looking back (a bit)

working full time again (since october) after being away from the rat race madness for over a year (ah, those sweet long vacations {or premature retirements} have been so sweet through this life) leaves me much less time for writing and even less time for tv, though i have been watching the dvr in what spare time i have at home and i will likely catch up with those shows one of these days, but for the moment i am looking back... way back when i was looking ahead at the then future tv schedules i told myself to try to remember to check out some shows... so looking back at that looking ahead let's see what i remembered to watch and what i think about what i remembered to watch...

Believe (NBC)... after the first few shows i am not fascinated, but may watch to see how they develop a very old and somewhat tired story line partly cuz the kid is cute and i like watching talented kids who might be future stars... otherwise, at least so far, it's the same old innocent alien (way too stupidly 'innocent' at times) chased by the government story, kind of like a mixture of et, the fugitive, and lots of others...

In The Flesh (BBC)... either missed it or it has not begun yet...

Intelligence (CBS)... semi-interesting take on the robocop theme with a cyber crime motif... the casting and characters are a little more interesting than believe but it is still not very original...

Mind Games (ABC)... stretching psychological theories toward (and sometimes beyond) their limits makes for a bit of interesting amusement at times, but mostly this is another trick the mark mix of the sting, mission impossible, and psych adding the hero with psychiatric issues theme that seems to be popular lately...

Resurrection (ABC)... people coming back after being dead for a long long time, like under the dome, a log-running mystery as to why and how it is happening (the question is... will this fall back on the age-old tired religious explanations or will the writers be bold and creative enough to explore something original for a rare change?)...

The Crazy Ones (CBS)... robin williams, what can i say?... ok, he's not at his best, but the casting is very good and the script is not horrible, but it is still a tv sit-com so many grains of salt and love of robin keeps us coming back to it...

The Hundred (CW)... have not caught up with this one...

The Tomorrow People (CW)... same as above, maybe i don't know where the cw is...

Under the Dome (CBS)... and finally, this one i watched and mentioned in entries here and there... much weakness and predictability in the storyline and characters, but the curiosity about the dome will have me returning to the dvr'ed shows when it comes back on for it's second season...

anything new on tv that attracts your interest?...

the craig

sometimes i sit here doing my best to find craig ferguson a waste of time and i get close only to find some brilliant off hand comment or a look in his eye after making some ridiculous statement or reference to life or the news that inspires the laughter (i mean, it's not just the socks after all, i mean, i'm not that easy, he seriously said, or said seriously, written, even) of why so serious? not too unlike the pink song (as opposed to the ginger song... guess you had to be there)...

no, there is just no finding craig as offish and stupid as he tries to be sometimes, he's just too deep for that...

narf :)

years of strolling the limits

after years of strolling, wandering actually, through the episodes of the old and new outer limits i find one i do not want to erase from the dvr, one i do not want to watch end, one that reminds me a bit of firefly (and serenity too) and even as it mimics casablanca, it intrigues me... maybe mostly because i like michael fillon and yes, i did follow him to castle, but also there's angeline ball, who attracts me as a singer surprisingly a lot in part because the songs (yes, songs in an episode of the outer limits (please stand by me, eh?) are intriguing... i may just watch this again, and not in the background, even...

what's got your attention lately?...

the outer limits

the very name implies reaching beyond the limits of human norms and yet, this show is so trapped in religious dogma and the puritanical limits and emotional blindness that comes with the black and white good vs evil narrow views demanded and needed to maintain the human norms... this is most especially true of the second coming of the show, the more modern version in color... and watching it in reruns on the chiller network emphasizes the fear-based mindset that limits the creative possibilities so the show barely surfaces from the human stupidity and prejudice and ignorance (complete with feeble attempts at titillation and the blurring of flesh) and distorted morality that fear-based thinking creates...

this explanation provides some insight into why the continuity and technical details were so poorly put together... the lack of science and simplistic dependency on it's a miracle for explanations of phenomenon is boring to the point of annoying at times... the choice of playing to human interrelations and suspense (portrayed in heavily over=acted weakly written soap opera-esque drama leaves so much to be desired... and the low-budget shows too well... and of course, there is the puritanical fear of nudity that renders the visual even more poorly posed and wrought with unnatural camera angle affectations...

In most cases, two separate versions of each episode were filmed. The rawer, less censorially restricted version was seen first-run on Showtime, while the less explicit version was prepared for commercial TV syndication.

the sad irony is that the producers decision to, well, here is how they explain it: the decision to avoid special effects unless they were dramatically justified was because the producers felt that space aliens and other monstrosities had become rather commonplace by 1995, and they hoped to set their series apart from what had become the norm. and how they could feel that using tv-drama techniques made old in shows like dallas (and many others) could somehow "set their series apart" is rather baffling...

there is some potential in some of the ideas, but to call the show the outer limits is a bad joke and a sad reflection on just how limited human thinking is in our collective lives...

dumb dvr

somebody's got to create a smart dvr (anybody?... anobody?... bueller?)... especially during football season, but not just in football season... sometimes shows do not start on time for one reason or another and the dvr says it is recording a show by title, but it is not, yes, the dvr is not only dumb, the dvr lies!... so when a show is delayed for any reason, the dvr records another show and calls it the show it was asked to record... stupid dumb dvr... luckily the show i asked it to record tonight is gonna be available on-demand, so i've just got to wait a few days and remember to go to the right on demand station (brighthouse has to make on demand so complicated cuz they are our friends, ya know)...

meanwhile, i have been away from the tv a lot since the last entry as i was out of town playing in a softball world series for my sunday morning league and since returning home, background tv was mostly football (including some fantasy football reports) with some us open and other sports tossed in... and some of the shows i've been dvring... dvr tv is the same as it's been so you can check previous entries for some babble about shows or just glance over to the right to see most of what is being dvred lately...

what are you kinda sorta watching lately? :)

more dvr

yes, this dvr thing is addictive (the current dvr shows are on the right), especially when some recent favorite shows have been on... i mentioned the on-going heroes marathon which continues at a pace of two shows per weekday and most of the through the wormhole episodes have passed through the dvr and into the brain, but there's so much more... the outer limits and alfred hitchcock presents and animaniacs are coming about the same as heroes at about two episodes per weekday... the old hitchcocks still hold up most of the time as stories, though the social interactions and wardrobe just gets more dated all the time... some of the outer limits, like other supposedly sci-fi stories, are betrayed by western religious blind faith (as if it's the only explanation for the unknown and even aliens follow western religious) it is quite disappointing to the potential of imagination these shows are supposed to be stretching...

some shows are just tossing a few episodes out there each weekend (or even just one a week like the river, which i skipped the first time around), so they are not all-at-once marathons... and editing is destroying some of these shows... like dead like me, which is so freaking edited it is a mockery of the original... and haven, which sometimes makes me wonder if stephen king had anything to do with the show... and the original twilight zone series was last week while dated, still... and just today the latest twilight zone series ran all day long... some of those were so cheezy, going for the laughs instead of the eerie (must have had some mediocre situation comedy writers mixed in with the mediocre drama writers re-writing the old episodes and inventing a few new ones)... and amazing stories are missing from the mix though... but there is at least some twists beyond the stale drama of reality tv...

obviously, a week and i am losing so many brain cells that i am forgetting how to express myself... excuse the boring, aye?...

watching the dvr

sometimes the tv comes out of the background and actually gets most of my attention... in other words, sometimes i actually watch the screen and listen at the same time... most of today was spent catching up on the end of season one and the start of season two of heroes, a show i might still want to re-watch even if i did see every episode the first time and even if the emo-eye candy of that particular cheerleader was not on the show... the start of season two was a major disappointment as so many loose threads were left disconnected and so many story lines just got stupid (a technical term for lack of or at least incongruous imagination... maybe they were pandering to superficial ideas for audience expansion or they simply ran out of ideas), but since i can auto-record and watch on dvr whenever i feel like it, i might watch season two and three since i missed some, maybe many of those episodes the first time around...

after watching and deleting all the heroes episodes, i moved on to dead like me and animaniacs and a few others and then a favorite personality, morgan freeman... i noticed that in between pandering to religion (maybe the producers thought a pure science show would not sell well) and titillating the paranoids (a popular selling point for any media these days), through the wormhole is pretty cool... one show i decided to watch more than once was the brain hacking show as neuroscience has always been a favorite field for me... and so i wandered through the ibrain and was happy to see the possibilities for stephen hawking (who is seventy?... wow, good medical science) and others with the same needs... and i think the visual dictionary idea is another fascinating project with many great potential uses... but then there is still a lot of exploitation (might as well ask marc salem... or moshe botwinick, for that matter) in the show, as in life... still, trial and error may take a long time, but like Edison, one might get lucky now and then...

terra nova

so i watched the entire series terra nova in two nights thanks to the new dvr and while it was mostly predictable, it had a couple of twists and a cast of characters i could sort of enjoy... i probably would not have watched it all week after week but the dvr made it easy as all the shows were on the same day so all it took was setting the dvr... apparently the show was cancelled by fox (the visionary station) and since the first season did wrap up the initial story, any next season would need a different premise... they left one interesting mystery in what they call the badlands and the rest of the story will pretty much be along the lines of land of the lost, so maybe that is why it was not renewed... i'd probably dvr it if it came back...

and then there's under the dome... another show i am watching on dvr... the show is unfortunately tainted by the drones on network television, i will dvr it and check it out when time permits... so far, so so, but i'll give it a season...

enter the dvr

not quite as dramatic as enter the dragon, but then, few things were as dramatic as bruce lee films (just a touch of sarcasm, no disrespect intended), but the fact is, we have a dvr... it's new to me, but jackson has been missing a dvr for years (not enough to pay for the extra cost and since i pay the whole internet and cable bill i wasn't looking for extra expenses, especially not this year)... brighthouse offered the dvr and an upgrade to the internet speed for two dollars less per month, so... we have a dvr... i believe you cannot record two shows at once (isn't that what the hopper commercial is based on?) so we are in the process of selecting the shows we can agree on when there are overlapping shows... gotta set priorities in life, after all... nyuk nyuk...

on a dangit note, i missed the premiere of some shows i wanted to check out... they could definitely make it easier to find shows... so i missed the first two episodes of under the dome... i will try to watch them online...

i have the time scheduled for the crazy ones (9/26/13 CBS)... and Believe (NBC) ... Fall Sunday ???... and In The Flesh (BBC) ... i don't know... and Intelligence (CBS) ... February 24, 2014... and Mind Games (ABC) ... Resurrection (ABC) ... Fall 2013... and The Crazy Ones (CBS) ... September 26, 2013... and The Hundred (CW) ... i don't know... and The Tomorrow People (CW) ... October 9, 2013... and Under the Dome (CBS) ... June 24, 2013... so i've got some more searching to do...

currently on the record series list are shows for both of us, shows for her, and shows for me... since we just got the new toy and we are in the summer season and still learning when shows are scheduled and all that, this is the current scheduled recordings... for both of us: ncis, ... for her (though i watch with her when i am home): rizzoli and isles, major crimes, top chef, ... and for me (she's not into sci-fi): continuum, warehouse 13, defiance, perception, futurama, ... maybe i'll update as we update, or maybe i'll add a sidebar list cuz, obviously, there are not enough of those... ah, the dvr is moving tv out of the background, a bit (we still do other things often when the tv is on, but we just may watch a bit more now that we have the dvr)...

cuz it's there, aye? :)

looking ahead

i explored a half dozen lists of upcoming tv shows and checked out what to look forward to on the television over the coming months and beyond today... i probably missed something but the shows i want to check out and the shows i might check out if i have the time are listed below and updated on the right sidebar... this first list are the shows i want to check out at least once...

Believe (NBC)
In The Flesh (BBC)
Intelligence (CBS)
Mind Games (ABC)
Resurrection (ABC)
The Crazy Ones (CBS)
The Hundred (CW)
The Tomorrow People (CW)
Under the Dome (CBS)

the Crazy Ones stars Robin WIlliams, nuf said... Under the Dome is based on a Stephen King story, again, nuf... Spielberg has a hand in another on the list and JJ Abrams yet another, but ultimately it's the concepts that have these shows on this list... most are psychological, supernatural, or futuristic science fiction themes (as if that surprises anyone who knows me)... a couple (In The Flesh and Resurrection) explore the zombie theme in a normalized setting - the zombies are not killing and eating people, but rather being assimilated back into society), not my favorite theme, but curiosity has me wanting to see how the assimilation aspect is treated... Believe and The Tomorrow people are themed around the potential powers of the mind beyond what we commonly know or can do today... Intelligence and Mind Games are based in psychology with some sci-fi psy-tech tossed in... The Hundred is based in a post-apocalypse future...

and the ones i might check out if i have the time:

24: Live Another Day (FOX)
Almost Human (FOX)
Area 51 (AMC)
Back in the Game
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Joe Rogan Questions Everything
Michael J Fox Show (NBC)
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (ABC)
Primeval: New World (BBC)
Rake (FOX)
Sleepy Hollow (FOX)
Star-Crossed (CW)
Wayward Pines (FOX)

and while not all of the ones on the second list have science fiction or psychological themes, many do and the few that don't have a twist i want to see play out in an episode or few... if i can actually check them all out i've obviously got too much time on my hands, but chances are only a couple or few will climb into the top list on the right sidebar of the tv blog... hey, it's a tough job but i would do it if they paid me enough (if i actually watch a few hours of tv a week, that's a lot... but it stays on in the background a lot when music isn't playing, so i select what i want to enter my brain subliminally with some measure of careful scientific study, ya know?...

and shows i have not made time for but would check out if i could see the pilot and catch up:

Bates Motel
Crisis
Cult
Falling Skies (TNT)
Once Upon a Time (ABC)
The Blacklist

so what do you watch (or wanna check out) on television?...