Monday, February 11, 2013

M: Week 5 (TV I'm Reading)

So in effort to trim down my TV schedule, there were quite a few shows I've dropped in the last year.  Some were dropped because I simply didn't like them enough (The Mindy Project, The New Girl, Beauty and the Beast), others because I didn't like the direction they were going in (Parenthood, Switched at Birth), and others because I simply fell behind and couldn't catch up (The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy).  In any case, I don't care much what's happened on the shows in the first category, but I can't quite let go of the shows in the latter two categories.  I may not watch, but I was decently invested in the show and I cared about the storylines and characters! As a result, I've discovered that a less time intensive, less stressful, and less DVR demanding way of doing so is to follow the detailed recaps of the shows available online.  Here are a few shows I've been reading up on, and what I think about what's going on!

Private Practice
A few weeks ago, I happened to end up watch TV live (meaning while it was airing for the first time) and accidentally caught the last 40 minutes of the series finale of Private Practice.  Apparently I missed the memo about this season being its final season, so imagine my surprise when all of a sudden people were getting married left and right and then the show was just over! In any case, that started me on trying to close the gap between the last episode I had watched and the end of the show. In summary, the right couples ended up together: Charlotte & Cooper (+tons of kids! Apparently she gave birth to TRIPLETS.), Sam & Naomi (Sam & Addison just didn't work for me. At all.), and Addison & someone not involved in a messy love triangle. From dating her husband's best friend (Grey's Anatomy with McDreamy and McSteamy) to dating her best friend's ex-husband, Addison just found herself in icky relationships. So the fact that she ended up with a very attractive, very nice doctor was a relief. And the fact that Violet didn't have anymore relationship storylines to end the show was also a relief.

Grey's Anatomy
Seattle's Grace Hospital just had to deal with too many catastrophes for me to continue watching. From George being hit by a bus, to Izzy breaking laws to save her crazy love/lust at first sight fiancé who ends up dying anyway, to a mass shooter coming into the hospital and almost killing Derek/Meredith and Meredith losing their unborn baby, to last season -- the doctors being in a plane crash that ends up killing Lexie AND Mark Sloane (McSteamy) AND causes Arizona to lose her leg AND Derek to lose full functionality of his hand (only super important for a neurosurgeon, right?)... Yeah, it was getting to be too much.  But apparently there is some happiness to be found in this season -- MerDer are finally preggerz again and they have their lovely adopted daughter and I believe they are finally in a happy place. Christina and Owen have defined their undying love for each other and are divorcing each other because they love each other so much, not because Christina isn't good at being married (complicated, of course). And Alex finally gets some non-douchey storylines, I think. Oh and there are a bunch of characters I do not know because they killed off a bunch of characters that I do know. BTW, has anyone else pointed out the fact that this show is set in Seattle with a main character named Grey? (50 Shades of Grey)

The Good Wife
Probably of all the shows I lost, this is the one I regret the most. With Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, reading the show recaps made me feel somewhat relieved not to be watching along with their soapy emotional rollercoaster. With The Good Wife, I feel like I'm really missing out! In any case, I've missed TONS in the show and I've caught up by reading about the show online but I can't even begin to summarize all that I've missed.  Basically, tons of character depth added to EVERY character on the show, tons of highlighting the beauty of the many different relationships and dynamics that exist on the show, and tons of unique spins on legal cases and politics. Alicia and Will had a fling and it ended but it was okay. Alicia and Peter are somewhat back together and somehow that's okay. Kalinda and Alicia are back to being buds and that's building great. Alicia made a frenemy out of a former ER costar. The kids are still annoying, but appropriately so for their age, so somehow on this show it's okay.

Homeland
Here's a show for which I have not seen a single episode. However, I have listed to most of 2 episodes because my husband watches it. Basically, I started reading the recaps for all the episodes because I had so many questions for my husband while he was watching it and he gets annoyed at me when I start pestering him with questions about shows he watches that I don't watch. Plus, I was super curious why it was such a thing for so many people. My thoughts on the show? It's a really good show to read about, so I'm sure it's an even better show to watch. However, the ambiguities on whether Nicholas Brody is working for or against the U.S. government really confuses and annoys me. And either the genius or gullibility of Carrie Mathison is hard for me to process. Maybe if I watched the show and really experienced the depth of their characters storylines, I'd appreciate both better. Probably won't watch, though.

The Bachelor
I watch The Bachelorette but I have a lot of issues watching The Bachelor. Seriously, 20+ women all vying for ONE guy is a recipe for drama, crazies, and annoyingness.  Instead I read about the crazies and pat myself on the back for not sitting through 2 hours of torture each week. In truth, I probably wouldn't bother reading about it but this season's bachelor, Sean, seems like such a nice guy (since I watched last season of The Bachelorette). Plus, what makes the season all the more readable is that Sean's blogs about each week's show are equally entertaining and enlightening. It gives me hope that he recognizes the crazy of some of the women on the show in retrospect, though he doesn't seem to recognize it at all on the show.

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