Mini-TV Slut Report
May. 12th, 2013 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Hannibal - what happens when you mix Dexter with Elementary, and add a dash of Criminal Minds by way of Thomas Harris....and the end result is a tv show I don't want to watch. Basically we have a brilliant psychologist/would-be serial killer solving crimes with brilliant profiler/empath (who is afraid of becoming a serial killer) solving serial killer crimes. And if you think that's one too many uses of the word serial killer in one sentence, well....you begin to see my problem. And that's just the pilot. The TV series lacks Dexter's sense of humor, yet not the gore. I'd prefer more dry wit, less gore, like Elementary - which is directly opposite. Elementary also has more likable leads - a definite plus.
Is it just me or has television gone a bit overboard with the whole anti-hero concept? Anybody else miss the good-old days when tv networks thought a show with an "anti-hero" protagonist would not sell? I mean I don't a little of it, but this is over-kill.
2. Smash - Ack, this episode was worse than last week's. Didn't think that was possible. The Derek plot thread doesn't work. Too much telling not enough showing. Note to writers and producers of SMASH - if you spent more time on the creation of a Bway show and theater politics, and less time on soap melodrama (which you suck at) - this would have been a great series. I agree with the EW columnist, who states that the problem SMASH has is it spent too much time trying to cater to the wrong audience - the American Idol audience, and not the Theater Geeks. It tried to play it safe. Big mistake. The episodes that work focus on the making of a show or let's put on a show, the episodes that suck focus on the cliche melodrama.
I'll continue to miss the SMASH that could have been. Not the SMASH that these nitwitty writers and producers created. It's a show I desperately want to fix.
3. Merlin - clearly building. Not a lot happens. It was a good episode.
Merlin has a rather touching scene with his Dragon, who has gotten old and will die soon.
Both Merlin and I mourn the dragon. Merlin also is told that he is right not to trust Mordred as Arthur has. True - Mordred appears to be as emotionally volatile as Morgana.
He's also setting a rather high pedestal for Arthur, if Arthur makes one misstep, Mordred is done with him. I can see where Merlin is coming from.
Morgana has finally figured out that she needs to get rid of Emerys, if she has any hope of getting rid of Arthur. Otherwise - she'll continue playing Wile E. Coyote to Arthur's Road Runner. Easier said than done, since she can't find Emerys or figure out who he is, and the pesky Druids who do know refuse to tell her - no matter how much she tortures them. Poor dear is too prejudiced to see what is in front of her nose. Although that makes sense - since from Morgana's pov - Merlin's behavior is insane if he's Emerys. Why would a great wizard be Arthur's servant and put up with Arthur's crap? Note - she doesn't see the side of Arthur that Merlin does or the audience does. She just sees another Uther.
4) Nashville - better than SMASH. This does soapy realistically and well. Rather like the arcs, which continue to surprise me and meld of music and story. Turns out Callie Khouri and T Bone Burnett work well together. Oddly, Hayden Pantierre is stealing the series from Connie Britton, while Jonathan Jackson is stealing it from all the male characters.
5) Glee - Season Finale - okay, that's it. I'm done. Done, I tell you. I know I said this before - but I'm serious this time. Not even the music can save this travesty. It's just dumb. And the music is dumb and irritating too. RIP Glee. On my DVR at any rate. It'll probably go on for five more seasons...
This episode gave false cliff-hangers to Blaine's marriage proposal to Kurt, with a touching side-line story about Meredith Baxter Birney and Patty Duke Astin's lesbian relationship. (Fictional - the actresses were playing two aging lesbians). One proposes to the other. It's touching, but out of place - in that they do it at breadsticks and get a standing ovation, which makes little sense - we haven't come that far in four years. And Rachel Berry's call back for Funny Girl.
It also gave a fond farewell to Britney, who got early enrollment at MIT for being a genuis who just happens to test poorly. This was actually clever. I liked it. Glee is at its best when it pokes fun at the US educational system and its complete and utter incompetence.
Plus the Shuster/Miss Pillsbury wedding at the very end - in the Glee Club no less. Which I could have done without. But it did close a hanging story-thread. As did the last minute reveal of Michael Bolton being the Daddy of Sue Sylvetre's kid.
What did not work was everything else. The musical numbers felt off, and the whole Catfish story, plus the story between the new kids on the block...didn't quite work. Too much of the tale was cringe-inducing. It had moments that were okay, but overall...I was bored. And the fact that this episode was actually better than the last six is saying something.
Is it just me or has television gone a bit overboard with the whole anti-hero concept? Anybody else miss the good-old days when tv networks thought a show with an "anti-hero" protagonist would not sell? I mean I don't a little of it, but this is over-kill.
2. Smash - Ack, this episode was worse than last week's. Didn't think that was possible. The Derek plot thread doesn't work. Too much telling not enough showing. Note to writers and producers of SMASH - if you spent more time on the creation of a Bway show and theater politics, and less time on soap melodrama (which you suck at) - this would have been a great series. I agree with the EW columnist, who states that the problem SMASH has is it spent too much time trying to cater to the wrong audience - the American Idol audience, and not the Theater Geeks. It tried to play it safe. Big mistake. The episodes that work focus on the making of a show or let's put on a show, the episodes that suck focus on the cliche melodrama.
I'll continue to miss the SMASH that could have been. Not the SMASH that these nitwitty writers and producers created. It's a show I desperately want to fix.
3. Merlin - clearly building. Not a lot happens. It was a good episode.
Merlin has a rather touching scene with his Dragon, who has gotten old and will die soon.
Both Merlin and I mourn the dragon. Merlin also is told that he is right not to trust Mordred as Arthur has. True - Mordred appears to be as emotionally volatile as Morgana.
He's also setting a rather high pedestal for Arthur, if Arthur makes one misstep, Mordred is done with him. I can see where Merlin is coming from.
Morgana has finally figured out that she needs to get rid of Emerys, if she has any hope of getting rid of Arthur. Otherwise - she'll continue playing Wile E. Coyote to Arthur's Road Runner. Easier said than done, since she can't find Emerys or figure out who he is, and the pesky Druids who do know refuse to tell her - no matter how much she tortures them. Poor dear is too prejudiced to see what is in front of her nose. Although that makes sense - since from Morgana's pov - Merlin's behavior is insane if he's Emerys. Why would a great wizard be Arthur's servant and put up with Arthur's crap? Note - she doesn't see the side of Arthur that Merlin does or the audience does. She just sees another Uther.
4) Nashville - better than SMASH. This does soapy realistically and well. Rather like the arcs, which continue to surprise me and meld of music and story. Turns out Callie Khouri and T Bone Burnett work well together. Oddly, Hayden Pantierre is stealing the series from Connie Britton, while Jonathan Jackson is stealing it from all the male characters.
5) Glee - Season Finale - okay, that's it. I'm done. Done, I tell you. I know I said this before - but I'm serious this time. Not even the music can save this travesty. It's just dumb. And the music is dumb and irritating too. RIP Glee. On my DVR at any rate. It'll probably go on for five more seasons...
This episode gave false cliff-hangers to Blaine's marriage proposal to Kurt, with a touching side-line story about Meredith Baxter Birney and Patty Duke Astin's lesbian relationship. (Fictional - the actresses were playing two aging lesbians). One proposes to the other. It's touching, but out of place - in that they do it at breadsticks and get a standing ovation, which makes little sense - we haven't come that far in four years. And Rachel Berry's call back for Funny Girl.
It also gave a fond farewell to Britney, who got early enrollment at MIT for being a genuis who just happens to test poorly. This was actually clever. I liked it. Glee is at its best when it pokes fun at the US educational system and its complete and utter incompetence.
Plus the Shuster/Miss Pillsbury wedding at the very end - in the Glee Club no less. Which I could have done without. But it did close a hanging story-thread. As did the last minute reveal of Michael Bolton being the Daddy of Sue Sylvetre's kid.
What did not work was everything else. The musical numbers felt off, and the whole Catfish story, plus the story between the new kids on the block...didn't quite work. Too much of the tale was cringe-inducing. It had moments that were okay, but overall...I was bored. And the fact that this episode was actually better than the last six is saying something.