Enough TV to Rot My Brain

I have been watching so much TV lately.  Old, new, one-season wonders, established shows, hits and misses.

From my personal collection, I have been working my way through season one of Jericho, which was given to me by the Bowen's.  It concerns the residents of a small Kansas town that survives multiple nuclear weapons being detonated in U.S. cities.  With no infrastructure or outside help, the townspeople must examine their resources and do what they can to survive.  I don't remember when this aired (IMDb says 2006) but I do know that it was one of those shows that got cancelled, then brought back by a rabid fanbase.  It's an okay show but I'm not over the moon about it.

Summer is a slow time for my DVR.  I only have a couple of shows being recorded right now.  The one I'm most excited about is Preacher on AMC.  Based on the graphic novel, a small town preacher (Dominic Cooper) is accidentally gifted with a godlike power.  He wants to use it for good but the original owners are determined to take it back.  I cannot stress enough how awesome this show is.  There's vampires and explosions and bar fights and some weird side story about a cowboy.  So awesome.

I'm also watching BrainDead, which is about brain-eating alien bugs infiltrating Congress.  I've only seen a few episodes but it's pretty funny.

I was originally excited to watch the new American Gothic but it's been pretty disappointing.  I thought it would have more of a horror vibe but it's a pretty standard murder mystery.

Since I keep running out of shows to watch, I've been hitting up the On Demand section to fill in some of the gaps.  I watched the first season of Outlander and thoroughly enjoyed it.  A nurse from 1944 on holiday in Scotland gets accidentally transported back to the 18th century in the middle of the Jacobite Rebellion.  I had read the first few books in the series and was amazed at how faithful the show was to the source material.  Starz has an absolute winner on its hands.

I also watched the first season of Orphan Black.  That show was so intense I found it hard to binge-watch.  I kept needing time to process everything that I was seeing.  Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) is looking for a way out of her problems when she sees a woman who looks exactly like her step out in front of a train.  She swipes the woman's identity but soon discovers that she's actually one of a series of clones scattered around the globe for unknown purposes.  Such a good show.  I highly recommend this one.

Moving to my Netflix queue, I've been watching season three of Moonlighting.  This is by all accounts the best season of the show and it has been utterly charming.  There's been a lot more fourth-wall breaking by the two leads, Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, as well as their signature banter.

On the server, I saw the first season of HBO's Rome, which was very good.  I'd never seen Ray Stevenson in anything I really liked before this but the bromance between him and Kevin McKidd was excellent.

I had never even heard of Rubicon, a one-season gem from AMC's 2010 lineup.  Will (James Badge Dale) is an analyst who discovers a secret code in crossword puzzles that leads him to uncover a global conspiracy.  The ramping of paranoia and suspense-building is really great.  I was sad to think that there wouldn't be any more episodes when it finished.

I also watched season two of Red vs Blue, a show based on characters from the video game Halo.  I didn't think it was as funny as the first season but it was still pretty good.  Glad to see Tex again.

I tried to watch Rurouni Kenshin but I just couldn't get into it.  It's supposed to be about a samurai who gives up his life of bloodshed to wander Japan and right wrongs to atone for the harm he's caused.  I might have been able to appreciate the philosophy or action sequences but it kept trying to be funny by showing the main character being flustered by the main female.  I found it so irritating I turned it off after three episodes.

Currently, I'm watching Saiyuki Reload, which is much more serious in tone.  Four badasses are traveling across the continent to India to stop the revival of a huge demon.  The dialogue is a little stilted but at least it's not aiming for slapstick.

Whew.  You see what I mean?  That's enough TV for a while and I'm barely scratching the surface.