course would only be possible if I lived in a cabin in the wilderness, so it was as close as I could get. You do what you can.)
Anyhow..TV shows. I'm sort of tv'd out at the moment. That's more television than I've watched since...forgot when.
1. All Rise -- great cast, bad writing and set-up. Sigh. Why do television writers write about things they know zip about? Don't they realize they'll fall into cliche and formulaic tropes? Granted it's CBS, so really, what did I expect? Although CBS can do a good legal drama when it really wants to. (See The Good Wife.)
Anyhow, the cast is great. We have Marge Helgenberger playing the supervising judge (CSI & China Beach), the actress who played Misty Knight in the Luke Cage series is playing the lead character -- although this feels more like an ensemble to be honest. The actor and best thing in Heart of Dixie is playing Misty's best friend and former associate, Deputy Chief DA, then there's a few cool supporting actors, and Paul McCrane in a guest role as another judge.
And I like the characters, it's a nice mix and could be a good ensemble. If only the writing were bit better. It's not horrible -- the dialogue doesn't make you cringe, and the characters are interesting to a degree. But the court-room stuff makes me cringe, and there's a lot of plot points that are rather formulaic or cliche. It needs to be edgier, and little less on the preachy side.
That said, I've seen worse legal shows. This one is more realistic than some of them but it also errs towards melodrama and hyperbolic sentimentality, which could either turn off viewers (such as myself) or bring them in. It's hard to say.
The set-up? Lola, nicknamed Roller-Coaster Lola by the court reporters, a Former District Attorney, becomes a Judge in the Los Angeles District Court system. The first episode details her first few weeks on the job. We are introduced to the supervising judge (Marge Helgenberger who is playing mentor and telling Lola to be careful of political lines), the deputy chief district attorney, Marcus Hall (who is also her best friend, his father (who pretends is dead) is a former grifter and mob boss), public defender (who has a restraining order against her boyfriend that Lola acquired for her), her snotty court-reporter, another court reporter in the court house who has a crush on the deputy chief district attorney. Lola is married to an FBI agent, who we have yet to meet.
The agent takes place squarely in the work place. We don't see anything really outside of it -- well except for a barroom fight with Marcus.
I'm not quite sure what the writers are going for here. It's a drama. It's not really a legal procedure. It seems to be more a drama about people who work at a court house. Anyhow, because of the cast -- I may stick it out for five episode to see where it goes. Depends on whether I have the time and don't end up just deleting all the episodes in December, when I figure out that I'm really not all that interested. (This happens a lot. More than I like to admit.)
2. Evil -- this is by the Kings (the male/female writing/production team behind the Good Fight, Brain Dead, and The Good Wife). It's by far the most polished of most of the new television series seen to date. Also has the best camera work.
Also, great cast and sharp writing.
But alas, I miss the wit. It's not as witty or satirical as their other dramas and takes itself a tad too seriously for my liking. (In some respects I liked The Exorcist more...)
This is for the most part a formulaic episodic procedural with a through line.
Think X-Files, without the aliens, or instead of aliens, demons. Also without the convoluted plot of the X-files, or the mythology.
We have the female skeptic -- who is smartly played by Katja Herbers, Kristin Bouchard. Kristin has four daughters, a husband who would rather give climbing tours in Nepal than come home, and Kristin a former climber, who has become a forensic psychologist working for the police as an independent contractor. She leaves their employ and takes a job with a team working for the Catholic Church to assess demonic possessions, hauntings, and miracles -- are they real or is their a simple scientific explanation?
The head of the team, who offers her a job, is David Acosta played by Mike Coulter from Luke Cage. Who plays this role somewhat the same way he did that one, with quiet face and constrained charismatic violence.
The show, of course, has a villain in Michael Emerson (the King's have employed Emerson's wife for years in The Good Fight and The Good Wife, so it's about time he got a turn). He plays Kristen's competition, forensic psychologist Leland Townsend, who has an air of Hannibal Lector about him.
The first episode is creepy. Kristen has night terrors, where she sees a demonic shadow in her bedroom, named George, who terrorizes her. He's apparently a demonic succubus. (It's proven to be not real, but we're never quite sure and he's listed in the main cast, which is beyond disturbing.) And the serial killer who is claiming innocence by demonic possession, is creepy as well.
Not for the faint of heart. If you don't like the horror genre, specifically demons, serial killers, and the like -- best to skip.
That said, it does has sparks of humor and the characters are well-played and intriguing. I particularly like Aasif Mandvi as Ben Shroff, a contractor who works with David as his technical expert and equipment handler.
Christine Lahti rounds out the adult cast as Kristin's mother.
The series definitely has potential. And it's well-shot, well-performed and well-written. So I may stick with it for a bit, even though I'm not overly crazy about the set-up or genre.
Oh, for Farscape fans, other writers include Rockne S. O'Bannon.
3. Stumptown -- starring Cobie Smulders and based on the graphic novel of the same name. This is the best of the bunch. It's gritty female detective noir, adult, with just the right amount of fist-i-cuffs.
Smulders plays Dex, a down on her luck veternan of Afghanistan, who has PTSD, and is haunted by the love of her life dying in front of her by IUD. In Afghanistan she tracked down missing people. Now, down on her luck, she's hired by her ex-lover's mother to find his daughter by another woman. We get snippets of what happened between them. And why Dex is so messed up with her own demons.
Anyhow the episode shows why she decides to become a private investigator and work to get her license. (She doesn't have it yet.) And it sets up some of the players amidst non-stop action and a mystery. The Mystery is interesting and does comment heavily on Dex's own history and establishes various relationships.
The cast is rounded out by Camryn Mannheim, Michael Ealy (the hot cop), Jake Johnson, Tantoo Cardinal (as Sue Lynn Blackbird, the owner of a tribal asino),and Donal Logue shows up in later episodes (according to the previews).
The plot is tight for the most part. While it is formula -- I mean honestly, if you've ever read a noir detective novel or watched a noir detective series, you know where it leads for the most part -- it's entertaining. It's a little less noir than most -- in that it ends well for the most part. The actors are good and Smulders has enough charisma to be compelling. And Michael Early is a hot romantic interest -- to the degree that he actually is one. Dex doesn't seem to care past a hot role in the bed.
And it didn't disappoint -- it played out pretty much as advertised. With a few unexpected twists along the way. Definitely didn't play out the way I thought. Was more interesting and character driven than expected. So yes, for the most part, it lives up to its hype (let's face it, it doesn't have a lot of competition on network television at the moment, at least not in this genre.)
So, will continue with it for the time being. Sort of female version of Philip Marlow.
4. Grey's Anatomy - Season Opener -- honestly we're in our 16th season by now, if you haven't been watching all along, don't bother getting in now.
I've mixed feelings about "Nothing Left to Cling to". Grey's does have a tendency to swing towards soapy melodrama, unlike other medical shows, Grey's has always been more soapy than melodramatic, with a heavy focus on romantic pairings -- often to its own detriment, although that is admittedly why most of us watch it or continue to. We don't watch for the medical stuff -- which defies belief for the most part.
Shonda Rhimes and company were definitely not doctors in a former life nor did they bother consulting that many.
But in a way, I find that comforting. Sloan-Grey Memorial is both the hospital I'd want to end up in and the one, I really wouldn't.
* I still don't like the Owen/Teddy pairing. And sort of agree with Tom K that this is short lived, and she'll figure out eventually she made a big mistake and go back to Tom. But I don't know what the writers will do. Nor is it made clear by the episodes, where Owen and Teddy struggle with having a newborn baby and being with each other on that level as parents. Tom surprised me, by not reacting with rage or anger -- but merely sense. He clearly loves her and isn't about to make her decisions for her. Owen might be better looking, but I like Tom more. Owen, I want to kick.
* Alex and Wilson for the win. I rather liked this story-arc, more than I expected.
It's handled well, is subdued, and they don't go over board with the melodrama.
Wilson goes into therapy to deal with her depressive episode and manages to come out of it. And Alex is there for her when she is released.
* Alex and Webber -- Webber convinces Alex to take a job with the hospital no one wants to work for, and turn it around. More to the point take the job and hire him.
(They were both fired last season for supporting Meredith Grey. Dumb move by Baily in my open. And it backfired on her, since Kathryn got fed up and hired Tom to oversee Baily and the Foundation, because she didn't want to deal with it any longer. It cost her her husband.]
* Avery and Maggie -- they broke up. Thank god. I'd been anti-shipping them for a while now. I can't stand Maggie. And after a certain point, neither could Avery.
Maggie proved to be self-centered and narcissistic with way too much personal baggage. It's consistent writing at least. And deliberate. At any rate, their break culminated with Maggie being pissed that he left her in the fog in a car on the road, and took off. When she hunts him down -- he's busy trying to save two hikers.
She resents him for going off to save the hikers and not sticking by her.
Anyhow, by the end of the episode, she discovers that he is now dating Vic the EMT and fire-fighter from Station 19, who lost someone and has had to move on.( Vic is actually the best woman that Avery has dated to date. Avery has the worst taste in women, he keeps falling for selfish narcissists that I want to smack.) Maggie is pissed off and says, finally, "Right, it's none of my business. Because we don't like each other. And we aren't friends." Nope, they really aren't.
* Amelia and Link -- who are exploring their relationship. I like the two of them together. Ameila while exploring a possible threesome with Link and the Bisexual OBGYN, who is De Luca's sister, finds out she is pregnant and doesn't know how to react.
Apparently she wasn't using protection and neither was he -- or not consistently or well.
(They really need to show the consequences more of all the sexual hook-ups these folks have.)
* Meredith and the Law...eh, I had troubles with this and still do. The insurance fraud storyline is annoying. And makes me angry. They need to move past it soon and on to something else.
5. A Million Little Things -- apparently I stuck with it, more out of curiosity than anything else. I wanted to see what happened between Kathryn and Eddie.
Delia is still annoying. She's such a weak character. I don't know what people see in her.
Maggie Bloom has the best moment when she shuts down an obnoxious lactose expert, who thinks you have to breast feed your child or else. And if you use a bottle it is the worst thing ever. (It's not, and people are nuts. Frak studies. Unless you can study every woman and child around the planet, you really do not know.)
It reminds me a little of Thirty-Something, but neither the writing nor the acting come close to that series.
I'll still stick with it. Because I'm curious. And I like some of the characters in spite of myself -- mostly due to the actors. Grace Park is really good in the role she's playing and I like the actress a lot. I also have a fondness for the actors playing Eddie, Gary, Maggie Bloom...so I'm sticking with it. Until I get bored.
But I'm not rec'ing it to anyone. There, I draw the line.
I saw ten shows. I have eight left. I must have DVR'd 18 hours worth? Sigh. Too many television shows. (And a lot of them aren't that good. There is quality television out there, as you can see above, but you have to weed through a lot of crap to find it. This is unfortunately true of books, movies, and music -- we live in the age of content overload and bad editing choices. Just saying.)
Anyhow..TV shows. I'm sort of tv'd out at the moment. That's more television than I've watched since...forgot when.
1. All Rise -- great cast, bad writing and set-up. Sigh. Why do television writers write about things they know zip about? Don't they realize they'll fall into cliche and formulaic tropes? Granted it's CBS, so really, what did I expect? Although CBS can do a good legal drama when it really wants to. (See The Good Wife.)
Anyhow, the cast is great. We have Marge Helgenberger playing the supervising judge (CSI & China Beach), the actress who played Misty Knight in the Luke Cage series is playing the lead character -- although this feels more like an ensemble to be honest. The actor and best thing in Heart of Dixie is playing Misty's best friend and former associate, Deputy Chief DA, then there's a few cool supporting actors, and Paul McCrane in a guest role as another judge.
And I like the characters, it's a nice mix and could be a good ensemble. If only the writing were bit better. It's not horrible -- the dialogue doesn't make you cringe, and the characters are interesting to a degree. But the court-room stuff makes me cringe, and there's a lot of plot points that are rather formulaic or cliche. It needs to be edgier, and little less on the preachy side.
That said, I've seen worse legal shows. This one is more realistic than some of them but it also errs towards melodrama and hyperbolic sentimentality, which could either turn off viewers (such as myself) or bring them in. It's hard to say.
The set-up? Lola, nicknamed Roller-Coaster Lola by the court reporters, a Former District Attorney, becomes a Judge in the Los Angeles District Court system. The first episode details her first few weeks on the job. We are introduced to the supervising judge (Marge Helgenberger who is playing mentor and telling Lola to be careful of political lines), the deputy chief district attorney, Marcus Hall (who is also her best friend, his father (who pretends is dead) is a former grifter and mob boss), public defender (who has a restraining order against her boyfriend that Lola acquired for her), her snotty court-reporter, another court reporter in the court house who has a crush on the deputy chief district attorney. Lola is married to an FBI agent, who we have yet to meet.
The agent takes place squarely in the work place. We don't see anything really outside of it -- well except for a barroom fight with Marcus.
I'm not quite sure what the writers are going for here. It's a drama. It's not really a legal procedure. It seems to be more a drama about people who work at a court house. Anyhow, because of the cast -- I may stick it out for five episode to see where it goes. Depends on whether I have the time and don't end up just deleting all the episodes in December, when I figure out that I'm really not all that interested. (This happens a lot. More than I like to admit.)
2. Evil -- this is by the Kings (the male/female writing/production team behind the Good Fight, Brain Dead, and The Good Wife). It's by far the most polished of most of the new television series seen to date. Also has the best camera work.
Also, great cast and sharp writing.
But alas, I miss the wit. It's not as witty or satirical as their other dramas and takes itself a tad too seriously for my liking. (In some respects I liked The Exorcist more...)
This is for the most part a formulaic episodic procedural with a through line.
Think X-Files, without the aliens, or instead of aliens, demons. Also without the convoluted plot of the X-files, or the mythology.
We have the female skeptic -- who is smartly played by Katja Herbers, Kristin Bouchard. Kristin has four daughters, a husband who would rather give climbing tours in Nepal than come home, and Kristin a former climber, who has become a forensic psychologist working for the police as an independent contractor. She leaves their employ and takes a job with a team working for the Catholic Church to assess demonic possessions, hauntings, and miracles -- are they real or is their a simple scientific explanation?
The head of the team, who offers her a job, is David Acosta played by Mike Coulter from Luke Cage. Who plays this role somewhat the same way he did that one, with quiet face and constrained charismatic violence.
The show, of course, has a villain in Michael Emerson (the King's have employed Emerson's wife for years in The Good Fight and The Good Wife, so it's about time he got a turn). He plays Kristen's competition, forensic psychologist Leland Townsend, who has an air of Hannibal Lector about him.
The first episode is creepy. Kristen has night terrors, where she sees a demonic shadow in her bedroom, named George, who terrorizes her. He's apparently a demonic succubus. (It's proven to be not real, but we're never quite sure and he's listed in the main cast, which is beyond disturbing.) And the serial killer who is claiming innocence by demonic possession, is creepy as well.
Not for the faint of heart. If you don't like the horror genre, specifically demons, serial killers, and the like -- best to skip.
That said, it does has sparks of humor and the characters are well-played and intriguing. I particularly like Aasif Mandvi as Ben Shroff, a contractor who works with David as his technical expert and equipment handler.
Christine Lahti rounds out the adult cast as Kristin's mother.
The series definitely has potential. And it's well-shot, well-performed and well-written. So I may stick with it for a bit, even though I'm not overly crazy about the set-up or genre.
Oh, for Farscape fans, other writers include Rockne S. O'Bannon.
3. Stumptown -- starring Cobie Smulders and based on the graphic novel of the same name. This is the best of the bunch. It's gritty female detective noir, adult, with just the right amount of fist-i-cuffs.
Smulders plays Dex, a down on her luck veternan of Afghanistan, who has PTSD, and is haunted by the love of her life dying in front of her by IUD. In Afghanistan she tracked down missing people. Now, down on her luck, she's hired by her ex-lover's mother to find his daughter by another woman. We get snippets of what happened between them. And why Dex is so messed up with her own demons.
Anyhow the episode shows why she decides to become a private investigator and work to get her license. (She doesn't have it yet.) And it sets up some of the players amidst non-stop action and a mystery. The Mystery is interesting and does comment heavily on Dex's own history and establishes various relationships.
The cast is rounded out by Camryn Mannheim, Michael Ealy (the hot cop), Jake Johnson, Tantoo Cardinal (as Sue Lynn Blackbird, the owner of a tribal asino),and Donal Logue shows up in later episodes (according to the previews).
The plot is tight for the most part. While it is formula -- I mean honestly, if you've ever read a noir detective novel or watched a noir detective series, you know where it leads for the most part -- it's entertaining. It's a little less noir than most -- in that it ends well for the most part. The actors are good and Smulders has enough charisma to be compelling. And Michael Early is a hot romantic interest -- to the degree that he actually is one. Dex doesn't seem to care past a hot role in the bed.
And it didn't disappoint -- it played out pretty much as advertised. With a few unexpected twists along the way. Definitely didn't play out the way I thought. Was more interesting and character driven than expected. So yes, for the most part, it lives up to its hype (let's face it, it doesn't have a lot of competition on network television at the moment, at least not in this genre.)
So, will continue with it for the time being. Sort of female version of Philip Marlow.
4. Grey's Anatomy - Season Opener -- honestly we're in our 16th season by now, if you haven't been watching all along, don't bother getting in now.
I've mixed feelings about "Nothing Left to Cling to". Grey's does have a tendency to swing towards soapy melodrama, unlike other medical shows, Grey's has always been more soapy than melodramatic, with a heavy focus on romantic pairings -- often to its own detriment, although that is admittedly why most of us watch it or continue to. We don't watch for the medical stuff -- which defies belief for the most part.
Shonda Rhimes and company were definitely not doctors in a former life nor did they bother consulting that many.
But in a way, I find that comforting. Sloan-Grey Memorial is both the hospital I'd want to end up in and the one, I really wouldn't.
* I still don't like the Owen/Teddy pairing. And sort of agree with Tom K that this is short lived, and she'll figure out eventually she made a big mistake and go back to Tom. But I don't know what the writers will do. Nor is it made clear by the episodes, where Owen and Teddy struggle with having a newborn baby and being with each other on that level as parents. Tom surprised me, by not reacting with rage or anger -- but merely sense. He clearly loves her and isn't about to make her decisions for her. Owen might be better looking, but I like Tom more. Owen, I want to kick.
* Alex and Wilson for the win. I rather liked this story-arc, more than I expected.
It's handled well, is subdued, and they don't go over board with the melodrama.
Wilson goes into therapy to deal with her depressive episode and manages to come out of it. And Alex is there for her when she is released.
* Alex and Webber -- Webber convinces Alex to take a job with the hospital no one wants to work for, and turn it around. More to the point take the job and hire him.
(They were both fired last season for supporting Meredith Grey. Dumb move by Baily in my open. And it backfired on her, since Kathryn got fed up and hired Tom to oversee Baily and the Foundation, because she didn't want to deal with it any longer. It cost her her husband.]
* Avery and Maggie -- they broke up. Thank god. I'd been anti-shipping them for a while now. I can't stand Maggie. And after a certain point, neither could Avery.
Maggie proved to be self-centered and narcissistic with way too much personal baggage. It's consistent writing at least. And deliberate. At any rate, their break culminated with Maggie being pissed that he left her in the fog in a car on the road, and took off. When she hunts him down -- he's busy trying to save two hikers.
She resents him for going off to save the hikers and not sticking by her.
Anyhow, by the end of the episode, she discovers that he is now dating Vic the EMT and fire-fighter from Station 19, who lost someone and has had to move on.( Vic is actually the best woman that Avery has dated to date. Avery has the worst taste in women, he keeps falling for selfish narcissists that I want to smack.) Maggie is pissed off and says, finally, "Right, it's none of my business. Because we don't like each other. And we aren't friends." Nope, they really aren't.
* Amelia and Link -- who are exploring their relationship. I like the two of them together. Ameila while exploring a possible threesome with Link and the Bisexual OBGYN, who is De Luca's sister, finds out she is pregnant and doesn't know how to react.
Apparently she wasn't using protection and neither was he -- or not consistently or well.
(They really need to show the consequences more of all the sexual hook-ups these folks have.)
* Meredith and the Law...eh, I had troubles with this and still do. The insurance fraud storyline is annoying. And makes me angry. They need to move past it soon and on to something else.
5. A Million Little Things -- apparently I stuck with it, more out of curiosity than anything else. I wanted to see what happened between Kathryn and Eddie.
Delia is still annoying. She's such a weak character. I don't know what people see in her.
Maggie Bloom has the best moment when she shuts down an obnoxious lactose expert, who thinks you have to breast feed your child or else. And if you use a bottle it is the worst thing ever. (It's not, and people are nuts. Frak studies. Unless you can study every woman and child around the planet, you really do not know.)
It reminds me a little of Thirty-Something, but neither the writing nor the acting come close to that series.
I'll still stick with it. Because I'm curious. And I like some of the characters in spite of myself -- mostly due to the actors. Grace Park is really good in the role she's playing and I like the actress a lot. I also have a fondness for the actors playing Eddie, Gary, Maggie Bloom...so I'm sticking with it. Until I get bored.
But I'm not rec'ing it to anyone. There, I draw the line.
I saw ten shows. I have eight left. I must have DVR'd 18 hours worth? Sigh. Too many television shows. (And a lot of them aren't that good. There is quality television out there, as you can see above, but you have to weed through a lot of crap to find it. This is unfortunately true of books, movies, and music -- we live in the age of content overload and bad editing choices. Just saying.)
no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 03:07 pm (UTC)I'm not thrilled by any of the male romantic interests (isn't Dex supposed to be bi?); the show should focus on Dex's PTSD and the relationships with her brother and Sue Lynn. Keep the combo of private dick drama and Deadpool-type snark. (The opening sequence was practically a dead steal from the first Deadpool.) Anyone who's seen even a small chunk of How I Met Your Mother knows Smulders can handle both ends.
I have the pilot of Evil recorded, but I haven't gotten to it yet. If Rockne O'Bannon is part of the writing staff, maybe I should bump it up on the queue.
Hilariously, we are still watching FBI (season 2!), even though we endlessly mock the sourpuss expressions on the lead agents, and note that Sela Ward has been replaced by L&O's Alana de la Garza, and nobody noticed. Not exactly hate-watching, but not a lot of love, either. May not be long for my DVR.
I'd like your opinion on Emergence, a fairly standard scifi mystery about an "amnesiac with special powers" (in this case, an 11 year old girl), elevated by its cast--especially Alison Tolman as the small town police chief who finds the girl and protects her from (sigh) the evil organization stalking her.
Tolman, so good in Fargo and Downward Dog, brings warmth and intelligence to everything she does, and she's in top form here. She has a strained but amicable relationship with her ex-husband, played by Donald Faison of Scrubs (yay!), which could yield a lot of great character bits down the line.
My only real complaint is that the "amnesiac with special powers" trope is such a cliche at this point I'm surprised one of the characters doesn't pick up on it. I was waiting for the 15 year old daughter to say: "Come on, Mom, what is she? Mutant? Cyborg? Alien? Lab experiment? Let's get some answers here!"
no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 07:00 pm (UTC)Stumptown is currently the best of the NEW broadcast television dramas that I tried. (Still have Prodigal Son, Bluff City Law, Nancy Drew, and Pandora to go.)
I agree -- I don't think either Michael Early (no matter how hot he is) nor Jake Johnson (who apparently replaced Mark Webber in the role) works as a romantic love interest. Nor do I see her going there -- since she's still hung up on the guy who died in Afghanistan and her relationship with his family. They do need more female characters. But I don't see any being introduced per Wiki this season. Am unfamiliar with the source material -- so no clue about it. But my guess is they will veer away from some bits. Network Broadcast Television still struggles with bi-sexuality, although ABC is more open to it than most.
Just saw "Emergence" -- which I'll review at length in a separate post. I picked up on who the writers are - "Tara Butters and Michaela Fazerkea (?)" -- guess, where you know them from? Reaper and Dollhouse. And that does not inspire confidence in me. I'm seeing the same writing issues that I've seen in previous show-running and writing efforts. They rely way to heavily on established plot tropes to the point of falling into cliche. I get relying on them enough for structural purposes (see Evil and Stumptown) but if you go too far, you fall into cliche (See Manifest). Their attempt to subvert -- tends to be more along gender lines. (Casting of the female sheriff and the daughters.) Which is good, but not enough.
That said, good cast. So will most likely give it five episodes.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 10:16 pm (UTC)edited to add: oooh, Stumptown sounds interesting. IDK how I'm gonna watch it, though.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:00 am (UTC)Yeah, I agree. Too many tv shows, not enough time. If you get hulu, Stumptown may show up there eventually. I don't know how many of these I'll be able to stick with. I had to watch them this weekend -- and I had time, because I didn't feel up to really doing much.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:15 am (UTC)Anyway, it was a solid pilot episode. Damaged detective is a bit of a tired trope, but having a woman play the role does at least change that up. And Smulders is solid. I'm just hoping that they don't go full-on love triangle, given that Dex's brother's employer, the bar owner, seems to be a single man... Also, Ealy is hot & pretty and deserves screen time.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:54 am (UTC)I'm hoping they veer away from the love triangle trope as well. It already has the tired damaged-learning to be a PI trope, we don't need to add to it. It's a solid episode, particularly in comparison to some of the others -- sigh, do television writers have new ideas? Or do they just endlessly recycle old tropes?
Also, agree that Ealy is hot and pretty and deserves screen time. I'm not sure about his chemistry with Smulders yet, but it may go there. However, I can definitely deal with seeing more of him. I like the actor a lot. I also like Smulders. On the fence about the bar owner -- who does not have ANY chemistry with Smulders and works better as a best friend.
I think ABC has first air rights and Hulu secondary air rights, so they have to send people to ABC first. (Considering both are owned by the same parent company, I'm not sure why Disney cares? But I know it does the same thing with it's other shows. They all air on ABC first, then a few days later on hulu. One day later on - "on demand". Except depending on your hulu subscription, on demand has annoying commercials you can't fast-forward through.)
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 02:19 am (UTC)I'm not sure how many days it took for the pilot episode to show up on Hulu, since I didn't even look for it until today.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:25 pm (UTC)Well, hulu is weird -- some shows take a few days, some are instant. Actually all the streaming channels are weird. Netflix takes anywhere from a year to two for US broadcast series, yet simultaneously for UK and Europe in some cases. I'm guessing has to do with the distribution rights contracts.
Agreed. I'd prefer he stay solidly in the friend category. Considering I found out from someone whose familiar with the graphic novels that Dex is supposed to be bi-sexual in the graphic novels. They can actually do a lot with Early without doing a romance, since he's a cop and she'd be interacting with him regarding her cases. I think it's changing regarding characters of color in television and fandom, because I've noticed a trend -- if you want the 18-45 demographic, you need to be diverse. Shows that are diverse stick around longer than those that aren't nowadays and ABC is sort of religious about it in their dramas. Otherwise they can't compete with Netflix, hulu, etc which are.
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Date: 2019-09-30 02:11 pm (UTC)It wasn't what I expected (before your review) and wasn't something else I'd like to watch...
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Date: 2019-09-30 05:25 pm (UTC)The more I think about EVIL, the less I like it. Was discussing it with the co-worker whose wife liked it. He tried it and did not like it either for some of the same reasons I didn't really like nor see myself continuing with it. The X-Files, which sort of established this particular trope, in some respects was better written - in that it had more of a sense of humor, and downplayed the explanations. Also the characters had better chemistry (possibly because as it turns out the actors despised each other -- which always makes for great on-screen chemistry.)
EVIL lost me when they did the whole "George the Succubus" bit -- here we have a skeptic, who doesn't believe in any of this stuff, and she's visited by night terrors where a demon succubus is torturing her as she sleeps, and she worries enough about it that she almost rushes home to protect her daughters from it? Alrighty, then. So much for being a non-believer. See, they kept having to remind us that she didn't believe -- but what I saw was someone who didn't want to believe or was on the fence, which is not the same. As opposed to the logical Scully, who didn't believe at all.
It doesn't help that the only character drawing me in - is the one I get the least of, the Contractor, who doesn't believe at all. He's the only real skeptic, and the one who provides the scientific explanation. I wanted more of him and less of the priest in training, which is a problem.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 05:32 pm (UTC)"The science-can't-explain-everything speech was kind of the last straw. It wasn't necessary and kind of screams a particular genre, that I'm not fond of."
Agreed. To date the only "new" dramas that I've seen which I'd recommend are Stumptown, Prodigal Son, and Bluff City Law. And the only one I feel compelled to watch this week asap is Prodigal Son (which is worth a look -- it's the best written and filmed of the new series I've seen to date.)