Tuesday, August 12, 2008

TV shows we love

Amy and I have gotten into some TV shows lately. She hates me for dragging her into some shows because once she starts she simply cannot stop. I mean, she will watch five or more episodes of Heroes in a row. I love the show too, but I have to make her stop, to give me time to digest. But it is great to watch shows together, to enjoy these universes together. I think I loved Amy even more when she mentioned the other day before watching the DVD for Upstairs Downstairs: "Can I get into another universe?" I remember having that same problem at the height of my comic collecting days back in the early 90s, when I bought a ton from Northern Lights Bookstore in DeKalb and Paperback Peddler in Aurora--there was so much cool stuff. But I had to stop myself sometimes and say that I just could not enter a new universe. That's the kind of camraderie that Amy and I share.

Amy was the first one to get into Burn Notice. I missed the first episode and like usual would not watch the second until I had seen the first. Before the second season started, I was able to watch all the first season through USANETWORK.com. We love how each episode is a stand-alone, yet there are new puzzle clues for the larger mystery. Plus, the characters are just way too good.

This one is mostly based on character alone. Amy and I love these two guys in Psych. And I believe that the ability of Shawn in this show is swiped for that new CBS show The Mentalist but we'll see. I personally think that one of the new third season episodes where Shawn and Gus go back to their class reunion has to be one of the best TV shows of all time. It's perfect, witty and clever. Amy loves the theme to this show too..."PSYCH you out in the end!"

I think I like The Middleman a bit more than Amy but she likes it too. It's based on The Middleman graphic novels, of which, I had the pleasure to review #2 for that comic website. I find it very witty with great dialogue. It is tongue-in-cheek about the dangers it faces, which is good. It would be hard to take seriously storylines like the boy band who are actually extragalactic dictators that are using audience screams to open up a portal back to their galaxy, or the one that has Sensei Ping and The Middleman fight 100 Mexican wrestlers. It's too good.

This is the one that Amy hates me for, even though she loves it. We are only ten episodes into it but she can't get enough. I remember watching the pilot for Heroes when it first came out, and maybe the second episode, but I either fell out of it or missed an episode and that did me in. I have a hard time skipping episodes in something (one of the reasons I like Star Trek--you can watch any blasted episode at any time and still manage). We started watching it on Netflix, looking for a new show really. I like it because it is serious. I think I get into it now because I don't have those weeks (or more) to wait between installments--I just click the next button, either today or tomorrow, when I want. I truly wonder how many others are watching shows like this now, on DVD or through their Netflix account--it is also available on NBC.com I know. Through DVD is also how I am watching the new Battlestar Galactica.

I have always been the one to watch Doctor Who. Ever since I first watched "Robots of Death" with the fourth Doctor that was on the tape we borrowed from the Baltas back when I was in high school. We borrowed that Beta tape because it had Fawlty Towers on it, sandwiched between two Doctor Who episodes. I watched it because it was recommended to me as "weird space stuff." And I loved it and have devoured it and read its books and novels ever since, getting a lot of my knowledge from my cousin James in England. My dad remembers watching the first one ever on TV when it first aired. When this new incarnation finally appeared in America, I watched the first episodes, still intrigued as it retains much of the same magic as the previous show. Amy actually got into it with me, although she so far won't watch any of the old shows because they are just too cheesy with those old, bad special effects. I'll bring her round. She was quite upset at the regeneration of Christopher Eccleston into David Tennant because she just got used to him and doesn't know what the new guy will be like. I'm just glad she's watching it with me and giving it a chance.


And then there is Red Dwarf. Oh, we love this show. The characters. The fact that it makes fun of bad sci-fi like Doctor Who and Star Trek. It's brilliant. We've watched the whole thing through Netflix and are amazed that they haven't done more of them. We have laughed our asses off at many points. We have come to the point as fans that we call each other Smeghead. And I think that if any fictional character came closest to my personality, it has to be that of Arnold Rimmer. Not Ace Rimmer, but Arnold. It is like watching a mirror!

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