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Hawaii Five-0 is the first of my Monday routine. Crime procedurals have become kind of rote for me in the last few years, with few exceptions. This is a show that, on the surface could be described as belonging to that genre, but in practice is more of an hour long buddy-cop action movie. More than that it’s a prime example of how a remake should be done; it uses basically the same elements as its predecessor while managing to craft its own unique style. When somebody says “Hawaii Five Oh” to me now, it’s this new series that I instantly think of and not the original run.
Castle is right after that. Another hour long crime procedural, this one gets a pass through a combination of Nathan Fillion and a ridiculous premise. The idea that a novelist is tagging along with a New York detective is pretty… well, dumb. But then you remember we live in a world where there are shows about:
– An agoraphobic grandmaster chess player stuck inside a luxury hotel. He solves crimes.
– A guy with an eidetic memory who pretends to be psychic. He solves crimes.
– An ex-spy who fixes problems. Also he solves crimes.
– A serial killer who only kills serial killers. He solves crimes?
– A detective descendent of the Brothers Grimm. He solves monster crimes.
– A group of criminals who rob other criminals. They solve crimes. With crime.
Obviously not all of the above are bad shows. But their premise is as (or more) ridiculous as a writer helping the police figure their stuff out. And hey, Fillion is charming.
Terra Nova surprised the hell out of me. I fully expected “Humans are moving to 85, 000 , 000 B.C and also dinosaurs” to wind up being a poorly done show, but I’ve gotten rather attached to it. Sometimes I wonder whether or not it counts as another crime procedural, as the main character is a cop and is often solving a weekly problem. The best part about the show, though, is the leader of the main settlement is the bad guy from Avatar, which means there’s always a chance we’ll get to see giant-mech-with-giant-knife-versus-dinosaur action in the future.
Sanctuary is a show that could go forever, and I would happily follow along. It scoffs at such notions as realism, historical accuracy, and authentic accents. I’m not even sure I can elaborate on why exactly I love this show, so let me boil it down to one single run on sentence. Bigfoot is a main character and sometimes Nikola Tesla the vampire shows up and also Jack the Ripper who can teleport.
Nikita is another show that I shouldn’t like, but for some reason continue to watch. If you could sit down and think up a list of things that a show about spies would have, I bet ‘gravelly voice guy’, ‘attractive ladies’, ‘hackers’, ‘US Black Ops’ ‘Russian Black Ops’ and ‘way too many guns’ ‘bad acting’ would all make that list. Liking Nikita really depends on how you feel about that list. I happen to enjoy junk food television as much as intellectually stimulating television, and so Nikita is a weekly fix.
Supernatural is probably the last great staple of my week, and since we’re talking about junk food television I find it appropriate to end the list with this. A show about constantly drinking rednecks with lots of guns who kill monsters, demons, angels, and anything else falling under the paranormal banner is exactly the kind of show I want. It hits all of the things you expect in bad television. It’s got the gravelly voice guy. Often it has attractive ladies. Every now and again it has an episode that outright mocks itself and its creators. It’s great because it takes itself seriously, but not too seriously. It’s a show that knows exactly what it’s trying to accomplish, and it does that pretty damn well.
This list is by no means an inclusive list. The writers at SideQuesting have a variety of tastes in television, just like we have a variety of tastes in video games. We also know the community is the exact same way, which is why we’re inviting the community to participate as much as they want in these television features. Is there a show on here we like that you hate? Let us know, and tell us why. Did we miss a show? If we watch it and you want to hear about it, we’ll write about it. Television is our friend, and we’re more than happy to give a shot at something a fellow nerd thinks is worth the time.
Speaking of Community: Watch all of that show. It’s one of the best comedies out there.
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