TV I'm trying while fandomless:

Carnivale, Fringe, True Blood, HIMYM, Rush and Deadwood.

This is what I am watching via DL anyway. I think every single one is a different genre. Huh.

I've heard good things about Mad Men but have yet to watch it. Thoughts? Is it just good and well made or is it my thing?

Why aren't I watching season three of Dexter? I like watching Dexter on DVD in one or two shots. It's one of the few shows you can do that without noticing too many continuity errors (or at all) and it's fun (even though the credits get really annoying that way).



I thought the HIMYM premiere was a bit of a let down if only because I was relieved about the Barney/Robin situation going nowhere. Because they made him act so...not Barney when he was trying to get her. I hope that's just him having no idea what to do because if they actually do get them together and he reforms to that degree I'll campaign so hard against this ship. lol Boooorring.

I hope it's merely a matter of Barney getting Robin to like who he is rather than changing to make her like a new him. Because there's not chasing other skirts, and then there's losing all of his bawdy sense of humour. All those jokes Robin was throwing at him, and Barney blanking them to be polite to her. Oh dear God, I hope he isn't always like that on dates with Robin. I'm hoping if they get them together, or Robin actually expresses any interest in him (which I don't think she has yet) she'll do the same thing: try and force him to be himself. You can be both and it's a matter of finding the balance.

Because yee gahds. It was like watching VM again when Logan loses his personality when dating the girl he most wanted to impress. No snark any more, where's the snark???? It was part of the joke in the first episode that he had no idea what he was doing, thus took Lily's advice and was so anti-Barney that he unnerved Robin and the punchline was that he was oh so sad he found it easy to jump back into old-Barney ways after barely any effort exerted on his part. Yes, it was funny and NPH did an admirable job as always. Nothing is wrong so far because it was merely the theme of an episode. But seriously, if they get together and it's the same stuff again, if it becomes normal, I'll be pissed. I don't understand why characters who got chemistry by being snarky and sparking off each other consistently get watered down when they're together. Couples FIGHT damn it.



I haven't started watching Carnivale yet even though I have several episodes because, since it's already over, I figured I'd wait until I had them all in case I liked it and wanted to watch the next one NOW. I've heard very good things.

True Blood is the slowest download ever and I'm only downloading because it's a vampire series based on a series of books. I haven't read the Sookie Stackhouse books but I'm hoping it means there's slightly more plot and direction than the average vampire show. Do I kid myself? We'll see. I'm open to trying vampire shows.



Seen two episodes of Fringe. I don't really have to DL it since it's being fast tracked and plays a week later to the US screening, but it's Joshua Jackson! I can't not save the pretty so I can watch it over and over at my leisure. It's enjoyable light entertainment that has the stamp of JJ all over it. This can be a good thing (the first two seasons of Alias are still good TV imo) or a really bad thing (boy, do I hate Lost and most of his shows take bizarrely bad turns eventually *cough*FELICITY*cough*). So far it seems most like Alias in format and archetype characters and that's a good thing since I found Alias JJ's best thematically and character-wise.

I think Fringe has good potential. I don't think the crisis that catapulted the series into action was as good as the crisis in Alias. Both had elements of someone close betraying our lead female character, and her being lead to a new career path because of that betrayal. Classic story situation. The fiance getting murdered by her boss followed by Sydney pretending to understand and blame herself had more layers. That said, I think Joshua's character has more potential as a male lead to spark my interest. Not to suggest he's her one true love or any such rubbish. Just that he won't bore me the way Vaughn did. He's more my type of male lead and his relationship with his father is a wonderful arena for drama.

I think they're making Josh hit the same note frequently with John Noble and that's going to get annoying, considering Walter Bishop has already proven that his ideas do work in this universe. I don't want to him constantly throwing lines about Walter's science being crazy for the rest of the season - duh, it's been said. But I liked Peter singing 'row, row, row your boat' and the different dimension to their relationship added by some kind of experiment Walter did with his son.

I don't know if he's a clone - as has been speculated. But the way Walter looked at his eye as soon as he saw him, and mentioning medical records as being out of the ordinary - I wouldn't be surprised if Walter tested theories on his son. I won't jump to the cloning, man-made human until we find out more about Peter's mother. Not sure which is worse as they'd both mean different things to Peter in terms of his relationship with his dad and reality.

Not all the characters have endeared themselves to me. I'm surprised to find I think Joshua's Peter and John Noble's Walter are actually the strongest to me at the moment. Anna Torv sometimes overacts, maybe it's an accent thing like with Sophia on Moonlight. Plus, her assistant is the weakest character by far. Haven't seen the third episode yet, but I don't think they've tried to round out her character yet. She really has been just an assistant - she has no identity yet. I feel nothing for her. Hopefully she's fleshed out in the third episode or soon.

I hold JJ's shows to a higher level when it comes to characterisation though. If there's one thing he's good at pushing it's characters. All of his shows had a great range of fleshed out characters. Thus if I ever say a character on a JJ show's character is weak, one must think of it as relative because the characters is still probably far better than most. When I think of how long I put up with Moonlight and the lack of movement there in terms of character - considering how few characters there were - I have to give kudos to JJ and his team for every show he's been involved with. He always makes character a priority even if his shows have been known to sell his characters out to plots in the past.

I honestly just love seeing Joshua Jackson on TV again. It remains the main reason I am enjoying Fringe. That might sound shallow but one must remember I used to be very obsessed with Brendan Fehr and he could not make me watch C.S.I. Miami so the show still has to be good for me to put up with it in order to see a favourite actor. Jason Dohring barely held me on Moonlight too.




I'm watching this on the computer because I missed the first three episodes and the fourth made me want to try it. It isn't rocking my world but it's pretty good. It's great to see Rodger Corser on the show, he looks like a huggable guy and was great in Underbelly.

Callan Mulvey is the most impressive in this show as Brendan Joshua - he's the character that stands out to me. I do like and respect Callan Mulvey though. Never watched him in Heartbreak High but you have to respect a guy who could have been very dead and it's a miracle he's even alive, let alone acting. I think he has great chemistry with his married lady love, my favourite scene so far was in the elevator and that's amazing, considering how Grey's Anatomy and Veronica Mars made me loathe elevator scenes.

Perhaps it didn't look the same because it's a loft elevator, thus much bigger that the cozy little pockets of intimacy forced on the former shows. Plus, they are cops and on their way to a bad situation. Anyway the scene was very well acted - no dialogue - going up you could feel a strange tension rising and it was very realistic. Not the sappy romantic tension you see on Grey's but gradual awkwardness because even though it's never been spoken, there is a certain intimacy between these characters. They even look amused by it, pants-tapping amused. They don't move a muscle for ages, until she starts to smile a bit because AWKWARD - then they exit and deal with this poor guy stabbed in the leg by a crazy pen wielding lady. Then they get back in the elevator and there's more smiling, get-this-ride-over-with awkwardness but Callan looks terrified for a second and then just brushes her hand, and she goes all blanked face and then they both BOLT for the car.

I just think it was well acted: the chemistry was amazing considering we know next to nothing about why they like each other at this stage, there was absolutely no dialogue and it was very much like neither wanted to be aware of the sexual tension.

I was also really happy to see Samuel Johnson as the team's wise ass tech expert, Leon. Samuel Johnson's Evan was my FAVOURITE character on The Secret Life of Us. Great show that one, before Evan left. He's born to play a wise ass tech expert - I love the disdainful way he passes on and accepts messages from cops in the field. Who am I kidding? I'm just glad to see him on a show as a regular again.

I'm still only downloading it because I don't watch it when it's on TV. It's not my favourite or terribly original but it has two of my current favourite Australian TV actors so I'll keep up with it.


Are there any new shows I should be watching?