adrift

Yes, yes. The fall season began a few weeks ago. Now let’s check out what’s watchable. A look in alphabetical order.

Bionic Woman Season 1

If you survived the pilot, you are good. Most people who made it till episode 3 recognized the potential. There are several things I really like. The fact that she can’t fight good just because of the bionics and needs training is great. Makes a lot of sense, right? If you can’t land a punch, it doesn’t matter how strong you are. Another point is explained through the use of antrocytes (nanobots that automatically repair/heal damaged parts - yes, pretty much like in Jake 2.0), in the original series, a single shot would have sufficed to stop the bionic woman. Now a lot of the toughness can be explained thanks to this tweak. A nice touch is, that she’s working for a company and not some “good agency”. They primarily care for their investment, everything else is secondary or even unimportant/a nuisance that has to be dealt with. The coolest touch of realism is, how the bionics are presented. She’s the second bionic woman, and everything is still experimental, completely unknown problems could arise anytime. And that’s exactly how things work! No new technology comes perfect out of the box, without the need to steadily enhance and fix it. TOS was still designed around this false trust, nothing would have ever failed because of unknown and unexpected technological problems. Nothing is ever designed without a flaw. Not to be forgotten: After finding out she’s under close surveillance by her built-in GPS and eye-camera, she demands her right for privacy! Yes! Finally someone makes a stand in prime time television about that! Give’em hell! Starbuck is also very good in her role as the first (cool, some may say EVIL) bionic woman. Hopefully she won’t die or anything. The lab guy is cool, too. “What have you done with MY ear???” “YOUR ear???” This may even become a running gag (if it isn’t already). Also, in the show she doesn’t look like Scully. Brrr. And who is that???

Bones Season 3

Many tried to create shows about geeks, socially inexperienced fellas who appear to everyone else like a fish out of the water whenever outside their usual field of expertise. Few however, managed to nail it as Bones does (with ease). Brennan really brings it. She totally seems to be someone, who can address many things only with her intellect, her knowledge but not with the expected social experience which would be preferred by most people. There’s also this Zach guy who does the very intelligent expert, who is totally unable to cope with typical social situations unrelated to his job. He overdoes it sometimes, but this may also be his awkwardness. The reactions he gets from Booth are also golden. Hodgins completes this team with his more social experienced kind, but still existing ability to totally geek out about his favorite topics and he’s also into conspiracies… Or as some might prefer, into inconvenient truths that others might discard as such because of their evil agenda. I also watch it because of the dialog. Brennan explains in idle talk why it’s stupid to drink more expensive bottled water that’s less pure than the cheaper tap water, which is much more regulated. That’s also why people who think of Bones as another CSI (I hate CSI) are clearly mistaken. I’m hardly interested in crime scene stuff, but very much in all of the above. I’m tired of Cops searching for clues and I won’t watch anything that has its focus on that. TV was dominated by such shows for 20 years=long enough.

Californication Season 1

Good idea, well presented with good dialog. I hope the show gets a good run.

Chuck Season 1

The unofficial revisit of the Jake 2.0 idea. A geek (or in this incarnation the term nerd is used) with a lame and normal (that’s why) life becomes a spy after some sort of accident happens to him. The show is okay and has no major weaknesses (when it comes to the actors and such), so it should entertain anyone who’s into that topic. A big problem, however, comes with the basic idea of the show and I don’t understand why no one saw it and corrected it in time. Bryce, an old College “mate” of Chuck, steals secret information encoded into pictures and sends it to Chuck. He then opens the data, not knowing what he is confronted with. After this, all the top secret stuff is stored in his brain and the data itself was destroyed. The involved agencies have no other alternative than to work with him. Now the so very obvious problem: How long would he be of use? It was a unique incident. All the knowledge in his head could become obsolete anytime and he wouldn’t know. There’s also no update. How can they know if the stuff in his head is still correct, or a vital piece of (new) information isn’t missing? They can’t. So their actions could be based on bad intel every episode, a course set for disaster. Imagine the show would run for 5 years. This would advertise the very wrong belief that data doesn’t need to be corrected, revised and verified. Nothing would be farther from the truth. But so much for the reality check. The show itself works great.

Dexter Season 2

I usually have a thing for shows with a narrative (and I’m thinking Scrubs not Pushing Daisies - this voice gives me the creeps, also what he says feels WRONG, just a little ). That said, Dexter is THE show. It would never work without the narrative, because he obviously can’t talk about what he’s doing with any other character on the show. So there is no other way to let the audience know what motivates Dexter, to make him understandable. From all listed shows here, this one feels the least like a remake or a mix from others.

Heroes Season 2

I watched Season 1, so I’m gonna continue to watch it. No real reason to stop. Okay, there’s that Sylar guy… Still…

Journeyman Season 1

This show is a remake of Quantum Leap with a bunch of differences. He jumps through time as himself, he returns home, he has a nagging wife at home… There’s also a bigger mythical arc at large, somewhere far in the background. Which, if I come to think of it, will most likely never be resolved. As in QL. Journeyman is okay, nothing special though. It fills the gap of easy entertainment without to much depth, probably aimed at the casual viewers.

Life Season 1

A show with a cop in it. I normally wouldn’t watch it (see Bones comment), but it’s reaching for a new angle. The lead was falsely imprisoned. Gets out after 12 (?) years and returns to “the force” (no DNA from the crime scene matched his). His concealed reason is to find the real killer, for whose crime he was booked. And now what makes it interesting for me: After his experience he stopped believing that the police is always right and makes no errors. That impacts his own work now. A great moment for me was, already in the pilot, as some officers were standing around at a crime scene and he asks them if they even looked for the evidence. Later he warns someone from an incoming house search, because there’s nothing to gain from it anyway. After 20 years, with always the same kind of cop shows, finally a new direction.

Moonlight Season 1

I guess starting Moonlight means that there won’t be a Blood Ties Season 2. Having 2 almost identical shows on the air simultaneously and all. Watch it if you watch everything with vampires in it. Could be from the Ninties. Easily.

They managed to have Shannyn Sossamon on the show without making her recognizable… How could they.

Pushing Daisies Season 1

This might be the weirdest of them all. If Ned touches dead people (or animals/plants as well) once, they come alive again, if he touches them twice, dead forever. Leaving them alive for more than 1 minute, kills someone else instead. The strong colors everywhere make it somewhat unreal. Episode 2 already had a musical scene. That’s fast. I like Anna Friel.

Reaper Season 1

Reaper is a cross between geek shows like Jake 2.0/Chuck, supernatural shows like Supernatural (…) and the more substantial like Dead like Me (”Dolores Herbig” sends the souls back to hell after the job is finished). Missy Peregrym is in it. As I come to think of it, is there really so much more to it?

South Park Season 11

It’s only listed for matters of not leaving a series behind. After 10 seasons it makes no sense anymore to tell that it’s a necessary watch.

So much for my tiny overview.