What I’m watching right now

[breakinglight11]

I love television so very much. Here's what I've currently been into:

Elementary. If you’re not watching Elementary, you ought to start. It’s got everything— a feminist perspective, fascinating character arcs, great mystery plots, main characters of color, a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes that’s not basically magic and bogged down in racism and sexism. The leads are fabulous, and the complex platonic friend and colleague relationship they have is wonderful. I’m eagerly awaiting season 3.

I just finished season 3 of Mad Men. I don’t particularly enjoy it, honestly—I get frustrated by how nobody ever grows or changes, making the same mistakes over and over, and while I don’t need sympathetic characters to necessarily find a show engaging, it would be nice not to have everybody be awful. And it’s pretty damn cynical. But, it’s really well written. I am studying it for the purposes of learning how to convey the meaning of a scene through subtext rather than by what the characters literally say.

I’m up to episode 5 of Penny Dreadful. I dig Victorian pastiche fantasy. I will quote what I just told youareverysmall: “You know, I'm enjoying it. I wouldn't exactly say it's well-written-- it's kind of all over the place --but it' very engaging, the actors are excellent, and the production values are high. It can get pretty creepy though. Bernie likes the lead actress a lot, he thinks she's very intense and beautiful. So, I'd say a fun B+ show.”

Bernie just introduced me to Archer, and I’m halfway through the second season. It's been a long time since I actually enjoyed a comedy show. I find it very funny, though just right up the line of grossness I can stand without being put off. I guess I can no longer be pleased with myself for being immune to the sexual fascination of Don Draper, because I must confess I kind of think that Sterling Archer is hot. I blame his female-gaze-y character design, okay?

That’s what I’ve been watching that’s new, or new to me. What would I like to be watching?

I have heard so many amazing things about Orange is the New Black. But as I mentioned before, I have a really low tolerance for certain kinds of grossness (bathroom stuff, bodily functions, and crude sexuality) that I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to get through it without my stomach turning. Which sucks, because it sounds like it’s doing an amazing job telling the stories of people who don’t often get their stories told.

Orphan Black I definitely plan to get into. I have deliberately avoided learning much about it prevent spoilers, but it just looks so unusual and cool. Really really want to start watching it.

What are you watching? What do you recommend?

Comments

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

v_cat and I have been watching through The Sopranos, which we resisted for a long time, but man is it ever good.

IMO, the best thing on TV right now has to be The Good Wife.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

I don’t particularly enjoy it, honestly—I get frustrated by how nobody ever grows or changes, making the same mistakes over and over, and while I don’t need sympathetic characters to necessarily find a show engaging, it would be nice not to have everybody be awful.

I personally think they do start changing eventually, but even if you don't think so, their environment certainly will. :)

[laura47.livejournal.com]

oh and absolutely avoid orphan black spoilers as much as possible. it's hard, even the season 1 dvd cover have a (text) spoiler

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

We enjoyed the one season of Almost Human, but since it's been cancelled you may not want to bother.

We've finally returned to Treme. It can be tough watching at times, but the acting, the music, and the interweaving plots make it worthwhile--it's an incredible tapestry portrayal of the city of New Orleans during and after Katrina.

[lisefrac.livejournal.com]

Matt and I watched the first season of Father Ted recently, since it was free on Amazon Prime. I've been watching my way through True Blood, too, although that's too trashy for Matt to watch ;)

[laurion]

I have Father Ted on DVD if you want the rest. In fact, ping me over IM sometime...

[jducoeur]

We haven't yet caught up on either Orphan Black or Continuum, but both are recommended. They have different strengths, though.

Orphan Black is a tour de force of acting, and the direction and writing are solid, but the plots can be head-scratching sometimes. Continuum is more conventional, but a really good exploration of the time-travel concept, with good characters who regularly fail to be simplistic, and a really intricate plot that so far holds together.

Intriguingly, both play into your heroine-as-mother point from the other day: while I don't think that either explores it as far as they might, it isn't giving anything away to say that this is pretty central to both stories. Indeed, both are quite comfortable with the idea in a way that I don't think existed on TV ten years ago.

Other good stuff:

-- While it doesn't have quite the depth of Elementary, we're enjoying Perception for many of the same reasons, including the steadfast refusal to fall into the trap of romantic attachment between the leads.

-- The Good Wife is too far gone for me to catch up at this point, but it is certainly one of Kate's very favorite shows.

-- She is slowly taking me through West Wing when we have time. Really a landmark series in terms of writing and acting, and it has held up surprisingly well.

And of course it has nothing to do with writing, but I'm waiting for So You Think You Can Dance to get to the meat of the season. It's just a contest show, but it's refreshing to see one of those that is actually about talented people doing remarkable art...

[youareverysmall.livejournal.com]

ORPHAN BLACK = LIFE

Orange is the New Black is also good. Very good. But not as life-alteringly, face-meltingly amazing as Tatiana Maslany playing ALL OF THE CHARACTERS, and when you realize you're attracted to like 2 of them and none of the others you're like HOLY CRAP they're ALL DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHAT THE HECKKKKKKKKK