So Much More TV

Posts have been rather light on the ground the past couple of weekends, as I'm sure you've noticed.  That's because I've been watching a lot of TV shows, mostly old ones, and a few anime.  I've been trying to weed through stuff on the server Rob left me to see what I can get rid of so I can add more of my movie collection.  I ran out of space and I'm only up to the letter "F".

  I watched both seasons of the tragically short Invader Zim, a cartoon from 90's Nickelodeon.  This was the era I think the network realized that not just children watched their shows because they produced some of the weirdest shit. 

An alien invader is banished to Earth by his superiors after he single-handedly ruined their last major operation.  Zim thinks his new job is to conquer Earth but he's too inept to really accomplish anything.  The matter is further complicated by a local boy obsessed with conspiracy theories who constantly tries to expose Zim as an alien to a mostly apathetic populace.

I think this cartoon is really ripe for a resurgence.  It's weird and cynical enough for today's kids to get behind.

I tired to watch an anime called Ragnarok:  The Animation but deleted it after two episodes.  It just wasn't interesting to me.


I had better luck with the next one I tried, Ranma 1/2.    This is a very old anime from the late 80's/early 90's.  You can tell because every character has the exact same face, just different hair and clothes.

A boy training to be a martial artist with his father accidentally falls into a cursed spring and now, whenever he is exposed to cold water, he turns into a girl.  Hot water turns him back into a boy.

This one is mostly just silly but at least I wasn't horribly bored.

  Ok, so I really enjoyed this show.  Here's my problem with it:  the season finale is missing.  There are supposed to be 12 episodes and there are only 11 in the folder.  I was so angry because a lot of shit has gone down over the course of the season and I have no idea what they are going to do in the finale.  And I have to wait to find out until I can get disc 4 from Netflix because it's not available on streaming!

Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) is a fixer in Los Angeles.  Wake up with a dead hooker?  Call Ray.  Tabloids caught you with a transvestite on Sunset again?  Call Ray.  But when his father (Jon Voight) gets an early release from prison and comes calling, Ray's carefully ordered life starts to fall apart.

This brings me to my current show, Read or Die.    I had seen the OVA several years ago and enjoyed it.  I'm four episodes in to the TV series and it's a little slower but I'm going to stick with it.

An author receiving death threats hires a trio of bodyguards and soon realizes that all three young women have the same ability to manipulate paper into weapons, familiars, and other objects as her friend who mysteriously went missing (after the events in the OVA).