oceana

Things I like about Smallville
- Jensen Ackles - duh!
- Clark Kent - so he kinda grows on you, doesn't he? Even if he can't act
- Lois Lane - uhm. yep.
- the cows - I just really like cows, and they are so underrepresented on tv
- Chloe - I think I have a little crush on her *blushes*

Things that irritate me about Smallville
- I think I already mentioned the brightness?
- Lana Lang - OMG I hate her and her someone-killed-my-puppy-after-I-had-just-dressed-him-in-his-pink-shirt look with a passion. PLEASE PLEASE die Lana Lang. Please.
- why does everyone look thirtysomething? (and dresses like it, too) aren't they supposed to be in highschool?
- nobody seems to have parents, except for Clark, and they are (i) not his real parents and (ii) the most annoying parents ever
- what's up with everyone being a virgin? They all look like thirtysomethings, they don't have parents, they all have places of their own and they are all virgins? Like, Jason Teague moving to Smallville for Lana and then not having sex with her for a whole year? Yeah. Right.
- (almost) nobody can act.
- Lex not actually being gay ( I was really honestly surprised by that. I always thought he was this mysterious sexless, dark billionaire, whom sweet young innocent Superman feels mysteriously drawn to (and then they have sex in the dungeons). Once again fandom lied to me (this is like the time when Jim and Blair didn't actually sleep in the same bed, even though I was sure that was canon)
- OMG if I have to see one more checkered flannel shirt I'm going to hurl the remote at the TV
- the brightest show on earth being all dark and shadowy the one time Jensen takes his shirt off


I'm also watching "Accidental Husband", which is cute. Also, Jeffrey Dean Morgan?
Very very attractive.
I'm just saying.

You love 'em then you leave 'em
With your sold out reviews

No More, No More
No More, No More

So I've officially stopped watching Numb3rs. Somebody please inform me if this show ever goes back to the Don-suffers-and-hurts-and-shoots-people-and-generally-walks-a-small-small edge show, cause if it does, I'll be back. So long, I'll not longer waste my precious time with it. (though I admit that I'll miss Liz, because she is very very pretty).

I've also stopped watching Dollhouse. Dollhouse, to my surprise, is actually shaping up to become a really good show. And yet, it still makes me go "Why should I care?". I'm just not interested in it, and, since I have about an hour at home every day, I'd rather spent it watching reruns of Supernatural than watching a show which has a basic premise that I really don't care about. Good luck, Dollhouse, you deserve it.

(I'm also no longer watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles, because they are OVER, so not longer watching is really not my choice and it makes me cry and cry and cry. Still haven't seen the last ep yet. I'm afraid it's going to be too painful.)



This leaves me with these shows on my schedule for the coming seasons:

SUPERNATURAL (OMG there's NOTHING about that show that doesn't turn me on that I don't love)

NCIS (yep, still loving it. and I'm totally deaf to the criticism some people are voicing at the moment)

Bones (cause it makes my heart happy)

The Unit (in case you forgotten, here are some reasons why I love The Unit)

Brothers&Sisters (cause you can never have enough family drama)

Desperate Housewives (seriously, there's NEVER enough drama. Plus, since I'm not emotionally involved in either DH nor BS fandom, those shows don't pressure me as much as other shows sometimes do. In other words, my heart doesn't break when they screw up. (or when they DON't screw up. I'm looking at you, SPN, cause I know you are breaking my heart on purpose).

Doctor Who (though, like with every new season of Doctor Who, I'm not so sure if I'll continue watching it right this moment. I'll be sceptical for about three eps, then I'll go back be being helplessly in love. I hope).

Eureka (someone tell me it's going to be back, please? It's like a summer holiday show. It always seems to be sunny in Eureka. )

Leverage (what can I say, it's grown on me)

Torchwood (maybe. I was all over it in season 1, and then, sometime in season 2, I noticed that I actually cannot stand John Barrowman. I'm sure it'll pass, because I used to think he was made of awesome. I wonder how that happened.)


That may seem like a lot of shows, but it's actually fewer than I've watched in years. So, are there any good new shows I should be watching. Or good older ones that I'm missing (here's your chance to make up for the fact that none of you told me how absolutely terrifyingly perfect the Sarah Connor Chronicles are, which I had to find out all for myself after I read an article in Der Spiegel! Talk about embarrassing)

PIMP ME, please-.

I have an episode (1x03) of a show called True Blood saved on my harddrive.

I have never even heard of that show. (it seems to be about vampires)

Hmm. Does anyone have an idea why I would have dled and saved this episode and if there is any reason why I should spent 50 minutes of my time watching it?

This looked like it had more potential than Californication. Sam, 21 years old, loser, finds out that his parents have sold his soul to the devil. He's supposed to help him bring back escaped souls to hell from now on.

It was fun for two thirds of the time, except that Sam's a loser and has loser friends, and I like pretty. There wasn't enough pretty. Then the losers dressed up more like losers and fought the bad guy, which, hey, you work for the devil, why can't you do EVIL things?
I know, I know.

I don't think this is a bad show, though, just not my taste. It could be, if the devil showed up more often and made Sam do evil things.

Which reminds me: I have to buy those Supernatural DVDs. I know they were on my budget this months, but then I blew it on Slings& Arrows and The Unit.

My Top Ten Shows of 2006

1. NCIS
This was a hard decision, because I think that other seasons, particularly season 2 of NCIS was a lot better than the current season. But I still enjoy the hell of the show, and I love them for never neglecting the characters, always revealing something more, funny, absurd, personal,about them. And compared with The Unit, which made second place, I still love NCIS more. It's not a rational decision, it comes from the heart.


2. The Unit
I love this show so much. The shows keeps getting better and better, even though they continue to hint at things and then not tell us, which drives me insane. It helped, of course, that 2006 was even more The Bob! show than before, but even apart from that, I loved each and every episode. Well, except for the season 2 opener. I'm still not over the shock.


3. Stargate
Okay, so it's not the show we knew and loved all these years anymore. But it's still a good show, and there are still aliens and Stargates and spaceships, combined with action, humour and our favourite characters: Daniel, Sam, Teal'c and surprisingly also Vala and Cameron, who have really grown on me. Vala, because she is cute, Cameron, because of his huge crush on the whole team and the wa he worships them with practically everything he does. Of course, you gotta wonder if they ever taught him what it means to be in command, but I like it when he watches SG-1 play with alien toys, not even trying to be in charge. And let's not forget that there is still Jack to love, who is sitting in Washington pretending that being without Daniel doesn't break his heart every day. It's so dramatic.
*loves SG-1*


4. Numb3rs
Had I made this list after two episodes into the new season, Numb3rs would have made the first place. I still can't believe how good the two-part season opener was. I love this show very much and they did some really great things with some of my favourite characters this year, but it continues to lose points with its "One outstanding, one boring episode" policy. Just throw out the boring plots this year, please?


5. Smith
*cries*
This was such a great show! It would have made #1, if it hadn't been cancelled so brutally after 3 episodes. What a great , great show. My heart's broken. BROKEN!


6. Veronica Mars
Judging purely from how much I'm looking forward to shows every week, Veronica Mars is at least #6. I wasn't happy with everything that happened this year, but it wasn't unhappiness from a TV POV, it was a personal unhappiness: some things I wasn't so interested in, some I found stupid. And that, given that the show is now set in college, is quite clever, really, because a college show could not be realistic if I were interested in everything that happened in it. I'm just too old for that. But overall, Veronica Mars continues to grow up with its characters, who are still some of the most human and real characters on TV. And the scene with Veronica and the phone in the cafeteria (I'm not going into details to avoid spoilers) is one of my favourite TV moments ever.


7. Doctor Who
I never expected to love the "new" Doctor so much, but I did. I loved the show, I loved the Doctor, I LOVED Rose, and then they made me cry, so now I don't think I'm ever going to love them again as much as I did this season, but I will also never forget how much I loved them.


8. Bones
Surprise! Yes, I enjoyed Bones quite a lot last year. It has gotten much better since the first season and all the characters are just..loveable. Even the Bones equivalent of Madame Director.


9. Eureka
Well, that was fun. ;-) No, really, this is the only thing I can say: fun. It's not a great, innovative show, but it is well-made fun with some nice ideas and sympathic characters. I can't remember one episode that disappointed me.


10. Torchwood
I already said once that I love Torchwood because it is clumsy, not despite of it. And yes, maybe I enjoyed parts of Torchwood more than Bones or Eureka, but parts of it were also horrible, that's what it is only #10. Bones and Eureka were more consistent, even though they didn't have the highlights Torchwood has. It's a close race. I think it was episode 11 of Torchwood that gave the decision. Still, love the show and its clumsiness.



( Shows that almost made it into the Top Ten )


( Other shows that I watched, that I didn't make it anywhere near the Top Ten )


( Most Disappointing Shows of 2006 )

I think that's it. Quite a lot of shows, I know, but it's not like there was a new episode of each show every week, and besides, I was without work for half of the year. What's your excuse? ;-)

This week on (my) TV computer:
(posts containing actual spoilers for any eps of this season are under a cut, the rest is spoilerfree (or at least there are no more spoilers than you'd find in a general show description.)


Heroes
For the moment, I'm watching Heroes. With Smith cancelled, Eureka on Hiatus and Friday Night Lights not working for me, my TV schedule leaves me enough room for Heroes. Problem is, I don't think it's good TV. I enjoy it (parts of) it, I like the cheerleader girl, the comic book hero and the reasonable brother (yes, the politician. I go for men with power and suits, this shouldn't be a surprise to those of you who follow this journal regularly). The show is well filmed, pretty pictures and great effects. Technically, there is nothing wrong with the show. The dialogues, well, it's called Heroes and the script seems to be a comic book, so complaining about the lack of good dialogue would be silly.

And yet, I cannot help but feel that this is all some cheap trick, the creation of a Hero for everyone, to capture us all. The geek who reads comics, the cheerleader who isn't like the others, the woman who can't handle her life, the black sheep in the family, and finally the scientist without superpowers, who will doubtlessly turn out to be a real life hero sooner or later. Probably later, as I see many many seasons of this coming on, seasons in which we will learn more about the lives of our beloved Heroes, without ever getting closer to The Big Secret.
The whole concept of the show reminds me of Lost, and I hate Lost. But it took the frantic viewing of most of the first season of Lost for me to find out that I hate it, so I'll probably need some more time with Heroes, too.

Actually, I take it back, that I said this isn't good TV. This is excellent TV, this is the optimum use of the medium TV as an episodic and returning movie, with ever knew cliffhangers, the stories of many characters that are slowly woven together, shots and cuts that would never be used on the big screen, one big mystery that keeps everyone glued to the screens, while it is at them same time so easy to understand that you can start watching the show at every moment without being lost, and finally, endless possibilities of marketing. This is the stuff that the dreams of the networks are made of, and as such, it is excellent TV.
But I really doubt the network bosses would watch it themselves.


( Studio 60: The West Coast Delay )


NCIS
Review with thinky thoughts and screencaps is here.

The Unit
Not so thinky thoughts are here.

Veronica Mars: My Big Fat Greek Rush Week
I like it. I really like this show. It's exactly the right mix between mystery, teenage drama, soap opera, crime and action that is necessary to make me a devoted fan. Okay, maybe not os devoted, since I am not really interested in fanfic or meta for Veronica Mars, but I'm a devoted viewer. Consequently, I have nothing intelligent to say about this ep except that I liked it.
I know you are all thrilled to know, that's why I'm telling you.


CSI+Supernatural
Haven't watched these two yet. I'm fighting with myself if I will even continue watching Supernatural. I still think it's a bad show, and I won't go near the slash fandom if you paid me a million euro. I've saved some gen fic to my HD, but I can't be bothered to read it. I really am not interested in the fandom at all, slash or no slash, and I don't like the show much, so why, why do i still watch it?
Because it's pretty. Because Jared and Jensen are very pretty and they drive a pretty car, and the lighting and make-up makes them even more pretty, plus, sometimes they are handcuffed and thrown on police cars (not often enough, though). See, I am trying to delete the first season from my HD, but then these images of Jensen and Jared delivering bad lines in dark rooms with weapons in their hands cross my mind, and I just cannot get myself to delete it. I'm ashamed of being so shallow.

CSI, however, which I had already decided not to watch this year, surprises me by being rather good, and I'm looking forward to this week's ep, which should be complete in ten minutes. Yay!


( Men in Trees: The Caribou in the Room )

( Numb3rs: The Mole )

So, after I saw some people on my flist talk about Vanished, I thought I'd give the show a try, even though it wasn't on my original TV schedule.

( And it won't make it there any time soon. )

I watched "Psych" last week and found it amusing enough to give it another try. ( The last try, as it turns out. )

While watching a TV show (all you need to know about it is that it's canadian, so I have an excuse for watching it), I witness the following scene:

Young guy returns home, finds his parents waiting for him, and, oh shock, not only his parents, but also a cop!
Young guy runs, cop gets him.
Young guy, in yet another attempt at teenage rebellion: "Get off o me!"

So far so good. But what does the cop say?

Cop: "Relax."
And not in a cool, let's all calm down voice. No, I swear he said it in that different voice. In that voice. You must know which voice I mean, or is it only my fanfiction-besoddled brain that makes me imagine these things?

But, a cop, while handcuffing a teenager who is conveniently (un)dressed in an open shirt with a white undershirt showing, throwing him over furniture, telling him to relax, in that voice?
That's a first for me.

The fact that Narim doesn't help me trust these people either. It must be one hell of a show though, with alien conspiracies and BDSM sex in the first two (!) minutes!

*continues watching*

ETA: I take it back, it's not a cop, it's apparently some guy from a school! This is getting better and better...

If someone, not me, since I already watch too many shows, wanted to give one of the slash classics a try - Starsky & Hutch:
which episodes should I that someone watch?