I think most people, including myself sometimes, watch too much TV, but I don’t think the right amount of TV is zero. \u00a0We really are in a golden age for the artform and with the putrefaction\u00a0of the film industry, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying it in limited quantities. \u00a0My thoughts on some current and recent shows:<\/p>\n
This show has been on for a while but I had never even attempted to watch it because it\u00a0has a terrible name. \u00a0I caught\u00a0part of an episode last year and realized it was not some campy parody of a Japanese game show but something else entirely. \u00a0If you’re not familiar, it is a relatively simple concept. \u00a0Contestants run an obstacle course with the primary goal being to finish the course and the secondary goal being\u00a0time. \u00a0The twist here is that the course is incredibly hard<\/strong>. \u00a0Most people fail. \u00a0They don’t get any practice and if they make one mistake they are done. \u00a0In this age\u00a0of coddling and positive reinforcement this show takes us back to the days when video games didn’t have save files, when the 10th best hitter on the baseball team rode the bench all season, and cars would explode in minor accidents if they didn’t impale you on the steering wheel first. \u00a0It reminds us how satisfying hard work can be and there is no doubt that the frustration and happiness of the contestants is real.<\/p>\n Recently cancelled, hopefully to be picked up elsewhere, I am surprised it even made it this far. \u00a0It is a very dark, very deliberate, very long story. \u00a0The imagery, music, and sounds\u00a0are often\u00a0vague and pretentious, but they are always detailed and highly crafted if not beautiful. \u00a0And with all due respect to Anthony Hopkins,\u00a0Mads Mikkelsen is amazing\u00a0as Hannibal Lecter. \u00a0I recently watched a bit of Silence of the Lambs and Hopkins’ take on the role is almost clownish.<\/p>\n A couples romance where the main conflict driver is\u00a0entrepreneurship.\u00a0 The show captures what feels like a very authentic bleakness about 1980’s Texas. \u00a0After two seasons, the writing has\u00a0become a bit aimless but the characters are authentic and the acting is very good.<\/p>\n This show is brand new, but the pilot was amazing. \u00a0If someone said they were going to do a mashup of Dexter and Fight Club and maybe throw a\u00a0teeny bit of Sherlock Holmes (Elementary-style) in, I don’t know what I’d expect but this show pulls that off. \u00a0The pilot\u00a0could have easily been tweaked into a good movie and is one of the best I’ve ever seen. \u00a0The rest of season one was not as good but more sustainable, and has maintained the thriller aspect. \u00a0Christian Slater is television poison, but he has a limited role that doesn’t leverage his usually hamminess, so we’ll see if the curse can be reversed here.<\/p>\n I think most people, including myself sometimes, watch too much TV, but I don’t think the right amount of TV is zero. \u00a0We really are in a golden age for the artform and with the putrefaction\u00a0of the film industry, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying it in limited quantities. \u00a0My thoughts on some… <\/p>\nHannibal<\/h3>\n
Halt and Catch Fire<\/h3>\n
Mr. Robot<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"