T.V. land

The vast wasteland of summer television is now upon me. The only thing I look forward to is the last few episodes of Breaking Bad in August and I have The Venture Brothers back after a ridiculous hiatus. Until the fall I say farewell to some shows and eagerly await the return of others.

Bates Motel

I went into this series with no expectations. After watching all the episodes I left the same way. The story of Norman Bates sounded good, but the delivery wasn’t interesting. The biggest problem was setting this tale in modern day. It bothered me to no end. Why did they not set this show in the 40’s-50 like it should have been? There was just too many questions and not enough answers. I can get behind this premise, but it needs a balance. If every week is just more events and questions that lead to more events and questions why do I care? I did like Freddie Highmore’s take on Anthony Perkins, but that is not enough to make me want to watch more of this series.

Defiance

Yeah a SyFy original that I tried and wanted to like, but finally fell out of favor. After six episodes, I’m out. I just didn’t care about the story and characters.  I hoped for a good or even just fun sci-fi show. I did not get that with Defiance.

Hannibal

Now this show I really like. It is twisted as all get out and surprisingly enjoyable for a show on NBC. The only problems I see are the graphic content, the story longevity and Larry Fishburn getting too big to fit on screen. Orpheus! Put down the cookies!

This show is full of gross and over the top serial killer stuff and I love it!

 Mads Mikkelsen does a descent job as Hannibal Lecture. It is hard to reprise a role that Anthony Hopkins so totally owns. There is a good mix of gross and psychological stuff here to keep me interested. The pre-Red Dragon universe is worth exploring and Hannibal does a fine job. But it is the: “normies”, “muggles”, “norms”, “blanks” or however else you refer to non-fans of this sort of show, that need to watch the show to keep it running. It was picked for a second season, so that is a good sign. Right?  

Game of Thrones

The season is over and my travels through Westeros are over for a time. The third season of this show is still just as good, if not better than the first. This season had some phenomenal events! The cast and writing is still great. The only problem for me is I am now a man without a country. With the demise of all my favorite characters, I now have nobody to follow and cheer for. I know not to get attached or enjoy any one character too much. Those always seem to get killed. Yet, I still follow the show and love the events that are unfolding. The season finale was a bit of a let down as compared to the 1^st and 2^nd season. Personally, the episode before the finale would have been a much better ending for season 3. It just wrecked people who didn’t know what was coming. Hell, I knew and it was still intense! I guess they decided to end it with a bit of a palate cleanser and descent set-up for season 4. I think we all kind of needed that after the events of the “Red Wedding” didn’t we?

There were also the sitcoms that give me the usual 30 minute chuckle and they did through the year. So to the Bang Show (especially the painful D&D episode), American Dad, Modern Family and New Girl thank you. Parks and Rec…..well you are on watch. I have become increasingly irritated by the way the show is going. The Office did this as well and I walked away. The next season of Parks and Rec could be my last due to the amount of side characters getting way too much screen time for me. A shame if it happens, but I can only take so much Tom, any character with the name Rafio and Burt Macklin stuff before I turn the channel.

Now to find me some E3 coverage!