Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Old Shows but New for Me.

I've been watching a lot of television lately, no true reason why, I've since lost interest in most shows mostly because of reality TV and the excess of drama that's on these days. But I heard they the Comedy Network has just signed on another season of Futurama, so right there my hope has gone a little up and I though maybe there might be some other sparks of genius hidden. If the new shows follow the regular scenario of every great television series is that it will be canceled quickly and a legion of lurking fans will complain about it on the internet and that will catch my interest (See Arrested Development), so in a twist I decided to go see if anything is actually good and my single participation might make it stay an extra season.

Although looking for something I stumbled upon something old, re-runs for the first time I presume. Geeks and Freaks, I didn't have anything to go on, but I was really surprised by the cast; they were all familiar faces and I mean really familiar. And all of those faces were younger, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Samm Levine (only know his name because he'll be in Inglorious Bastards), Linda Cardelinni and a few more. Since I knew absolutely nothing about the show, I did like everyone does now-a-days when they are curious, I googled it of course. So it was out in 1999, reason why the cast seems young. I was also very surprised about how much praise it got, it even got on a few "best TV shows" list in some big magazines, yet I never even heard of it. Even further proving my point earlier made is that the show itself only lasted a full season and people complained so the company milked an extra few shows out of it, and now is considered a cult classic.

The basic premise of the show is High School in the early eighties, yes I know you must of all cringed I know I did. It follows two siblings and their "adventure" in high school, the youngest a boy who is a geek and how he tries to fit in with his friends, and his older sister who is getting away from the high grades stereotype and going into the little more rebellious "freaks" stereotype. At first I thought that it was going to be completely cringe worthy, and as a matter of fact it totally is. I found myself lifting the remote at really awkward moments readying myself to simply change the channel each time it happened I couldn't seem to change the damned channel! There's simply something appealing about the show and I can't put my finger on. Maybe it is supposed to make me cringe, maybe that's the whole point of the show. There are some simple scenes that manage to make it look completely genuine, even if it seems like I've seen it before. As for my multiple cringes there are a lot of moments that simply bring a smile or a laugh. Also I was surprise how well they handle the whole "in the 80's" thing, kinda like That 70's Show, sure its set in those times but apart from that it's the characters that are important not the time setting not bombarded by culture references. (Looking at you That 80's Show) I can really understand why this show has a huge appeal and following, definitely finishing this one; it is only one season.

The other show I recently watched is Torchwood, simply because I keep hearing good things about it and I really want to get in at least one of these types of shows. I know nothing about it really, tried getting into Dr. Who a few times but I'm always confused and I can't seem to find a decent milestone to start on. Same effect with Torchwood started out and I'm frikin confused. So there was the vampire guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer also he was Piccolo from the Dragonball movie, and he was wearing this very stylish marching band jacket, but instead of facing the fact that he is wearing a marching band jacket, he was evil and tied up this other guy to chains. So they had this dialogue about how devious the vampire (He probably isn't a vampire now but whatever) was and the guy in chains was like "We're going to stop you!" and the vampire guy was like "Ok do it", then the chain guy was like "OK, Ngguughhht" and failed horribly in his attempt to escape and then the vampire pushed a button that proceeded to shock the chain guy and then he was like "NNNGGGHHUUGHTTT". So after that he pushed some machine even tho the chain guy said quite understandingly not to, but the former vampire guy is too badass to listen so he pushes the button anyways, all while showing his marching band jacket. I so want that jacket.

So after a bathroom break I get back and missed a little bit, so there are these monsters coming out of these holes and the proceed to place their heads near random (I suppose) victims and shake their head near the neck area of the victims, effectively killing or tickling them, I couldn't really tell from the angle. Strangely enough the vampire guy is now on the good side and helping them reconfigure the machine that transmits the signal of doom to the monsters and then when he does they all go back into their cages. Now there's this guy in a computer room and this other chick and she's bleeding. So the computer room door starts to seal itself and horrifically he can't make out it time, even while in slow motion! Then this dramatic scene comes by and I change the channel. I changed it not because I didn't like what I saw, but I didn't want to see any characters die, albeit not even knowing if they are major, but if I do decided to watch the series I don't want to know that someone later dies.

So that's my two new shows, while there is one I'm not 100% sure to continue.

4 comments:

Siskoid said...

You're gonna keep on bveing confused I think.

TW2 without TW1? TW without Who?

Your problem is that you're trying to catch it where it's at on TV, when it's so easy to watch the whole thing in sequence through DVDs or online sources. They're all 13 episode seasons, it's not long.

Start with Who Series 1 (with Eccleston), watch TW1 between series 2 and 3 and then TW2 between series 3 and 4. You'll be glad you did.

Martin Léger said...

Yeah that's what I'll do eventually, I should of learned by now that catching things on television isn't always the best of choices for a series like those.

Siskoid said...

Good for sampling, not so good for actually WATCHING.

I just waited 4 years to watch Battlestar Galactica because I missed everything after the mini-series.

Blanco said...

Freaks and Geeks is totally worth watching. It's an awesome show. But then again... I actually like the 80s.