Goddammit how did I end up watching so much TV this year? I swear for years I was watching like NOTHING, idk what happened. Did television get better? Did my standards change? I think maybe I was just really burned out for a while. Anyway here I am saying stuff about all of it. Some stolen gifs to spice up the wall of text!
Jane the Virgin. I was underwhelmed last time I brought up JtV but I've actually been enjoying the last two or three episodes a LOT more. I think because the love triangle aspect is essentially over it's been allowing more focus on the parts of the show I actually like: namely, Jane's family stuff, Xo and Rogelio, and Bridget Regan's face/hair. Gina Rodriguez's face is also very excellent and tbh little preggo Jane is adorable, even though I have to continually make my peace with the entire conceit, lol. (Who DOESN'T get an abortion in that scenario???????) But I have been liking it a lot more – the episode where Jane wrote Rogelio's death scene on the Passions of Santos was excellent, and I really liked the most recent one too. I'm still indifferent to Rafael but he is at least mostly aesthetically pleasant.
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Agent Carter. PEGGY SERVING TEA TO THOSE FEDORAS!!!!! Hayley Atwell is truly a gift, to me and to the world. My only real gripe with the show (and I hestitate to even say it, because AC is a spot of true joy in my week) is that there's too much focus on the Fedora Gang for me, and not enough women outside of Peggy. Like, I don't care about Chad Michael Murray's douchebag sob stories (has anyone ever been glad to see CMM on a show? Like, does anyone in the world have a reaction to him besides 'that fuckin guy'? Inquiring minds). I didn't care about the chief dude's regret visions and I imagine I was supposed to be affected by his fiery demise but I only felt a distant satisfaction. Even despite my deep love for Enver, I find Daniel underwhelming as a character and his subtle Nice Guy stuff is of no interest to me. Not-Dottie is giving me life, and I loved seeing all the baby Widows, but I already miss the ladies of the Griffith! Not enough Princess Angie! Anyway, I'm still honestly riding really high on the fact that Agent Carter is even a thing. I would never have anticipated getting a show like this about that character. So I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm also honestly shocked there are even talks of a s2, if only because of low expectations re: the world, but I'd be obviously thrilled if it happened.
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Fresh Off the Boat. I know the universe takes all good sitcoms from me BUT CAN IT NOT TAKE THIS ONE TOO? Jessica is too amazing. Too too amazing. I love those kids too, fucking adorable.
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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I was kind of eh about the first few eps of the season (will anything beat the season of Fat Mac and Pregnant Dee?) but Charlie Work and The Gang Misses the Boat were really great. Also, I'm trash, because I was into Dee and Charlie hooking up. There's no denying Caitlin Olsen and Charlie Day are often the best and even though I love Mac and Dennis, Dee/Charlie plots are always standout hilarious for me. Dennis' further descent into rage-fueled serial killer is also amazing, and they're pushing Mac's closeted gay thing so much lately I feel like it's going somewhere, no? Anyway this show is one of the best comedies around, I will always say this.
Empire. Okay moment of respectful silence for Naomi Campbell's gorgeous alien face when Hakeem tried to give her a nameplate with his own name on it. Also is it bad that I want to keep Jamal's random baby? That kid is so fucking cute and I really enjoyed everyone in that miserable family cooing over her, lol. Also here's hoping Jamal's second boyfriend has an actual personality, though tragically Boring First Boyfriend had the looks. Really though, nothing is as important as Cookie. It is just such a joy for me to watch her be competent and fun and also fuck up and try on outfits? And thirst after security men. (I'm not the only one relieved to have a legitimate reason to hate Anika, though, right? It is SUCH A RELIEF.)
Broad City. A GIFT. Between Fresh off the Boat, It's Always Sunny, and Broad City, I am spoiled for comedy, I have been getting so many genuine cackles. Abbi's fantasy of visiting an extravagant flea market with Mark Ruffalo!! So relevant to all of my dreams in this life, tbh. I don't even know what to say about this show that's not gushing?
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How to Get Away With Murder. I enjoyed the scenes with Viola and Cicely Tyson, if only because it's rare Viola ever gets to interact with someone on her level on this show. But I have to say...on the whole, my interest in this show has decreased drastically since the break. I'm all caught up yet I feel like I have retained nothing from it and I have trouble even paying attention. I just don't care about any of the characters anymore. I mean, Viola is always incredible to watch no matter what she's doing, so there's that. And I have occasion stirrings of interest in Laurel or, even more rarely, Bonnie, but on the whole I'm just... meh. I'll finish out the season but I don't know if I'll bother when s2 rolls back around.
The Slap. So, the US version is garbage. I did not have high hopes, because NBC, but I thought: you know, this is not a shitty cast of actors. These are good people! But they are transmuted by the power of this terrible show into terrible actors, somehow, like, none of them act like actual living breathing humans? They are more like slightly bored robots. The only person I think doing a passable job is Zachary Quinto, who indeed is believable as a living person if not 100% as that character. It's not entirely his fault, though; he is not being helped by the script even a little. I admittedly have a problem with constantly comparing it to the original, which I loved (how pissed was I when they switched the order of Harry and Anouk's eps and instead of the forty minutes of Penn Badgley I expected I got exactly zero minutes of Penn Badgley), but I don't think there is any denying that this is a poor adaptation. It's sanitized, overly-expository, and just plain dull. I found it especially glaring in the scene where Quinto (who is the one who slapped the kid) goes to the kid's house to apologize to the parents. The mother is played by the same actress, Melissa George, in both, so it makes comparing the scenes too easy – in the original, I thought it was one of her best scenes, like her performance was honestly a bit terrifying to me, it exposed this side of Rosie I had no idea existed. But here she was AWFUL. It was stilted and weird and very Actory in the worst way.
Well. I'll be here to the bitter end regardless of quality, but I'm quite sad about it. Let's look at this handsome little fuck and his ridiculous hair:
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Constantine...ended, and that's all there is to say about that.
Looking. Groff continues to be an adorable little poodle but... guys, am I the only one who doesn't really get the Richie thing? I mean like, why is the entire internet obsessed with him? I like him, I like the character, don't get me wrong, but I don't get the intensity of the outpouring of love for him? Am I at fault??? Also Agustin and Damian from Mean Girls are cute.
Girls. I don't know, I don't even LIKE this show, but I get sucked into the entire HBO lineup on Sunday. It's like twenty minutes of straight rage with one or two passably funny lines thrown in.
The Jinx. Like I said, I get pulled into the lineup! Which is how I ended up watching this. It's a docu-series about a murderer, basically, and I am a true crime junkie so I got sucked in easily. It's basically the ID channel but classy and HBO-y. Really interesting. They made a movie about the guy – Robert Durst – with Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling that I always meant to watch but never got around to.
Alsoooo I have not yet started this season of The Americans, because I am almost TOO excited. I may have to save them all for the end of the season and just mainline that shit.
Jane the Virgin. I was underwhelmed last time I brought up JtV but I've actually been enjoying the last two or three episodes a LOT more. I think because the love triangle aspect is essentially over it's been allowing more focus on the parts of the show I actually like: namely, Jane's family stuff, Xo and Rogelio, and Bridget Regan's face/hair. Gina Rodriguez's face is also very excellent and tbh little preggo Jane is adorable, even though I have to continually make my peace with the entire conceit, lol. (Who DOESN'T get an abortion in that scenario???????) But I have been liking it a lot more – the episode where Jane wrote Rogelio's death scene on the Passions of Santos was excellent, and I really liked the most recent one too. I'm still indifferent to Rafael but he is at least mostly aesthetically pleasant.
Agent Carter. PEGGY SERVING TEA TO THOSE FEDORAS!!!!! Hayley Atwell is truly a gift, to me and to the world. My only real gripe with the show (and I hestitate to even say it, because AC is a spot of true joy in my week) is that there's too much focus on the Fedora Gang for me, and not enough women outside of Peggy. Like, I don't care about Chad Michael Murray's douchebag sob stories (has anyone ever been glad to see CMM on a show? Like, does anyone in the world have a reaction to him besides 'that fuckin guy'? Inquiring minds). I didn't care about the chief dude's regret visions and I imagine I was supposed to be affected by his fiery demise but I only felt a distant satisfaction. Even despite my deep love for Enver, I find Daniel underwhelming as a character and his subtle Nice Guy stuff is of no interest to me. Not-Dottie is giving me life, and I loved seeing all the baby Widows, but I already miss the ladies of the Griffith! Not enough Princess Angie! Anyway, I'm still honestly riding really high on the fact that Agent Carter is even a thing. I would never have anticipated getting a show like this about that character. So I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm also honestly shocked there are even talks of a s2, if only because of low expectations re: the world, but I'd be obviously thrilled if it happened.
Fresh Off the Boat. I know the universe takes all good sitcoms from me BUT CAN IT NOT TAKE THIS ONE TOO? Jessica is too amazing. Too too amazing. I love those kids too, fucking adorable.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I was kind of eh about the first few eps of the season (will anything beat the season of Fat Mac and Pregnant Dee?) but Charlie Work and The Gang Misses the Boat were really great. Also, I'm trash, because I was into Dee and Charlie hooking up. There's no denying Caitlin Olsen and Charlie Day are often the best and even though I love Mac and Dennis, Dee/Charlie plots are always standout hilarious for me. Dennis' further descent into rage-fueled serial killer is also amazing, and they're pushing Mac's closeted gay thing so much lately I feel like it's going somewhere, no? Anyway this show is one of the best comedies around, I will always say this.
Empire. Okay moment of respectful silence for Naomi Campbell's gorgeous alien face when Hakeem tried to give her a nameplate with his own name on it. Also is it bad that I want to keep Jamal's random baby? That kid is so fucking cute and I really enjoyed everyone in that miserable family cooing over her, lol. Also here's hoping Jamal's second boyfriend has an actual personality, though tragically Boring First Boyfriend had the looks. Really though, nothing is as important as Cookie. It is just such a joy for me to watch her be competent and fun and also fuck up and try on outfits? And thirst after security men. (I'm not the only one relieved to have a legitimate reason to hate Anika, though, right? It is SUCH A RELIEF.)
Broad City. A GIFT. Between Fresh off the Boat, It's Always Sunny, and Broad City, I am spoiled for comedy, I have been getting so many genuine cackles. Abbi's fantasy of visiting an extravagant flea market with Mark Ruffalo!! So relevant to all of my dreams in this life, tbh. I don't even know what to say about this show that's not gushing?
How to Get Away With Murder. I enjoyed the scenes with Viola and Cicely Tyson, if only because it's rare Viola ever gets to interact with someone on her level on this show. But I have to say...on the whole, my interest in this show has decreased drastically since the break. I'm all caught up yet I feel like I have retained nothing from it and I have trouble even paying attention. I just don't care about any of the characters anymore. I mean, Viola is always incredible to watch no matter what she's doing, so there's that. And I have occasion stirrings of interest in Laurel or, even more rarely, Bonnie, but on the whole I'm just... meh. I'll finish out the season but I don't know if I'll bother when s2 rolls back around.
The Slap. So, the US version is garbage. I did not have high hopes, because NBC, but I thought: you know, this is not a shitty cast of actors. These are good people! But they are transmuted by the power of this terrible show into terrible actors, somehow, like, none of them act like actual living breathing humans? They are more like slightly bored robots. The only person I think doing a passable job is Zachary Quinto, who indeed is believable as a living person if not 100% as that character. It's not entirely his fault, though; he is not being helped by the script even a little. I admittedly have a problem with constantly comparing it to the original, which I loved (how pissed was I when they switched the order of Harry and Anouk's eps and instead of the forty minutes of Penn Badgley I expected I got exactly zero minutes of Penn Badgley), but I don't think there is any denying that this is a poor adaptation. It's sanitized, overly-expository, and just plain dull. I found it especially glaring in the scene where Quinto (who is the one who slapped the kid) goes to the kid's house to apologize to the parents. The mother is played by the same actress, Melissa George, in both, so it makes comparing the scenes too easy – in the original, I thought it was one of her best scenes, like her performance was honestly a bit terrifying to me, it exposed this side of Rosie I had no idea existed. But here she was AWFUL. It was stilted and weird and very Actory in the worst way.
Well. I'll be here to the bitter end regardless of quality, but I'm quite sad about it. Let's look at this handsome little fuck and his ridiculous hair:
Constantine...ended, and that's all there is to say about that.
Looking. Groff continues to be an adorable little poodle but... guys, am I the only one who doesn't really get the Richie thing? I mean like, why is the entire internet obsessed with him? I like him, I like the character, don't get me wrong, but I don't get the intensity of the outpouring of love for him? Am I at fault??? Also Agustin and Damian from Mean Girls are cute.
Girls. I don't know, I don't even LIKE this show, but I get sucked into the entire HBO lineup on Sunday. It's like twenty minutes of straight rage with one or two passably funny lines thrown in.
The Jinx. Like I said, I get pulled into the lineup! Which is how I ended up watching this. It's a docu-series about a murderer, basically, and I am a true crime junkie so I got sucked in easily. It's basically the ID channel but classy and HBO-y. Really interesting. They made a movie about the guy – Robert Durst – with Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling that I always meant to watch but never got around to.
Alsoooo I have not yet started this season of The Americans, because I am almost TOO excited. I may have to save them all for the end of the season and just mainline that shit.