The Year In Review: Tube ... (on DVD)
I cannot remember the last time that I watched something with regularity on TV. If I were to think really hard about it, it may have been NipTuck last year ... and of course, I still watch new SouthParks even though that it pretty hit and miss lately
What we have been doing over the past couple of years is watching a ton of TV on DVD. So here's TV ... err, on DVD for the year from our perspective.
Although we were late jumping on the bandwagon, FX's cop drama, The Shield, is really well done ... as I may have written before, I am not even in the remotest sense a CSI or LawNOrder person, so I would be the last person that a cop drama appeals to ... this one is not your father's cop drama, it's more of a drama with cops ... in other words, it's not really about the crime situations as much as it is about the moral choices of the people on the show. Seasons 1 and 2 were quite excellent, it started to dance with the sharks in 3 ... but supposedly S4 is really great (it came out last week in a big box)
In terms of the other loyal boxes that we watch, Alias and 24 ... what to say. Well, we watched through S3 for Alias, which was a very controversial season for most viewers ... almost like the Alias Load/Reload, to make a comparison. I didn't really think it was that bad, but I can see how some people got attached for the relationships between Syd and her pals (Felicity-ish from the creator of Fel, JJ Abrams). Well, I have a set of S4 collecting dust ... should be interesting to see what he did, when it was very apparent more of his focus lately has been on LOST and Mission Impossible 3
In terms of 24, Season 3 was kind of just okay ... I'm not saying it's dancing with the sharks. It was just that it looked like they were really running out of ideas in terms of how many perils could they throw at the good guys ... and the lazy lazy way in which they quickly resolved problems, I mean, it was like crash TV ... the situation would be very serious, and like clockwork 10 minutes later, it was solved so easily that it was like well what was the big deal about that ... it's almost like let's watch the puppets dance, okay let's try something else. I watched some of S4 live on Fox, and it seemed like they got back on track for the early part of S4, I have the set to watch to see how it all turned out
What to say about my former favorite show, NipTuck ... hooboy, after a spectacular first season, we watched the second season on TV weekly ... and this year, wow talk about jump the shark, especially with the Carver reveal ... and just losing focus that the show is really about the relationship between the two doctors
We dabbled a bit with The 4400, the USA series that is kind of a mix between the XMen and the XFiles ... the first season again was very solid, the second started to lose its way about midway through the season ... not sure if it will be back next year, again this one kind of lost sight of its winning formula that it was more about the people than the powers
Now, we are waist deep in season 3 of the OC ... and it is pretty hard to stick with it after last season's let's throw bologna at the wall approach. It always worries me when people start talking about a 90210-type legacy and they are only in season 2. Maybe that is the great theme of the year, there is a reason why people watch your show ... it is your formula. And though I acknowledge that formula can get tiresome if you have no more creative ideas several seasons down the road ... I don't get these guys that really shake it up for no reason ... and then later realize what it should be, and it feels so put on when you try to push formula stories among the broken pieces of continuity
Lots to still catch up on including the new Battlestar Galactica ... the neverending saga of watching stuff in my DVD pile