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New Shows I'm Watching/Trying:
Arrow
I liked it more then I expected to. There were a few episodes in the middle of the first half that I think the show handled really well, and I enjoyed them but it's the first and last ones that I had quite a few issues with it. The show is good enough and showed enough promise that I'm willing to continue watching the rest of the season. But if it doesn't improve and goes in the direction the last few leading to Year's End did, I can't see myself sticking with it past this season.
- The Laurel and Oliver relationship doesn't work at all. There is nothing about it that makes sense to me. They haven't done enough to get me to buy into the idea that Laurel would have fallen for the version of Oliver we saw before his time on the island. Let alone that after all these years, the events surrounding her sisters death, and in spite of his treatment towards her after he came home, she would still love him and want to be around him as much as she does. She comes of as too much of a doormat because of it.
Laurel character is one of the weakest parts of the show. Once they stopped giving her a caset o try each episode, it became clear that she could definitely sit out an episode without truly effecting the show in any major way. In the last few episodes, with exception of when they tried to revisit the Laurel/Oliver thing for one scene during the Helena arc, she was there to be supporting character in Tommy's (another supporting characters) storyline. Her relationship with Oliver seems to be all that she brings to the show and that is more about him, then her as a character. The same can be said about her relationship with Tommy, tbh.
Issues with the characters aside, Katie Cassidy is not right for the role. While I wouldn't say the rest of the cast are made up of great actors, they do a good enough job on the show. Katie was miscast. She doesn't bring any kind of strength and toughness to Laurel. Nor does she do a convincing enough job with the emotional side of things either. The material she's given is weak, but I feel she could have quite a few more redeeming moments in the hands of better actress. And I could view her as more of a potentially good character who the producers are not giving a proper chance, rather then pretty weak one who doesn't bring much to the show on her own.
- I liked the way the show handled the conflict surrounding Oliver when it comes to how his methods are viewed. I prefer when the show can be open to the idea that what he is doing isn't right, something Oliver is fully aware of, but also feels is necessary. And they did good job with that aspect during the middle of the first half and it was one of the reasons I enjoyed those episodes.
When the show wants to ignore that and have him preach about morals and view his actions as acceptable, that's where they lose me. And that's where I feel they went during the Helena storyline. The idea of them working together and having issues with each others methods is fine but putting Oliver in a position to teach her about what's acceptable and what's not, takes it too far. A character like Diggle is better suited to have these types of moments with her. This is not role that Oliver belongs in (based on how he as been portrayed on the show) and one of the things that worked so well in first half was when it became clear the show wasn't going that direction. So that arc took away lot of my enjoyment of the show. I am hoping it was a small misstep rather than a choice to changes directions with this storyline.
- From the supporting cast Diggle, Tommy, and Laurel's father seem to stand out as characters I wouldn't mind seeing more of. Especially Diggle, as long as they don't turn him into someone who is just there to dish out a few words of wisdom every once in a while.
- They need to do a better job with the female characters. Laurel aside, Moira and Thea aren't really any better written. Not that the mother was that interesting to begin, but with mystery surrounding her and the way she was originally portrayed as being the one or one of the people in control, was alot more interesting then now where she seems to just be someone who got herself into a tough position. I don't think it's a reach to say this was one of those occasions where the showrunners decided to switch directions. Because it seemed pretty clear in the first few episodes that she was meant to be one of the bad guys, or at the very least someone with more power and control over what was happening rather a woman who got herself in over head, as she as been portrayed in last few episodes. Thea's one of those characters whose actions are sometimes understandable yet those scenes can still be aggravating to have to watch. Especially in her case since so far, with exception of few moments, she seems to exist just to have those scenes where Oliver gets to be angsty about how he is hurting the people he cares about since he as been home. That's fine to focus on that every once in a while, since he as been a jerk to them since he as been back, but there needs to be more to her.
Bunheads
I've watched the first ten episodes so far. It's entertaining and harmless fun. It took me some time to take to the main character. The actress doesn't have the ability to sell that type of dialogue the way Lauren or Alexis did on Gilmore Girls. And it did get grating a few times early on. But after a while it either got better or I got used to it.
It's light, entertaining and generally fun. The teenage charactares are surprisngly entertaining too, when they don't go overboard with boy drama. Wasn't a fan of that but rest of them time, I don't mind them at all.
Smash
I'm up to 1x14 and I think I'd like this show so much more of it didn't expect me to find to take certain characters and storylines as seriously as I think the producers do. Or like certain characters as much as they want me too, especially Karen.
Ivy is good character when they aren't doing things that make feel is done solely to convince people that Karen is the good and deserving one on this show and the one we should be rooting for, in spite of how talented Ivy is. I like Tom. He seems to be the only one who isn't drowning in ridiculous angst and is generally focused on the play. The show is pretty entertaining when the focus on the musical and less on the characters personal drama. Usually it's good thing when they show wants to flesh out it's characters, but on this one, most of the characters are either boring or aggravating.
Derek is an ass and not a particularly entertaining one, with exception of a few random moments. Dev, the girl he works with, and the assistant whose name I can't remember are all dull and irritating and I can't understand the need to spend that much time on them. I know Dev's character effects Karen, but I don't think they really needed to spend that much time on him away from her.
Julia's son may be one of the most ridiculous characters on tv. And the actor playing him is equally bad. I don't know if they are under the impression that they are writing some great family drama here or what but his lines are cringeworthy. The rest of the family isn't better. Julia annoys me to no end. I've sympathized with characters who cheated before, I just don't anything about particularly likeable or sympathetic about her. And I feel the shows wants me to.
But the biggest problem is Karen. Not only is she completely bland, the show as spent too much time giving Ivy more depth and spent more time showing us how talented and deserving she is of this role then they have with Karen. Megan is also a far better actress then Katherine. Just having Karen walk around being nice and sweet all the time and having everyone constantly praising her and looking floored by her talent (everytime they find excuses to have her sing in front of a crowd) isn't enough to ignore everything we've seen from Ivy/Megan and make us root for her anyway. I feels too much like it comes down to Karen is nice and Ivy is awful and that's why we should root for Karen. It doesn't work. I wouldn't dislike Karen so much (mostly just find her boring) if the show wasn't telling me I should love her, root for her, and consider her the star of the show. I wouldn't say Katerine is bad (acting wise maybe) but you can't put her next to Megan, in terms of acting, singing, and character wise and expect me to view her as being superior or the one who should rightly be considered the star of the show.
Elementary - I liked mostly for the two leads. I think by the end I really saw a lot of (platonic) chemistry there and I was really enjoying their dynamic. Enough for me to keep watching.
I'm not ready to judge it yet for this since I've only seen the pilot, but I think I may end up having the same problem that I did with Castle. The cases are dull as hell and barely able hold my attention. I had to force myself to pay attention to the details of a case. The thing about shows like this, is that they mysteries these characters are solving need to actually be interesting or entertaining. It's more fun watch how the characters put everything together if we are actually interested in actual mysetry itself, imo. Monk used to do this extremely well.
My Usual Shows:
Dexter - Really should have known it wouldn't last.
The season started out so well and it had a great run there for a while, but it really started to go downhill somewhere after the second half once the show moved away from the Deb and Dexter dynamic, and moved the focus on Hannah.
I like Yvonne Strahovski and I was looking forward to seeing her on the show. But her character turned out to be one of the weakest aspects of the season. And it's not helped that I feel two of the strongest elements of this season (Deb and Dexter's relationship after his secret was revealed and Isaak's character) were either put aside or ended up being used as little more then a prop in Hannah and Dexter's story.
Big mistake in playing down the best parts of this season to accomdate this storyline. Her character and storyline are not only uninteresting but this storyline, character, and writing feels like something that belongs in s5-s6 era of Dexter, not on the type of show it managed to become for few episodes at the beginning of this season.
I haven't watched the last episode yet. Even if the manage to turn things around with a great episode it will still feel like season where they squandered so much potential in the second half.
The Good Wife
- Thankfully the Nick and Kalinda storyline is over. It was as bad as I imagined it would be. The producers have mentioned that they got rid of the character faster then they planned to due to fan reaction. But I honestly I can't imagine what was originally supposed to be the point of all this? It just felt like more of the same in each episode. And it never really added anything to the show or the characters involved. Since s2, I've bene hoping the showrunners found way to flesh out Klainda's character but at this point, I will settle for them just focusing on Kalinda as an investigator and friendship with Alicia and Will. Because the show doesn't seem to know how to write storylines for her at all.
- Those Cary and Alicia scenes in the episode with his father was some of my favorite of the whole season. I love those two when they are getting along. We need to see them wokring together more often. And they ened to stop sidelining him so much.
- Not really having a problem with them re-visiting Peter and Alicia like I assumed I would. Their scenes have been pretty good. I like how at ease Peter and Alicia have become around each other. It lighter and even fun at times. Alicia's "I don't care" this season attitude is probably largely to blame for that and it works. With Will becoming more overly seriously and kinda broody since s3, it's nice change of pace for now, imo. And another reason why for the time being I'm okay with taking break from that pairing for now.