Happy New Year, everybody! A new year is starting and, with it, a lot of TV shows start and meet their demise. It is time to tell you what I've watched - as community service for you, of course :) - and what I think about them.
Let's start with the already described ones:
Doctor Who - The new season with Capaldi in the role of the 13th doctor has not started yet, but there were the 50th anniversary of the show, which pretty much saved Gallifrey and showed all the Doctors so far and even a bit of the new one, then the usual Christmas special, where Gallifrey saved The Doctor. Kind of a quid pro quo. Anyway, it seems to me that in less than 9 years they added at least 600 years to the venerable age of The Doctor. Soon he will become older than The Face of Bo, if he continues that way :)
True Blood - I will be watching the new season, but I don't have much hopes for the show now. It was good while it lasted, though.
The Good Wife - The old formula of the show started squeaking, as I was observing the last TV series post, so they cooked up something else. Alicia is leaving the company to form her own, to the dismay and hurt of Will, who is now intent on making her hurt back. A game of legal cat and mouse ensues (see what I did there?). It is a breath of fresh air for the show, but I don't know how much it can last. Will's character cannot maintain its value if he loses to Alicia in court all day.
Haven - the fourth season sees sheriff Carter from Eureka be a psychotic bad guy. Good for him. They finally defeat him only to find a very changed Audrey Parker. Parker and Carter sitting in a tree...
Southpark - Southpark had some very funny episodes lately. Not the best, but pretty cool.
Homeland - Season three was weird. High tension, quick turns of the situation, great acting. Unfortunately the characters themselves lost their charisma and empathy value. I had no idea why anyone did what they did, even when they explained it several times. Not that it is confusing, I just can't relate to the characters. The end of the season made me think it was the end of the show, but it seems there will be a fourth.
The Walking Dead - A plague, the Governor returning for a while and a lot of the characters leaving or dying. This can be good for the show, as some sort of renewal was desperately needed, but we'll have to see how it goes...
Game of Thrones - waiting for the new season. There is a lot of tension about Martin not writing his books fast enough. The show is going to catch up and then what?
Copper - Copper got cancelled. It kind of deserved it, though, after a boring and pointless second season.
Arrow - I spoke too soon. I kind of like Arrow. I have no good reason for it, but there are a lot of characters, beautiful women, weird magical stuff that has nothing to do with logic and they even added Flash in the series. What I am most happy about, enough to take it from the notwant list, is the return of Manu Bennett, who I noticed in Spartacus as being a very good actor.
Elementary - New dynamic. Lucy Liu's character is getting more and more attention as Sherlock himself starts to show all kinds of vulnerabilities and a human side. It works, I think, but they'd better not push it too much.
The Tomorrow People (2013) - Ridiculously good looking actors also have superpowers, while being hunted by an evil agency. I am glad the show changed almost everything else in this remake, but the show could use more logic in it.
The Legend of Korra - The second season ended in victory for the forces of good, naturally, but a bit better than it started. Korra seems to slowly mature. Really slowly.
Rewind - A strange move to cancel this show after its pilot aired. It was a promising one, even if the base concept was a bit too morally unstable.
Serangoon Road - The first season ended and I had the feeling of loss and of wanting more that indicates I really liked the show and its characters. There are a lot more facets of the world in it to be explored and I eagerly await the second season.
Siberia - Siberia got cancelled and for good reasons, I think. I stopped watching it anyway.
Sleepy Hollow - Magic, witches demons and American history. The concept could have gone in so many ways, all good, but they chose the melodramatic way.
The Bridge - Interesting show, but I wonder how they intend to continue it in the second season, since all the major story arches of the first one got completed.
The Originals - I am close to stopping watching it. It feels like Dynasty with vampires.
The Psychopath Next Door - I really liked how this started, but it seems the pilot got converted into a movie and that was the end of it. Too bad!
Under The Dome - I want to believe that King's story was better than this watered down, incoherent crap. I may stop watching it altogether.
Witches of East End - The show got a little darker, but only a little. New characters and connections appear, but not much of a show besides the eye candy.
The Last Witch - I liked the first episode, but there was no second. I really want this to be picked up for a series, but I don't know if it didn't or the plan to continue it later or what...
And the new or restarted shows:
Marvel's agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - A show that combines the idea of superheroes that seems to stick nicely to the public with the one about a good government agency: S.H.I.E.L.D. Their purpose: to police the entire world in order to protect it from itself and contamination from alien technology. I can't possibly subscribe to the mission statement, but the show is decent.
Dracula - What started as a ridiculous concept caught up with me. Dracula is no angel, but he fights an even darker agency: the order Draco. Everybody is a bit conspiratorial and over dramatic, but I like the show so far.
Killer Women - An US remake of an Argentinian show, it features Tricia Helfer as a Ranger! She uses her womanly powers to fight crime, alas. I really hoped for a better premise. I would predict the show is going to be cancelled pretty quickly, as woman police shows usually get, but I could be wrong, seeing that is a remake of another show, so at least part of it should stick to audiences.
Misfits - Misfits ended. It was a nice show, but a little too pointless. I will still recommend you watch the first seasons.
Ripper Street - This show was also cancelled, after just two seasons. Me and an entire bunch of people protested against its cancellation because it was a good show! A bit inconsistent, true, but good actors and a nice starting point. Bring it back, you wankers!
Wizards vs Aliens - Yes! The second season of the show features yet again wizards taking a stand about the alien hungering for magic: the Necross! There is even an episode about the world where magic originates, where the wizard kid and the female Necross (there transformed into a woman) live together and have a child. Is that weird or what? :)
Sherlock - The third season of the British reinvention of the Holmes mythos just started. I am going to watch it, but as you may remember, I don't particularly like the way they did it, even if it stars Benedict Cumberbatch.
Ghost in the Shell: Arise - I watched the second episode of this Japanese anime series. If you don't know what Ghost in the Shell is, you should start watching it immediately. Arise is just a reinvention of the series, with better graphics and a change in technology and character stories. It doesn't seem to be as poignant as the films or the Stand Alone Complex series, but it may change in the future.
A Young Doctor's Notebook and Other Stories - The second season appeared! Just like the first, four episodes of 20 minutes each. This time the humor is almost not present, instead terrible despair. The main character's ... err.. character is so awful and pathetic that even the viewer has to loathe him. His older alter ego is prepared to forgive him, only even he can't! A very good show, with a completely different structure and feel from anything I've seen so far.
There have been a lot of new shows lately, but many of them I just skimmed or downright refused to even try.
Next, also in misc, movies: Mysteries of the Microscopic World - a The Great Courses err.. course
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