The TV season -- I don't really have anything pressing to write about,
and the TV season has passed us by, so I'll at least run through what
I watch, least favorite to best:
- Simpsons
- Hmm, I used to love the whole Simpsons
world, much as my entire generation did. Hell, look at how so much of
their world has crept into ours. But it hasn't been painfully funny in
years, and now I'd rather play a nice game on the computer than watch
the Simpsons. I don't even bother to record it.
- Malcolm in the Middle
- This one had a much shorter
halflife than the Simpsons. I liked it last season, and occasionally I
catch it this season, but it seems it's used up the joke. The only
interesting thing in the show now is what happens to Francis.
- Smallville
- Just had to drop this one. Every single
episode was about some Kryptonite-affected (excuse me,
"meteor"-affected) Smallville resident that got powers and
went psycho. Why is it that everyone else effected by Kryptonite goes
psychotic but not Clark? Shouldn't he be super psycho? You can call me
if the Legion of Super-heroes ever shows up...
- X-Files
- Ok, you see the pattern? The whole Fox Sunday
night line up is old and used and warn out. I couldn't stand the
mythos based episodes when it had Duchovny in it (take two
steps forward in plot resolution, now take three steps back), and it
certainly hasn't gotten any better with replacement characters. As it
is, I'll watch any episode that isn't about aliens, or government
conspiracies. They still do at least half way decent horror.
- Justice League
- I had hopes for this. I really like
the Batman: The Animated Series a few years back, and I liked
the WB's version of the World's Finest (the series with both
Batman and Superman in it). I thought that JL would be really nice
too, but so far there's been maybe three neat scenes in five episodes;
they're going to have to bat better than that to keep me. What are the
neat scenes?
a) The Martians resisting Superman's initial
attack.
b) Batman whispering to Deathstroke.
c) Aquaman's
sacrificing his hand (much better than the way Peter David did it,
IMHO).
- The Tick
- I really liked the animated series... more-so
than the comic book; but the live-action really hasn't captured the
essence of the show. It became even worse when I read an interview
with Ben Edlund about how he gets zero say in the show...
- Futurama
- At least some of the Simpson's talent seems
to have ended up here; and there's still some nice jokes about the future. I still
don't really mind if I miss it though.
- The Chronicle
- This SCI-FI channel show is at least
interesting. Sort of a low budget Men In Black. I liked that
they at least had some character development as well.
- 24
- I really shouldn't get sucked into more shows;
unfortunately 24 seems to have a lot of promise. Nice idea,
interesting actors (a bunch that I really like, culled from a lot of
old shows I really liked). I don't know that it'll be more than a soap
opera, though... it seems to be going no-where plot wise (but how much
plot can you have in 24 hours?)
- The Agency
- "Billy Die". Well... that's what
a friend of mine kept saying through Ally MacBeal and he eventually
did. I can't say I ever was that trilled with him on AmB, and he's
about as wooden in this show. But there are some other neat
characters... and just enough of the geek-tech stuff that I love.
- Invader Zim
- It's just so odd, and silly, and
everything I liked about the more aghast moments of the old Simpsons
(and some Futurama). And who couldn't identify with a little alien
filled with Invader Goo!
- Boston Public
- I got suckered into watching this
because it came on right before Ally McBeal. I don't even dane
to give AB a place on this list anymore, but BP is much better. I like
the fact that it's absurdness is more mired in reality... and damn if
the last several episodes don't have Billy Zane in it.
- Dead Last
- I think this might have been pulled from
the airwaves... which is a shame. Three kids in a traveling band that
can see and have to interact with the dead. What's not to love? Well,
Neal would say "Giant Transforming Robots?", but pah, who
listens to Neal?
- Thieves
- Oh, bickering. I love the bickering. Verbal
banter, just like Peter Parker would dish out... only with thieves, in
love, strong-armed by the government.
- Invisible Man
- More thieves strong-armed by the
government. It's a nice trend... says something funny about the
populace if that's what we like to watch/identify-with. :) I like that
they have interesting bad guys.
- CSI
- Ok, this is the total geek hook series. Sure,
every crime is solved, and every crime is only solvable by the
geek-squad (it seems the regular Los Vegas police dept doesn't need to
do anything, as long as the Quincy squad is on the job). But I love
science'ish shows... it's a total geek out.
- Enterprise
- I don't know what's wrong with me... I
even watched the start of last week's repeat just for the theme
song. It's so wrong! Star Trek doesn't have words in the theme
song. The first had "oooh oooh ooh ah ah ah" and that was
it... the rest were just instrumentals... so why do I listen to this
one? It's the backgrounds -- it must be. They trigger some mental-tasp
that Sid Meyers implanted ten years ago with Civ. In any case, I like
where they're going... and I'd watch the show even if it weren't
required watching by the geek set.
- Farscape
- Probably the best science fiction show to
air since Babylon-5. Interesting races, artifacts, mythos,
universal laws... all the things that make up real science
fiction (the core of which is the question "what
if"). That the characters are all unique, and can stand on their
own two feet personality wise, that's great. I sometimes wish they
didn't try so hard (the half-animation episode was just awful, in my
opinion) but all in all, top notch.
- Angel
- Buffy spin-off, sure, but there was more than
enough material for the Buffy team to produce two hours a week... and
they've been doing it. And doing it well. I would do the dance of
shame before I'd give up watching Angel. Only reason that it
isn't tied with Buffy is that it's been a little tame this
season, and that it just doesn't have enough of the well developed
characters that Buffy has, but it's still in the top 5, so that's not
bad.
- Alias
- When I first read the review of this series, I
really didn't think it'd make my cut. As I look at it, even, I can see
it has a lot of holes in it... but it makes up for it in so many
ways. It's fast moving, and you get plot resolution; none of this
X-Files goes nowhere crap, this series proceeds like it's going to
self-destruct before the end of the season. The characters are quirky,
which is neat, but they aren't that fleshed out... but I'll give that
time. The action is nice, and the universe they portray
is -- unique -- It's not quite ours.
- Buffy
- Good lord, they had a musical... There's just
so much good history in Buffy it could carry itself Simpson's like for
years, and that's even if it had already started to go downhill -- and
it hasn't yet. I mean, sure they've already lost more great things
than most shows will ever have (like Oz, and Giles, and the mayor),
but there's so much great stuff in there... Just as long as Joss never
lets Noxon write another episode.
- West Wing
- I felt so ripped off when Sports
Night stopped airing; and then when I found out the same writer
was starting up West Wing I almost didn't watch it, because I
was still upset with the network for killing SN. West Wing is
easily the show I'd watch if I could only watch one show per week. If
I had to pick one best thing about it, it would have to be the
dialog... I love the way they speak on West Wing (and Sports
Night... even though that's now dead... damn their eyes).
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