Review: Angel the Series

Disclaimer: Slight spoilers ahead

1999-2004

Starring: David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Andy Hallett, Amy Acker, Stephanie Romanov, Vincent Kartheiser, James Marsters, Christian Kane, Julie Benz, Mercedes McNabb, Glen Quinn

Created by: Joss Whedon

I have now finished all the Buffyverse shows. I feel a little empty inside. Angel is, for those who crawled out from under a rock, a spinoff of Buffy, in which Angel moves to Los Angeles and has a detective agency.

This show gets off to a slow start. The first season is highly episodic (not to say that there aren't some good ones) and sort of directionless. Season 2 features Angel being highly annoying, though I liked the last couple episodes, because we get Fred! Yay! I really, really liked Season 3. I think that's when the show really gets into its own. It goes into some dark places, though the ending part is sort of dumb in some ways. I also liked Season 4. Season 5 has Spike join the cast, which is awesome, but is not so great in other ways. Finally, the ending is totally unsatisfying.

There is a little too much damsel-in-distress crap at first, but there are some great characters and we get some top-notch character development as well. I love Cordy and Fred, and Wesley, so of course they have terrible fates. Angel was never my favorite character in Buffy, and he isn't always my favorite character in this show either, but I do like him better (at least some of the time). Jeff asked me if Angel was to Buffy as Torchwood is to Doctor Who, and my response is sort of. It is darker. Sure. More adult? Maybe. Sexier? Not really. The plots can be a little more out there, I think. There's good romance, some horror, suspense, etc. There were some pretty bad episodes (like Soul Purpose in Season 5, ugh) but I mostly liked it. Not quite as much as Buffy, but it has its own place in my heart.

Grade: B+

Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Warning! Possible spoilers!

1997-2003

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, James Marsters, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson

Created by: Joss Whedon

A couple of my friends in college were obsessed with Buffy and one of them owned all of it. She was on my freshman hall and I caught a couple of episodes in the lounge with her. They were alright, but I knew watching Buffy was going to be a huge time suck so I didn't get into it.

Well, it was nice to know I was right at least - watching Buffy was a huge time suck. I was watching it for a few months. But, on the other hand, I watched it in a few months. This is a 7 season show we're talking about, with each season having about 22 episodes. Without commercials each episode is about 43 minutes long. That's roughly 110.4 hours, or 4.6 entire days of my life spent watching Buffy. So that tells you how absorbed I was in watching it - it didn't really take me that long.

Indeed, I can now count myself in the Buffy-obsessed. It is a fabulous, wonderful show. It drew me in within a few episodes with its campy humor, teenage drama, and bad special effects. Trust me, it's awesome. It goes interesting places and deals with a lot of issues: death (of course), the burden of fate, various relationships, etc etc. It does gray moral issues very, very well. Every character in Buffy spends some time being evil. All the main characters are well fleshed out and rounded.

Different seasons are differently good. Seasons one and two have Angel (David Boreanaz), the brooding vampire with a soul, and the main characters are in high school. Season three sees Angel gone but a new slayer, Faith (Eliza Dushku), in the mix. Season 4 finds the gang in college and a new guy interest, Riley (Marc Blucas). Season 5 introduces Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), Buffy's sister. Season 6 brings Buffy back from the dead and into a sexual relationship with the vampire Spike (James Marsters), and Season 7 has Spike get a soul and the gang is up against probably the toughest evil they've yet faced.

While not every episode was amazing, and I sometimes didn't like certain characters (though there were few if any that I didn't at least like some of the time). It was consistently good and I never wanted to stop watching it (I still don't, sigh). I think it is my favorite show - yes, I believe I am saying I like it more than Doctor Who.

This is not, by the way, your typical vampire show. It's way more complex than that. I recommend it to anyone. I'm realizing I'm not going to be able to go into great depth here - perhaps I'll follow with a few more posts. For now - go watch Buffy. I recommend starting at the beginning, or you can watch "Once More with Feeling," the musical episode, which is top notch.

What is this graphic? Whatever, I love it.

Grade: A++++

...And I leave you with the following:

An Angel vs. Spike montage. SPIKE ALL THE WAY!!!

Review: Firefly

Year: 2002
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Sean Maher, Ron Glass
Created by: Joss Whedon



Firefly is one of those shows that got canceled too early and, like many of those (the good ones at least), has sort of a cult following. From my point of view, it well deserves that following. It was a great show, and it's really a shame that it didn't even run a full season (just 10 episodes). I am really glad a followup movie was made, at least.

So why, exactly, is it so good? Well, for one, it's a sci-fi western. How cool is that? If you've seen the video for Muse's "Knights of Cydonia" you sort of know what that's like. This is the most believable scifi I've seen - basically, technology has advanced enough in the future to allow space travel, and since Earth was all used up, people moved on to a new solar system. There are no aliens, just some people that were driven crazy and turned into creepy killing machines. There's some laser technology in guns, but only the central planets have the best tech, while the outworlds are backwaters with little sophistication and often beyond reach of the Alliance law.

Anyway, so our heroes are the crew of a transport ship that takes miscellaneous jobs, mostly on the outworlds. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Fillion) was a sergeant in the big war for the Independents, and so he has attracted a crew that mostly eschew Alliance control. The crew includes a pilot, Wash (Tudyk), his wife who fought with Mal in the war, second-in-command Zoe (Torres), a Companion (basically a courtesan) who rents out one of the shuttles, Inara (Baccarin), the tough guy, Jayne (Baldwin), and the mechanic, Kaylee (Staite). In the pilot episode they pick up a Shepherd (pastor), Book (Glass), and a doctor (Maher) who has taken his sister (Glau) out of an Alliance camp where they've been doing things to her brain.

The characters are done really well; they all seem real and have interesting relationships, and develop as the show goes on. Everyone is either likeable or amusing, or both. The show is thrilling, engaging, funny, and just generally delightful. It's quick to watch but, if you're like me, you'll wish it just kept on going.

Basically, I loved it, and on a few different levels. It was entertaining but also just a great story, and there was action and romance and humor... oh I just can't say enough!

Now, go forth and watch! You won't be disappointed, I feel. It's on Netflix streaming now.

Grade: A+!

Day 3: My favorite television program

Yeah, so, I'm awful at posting every day. Anyhow, here is the post in which I will go on and on about Doctor Who! And possibly some other shows.

But first, Doctor Who!


A promo for the 2005 series

So Doctor Who is an old British show; it started in the 60s. I wasn't aware of it until rather recently, when the new version which started in 2005 had already had 4 seasons. So I started with the 2005 season with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, his companion. I was hooked almost immediately. It didn't take me long to power through the first season, at the end of which the Doctor, a Timelord who can regenerate with a new face and personality, does so. So the second season has a new actor playing the Doctor: David Tennant.


David Tennant as the Doctor

At first I thought, oh no, it will never be the same, but then I started liking Ten even more! Season Two was great, then Season Three had a new companion, Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. I loved Rose and hated to see her go, but Martha was alright. The best episode of the season by far was "Blink," which was the first episode I saw and also written by Stephen Moffat, who was the creator of the show Coupling, another UK show I love.


Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones

The fourth season featured another new companion, Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. The character had appeared once before in the Christmas special before season three, and I didn't much like her, but she was much better in this season. It was a pretty good season, though it had some very bad episodes as well.


Catherine Tate as Donna Noble

The fifth season has just started, with a new producer, the wonderful Stephen Moffat himself, a new Doctor, Matt Smith, and a new companion, Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan.



There have been two episodes so far, and so far it's brilliant. Love it. I already really like Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as well.


From episode 2, "The Beast Below"

So, basically, to summarise: Doctor Who is a British sci-fi show mostly directed towards kids. However, it can be deep and scary and often has elements of romance, so plenty for me, as well. Also, it is silly and campy and sometimes quite hilarious. There is a wide range of tones depending on the episode. It really has something for everyone (people with completely opposite tastes have been known to like it equally). It varies widely in quality, but overall is very good. You do not need to like sci-fi whatsoever to like it! So give it a go! The fifth season would be a fine place to start if you don't feel like playing catch-up.


From the opening credits

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I will briefly go over a few more shows that I love.

-Veronica Mars - A high school girl works at her father's private detective agency on the side. It's funny, sassy, dramatic, and very compelling. Kristen Bell stars.




-Skins - Follows the lives of teens in Bristol, England. Quite engaging, dramatic, sometimes funny and quirky. Very addictive.



-How I Met Your Mother - Sitcom about a guy telling his kids how he met their mother by showing what led up to it (hint: it's the fifth season, we still haven't met the mother). It's absolutely hilarious.



...And that's about it for right now! There are other great shows, but those are the ones I've been most currently into.

TV Show Review: Torchwood

Air Date: 2006-2009
Created by: Russell T. Davies
Starring: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori

I'm guessing you probably know by now that I've in the last year become totally obsessed with Doctor Who. Well, while I was feverishly waiting to receive Season 4 in the mail I started watching Torchwood, which is a spinoff featuring Captain Jack Harkness (Barrowman). It begins with Gwen Cooper (Myles), a policewoman, finding out about and joining Torchwood, an organization based around the Rift in Cardiff whose purpose is to protect Earth from alien life. It is often referenced in Doctor Who, and often Torchwood and The Doctor have different stances on how to deal with aliens.

The first season establishes Torchwood as a show for more mature audiences. Friends of mine have complained that they try to force in sex scenes (much like, say, True Blood does) and I can see that as a valid point. However, I enjoyed it. The second season is much more compelling than the first. The characters are better portrayed, and we see more into their psyches and relationships. The third 'season', a 5 episode miniseries arc called Children of Earth, was fantastic (and the most popular of the seasons at the time it aired).

It helps that John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd are quite attractive, I won't lie. Basically, it has a much darker, more adult feel than Doctor Who, and I can't say I liked it quite as much. They did start tying it in more in the second season, but it was still a definitely separate show. I kept hoping the Doctor would show up in some episode... no luck. It certainly made me laugh and cry and I really did enjoy the series.

Grade: A

tv shows

Rules:
from mimisaurus

- Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
- Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.


24
7th Heaven
ALF
Alias
American Gothic
America’s Next Top Model
Angel
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Batman: The Animated Series
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beverly Hills 90210 (original)
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Brothers And Sisters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Californication
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Chuck
Clarissa Explains it All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
DaVinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dexter
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who
Dragnet
Due South
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Frasier
Freaks & Geeks
Friends
Fringe
Futurama

Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
Grange Hill
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Hell’s Kitchen
JAG
Jackass
Joey
Kim Possible
Knight Rider
Knight Rider: 2008
Kung Fu
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
La Femme Nikita

LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Law and Order
Law and Order: SVU
Law and Order: CI
Leverage
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost

Lost in Space
MASH
MacGyver
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
McLeods Daughters
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Mod Squad
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Life As A Dog
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS
Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide

Nip/Tuck
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Power Rangers
Press Gang
Prison Break
Private Practice
Privileged
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
Pushing Daisies
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Sanctuary
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seaquest DSV
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird

South of Nowhere
South Park
St. Elsewhere
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Starsky & Hutch
Superman
Supernatural

Surface
Survivor

Taxi
Teen Titans
That’s So Raven

The 4400
The Addams Family

The Amazing Race
The Andy Griffith Show

The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Big Bang Theory
The Brady Bunch

The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls

The Honeymooners
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons

The L Word
The Love Boat
The Magnificent Seven
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Office (US)
The Powerpuff Girls
The Pretender
The Real World
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

The Twilight Zone

The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Unfabulous
Ugly Betty

Veronica Mars

Weeds

Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace

Wings
Wonderfalls

Xena: Warrior Princess

Updated 1/21/11: Have now watched all of Buffy, Firefly, Freaks and Geeks, Pushing Daisies Veronica Mars, and Wonderfalls; some of Six Feet Under, Smallville, Weeds. Have no longer seen all episodes of Dexter.

Review: Doctor Who Series 4 (SPOILERS)

Well hey there, ladies and gents, here at last is my review of the fourth (and as of yet last) season of the new Doctor Who. By the way... the next special, Waters of Mars, is premiering Sunday on BBC! Then there will be two more around Christmas... and then next year the new season will come on.

The fourth season was, in a word, amazing. I had said before that I didn't like Donna in the Christmas special she appeared in, which is true. But let's just say she's much better in this season (thankfully). Indeed I quite liked her.

I won't do an episode by episode type of thing this time. That's because they are all good, with the one exception of "Midnight." That one was a dud. The library ones and the final three are the best, but they are all very good. There's one about Pompeii which makes me happy as a Classics major despite, well, being incorrect (or maybe not how could we know).

I loved how in "Turn Left" we get a glimpse of how things would have been were the Doctor not there to stop certain events happening, as Donna is pulled into an alternate world. And of course I was extremely happy for the return of Rose Tyler. It was foreshadowed throughout the season and of course I'm too curious for my own good and already knew about it thanks to the internet (though I didn't know any details... I'm not that bad).

The ending of the season was so great, but so bittersweet, I just have to talk about it. First of all we have all the companions that have appeared so far in the new series all converging in this one episode, which is brilliant. Donna gets a bunch of Timelord wisdom which I liked and creates a human/Timelord alternate Doctor as well. In the end the Doctor takes everyone home, and we wonder if Martha's going to join Torchwood (no clue... or even Mickey?). He has to erase Donna's mind so she doesn't go crazy with the Timelord brain and all... which is pretty sad because now she's back to being nothing significant. Worse still, she remembers nothing of her travels with the Doctor. That is so tragic!

My favorite thing that happens (and this is all out of order) is with Rose. So there's still the alternate Doctor and he's killed all the Daleks which the Doctor doesn't like so when he takes Rose and Jackie back to the parallel universe, he leaves the half-human Doctor there. Rose is of course not entirely pleased because, after all, she traveled to another universe to get back to the Doctor. While this half-human Doctor is pretty much the same, the Doctor will still be out there. I love the scene where Rose asks both of them to finish the sentence left hanging at the end of season 2 and the half-human Doctor finally says... whatever he says which prompts Rose to kiss him. So anyway... I imagine that Rose will not be fully pleased with the events at first. She'll think often of what the Doctor is doing and wish she knew. But eventually she'll realize here she has a man who is the Doctor (except that he will age and he's not the only one). He has the same thoughts and memories and looks the same and - most importantly - he is a Doctor who will not be afraid to love her. Sigh. Awwww. Now I know they'll have sex.

Grade: A+++++++++++++

Footnote: I also just watched the two specials since then, "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of the Dead." The second one is definitely better, but I did like them both.

Review: Doctor Who Series 1, 2, and 3

I'm thinking of putting my reviews on this blog since I'm not sure if two blogs are warranted. What do you think?

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I have been putting this off for a long time. It looks like now there's going to be a break between me watching the first three new seasons and the fourth, since I ordered the fourth from Amazon. I had seen one or two episodes of Doctor Who previously, and liked it. But what really got me to watch the whole new series was Jeff showing me "Blink," which is the Steven Moffat episode from Season 3, which focuses on Sally Sparrow and the weeping angels. It was terrifying and well-written, and so so good. After that I decided it was high time to watch Doctor Who. Luckily for me, seasons 1 through 3 were on instant play on Netflix. And so it began.

I was hooked after about, oh, one episode. I COULD NOT STOP watching season one. I loved loved loved Rose, and really liked the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (who was that invisible guy on Heroes!). I was upset that Eccleston was leaving because I did like him oh so much. But that lasted about five minutes (well, once during the Christmas special the Doctor actually starts doing stuff). And so began my full-blown obsession with David Tennant. And Doctor Who in general. I loved the first season but was completely and irrevocably obsessed by the second one. I cried, hard, at the end of the second season. I loved Rose Tyler. I miss her. The third season Christmas special was ok but I don't like Donna (so... err... hopefully she doesn't suck so bad for the 4th season). I liked Martha, though.

Ok, so a more specific season-by-season review.

Season 1: Best episodes were "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances," the Steven Moffat-penned two-part episode. I have a theory about the dancing metaphor but anyway, ask me about that later if you care. "Dalek," "Father's Day," and "The End of the World" were also good. In addition, I liked the finale, "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways." None of the episodes were particularly bad. I do like Captain Jack Harkness, too.

Season 2: Definitely my favorite season so far. David Tennant, as mentioned, is absolutely brilliant as the Doctor. The Christmas special was great, "The Girl in the Fireplace" was marvelous (Steven Moffat - see the trend?) as was the two-part "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit." I loved the introduction of K-9 in "School Reunion" and our glimpse of Sarah Jane Smith. The two-part Cybermen episodes were quite good as well. The finale was heartwrenching and great. So basically, no duds. However I must say in the first season and the beginning of the second I hated Mickey Smith. I wanted him to go away. He finally gets less annoying in the second season, though, and by the end of it he's alright by me.

Season 3: Rather hit or miss. I do like Martha, she's pretty much great. But there are definitely duds in this season (notably "The Lazarus Experiment," which was just bad, and the two-part Dalek episodes, which were amusing but not great). "Blink" is by far the best episode in the season. I also enjoyed "The Shakespeare Code," "Gridlock," and "42". The final trio of episodes is good too - especially the last one. I like that they brought back Jack Harkness, and that they hinted that he might be the Face of Boe...

I am looking forward to getting my season four in the mail! There's a Pompeii episode, which will be delightful since I'm a Classics major. hehe.

Doctor Who overall rating: A++++++

Season One: A

Season Two: A+

Season Three: B+

Heroes: The Show I Love to Hate

I sort of can't believe I'm still watching Heroes. Granted, the first season was, IMHO, fantastic. It had some cliches, sure, but was clever and fun to watch, I felt. So I became sort of an addict, which is what they want you to do, I'm sure. I watched season 2. The first half of it, before the writers' strike, I was enjoying. No, it certainly wasn't as good as the first season but it was still gripping and all that. After the writers' strike, it went way downhill. That second half of the second season was just barely watchable. Damn, world, you need saving again? Can't you keep yourself out of trouble for about 2 seconds?

And then... season 3 started up. Some of the questions in the beginning of season 2 have never been answered. In fact, the storyline just pretended that never ever happened. What about the Irish chick trapped in the future? Dear god, did you forget about her?

Anyway, this season (although they're pretending it's 2 seasons... whatever) has reached new and amazing levels of tackiness! I know the writers have changed... they need to change back, or try something else! Whatever they're doing, it's terrible (or terribly hilarious?). Yet I still watch it. WHY? I guess I just love to hate it.

This week's episode featured Nathan being dumb and disappointing everyone, Peter being emo, Claire being all teenager-y, Sylar being mysterious, Noah Bennet being all secretly good, and Danko being a prick. Wait, you're telling me that's like every episode? Oh. Right. Well... we found out Claire can't get drunk! What a nifty ability! And Sylar is, again, only pretend dead. I guess that time when they were like 'maybe we'll make Sylar good', they decided to be like, nah, just messing with you... again. Sylar is at least on someone's side now... only not the one we should be rooting for. Unless you're just so disillusioned with the characters that you want them all to die. Wouldn't blame you.