Fargo Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "A Fox, A Rabbit, and A Cabbage" & "Morton's Fork"

Assets:
The Good (Molly): Bravo for the casting agent who found Allison Tolman. She is wonderful as Molly (and clearly a lead role, but don't tell the Emmys). She's an excellent cop who isn't superhuman and isn't cocky about her hunches. She manages to be supremely competent in spite of the overwhelming incompetence of her department. Watching her and Gus bond was a highlight, from her immediate understanding of why he let Malvo go originally to watching TV with him and Greta to end the season. As long as we are talking about forces of good, it baffling to think that Colin Hanks is the same guy who plays the cocky best friend in Get Over It. He'll always be overshadowed by his father, but he is quite the talent himself. Then there's Keith Carradine who got, perhaps, my favorite scene of the season, talking the Greta on the porch in the finale. For such a dark show, there were plenty of forces of good to balance it.

The Bad (Malvo): Malvo made Fargo fun. Billy Bob Thorton had a blast playing this character. You can tell. He has a confident ease in everything he does. He's not a man with a death wish or a supreme mastermind. He has an innate understanding of people and how things work. That's how he can drag a man out of his office by his tie without worrying that someone will stop him or he can pick up a package at the post office with almost no information. Hell, he took down the entire Fargo operation is one tracking shot.

The Ugly (Lester): Martin Freeman does such a great job playing Lester as a major sonuvabitch. He kills his wife, frames his brother, literally fucks over the widow Hess, gets his second wife killed, and couldn't be more smug about getting away with it all. The damnedest thing is that he is so pathetic in the pilot that I still found myself cheering for his little victories along the way (standing up the the Hess boys, tricking Malvo into stepping on the bear trap, etc.). His evolution isn't all that different from Walter White's, except it's on a much more immediately apparent and shortened scale.

Liabilities:
Buridan's Ass: This is the only episode I came away from less than impressed. As neatly as everything plays out in other episodes, this one relied a lot on luck and chance. It was lucky that Lester had a bunk mate in the hospital who was completely covered in bandages and passed out so they could switch places. It was lucky that the SWAT team employed a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach in the standoff with Don (Glenn Howerton). It was coincidence that Stavros Milos' son is killed by fish falling from the sky (in biblical fashion). I prefer story to actually be driven by the characters.

Length of the Time Jump: The story jumps 12 months and a lot has changed. Perhaps too much. Gus and Molly are already married and about to have a kid. Lester has a much nicer house and is getting a national insurance salesman award along with his new wife. It's all a bit much for that short a time. It's feasible though, so it doesn't bother me too much. A longer jump would've been nicer.

Season Two: News broke recently that the second season is going to revolve around the occasionally mentioned Sioux Falls case in the 70s. What made season one great is how little it had to do with the movie. The movie and show were clearly of the same world but not tied to one another. Odds are, there will be the same divide over the two seasons. There's potential to play up the dramatic irony and include much younger versions of some of the characters which a lesser show would do. Hopefully, my pristine opinion of Fargo I have now is maintained through season two.

Outlook:
True Detective got the buzz. Fargo was the better series. That's my opinion at least. It lacked the powerhouse performances. Instead it was filled with nuanced performances by every recurring character and had a far more complete ending. This was never going to be a show that would stand on its own. It invites all the comparisons and excels despite them.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls 
True Detective 
Mad Men 
Veep
Game of Thrones
Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Looks Blue, Tastes Red" and "It Was the Change"

Assets:
Deep Roster: Game of Thrones is the only show with as many characters to manage. The confined setting and number of episodes allows OitNB to cover them all more extensively. They could cut the cast in half and it would still be a full show. That's remarkable and it means that they can try out new combinations as often as they want to keep things fresh. Equally impressive is that there aren't many drags. An episode can switch between Red and Nicky to Piper and Soto to Pennsatucky and Healy to Poussey and Taystee without missing a beat. It's only when Larry shows up out of the prison when things drag and still, I like Jason Biggs. Nothing says he can't or won't be interesting. He simply hasn't been good yet. This depth also helps with the flashbacks. Any fan of LOST can tell you that the flashbacks got old when it was the umpteenth time for a character (Remember that time when we learned about Jack's tattoos?). That's never going to happen with OitNB (except with Piper. We've already had too much of Piper's origins). Perusing the IMDB page, I count at least 30 characters in the prison I could see getting their own flashback episode. Then, there's the turnover of the prison population always bringing in someone new. It's a big cast that is managed well. Let's leave it at that.

Consistent: In terms of quality, each episode is roughly at the same level, and structurally, except for the premiere, they are all the same. Of course there's stand-out moments and scenes. There's just not a lot of weak links on this show. That's exactly why people binge it. There aren't cliffhangers. They don't manipulate you into watching more (I'm looking at you, House of Cards). There's simply no reason to stop watching. The last episode was good. The next episode will be good. It's not constantly building to something like a Breaking Bad. It consistently is doing something.

Vee: Of the new characters this season, Vee is the most significant (sorry Soto). She drove the story away from being centralized around Piper, created a rift between Poussey and Taystee, battled with Red, played surrogate mother to "Crazy Eyes", and basically involved herself in all the happenings of the prison. It looks like she isn't making it out of the second season, so she'll go down with Mags Bennett (Justified) and the Trinity Killer (Dexter) on the list of great, single season "big bads".

Liabilities:
The Premiere: I'm on an island about this. I didn't like this episode much at all. The tone of it was uncomfortable*. The familiar characters (Piper, Alex) were among my least favorite, and I didn't care for any of the new characters. It was a case of "if you don't like the ingredients, you're probably not going to like the dish". The reason I call this a liability isn't my preference though. It's the reminder that this is a Jenji Kohan show. Fans of Weeds know that show was notorious for rebooting itself each season. Now, there's no way they'd be stupid enough to drop so many characters that people love all at once, but we should always be wary of big shakeups that could upset the balance of the show for the worse. Think about it. What characters are actually untouchable?

*I'm not stupid. I know the disorienting nature of it was the point. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

Soto: Piper was never this bad, was she? The whole point of bringing in Soto initially is to contrast her with Piper, to see how far Piper has come since she showed up. Once they had to develop a character for Soto, it's basically that of "annoying girl". I don't think it was an accident. They meant to do it, but it took her leading the prison in singing Lisa Loeb to keep her on my good side.

Flashback Twists: This is a small gripe but I'm getting a little tired of the bait and switch with all the flashbacks. I don't remember it happening as much last season (and I'm probably remembering it happening more than it did this season) but I'm not a big fan of all the hinting about one crime, then getting arrested for another. It worked for Morello. The rest of the time, it felt like a cheap trick.

Outlook:
I'm baffled by this show. I don't understand why it is so popular. That's not to say that I think it's bad though. At the same time, I'm not sure I'd place either season in my top ten list for its year. I've seen the prison stories before, narratives told with flashbacks, female-dominated casts. The show doesn't do anything special. It just does it right. I recognize its quality and I'm determined to figure out what everyone else is seeing that I'm not; why it isn't clicking with me. Until then, I'm pleased to keep watching. Excellent cast. Great writing. Solid direction. There's nothing to begrudge here.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls 
True Detective 
Mad Men 
Veep
Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "The Lion and the Rose" & "The Watchers on the Wall"

Assets:
The Purple Wedding: Game of Thrones is the ultimate water-cooler show and "The Lion and the Rose" is exactly why. They masterfully built Joffrey into the most hated character in pop culture. No one is as universally hated. Then, here comes the Purple Wedding with its 20+ minute extended scene. The end was ruined for me. Still, each moment of that wedding reception was more tense than the one before it. At first, it looks like Tyrion is in trouble. Thankfully, it's fucking Joffrey who goes down and then shit hits the fan. Given the number of characters we know well at the reception, it's even crazier than The Red Wedding in terms of the fallout. And this is episode two! What a way to start the season.

The Watchers on the Wall: This is a divisive episode. On one hand, the Night's Watch are not the characters we know the best. Beyond Jon Snow, Sam, and maybe Ygritte, there's not anyone I'm invested in there. It is clearly an attempt to recapture the spectacle of "Blackwater" without the emotional impact of the characters found in that episode. On the other hand, it is an impressive battle. The scope and effects are shocking to see on something made for TV, and on a series, no less. The focus on the one location gives it breathing room that most episodes lack. I always liked Ygritte, so her death was rough, especially considering who killed her. A two year gap between episodes like this feels about right. Hopefully, season five doesn't begin with a 40 minutes siege by Daenerys on some other fortified city.

The Trial of Tyrion: The backbone of this season was the fate of Tyrion. After the events of the Purple Wedding, tracking Tyrion's imprisonment and trial was the central story (as much as anything can be on a show this scattered). His trial was heartbreaking. His talks with Jamie and Oberyn were fascinating. Oberyn's demise against the Mountain was shocking. Tyrion's escape was satisfying. The series always does right by Peter Dinklage in the end.

Liabilities:
The Rape: Sadly, the most press this season went to the perceived rape* of Cersei by Jamie. Frankly, I'm over it. It was a complete miscalculation and I have no idea how the director came away from that thinking that was a good cut to use. If this was a show with a sitcom production schedule and costs, of course I'd expect some sort of fix or response to it in the show. Sadly, that's not how this show is made. The whole season is done by the time audiences see it and there's six episodes of Cersei not responding in an expected way to it. There's two ways to go from here: 1) You can let that scene be a permanent blemish on the series or 2) you can agree that it was a mistake and let the story move from there the way it's intended. That's easier for some than others (for understandable reasons).

*Perceived  because interviews of the writers, directors, and producers about it suggest that wasn't the intent.

Daenarys: She is basically on a different show. Her story has yet to intersect with any of the other families. On a show that gets so much out of the intersection of so many moving parts, that makes what's going on with her a drag sometimes. She gets to take over the city at the beginning of the season. That's fun. The majority of the season is a lot of administrative stuff like replacing goats and not executing people. Every story has a fallow period, but it's hard enough to find the significance of her story in her isolation. It's nice when something is at least going on.

The Moving Parts: It's a thankless job trying to cover everything in Martin's massive books in only ten episode chunks. It's so easy to forget who half the people in the Night's Watch are, or what Stannis is up to, or why we are even bothering to follow Theon. It's inherent to the series. That doesn't make it any easier though.

Outlook:
Game of Thrones is probably the most ambitious show on TV. The production logistics are insane. The cost is unmatched. The size (and talent) of the cast is humbling. The fourth season had some of the biggest moments yet, be them intentional (The Purple Wedding) or not (Jamie and Cersei). It is a ratings smash (the premiere was the highest rated show since The Sopranos finale, I believe) as well as a critical darling (still collecting Emmy nominations by the boatload). It's an investment due to both the time and complexity of it and totally worth it.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls 
True Detective 
Mad Men 
Veep

Veep Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Alicia" & "Debate"

Assets:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: She is the reigning, two-time Emmy winner and I'll be damned if she's not about to take a third. She's that good. Selina Meyer is not a particularly likable character. In fact, she's self-involved, privileged, and often awful to those around her. Yet, we root for her. That's all Louis-Dreyfus. This is a fantastic cast and she is the focal point of it. She is Veep. There's no other way to say it.

Armando Ianucci: This man (the man in charge of the series) has an ear for dialogue that is unrivaled. I've recently started watching The Thick of It, which is basically British Veep. That show is very British, just as Veep is very American. The thing that ties them together is the beautiful swearing. Veep certainly doesn't have a Malcolm Tucker and that's its only weakness. Otherwise, this is a show of fast, tight, and incredibly funny dialogue. The only reason why I won't give any examples of the best lines from this season is that I'm not sure how many hundreds of words later it would be before I could stop myself.

The Campaign: Veep is a pathetic show in its design. Ianucci has a nihilistic view of government and is really able to play this up by focusing on the powerlessness of the Vice President. The result though is that Veep is often a listless show, so giving Selina the campaign story for the season gave season three a direction and purpose that was welcome and refreshing.

Liabilities:
POTUS: There's fun to how powerless the Veep is. It's fairly unexplored territory. President is a job that's of more significance and has been more extensively covered. I'm not expecting much to change on the show, especially since Selina will still be campaigning, but I do worry about how actually being president could get in the way of the things I love about the show.

Characters too horrible?: I'll admit, I'm having a really hard time coming up with three liabilities because season three was so damn solid. I already covered my one big concern going forward in her being POTUS. At times, I do wonder if too many of these characters are soulless. Take Selina and Dan's talk when she first chooses him as campaign manager. I'm pretty sure Dan admitted to killing a dog. That's not cool. I'm better just forgetting that because that's number one on my character no-no list.

Out of Topics?: You do start to wonder how many ways the show can have the characters debate how to strategically confront a controversial issue (like abortion or guns) or be awful around "normals" or get quoted saying something inappropriate. At some point the well dries up. The only question is when.

Outlook:
I'm ok with calling this the best pure comedy this season. Louie is more experimental. Girls is more challenging. Park & Rec. tugs at the heart strings more effectively. I can't find a show right now with more laughs per minute. And I don't mean polite laughs. I mean a healthy dose of belly laughs. I've mentioned Louis-Drefus already and she is surrounded by Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Sufe Badshaw, and many others all bringing their own flavor of pathos to this hot mess of a team. Season three is the first time that I don't mind Veep being HBO's favorite child.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls 
True Detective 
Mad Men

Mad Men Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "The Strategy" & "Waterloo"

Assets:
The Return of Don Draper: Season six was frustrating because it was a professional low for Don Draper: the man, the legend. He's been a drunk and a cheat for a while, but he always had his job. Despite only having seven episodes, this season told a great redemption story for him. It starts with him actually working, even though it's being presented through Freddy. He returns to the office awkwardly as hell. He learns how to work with Peggy as well as for her. Finally, he arranges the sale of SCP. Don also comes to terms with his and Megan's relationship and mends his relationships with the two most important women in his life (Sally and Peggy). It was a great season for Don Draper and Jon Hamm.

The End of Bert Cooper: I didn't see this one coming, nor did I expect it to hit so hard. Cooper has been more of an office nuisance for a few seasons: a legacy the business had to keep around to stay legitimate. Robert Morse saw a return to prominence this season as he became the voice of reason in the squabbles with the other partners. "Waterloo" was a beautiful final episode for him, giving him one last great talk with Roger, a simple and poignant reaction to the moon landing, and a bizarre yet fitting song and dance to close the episode. Going into the season, I wouldn't've predicted I'd be calling Cooper a strength of the season.

The Pitches: Was it just me, or was this some of the best pitching in a while? Don was obviously off his game last season and Peggy works best with Don (although she's pretty fantastic on her own). The season was bookended by two great pitches and neither from Don. Obviously, Freddy's pitch to Peggy was kind of him, and for that matter, he had some influence in Peggy's as well. That Burger Chef pitch was some vintage Mad Men. I hope the final seven episodes get us at least one more pitch that good.

Liabilities:
Not Enough Peggy: Elisabeth Moss can do more than this. By the final two episodes, she's back to prominence. Before that, she's reacting to Ginsberg's nipple and taking her secretary's flowers. All I'm saying is that Don never falls out of the forefront. Doesn't Peggy deserve that too by now?

Don's Exes: I left last season perfectly content with the thought that Megan could drop off the show completely. Jessica Pare is great, but she's been a distraction for a while. Let's be honest, Matthew Weiner is spot-on with the depiction of ad men in the 60s. When he dips into the more familiar 60s tropes (aka, anything with Megan at this point) it isn't nearly as engaging. I think she's finally gone and I'm ok with it. It's probably too late to drop Betty, especially because it would cut down on the amount of Sally too (which would be wrong). Still, whenever Betty shows up, you know you're going to be frustrated, be it by making Bobby shame-eat his gum drops or by threatening to break Sally's arm. While I like keeping up with her, I always feel like it's a bit too much.

Cutler: For all the villainizing of him this season, he sure turned quickly about the buyout. That was part of the fun of it. I get that. It's a bit of an easy out though. He's all for dropping Don then cools off when presented with the sale. Everyone has a price. Honestly, I don't think it was a bad move. It just frustrated me a bit. It'll probably work better next year to not have a villain anyway.

Outlook:
Seven episodes left. Seven. That's it! Somehow, eight episodes of Breaking Bad sounded acceptable. Only seven of Mad Men is stupid. Way to be cheap, AMC. You know what else is stupid? One of the best written shows on TV ever not getting a writing Emmy nomination, let alone directing. Sadly, Emmy fatigue has officially set in for Mad Men. It is still one of the best shows on TV. It won't be awarded as such anymore. Luckily, there's still enough momentum for it not to fall out of the field entirely. Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss are two of the strongest leads on TV and, as a pair, had a wonderful "season". There's always the feeling that any non-Don character is going to be underused though. That's part of the greatness of Mad Men, that it's filled with all these complete characters with stories beyond the screen. I'm not looking forward to a day when there's no more new Mad Men. Until that happens, I'm glad that it continues to be as great as ever.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls 
True Detective

True Detective Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Who Goes There" & "The Secret Fate of All Life"

Assets:

Matthew McConaughey: Bryan Cranston is not a lock to win the Emmy this year. That's how good McConaughey is in this. Of the lead roles in True Detective, his is the showier and I'd go as far as to say he's better as Rust Cohle than he is in his Oscar winning turn in Dallas Buyers Club. No role this season was as instantly iconic, with all his rambling soliloquies about time as a flat circle and other such philosophizing.

Woody Harrelson: It's a shame that McConaughey is so good and flashy, because Harrelson is spectacular in his own right. Quite frankly, without Marty Hart, Rust Cohle is a listless madman. What Harrelson does in True Detective is more raw. Rust wears his crazy like a badge of honor. Marty tries to keep it down and lets it build until he can't control it (his fight with Rust, hitting his daughter, or terrorizing his mistress and her boyfriend).

The Interview: It doesn't get much better than listening to Rust and Marty getting interviewed and narrating the events in 1995. The fun of seeing one thing as they say another, or the conflict with what one another says, or Rust casually being in complete control of his questioning is what made this season great. It may have fallen some toward the end, but the journey of those first five episodes was a masterclass of narration and build.

Liabilities:
The End: Apparently, the point of the show was never to tell the story of solving a serial killer case. It was to tell the story of these two detectives. In that sense, the show is a complete success. The problem is that people did get investing in the case and the mystery of it, with the Sun King and the Spaghetti Monster. That made the finale in particular hard when most of it is brushed off as an afterthought. Most of this blame is on the audience for coming up with pet theories or expectations. Some of it does go to Nic Pizzolatto for such a promising and intriguing setup.

The Women: The show took a lot of hit for this. People didn't want to accept that the show is only concerned with the two leads who, in this case, were men. Still, Michelle Monaghan is a talented actress, and even in the sixth episode, when it was her telling the story and basically calling the shots, she still seemed secondary: someone for Marty and Rust to play off. The same goes for the next most prominent woman, Alexandra Daddario, who was essentially there to be attractive and afraid of Marty when needed. Hopefully season two has more plans for the women.

Anyone else who isn't Cohle or Hart: You know who else had nothing to do other than the women? Everyone else who wasn't Rust or Marty. I get that the show is about an extensive examination of those two, but that doesn't mean every other character had to be so one or two dimensional. The detectives questioning Rust and Marty were basically a collection of cop tropes. The bad guys, like Erroll and Reggie Ledoux were equally as bland. It would be nice to have a fleshed out cast next time.

Outlook:
I love that limited series like this are becoming more popular. Here I thought a couple years ago that the mini-series was dead. It turns out that it just needed some new branding. I love that the single-season commitment gets someone like McConaughey, who is at the height of his popularity, on TV or Woody Harrelson, who still has a thriving movie career (even if it's not at his co-star's level). This was a fantastic self-contained story and, best of all, there's no chance of its reputation being ruined by another season trying to continue the story. HBO has itself quite a franchise now, and I can't wait to see what another season and another story brings.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal 
Girls

Girls Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Flo" & "Beach House"

Assets:
Hannah is awful: One of the things I love the most about this show is that Hannah is not a person I'd like to be around. She's also a very honest character, or rather, Lena Dunham's character is a very honest portrayal of a person. Take something like her editor dying in "Dead Inside". I love that episode, because I find it hilarious that she is telling everyone about his death but trying to turn it into a story about her. Then, it ends with her telling Adam the untrue story that Caroline told her earlier as her own. I don't know about you, but I laughed through the credits when that happened. So often, I love how completely self-involved she is and is the source of most of her problems. She's a great character who I fully appreciate.

Adam: How good is Adam Driver? It's hard to remember the days when he was that weird guy from season one who was completely wrong for Hannah. Now, he's a multi-Emmy nominee (and deserves it) and one of the strongest characters on the show. Driver's star is rising (he's going to be in a Star Wars movie, you've probably heard about it) and I'm glad that they found him early so that we can continue to follow this character in his rise toward...fame...success...I'm not really sure what Adam is looking for, but it's fascinating to watch.

Shoshanna: Here's the thing about Shoshanna. She's a weapon. Don't use her enough and she becomes too powerful for any scene. Use her too much and she has very little effect. As much as I love her on the show, I understand why she goes away or falls into the background a lot in a season. She can either be the funniest character, like in the road trip to get Jessa or the most poignant one, like her drunken rant at the beach house.

Liabilities:
Hannah is awful: Girls is not a show I can recommend to people. It challenges you to like characters that aren't always likable. There's a lot of people who can't watch the show simply because they can't put up with the characters, Hannah in particular. I love it, but anytime someone starts listing off words like 'conceited' and 'privileged' for why they can't stand the show, I have to accept it. The Girls aren't for everyone.

Marnie: I get that her life is a hot mess right now. She can't get a worthwhile job. That "What I Am" video has made her an internet joke, and she's using Ray like a sexual safety blanket. I feel for her. She needs a win soon, because I don't know how many more Beach House stories I can deal with before Allison Williams' real-life delightfulness isn't enough to keep liking her.

Not so new: Some shows age more gracefully than others. Girls was always going to be at peak value as the new kid on the block. I'm still fully committed to it, but it's starting to fall out of critical favor, and the third season had by far the least buzz surrounding it. I'm not sure I want to see what eight seasons of Girls will look like. I'm not calling for them to set an end date, but I do wonder what the shelf-life is for a bunch of listless 20-somethings in New York (and now Iowa).

Outlook:
I love Girls. I knew I would. I did. I continue to. It's a show that's completely unconcerned with getting you to like any of the characters while you care about them. Lena Dunham is unfairly talented for her age, and she's surrounded herself with so many people that I want to see more of. It's never going to be a show for everyone. For those that it is for, it's a pretty special show. There's no reason for it to fall out of Emmy's favor, but it's not surprising (stupid Emmys).

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley 
Hannibal

Hannibal Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Mizumono"

Assets:
Cinematography: This show is gorgeous. This show is grotesque. Those statements are equally true. This shouldn't surprise me. Brian Fuller is also the man who brought us Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies: Two incredibly visually distinct shows. That shouldn't take away from how great everything looks on this show. I challenge you to find five other shows right now that put as much effort into every shot. From the pit of naked bodies that looks like an eye, to Beverly Katz vertically cut up, to a human bee hive, it is always imaginative and a little hard to look at.

Will: Hugh Dancy is ridiculously good as Will Graham. He's as raw a nerve as you will find on TV and deftly navigates the complexities of being completely insane and also the smartest man in the room. It's nothing short of ridiculous that there isn't greater outrage over his Emmy snub.

Hannibal: Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for playing Hannibal Lector. His portrayal of the character has made Hannibal one of the most iconic villains in pop culture. That said, I can't remember the last time I thought about Hopkins while watching Hannibal. Mads Mikkelsen is doing something so completely different here that he's found a way to coexist with the other. Sure, Mikkelsen's accent is at times impenetrable. You learn to deal with it. Beyond that, he is suave, imposing, and dangerous. The second season successfully handled all the other characters slowly learning the truth about Hannibal while he carried on a handful of different mind games with everyone simultaneously. That's impressive.

Liabilities:
Complexity: As I said when watching the finale, sometimes I don't feel smart enough to be watching this show. By the time we reached the finale, I'd lost track of what was happening and who was where. What convinced Jack finally of Hannibal's guilt? Why were both men so certain there'd be a fight? What side is Will on? How in god's name is Abagail still alive? This is a very cerebral show. If you are going to watch it, be ready to put in some effort. It'll be worth it.

The Books: I spend a large amount of my time watching this show wondering what perspective reading the Thomas Harris books would give me on the show. I know Will and Jack are characters. Of course Hannibal is. Magot and Mason come into play at some point although I'm not sure how. The show is by no means following the books exactly. These first two seasons are based on a couple paragraphs from the books, I believe. I don't particularly like thinking my enjoyment is being compromised by a lack of research (it doesn't get in the way of my Game of Thrones enjoyment, for example). It's not a big issue on the show, but it is a slight annoyance on occasion.

Finale: It's a good thing there will be a third season. Fuller must know something about the foreign company co-producing this with NBC, because that is not a finale you do if you don't feel pretty confident about returning. Every protagonist is either dead or in the ICU. Hannibal is fleeing on a plan...with Dr. Du Maurier! What? If they are going to keep ending seasons like that, all I ask is that NBC announces renewal or cancellation before the season is over.

Outlook:
The ratings for Hannibal are remarkably bad*. It's a series that has no business existing, on network TV no less. It's staying alive almost entirely due to its foreign co-producers, so each season feels like a gift. In a world where shows about serial killers are a dime a dozen, it's hard to do anything new and isn't just the third variation of a similar idea. So far, Hannibal hasn't been a rehash. It is fascinated by the murders but doesn't revel in them. It manages to be as clever as Dexter season six thought it was, as tense as The Following tries to be, and as dark as anything you will find. Anyone who likes smart TV has no excuse for not giving this a try.

*Which means I must keep good company, because I've run into numerous people who also watch it.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer
Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency"

Assets:
High Brow/Low Brow: Mike Judge is a master of making a stupid jokes smart. King of the Hill, Office Space, and Idiocracy all relied on this. It's not a surprise that he employs that well in Silicon Valley too. I mean, the triumphant finale resulted from an in depth discussion about the most efficient way to jack off a room full of men. That's kind of amazing. The same episode also includes all of Jared's pivots, which is a savvier business concept than I expected them to include.

Well-used cast: This is a cast full of "the protagonist's best friends". It's a bunch of actors who normally don't get the chance to just play guys in the group. TJ Miller is someone casting agents have been trying to figure out for a while. Martin Starr seems disinterested in most of the roles he's landed. Josh Brener hit familiar-face saturation with all the places he's shown up (for me at least: Maron, The Internship, that phone commercial that played before movies for a while). The same goes for the rest of the cast, but they all fit perfectly on the show. Thomas Middleditch looks convincingly over his head at all times. I'm so happy that Zach Woods is as great as he is playing Jared. The Office never figured out how to use Gabe effectively, but it was always clear that he had performance chops. Even Amanda Crew started to get some things to do by the end, in the absence of Christopher Evan Welch. I expect her role to grow in season two.

New Angle for Familiar Material: You don't often see this side of computer nerds. They're just guys, in the show. There's a few people who look down on them, but normally they're people who are also in the machine (specifically, at hooli). In Los Angeles, everyone is an actor. In Silicon Valley, everyone is a programmer with a dream. It's the difference between laughing at the characters (The Big Bang Theory) and laughing with them (what this show does).

Liabilities:
Sausage Fest: Part of the larger joke/truth of Silicon Valley is that it is not a female-dominated world. They sum it up well at the convention when they explain the number of women would spike from 2% to 15%. Still, it would be nice to have a little female influence in there. Even just increasing Amanda Crew's role (as I predict they will) would help. Baby steps.

Christopher Evan Welch's Death: He was such an asset to the show. His absence moving forward is going to be tough to deal with. They talked around him being present in the last couple episodes and it was a good stall. Eventually, they will have to address it, be it replacing the character or the actor or coming up with a permanent reason for him to not be around.

Phase 2: The season finale played like they were hedging their bets in case it needed to be the series finale. The first season was the rough founding of Pied Piper. The bigger and more established it gets, the harder it will be to give everything the relaxed, messy feel that worked so well in the first season. I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just something to watch out for.

Outlook:
I originally planned blog entry as being about this as a scrappy underdog story: one of those great comedies that gets completely lost in the shuffle. Veep is HBO's darling and Girls has had the it-factor for a while. Then, Emmy nominations come out and Silicon Valley is nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series and Directing. Suddenly, the narrative changes to that of an over-achieving wunderkind. I'm curious to see what kind of buzz factor it will have now leading into the second season. Eight episodes is not a lot to go off. As much as I enjoyed the first season, I'll need to see what season two looks like to fully decide what my opinion of the series is. Luckily for everyone who missed it, it's only eight episodes. It's funny. It's short. The cast is solid. You have no excuse to not watch it.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans
Archer

Archer Offseason

Even with cable making original programming a year-round affair, the Summer is still a quiet time for my TV viewing. I've got a lot of extra time in my schedule and thought it would be a good time to start a little project.
I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Episode(s): "Archer Vice: Baby Shower"

Assets:
Archer Vice: Part of this is going to depend on how you view Archer. Five seasons is a long time for a half hour comedy. For an animated series, it's no time at all (how many seasons are The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park on?). Archer certainly plays like a more traditional sitcom, so a change of pace was a great idea. I may have had issues with the exacts of how the chose to change things, but the decision to change the story this season was refreshing.

Writing Structure: I never give Archer enough credit for the writing. Other than simply being funny, there's a lot of craft to it. It's harder than it seems to essentially write dialogue that ends one scene and plays into another, which is almost all Archer does.

Serial Animation: Few shows, animated series in particular, since their characters never have to age, pay attention to the details the way that Archer does. Every time they show the tattoo on his back, I smile because they remembered. Then there's the larger things like whether or not Ray can walk in a given episode. The fact that they even opted for an entire theme season like Archer Vice is nice.

Liabilities:
Return to Status Quo: The return of ISIS can go one of two ways: 1) After the time away, the writers are reinvigorated and start churning on A-plus material within the confines of the standard formula or 2) the time away gave the audience a taste for change and returning to old ways feels like a creative crutch. I'm not sure which it will be. I assume it will be closer to the former.

Lana's Baby: They handled the time when Archer thought he had a son a couple seasons back pretty well. That was only a short time though and Lana's baby is permanent. I'm sure the show has great ideas for the baby, but I challenge you to find a series where the baby doesn't eventually become a drag.

Timeslot: This is no longer a problem. My biggest issue with this past season was that it generally followed How I Met Your Mother on my DVR and I would be so irritated by whatever happened on that, that I wouldn't give Archer the attention it deserved. Next season should go better.

Outlook:
I've alluded to this already. Archer is in a good place because it's animated, with great writing. That's all you need. The animation doesn't even have to be that great. It certainly helps that the cast is one I'd enjoy in live action as well as voice-work. H. Jon Benjamin is a better comedic actor than people give him credit for. My stance on Judy Greer is always "She was great in that. It's a shame they didn't use her more". Aisha Tyler brought back Who's Line is It Anyway? so, she has a lifetime pass. Chris Parnell is a weapon when someone knows how to use him. Jessica Walter is essentially beyond criticism. I can't say I know any of the others well enough outside the show, but my point stands. It's a splendid little show that I'm glad FX didn't ship off to FXX.

Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family 
Parenthood
The Mindy Project 
The Michael J Fox Show 
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD 
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation 
The Walking Dead 
The Middle 
Saturday Night Live 
Cougar Town 
House of Cards 
Louie
How I Met Your Mother
The Americans