Year: 2009

I’ve mostly been in Israel this week, and since my charger got lost with the luggage, didn’t dare watch anything on my iPhone. So I’ve not been watching much. However…

• Dexter – Great ending, but quite an obvious episode.
• Stargate Universe – Great ending that you could see coming, but weren’t sure they’d have the guts to carry through on. Although it doesn’t have the charisma, the acting or the characters of BSG, I’m actually starting to like SGU more. I think it’s because of the lack of mythology weighing it down and the fact it really carries through on things that BSG usually only promised.
• Community – A week behind here. But three eps that are only ‘okay’ in a row? How disappointing. I’m still liking it, but I’m hoping Dan Harmon will write some more episodes soon.
• Misfits – Really enjoying this now. A good temporal mechanics ep last week and quite a gutsy episode last night with some real emotion as well as comedy. The dumping scenes were especially enjoyable, but all the Simon stuff was poignant.
• Gavin & Stacey – Cracking fight scene with Stacey and lots of in-jokes: for example, the red-haired Welsh girl who Dino tries to chat up in Welsh is in Caerdydd where she’s the one whose Welsh is rubbish. Possibly my favourite ever G&S episode.
• Cast Offs – I’ve been reviewing this for a magazine so I don’t want to repeat myself. But it was brave, with some great individual episodes (Gabriella’s last week for example). But overall, I didn’t find it hung together well enough and there was a certain schizophrenia (sorry) about the direction.
• The Thick Of It – Some really good one-liners, but again this series has been mostly dramatic and tragic rather than funny.
• Paradox – My God, this is a stupid show. But it’s really compelling. The thing I love most about this is that it’s almost like an old-style 80s adventure game: as soon as everyone looks really stuck on the problem they’re trying to solve, mysterious scientist guy with the ridiculous dialogue will literally come in through a door, unbidden, say “This image clearly represents x”, where x is the answer, then walk out again. It’s a brave show that dares to be that obvious.
• Men of a Certain Age – TNT’s new show with Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher. I’m still watching it and hopefully full review later, but despite the fact it’s getting good press in the States, I’m not impressed so far.
• Modern Family – A pretty funny Christmas episode, with some great moments, but not epic. Loved the ‘cool dad’s’ punishments/apologies though.
• 30 Rock – still a week behind, and last week’s was something of a return to form, with some very funny moments involving a high-def camera and The Hunt for Red October.

What have you been watching though?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).