Intelligible Television: Holy Psych! Was that a good episode or what?
August 30, 2009 at 12:22 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Shows, Television, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: comedy, Devils in the deatils and the Upstairs bedroom, Dule Hill, James Roday, Maggie Lawson, Psych, Ray Wise, Reaper, Run Lola Run, Television, The Exorcist, Tim Omundson, When Harry Met Sally
- Psych does an Exorcist
‘Psych’ is back to its roots with this one. Funny lines galore, crisp editing and a fast paced storyline. It’s a throwback to the hay days of Season 2 in some ways, where characters simply had fun jumping from one procedural to the next and the emotional stuff didn’t seem to get in the way.
‘The Devil’s in the Details… and the Upstairs Bedroom’ is the latest in line of Psych’s homages to popular culture and its the cult movie, ‘The Exorcist’ which makes for fodder this time. Gus (Dule Hill) and a reluctant, skeptic Shawn (James Roday) investigate a case of demonic posession at a Catholic university for their former Sunday School teacher, Father Weley played by Ray Wise.
This episode wins for showcasing one of the best guest star performances of all time. Ray Wise who played the slick and charming Devil himself in(the brilliant at first and then got really weird) ‘Reaper’, plays a man of God with the same panache and smoothness. His complete conviction in his beliefs is wonderfully balanced by his easy nature. A moment in case, where he jokes about how he likes to start every exorcism with a bit of humour.
The bit with Henry (Corbin Bernson) getting obsessed with Shawn’s Xbox was funny enough. The banter between Shawn and Gus was in full form with a full-fledged cat fight thrown into the mix. Since I haven’t seen ‘The Exorcist’, I am not sure how good or bad it was in spoofing it. But independent of that,the whole gig was very cleverly done, complete with the whole ‘tounges’ and ’spiderwalking’ cliches of posession. There were many other singular funny moments in the show like the running jingle joke, and the digs at FaceBook. It should probably be weird that one episode makes so many unconnected references like talking about ‘Run Lola Run’ and ‘When Harry met Sally’ in a take on ‘The Exorcist’, but ‘Psych’ always manges to do it successfully.
Intelligible Television: It’s Saddles and Spurs on Psych
August 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Shows, Television | 2 CommentsTags: civil war, Dule Hill, high noon-ish, james brolin, James Roday, Maggie Lawson, Psych, season one, season theree, Tim Omundson, USA network, western
Shawn goes cowboy in High Noon-ish.
The good thing about Psych is that it has a flexible range of operation. So if anyone could actually do a Western theme and pull it off, it would be these guys. Its one of the few shows where you can be watching and go, “You know what I’d like them to do sometime…” and you wouldn’t be surprised to actually see that on screen the next season.
High Noon-ish finds Shawn (James Roday) and Gus ( Dule Hill) investigating vandalism in Old Sonora, a tourist trap Western town for Lassiter (Tim Omundson) who has a sentimental attachment to the town and its ‘Sheriff’ (James Brolin). Their investigation leads them to a number of complications including a dead realtor millionaire, crumbling buildings, underground mines and a legendary ghost wrangler.
This episode manages to do many things successfully. It gives James Roday fans the chance to see him cowboy up, thrown in an Eastwood accent, ride a horse and generally be his funny, awesome self while Spanish guitar plays in the background. This episode has been shot in great lighting. Sepia tones and mellow lighting used in the episode integrate the look and feel of the cult spaghetti westerns. Some of the funnier moments include, the signature standoff gun sequence in the climax between Lassiter and the bad guy and the one where the wooden wall comes falling down upon Shawn and Gus.
It also sheds light on Lassiter’s childhood allowing fans of this snarky, stiff cop to get a glimpse of what makes him that way. The scene when Lassiter has to arrest Sheriff Hank, a man whom he considers a father figure is well played, giving the character the rare occasion to deal with emotions. Juliet (Maggie Lawson) though continues to be underutilized, and I do hope that she has stronger storylines in the up coming episodes. I would hate to think that she gets sidelined because she is no longer (though that wink from Shawn and the subsequent smile says otherwise) the love interest.
To me one of the more interesting exchanges on the episode was a minor one, but a significant one nonetheless. Its right in the beginning when Shawn and Gus are sitting by the camp fire, and Shawn launches off into a nostalgia for the past. Gus retorts by saying that the former’s people have a much more affectionate memory of this period of history than his. I have always admired the way Psych engages with the subject of race in very subtle and very funny ways, the previous one being the Civil War Episode, way back in Season One where Gus aptly questions Shawn on what role he would play in the re enactment.
Intelligible Television:TV’s most annoying characters, The Hit List
August 17, 2009 at 6:58 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Media, Shows, Television | Leave a CommentTags: 90210, According to Jim, Bones, Gossip Girl, Sookie Stackhouse, The Big Bang Theory, True Blood
Ever felt like strangling someone from TV? I do loads of times. Some characters get to us. They bother us in ways that real people can. You pray for that accident or season finale that sends them packing. If they happen to be in a show you like, well then that’s doubly difficult because you have no choice but to watch them, week after week, invading your peace. Here are a few I think are particularly annoying. Some from shows I love, and some well I thankfully couldn’t care less about.
Before you begin… those of you kind enough to be reading this kindly put your pitchforks and daggers down should you come across someone you like in this article. This is NOT representative of anything or anyone’s opinion save mine. If you have a list like mine, share it here and find the same therapeutic experience that I am looking for.
Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood: It’s bitter-sweet to watch Anna Paquin do such a good job, portraying Sookie. She gets the nuances and the traits spot on and credit goes to her for playing the small town Southern belle so well. But all of it gets so very lost on me, by the fact that I have never come across a more vapid, emotionally inconsistent and ditzy fictional character. She has the attention span of an eight year old and zero sense of self-preservation .I am hard pressed to believe that this simpering, complaining, telepathic mess of a girl is the object of desire of not one but two very sexy vampires.
Temperance Brennan, Bones: Great intellect is apparently no guarantee that you won’t be obnoxious and insufferable. While social ineptness combined with disinterest in regular human activities, works so well for Sheldon in The Big Bang Theoryit only seems to make Brennan a snob without cause. While I have nothing against smart people and their awareness of their abilities, Brennan’s conceit seems baseless for the most part. The character is insulting to anyone who doesn’t confirm with her beliefs, looks down upon the rest of society and justifies it with highly suspect logic. If it weren’t for the rest of the funny and quirky characters and solid story-lines, I don’t think I could stand watching this show.
Jim, According to Jim:Abrasive but lovable suburban father? Really! The whole regular guy meme is a sitcom favorite .The guy who loves his family but is far from the ideal father, who is not above resorting to some amount of lying and deception to smoothen things. Who won’t take art classes or know about poetry. When handled well, it can give you an Everybody Loves Raymond. When pushed over the top like with Jim’s character it borders on sexism , is offensive and plain unfunny.
The ensemble of Gossip Girl: If I could differentiate one manipulative, self-absorbed, back-stabbing teenage brat from the other, I would maybe list their names. But any time I see them on the screen, they’re just one big designer clad blur. By the time I make out who’s screwing whom over, I’ve usually lost interest or changed to 90210 and haven’t realized it yet.
Marissa Cooper, The O.C.: The rich have issues. We get that. There is no need to plague one girl with every problem from the troubled teenager’s manual. Lacking any originality or substance, Marissa will perhaps go down in history as the worst walking clich� of the poor little rich girl.
Intelligible Television: Sometimes, Good Shows Have Bad Days
August 16, 2009 at 1:58 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Media, Shows | 3 Comments
Rachael Leigh Cook guest stars as Shawn's girlfriend in He Dead
I was at a class trip all day yesterday and came back at at around half past midnight. Unfortunately my faithful torrent client failed to run the auto download I’d set up on the RSS feed which I’d set on both my laptop and desktop so that there wouldn’t be such a break-down. But since, technology screwed me over anyway I had to wait an extra half an hour for the download to get done to finally watch this week’s episode of Psych.
My verdict: I could have probably waited till morning. This wasn’t the best episode and If I had to be harsh, it barely made it to being a good one. ‘He Dead’ finds Shawn ( James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) entering the world of the rich and their clichés. Christine Baranski guest stars as a billionaire hedge fund manager’s widow who dies in a mysterious plane crash but only after he extracts a promise from Shawn to find out who killed him. Hilarity unfolds as usual as Shawn stumbles upon the signature skeletons in the double door walk in closets of the rich- affairs, scandals, estranged children, white collar crime… the works in efforts to find the murderer.
While the crime plot was interesting and fun there were too many issues I had with the episode to make me a fan, the first of them being the criminal under utilization of Lassie (Tim Omundosn) and Jules (Maggie Lawson). They had like three lines…combined which while I understood were the compulsions of the script is something that bugged me. Thank God for the totally kickass, ATV/bike (I don’t know what you call them) scene, or I would have been very unhappy.
Coming to this season’s endeavor at exploring Shawn’s love life and complication with the presence of his high school sweetheart Abigail (Rachael Leigh Cook), this episode did not impress me and none of it had anything to do with the fact that I root for Shawn and Jules. In the past, efforts at addressing some of the issues in Shawn’s life, which he does have plenty of has usually been very well executed considering the small ratio of time it’s awarded in proportion to the mystery solving part of the show. But this time, there was a lot left to be desired. While I do have my own biases about the whole Shawn and Abigail situation (duh!). Objectively, I didn’t think much of her presence on the show in this episode. The earlier chemistry from ‘Murder, Anyone, Anyone…Bueller’ and ‘An Evening with Mr.Yang’ was simply missing between the two characters due to no fault to the actors who played them. Where are the clever lines and the comebacks people? Relationship Shawn is kind of boring and suddenly I think I see the wisdom in the decision of the powers that be to keep Shawn and Jules apart. If this is the way they should behave in a relationship, I wouldn’t want them getting together too.
Regarding what Abigail did about meeting Henry ( Corbin Bernson) behind Shawn’s back, I cannot say I approve. One for the obvious reason that it was clearly not her place. But then she’s dating Shawn and since Shawn would so do something like that and we would clearly enjoy it a lot, It would be hypocritical of me to judge her. But my lament is that it killed what could have been perhaps a very funny and entertaining introductory meeting between the three characters. Instead we see this bland coffee meeting between two characters without any of the context. Similarly the dinner scene too turned out to be this highly uncomfortable thing but not in a good way. The context once again was missing. It is understandable that it is difficult to squeeze in a personal storyline in a procedural, but this whole thing just felt forced and flat even though it was an interesting premise that held potential. I am glad that this wasn’t selected for the season premiere. I would have been disappointed.
Intelligible Television: Why ‘Psych’ is Awesome..Period!
August 8, 2009 at 10:43 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Shows, Television, Uncategorized | 2 CommentsTags: Cary Elwes, Dule Hill, Extradition: British Columbia, James Roday, Maggie Lawson, Psych, season premiere, Steve Franks, Tim Omundson, USA network
Shawn and Gus chase after an elusive art thief in the 4th season premiere of Psych
Sometimes, I am extremely tempted to make my blog all about television. It’s so much fun to write about and strangely therapeutic. It takes all the fan-girlishness out of me and channels it into something a bit more structured and coherent. And when my obsession with a show reaches the disturbing levels as it has with ‘Psych’, I almost think it’s necessary to express it in a way that is more than random squealing.
If you don’t already know, ‘Psych’ which airs on USA network is a dramedy about Shawn: a slacker with photographic memory and keen observation who pretends to be a psychic and solves cases along with his friend Gus. While it might be only be the zillionth procedural you don’t watch Psych for the mystery. Not really. You watch it for the absurd and hilarious shenanigans, for the best bromance to have ever been seen on TV after ‘Scrubs’, for obscure Eighties references and for writing of a level that is brilliant and slapstick at the same time.
So after what seemed like forever (to me and my Twitter buddies. I am pretty sure the six month time space continuum passed pretty much like six months for the rest of the universe), the quirky crime-fighting duo of Shawn and Gus finally made it back on our screens for the fourth season. But not from sunny Santa Barbara where the show is set at , but the snowy peaks of British Columbia, Canada. The season premiere titled ‘Extradition : British Columbia’ finds Shawn ( James Roday) and Gus ( Dule Hill) off to a ski vacation in Whistler which gets disrupted with an international art thief , Pierre Despereux played by Cary Elwes of ‘The Princess Bride’ fame showing up in town whom Shawn recognizes from Lassiter’s wall of most wanted. Pretending to be Head Detective to solicit the local police’s help, Shawn attempts to nab Despereux with Lassiter (Tim Omundson) and Juliet (Maggie Lawson) flying down to assist. What follows is an entertaining forty minutes complete with a dig at the ’The Mentalist’, the standard Canada joke or two, talking to raccoons, An ‘Entrapment’ laser spoof and some less than stellar skiing on part of the guys all of which is rounded off nicely with an adorable, aww worthy non-date between Shawn and Jules.
Lassiter’s frustration at not being able to have a gun and exude his usual authority, being out of his jurisdiction is amusing as is Cary Elwes’ portrayal of the gentleman criminal as he speaks in clipped tones and wears designer loafers. As fans of the show would know, the show is actually filmed in Vancouver where it does a decent job of masquerading as being set in California. With the need to pretend obviously not there in this particular episode, panoramic shots of popular tourist destination like the Capilano Bridge and Stanley Park and the city skyline have been added gleefully for the simple fact that they can be shown.
As far as season premieres go, even without the staple dead body, ‘Extradition: British Columbia’ doesn’t disappoint. It delivers it’s signature blend of humor and wit while successfully addressing some of the developments in Season 3 namely Shawn’s attempts at rekindling romance with high school crush Abigail (Rachael Leigh Cook) and the interesting twist it has for the Shawn and Juliet storyline. Season 4 finds the fake psychic attempting to negotiate a fledgling relationship with Abigail while reconciling with the abruptly changed dynamic of his little more than friendship with Juliet. Roday brings out some unseen nuances to the character of Shawn as he awkwardly and endearingly fumbles through conversations wiht Juliet before oh so sweetly proclaiming to refuse to be uncomfortable around her, because she means too much to him. Maggie Lawson too does well at keeping Juliet non-dramatic and composed. Episode writer and show creator Steve Franks thankfully keeps out any exaggerated heartbreak or pining from weighing in upon the lightness of the show. While I must admit, the shipper in me was less than thrilled about yanking the flirtatious element between the two characters, there is a new and heightened awareness of feelings for each other which is sure to lend to the depth of the show.
All in all, ‘Extradition..’ sets the tone perfectly for season ahead.
Intelligible Television: More New Shows and not all impress
March 19, 2009 at 11:39 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Media, Shows, Television, Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: ABC, BBC, better off ted, Castle, doll house, dollhouse, Eliza Dushku, fringe, HBO, Jill castle, Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, No.1 ladies detctive agecy, Portia de Rossi, Television, the listener
Reserving judgement on Castle paid off. The second episode was impressive and more than compensated for the average pilot. In ‘Nanny McDead’, Castle and Beckett investigate the death of a nanny whose body is found tumbling in the basement dryer of an apartment building. What ensues is your regular crime drama route with cheating spouses and obsessed lovers before our duo nail the guilty. It’s entertaining because of Nathna Fillion ’s apt comic timing that cracks you up at the most serious moments in the episode. If he keeps it up and which am hoping it does, Rick Castle may just join the elite and yet endless number of wise cracking and devilishly charming crime solvers that we disapprove of but can’t help liking. Side note on nannies on crime shows? First Psych, now these guys.
- Things get more interesting on Dollhouse.
- Castle is promising with dead pan humour and one liners
Dollhouse continues to simmer with untold mystery as Echo (Eliza Dushku) becomes a blind woman to infiltrate a religious cult, suspected of being a cover for trafficking activities in last week’s episode. Laurence’s ( Reed Diamond) dislike of Echo and his fears that she is following the same path as the elusive Alpha become more evident in this episode, as he attempts to trap her in a fire by knocking her unconscious.
Another interesting development is the budding relationship between Victor (Enver Gjokaj ) and Sierra (Dichen Lachman) who are drawn to each other despite having no idea of what attraction is. The show has managed to maintain a steady momentum and according to show creator Joss Whedon, it’s about to get so much better. This week’s coming episode brings our star even if slightly malfunctioning active face to face with Paul ( Tahmoh Penikett) in what should be an interesting setting. Check out more juicy spoilers and news on what’s next on Dollhouse on E Online!
On the subject of new shows, I caught a slew of them over the last few days and some of them I am definitely putting on my RSS feed while others, not so much. The Canadian show, The Listener about a telepathic paramedic played by Craig Olejnik, who uses his gift to solve crimes is strictly okay and doesn’t really do much for me. The pace of the episodes is a little too sluggish and it doesn’t have a very definitive hook that could set it apart from the any number of crime series on television. The same can be said about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, a BBC and HBO joint production which has premiered in the UK and is dues to be broadcast in the US. Based on a series of novels that go by the same name by Alexander McCall Smith, the show is about Botswana’s only female detective, Mma Ramotswe played by Jill Castle. The plot is a tad simplistic and reminiscent of crime fiction for children ala Enid Blyton. But some might enjoy it precisely for it’s simplicity, because its a throw back to a ‘follow the suspect’ sort of investigation instead of the complex procedurals that we get to see most of the time. In the first episode which is 55 minutes long, Mma Ramotswe solves three parallel cases and jumpstarts her near to bankruptcy agency.
If you though Fringe was ridiculous you’ll simply love Better off Ted where they freeze employees alive, a new sitcom on ABC about an unscrupulous mega think tank and it’s ethically plagued R & D Chief. Jay Harrington plays Ted, a single father and corporate hot shot who along with a healthy mix of managerial and lab staff makes everything and anything from uncomfortable office chairs to pumpkin bio weapons. It’s funny and brilliant and absurd and I love it. Portia de Rossi, Malcolm Barrett, Jonathan Slavin, Andrea Anders and Isabella Acres co star.
Intelligible Television: Bones that become soggy….
March 13, 2009 at 12:20 am | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Shows, Television | 1 CommentTags: Bones, Crime, Davd Boreanaz, Drama, Emily Deschanel, Fox, Televison
A still from The Bones That Foam: Brennan and Booth at the jungle themed dealership!
Bones is back after a staggered and ruptured hiatus with last night’s episode ‘The Bones That Foam’. If you haven’t inferred anything from the obvious title, the bones of a car salesman are foaming and disintegrating at an alarming double digit percentage per hour and the quirky team at the Mythical Jeffersonian only have a few hours before their evidence dissolves into green slime.
It’s the turn of fact-obsessed Vincent Nigel Murray played by Ryan Cartwright to be Dr.Brennan’s intern from the bag of rotating, quirky grad students. His fascination with out- of -context trivia and Cam’s exasperation with the same are amusing as ever as he attempts to regain focus at his task by recalling how many pair of chopsticks the Chinese dispose annually (900 million!) The punch line really is when Cam asks him if those are individual or pairs! Brennan’s attempts at learning how to manipulate while interrogation from Suites are hilarious as is her debut in the holding cell, where she pulls off the worst bad cop act in history, much to the amusement of Booth. Lead actor, David Boreanaz’s direction is adequate.
The sub-plot of the episode is average at best, and the storyline feels a little thin. Also, the sparse use of Angela and Hodgins is not very satisfying. The lack of their comic and bitter sweet exchanges is something, I hope the writers work on rectifying ASAP. On the whole, no complaints but it could have been better.
Intelligible Television:Winter Line-up, Dollhouse and why I am liking it..
March 11, 2009 at 11:43 pm | In Entertainment, Intelligible Television, Media, Shows, Television, Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: ABC, Castle, Crime, CW, doll house, dollhouse, Drama, Eliza Dushku, Fox, Nathan Filllion, Privileged, Psych, Show, Shows, Television, The Mentalist
It’s been a bad year for television and not just in a budget cuts, recession way. Many of the new shows which premiered this fall expected to be runaway hits, fell flatter than their non-existent storylines, with a few not even making it past their third episode. The only visible smash hit off the year, The Mentalist is nothing more than a grim, sophisticated knock off of the quirkier and definitely better Psych while Privileged, yet another tapered down and PG-13 take on rich and famous and completely fabulous teenagers who can’t seem to get through high school without everybody sleeping with everybody else has been left hanging in the air with no green light for a second season yet.
Shows that premiere in winter are seldom given the kind of hype that Fall line-ups receive. You’re already thinking, they’re on now because they weren’t good enough to be on in September along with the other new shiny on TV. But Dollhouse has been the entire buzz for quite some time before it went on in February. Yes, it is one more high budget, sci-fi show based on an utterly ridiculous premise that the people at Fox seem so adept at coming up with. But just like the other super absurd show on Fox, a little marvel of directionless yet interesting writing I like to call Fringe, it has me hooked.
People who can be made and unmade for specific tasks and engagements through a process of imprinting and then wiped clean when the job gets done: That’s what Dollhouse is all about. Eliza Dushku plays Echo, one of the ‘actives’ of the dubious company with a sketchy past that has driven her to having her memories erased and becoming a blank slate or the Tabula Rasa. She floats around in her spa like residence, swimming and doing yoga and gliding clueless by her other inmates when she’s not being transformed into a K & R negotiator or a safe cracker by a narcissistic genius scientist, Topher (Franz Kranz). Throw in a Fed obsessed with finding the Dollhouse, a mysterious, Frankenstein ‘active’ gone wrong whose out for Echo, and a former cop with ethical dilemmas turned bodyguard to empty headed Echo who can’t help being a trouble magnet even if the poor thing can’t remember it and you have quite a show on your hands. Oh also, the thing about our doll- her slate is not quite so blank. She’s assimilating bits and pieces from each of her assignments and no one has realized it yet.
- Eliza Dushku in Dollhouse- She can be anyone you want!
Castle, which premiered on ABC this Monday starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic is a crime show about a bad boy author and a prudishly cold homicide detective who partner up to solve a copycat case based on his book. Think Brennan and Booth, but not really and you’ll get a sense of what Castle is about. Rick Castle is our rakishly, irresponsible (he hands a glass of champagne to his under age daughter, convincing her to generate wild stories about teenage years to tell her offspring someday) uber-successful author who doesn’t care for the rules, having just killed off the lead character of his books, much to the chagrin of his ex-wife/publisher and is going through the convenient writer’s block that has his upcoming book nine weeks over-due. Enter Kate Beckett, homicide detective, who has read every book he’s every written but is not a fan of him or his ways. Pit the stiff- upper lip crime fighter with the ‘ I only speak in sexual innuendos’ crime author and you have a partnership that simmers and bubbles over with sexual chemistry unlike the carefully restrained and amusing even if , antagonistic bickering of our Bones duo.
The crime plotline is secondary at least in the first episode. Given that Castle has found his muse and next lead character in Beckett whom he intends to stick with for the purposes of ’research’ , it is likely to stay that way. The show is promising because of it’s ‘ I love to hate’ lead character even if it may not have the most engaging sub-plot. Hoping that it finds the right angle of humour if not substance, I think I’ll reserve my verdict until the next instalment.
Reaper comes back for a devilish second season
In other news, Reaper is back with a much awaited second season, taking the place of afore mentioned Privileged on CW. So, Sam is the son of the Devil. It’s official! A fact that doesn’t seem to bother him nearly as much as it should. He’s found a possibility of getting out of his deal as bounty hunter after meeting a soul whose managed to get out of hell for good. Soc has an Asian step-sister, he has a completely inappropriate crush on and Ben is finding romance with a renegade demon who’s after Sam. Yup, seems just about right. The episodes so far have the same mix of quirky humour and action that made me a fan last season. Satan is temptation himself, playing his part to perfection as he goes about spreading evil because it’s fun and the trio manage to lead their directionless lives and sending souls back to hell, when they’re not goofing off work.
All in all, the winter line-up seems a little more interesting than Fall and hopefully with the reduced clutter of reality junk and other shows, some might actually get the chance to develop into wholesome entertainment.
Intelligible Television
December 5, 2008 at 12:11 am | In Entertainment, Media, Shows, Television, journalism | 1 CommentHey, here I go again. Starting one more of my famous segments. I know it’s a little weird that I keep doing that given that there are no comments to show anybody is reading what I write. But then, you know… Blogs are anyway about seeking attention, or so I read in The Hindu once.
So I watch a lot of television, and I mean a lot. But the thing is, Its not really on TV as such. Its largely American shows that I download from the internet. I kinda gave up on Indian TV a long time ago. Right about the time, I started college and went to stay at a hostel. Having no TV of your own, forces you to resort to finding other means of entertainment. The momentous discovery of utorrent has probably been the most defining point of my life. Given the sacharine dipped, melodramatic fare that is served to you on Star Plus and Sony, I think I made the right choice in switching loyalties to ABC, CW, CBS, NBC and Fox. Call me unpatriotic, snobbish, west -obsessed, or whatever. I think a selected and emphasis on selected here, portion of American primetime programming is really phenomenal compared to the staggering, repeat motion sequences of our soaps and reality shows.
For one, these shows are seasonal and weekly. You don’t need to agonize over missing a day or sit glued to the television all year long. Secondly, they actually have something of a plotline, not just families in over-the-top clothing, sitting in their living rooms and talking about themselves. They also have more genres of programming. Not everything is a love story or a family soap. There are investigative series, teenage dramas, sitcoms, variety shows, comedies and such.
So given the obvious advantages and my own aversion to soppy content, I have now regularly timed myself with the fall season of the US. Ask me about season premieres, returning series, hiatus, holiday specials, cancellations and I can tell you exactly what they mean. Ask me who’s playing Tulsi on Kyunki.. I won’t have a clue.
So here’s a list of the shows I watch- Desperate Housewives, Fringe, Priveleged, The Big Bang Theory, How I met your Mother, Bones, Psych, The Colbert Report, Saturday Night live and 30 Rock. So here’s what I am going to do henceforth. Taking inspiration from some of my favourite television blogs like RTVW and TV aholic , I am going to try and do some reviews and commentary on these shows. While part of it will be as proffesional as I’ve learnt from three and half years of journalism, sometimes I’ll just engage in some feel-good gushing.
So watch out this space in case you’re looking for any help in deciding your schedule.
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