Mercy
Now that Friday Night Lights is over for the season, Mercy is tied for my favorite current show, and I'm sad I can't get anyone else to watch it. I love that the main characters are all women. I like that they haven't done some of the soapy things I would normally expect. I like that they've taken the soldier home from war story and turned it around by having the soldier be a nurse and a woman. I like the way their stunt casting actually works instead of being absurd and obvious. And, of course, I love that Mary Stuart Masterson is on it now; I've had a crush on her since I was 12 and saw Fried Green Tomatoes in theaters.
FlashForward
FlashForward is tied for my other favorite show, and no one else I know seems to be watching it either. I think this is a really good investigative sci fi show. One of the things I love about it is all the reveals. I almost never see them coming, and the show always makes me believe that once something has been revealed, it's the whole truth - even when it's not. One of my favorite characters has been the subject of three of those: ( Spoilers )
In Plain Sight
I've been amazed for the last two seasons by how much emotional ground In Plain Sight covers - and not in terms of its case of the week. It's Mary's emotional growth and life that impress me. ( Spoilers )
Other
Realistically, those are the only three shows I'm watching regularly. But there are two others I watched the first episodes of recently that I thought I'd mention for discussion purposes.
Happy Town
I was watching FlashForward when I saw an ad for this, and it looked like it was maybe ABC's answer to Harper's Island, which was not very good, but which I found engrossing. Sadly, Happy Town is a greatly inferior version, despite the presence of Amy Acker. At least that means I don't have to add it into my TV-watching rotation.
White Collar
I watched the first ep of White Collar last week. It was okay, and I can certainly see what people like about it. I did also download the second ep, which I'm planning to watch tomorrow, and we'll see if I watch any more than that. I very much like that Neal is so much like Tyson Ritter in both appearance and attitude, but there were some things I had problems with. There are two other things below the cut, but the scene that bothered me the most is this:
Neal's wearing an outfit that includes a hat, about which there is a lot of discussion. Neal tries to charm a woman who compliments the hat. Peter tells him he's not going to get anywhere with her.
Neal: But she likes the hat.
Peter: She'd rather be wearing the hat.
And then there's a moment where we watch Neal's face as he figures out what that means. It took me just as long as it took him to figure out that Peter was saying she was a lesbian, because "she'd rather be wearing the hat" conflates gender identity with sexual orientation. They aren't the same thing, and I was disappointed by the clumsiness.
I wasn't paying attention when people started watching this. Was there fannish discussion of that?
( More )
Now that Friday Night Lights is over for the season, Mercy is tied for my favorite current show, and I'm sad I can't get anyone else to watch it. I love that the main characters are all women. I like that they haven't done some of the soapy things I would normally expect. I like that they've taken the soldier home from war story and turned it around by having the soldier be a nurse and a woman. I like the way their stunt casting actually works instead of being absurd and obvious. And, of course, I love that Mary Stuart Masterson is on it now; I've had a crush on her since I was 12 and saw Fried Green Tomatoes in theaters.
FlashForward
FlashForward is tied for my other favorite show, and no one else I know seems to be watching it either. I think this is a really good investigative sci fi show. One of the things I love about it is all the reveals. I almost never see them coming, and the show always makes me believe that once something has been revealed, it's the whole truth - even when it's not. One of my favorite characters has been the subject of three of those: ( Spoilers )
In Plain Sight
I've been amazed for the last two seasons by how much emotional ground In Plain Sight covers - and not in terms of its case of the week. It's Mary's emotional growth and life that impress me. ( Spoilers )
Other
Realistically, those are the only three shows I'm watching regularly. But there are two others I watched the first episodes of recently that I thought I'd mention for discussion purposes.
Happy Town
I was watching FlashForward when I saw an ad for this, and it looked like it was maybe ABC's answer to Harper's Island, which was not very good, but which I found engrossing. Sadly, Happy Town is a greatly inferior version, despite the presence of Amy Acker. At least that means I don't have to add it into my TV-watching rotation.
White Collar
I watched the first ep of White Collar last week. It was okay, and I can certainly see what people like about it. I did also download the second ep, which I'm planning to watch tomorrow, and we'll see if I watch any more than that. I very much like that Neal is so much like Tyson Ritter in both appearance and attitude, but there were some things I had problems with. There are two other things below the cut, but the scene that bothered me the most is this:
Neal's wearing an outfit that includes a hat, about which there is a lot of discussion. Neal tries to charm a woman who compliments the hat. Peter tells him he's not going to get anywhere with her.
Neal: But she likes the hat.
Peter: She'd rather be wearing the hat.
And then there's a moment where we watch Neal's face as he figures out what that means. It took me just as long as it took him to figure out that Peter was saying she was a lesbian, because "she'd rather be wearing the hat" conflates gender identity with sexual orientation. They aren't the same thing, and I was disappointed by the clumsiness.
I wasn't paying attention when people started watching this. Was there fannish discussion of that?
( More )