Now that the television season has gone into its summer season, I’ll give a quick review of the first season shows I have watched this year.

Probably the best improved show from last season, which wasn’t very . . . oh, wait, this has only been on one season? Yeah, that four month space in the middle of the season worked very well in cleansing the pallet. Really, the show didn’t get much better in the latter half of the season because the first half was so bad and so meandering that anyone who disliked the show in the first half left, and those that stayed saw a show that kind of improved because it had fallen so low before the mid-season break. I will say the last episode was great for me because there were some lines said by characters that seemed to sum up the frustrations fans had about the series. However, even in praising the improvements of the show in the latter part of the season, characters still had a tendency to act like characters from a TV show. Easy kills are missed, places that supposedly have one entrance for the people who have known the layout for years suddenly have multiple entrances for first time visitors and surprises are nothing more than plot changes that should have been explained better considering the mythos set up. In the end I think REVOLUTION will have a struggling second season because the big premise of the show has been jettisoned. Yes, there is still a revolution going on but from what? If what was set up in the mythos at the end of the season is correct, the inevitable outcome should end by episode 2. (OK way to vague on the ending, I know but I don’t want to spoil what happened for people who haven’t seen it.)

 

It was a close call as to what show would get the TERRA NOVA award, but DEFIANCE edged out REVOLUTION for that distinction. Alien invasions are always a good premise for a science fiction show, but the new formula for producers of sci-fi shows seems to be keep them Earthbound and somehow make them very retro to save on cost. DEFIANCE takes place 35 years or so after a devastating terraforming war, electricity is still available, unlike REVOLUTION, yet the people of DEFIANCE seem to live worse than the folks on REVOLUTION. The whole Civil War/Old West model of post fill-in-the-blank science fiction is a turn off for me. You have tech but you can’t have paved roads or build decent buildings? DEFIANCE also fails for me because of the brothel. Nothing says Old West like having a brothel as a central meeting place. The point of the place, to me, only seems to serve a writer’s fantasy where someone can write awkward moral issues between characters. Add about 8 aliens to the mix, the unnecessary alien slang which only seems to be used when someone needs to swear and the show killing young romance and DEFIANCE is not a show I have learned to like. The saving grace for the show is that it is on the SyFy Channel so it will become something of a hit on the network but to me it represents the dumbing down of SciFi for American audiences.

 

This show started out with an interesting premise, one that I hoped wouldn’t be a one trick pony. In its 10 episode first season it put in more twists, turns and reveals than most 20+ episode shows. This is arguably the best show on television and definitely one of the best SciFi shows on television. Not giving too much away, the story is about an orphaned woman who sees someone looking remarkably like herself, kill themselves in front of a train. In a split second she decided to grab her purse and that takes her down a rabbit hole of a reveal that she is a clone. Who made her (them) is part of the drama of the show, which after the first season is kind of cleared up but maybe not. Yes, I did say I’m not a fan of earthbound science fiction but Orphan Black does it right because it is science fiction non science fiction fans can get into. The show is so good that when they introduced Aldous Leekie (you have to love the implications of that name!) and he turned out to be played by Matt Frewer, I groaned because he has been used as a ‘grab the geek crowd’ actor for some time now because of his Max Headroom fame, but he does a good job on the show. Of course, the gold star has to go to Tatiana Maslany, the main character who has played, to date, six or so main clones on the show, each with a distinct personality. The show was renewed for another season and I hope they can keep up the high value of the show.

 

ARROW is my guilty pleasure show I’m ashamed of. There is so much CW DNA in the show, and that is so counter to the Green Arrow I know from the comics that it is tough for me to get through an episode without feeling pain. Week after week, for whatever reason, I keep coming back to the show. I think on some level the show is like CASTLE in that the fan base, which isn’t me, watches it for escape and a less guilt pleasure. The core audience of ARROW doesn’t care how much it deviates from the Green Arrow I know from the comics. They can listen to the bad TV interpretation of comic book writing and motivation and by throwing in some humor and romantic conflict they have a show they like. He puts on a mask and fights crime by saying silly lines like, “You have failed this city” and that group will think it’s very cool. Yes, these are the same folks who liked SMALLVILLE, and presented by the same people and station that gave us SMALLVILLE so I may hate what I see, I have to understand it’s not made for me. I am concerned with the formula for ARROW because there are a few new shows coming to the CW that look like they are using the same ARROW formula for those shows. I shudder to think of possibly good material on the station being SMALLVILLE-ed.

 

This is a popcorn show for me. I watch it, I like it but I don’t take the show too seriously. ELEMENTARY is a show I feel is hurt because of the 20+ episode fetish American TV still has on programming. Like REVOLUTION, this show had a split midway through its season but unlike REVOLUTION its first go round didn’t suck so bad, but I will admit the show had a cheat because it had a mysterious big bad villain that the audience new was going to show up at some point. To me, the charm of the show isn’t Holmes. Watson is the better character because the writers (well I hoped they planned to do this) wrote a female character that was strong and female at the same time. I will be disappointed if this happens but it seems that the writers aren’t going to make Watson a love interest to Holmes, which is great. Throughout the season we learned just enough about Watson where we cared for her. This was smart because Holmes is a known quantity and even tweaking with the edges you can’t change too much with the character or you have a different person and show. The writers are actually setting up Watson to be a different equal to Holmes, which I like. I like the show enough to keep watching it as long as the writers don’t devolve this into CASTLE.

 

Hannibal is a dread drenched show and I love it. I have to take a mental shower after watching the show but I love that. I love that Hannibal is creepy and odd and very slow. Like ELEMENTARY it is a take on a character to can’t change too much because there is an expectation on how the character has to be. Dr. Lecter isn’t going to be chugging down a soda nor is he going to have a vegan Thanksgiving. So, with my icky praise of the show, I am concerned about this show being renewed. Now, I’m glad it will be for 13 episodes, but how long can you sustain the drippy trip into madness? When I look back at this season, and as I write this there are still two episodes to air, as good as the show is I’m not sure I want to see more of this. What I mean is there is a thin like between a great, taunt psychological thriller with touches of blood for emphasis and a killer of the week, will he won’t he get caught with every episode showing Hannibal cooking some meal and in the back of your head wondering what sick body organ is he going to feed someone this episode? The producers have come really close to the latter in terms of storytelling and it’s been forgivable because of the quality of the show so far, but if we get this as a constant diet, the show will lose interest of fans real quick.