Shows I watch, what I'm not liking:
Mar. 27th, 2005 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So far this season I find myself watching most of the new TV shows. Unfortunately, for some reason I can't seem to get into any of them to the point where I want to venture into the upper levels of fandom. A pot of Starbucks Italian roast at the office had me thinking about exactly why this is.
Lost
As much as I am liking Lost right now something is clearly missing. My first issue is that it lacks a strong female lead. The major trusted leaders on the island have all turned out to be male. While the character of Kate had potential, she has never emerged as anything more than a supporting character who is not to be trusted. The character of Shannon is just too pretty, and unfriendly. I could be wrong, but I don’t see much potential for development with her.
My other issue is that the one interesting morally ambiguous character, Sawyer has become a bit too soft. While he is supposed to be the island's tough guy, these days he is always backing down, or ending up beaten up. In every instance where it was potentially Sawyer who was hoarding something necessary for the safety of the island, he ended up giving in, or not having it at all in the first place.
I read somewhere that Sawyer was supposed to be a kiwi businessman, which would have been much better than "evil mysterious Southern guy," which has been done to death. It is a bit unrealistic that on a plane from Australia to Los Angeles, there is only one Australian character that survived, Claire. There are loads of talented actors from lands down under who lack recognition by mainstream audiences. Adding an additional actor from down under would have been an excellent opportunity for a new actor and would have added more geographic diversity necessary to make this show believable.
Desperate Housewives
While I enjoy the plotlines on this show, none of the characters are remotely sympathetic. Despite the one moment where they all comforted Lynette, I haven't seen enough bonding on this show, or any friendships with depth.
Bree lost a lot of points with me when she covered the crime committed by her unremorseful son. While I liked the way she had him kicked off the swim team for possession of marijuana, it would have been better if she caved and had him take responsibility for mowing down Mama Solis with his car.
Nothing against Eva Longoria, but I don't like the character of Gabrielle Solis. The actress is only five years older than I am and is playing a character with her own giant house and wealthy lifestyle, which makes me a bit depressed.
The character of Mike has a lot of potential, however I don't find myself getting into him as much as I should. Might be because of all the hype in the media about how "hot” the actor is. Might also be because they have not explored the character at all. While he is supposed to be the mysterious bad boy, he weighs in more on the side of mysterious than bad. The character has a criminal record, yet so far we have not seen him doing anything frightening or morally ambiguous. The relationship between him and Susan seems forced and shallow. While there clearly is some chemistry, there has been very little in terms of bonding and friendship between them which I feel is a requirement of a good TV ‘ship.
Regarding the character of Lynette, I have very little sympathy for parents who take her "I loathe and want to get rid of my kids," attitude towards parenting.
Boston Legal
While this is my favorite show of the season, and I absolutely love the antics between Alan Shore and Denny Crane, I would like them to focus a bit more on Alan Shore's character. While Candice Bergen was a welcome addition, since she came on something has been missing. I feel like I'm watching two different shows, Alan Shore's trial of the week, and Denny versus Shirley Schmidt.
Veronica Mars
While I love this show and the character of Veronica, at times I find her a bit too mature to be believable as only sixteen or seventeen. She comes off as very intellectual, however she is pining after, Duncan and Logan, who aren't her equals in terms of knowledge. A character like Veronica should see herself as above the popular people in school, not constantly lament that she doesn't fit in with them. It would be better if as the show developed, they gradually had her care less and less about fitting in and made her more comfortable with who she is. The character has the potential to be an excellent role model for young teenage girls.
Despite this show being far is far from the traditional High School drama, I find the depiction of High School totally unrealistic. This could be because it is completely different from my High School experience.
While there were people from different economic strata at the High School I attended, everyone seemed to intermingle, there was no vast void between the "rich and poor." Also I live in New York State, in a county where one must be seventeen in order to drive alone. At my school only seniors were allowed to drive cars. This made students a lot less independent, and parents a lot more involved. While Veronica has a close relationship with her father, in light of what happened with the mother and the Lilly Kane murder, I find it surprising that she is constantly driving long distances, unsupervised, without her father batting an eyelash and asking about where she has been.
Lost
As much as I am liking Lost right now something is clearly missing. My first issue is that it lacks a strong female lead. The major trusted leaders on the island have all turned out to be male. While the character of Kate had potential, she has never emerged as anything more than a supporting character who is not to be trusted. The character of Shannon is just too pretty, and unfriendly. I could be wrong, but I don’t see much potential for development with her.
My other issue is that the one interesting morally ambiguous character, Sawyer has become a bit too soft. While he is supposed to be the island's tough guy, these days he is always backing down, or ending up beaten up. In every instance where it was potentially Sawyer who was hoarding something necessary for the safety of the island, he ended up giving in, or not having it at all in the first place.
I read somewhere that Sawyer was supposed to be a kiwi businessman, which would have been much better than "evil mysterious Southern guy," which has been done to death. It is a bit unrealistic that on a plane from Australia to Los Angeles, there is only one Australian character that survived, Claire. There are loads of talented actors from lands down under who lack recognition by mainstream audiences. Adding an additional actor from down under would have been an excellent opportunity for a new actor and would have added more geographic diversity necessary to make this show believable.
Desperate Housewives
While I enjoy the plotlines on this show, none of the characters are remotely sympathetic. Despite the one moment where they all comforted Lynette, I haven't seen enough bonding on this show, or any friendships with depth.
Bree lost a lot of points with me when she covered the crime committed by her unremorseful son. While I liked the way she had him kicked off the swim team for possession of marijuana, it would have been better if she caved and had him take responsibility for mowing down Mama Solis with his car.
Nothing against Eva Longoria, but I don't like the character of Gabrielle Solis. The actress is only five years older than I am and is playing a character with her own giant house and wealthy lifestyle, which makes me a bit depressed.
The character of Mike has a lot of potential, however I don't find myself getting into him as much as I should. Might be because of all the hype in the media about how "hot” the actor is. Might also be because they have not explored the character at all. While he is supposed to be the mysterious bad boy, he weighs in more on the side of mysterious than bad. The character has a criminal record, yet so far we have not seen him doing anything frightening or morally ambiguous. The relationship between him and Susan seems forced and shallow. While there clearly is some chemistry, there has been very little in terms of bonding and friendship between them which I feel is a requirement of a good TV ‘ship.
Regarding the character of Lynette, I have very little sympathy for parents who take her "I loathe and want to get rid of my kids," attitude towards parenting.
Boston Legal
While this is my favorite show of the season, and I absolutely love the antics between Alan Shore and Denny Crane, I would like them to focus a bit more on Alan Shore's character. While Candice Bergen was a welcome addition, since she came on something has been missing. I feel like I'm watching two different shows, Alan Shore's trial of the week, and Denny versus Shirley Schmidt.
Veronica Mars
While I love this show and the character of Veronica, at times I find her a bit too mature to be believable as only sixteen or seventeen. She comes off as very intellectual, however she is pining after, Duncan and Logan, who aren't her equals in terms of knowledge. A character like Veronica should see herself as above the popular people in school, not constantly lament that she doesn't fit in with them. It would be better if as the show developed, they gradually had her care less and less about fitting in and made her more comfortable with who she is. The character has the potential to be an excellent role model for young teenage girls.
Despite this show being far is far from the traditional High School drama, I find the depiction of High School totally unrealistic. This could be because it is completely different from my High School experience.
While there were people from different economic strata at the High School I attended, everyone seemed to intermingle, there was no vast void between the "rich and poor." Also I live in New York State, in a county where one must be seventeen in order to drive alone. At my school only seniors were allowed to drive cars. This made students a lot less independent, and parents a lot more involved. While Veronica has a close relationship with her father, in light of what happened with the mother and the Lilly Kane murder, I find it surprising that she is constantly driving long distances, unsupervised, without her father batting an eyelash and asking about where she has been.