Chuck

I'm an optimist. I am more likely to enjoy something than not. I want to like things, and often genuinely do. But every once in a while I just can't fake it.

It's actually very strange, because I do love the actors in this show. And normally if I love the actors, I won't notice if I don't like the show. But alas... 

Chuck starts off great. It's funny, action packed, and interesting. But all too soon (by the end of season two, maybe the middle of season three) it took a serious turn that I couldn't handle. It's not that it became a serious drama and lost all humor. But the weight of the crises wasn't counterbalanced by that humor and the effect was boredom. I wanted to do anything other than keep watching. And a pretty good clue that something has reached its binge-worthy peak is that you don't want to keep watching. 

I won't say don't watch it at all. It's not the worst thing out there by any stretch (see my rant about Scandal in my How to Get Away with Murder post). You may even binge the first two seasons without issues. But be prepared for a sudden drop in velocity and a strange urge to start cleaning your kitchen, or bathroom, or dog, or neighbor's dog. 

Updates on season two of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Popsugar has posted a slideshow entitled "8 Things We Know About Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2" and it's so exciting. 

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Created by Tina Fey and friends, Netflix original Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is one of the best new shows...

...

...well...

...ever, I guess.

Set in the ubiquitous NYC, it seems like it could be a little familiar. Small town girl moves to the big city, enamored with the glitz and glamour until suddenly real life kicks in.

But, no! It's--okay, it's very much like that, but wait--it's so much deeper than that.

so much deeper

So many topics are delved into that you might think it's too much, but the writers strike the perfect balance between depth and levity. Every character has time to grow and develop. No one person has all the answers, everyone is flawed, yet because it's fiction, justice prevails anyway. (And in this case, a little sugarcoating is not just okay, it's required. It is a comedy, after all.)

And another thing. There's nothing wrong with taking a cliche idea and doing it really well. At their bones, most every story is the same. It's the detail and definition that sets them apart.

and trust me.

The Mentalist

This is where we enter the gray area of binge-worthiness. Maybe the area of guilty pleasures. It's up to you to decide.

There are some fundamental things wrong with The Mentalist. For example, it's a very typical police procedural. The plot is formulaic and predictable. You don't have to be a mentalist to do most of what they do. You don't even need to be a trained police person.

By the way, why is it that police procedurals are all about police not following procedure?

You and me both, Simon.

Whatever. Here's the thing: I binged it anyway. 

The Mentalist is one of several new refreshing cop dramas with a consistent humorous twist. It's well funny. It's got an engaging villain, as well, which makes a show like this much more interesting. The arc of the story from beginning to when they catch kill discover lose reveal the bad guy follows consistent character traits as they are developed throughout. 

Another thing to note about The Mentalist is that it's one of several neo-Sherlock Holmes** stories. Among these are Psych, House, M.D., Elementary, and Castle. 

**Sherlock Holmes is one of the most copied characters in literature, for very good reasons. Not only has he impacted stories, but the original detective mysteries changed the way actual crime scenes were treated, leading to the meticulous way evidence is collected from crime scenes now.

 My final fun fact about the show is that more than one actor's native accent is not American. Can you guess whose?

No, he's not in it.

iZombie

Comic book movies aren't new. And actually, comic book TV shows aren't that new either. (See Heroes, again, maybe, if I get to it.) In recent years Netflix (pay me!) has put out a slew of new shows, mostly from the Marvel universe, and the CW and Fox have produced some DC universe shows. Those are the ones most of us are familiar with.

Supernatural has a gif for everything.

Anyway.

iZombie takes you into the comic book experience in a similar way. There are chapter headings throughout episodes, and they do that intro thing where the scene is illustrated and turns into live action. It's cool. My first instinct with a device like this is that it might slow down or distract from the action, but to the contrary, it helped move the action along seamlessly.

This show is another one you will want to allow to play next until it's 3 a.m. and you don't know where your life has gone. Every episode pushes you into the next one, but without exhausting you with drama. The writing and directing styles from show co-creator Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars) lend the same wit and snappy pace a show like this needs.

Monsters as good guys, again, is not a new concept. But instead of doing the same old tortured hero bit, the show shines a fresh light on the idea. There's humor and drama and even a little terror.

Also, zombies are way cooler than you thought they were.

Sherlock

If anything ever took me by surprise, it was Sherlock. I expected to enjoy it, sure. I grew up on the original stories. But it's hard to take a story that everyone already knows, and present it in such a way that it's totally enthralling. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, with their mutual love of the original Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and sundry other stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, have done just that.

The three seasons comprise only three episodes each. In case you think that's not much, each episode is about 90 minutes long, twice the length of the average American TV show. And the time just flies. If by some horrific oversight you haven't watched the show yet (and let's be honest, if you're reading this you probably haven't) count yourself lucky that you don't have to wait two years for season three. You will be frantically looking for the next episode when you get to the end.

The story telling follows a distinct thread throughout the series. It's subtle enough that it surprises you when you realize it, but it feels like nothing else could have happened. It's just right.

I would be amiss if I failed to mention the star cast. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were your average British actors before Sherlock. I was one of the few people I know who knew their names back then. But after season two their fame skyrocketed. Between blockbuster Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit, and various other films, there's hardly a person on earth who doesn't know their names (even if they can't spell them).

Despite their rising fame, they have both expressed a commitment to the show, demonstrating one more reason it's good--everyone is invested in it.

Of all the numerous shows I've watched, I don't think I've ever seen one where the writers and producers were so in touch with their fans. This is particularly evident in the beginning of season three, and believe me, if you start at all, you will get there. There's just one tiny detail...something about selling your soul to the fandom.

In all seriousness, I'm almost okay with the giant gaps between seasons. The level of commitment and investment of everyone involved is such that they take their time, don't rush the story or production, and as a result turn out an excellent TV show.

Now, if only they would hurry up and finish the next season.

Babbington Crankypants and some guy.

How to Get Away with Murder

I was hesitant to start watching this show at all. It seemed obvious and cheesy, like one of those pseudo-news stories that end every headline with, "You'll never believe what happened next!"

But more than one person mentioned it, and the apparently omniscient Netflix thought I'd like it, so I took the plunge, and watched season one, the only season currently available on Netflix.

Netflix should pay me for how much I talk about Netflix.

I immediately noticed a few similarities with another show I had started, Scandal.**

**Let me talk about that for a minute. I hated that show. Nothing was believable. The conspiracy angle was ridiculous. I was shocked, in retrospect, that the two shows had so much in common. Sure, the show had a misfit band of lawyers, "non-lawyer" fixers, and lovable newbies, but interesting characters does not a good story make. For a show so founded in a real institution, the US Government, it fell so far short of the necessary suspension of disbelief that I couldn't watch more than one of the four seasons. 

Back to HTGAWM. Consciously, I noted the similarities. Mostly, I was too wrapped up in the excellent story to care. I watched all 15 episodes in two days. (It was a long weekend, guys, don't judge.) What the show lacks in character development, it makes up for in a riveting plot line that draws you from episode to episode. And don't worry, there's ample promise of character development in future seasons, despite the main male character having the emotional range of a ficus.

While there's a possibility that something could go catastrophically wrong, (see Heroes, if I ever get up the energy to finish watching it), I fully expect season two to follow up on many of the excellently posed questions that left me grasping for information.

Firefly

The year was 2003. Hearts were crushed, and heads were still spinning at the news that the show had been cancelled. Few knew what in the world had just happened.
But they knew that something had happened.
As the fan base of Firefly grew, the story took on a life of its own and more than a decade later throngs of Browncoats still amass at conventions to meet their heroes.

Click this to get a snippet of what being a fan is like.

But this story isn't about them. It's about me.

I came to the world of Joss Whedon later than most. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was barely a blip in my peripherals. Whedon didn't really catch my attention until The Avengers event of 2012. Friends who I had hitherto trusted to inform all of my opinions about entertainment were raving about this Joss character who had directed this movie, and about how great it was because of him.

I became interested.

Sitting down with IMDB, I discovered a great many more interesting things. Words like Toy Story, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and The Cabin in the Woods started flying out at me. All of these things were so different in my mind that I never imagined them being connected. Then, on the list, I saw Firefly. A barrage of flashbacks hit me; a friend lamenting that it had been cancelled, a professor explaining that the characters spoke Chinese and English because it was set in the future where those were the two economic and cultural powers that survived. Most importantly, I remembered seeing it on a list of recommended shows on Netflix.

I sat down one day soon after and began to watch Firefly. I continued watching every spare moment I had. In no time at all I had finished the 14 episode show, and began to experience all the feelings of loss everyone else who had ever watched the show, come to the end, and realized it was just over. I had joined the Whedonverse.

It really does. The characters are fantastic. Questions are (mostly) answered. There are spaceships, cowboys, explosions, gunfights and people swearing in Chinese. The best part is that all these things fit together seamlessly. Whedon and his crew build a world from what seems like a grab bag of plot points and made it work. Of course, each of these things wasn't random in the least, because the writers were very good at their jobs. But the simulation of real-life type randomness pulls the viewer into the story wonderfully.

And don't despair! Should you watch it and come to the same world-ending realization that countless viewers before you have, that, well, the world has ended, do not fear. Serenity, the follow up movie, is also available on Netflix to soothe your aching soul.