Well here we are again. It has been months since my last post. Usually my excuse for not writing is that I hadn’t watched anything. That isn’t the case this time. I have watched a ton of stuff. I even made it out to the theater and saw Mad Max: Fury Road. I think the problem might be that writing about television and movies just hasn’t seemed interesting to me. In fact, writing in general has been low on my list lately. When something happens in my life my first instinct is usually to write it down for documentation; capture thoughts and feelings. A lot has gone on and I have let most of it pass by without putting a pen to paper. I might be over it now. I fee like writing again.
I have a big list tv shows I could write about. Rather than posting about each one separately I am going to do a quick rundown of the tv shows I’ve been watching…
There were a couple times I almost wrote about an individual episode of Game of Thrones, but by the time I got around to it another one was about to air and it just seemed pointless. Maybe I will try to organize my thoughts on season five as a whole and post something. In general I thought it was the weakest season of GoT so far even though it had some great moments.
I also watched the entire first season of Bloodline on Netflix. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see Kyle Chandler. It was good tv, but in the end it left me feeling a little unfulfilled. I would recommend it. It behooves the watcher to be more focused on the journey that worried about the destination, which I think the show promotes by how it is laid out. Most importantly, I am encouraged by the quality of Netflix’s original content.
Speaking of, I watched the first season of Chef’s Table. I like food. I enjoy documentaries. Chef’s Table was a winner in my book.
The real Netflix standout this spring was Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It was a ton of fun. My wife and I powered through all 13 episodes in record time. There were a few things that I didn’t like about the show, but overall it was still charming and funny. I would recommend it for sure.
The first season of Last Man On Earth on Fox was a rollercoaster ride. It started off so unique only to devolve into a standard, mediocre, and sometimes downright annoying comedy. It managed to finish off with a couple of decent episodes and I will probably tune in next year to see where it goes.
Fresh Off The Boat had a solid first season on ABC. I first few episodes were really funny. I didn’t enjoy the second half of the season quite as much, but it will definitely be on the watch list next year, assuming it comes back.
Silicon Valley on HBO has turned into one of my favorite comedies on tv. I watched all of season one just a few weeks before season two started, then watched it week-to-week. Sometimes I feel like it can try to be a little too clever, but then it always brings me back with a funny.
The final season of Justified aired this spring. I’ve written before than Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder were two of the best characters on television. I couldn’t wait to watch how their stories ended. Seeing a series you enjoy come to an end is always bittersweet. It was made especially so with Justified because I wasn’t sure there was a satisfying conclusion out there to be had. I enjoyed it, but as expected, the very end let me down. The storytelling seemed to get sloppy in the last half of the season, and it was capped off with a flash-forward that I didn’t particularly enjoy. Per the usual, I find a way to fall out of love with a show down the stretch, thus lessening the heartbreak once it is gone.
The best tv I’ve watched so far in 2015 has got to be FX’s Fargo. Even though I had heard really good things about the show I wasn’t expecting much. The series overall, but especially Billy Bob Thorton’s performance were awesome. I was completely mesmerized by his character. Thorton and Martin Freeman both made the show thoroughly enjoyable even when the pace was slow. I may even go back and watch it again if I get a chance. I rarely even consider doing that.
I watched a few other shows as well, but this is enough for now. I also have a pretty big list of movies that I haven’t written about. Catching up on that backlog feels like a chore, but maybe I will take a shot at it.
Filed Under: Television