Last week I talked a bit about the shows that are currently on the air; that I watch without fail. Those are the shows that I will make time for because I’ve basically bred them into my routine. This week I’m going to talk about the shows I watch that I often forget are out there. The shows that I’ll miss a few weeks in a row until something reminds me they exist, and then I’ll play catch up – until I forget they exist again. These shows probably aren’t terrible; they just don’t interest me enough for me to keep up with them consistently.
Person of Interest is an interesting show to me. It isn’t so much that I’m invested in the actual story, but more in imagining how they could possibly make the concept transform into anything else ever. Here’s the elevator pitch: A dude built a computer in a post 9/11 world that spies on everybody ever, ostensibly to predict any future terror attacks from happening. But the computer also predicts violent homicides, so the dude hires a badass to help him save lives.
Every week is a new person of interest (ha, get it?), but they aren’t sure whether or not the person is the victim or the perpetrator. It’s a simple concept, but the part that intrigues me is wondering how the show is ever supposed to evolve. They have a computer that does one specific thing. In the first few episodes they take pains to state that the computer does exactly what it has been doing for years. So either the computer magically starts doing something completely new or they stick with the case of the week format until people stop watching.
Then again, it’s J.J. Abrams. So that show could wind up going to some crazy places.
Grimm is only two episodes in, but I’m already pretty sure I’m not a fan. I’m also pretty sure I’ll continue to watch it. The show was created by a couple of guys who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin-off Angel – both shows I was a huge fan of back in the day. They’re also both shows it took me a surprisingly long time to learn to enjoy. The idea with Grimm is that The Brothers Grimm wrote fairy tales which were actually a catalogue of their time spent slaying monsters Van Helsing-style, and their descendants do too. The main character is one of the few remaining members of the bloodline, and as such he can see these monsters as they pretend to be humans.
It sounds awesome, until you realize it’s a police procedural that has so far been based solely on a ‘monster of the week’ gimmick. There are very few shows that can get away with that gimmick, and I seriously doubt this is one of them.
Once Upon a Time, however, is doing the fairy tale thing in a far more interesting way. Half of every episode is telling snippets of stories you can instantly recognize from modern day fairy tales, while the other half is set in a modern day town. The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves curses the whole of fairy tale land, wiping their memories and transporting them to a town in the real world where they are doomed to live their lives, with nobody ever getting a happy ending. The only one in town who knows the truth is a young boy who tracks down and convinces his biological mother to stick around in the town and help him make everybody remember. The first two episodes toed the obvious line of ‘Man, this kid is crazy.’ and ‘Man, these are all fairy tale characters!’ while the third episode kind of crossed over that line entirely.
The show is actually kind of growing on me, but the reason I’m still not quite sure about it can be boiled down to a single issue. I can’t stand the kid. Maybe I can learn to tune him out? Would that be considered a happy ending for me?
The Big Bang Theory hooked me in almost accidentally. I was down in my basement and slammed my knee into an exposed board while I was coming up the stairs, and sat down for a minute. The television happened to be on, and The Big Bang Theory was just coming off a commercial. I wound up sitting through the whole episode, found it kind of funny and eventually started watching it regularly. That was back in the middle of its first season.
We’re three or four seasons past that, and now watching it has become way less of a priority. Any given episode might be lucky to elicit a single laugh from me, but it strikes gold enough that every now and again I’ll catch up on the episodes I’ve missed.
Charlie’s Angels is the last one for the week. This show is not good. There’s no two ways about it. The dialogue is cringe-inducing at times, and the acting isn’t much better. But my god, it’s amazing how much of the bad you can overlook when you fill a show with attractive people and fast-paced action scenes. Every few weeks I’ll remember it exists and play catch up, only to remember why I keep putting it completely out of my mind.
While I’d recommend at least checking out every other show on this list I’m going to go ahead and warn you to avoid Charlie’s Angels at all costs. Unless you hate yourself entirely, or love watching attractive folks try and act.
So what are you watching, people of the internet? Has reading this caused you to check out any of the shows above? Are there any shows out there you try and watch but often forget about? Drop a comment and let us know. Next week is all about cartoons, so expect less options and more elaboration on why I watch what I watch – unless I wind up with a bunch of suggestions for animated shows, in which case I’ll endeavor to check them out.
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