Early this summer, in order to cut costs down, I cut back our cable subscription to the barest minimum required to also keep cable internet. Bye bye real channels. Bye bye DVR. I've been doing a lot of watching full seasons and series of tv shows in my tv viewing free time.
I'm really over the whole anti-hero genre of entertainment, but I still found myself really enjoying the first two seasons of Sons of Anarchy. Maybe it's partly due to the male lead trying to bring his motorcycle club back from the darkness, and fucking up every step of the way. Maybe it's Kate Sagal smashing a younger girl's face in a jealous rage. I don't really know but after feeling just lukewarm about the first couple episodes (too much Drea de Matteo) I couldn't keep away from the story.
British tv bugs me because the seasons are too short (6-8 episodes), which irks me whenever I find a show I really come to be fond of. Case in point, the entire four seasons of the excellent series Coupling equal approximately the same number of episodes in one shitty season of Two and a Half Men. In the case of dramas like Skins and Survivors, they still somehow pack in so much story that it's a lot more bearable, but the rare sitcom gem like Peep Show falls all the shorter. It's all the more painful for me when one of these shows then gets canceled. With only two seasons of Survivors, I feel let down by all the possibilities hinted at in what was essentially no more than half a season of traditional US television, where if it had been over here for two seasons there would have been four times the episodes and a lot fewer questions. And don't even get me started on US remakes of British television shows. . .
The last big show I've immersed in so far this summer has been Justified. Terrified it would just be a modern day revision of Deadwood, I had a little trepidation. I will be honest, there were episodes where I found it too easy to stop paying attention and go do a chore while it ran in the background (mostly during the front end of the season). And I really dislike most of the cast (either the characters' portrayal, or just the actor portraying them), but I do love me some Timothy Olyphant, have since Scream 2, and I'm fond of the western, which this channels a bit. End result is that I found myself liking, but not loving, the series and I'll probably give it another look come season two.
Next up, Breaking Bad. . .
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7 comments:
and goodness, I love Skins so much that its theme song is one of my phone's primary ring tones.
Funny, what you don't like about British tv is exactly what I do like about them. I can devour an entire season in half the time as an American one :) I also like that since the seasons are so short, I don't feel like there's as much... filler, they get to the point and they get it done. Have you checked out the (original) British version of Life On Mars? It's terribly trippy and I highly recommend it.
The Brit version of Life on Mars is the only one I've seen. Not a HUGE fan, as Brit sci-fi is my least favorite Brit tv (though I found enjoyment in it being less sci-fi than drek like Dr Who).
You bring up an interesting, and excellent, point about too many "filler" episodes in longer seasoned tv, but I'm left ambivalent about that. See, I feel that if the writing team is good enough, that shouldn't be an issue; shows I love thoroughly, like Lost and Veronica Mars rarely suffer from episodes I feel are boring filler (I can think of one such episode in Lost S6 though) but yes, I do see it frequently in hour long dramas. I think the 13 episode format of cable tv helps solve that problem a lot, and would make a good compromise to Brit tv seasons.
With sitcoms though, how often are they as stringent in continuity from episode to episode where the idea of "filler" can ever really come into play?
Ah see, I don't count Life on Mars as Sci-fi. I loved it and i don't watch ANY sci-fi shows, British or American. But anyway...
Good point about sit-coms not falling prey to filler episodes as they don't have/need the same stringent continuity. And you are correct, 13 episodes is an excellent compromise.
As for other Brit coms, Graig introduced me to the ouvre of Graham Linehan; Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd, all of which I thought were completely hilarious.
No sci-fi other than Lost...
I've only seen 1.5 episodes of the IT Crowd. Didn't do it for me then, but I'll give it a second look, and those others a first. Did you ever watch any Shameless? The first couple seasons of that were real gems too.
Breaking Bad is pretty sweet. I hope you enjoy it. I didn't share your trepidation about Justified just being another Deadwood, but I agree that some of the early episodes are easily forgettable. Once the crazy man (can't recall the character's name right now) finds religion and gets out of jail, the show really sucked me in. Also, I just dug the episode "Hatless," but that's probably because I always like to see Olyphant take a beating, though I do like him as an actor.
Sons of Anarchy bugs the crap out of me. I watched both seasons, and while there are moments of goodness (like the fact that they are all completely incompetent), overall it just rubs me the wrong way. It might be the anti-hero thing you speak to in your post, or it might be Jax's voice that to me sounds like a gravel gargling frog. Oh, and don't get me started on Ally Walker's tendency to take a deep, short breath every time she starts to speak. It just makes me want to punch the screen. I will watch season 3 when it appears, mainly in the hope that her character will get killed.
they really are completely inept. And I agree with your desire to punch Ally Walker whenever she has dialogue.
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