The summer TV season is over so I thought I write a wrap up of some TV shows that I watched these last few months. It’s mostly new new stuff but a few old things are thrown in too. Some I’ve watched before and some that are new to me. Here we go.
“Perception” – This one still has an episode left to air as I write this. It’s another quirky detective/cop show. I generally like that genre. It’s usually light entertainment with a killer to hunt down. This show follows that pattern except the quirky detective has a more serious problem than most. He’s a genius professor who is also a paranoid schizophrenic. He helps an FBI agent but also has problems telling his hallucinations from reality. I really feel sorry for the guy sometimes. It’s an okay show but not spectacular.
“Episodes” – I had seen the first season of this Showtime and liked it but forgot it ever existed. I was surprised to see a second season pop up because I hadn’t heard a thing about it since the first season ended. The show is a half hour comedy about a husband and wife team of TV writers who move from England to Hollywood to recreate their British show for an American TV network and an American audience. Of course nothing goes as planned. Matt LeBlanc of “Friends” fame plays himself. He is the star of the fictional show and plays himself as a bit of a self centered jerk. I like this one quite a bit. It’s funny stuff and worth checking out if you’re into sophisticated and crude humor.
“Web Therapy” – This one is also on Showtime and stars another “Friends” cast member, Lisa Kudrow. I never heard of this one before and so watched its first season plus the new second season. It’s also a half hour comedy about a woman (Lisa Kudrow) who invents a new kind of therapy, “Modality”, which is practiced in three minute sessions over a web cam. It cuts out all the wasted time of a fifty minute therapy session. Lisa Kudrow is very funny as the self centered therapist who doesn’t always have a lot of self awareness but can be mean and manipulative when angered. And she’s often angered. She’s usually on screen with another cast member also on screen as if they were talking over a web cam. It’s dialogue based so you have to pay close attention sometimes but it’s very funny. Lots of crazy characters. Each of these Showtime shows only have about six to nine episodes a season so it doesn’t take much time to watch through.
“Bunheads” – From the creator of “Gilmore Girls” this one has the same sort of “My Gal Friday” quick witted banter as G.G. but it never quite comes together like “Gilmore Girls” did. It’s about a thirty something ballerina/modern dancer turned Vegas showgirl who quits Vegas on a whim to marry a man and move to a small town. The man then dies in the first episode and the the woman stays to help run the small dance studio that her husbands mother has. It’s okay. It has its moments if you like banter but is not a total success.
“Burn Notice” – An old favorite back for the summer. I lost track of what season it is but they do a good job of keeping this series fun and fresh. The lead character, Michael Weston, is always in trouble with evil unseen forces who try to manipulate him to use his spy skills to do their bidding while he also helps out some poor slob who has run afoul of criminals. A little bit of “The Fugitive” and a little bit of “The Equalizer”. A good show.
“The Finder” – This one has been cancelled already and one of its stars, Michael Clarke Duncan, just died. Yet another quirky detective story. No cops this time (occasionally a US Marshal) but the quirky detective is a guy who is ex-military with brain damage. Now he sees things a little differently than everyone else and once he sets out to find something he can’t stop. It becomes a compulsion. Once again, light hearted fun. I enjoyed this show. Too bad it was cancelled.
“Eagleheart” – Funny, funny, funny. A ten minute long show that’s the latest Chris Elliot vehicle and runs on Adult Swim or some such. I just discovered it this summer but it’s in its second season. Some people like Chris Elliot and some don’t. I do. It’s stupid fun. Chris Elliot is a US Marshal who kicks ass and takes names. Plus he kills an awful lot of bad guys. The “Sky Crime” episode was just brilliant. If you like your comedy cleverly stupid then this one is for you.
“Copper” I’m not positive how I feel about this one yet. I’ve only seen three episodes and I sort of like it. It’s a BBC America show and it takes place in New York City back when the US Civil war was still going on but winding down. Our main character is a NYC Policeman/detective. The city was a lot different then. Lot’s of dirty streets and racial hatred. The main character tries to use what modern methods he can to solve crimes but faces evil and corruption at almost every turn. It’s a bit bleak. I’ll give it a little more time though.
“Life” – A show from 2007-2008 that I watched when it first ran and I decided to watch it again this summer. I liked it then and I like it now. Once again a quirky detective/cop show. But this one is a little better done than most. The lead character is a cop who spent 12 years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit. He was recently exonerated and the city had to give him fifty million dollars and his job back. He’s solving crimes with his partner and hunting down who set him up. It lasted through a ten episode first season and a twenty two episode second season. I liked it all the way through and it has one of my favorite final episodes. Oh, and his quirky gimmick was that he learned zen techniques to make it through twelve years of prison.
“Firefly” – A series that is ten years old now. I watched it when it first came out and last watched it in 2005 when the movie “Serenity” that was based on it came out. There are only fourteen episodes of it but it is one of the best TV series of all time. A lot of people like this show and you can find tons written about it so I don’t have much more to add than that it lives up to the hype. It’s a good show. It’s a space western with interesting characters living life on the frontier. They band together as a surrogate family and try to get by. A favorite.
So that’s what I watched this summer. How about you?
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