What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Okay, I finished American Horror Story seasons 1, and I'm glad that I posted about it midway through the show, because it was definitely a different experience later in the season.

First, some random remarks that I didn't mention in my previous post. The opening credits are extremely eerie. There is a soft recurring string instrument sound, like the opening of a slow Devotchka song, creating a sensation of something stealthy. There is also the sound of a dripping faucet, mixed with some slightly mangled audio so that you can almost but not quite make out some spoken words. Both of these sounds are frequently interrupted by a horrid buzzing or sawing sound which might be a bonesaw. Meanwhile, vintage pictures of disturbing small children appear on the screen and are subjected to odd lighting and coloration manipulation. Oh, and at times I was distracted by the incredible resemblance of Dylan McDermott to the star of another FX show: Archer.

The first half of the show seemed slightly restrained, with the potential to scare the hell out of me but never quite delivering. The story digs deep into the main characters and handles all of them with sympathy. The soap opera aspects were enjoyable because they often blew past the normal boundaries of that genre and led to madness and murder.

By the final few episodes of the show, the ghosts are getting a lot more screen time, and that changes the show. The story is still fascinating, and I appreciated the exploration of the ghostly lifestyle, but it detracted from the murderous high stakes of the earlier episodes. That leaves us with more soap opera and less horror. You end up with all these ghosts stuck in the same house, and they all have their own agendas and obsessions, but ultimately they can't get rid of each other. They are all sad prisoners under eternal house arrest, and more than a few of them are insane.

It's still well worth watching. The bitchy confrontation between Jessica Lange and Zachary Quinto is great fun. The acting is fine. The story takes some interesting and surprising directions. I usually hate hate hate the archetypal aging southern belle, but it was enjoyable watching scenes where Lange is interrogated by the police and the show juxtaposes her cool deflections and lies with brutally honest flashbacks.

Near the end of the season, I picked up on some comments that ended up becoming later seasons of AHS: asylum and Roanoke. I do plan on watching at least two more seasons (Asylum and Hotel) and maybe more. And I might give American Crime Story a try as well.

I liked the first season of AHS and thought the second was better. The third season had me lost. I've made it to the last episode and didn't finish it twice, if that is any comment on it.

My favorite feature at The Onion is American Voices. Week after week, they recycle the same half dozen photos with different names and occupation and hilarious reactions to current events. One of those recurring photos is of a white woman in her late '20s with a really bad dye job. I think that her hair was the inspiration for hair of the character played by Rachel McAdams in season two of True Detective. And that hair is fair symbol of the overall season.

It's been a couple of years since I watched season one, but I still remember it fondly. It was dark and scary at times, but the main characters were somewhat likable, and the great story inspired them to amazing performances. Season two is a completely unrelated story. Take away the occult overtones of season one and replace them with political corruption, and then deliver a more complex story with a grim and deliberate pace. The performances by the four lead characters are top-notch, but these characters are extremely hard to like, and I prefer to spend my binge-watching hours with folks that I can like or at least admire a bit. They go beyond being flawed characters to deeply wounded people who stagger through misery. I've never seen a show spend so much time on doomed characters making final arrangements before a dramatic conclusion.

The darkness is nearly unbearable at times, and I began to resent the editorial decision to completely banish all forms of humor from the story. The opening music is the worst Leonard Cohen song that I've heard, and there is a recurring minor character whose sole purpose on the show is to perform suicidal folk music. There is also some heavy and moody background music that is often paired up with aerial shots of L.A. freeways or a particular heavily-industrialized town.

I'm glad that I watched season two all the way through. The story is interesting enough, and there are some great high-stakes conversations that reminded me of the better scenes from Inglorious Basterds. My estimation of the acting ability of Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and even Taylor Kitsch has permanently increased. I was similarly impressed by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in season one. But it felt like there was a more deliberate effort to give the season two characters some personal humiliation. Sure, it adds depth to the characters, but it also detracted from my enjoyment. I don't need every protagonist to be a big hero, but watching people suffer in vain seems a bit sick. So I don't plan on ever watching season two again, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people I know. A big fan of season one might find season two worth watching, but it's not a sure thing.

Watched the season 2 premier of Vice Principals tonight, and was not disappointed. Also watched episode 2 of The Deuce. Even more Wire alums join for this one. I'll stick around a while longer, at least.

My wife was hooked on the show '13 Reasons Why'. I was in the room for a number of episodes and was summarily exposed to it while playing Blood Bowl league games and the like. Garbage show. There were better after school specials 35 years ago. I was especially pissed at the resolution of the series. I mean....if I had been watching the series, I would have been angry at the way it resolved.

Yeah I watched most of 13 Reasons Why and it should be avoided. I will, however, say that watching the suicide scene was one of the most disturbing moments of TV I've ever seen. Think I spent 100% of my free time with my daughter the following week.

The Orville just crashed and burned in episode three, focusing on forced transgender surgery for the infant child of the same sex couple on the ship. I was on the fence with the show to begin with, hoping it would find its legs. But 15 minutes in to this subject I decided my day had been long enough without watching an hour of anguish and argument.

Here's hoping the producers got a feeling of accomplshment.

After recently re-watching season three of The Wire, I fancied the idea of seeing Idris Elba acting in his native accent. So I borrowed Luther 2 from the library, because I was too impatient to wait for Luther. It's just average. Luther is supposed to be this genius profiler in London, but the stories are a bit rubbish. The cinematography is decent, and the music selections are brilliant at times. But the unlikely plot twists and tortured logic are the writers taking the piss, and I can only just bear it. A few good ideas and some good dialogue are unable to elevate the overall show. Watch Luther 2 if you have nothing better to do, but no need to seek it out. I give it two out of four stars.

More than ten years ago, I watched the first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm because everyone said it was great, but I found it pretty boring and never gave it another thought. About a week ago I noticed my wife watching it, somewhere in season 3, and I sat down to watch it as well. To my surprise, I found it to be pretty hilarious. Now I am fully invested.

It's funny how some shows don't connect in the first few episodes, but they get over the that hump and find their footing. The problem is you can't really sit through multiple episodes of something in the hope it will get better. Or maybe I'm just impatient.

I don't think anyone loves Curb right out of the gate. It can be uncomfortable sometimes. I've grown to absolutely love it.

I started rewatching Thirty Rock. I got halfway into the fourth season and realized that the first two seasons were fresh and hilarious, and all anyone needs to watch.

I have a weird Berenstain Bears problem with the show. According to Wikipedia, the show ran from October 2006 to January 2013, so the final season was a half season. I have no memory of it lasting that long, and then realized that I had quit watching originally after 3-4 seasons, and just watched the final few episodes of the final season. I think. Looking at the episode ratings on TV.com, it would appear that nothing that great happened in seasons 4-6.5.

Why am I telling you this? Because I got up at 4:30 a.m. today to take my daughter to driving practice (cars, not golf). I'm glad none of my kids are Olympic athletes that require going to the ice rink every day at 5:00 a.m.

The Killjoys season one plays like somebody got into Firefly after watching the movie Serenity. Then they made a tv show where Inara is a bounty hunter and Luke & Owen Wilson work for her. (Not the actual Luke & Owen, but like action movie versions of their characters in Bottle Rocket.) The setting feels it could be a border system straight out of the Firefly setting, complete with moons terraformed into mini-planets.

The show is okay. Nothing especially creative in terms of science-fiction, but there is a lot less shouty exposition than typical for tv sci-fi. The writing is okay, the acting is okay, there is some good action, and the characters are moderately interesting. To me, the biggest draw is Hannah John-Kamen, a lovely mixed-race lady with a legit British accent and good screen presence. Aside from her, the show has been unmemorable so far, so I don't know if I will bother with season two or later.

In addition to several horror films, my sons and I have been watching several episodes of horror anthology TV shows.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes - This is the eight episode miniseries based on Stephen King stories. With the wealth of stories to choose from they managed to pick seven pretty average and/or dull ones (well, maybe "The Road Virus Heads North" is okay, we didn't watch that one). The only one you need to see is "Battleground," the dialogue-free episode where a hitman (William Hurt) has to fight for his life against army men come to life. Like most early-era King short stories, it is both ludicrous and awesome.

Tales from the Darkside - My sons were not impressed so we stopped after watching two episodes. I could forgive the low-budget production but the stories themselves were underwhelming and listless, even by the network TV standards at the time.

The Twilight Zone - Watching these has been a surprise. Not because some of the episodes are good, which they are, but because my sons, who I assumed would be bored and complaining about the old-timey black and white TV show their dad was making them watch, have been riveted to every episode. Granted, I've cherry-picked only the classic episodes, but still, they're not only enjoying the episodes but they're actually getting scared by the creepy ones. Their favorites have been "Living Doll" and "Terrror at 20,000 Feet." They also enjoy figuring out which episodes were later adapted into The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes.

Tales from the Crypt - Despite being a little dated this show had some great episodes. "The Ventriloquist," "And All Through the House," "Dig that Cat, He's Real Gone," "Three's a Crowd," "Til Death," etc.; so many good episodes. Even after avoiding the duds - protip: if it involves infidelity and murder plots it usually sucks - it took us a several nights to watch the best ones. One episode that was better than I remembered was "Those Who Live in Brass Hearses." It's about a couple of brothers who are small-time crooks that plan to rob the ice cream company that sent the older brother to prison for stealing from the company. The older brother is played by the late, great Bill Paxton and his younger brother is the excellent Brad Dourif. The episode starts out as your typical TftC "crime" episode but takes a turn partway through with a wonderfully loony ending. It's a highly recommended and underrated episode.

Killjoys season one got better as I continued to watch. The science fiction is plausible and relevant to the story. The political story angles are decent, better than what I saw in The Expanse. Decent amount of action, and the occasional surprise. Characters have taken on some depth. Overall quality is about even with The Expanse, but I am enjoying Killjoys more. Hopefully the second season is even better.

Killjoys season two is great, but that's from me, as a big fan from the start.

I watched Tin Star on Amazon. I enjoyed it a lot, mainly because I can watch Tim Roth in anything (I was especially sad when Lie to Me got cancelled), but it is complete nonsense from start to finish in terms of plot. Some great character moments and some good black humour tucked in there, though.