Recently created a list in IDMB of my favorite 100 TV shows. http://www.imdb.com/list/pj_-_EmlZE4/ Not be confused with the favorite 50 tv show list I made on my blog a few years ago (I won’t post a link but can easily search in blogspot). The list has changed a bit. Recently reviewing Kojak episodes and that really was a great show – great writing, great understanding of its characters and a fabulous hero in Theo Kojak totally synergy with the star Telly Savales (who looms large on the screen, take up a lot of acting space) so I’ve moved Kojak up the list. On the flip side, after a fantastic first season and a good start to its second season, HOMELAND has tuned into crazy illogical mush as if they were writing it as they went along with no thought of continuity. Blow up CIA headquarters? Sure Carrie’s pregnant? Why not kill off Brody in Iran? Nifty. Compare HOMEALND to BREAKING BAD where parts were put together years before they were filmed and the end result makes total sense. HOMELAND has dropped a few places on my list.
Two new series I’ve enjoyed
and added to the list are THE FOLLOWING and BLACK MIRROR.
One might argue that THE
FOLLOWING is as guilty as HOMELAND of full on errors in logic (I’ve never seen
the FBI portrayed as much as inept bunglers).
How many times has Kevin Bacon’s character wandered into trouble without
back-up???? James Purefoy is miscast as
the serial killer/cult leader villain.
He’s more like a bond villain, more Ernst Stavros Blofeld rather than
Hannibal Lecter. But THE FOLLOWING works
because of the sheer amount of adrenalin pumping furiously in each and every
scene. Never seen a faster moving TV
shows, all high points, all moments of great drama and it is not afraid to kill
off characters left and right. I should also note I just watched the second
season opener and its pace is much slower and seems more interested in actual detective work.
BLACK MIRROR is an anthology show
wherein all the stories are loosely about the same subject - Social media particularly
its commercialization of everything, the bombardment of advertising through the
Internet, the dehumanization of people through too much information, too much
interaction that is through a machine.
All six episodes that have
been released so far were excellent especially the second one which showed a dystopian
future where people pedal for credits on a stationary bicycle to fuel a pop
culture that had taken over everything.
Powerful, imaginative, visionary stuff with high production values and
intricately plotted stories full of Rod Serling Twilight Zone irony pointed in
the direction of the current and growing disconnect between people and life caused
by being online. The six episodes in
order of preference – 2,5,1,4,6,3
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