Wednesday, November 06, 2013

The Crackpipe Remote (Fall 2013 Edition)

Our "Year of Nigh-Infinite Transition" has put a damper on some of my TV watching (no Tivo, no VCR) and much of my TV writing. But I still have shows I enjoy... and stuff to rant about, so let's get to it.

For those of you who will inevitably ask how I watch this much TV, I don't sleep as much as the average person...

Breaking Bad
  • Didn't watch it. Not interested. Tired of people telling me I should be. 
Shows I'm Still Watching But Don't Know Why
  • HAWAII FIVE-O - Nothing has changed here - it's still one of the silliest shows on television... and I watch because my wife likes this show. (I enjoyed the first season but a lot of the writing since has been forced & over-the-top. Good guest stars, though... and the relationship of McGarrett & Dano is a lot of fun.)
Shows I Like But Want Some Improvement
  • BLUE BLOODS - I always want the writing to live up to the first season of this show - and when the focus is on  the portrayal of a realistic family who had a real & meaningful faith connection with the Catholic Church, it's great. Some of the storylines last season smacked of "weird crime of the week".
  • ONCE UPON A TIME - I'm half a season behind on this... I love some of the twists & turns and all the playing with the fairy tale mythology - but it just falls flat about half the time.
Shows I Look Forward To Each Week
  • ARROW - It took a few episodes to get going, but they've learned what to do with their cast and they've found ways to tweak those of us who've read way too many Green Arrow comic books. I especially like the new directions they've started in with the beginning of the second season.
  • PERSON OF INTEREST - I have loved this show... and am incredibly frustrated at CBS for making it impossible for me to catch up. (Full rant below.)
  • ELEMENTARY - Ditto for this witty & very interesting take on Sherlock Holmes... the CBS eye is a black eye over this one as well. (Full rant below.)
Reality TV
  • SURVIVOR - Though I had my doubts, the Blood vs. Water family twist has actually worked out well. There have been some genuinely surprising moments and real emotion... and examples of great & lousy gameplay.
  • AMAZING RACE - On the other hand, the Amazing Race is still conflicted in how it casts - there are some really interesting teams mixed in with "I'll do anything for camera time" teams. (Prime example: the self-named "Afghanimals".)
  • CAPTURE - A summer reality show from the CW that was basically The Hunger Games reimagined as Tag... but I found surprisingly fun to watch.
  • TOP SHOT ALL-STARS - As much as I've enjoyed the previous four seasons, this "no drama/all skill" version of the game this last summer was a blast.
My Rant
  • CBS has the worst iOS viewer around... episodes of Survivor aren't available for a week, older episodes are often not there...
  • ...and their website isn't much better. I particularly hate the "here's all this extra content" junk that sucks up bandwidth while watching Survivor. Grrr.
  • Hard to call yourself "the #1 network" when the CW has the online thing wired better than you do.

4 comments:

Nord said...

POI, Blue Bloods, and Amazing Race are still favorites in our home.

Can't agree more about CBS web - absolutely terrible.

Have you watched Agents of SHIELD? I just watched an episode last night - it's okay.

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

Watched 3 episodes of Agents of SHIELD... and haven't bothered to watch any more. Not that I hated it - but it was taking it's sweet time getting somewhere interesting.

JasonB said...

Survivor powers on... I like TAR more in principle, but the teams this year are really tough to root for, especially with the recent eliminations (no spoilers). There's really only one team left I feel good about.

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

Thanks for not spoilering, JasonB... we're a week behind on TAR.

I think Blood vs Water has added a neat new wrinkle (or wrinkles) to Survivor... the fact that NO ONE wants the hidden immunity idol is a welcome change from the usual shenanigans of the last few years.