TV 2014

Stuff we're watching 2014

Winter:

• The Blacklist: Prime Time Spy Violence.
• Castle: Another one of those series which are fun but you kinda wonder why you watch.
• Resurrection: a man comes back from the dead, and the first person he encounters is a Customs And Immigration agent. This is holding my interest rather well, the pacing seems more deliberate than slow to me.
• Criminal Minds: because why not.
• Elementary: as this goes on, Mr. Holmes does fewer "Sherlock Holmesy" things but I find I don't care, he's a real enough character and the rest of the world built around him is interesting.
• Sherlock series III
• Face/Off: Glenn Hetrick Says Hello. He's falling off the "be nice to everyone" wagon. Somehow I'm not as impressed this year by the offerings, although it usually is pretty easy to predict what will be top and what will be bottom. Starting to thing that we've seen all the variations that this program can offer.
• Perception: crazy doctor is crazy, catches bad guys.
• Big Bang Theory: because laughing at myself is cheaper than therapy.
• The Crazy Ones: because Robin Williams makes almost anything worth while. Plus out takes.
• Continuum: Jenn gave up on this and I really didn't care enough to carry on by myself.
• Believe: I don't, so after three episodes I'm out.
• Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge: Face/Off making muppets. More rough edges than its progenitor; the contestants are less "characters" than could be expected; the hosting is inconsistent; and Brian Henson doesn't really carry off being a head judge, he's far too nice. But if the series sticks around for a few seasons it could become something really interesting.
• Mind Games: sort of a combination of Lie To Me with a sprinkling of crazy genius. We didn't hate, but it didn't get renewed.

• Longmire: Summer fun in the sun. Too bad both cliff-hangers had the same guy being shot.
• The Last Ship: another summer series which turned out better than you'd have thought it might.
• Extant: summer sci-fi. Another one which held my interest more than I thought.

• Forever: Another Sherlock, but this one's immortal. Manages to be entertaining without being overbearing. And after the first couple of episodes they've more or less laid off the immortality thing.
• Stalker: Surprisingly good. The lead character knows his stuff. There have been a couple of lazy writing moments and I'm not sure I'm into the whole B-plot thing. But not bad.
• How To Get Away With Murder: Glacially slow. Has the downside that defense lawyers are not really all that likable when they are good at their job. We bailed after four or five episodes.
• Grimm: Grimm Grimm is grimm.
• Sleepy Hollow: One of Jenn's regulars that I tag along through. Not bad if you can get past the magic and mythic creature stuff.
• Black-ish: I know we're supposed to be post-racism here, but a black guy doing black things somehow made me uncomfortable rather than laugh. So maybe I'm not post-racism. But I came here to laugh, not to feel, so I stopped watching.
• Murder In The First: characters had too much baggage and the crime part seemed more soap opera than procedural. I don't think we watched three episodes before bailing.