![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Stuff I've been watching on TV
Taking a break from the meme today to talk about the TV shows I've watching:
Law & Order: SVU: I'm a little behind and am trying to get caught up. I just finished watching the episode from a couple of weeks ago, "Dissonant Voices," which is about a famous vocal coach who is accused of molesting his young students. Although the rest of the episode is quite serious, the opening scene was pretty funny with all the detectives watching the "American Diva" tv show (obviously a fictional version of "American Idol"). It seemed a little implausible, but then again, I remember all the times that I've discussed the latest episode of "Dancing with the Stars" or "Hawaii Five-0" with my coworkers, so why shouldn't detectives enjoy a little mindless tv entertainment? With their type of job, that might even be a welcome escape and way to de-stress. And to be fair, Olivia only had the tv on in the background and clearly wasn't paying attention to it, while Amaro was watching it with his young daughter, which seems pretty realistic. But I was amused by how Rollins seemed really into the show.
I miss Richard Belzer, whose character Munch recently retired, but the writers hadn't been doing much with his character recently, so I can't blame him for leaving. It really is too bad that the writers don't (or didn't) focus more on Fin and Munch, two of my favorite characters. I thought some of the best episodes were the ones dealing with Fin and his son, and how Fin was uncomfortable with his son's homosexuality, but gradually became more accepting and was able to build a better relationship with him. And in the episode where the son decided to get married, I thought it was sweet how he went to Munch for advice on how to tell his dad about it, like Munch was an uncle figure to him. And I'm still rather annoyed with the show that they never told us whether the boyfriend recovered from a potentially fatal gay-bashing beating. (At least as far as I know, though I did miss a few episodes last year.)
I've never watched "Homicide: Life on the Street," in which Munch first appears, so maybe I'll watch it on dvd when I have time.
Sleepy Hollow: The historical realism (or lack thereof) on the show is questionable if not downright laughable, but it's so much fun to watch that I just don't care! The actor who plays Ichabod is handsome and charming, and he and Abbie have great chemistry. I like the way that the show deals with Ichabod's fish-out-of-water (or in this case, man out of time) situation, getting some humor out of it, but not having him completely overwhelmed or befuddled by modern technology. (I almost died laughing at his heartfelt conversation with the lady from the car's GPS system!) I also love John Cho's character, and am hoping he will show up in more episodes, and it sounds like he will.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I did not expect to like this show as much as did, but I really love it. I don't watch a lot of sitcoms, but this one is really funny, and part of what makes it work is the way that Adam Samberg's irreverent detective plays off against the straight-laced (if you'll pardon the pun) gay captain played by Andre Braugher, who really is an awesome character.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I loved the Marvel movies, and I loved the character of Coulson, and I love Ming-Na Wen, so I expected to really love this show. But while it was fun to watch, it wasn't as awesome as I expected it to be, so I was slightly disappointed. However, the show is gradually growing on me more as we get to see more of the characters, and I think I may come to love it after all. I didn't particularly like Fitz and Simmons at first--they seemed like typical eccentric geeky stereotypes--but the last couple of episodes have shown more of them and let us get to know them as people, and now I'm really starting to like them. The last episode has also gotten me intrigued about the mystery behind Skye's parents.
The Blacklist: I think it's implausible that the F.B.I. would cooperate with a terrorist to the extent of continuing to let him run his criminal operations, no matter how great his intel is, or that they'd continue to let Lizzie work with him after she stabbed him with a pen in the first episode. But James Spader is so wonderful to watch as the morally ambiguous Red, that I'm willing to handwave all that. I'm intrigued about his connection to Lizzie and what made him come forward in the first place. It's strongly implied that he might be her father, but I'm wondering if that's too obvious? Also, you'd think that the F.B.I. would have run a DNA comparison on them by now. My first guess was that Red went heavy undercover, becoming a bad guy in order to get information on the bad guys (as in the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, and the American remake it inspired, The Departed), but then why not reveal his true good guy status to the F.B.I.? Granted, they probably wouldn't believe him without any evidence to back him up, but I think he could win their trust over time--if he really is a good guy. But he's made it clear that he's still a criminal and is only helping them for his own (unknown) purposes--or is that part of the cover? I'm also not convinced that Lizzie's husband is an innocent patsy, and I still think he might have his own agenda, though he does seem to sincerely care about her, since he seemed concerned for her after her father's death, even when there was no one around to see (other than Red, posing as a random passerby). So many unanswered questions! But speculating about them is part of the fun of watching the show.
Elementary: I blogged about it previously, and I'm continuing to enjoy this show. Sometimes the mysteries are a bit iffy (I don't buy that Sherlock can identify the sire of a race horse solely by the whorls in the horse's fur), but I still love the friendship between Sherlock and Joan, and their working relationship with Gregson and Bell. I also like that Bell and Gregson both got an episode focusing on them, where we got to see a bit more of their personal lives. I thought that the twist with Irene/Moriarty was really well done, and I love Rhys Ifans as Mycroft. I know some fans dislike the differences between this Mycroft and book-canon Mycroft, but not being familiar with the books, it doesn't bother me, and I enjoyed the humorous bickering between the brothers, and the way that Mycroft seemed to be sincerely wanting to become closer to Sherlock. But that twist at the end of the last episode--I totally wasn't expecting that! It seems that Mycroft may have some sinister ulterior motives? Or maybe he really believes that it would be better/safer for Sherlock to move back to London for reasons as yet unknown to us? (Though it's still skeevy to manipulate him in that way, no matter if Mycroft's doing it out of brotherly love.)
Law & Order: SVU: I'm a little behind and am trying to get caught up. I just finished watching the episode from a couple of weeks ago, "Dissonant Voices," which is about a famous vocal coach who is accused of molesting his young students. Although the rest of the episode is quite serious, the opening scene was pretty funny with all the detectives watching the "American Diva" tv show (obviously a fictional version of "American Idol"). It seemed a little implausible, but then again, I remember all the times that I've discussed the latest episode of "Dancing with the Stars" or "Hawaii Five-0" with my coworkers, so why shouldn't detectives enjoy a little mindless tv entertainment? With their type of job, that might even be a welcome escape and way to de-stress. And to be fair, Olivia only had the tv on in the background and clearly wasn't paying attention to it, while Amaro was watching it with his young daughter, which seems pretty realistic. But I was amused by how Rollins seemed really into the show.
I miss Richard Belzer, whose character Munch recently retired, but the writers hadn't been doing much with his character recently, so I can't blame him for leaving. It really is too bad that the writers don't (or didn't) focus more on Fin and Munch, two of my favorite characters. I thought some of the best episodes were the ones dealing with Fin and his son, and how Fin was uncomfortable with his son's homosexuality, but gradually became more accepting and was able to build a better relationship with him. And in the episode where the son decided to get married, I thought it was sweet how he went to Munch for advice on how to tell his dad about it, like Munch was an uncle figure to him. And I'm still rather annoyed with the show that they never told us whether the boyfriend recovered from a potentially fatal gay-bashing beating. (At least as far as I know, though I did miss a few episodes last year.)
I've never watched "Homicide: Life on the Street," in which Munch first appears, so maybe I'll watch it on dvd when I have time.
Sleepy Hollow: The historical realism (or lack thereof) on the show is questionable if not downright laughable, but it's so much fun to watch that I just don't care! The actor who plays Ichabod is handsome and charming, and he and Abbie have great chemistry. I like the way that the show deals with Ichabod's fish-out-of-water (or in this case, man out of time) situation, getting some humor out of it, but not having him completely overwhelmed or befuddled by modern technology. (I almost died laughing at his heartfelt conversation with the lady from the car's GPS system!) I also love John Cho's character, and am hoping he will show up in more episodes, and it sounds like he will.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I did not expect to like this show as much as did, but I really love it. I don't watch a lot of sitcoms, but this one is really funny, and part of what makes it work is the way that Adam Samberg's irreverent detective plays off against the straight-laced (if you'll pardon the pun) gay captain played by Andre Braugher, who really is an awesome character.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I loved the Marvel movies, and I loved the character of Coulson, and I love Ming-Na Wen, so I expected to really love this show. But while it was fun to watch, it wasn't as awesome as I expected it to be, so I was slightly disappointed. However, the show is gradually growing on me more as we get to see more of the characters, and I think I may come to love it after all. I didn't particularly like Fitz and Simmons at first--they seemed like typical eccentric geeky stereotypes--but the last couple of episodes have shown more of them and let us get to know them as people, and now I'm really starting to like them. The last episode has also gotten me intrigued about the mystery behind Skye's parents.
The Blacklist: I think it's implausible that the F.B.I. would cooperate with a terrorist to the extent of continuing to let him run his criminal operations, no matter how great his intel is, or that they'd continue to let Lizzie work with him after she stabbed him with a pen in the first episode. But James Spader is so wonderful to watch as the morally ambiguous Red, that I'm willing to handwave all that. I'm intrigued about his connection to Lizzie and what made him come forward in the first place. It's strongly implied that he might be her father, but I'm wondering if that's too obvious? Also, you'd think that the F.B.I. would have run a DNA comparison on them by now. My first guess was that Red went heavy undercover, becoming a bad guy in order to get information on the bad guys (as in the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, and the American remake it inspired, The Departed), but then why not reveal his true good guy status to the F.B.I.? Granted, they probably wouldn't believe him without any evidence to back him up, but I think he could win their trust over time--if he really is a good guy. But he's made it clear that he's still a criminal and is only helping them for his own (unknown) purposes--or is that part of the cover? I'm also not convinced that Lizzie's husband is an innocent patsy, and I still think he might have his own agenda, though he does seem to sincerely care about her, since he seemed concerned for her after her father's death, even when there was no one around to see (other than Red, posing as a random passerby). So many unanswered questions! But speculating about them is part of the fun of watching the show.
Elementary: I blogged about it previously, and I'm continuing to enjoy this show. Sometimes the mysteries are a bit iffy (I don't buy that Sherlock can identify the sire of a race horse solely by the whorls in the horse's fur), but I still love the friendship between Sherlock and Joan, and their working relationship with Gregson and Bell. I also like that Bell and Gregson both got an episode focusing on them, where we got to see a bit more of their personal lives. I thought that the twist with Irene/Moriarty was really well done, and I love Rhys Ifans as Mycroft. I know some fans dislike the differences between this Mycroft and book-canon Mycroft, but not being familiar with the books, it doesn't bother me, and I enjoyed the humorous bickering between the brothers, and the way that Mycroft seemed to be sincerely wanting to become closer to Sherlock. But that twist at the end of the last episode--I totally wasn't expecting that! It seems that Mycroft may have some sinister ulterior motives? Or maybe he really believes that it would be better/safer for Sherlock to move back to London for reasons as yet unknown to us? (Though it's still skeevy to manipulate him in that way, no matter if Mycroft's doing it out of brotherly love.)