Television
[The date on this post reflects when it was originally written, not when it was posted -- I accidentally forgot my power cord to my laptop for a few days, and didn't get the chance to get it posted until a few days after it was written.]
I’m pretty burned out on politics right now, so I’m going to talk about another topic I’ve been neglecting for a while: television.
My television watching has been cut back pretty dramatically since I shut off my cable early this year during the writer’s strike. Prior to that, I usually had the television on for background noise, but I knew I’d only miss a couple of shows when they returned (Lost and Jericho, to be specific), so I had the cable shut off.
After our wedding, I had cable reinstalled at our house immediately[a]. Not so much because I wanted television, but because I needed internet connectivity. While I had thought I’d just jump right back into watching television, I’ve found that I don’t often turn it on unless I’m watching a DVD or have a specific show I want to watch.
Anyway, here are the shows I’m watching this year, along with some quick thoughts about where they’re at so far.
- Monday
- Chuck I’m thrilled that Chuck is back this season. I was a little worried with the writer’s strike that it may not survive. I’m really enjoying this season, but I hope that we don’t just stick with the status quo forever. Knowing that Chuck is slated to be killed as soon as he’s no longer needed as the Intersect adds some drama, but it’d get old quickly if we just stay right there. I’d rather he find out and then have him have to deal with deciding whether or not to share flashes that might help build a new Intersect, or get a new Intersect built and have Casey help him hide from the government or something.
- Heroes I think this season is much stronger than last season was, thankfully. Still, as much as I liked the idea that The Company was forced to ally with Sylar to hunt down all these escaped villains, I find the recent revelation about his origin to be a bit forced. It might work out for the best (I kind of liked Future Sylar), but right now it just seems like a stretch. I’m also getting tired of the time travelling and visions giving people forewarning about what they’re going to face. What’s wrong with letting them deal with an issue as it comes up for once, rather than having them only get involved when they see the horrific future that might come about if they don’t work on it?
- Tuesday
- House I’m still enjoying House, but with the older episodes in syndication, I’m reminded that it used to be much better than this. I’m not sure exactly why; I’m not sure if it’s that House is meaner than he used to be or what; I just find that I’m much more entertained by rewatching old episodes than I am by watching these new ones.
- Fringe I’m enjoying this so far, but not as much as I’d hoped. It’s better than last year’s overhyped show (ABC’s Pushing Daisies, and is a good diversion, but it’s not really grabbed me yet. While I don’t have anything against the “Mad science of the week” format, the show obviously wants to tell a more overarcing story, and I’d rather get to that sooner than later, as long as it doesn’t turn out to be the crazy mishmash of government conspiracies that The X-files turned out to be.
- Wednesday
- Bones .
- Knight Rider What I didn’t do when I got the cable reinstalled was get a DVR, so I’m not really watching Knight Rider. I watched about half of the first episode this season, and wasn’t particularly impressed. I was extremely annoyed by the transformation into a truck, and the whole “the car’s on fire and we’re all going to die” scene at the beginning of episode one wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’m sure they intended it to be. We had no real feeling for this KITT’s capabilities, and we had no real connection to any of the characters (KITT included), so it was a bit early to be putting them all at that much risk, I think. Anyway, given that this isn’t as good as the movie[b] and the fact that both of us love Bones, we’ve been opting to watch that instead. I may watch reruns or buy the DVDs if the show survives.
That’s pretty much it, actually. I don’t watch much on Thursdays, though my wife is giving Kath & Kim a shot and she loves The Office (I also enjoy it, but not enough to be particularly worried about it if I miss an episode). My only Friday night show is Stargate: Atlantis, and I don’t generally sit down to watch much TV on the weekends.
Starting next week, I’ll try to review new episodes as they air, but I make no promises.