Tag Archives: TV

What I am Watching

Posted on by renmiked

I have decided to cut back most of my TV watching this fall season.  I just do not have enough time to keep up with the mediocrity that networks are pumping out these days.  From Lost rip-offs to medical dramas there is so much garbage on right now, that it was incredibly easy to pare it down.

I started this process last year.  This year I decided to go all out, and eliminate anything with more than a twenty episode season from my viewing schedule.  I do have two hold-overs with long seasons, Glee and Supernatural, that I have already been watching so I will continue even though they are long seasons.  I have concerns for Glee, since they are planning to do a 25 episode season.  There is no way to keep up quality with that length of a season.  I haven’t actually started Supernatural this season yet, and still have the finale from last season to watch, but I do plan on watching it eventually.

I did watch the first season of Fringe during the summer but, I really did not have the desire to watch another 23 episode season and commit to a long season this fall as well.  Another show I picked up over the summer was Eureka, and it has been added to my TiVo season passes.  I’m not sure when it comes back on, but I like that it is a lighter show and is only around 15 episodes on average.  Also it is not overwrought  with an intense overly complicated mystery that drowns out the characters and fun.  Basically, I can accept a lighter show having a slightly longer season, 15 – 20 episodes, but serialized dramas with an intense mystery need to be shorter.

I am looking forward to The Walking Dead in a few weeks, I really hope it lives up to the expectations.  The bar is going to be set very high for a show that is on the same network as Mad Men and Breaking Bad.  AMC has definitely done it the correct way, by giving us shows that concentrate on characters and story, not an event or mystery.  I tried watching the first episode of Rubicon but it was far too slow and uninteresting, so that may be the exception.  Mad Men on the other hand, had its best season to date.  The characters, except Betty, are compelling and complex, making the show a pleasure to watch.

The big four networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) have no concept of how to produce shows with great characters anymore.  There is not one thing on those networks that spark my interest at all.  There may be a show or two that I am missing but I doubt it.  I’m not a huge fan of the network comedies either but they are not as bad as the horrible dramas they put out.  I’m not sure if these networks will survive to the next generation.  The only shows getting serious ratings are watched by older people.  Shows like Two and a Half Men, The CSI‘s and the Law and Orders have ratings, but I’ve  never met anyone under 50 who watches any of those shows.  What are they going to do to appeal to an audience that wants quality and won’t tune in just because it’s on a major network?

I’m not going to rant about the networks any more, they are digging their own graves without any help.  Let me just run off a few other shows I am watching or will be watching once they come back.

Terriers I believe it’s on FX and is a great and gritty detective show

American Pickers is on History Channel and a definite to check out if you like Antiques Roadshow or Pawn Stars

American Chopper the show is much better than it has been in the past two season, a guilty pleasure.

LA Ink 100% guilty pleasure, I’ll put it on in the background or buzz through it

Eureka this show is probably nearing the end of its run but I suggest picking it up from the beginning

Grilled Cheesus

Posted on by renmiked

I just finished watching the most recent episode of Glee “Grilled Cheesus”, and I was impressed that the subject of non-belief was not handled in the typical manner.  Generally, shows will have the non-believer waver in his/her thoughts and go to a church or ask a god for help out of desperation depending on the situation.  I also thought the characters who wanted to express their faith were handled well too.  The story did touch on religion in school but only lightly, even though it seemed that it was going to be a bigger part of the story when Sue threatened to go to the school board with Curt.

One of the minor problems I had with the episode was the way Sue and Curt came off as angry or spiteful when they went to the school board.  I can understand some of Curt’s anger, after people bombarded him with their faith, even after he expressed his feelings on the issue.  I like that Sue was not just using it as a way to hurt the glee club and it was something she actually believed in.  Im not sure how to feel about the final scene when they performed “What if God was One of Us” and Sue’s reaction to it.  I’m hoping that after visiting her sister,  Sue was more tolerant of the way the kids wanted to express themselves about Curt’s father and not that she was softening her position.

Finn’s worshiping of the Grilled Cheesus was typically absurd and was a light way to deal with a character who was unsure of his faith.  I think Finn’s reaction to seemingly getting what he prayed for was something you would expect from his character and something you would expect from a teen in general.  I was disturbed that he ate the other half of the sandwich at the end, when it had been sitting out for three or four days.  Finn’s arc in this episode was quite realistic to me.  He is a person who is unsure and that is completely understandable considering what the character has been through.

Overall I like how it was handled, and I applaud the crew of Glee for broaching a touchy issue, like faith, in a fair and positive way.  Curt going to church with Mercedes summed up the episode perfectly for me.  Curt was respecting the fact that Mercedes was not trying to convert him, but trying to help and care for him and his father.  As a non-believer, I think the complex relationship of the faithful and the faithless was handled as best it could be on an hour TV show.

LOST Quick React

Posted on by renmiked

Here is what I currently feel about the finale of LOST last night: I thought the scenes between Jack and MiB were great intense classic LOST moments. Watching MiB finally “get to leave” the island, although not how he intended, was completely epic. The light cave has grown on me and I had no issues with that, unlike in “Across the Sea”. Now, the flash sideways is the real game changer. I think I loved it. To me it solidified that the real reason this show worked was not the mythology, but the characters and actors. Watching Vincent lay down with Jack was an absolutely perfect ending. I wasn’t thrilled with the connect the dots style explanation from Christian, but I can live with it.

On another front, I really don’t know how psyched I am for a rewatch. The show’s ending was so complete that I feel like I’ve lost a friend. I will go back and watch episodes here and there, like looking at old photos or videos of someone who’s no longer with you, but I don’t want to relive the experience. I just want to fondly remember a wonderful time in my life and use it going forward to stay positive and grow.

What LOST Has Meant To Me

Posted on by renmiked

I started watching LOST from the begining like many people and quickly grew to love the show. By the second season I was looking for other ways to enjoy and experience the show which led me to find The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack. Once I listened to their podcast I started to look for other podcasts and found: Fivehundy By Midnight, The Idle Review with Josh and Jen, The Dharmalars, Media Junkyard, Metrobuzz, The Scope…etc
This then led to involvement in social media like the Jay and Jack message boards and then Twitter. From Twitter I ended up going to Raliegh and meeting many of the people I communicated with on Twitter and sites like Yublog.org. This in and unto itself was a giant step for me. I was someone who was somewhat introverted and this opened a door for me to experience different people and views of the world. So to sum this up, thank you to LOST abs especially “Thank you” to the people in the LOST and associated communities who have accepted me as a part of it.

Lost in the Shuffle

Posted on by renmiked

This past TV season I dropped a bunch of shows that I used to watch and some I even still had interest in. Time was a major factory in me dropping most of the shows some have just run their course.

Flash Forward: I never came back to this one after the break. I would like to finish it up but I doubt that will happen. I really just didn’t care about the characters and fond the story meandering.

Bones: This is one I definitely want to catch up on. Last seasons finale really sucked but I did watch the first few eps of this season and enjoyed it. Bones was simply lost in a time crunch. I’ve watched it from the beginning and enjoy the characters although the lack of a major story arch may be why it was easy to forget.

Desperate Housewives: I enjoy campy television and this was good replacement for the original Melrose Place (not the abortion that’s on the CW) but it has run its course and I just can’t stand most of the characters anymore. More babies, break ups, all in all more of the same… yawn.

Supernatural: I kept up on this until March and is the first show, once Lost is over, that I will watch. I love the story, I care what happens to Sam and Dean, and it is just smartly written. Supernatural is one of may favorite shows of the last few years and Dean’s “Eye of the Tiger” performance was a classic TV moment.

There were other that I can’t remember offhand, which means they have no shot of being watched. Here’s a quick list of what I stayed up on:

LOST
Mythbusters
American Chopper (yes I was the one still watching)
LA Ink (guilty)
American Idol (easy to ffwd through in 20 minutes)

Wow, that list is way shorter than I thought. Most are shows I don’t have to pay complete attention to or can FFWD through, so it was easy to have them in the background. I am looking forward to the return of Mad Men which is my favorite show not named LOST.

So what should I catch up on and what should I check out?

Cable’s Failures

Posted on by renmiked

Today I received a notice in the mail that Comcast will be raising our cable by about %6 in the next few months. In our house we only have the Expanded Basic service and no boxes. We do not have digital or HD service. We watch HD via the over the air signal from the local Philly stations and have two HD Tivo that we record on. In our cable bill we are paying for at least 25 stations we NEVER watch a minute of programming on. We also have a Netflix account and watch quite a bit of Netflix Instant Watch. Because all of the cable and satellite providers refuse to offer a-la-carte programming I am seriously considering cutting back to an even more basic service and watching shows via the internet.

Cable providers refusing to allow you to choose which stations you actually want to receive is akin to going to a restaurant and being forced to purchase the left-side of the menu, even if all you want is soup and salad. I asked @ComcastCares why a-la-carte service was not available, I was told that they simply do not offer the service at this time. Now, if it were a technology issue, the answer would have simply been we are not capable of offering that at this time. Last year we lost G4 from our service. This was a channel I actually watched, so why couldn’t I give up FOX News, Lifetime, Style or one of the other nets I don’t want in exchange.

All I want is to pay for what I watch. I would just like the cable/satellite providers to offer real options and stop keeping networks that people don’t want afloat. I will seriously look at this in my household over the next few months and see which channels we actually watch.