What I’ve Been Watching
Like I warned you, this blog is going to broaden its perspective somewhat, and today I’m going to talk about tv shows. There is nothing quite like relaxing in front of the tv … well, computer (since I don’t own a tv), when you’re too tired or depressed to do anything else.
So, what kind of shows does a girl like me enjoy? Usually I tend to prefer scifi or fantasy. I have the same taste in books - I’m of the opinion that if you’re in the business of making things up, you might as well go to town on it and be creative. That said it does happen that I watch more “realistic” shows.
Here’s a few that I’ve watched this summer, as I wait for more Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and House:
Doctor Who: I had only vaguely heard of the old series and was rather wary of watching the 21st century stuff. I suppose I was worrying that the stench of cheese would suffocate me. As it turned out, I absolutely fell in love with the show. (I may even have had a dream about Ten. It wasn’t terribly exciting, he helped me find a new apartment.) I can’t quite say what it is about Doctor Who that makes the show so great and I’m sure other people have written more eloquently about it. I’ll just settle for saying that it rocks, and if you think your suspension of disbelief is good enough to get around the fact that not only is it incredibly cheesy but also riddled with holes rather like a - wait for it - cheese, you will love it. ETA: I forgot to mention one of the awesomest things ever: Richard Dawkins appeared in a Doctor Who episode. w00t!
Torchwood: Knowing there was a spinoff series of Doctor Who featuring the extremely loveable Captain Jack made it somehow easier for me to accept that there would only be four series to watch and that I’d have to wait more than a year for the next one. Unfortunately, Torchwood was a massive let-down. It’s written like a really bad, angsty fanfic that’s too morally repressed to go properly slash-y, the dialogue is abhorrently cheesy, and Jack, who used to be cheerful and outrageously flirtatious in Doctor Who, has turned into a brooding, secretive Angel-clone. He screws around, but there’s no heart in it (and besides, all you ever get to see is kissing). In the end I stopped watching after the first series (and the first episode of the second, because of the guest actor). If someone can swear that it takes a massive turn for the better later on, I may take it up again, but otherwise I think I’m just going to let it be my last-measure back-up plan for when there’s absolutely nothing good left to watch.
Tell Me You Love Me: One of those supposedly realistic shows I happen to stumble across occasionally. I’m not entirely certain what I think of this one. It was well-written and I quite liked the characters; they seemed like real people with real problems. But the way they dealt with their issues didn’t ring true to me. Perhaps that’s because I deal with my own issues so differently. Their complete failure of proper communication irked me - it’s the same in all soaps, sitcoms and drama shows. All problems seem to stem from a total collapse of communication. People more or less deliberately misunderstand each other and then refuse to talk to sort it out. Is that how normal relationships actually happen, or is it just the really fucked-up ones they show on tv because they’re more interesting than the ones where the partners actually sit down with a problem and talk it out? I suppose people who like this show either watch it because they can relate to it, or because it makes them feel morally superiour and happy about their own relationships. For me, it would be the latter, except that after ten episodes of the same floundering incompetence, I’m rather put off.
(I’ve also watched last year’s World Poker Tour, but that doesn’t really count, does it?) Now that you know what I like, feel free to give me hints as to what you think I might like that I’ve missed out on so far. Right now the only series I’m feeling curious about is The Riches, because it has Eddie Izzard in it. I love his comedy but so far his acting hasn’t been very good, so it’d be interesting to see what got this series Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominations.
Wow, we have a lot of overlap there.
Yes, Do Who is cheesy, and I adore it. I started watching it as a child. While I saw some Hartnell (1st doctor) episodes and occasionally remember fragments of particular episodes or characters if I get to see a repeat I have seen before, my earliest clear memories are Troughton-era (2nd doctor), and I had become solid fan by the Pertwee-era (3rd doctor).
I watched it fairly solidly right through to late Colin Baker (where I missed some episodes through frustration with some of the writing) and in the Sylvester McCoy era they took the show way down in age bracket and (I felt) treated it rather badly, I skipped whole stories. It was no suprise (after what they did to it) that it was cancelled.
I saw the McGann movie (McGann was good, the movie was meh, what they did with the Master was terrible), and have happily watched every season of the new series with enjoyment (which has been relatively cheesy for my taste given they’re aiming for an older audience). A few episodes have been too silly for me to enjoy, but on average it’s been fun. Now my kids are a bit older, the whole family watches it together. Blink was probably the first one we all watched in entirety, which is among my favourite episodes of any season of Dr Who.
Torchwood - I watch and enjoy this show, but I don’t disagree with what you say about it. I think the average quality of episodes does go slightly up over time, but from the sound of how you feel about what you have seen, probably not by enough to satisfy you. The level is a bit up and down - some stories are very good, some are really not. I enjoy both aspects of Jack’s personality (the brooding Torchwood one and the playful Who one), and he does lighten up somewhat in some later episodes, but to my mind Gwen is the central character of Torchwood (at least in what I have seen so far) and I suspect part of Jack’s broodiness there arises because of the feelings he has for her (though thankfully they don’t abandon what I see as a central part of his character). In Torchwood, Jack has major responsibilities, (often with the lives of millions depending on him; and always of those working with him), while in Dr Who he is basically a companion.
I thought season 1 of Heroes was wonderful and basically stood just fine on its own, but it seemed to lose its way somewhat with season 2 (some vaguely spoilery comments edited out). I have hopes that it improves significantly.
I enjoy BSG enormously and really like House as well, but I think I’ll leave it there.
I don’t know that I’d want to recommend anything - taste is a tricky thing.
Comment by efrique — Monday, September 8, 2008 @ 03:37
efrique, As I said I may go back to Torchwood, I don’t have much else I feel like watching right now. I don’t particularly care for the Jack/Gwen pairing though… Although I’m guessing it’s unrequited love?
I agree on your comments on Heroes and I think it will improve. I heard that the reason for the decline in quality in the second season was that they experimented with a new writing technique and it wasn’t working out - so the writers’ strike was actually a good thing because it allowed them to regroup. Mostly my problem with the second season was that it felt like nothing was really happening for the first half. I seem to recall that I really liked episodes seven and nine. The last one I found extremely annoying because there were several really dumb things that didn’t make sense in the final “fight”. I can suspend my disbelief enough to allow weird unlikely mutations to happen, but when those mutations are used in stupid nonsensical ways, that really gets to me…
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Monday, September 8, 2008 @ 11:29
On Jack and Gwen - I think Gwen has feelings for Jack and Jack has feelings for Gwen, but they’re not really the same kind of feelings. Their feelings for each other impact the stories, but I doubt (from what I have watched so far) that they will be in any kind of ongoing romantic relationship - but there’s clearly a tension there.
Comment by efrique — Saturday, September 13, 2008 @ 17:49