Wednesday, November 02, 2005

What's up in TV land?

As the semester nears crunch time, blogging gets much lighter. I may post everyday over the christmas break, though.

I should be able to catch up on comic mini-reviews over the weekend, though. As for the serious book reviews? Who knows?

As for TV this season:

The best shows are Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi and Lost on ABC. That's all that needs to be said. Lost is a great character driven drama that just happens to be sci-fi, with mysteries that get revealed only in scattered bits and pieces - just enough to keep me hanging on. BSG on the other hand, is a great sci-fi show that happens to be a character driven drama as well. The cliffhanger with Admiral Cain (sorry for saying Commander Cain in an earlier post) in the last new show (no new shows until January!) was heart-pounding and intense. TV has never been this good.

Other shows?

Alias is still interesting, though it seems to be treading water. Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have the same problem: There's just no that much more they can do in their respective universe. One full length TV movie could wrap it all up easily. Plus, the villains in SG-1 are too transparently allegorical.

Invasion and The Night Stalker had promise, but both fail to live upto that. Night Stalker is just too damn depressing (where's the humor that made the original Kolchak series work?) and Invasion seems like a mess (unlike Lost, I don't get the idea the creators actually know where they're going).

Over on the Cartoon Network, Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited continue to provide excellently well-written fare both adults and kids can enjoy. But the best show on Cartoon Network is one of their many shows imported from Japan: Bobobo - bo - bo - bobo.

Twin Peaks? A wannabe! French Avant Garde films? Can't hold a candle! Experimental German expressionistic films? Boring! There is no trippier, more random, bizarre show anywhere in space or time. Great stuff - my highest recommendation. It's on late Saturday nights on Cartoon Network. Check it out.

2 comments:

Clark Goble said...

What about the report that Twin Peaks season 2 is coming out? Cool, eh?

BTW - I agree with you regarding Invasion. The last two episodes were so frustrating I almost said I'd stop watching.

There are shows like that. I want them to be good. And every now and then they'll tease me with something good. Then they just disappoint me. Unlike say Smallville or Alias though, Invasion has little extra to keep me watching. I suspect I won't. Contrast this with say Prison Break which has some amazingly silly or eye rolling moments, but is otherwise engaging enough to keep me tuned.

Ivan Wolfe said...

Well, I thought season two was when Twin Peaks lost it.

I was a fan of Push, Nevada a Twin Peaks like show ABC never gave a decent chance.

But Bobobo-bo-bo-bobo is, hands down, the trippiest tv show ever.