2012-2013 TV Wrap-Up

Not too long after the 2012-2013 TV season started, I posted my thoughts on a few of the shows that my family was watching. Now at the end of the season, I thought I would revisit those thoughts with the benefit of the whole picture.

Those that didn't make it:
There were a few shows that we watched and the dropped over the course of the year. Those included Suburgatory, Revolution and regrettably Suits. Suburgatory was dropped after one episode due to the lack of funny story lines and the seemingly too-hard trying to be quirky. Revolution made it much farther, but after the long hiatus and weak story lines, I have dropped to reading synopses online and haven't bothered to see how it ended. I would have preferred not to know how the power went out and have the story lines about rebuilding civilization and dealing with the difficulties of living without power. Lastly is Suits, which came back for the second part of Season two just after the holidays and really lost the two against difficult cases vibe that had worked for the show throughout Season one. Just haven't been able to get through the last four or five episodes yet.

Those that won't be picked up for next year (by us):
When I say picked up, I mean buying a season pass on iTunes so that I can see the episodes the day after they air. This list includes shows like Hart of Dixie (wife and daughter were watching this one) and The Big Bang Theory (BBT). We have enjoyed BBT for years and own every season so far on DVD or digitally. This season saw many stale jokes and situations, short episode times and a major lack of character growth. Some of the characters are made too "bitchy", some never learn from their mistakes and others aren't allowed to have enough screen time eventhough they are most of what made this last season even partially watchable. The Penny character has become lame with her dealing with everything with either snide comments or drinking heavily. Sheldon on the other hand continues to be the most consistently funny character but the lack of growth until the very last few episodes was disappointing as well. Maybe we'll pick up the 2013 - 2014 season on DVD in Fall 2014.

Show that was okay, but has been cancelled:
Go On. They really should make that group session video on YouTube lamenting the show being cancelled that I tweeted about after the cancellation. I will miss John Cho's character the most of any on the show.

Shows we will be glad to see back next year:
This list is pretty small, but the main one here is Elementary. The show was good and the chemistry between the lead actors is as well. We (my wife and I watch this one) also liked that they didn't fall into the "must have a cliffhanger" finale trap and gave some resolution while there definitely being more stories to tell. Lost Girl also is in this category eventhough the ending did have a cliffhanger that really wasn't necessary. See the review for the season here.

Shows I am having to wait for, but will be watching when they hit DVD:
This list covers shows that either we caught the pilot episode but weren't able to get the others or we didn't want to get the season pass. Vikings from the History Channel, Game of Thrones season 3 (naturally), Orphan Black from the BBC and Supernatural. We have been hearing good things about all of these and were surprised by the resurgence of Supernatural since we gave up after the Leviathan story line had been so annoying. Be interesting to see if it as good as the "buzz" is saying. I am also looking forward to giving Defiance a try too.

Best show of the year: Elementary

Runner up: Lost Girl

Update: Honorable Mentions: Grimm and Continuum

That's it. The year over and a couple months to wait for shows to come back. Maybe I can get caught up on older shows I didn't get to when they aired like Fringe, Eureka, Warehouse 13, etc.

Be back soon with new reviews.

Fall 2012 TV Review

My family and I don’t have regular TV in our house. We watch all of our TV online, through Netflix (DVDs or on-demand) or by purchasing the shows through iTunes. Surprisingly, that doesn’t keep us from missing out too much on what comes out each year. We have also found it cheaper to buy Season Passes than to have cable TV for more than a year now. What it does make us do is choose what we want to watch more carefully and not waste our time on crappy shows just because they are on. In this post, I will cover all of the shows we are watching and those that we have stopped.

Go On – This NBC comedy starring Matthew Perry as Ryan King is one of our favorite new shows and about the only comedy we are still watching besides the Big Bang Theory. I have watched a lot of failed Matthew Perry shows since Friends and this one finally seems to get it right. We get a sarcastic and self-centered character for Perry to play. We also get an ensemble cast of likeable weird people who are part of the grief support group that Ryan King joins when dealing with the loss of his wife. There is some out there quirkiness going on in the show, but it is consistently fun and funny. Four Mick Happies.

Elementary – The Sherlock Holmes in New York with a lady Watson show. This new procedural drama has the right mix of smart insight by Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), banter with Dr. Watson (Lucy Liu) and everything is wrapped up in ~42 minutes. I am a big fan of the BBC Sherlock show and this is not it and is good all on its own. There is definitely room in my viewing world for both. Besides, Elementary’s Holmes seems way more edgy and at risk of drug relapse (and associated problems) than the BBC version Holmes. If you want to buy it like we do, iTunes has the Season Pass in SD for only $24.99 (about a dollar an episode). Also Four Mick Happies.

Malibu Country – Reba McEntire’s new comedy about a recently divorced woman making it on her own with her kids. We gave this one two episodes and stopped in the middle of the second. It isn’t as good and the cast isn’t as interesting as her former Reba show. Lily Tomlin is good as her mother, but that isn’t enough to carry any show or we wouldn’t be waiting for The New Normal to come out on DVD (Ellen Barkin ruled that show in the pilot). Malibu Country gets two Mick Happies.

Suburgatory – This little comedic look at up-scale suburban living us by surprise last year and we really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the delay between seasons has left us feeling that the best was behind for this show. The jokes seem the same, the characters also seem the same, but it just wasn’t as funny this time around in the first two episodes we watched. Don’t think we will be giving Suburgatory a full season pick up in our house. Two to three Mick Happies.

Revolution – The post-apocalyptic show from Eric Kripke on NBC. The show is set in a future where all forms of electricity have stopped and looks at how things might be eleven years after that event. Some of this show really scratches my dystopian future genre itch and the writers are trying to have reason behind how it happened and (if) it can be fixed, but the stories and situations are pretty far fetched. I have been watching this online from NBC.com and will probably keep watching though I find I have to really work up to finding the 45 minutes to tune in. At best three Mick Happies.

Big Bang Theory – The king of all comedies right now. We have all of the seasons on DVD or in iTunes and have been watching this one as a family. It is too bad that this season seems to be going downhill for us. We are not as amused by the typical jokes. My wife and I discussed it and where the show is losing us is:

·      Leonard and Penny – these two need to break up.

·      Penny – she needs something other than drinking and back and forth relationship with Leonard.

·      Howard – needs to grow up a bit. C’mon, man, you’re married to Bernadette (one of the more interesting characters on the show).

One of the few bright points, besides Sheldon (as always), has been the budding “bromance” between Stuart and Raj. The other is Alex, Sheldon’s new assistant. More of that, less of the 3 bullets above please. We are still watching, but just less amused. Three Mick Happies.

Grimm – This is one of our favorite shows right now. It is based on the premise that all of the Fairy Tales creatures are real and hiding amongst us. The Grimm are people who are descended from the Brothers Grimm who can see the creatures for what the really are and have traditionally hunted them. Grimm is a procedural cop show with a supernatural element and season one was good and season two (this year) is as well. We are about eight episodes in (out of 12 aired to date) and liking it. The only nit to pick here is the storyline about Juliette’s memory – if you are watching you know how annoying it is. This show has supplanted Supernatural as our supernatural weekly fix – Four Mick Happies.

Other mentions of shows we liked but aren’t watching this year:

Supernatural – The wife has seen everything up to the end of last season and I have watched most of them as well. The end of last season was a let down with where the characters ended up. Felt too much like that time when Dean went to Hell and Sam was left on Earth. Maybe we will catch this season when it hits Netflix next fall. Certainly didn’t seem worth us paying to see the week they air – we can wait if we watch at all.

Raising Hope – We have been big fans of Raising Hope since it started, but gave up after last season when they killed the pig (the new version of Jump the Shark) and brought back Hope’s mom. Haven’t watched and probably won’t until a far future date when it is the only thing available on Netflix on demand.