Arrow binge-watch

I've finally taken the plunge and started watching the CW's Arrow. The show is currently in it's second season on broadcast TV and has been renewed for a 3rd. It's based on the DC Comics "Green Arrow" property.

I'm only about half-way through the first season, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'd followed the news about the show as it came out, so I knew a lot about the show already going in. I knew, it being a CW show, that it would be full of interpersonal drama with some subtle and not-so-subtle comic-book elements thrown in. I was watching one episode and realized how soap-opera-like the show is, the dialogue and even the camera work. It's like two different shows: the soap opera, and the superhero show. Which I guess is exactly what it's supposed to be. My wife came in during the episode after my realization of that, and said "This is a soap opera. You're a woman now!"

The fun comic-book-based elements make up for the teen drama parts that are sometimes oh-so-sappy. The action scenes are well-choreographed and filmed well for a CW show. As there are no super-powers involved (other than trick arrows), there's no need for bad TV special effects like on Smallville.

I particularly enjoy the flashbacks to Oliver Queen's 5 years stranded on an island. The use of those adds a depth to the story telling... if only the actor playing him didn't stare off in the instant just before a flashback occurred. That's when you can see the directing in the acting.

I plan on finishing up the first season soon, and if the second season is on Netflix or Hulu, watching that as well, if it hooks me enough.

Binge-Watching TV Catch-up

I finally finished watching Leverage a few weeks ago. Fun show, and I kinda miss watching it. I needed a replacement for it... and remembered I had enjoyed watching Haven on SyFy, but was a season or two behind.

Turns out, I had watched the first two seasons of Haven, and stopped. Netflix and Amazon have the third season of Haven streaming, so I watched that over the past few days. Good show! But now I have to wait for season 4 to hit the streaming services...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars finally hit Netflix streaming too. All of their five seasons that aired on Cartoon Network, as well as thirteen new episodes that they had been working on when the show was cancelled. So yeah, I binged on those thirteen new episodes the day they came out! More good stuff. That show was cancelled in it's prime and could have gone on to tell more amazing stories in the Star Wars universe for quite awhile.

I'm thinking about watching Orphan Black next... The first season is streaming on Amazon Prime. Any other suggestions?

Reasons to Hate The Big Bang Theory

UGO recently posted 11 reasons to hate the Big Bang Theory, CBS' sitcom about nerdy scientists and their weekly trips to the comic book store.

I enjoy the show, but I do agree with some of the points UGO makes. I'll summarize their list and offer my rebuttals.

11: The laugh track - yeah. I totally agree. These are a has-been of TV days long gone. All shows should get rid of the laugh track. The article says the show is filmed in front of a studio audience to generate the laughter. While I'm sure that's great for the studio audience, the viewers at home don't need to hear it.

10: Absence of the character of Leslie - again: agree.

9: Endless references - kinda disagree. References are how we geeks roll. But yeah, sometimes theirs are over-the-top or

8: Messed up references - these are unforgivable. Completely agree.

7: Other Geek shows are better - I can't speak to this. The other shows the article mentions I haven't seen, or haven't seen in years. But the reason Big Bang works for the most part is because it's about "real" people, and not cartoons.

6: Wil Wheaton: agree. Once was sorta vaguely humorous. You can stop now.

5: Sheldonmanie: I agree - he's funny. Don't overdo it.

4: Bazinga: Hmmm, I'm torn. It's rather silly. But I think it fits the character.

3: Girls are weird: again - I'm torn. The author of the article makes some valid points, but I like the characterizations of the three main characters.

2: The theme: GASP! That's a great theme, and BNL is a fun band.

1: They're not us: I completely agree with this point. While these characters do display some aspects of geekdom, their lives do not adequately reflect the geek culture.

UGO explains their own points in their list at their website.

Top Ten TV Themes

On a recent episode of the Scaper Chronicles, I mentioned that I didn't like the theme music to the Farscape TV show and that the Doctor Who theme music took awhile to grow on me. That got me to thinking: what TV show themes do I like?

Here's a list of what I'll call my Top Ten (kind of in order):

10: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
 9: Airwolf
 8: Justice League (DCAU)
 7: Battlestar Galactica (the original)
 6: Stargate Atlantis
 5: Angel
 4: Transformers Prime
 3: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 4 and beyond)
 2: Firefly
 1: Stargate SG-1

These are genre TV shows: science fiction, cartoons, etc; normal TV shows is another post. A note to my Browncoat friends, please don't hate me because I didn't put Firefly as Number One.