(no subject)

[teddywolf]

I really should be sleeping; but first, a TV update of some shows you may have missed.

Let's start with Leverage. The first episode aired last year, run without commercials during the show, and I was hooked. Former insurance adjuster, despondent over the death of his son and adrift in part due to family falling apart, has decided to find life in a bottle. That is, until he gets an offer to help hit his old employer - which denied his son the medical coverage he needed to live. He puts together a team of bad guys and wacky hijinks ensue! a reasonably intelligent thriller show comes to life. Season 2 wraps up next week, and I suspect it will have some major shifts in how the team operates. Again, it is reasonably intelligent but it also will telegraph occasional longer-term bits of team-based plot. Not that this is badly done or necessarily a bad thing.
Give it a looksee on TNT, and they do have it in high-def for what its worth. if you want to see old episodes and have Netflix On Demand you can watch it there, also in HD, but don't tell me I never warned you its addictive.

Next is Eureka, shown on the badly-renamed SyFy. I do give them credit for this show, though. Its come through a few seasons and all the characters have grown, changed or died. The primary protagonist is Jack Carter, assigned there as town sheriff. This is no ordinary town, though, as it is peopled and run by geniuses of the highest order. It has a whiff of patriotism as the town does potent R&D with military applications, but they have twists on everything from computers and cars to toasters and houses. The SF is reminiscent of Star Trek, and in some cases the tech they start showing off is light-years ahead of even Trek-tech - more imaginative writers with a better grounding in basic tech, I suspect. This is available in HD as well.

Last of the shows is another SyFy show, in this case a new one started just this summer. Warehouse 13 is most easily described as Men in Black combined with the TV series Friday the 13: The Series, which actually has very little if any relation to the series of movies - it was late night TV horror that was reasonably well done. The US Government has a warehouse, packed with scientific marvels and odd magical relics, and this is the tale of the induction of two Secret Service Agents into the life and work of the warehouse. There are plenty of comic touches but they don't go ham-handed on them, and the characters are quirky, professional and each likable in their own way. I am worried about this one as they started it in the summer and they've been pulling in actors from Eureka for some of the shows. I think SyFy wants it to succeed, and frankly unless they start jumping sharks with frikken laser beams [/Dr Evil] I would like to see a few more seasons.

I am curious as to what the new roster will be for network Saturday Morning Cartoons, as they seem to have reduced themselves to just showing on CW and showing a lot of shows from the past several years. I think my old childhood tradition is dying off. On the plus side, Cartoon Network has the computer-animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" returning very shortly.

Oh, if enough copies of The Middleman DVD are sold it might come back from cancellation. We may be investing in a copy here shortly.

Comments

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

Ack! I know/watch every show you've mentioned. We LOVE Friday the 13th.

We're buying Middleman too. Fabulous show. REALLY wish it would come back. The captioning is genius.

Last night, at dinner, Hoppie said to me (really out of the blue), "Why on earth would Lewis Carroll's mirror be in Warehouse 13. Are we really supposed to believe it wouldn't be in Britain at their equivalent of Warehouse 13?"

And then I thought about it which is embarrassing enough to have to admit and went through this process. "Well, it could have passed down descendants who moved to...no, he never married or had kids, so the university would have gotten all his stuff. And no university EVER gets rid of stuff like that." So I said, "Actually, it's hard to believe the British government would be able to get their hands on it," and explained my reasoning.

Of course they could have stolen it when it was on some sort of tour (hard to believe they could steal it out of Oxford...universities know a thing or two about hiding and protecting their treasures) like they did the sword hilt, but then wouldn't they have mentioned that as part of the history of the mirror?

I said, "Well maybe they stole it while it was on tour, like the sword?"

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

It is one of the things that slightly bothers me about the show, how no other comparable agency elsewhere in the world has shown up. I mean, including among the Japanese of all people - a country with a stronger belief or wish for magic than the US, with all sorts of stories about mecha and monsters doesn't have an agency for storing such?

[littlebuhnee.livejournal.com]

"Friday The 13th: The Series" was one of my favorite shows growing up, so I'm intrigued by "The Warehouse", though I have too much to watch as it is. :P

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Warehouse 13 is pretty good, although the criticisms people point to here are valid ones.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

We've been enjoying these shows as well. Leverage reminds me a little of Mission: Impossible, but with more humor. Eureka is always fun. Warehouse 13 is entertaining, but I still feel it's missing something. I just wish I knew what.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

It tends to lack rhyme or reason for how the artifacts only start showing up in reasonable time periods and aside from the Warehouse mission itself it lacks an overarching plotline. There is also the issue of how the shows light tone conflicts with the slightly paranoia-inducing "you don't need to know that" shtick.
I still enjoy it, it's great popcorn; but it generally seems to lack the my-god-the-world-is-about-to-die aspect - you know everything's going to end reasonably well by the end of the episode. One reason I enjoy Eureka is they have been willing to kill off most anybody in the show.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I Leverage. In particular, I love the dynamics between the team members, and the fact that no matter how logistically or logically silly they might get, they stay character-driven.

Eureka is popcorn for the brain. The science is awful, the characters are often cringeworthy (except Henry, who's entirely too awesome), the interactions are reasonably interesting, and the total package is far more watchable than the examination of its components implies.

I'm watching W13 largely because the world is nifty and the gadgetry is gloriously retro. The more I watch, though, the more annoyed I am by the two main characters. The female protagonist was supposed to be kick-ass (and was in the pilot, and then slightly less so in ep 2, and a lot less so since then), but most writers make her whiny, uncertain, and barely qualified. The secondary characters are pretty awesome, though, and I will keep watching, but I'll also keep hoping that they writers get their heads out of their posteriors.

Middleman, of course, is the best show ever. Ever.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

When TL and I watched the first episode of Leverage I made note of the characters. They established characters like good movies do as opposed to how most TV pilots do - quickly but with three dimensions and a sense of how they got there.

Our roomie hates Jack Carter based on the first several episodes of Eureka and refuses to look at it again. She wants him dead but I don't think they'll do that for at least 2 more seasons.

Myka was presented as capable and kick-ass and cool but with a deep wound inside her. They've been focusing a lot on the heartache eating her up, which I admit I'm not overly pleased with. I do love the gadgets; they would fit right into most steampunk. I want a Farnsworth!

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I don't mind Jack Carter. Fargo, on the other hand, drives me batty. Or rather, not so much Fargo himself (although it annoys me how he's written, too), but the way everyone treats him.

I think in the pilot Myka was capable, kick-ass and cool. Since then in the show she's spending most of her time being wounded and whiny.

[gingicat]

Interesting. I really identify with Myka, being someone expected to be kick-ass who has had to deal with bosses like Artie who seem nice and likable but aren't giving enough information to do the job - even worse when you can't get away from the job and are literally in danger all the time.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, Artie annoys the heck out of me for keeping them in the dark, and I hope he gets over it real soon. (I like Artie, but I don't at all like when he does that.)

I just keep getting the feeling that the writers don't quite respect Myka as a character, that she _could_ be strong, and she is except for when they decide the plot calls for her to not be. It's like any random show's smart characters not making the obvious conclusion or denying the obvious because then the episode would end in 10 minutes.

Speaking of denying the obvious, this show features an improbable number of "Oh, it couldn't possibly be _that_", especially from Artie.

[ladythmpr.livejournal.com]

Leverage is one of the few shows that all three of us watch and enjoy immensely. That in itself says quite a bit.