Justified, Season 3 & 4

Justified is the kind of show I like to watch entire seasons in one, rather than follow weekly. I did the same with seasons 1 and 2 back in the day, and somehow I never got around to season 3 before even the fourth season had passed by. It's a strange beast. The simple 19th century lawman procedural in the modern world is a bizarre mash-up that makes me think of The Wire done light in a Winter's Bone world, with characters that rarely make the same kind of impact those important ones did in the before mentioned show and movie. All in all it makes it better than most procedurals, but nowhere near the greatness of The Wire.

Season three spends a lot of time with a mafia local wannabe going at it with the Crowders, and with the Limehouse-crowd at arms length taking up a lot of time as a stripped Bennett-family kind of influence (see season 2). It makes for a less interesting season all together, with lesser obstacles, lesser intriguing characters and less charm than both this show have done before and others have done in the same vein.

Season four takes the old-secret angle, chasing down an old fugitive with unknown new identity as its main gear. Good old Boyd Crowder becomes a poor-man's Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or a poor-man's 'Stringer' Bell (The Wire). However you choose to see it, it's less appealing than it once used to be. Heck, by the time season four has ended I'm confused whether or not this actually is just another guilty pleasure of mine.

Thankfully there's a few things that works really well as we take our steps around in Raylan's world, and much of it is thanks to a certain kind of humor that works built on the world itself. Not quite enough to make the entertainment value outshine the lesser interest I feel for these seasons compared to earlier ones (or greater show's...), but enough I'll still probably tune in for season five once its done. At least by now I know it's with lesser expectations and a more guilty pleasure mind.

It also makes me ponder whether or not I shouldn't take a look at revisiting The Wire sooner rather than later...

Season 3 ★★★☆☆
Season 4 ★★★☆☆

Falling Skies, Season 1 & 2

I always knew I would tune in for Falling Skies sooner or later, mostly because of Jessy Schram. I've been a fan of the girl ever since her stint at Veronica Mars, but also because of her minor roles elsewhere, and as such always felt like I had to check out series where she got bigger parts.

And I've never made any secret of my lack of love for everything Spielberg, so it's most definitely despite his executive producing the show I finally gave it a go.

There's a distinct difference in the two seasons thus far aired, but I'm not gonna spend time looking into those. As far as the quality goes, they are both pretty much in the same ballpark, even if they did pick up from the opening few episodes.

It's easy to think of The Walking Dead while watching Falling Skies. Zombies are swapped for aliens, but they do in both cases take backseat for the human connections and interactions within their groups. While the potential of both shows are great, Falling Skies falls shorter than TWD--much because of the typical Spielbergian bright side attitude. The potential is equally great--or even better--but the execution is on both FS-seasons just a notch below the disappointing second season of TWD. With only ten episodes a season they have the proper framing to make it tight and quality, but still spend too much time wallowing in scenes and situations that are too light and family-friendly. Pick up the dark side, and there might actually be something there.

As long as Jessy Schram keeps getting credited, I'll still probably tune in for another season.... My expectations aren't very high thou, so more of a guilty pleasure kind of thing. That's also why I rate it according to my Guilty Pleasure's three star system.

Season 1 ★★☆
Season 2 ★★☆

"The Walking Dead" (2010 ->)

There's been a lot of hype and discussion regarding The Walking Dead, so I figured it was about time I checked out what all the fuzz was about. I actually did most of the catch-up last week, but with only one episode left of season two I awaited watching the season finale to write this post.

Season one was good, despite my personal reluctance to take the character of Rick too seriously. He had more than a few strange moments early on when he should be more than aware of dangers and such, but failed miserably to act or react accordingly. Anyway. Overall the story moved on quite well, introduced us to the characters involved and their current situation. With only 6 episodes they didn't have time to take too many unnecessary twists in wrong directions, and it all held a lot of promise.

Season two does the opposite. It has all the promise and possibilities of greatness, and sadly it's little else than a soapy drama. And to add insult to injury; without letting the interesting characters getting any serious airtime. Without dropping into details or spoilers, there's at least some things happening in the late stages of the season which promises renewed greatness in seasons to come. Hopefully they'll get back more focused with the new show-runner taking solid control of a franchise with so much potential already wasted. There's also a couple of great touches in the finale making us curious about things to come.

I for one am also getting increasingly interested in the comics this is based on, as I find it hard to believe they ruined as much on bad storyline-decisions. I doubt they could be as successful if they did. In other words there's already about 100 comic books out there with The Walking Dead tag on it, and I'll have to consider snatching up a few to really get my moneys worth of the franchise's potential.


★★★☆☆ Season 1
★★☆☆☆ Season 2


★★★☆☆ Overall Quality (thus far)


Season two have been agonizingly slow, and a weak two stars season from me, but I'm still hanging on... mostly thanks to the huge potential and the teasers of things to come. Along with the strong three stars from season one that just about makes up for a very weak third star on the overalls thus far. But have no doubt about it; there's a lot of untapped potential within this show. Hopefully they'll deliver in the seasons to come.

"Community" (2009 ->)

Dan Harmon's Community is uneven. It tries so many different approaches, and it fails quite often. It makes it bold. It also makes quite a few episodes fillers, waiting for those touches of genius. Thankfully there's quite the payday when they hit. Because when they do hit, they are probably one of the very best comedies out there these days.

I watched three quarter of the first season back when this show arrived, but from the very funny beginning that season went downhill; and I walked away indefinitely. The past week I've played catch-up, watching it from the beginning to the mid-season break it's on now. I very much agree with my first impression of season 1; it started brilliantly, but became little else than passing time as it passed midway. At least this time I didn't throw in the towel.

Season 2 began pretty much as the first ended. It wasn't very funny, mostly just okay pastime. Somewhere along the way they began hitting home runs again on more regular basis, and it was once again great. The final double episode of the season is some of the best comedy I've seen in a while. For instance; I can't remember the last time The Big Bang Theory was that funny, and that's the show I've been following in the half hour comedy bracket.

Season 3 have been a huge disappointment thus far, and they better step it up as they come out of winter break this week. The final Christmas episode was however a glimpse of brilliance, but up until that one I was mostly bored with what they've delivered.

I'm fairly harsh on my stars for this show, but I got to punish their many missed steps along the way. Still. Keep in mind those episodes working well, is of the five star kind... And Community are in all three season close to grab that next star. That speaks volumes of the kind of comedy it is when they hit.

★★★☆☆ Season 1
★★★☆☆ Season 2
★☆☆☆☆ Season 3 (midway)



★★★☆☆ Overall Quality (thus far)