It's Emmy Week so the small screen is naturally on my mind. This time of year I'll usually try out a show or two and roll my eyes in disgust. Revolution was SO terrible: generic actors, pandering action sequences, and terrible authenticity problems. I should elaborate so here's just one example. If there's no electricity and there hasn't been for 15 years why have men's hairstyles not evolved into something manageable that doesn't require the weekly use of electric razors or blowdryers or what have you to maintain??? All the actors looked so freshly scrubbed clean, perfectly coiffed, and flawlessly made-up like they've never spent even one minute away from their huge hair and makeup team in a nearby trailer, let alone been without luxury beautification for 15 years!
Despite the easy-to-ignore mediocrity of the TV landscape (easy to ignore given that the highs are so very high and you're reminded of them weekly while the dross you only have to see once!) I do watch my share of TV. I felt a sort of emptiness this summer when I axed True Blood from my blogging schedule. I just didn't have it in me (New rule: vampire series should always shut down before you're actually watching the vampires age) and should have switched early on to covering Teen Wolf which I goofily crushed on hard for its entire sophomore season.
Turns out I like covering TV in limited portions so long as a series speaks to me and I can excuse it either through a beloved star (whatever happened to that 50s era TV series Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore were supposed to be doing?), a beloved genre (Smash) or a cinematic vibe (Mad Men). There's more opportunity to do so too since television seasons have less overlap than they did in my youth when everything ran September to May and every season was really really long with frequent stops for reruns.
So herewith, a list of shows that I watch or plan to. Let me know which of these shows you watch in the comments. I realize that comments sections aren't the be all and end all as to which posts people enjoy here at The Film Experience but I do have to lean on them somewhat as a crutch when determining how to divvy up the time. Smash, for instance, generally generated discussion so it stands to reason that many of you are watching and would like to see the coverage continue for season 2.
shows I watch regularly but don't feel any desire to write about and/or feel it's too late in the run to start writing about them... PARKS & RECREATION, 30 ROCK, PROJECT RUNWAY, RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE, and DOWNTON ABBEY
But I'M on this show, Nathaniel!shows I watch sometimes or way after the fact and have no real desire to write about...
SOUTHLAND, SHAMELESS, RAISING HOPE, LOUIE, HOMELAND, THE NEW GIRL, MODERN FAMILY, EPISODES, GIRLS, ENLIGHTENED, VEEP, GAME OF THRONES, NURSE JACKIE, THE WALKING DEAD and POLITICAL ANIMALS . Regarding the last of those. I have this problem in that I always end up watching Greg Berlanti shows -- sometimes every episode -- and yet I never ever respect them. Why can't I stop? Political Animals feels like unresearched fanfic when it comes to details about the worlds of both politics (Sigourney Weaver) and journalism (Carla Gugino) and the actors are saddled with the burden Berlanti always throws at his casts. The burden of unrepentant drama queen plot hysteria. Like Brothers & Sisters no small human drama is enough for one episode. It's not even enough for one scene! EVERY episode must contain catacyclismic end-of-world or utterly life-changing events, both literal and emotional... preferrably several of them. If anyone actually lived like this the world would end in about 6 years. No one would want the earth to keep spinning. Calm the F down. The tiniest recognizable moments of daily life can illuminate epic things about our humanity. If I could wish for one series to sink deep into Berlanti's veins it'd be Once & Again, which understood this and never felt the need to point and shout and pile up on its drama as if human life would be utterly undramatic without a million bells and whistles. End of rant.
DELUXE TREATMENT - RETURNING COVERAGE
MAD MEN and SMASH (both don't return until 2013 *sniffle*)
UPCOMING PILOTS I'LL REVIEW SINCE THEY'RE (AT LEAST PARTIALLY) BASED ON MOVIES...
BATES MOTEL (Inspired by Psycho, a film I ♥ writing about so we'll see...)
HANNIBAL (Based on the famous book franchise which has already produced 5 films. Mads Mikkelsen plays Hannibal and Hugh Dancy his FBI rival and TFE loves both of those actors. But mostly interest was piqued because the series is from Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls). Can't imagine what more you can say about this topic (really!) but good luck.
TRIAL EXPERIMENTS - FUTURE WEEKLY COVERAGE???
TEEN WOLF (Should I write about S2 when it comes to DVD? S3 begins presumably summer 2013)
REVENGE (Trial experiment-- ♥Madeleine♥ every Monday. S2 begins Sunday, September 30th)
BUNHEADS (Does anyone watch? I'm quite mad for Sutton Foster. S1's second half in 2013)