I'm sure we all have at least one television show that we enjoy watching, regardless of whether it's still ongoing or if it's already been finished. What show have you been watching lately? Recently, I've been sucked into The Walking Dead. I'd seen a few episodes here and there before, but only within the last week or so have I actually gotten around to watching the whole thing from the beginning. I've gotta say, I'm really enjoying it so far; I watched all of season one last week, and this week, I've been watching season two when I can. I just got to the part where (spoilers) Shane leaves Otis for dead at the school, brings back the medical equipment for Carl, and then shaves his head. I'm only a few episodes into the season, but so far, it's holding up well against the first, which was pretty damn good.
I've been watching Person of Interest. I became addicted it to since it premiered and was thrilled to see it picked up for a second season since so many shows that year just... died. Hopefully it goes into Season 3 and beyond. It's just terrific. If you like The Dark Knight (and I do, a lot) or Inception or just that general Nolan-noire vibe, then this show is for you. Helps that it was created and written by Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathon. It's like having a weekly Dark Knight show. The premise that gives the show an edge over the multitude of crime shows on TV is that the goal for the main characters here is to prevent violent crimes from happening, not solve them after the fact. You know the surveillance device in the last act The Dark Knight? The show plays out a bit like a what-if on that. What if Batman continued to use the device, instead of destroy it. Except without the costumes or super villains (think more the crime, mob, crooked cop angle of TDK). A whole elaborate backstory exists for the "Machine" and is slowly revealed as the episodes go on, tieing it into a post-9/11 world. The voice over during the intro-credits of every episodes sums it up nicely: "You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people, people like you. Crimes the government considered irrelevant. They wouldn't act, so I decided I would. But I needed a partner, someone with the skills to intervene. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You'll never find us, but victim or perpetrator, if your number's up... we'll find you". John Reese, a former CIA agent with a mysterious/troubling background fulfills the Batman role. He's known as "the man in the suit" (which is a business suit). Like Batman he has a no killing policy, but he is most definitely not anti-gun (he seems to like shooting knee caps). Also a lot brooding. Harold Finch covers several Batman characters. While Reese is Batman, Finch is more like Bruce Wayne. A recluse billionaire. Mixed in with Alfred's heart and the tech genious of Lucius Fox (or, Oracle from the comics and Arkham games). He also has a traumatic past. He built the "Machine" and found Reese as a partner. Detective Carter is a kind of like Commissioner Gordon. And Detective Fusco is like Harvey Bullock from the Batman Animated Series. At least in terms of personality. If I need to keep going with the analogy, the Zoe Morgan character is like Selina Kyle. Batman references aside, the show is technically a serial. Every episode is essentially stand alone with a plot that takes up just that one episode to tell. There's a bit of a "person/crime of the week" feel, but there are also many on-going story and character arcs that put this show just on the border of a serial and something more like, say, Lost. The presence of HR (crooked cop department) and Elias (a new mob boss increasing his influence in New York City) is continually felt even if they aren't the villains of that episode. The mob aspect too, is a lot like Batman (moreso the comics). It feels a lot like Falcone vs Maroni and the five families of the comics. Oh, and then there's Root. Who is kinda like a mild lady-Joker in terms of crazy, but as a computer hacker. Another strength of the show is how it can change things up just a tiny bit. Some episodes are much lighter in tone (one episode had a baby as the person of interest that week. Which led to a lot of comical "couples banter" between Reese and Finch as they looked after her), other are not. Last week's episode was completely devoid of Reese (the main character) focusing strictly on Finch and Fusco, and it was one of the best yet. ....I made this sound way too Batman-derivative :( Nonetheless the show is awesome and I am addicted to it. Watch it.
I second TRIFORCE89's notion to watch Person of Interest. It's just excellent television. Besides Person of Interest, I'm invested in a number of television shows currently. Just to name a few, I watch: - Revenge (my favorite) - Parenthood - Awkward. - Teen Wolf - The Vampire Diaries - The Walking Dead - American Horror Story - Once Upon A Time - The Following - Pretty Little Liars - The Lying Game - Switched at Birth - Bunheads - Arrow - Modern Family - Suburgatory - Grimm - Nikita ....and that's just a few of them I'm watching at the moment.
The only show I've picked up watching lately is The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon Cooper is the most amazing person ever. I can't watch it on Thursday night when it airs since I work, but I catch reruns whenever I notice they're on. I'm not a big TV watcher otherwise though. I watch The Daily Show and Colbert, but other than that I mostly just look at the guide and if I see anything I like, I turn it. Usually it winds up being stuff I grew up with like Everybody Loves Raymond and Home Improvement.
Only thing I've been watching lately is King of the Nerds. My roommates and I picked it up because a friend told us one of the contestants went to our university. I'd also heard good things about it from a gaming site I respect so we gave it a try. We ended up getting really hooked on it. The last episode is next week and I'm so worried about who will win. (Anyone but Danielle! Go Celeste!) Otherwise all my shows are on hiatus right now, lol. Game of Thrones picks up again at the end of the month and I think Doctor Who does too? Good thing, too, since I don't have time for much TV right now. @_@
Expanding beyond my original strangely long and one track post... I watch a lot of late night stuff. I watch The Tonight Show, Late Night, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan, Real Time, The Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. Each for different reasons. They all have different strengths. And then food shows like No Reservations, The Layover, Iron Chef, and Top Chef. And a lot of news / current interest shows. A lot of the time, I'll just have the TV on while I'm actually on my laptop. But, I like to have it tuned to stuff I'm interested in for whenever I glance up. Person of Interest is the only actual week, drama thing that I purposely watch and pay attention to though (laptops down XD) Woo, Raymond! Used to love that show when it was new. I never really watched it in re-runs although its on a lot. I'll gravitate more towards Simpsons re-runs and to a lesser extent Seinfeld.
King of the Nerds!! I found myself hooked onto that show more than I thought I would have. Waiting till next year to see Season 2 is going to be tough. Also, I love catching Everybody Loves Raymond repeats on television. I haven't watched it in awhile. but usually they air on FOX at night and I tend to be in bed by that time. I never see it airing during the day much sadly.
What was your favourite episode? Favourite contestant? Were you happy with the final outcome? Favourite Nerd-off and best challenge? n_n Let's talk about it to the point where we hijack the thread and it has to be split into a new one.
Alright! I honestly can't remember what my exact favorite episode was. At this point it's like it was all one huge competition put together in my head now. At the beginning I was really rooting for Alana, even though subconsciensly, I knew she wasn't going to get very far. I just felt like everybody on the show treated her so badly, I felt sorry for her. Although, when it came to the challenge that got her kicked out, that was all on her. She didn't study! Omg, that's one thing that I really learned from this. Study! Study! Study! When Alana left though, at that point I had really liked Moo (I honestly thought she would have won it all. She always seemed like the dark horse of the competition) and Celeste. So I was happy when Celeste won, but disappointed Moo lost the previous challenge in the episode before. That was literally the most nerve wracking hour when it came to the finale by the way. That Maze of Doom? Oh my gosh! Favorite challenge would probably be between "Nerdy Dancing" when they came up with their own anthem and the cos-play challange. Honestly, I liked a lot of the challenges though. You? Least Favorite challenge? Favorite nerd-off would be any of the ones Genevieve were in. She really surprised me each time I thought she would go home. Although, I did love the matching nerd off between Ivan and Joshua. That was pretty fun! Now, you! Gogogogo.
Aww, man I hated Alana. I thought she was really annoying and I just... know so many people just like her that seeing her on screen made me uncomfortable. She also offed a lot of people I really liked whenever she went to the Nerd Off. Genevieve was always one of my favourites so seeing her up against Alana who had inexplicably won every game she'd gone to so far REALLY made me nervous! I was on the edge of my seat and holding my breathe for most of that Nerd Off and cheered so loudly when Genevieve and the power of studying made it through. Alana's whining afterwards that "how was I supposed to know they'd ask questions on stuff that wasn't recent *baaaw*" was oh so sweet. :P She got a lot farther than I thought she would, though. I thought Moo would win the whole thing too. She played the reality TV game really well--she didn't really stand out but she wasn't completely unnoticeable either. She stayed out of drama so no one hated her. If she hadn't let her pride get in the way, I think she would have won in the end because she was so well-rounded. I really hate that she got out in her own field though--how did she do so badly on the PHYSICS game? And then losing the stacking one which, let's face it, was engineering... ouch. :( I felt so bad for her 'cause it must suck so much to lose there... at least most people felt out of their league when they lost. Honestly, I don't think Celeste was the one who really deserved to win the most--I think Genevieve was the better example of a nerd and did a lot better throughout the whole show. But I was rooting for Celeste anyway because she goes to my school and is also a girl in Computer Science (of which there aren't many, here) so I felt a connection, haha. I would have been happy with either her or Genevieve winning so long as it wasn't Danielle whom I really didn't like. :P I also liked Ivan through most of it but was glad he got out too because I really disliked how he tried to intimidate Virgil so much that time that he was sent to the Nerd Off a few episodes before the finale. I was totally rooting for the Blue team the whole way through so I tended to really dislike the subjective contests because I thought the judges often unfairly gave Orange points. (Especially in the debating one! Alana and Genevieve were 100% the winners in their respective debates, imo.) >
