What I'm Watching

TV Shows I'm half-assedly or whole-assedly keeping up with right now, and some that I really only like quarter-assed:

The Night Of

I'm hooked on this dark, gritty, crime-mystery-drama thing. The biggest draw for me by far is the main actor, who's this guy with impossibly big eyes and a terrified look on his face who <i>still</i> comes off as tough and dignified somehow. I really love that guy. I like that the show isn't like most prettified crime shows--this isn't a world where shit gets resolved in two weeks and investigations are easy. Everything takes forever, and it's hard, and people don't always know what they're doing. No one has really heard his full side of the story. They don't really care. It's fascinating and realistic and terrifying. I find myself having to watch something fluffy afterward if I'm trying this before going to bed. But I can't stop watching. I have no idea where it's going, and that's something completely unexpected in a crime drama. I love that. I also love that Michael K Williams is there kicking ass, and somehow John Torturro has made his gross-out lawyer character incredibly likable. It's just so good and totally different from every other crime show I've ever seen. I'm three episodes from the end and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Outlander

I kinda fizzed out on this one. Can't really put my finger on it, because the season was pretty entertaining. I guess. I think it just wasn't nearly as fun as the first season, with the danger and grittiness of Scotland and Claire's complete unmooring. This season felt too safe, even though she was running headlong into trouble all the time, too pretty. The chemistry between them is still there, but as usual, the pursuit and the wooing is way more entertaining to watch a married couple. Specially if she's pregnant. It's just kind of there. And knowing exactly what happens somehow bothers me a lot more this time around. I'm really not sure why--something about the stakes being lower? Or the fact that their efforts to stop Charles are futile and everyone knows it? Whatever it is, it's just not very interesting. I guess I'll eventually finish the season, but it's not something I'm really looking forward to every day.

Ink Master

My nightly reality show! It's fun. It's artistic. It's making me want a tattoo, which is not so great. Love the judges and their thoughtful critiques. It's probably the most merit-based reality competition ever. You can't win this if you're mediocre. It's sad that that's so new and refreshing, but there you go.


HALFASSING IT

Luke Cage

I think I want to like this a lot more than I actually do. It has a super hot male lead, amazing music, great visuals, a compelling villain aaaand...that's kind of it. There's no real story holding it together. For the first few episodes it really seemed like it was going somewhere, but then everything just completely fizzled out. Out came the spinning wheels, the long speeches and threats that go nowhere, the convolution of the plot...just a big ol' boring mess that's always too dark and is kind of forced to stay small. Because it's a Marvel show on TV. There's something frustrating about knowing that Luke will never go on to bigger and better things, just because he's on TV. We still haven't finished the first season, and I'm not sure if we will.

Deadwood

Now this one I blame my husband for not finishing already. I really love it. It's hilarious, it's dark, it's fast-paced and character driven and it's just insanely watchable. I might just finish it without him- I doubt if he'll even remember we need to finish it. Even though I think he liked it, too! He's just weird about stuff like that.

THINGS I STARTED AND FIZZED OUT ON

Shameless

Eeeeh. I liked it for a while, I guess? Though "like" isn't really the right word. It was enjoyable and I liked the characters a little. But all their schticks got really repetitive and it was all just kind of exhausting.

Boardwalk Empire

It was halfway through the third episode that I realized I'm sick to death of shows about gangsters and mafias and crime bosses with the booze and the exploitation of women and the gratuitous nudity and the senseless murder. I might come back to it eventually but so far that's a genre I'm pretty much exhausted of right now.