Usually, I’m often times behind the times when it comes to television. I’ll let things hoard on my DVR, binge-watch and then have nobody to gush about, because everyone else watches things live or within a day or two of airing. I’ll enjoy lots of shows much the same, but often times have to play the virtual tightrope game of avoiding spoilers on popular websites and social media.
This season however is a different kind of game; finding the time in order to keep up with the onslaught of excellent television shows, and trying to process the plots, mysteries and storylines of multiple. Needless to say, there are more than one show that I’m currently engrossed in, and surprisingly none of them are on TLC since Dish Network kind of sucks and my hardware is on the fritz.
But right now, I am enjoying several shows, which is a little out of the ordinary because I don’t really watch that much television in the first place save for occasional sports, wrestling and shows I’ve remained loyal to, but there’s simply put a lot of good shit out there right now.
It’s difficult to talk about good television without bringing up The Walking Dead, but if there’s been one show I’ve never been more staunch about my watching habits, it’s been this. I stay off social media on Sunday nights, I make a fervent effort to immediately hide anything on Facebook in regards to TWD. I rarely like to go more than two days from air date to watch the show, and I avoid frequently visited sites like HuffPost and Atlanta Magazine, because they’re both notorious for giving up too much knowledge.
Needless to say, Season 7 has started off with a quiet explosion, with the long-awaited reveal of the cliffhanger ending from the S6 finale. Three episodes in, and the season has been a slow and methodical cooking, low in action, high in plot, with seeds being sown all over the place, which will rapidly grow and culminate, since the one thing that is definite is the number of episodes, and certain plot milestones will have to be reached by then.
But Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been lights out as Negan, and I’m happy to have caught up to where I stopped reading the comic, and are going in a little bit blind from here on.
If there was one way for me to describe American Horror Story, I would have to say “hit or miss.” I respect and admire the fact that with each successive season, it’s ultimately back to the drawing board, and reinvention of the show for the following season, but in doing so, they’re really taking a risk that they just might put up a clunker. It’s ballsy and creatively liberating, but it is most definitely risky.
Murder House laid down the groundwork, Asylum pushed the boundaries of multiple genres, and Coven was a little fem-angsty. I liked all three of them to varying degrees regardless. Freak Show was a little on the weaker side in my opinion, held together solely based on the talent and will of Jessica Lange, and to this date, I still haven’t finished watching Hotel, because it just hasn’t been as good as any of its predecessors.
But AHS: Roanoke, this season has sucked me right back in. It’s tremendously on the gruesome-gory side, almost bordering on the popular accusation of being like torture porn, but the execution of the format and storyline has been a little mind-blowing and definitely meta. I still have a theory of one massive twist at the very end, but regardless of if such comes to fruition or not, this season has been a joy to watch, and I have most certainly been enjoying the ride.
Speaking of meta, one show that’s got me completely engrossed is Westworld. I did not know this was based on an older movie by Michael Crichton, because it did not involve viruses, monkeys or dinosaurs. But such brindness isn’t a bad thing, because I have no preconceived notions or hypotheses when watching this television series.
But from the title sequence, the way the show is shot, the music, acting and to the perplexing storyline that still hasn’t shown many hints six episodes in, I’m completely engrossed. I think about this show more than any other currently, and mythical gf and I are often bouncing theories and ideas about where the plot is headed. It challenges the minds of viewers in trying to piece together what’s going on, when it’s going on, and what might possibly happen.
Much like Roanoke, I think there are some game-changing twists in store, but there are still four more episodes for the plot to unravel a little bit more to hopefully start to get to a point. But since HBO still operates in weekly episodes, it’s a little bit agonizing having to wait a week at a time for more Westworld.
One show that I could binge-watch and clear the season’s queue, but haven’t because everything else is so good and being a grown up means I have such little time which sucks, is Luke Cage. Continuing on with the Hell’s Kitchen Universe that birthed Daredevil and Jessica Jones by way of Harlem, I figured I would enjoy Luke Cage, and I haven’t been disappointed.
I’ve always liked the Luke Cage character in the comics, but I’m surprised that he’s way more of a paragon in the show, as opposed to the slightly incentive-motivated persona from the comics, but I think it works.
Also, I have a hard time believing that Shades is a credible bad guy, considering Luke Cage is double his size and five times his strength, but there are still like seven episodes for me to watch, so who knows what’s going to happen? Considering they’re all a button press away from starting, I really should just buckle down and finish the series, and maybe I will, with time in between new episodes of all the aforementioned titles.
Regardless, this has been a fruitful season for television, and further credence to my opinion that television is the way to go these days. Movies are risky, and are a shitty script or poor box office away from being deemed a failure. Television is little more forgiving, and often a superior platform for good writing and acting to have some time to mature and develop into great stories.
And if for all else, good television is the superior alternative to watching an endless array of political news, and sad, violence-driven news coverage of all the shitty things that people around the world do.
