OK, so a few weekends ago I decided to watch one episode of every show in my Netflix rotation and write a few short thoughts about it for this blog. I have recently finished up with quite a few shows, and my rotation looks a lot different now. So I figured - why not do this again? I had fun the first time.
Out are: Glee, The Wonder Years, Bates Motel, Darknet, Black Mirror, Archer, Torchwood, and The Bible. I have either finished with these series completely, or am awaiting the next season to come out on Netflix.
In are Daredevil and a bunch of other shows that had previously been in the rotation, but had fallen out for some reason or another. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Derek, Friday Night Lights, and Doctor Who. I have also recently decided to start rewatching Breaking Bad since I enjoyed it so much the first time. So that's in the rotation too. Plus my wife and I are now watching Street Food From Around the World.
All those old shows out, all these new ones coming in. Plus there are still a multitude of other shows in the rotation that haven't changed. This should be a completely different experience than the last time I did this. Let's get started.
The first show I watched was Netflix original series Daredevil. This is an interesting show for me because of all the famous Marvel heroes out there, I know almost nothing about Daredevil. I had watched the first episode over a week ago, but had never gotten around to watching anymore. So this episode I watched tonight was episode two of the first season, entitled: Cut Man.
This episode finds Matt Murdock in his ghetto costume in a dumpster and severely injured. I didn't know what was happening, or if I had missed something that happened at the end of the last episode but I did decide to keep watching and not go back and look (I did look after the episode ended and remembered seeing him go off to assist the boy he had heard screaming for his dad).
He is taken in by a woman who helps nurse him to health in her apartment while bad guys are going door to door in her building looking for Matt. While he is recovering, we get some flashbacks to Matt and his dad, who was a boxer. We learn that he was involved in a gambling ring and would throw fights. At the end, he won a fight he was supposed to lose, thus insuring himself a large payday. He had the money put into his son's name, and then is killed by the mobsters he betrayed by winning the fight.
In the present day, Matt (I still can't call him Daredevil yet) subdues his pursuer and then saves the boy from the boat where he was being stored. All in all, a pretty good episode. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this show or not but both this episode and the first one were pretty good. This one might have even been better than the pilot. I liked it a lot and can't wait to see more Daredevil in the future.
Now we will move on to How I Met Your Mother. I watched this towards the end of my rotation the last time I did this blog thing, so I will watch it towards the beginning this time. This is season 2, episode 17. Arrivederci, Fiero is the episode title. Yes, I had to double check that spelling before posting it here.
This episode mainly focuses on Marshall's car. If you are guessing it was a Fiero, you have guessed correctly. It dies right before it hits 200,000 miles, causing the group to reminisce about all the good (or bad) moments they have had with the car in its lifetime.
My only problem with this episode is that it is towards the end of season 2, and this is the first time we have heard about Marshall even having a car. They always take a taxi whenever they go anywhere. Maybe there have been some episodes where they have been driving a car, but if there are I don't remember them. So the whole storyline just kind of came out of nowhere to me.
But it was fun. there were a lot of flashbacks to Marshall and Ted when they were younger, which I always find amusing. The stories around the car were funny. And I liked how the car radio always played 500 Miles by the Proclaimers because the tape was stuck in the player on repeat. Any excuse to be able to hear that song is a win in my mind.
I liked the episode. I'm still not a huge sitcom fan but I do think that starting this show was a good choice for me. If I am going to watch a sitcom, it might as well be one that is not only consistently funny but clever and smart at the same time.
Next up was the Twilight Zone. Season 2, episode 20. Static.
This episode takes place in a nursing home. One of the old dudes living there hates television. He gets a radio where he can hear music and broadcasts from the 1930s. The good old days. He tries to show everyone in the home the music but when he brings in other people they can only hear static. We find out that he has dementia or something and is permanently stuck reliving his glory days in his mind.
At least that was my interpretation of the episode. At the end of the show it showed a younger version of the man and his wife when they were happy. The narrator made it seem like the radio actually transported him back in time to his happier days. But it could also be interpreted that this is what he sees in his mind while everyone else just sees a kooky old man.
It was a decent episode. Some of these Twilight Zone episodes are hit or miss with me. But this one falls squarely in the middle in the sense that I didn't particularly like or dislike it.
Now on to Doctor Who. I've been alternating between this show and Torchwood, trying to watch things in as close to their actual order as I can. Note that this is the "new" Doctor Who, not the old black and white one. So this is season 4 with David Tennant. Second episode, entitled: Partners in Crime.
In this episode the Doctor and a red haired woman both are investigating a weight loss pill that seems to work miraculously. At first I didn't recognize the woman. She seemed to know the Doctor and the two seemed to have a history together. So I Googled her and saw that she was the one in the episode where a woman was transported aboard the Tardis in the middle of her wedding. She has been looking for him ever since, and wants to come aboard as a companion.
After a bunch of near misses with one another in their investigations, they finally meet up and discover that the pill makes aliens out of people's fat. The "mother" is the head of the weight loss pill company and she gathers all the fat aliens together but is cast aside by them at the end. The Doctor decides to take Donna on as a companion after this whole episode is resolved. While getting ready to go, Donna talks to someone on the street and we see that it is Rose Tyler, who has been AWOL from the show for a while. So I assume she is going to play some kind of a role in the upcoming episodes.
It was a decent episode. The show is growing on me more and more as it goes on. It seems like the production values have increased and things aren't as hokey looking anymore. Also, the writing seems to have improved. I am starting to see why people like Doctor Who so much, although I am still not completely sold on it.
Oh and I totally recognized this scene from the episode from a picture I have seen online before:
Now I finally know where it comes from.
We switch gears to Derek. This is season 3, episode 1. Special Episode is the title. I don't know if this is the finale of Derek, or just a special episode set to fill the gap between seasons 2 and 3 of the show. Or if there will even be a season 3. Maybe this is it? I don't know. I've heard that this is the farewell episode of the show. I have also heard that there will be a season 3. I don't know what to believe. I am just treating this as episode 1 of season 3. And I will expect more episodes in the future. If they don't come - then oh well.
I like this show. It's about a mentally handicapped guy who helps with the old people at a nursing home in England. There are a lot of fun and goofy moments, as you would expect considering the subject matter. But there are a lot of hard hitting emotional moments as well. It's very good.
This episode focuses on a lot of major life events that happen after season 2. Derek going on a date. Kevin getting so drunk he winds up in the hospital and has to agree to clean up his act. Hannah's wedding, and the birth of her baby.
It seems like this episode was tying things up to end the show. So I wouldn't be surprised if it is over. Everyone had their own little special moment, except for that bald guy who disappeared. The focus of the episode seemed to be on the characters of Derek and Hannah. They each have their own moral codes. Derek is so nice and treats everyone equally. He wants to help everyone and hates to see anyone suffer. And Hannah is sort of the same way. Except she's smart.
Things are indicated that everything will end happily. Kevin will clean up his act. Joe loves Hannah and the baby, and they will live long happy lives. Derek will keep doing what he is doing. Even that one chick (I forget her name - who got sent to the home for shoplifting) seems to have her life on the right track.
So if the show ended now... if this was indeed the last episode, I guess I have to be content with how it ended. It ends on such a positive note, and that is really what the show has been about all along. Its supposed to be uplifting. And this episode certainly was.
Now its time for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I love Star Wars but this cartoon is a little boring for me. I keep hoping it will get better (I always hear good things about it) plus I want to see how it ends. So I keep chugging along. Very slowly. At the pace of maybe one episode every other week.
This episode is season 2, episode 22. Entitled: Lethal Trackdown. Boba Fett has taken hostages and demands that Mace Windu come face him or he will kill them one by one. Instead of Mace going (he is injured) Ahsoka and Plo Koon go and fight the bounty hunters. The group is disbanded, the head female dies, and Boba is taken into custody.
It was a run of the mill Clone Wars episode. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't particularly exciting either. This is the final episode of season 2, so maybe I will take a break from this for a while. If I am not really enjoying it, it is probably best that I move on to something I do. And then I will come back to this when I feel the time is right.
Now we move on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This has been in my rotation for over a year now, but it keeps falling out. I'm not invested in the show enough to want to watch more than one episode every once in a great while. Everyone kept telling me how great this was, since I like Firefly and other Joss Whedon stuff. But so far I haven't really been able to get into it.
Maybe it will change now that I have made a specific point to come back and insert it into my rotation again. This episode is from season 2. Episode 8. Entitled: The Dark Age.
This episode centers around Giles mainly. A demon that he used to summon in his younger days when he was still exploring the occult comes around to kill him. Just when things are looking up with his lady friend the teacher, the demon inhabits her body and tries to murder Giles and the kids. At the end though, good wins. The demon is vanquished and the lady friend regains control of her body.
That's where the show ends. The lady friend then shuns Giles after all she had been put through. Things were going good for Giles and then they came crashing down. Now he is single again.
It was just an okay episode. It didn't wow me or anything. I was bored for a lot of it. It didn't do much to advance the overall story arc, except give Giles a little more depth. It answered my question as to whether Buffy would become a solid contributing member of my rotation. Probably not. I may watch an episode here or there but its never going to be something I am going to be super excited about.
Speaking of shows I don't get too super excited about, time to watch House of Cards. Season 3, episode 4. Entitled: Chapter 30.
Before we get too far I must add my piece about how I love the introduction theme song. It may be the best part of the show for me, as funny as that may seem. I may have mentioned this in my last blog entry. Or maybe I didn't. But every time I watch this show I never skip over the intro.
This episode was pretty dull for me. It was a lot of people in suits talking about politics. Nothing exciting happened. This is one of the reasons I find it so hard to get into this show. When something does happen, it is awesome and my attention is grabbed. But this happens so rarely that you really have to wait a long time for the payoff.
This to me was a run of the mill House of Cards episode. I'm sure stuff happened here that will have some kind of effect on the future. But for the most part it seemed like nothing happened at all.
All right. So after watching several shows in a row that I am not too thrilled with, we will move on to something I know I will like. Breaking Bad. Now I have seen this show before. But after watching season one of Better Call Saul, it made me curious to go back and see this from the beginning. I started it less than a week ago and am up to episode 6 of season 1. Entitled: Crazy Handful of Nothin."
This is the episode where Tuco is introduced. Walter and Jesse are back in the cooking business again. The money that Jesse makes selling on the street isn't enough for Walter. He wants to sell in bulk. So a meeting is set up with Tuco who is the area drug kingpin.
Jesse goes by himself, and the results are disastrous. Tuco takes the pound of meth away from him. And beats the crap out of him. That's one of the things that I don't like about Tuco. You always feel on edge when he is onscreen because he can flip out at any moment.
Walt goes to talk to Tuco, and this is where the nickname Heisenberg is first used. Heisenberg uncertainty principal. I am sure most of us picked up on why he used that as his name. While there are probably some idiots out there who are clueless.
Walt blows up the joint and basically stands his ground (and then some) against Tuco. They agree to make a deal for the money owed from the first pound, plus Jesse's hospital bills. Then they made a future deal for more drugs.
It was a good episode. Aside from the fly episode, you will be hard pressed to find a bad episode in this series. I really enjoyed it. Things are so different here than they end up being at the end of the series. Its interesting to me to watch this unfold from the beginning, knowing what is going to end up happening. This is well worth the re-watch.
Let's change gears in a major way. Star Trek: The Original Series. I had seen TNG, DS9, and Voyager in their entireties, but I had yet to watch the original series. So about 2 years ago I decided to watch TOS in its entirety as well.
It is very slow going, but I am getting there. I don't like this series as much as the other seasons of Star Trek. Some episodes are quite boring and the whole look and feel of the show is very dated. But we progress. Season 3, episode 16. The Mark of Gideon.
Another episode that to me was just all right. Nothing too special about it. Kirk is supposed to beam down to meet with an ambassador on an alien world. He ends up aboard an exact replica of the Enterprise, devoid of all life except for one female. Being Captain Kirk, the two become extremely close. My mind started to wander because I was bored, but I think the whole thing was a setup by the alien government. Their population was getting too big, and the lifespans too long. They wanted her to get sick from her exposure to Kirk so she could contract an illness that would thin the population.
I was only half paying attention, so my diagnosis of this may be all wrong. I do like Star Trek, but a lot of these original series episodes bore me to death and can't hold my attention. I wish I felt different, but I don't. I kind of can't wait until it is out of the rotation (8 episodes left!)
The next show I watched was quite different from anything else listed so far. Street Food Around the World. My wife and I watch this with dinner now. We like travel shows, and we like food shows, so this is a good fit for us.
The show is hosted by some guy named Ishai who I have never heard of before. He tends to crack a lot of jokes and say off the wall things. Some of the episodes I wince internally because he acts like an obnoxious American tourist and I know that people are thinking something like "WTF is wrong with this guy?" But some countries are more accepting of him. It's all good fun I guess.
This is season 1, episode 8. Entitled simply - Episode 8. Clever huh? In this episode, Ishai goes to Amsterdam where he drinks beer, eats food, and travels the streets talking to people. I thought this was a fun episode. I've always been curious about Amsterdam, and even though this a really short show and they tend to linger longer in one place than show you more places in the city I still liked it.
This is always a good, fast, easy to watch change of pace type show whenever I am getting bored with all the serious shows on my regular queue.
Another fast paced and easy to watch show is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I usually take a break from this show for a few months whenever I finish a season. Season 6 was the last season I finished, so now we begin season 7 with episode 1. Entitled: Frank's Pretty Woman.
Frank wants to marry a prostitute, but the gang is disgusted by her. Dee takes her to a clothing store and when he sees the kind of money she makes, joins her in her lifestyle. Also, Mac is fat and goes to the doctor with Dennis. Charlie pukes blood on a woman in a limousine he is trying to set Frank up with to keep him from marrying the hooker. In the end, the hooker dies before Frank can marry her, and the gang leaves her body in the apartment hallway.
If you like crass humor, you will like this show. I know that my wife doesn't like it much so I have to watch it on my own. It's better than the average sitcom you would see on TV since the subject material can be more risque and out there. The show is always good for a quick laugh, and if you are ever in a bad mood you could put on an episode of this and lower your IQ for a little while. It is dumb and somewhat classless humor, but I like it.
We'll go from humor to sci fi as we switch over to the show Revolution. I really liked this show for a while there, but I have found that it has ground to a painful halt in season 2. The show is decent, but I just wish they would get to the point quicker. I like a lot of characters, and am interested in all the mysteries of the show, but could care less about the whole power struggle that is going on with all the different groups like the Patriots and what not. And so much time has been spent this season on this story line. I'm more interested in the nanomachine things and the power being out.
But this show is only 2 seasons long, and I am on episode 14 of season 2. So I expect things to pick up soon since I am almost finished. The title of this episode is: Fear and Loathing. Guess what - it takes place in Las Vegas. Didn't see that coming, did you?
The main focus of the episode is the capture of Monroe. He and his son are scheduled to fight each other to the death. And if they don't give it their all, they will both die. Charlie comes in to save the day however. Elsewhere - Matheson and Neville are temporarily teamed up but really Neville is just using him to get to Monroe so he can free his wife. Also, Aaron is taxed with the problem of whether or not to fix whatever is wrong with the nanomachines.
I actually did enjoy this episode a lot. Compared to things like Star Trek and House of Cards, this was very fast paced and much more entertaining. I was genuinely interested in the storyline this time around. And the way the episode ended (with Aaron giving the nanomachines a virus that kills them and then waking up in a world with power) made me want to keep watching with the next episode. However, I am only watching one episode of each show this weekend. So I must press on.
I do feel this episode did a lot to boost Revolution's stock in my queue. I'll probably start watching this a little faster once I get back into my normal viewing pattern after this weekend lets out.
Now we move on to one of my cartoons that I like to watch on Saturday or Sunday mornings. The Ultimate Spider Man. If I was a kid I am sure I would love this series. As an adult, I find it hit or miss. I think I mentioned this in my last blog entry but I like how this cartoon cris-crosses with the other Marvel series like Avengers and the X-Men.
I'm up to season 2, episode 15. Stan By Me. In this episode, Peter and a group of students are stuck in the school with the janitor after hours. Principal Coulson has been captured, and there is destruction everywhere. They discover that the Lizard is behind all the mayhem, and is building a machine under the school to keep him as the Lizard forever. Peter runs off to get help, and comes back as Spider Man. Along with the janitor (Stan Lee), they defeat the Lizard and force him away.
I enjoyed this episode. Some episodes of this show can be kind of dumb, but this one was fun. I like the premise of the episode, and how it involved some of the human characters getting in on the adventure. The Lizard is a good villain too. This episode combined the trademark Spider Man humor with some solid action and a good story.
I still probably won't watch more than 1 or 2 of these a week, but this episode was pretty good.
Next up is Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. I like having an educational show or something about the universe in my queue, and Cosmos is that show. I am on season 1, episode 6: Deeper Deeper Deeper Still. If you are paying attention you will notice that this episode comes before the one I watched for my last blog entry. That's because I don't watch the episodes for this show in order since it's a science show and doesn't follow a story line or anything. As for the episode title, they couldn't have possibly thought of a more perverted episode title, could they? But I guess it fits, as this episode is all about microscopic life forms.
Normally I prefer when this show focuses on outer space, and this episode did NOT focus on space. It was all about microscopic cells and life forms. It was more like sitting there in school than it was watching an entertaining episode of a television show. I found myself drifting off to sleep quite often here. If you like microbiology you may like the episode.
I didn't. But that doesn't mean I don't like the show. It is allotted a clunker every once in a while.
On to the next show. Friday Night Lights. I started watching this last year and thought it was pretty good. For whatever reason, it fell off of my queue and I completely forgot about it for the longest time. Now it is back in my rotation, where I resume watching at season 1, episode 6. El Accidente.
This episode focuses on doing what is right versus doing anything to win. The coach knows that violations occurred in Voodoo's recruiting and struggles with the morality of the situation. And a player on the team knows that a fellow player is lying over a role in his fight that left a boy hospitalized. Tell the truth, and get a good player kicked off the team - or say nothing and let him get away with an awful crime?
Also in the episode, Riggs took Jason out of the hospital to drive around and go to the lake. Lyla came along too. It was nice to see Riggs being the friend that Jason needs him to be. But the whole Lyla situation was awkward and very close to getting out of hand.
I had forgotten how good this show can be. I think the reason it fell out of my rotation is because it hadn't hooked me yet. But this was a really good episode, and any more of these and I don't think it will be falling out of the rotation anytime soon. I am glad I rediscovered Friday Night Lights and I think it has found a permanent spot in my rotation.
Now we head on over to Amazing Stories. This is a show I adored as a kid, but now as an adult am struggling to make it through. There are a few good episodes every once in a while, but for the most part a lot of them are pretty dumb. What will I get tonight?
Season 2, episode 5. You Gotta Believe Me. I got lucky this was a good one. It was like a 20 minute long horror movie. A man wakes up in the middle of the night suffering from a dream that there had been a bad plane crash right outside his house. He rushes off to the airport to warn them but isn't taken seriously. He even sees some of the same people from his dream waiting to board at the airport.
While leaving the property, the man sees someone in a small personal plane who is clearly under the influence. He runs out and steals a car and smashes into the small plane right before it can hit the big airliner with all the people on it.
So he saves the day and prevents the dream from coming true. Good episode, good story. They did a good job at making the man's sense of panic and terror seem genuine. It seems like a lot of Amazing Stories episodes are goofy or stupid - they need more like this one.
We move on to a show that I sometimes dread watching: The X Files. I know that this may seem sacrilegious to some, but a lot of the episodes are boring to me and too draped in confusion of what is actually going on with all the conspiracies and shit.
I've been watching this show for over 2 years now and I am only up to season 3, episode 9. This episode is entitled: Nisei.
Mulder is examining an alien autopsy video he bought through the mail and decides to follow up on it. When he does, he gets drawn into yet another big conspiracy plot. Meanwhile Scully discovers a group that claims to have gone through the same abduction process that she did in season 2. I'd offer more details about the plot but that is basically all I remember. This is the type of X-Files episode that I don't really like - dealing with the conspiracies and all that.
How many alien coverups can possibly be going on in this country alone - all at the same time? I became bored and what usually happens when I am bored is my mind starts to wander. I started to think about the Packers draft and before I knew it I had missed big chunks of what was happening in the show.
But I am a stubborn SOB. I will continue to watch this show, even if it takes me ten years to finish it. I know it must get better, since I recall watching this on TV when I was younger and really getting into it. But these early seasons.... I just can't wait to get through them.
Now we move on to a show that I actually hadn't planned to add into my rotation just yet. American Horror Story, season 3: Coven. Since I am just now starting the season, we begin on episode 1: Bitchcraft.
Originally I was going to watch Chuck. But because I just finished with season 2 of Chuck, I decided to take a break from it for a while. I usually do this between seasons of a "long" show. Long is more than 4 or 5 seasons with 20 plus episodes a season.
No better show to temporarily take Chuck's place than American Horror Story. I have seen the first two seasons, and I watched them pretty quickly. I have heard all kinds of good things about Coven, so it shouldn't take me long to power through this. And then I can go back to Chuck.
This was a solid first episode. I had forgotten how messed up AHS could be, and this show quickly reminded me of it right from the get go with all the slave torture stuff. I thought this whole show was going to be in old times, but after that it moved to the present day. A girl getting sent off to a school for witches when she learns that anyone she fucks dies.
Everyone at the school has their own unique power. And through flashbacks and what not, we find out that there is a very rich history behind the school that resonates into the present day. What exactly is going on, we don't know. But I am very curious to see more of the show to uncover things. This is a solid entry into the rotation. I can see me finishing with this pretty quickly.
Final show of the rotation: Criminal Minds. Season 1, episode 16. The Tribe.
This episode was about a group of 5 kids who were found dead in a vacant home while partying one night. The way they were killed made it look like old Native American ritual killings. The team determines that there is a 6th person out there who was taken by the murderers. There is a lot going on in this show, but eventually with the help of a local Native American law enforcement officer the team discovers that the missing girl was kidnapped to save her from a cult (which she was in). The cult was led by some Manson like fellow who misguided people into believing a bunch of Native American stuff. He was behind all the killings.
At the end, the cult is subdued while attempting to attack a school.
This was another good Criminal Minds episode. I do like this show. But for some reason it struggles to stay afloat in my rotation. Perhaps it is because this show deals with things on a case by case basis, instead of there being a long term story arc that makes you keep wanting to check in to see what is going to happen next.
That's it! 20 episodes watched in 3 days. I likely won't update this blog again until I have bumped at least 5 shows from the rotation. I like it to be a little different each time I do this, and it is no fun writing about the same shows over and over again. I could see the next few shows I finish with being Cosmos, Revolution, American Horror Story, Daredevil, and House of Cards. Maybe the Street Food show. I won't count Derek as finishing a show since there aren't anymore episodes up yet.
Chuck will get added back to the rotation, along with 4 other shows. What they are at this point, I can't say. I started watching Hemlock Grove and Continuum a while back, so it is possible I may put them back into the rotation. But I didn't particularly like either one.
There are a lot of strong possibilities for new shows for the rotation. I hear Arrow and The 100 are good. There are also a lot of other shows I am interested in like Bloodline, Heroes, and Mad Men out there that I haven't seen yet. And of course new seasons of past shows in the rotation like Orange is the New Black and Hell on Wheels will be added.
So expect this list to look quite different next time I update this. Thanks for reading and see ya next time.
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