So first off, you should know this post is long! But it is also thorough! TV what am I watching, and why it appeals…

The Lighter Stuff:

(Also for next time I wonder where am I up to…

This first lot are things that I can watch before bed, during semester, pretty much any time. They’re not too heavy and serious, not upsetting and they are individually in different ways satisfying. That might be because they are fluffy and non-serious, or there may be something that presses an id button, but whatever it is I’m glad of it.

So You Think You Can Dance – Season 9

I love this because it uplifts me. I love seeing people be amazing and be appreciated and encouraged. I love seeing what is possible and the sheer breadth of talent in so many different ways that people exhibit! I love that unlike many other instances of reality television, ratings are not driven by meanness or tearing people down from judges. Instead, critiques are considered and thoughtful and about building people up and helping them to improve their dancing. The sheer volume of work they do is massive and a big ask, but I think they do very well with it, though I can definitely appreciate that the routines with more time could be all truly outstanding. I love this when I’m feeling low and feeling unmotivated – it just makes me feel better about the world and makes me feel like things are possible.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

I’ve always had a thing for My Little Pony, apparently it’s still very much in evidence. I love this show because it’s fluffy and lovely and the lessons about friendship and caring, about boundary setting and so on I think are important for people of all ages, but I am glad that this is for kids and that they’re getting these lessons and these ideas and concepts to consider. It’s not perfect, there are Issues, but I enjoy it enough to overlook them.

How I Met Your Mother

Neil Patrick Harris. That kind of explains most of it really – because he’s him, that he plays Barney makes that character somehow hilarious instead of just plain reprehensible – still reprehensible but somehow funnier because NPH. I also love the ensemble cast and the way they interact. I love the premise and the way it’s set up and that it’s continuous and unfolds slowly – I don’t know why this appeals to me so much but it really does. I enjoy the slow growing and changing of the characters as Ted regales his children as to the *entire* story of how he met their mother.  About to go through S9, I think I’ve watched the first couple of episodes but it’s been ages so will likely rewatch.

Big Bang Theory

I have a love and hate thing with this show, but mostly I love it. I mostly don’t find the geek stuff painful or shaming though I understand why others would. I love the character interactions for the most part, I like the way the characters have grown and changed, I love Penny, Amy and Bernadette’s friendship so very much!  I’m up to the later seasons of this but I’m not 100% sure which one.

Golden Girls

Old but satisfying. The laugh track is a bit much, but it’s the price for sitcoms. Four women and friendship. Four *older* women and friendship. Just awesome. Dated in some ways – especially some of the humour, but actually still really satisfying. Warm and fuzzy, great for mid-semester watching when I need a break but don’t want anything heavy or hard going. Watching S1.

Franklin and Bash

Mainly because I love Boston Legal and I ran out. I love humourous lawyer antics. I love that this is a bit off the wall and a bit ridiculous. It’s entertaining.  Watching S2.

Boston Legal

I don’t even know why I love this so much but I do. I think it’s brilliantly written which is no small part of it. But also, despite all the characters being reprehensible, they are also sympathetic – they have depth and complexity. Unsurprisingly it’s Alan and Denny’s relationship that really gets me about this series. I’m rewatching at the moment and it’s equal parts adorable and bewildering (they’re so reprehensible, why do I like them so much?!). We’re compiling a drinking game as we watch and so far we think that the best rules are any time the fourth wall is broken, and any time a lawyer talks about being disbarred. The boys and I have just finished watching this and I’m so pleased that they enjoyed the ending and it was so heart-warming to see it again. Also, interesting to watch all the political discussion leading up to the presidential election back before I knew who Obama was.

RuPaul’s Drag Race

I love RuPaul, unashamedly. I love the show and I love that it gives some kind of window into the world of drag and all the things that go with that. I don’t even mind the competitiveness and sniping behaviour, though this is surprising. I love the glamour and the over-the-top-ness of it all, I love seeing all the different ridiculous challenges and the looks that come out of it. I love that it’s normalising and mainstreaming playing with gender and interpretation and also bringing into the open in some ways how people who are gay, who are queer still struggle to navigate a heteronormative world.

Iron Chef

It’s just entertaining and adorable. Plus, I love all kinds of different cooking shows.

Say Yes to the Dress

Random episodes, no interest in following things in chronological order – this is pure fluff. People getting a heart’s desire. I may not actually be a fan of weddings and all the to-do about it overall, but I do love it when people get to experience or find or have a heart’s desire. Seeing the consultants put a lot of work into finding the right dress or outfit, in being supportive and helping navigate family stuff or friend stuff, making the person seeking happy with the choice they’re making. It’s just kind of delightful somehow. I like seeing people happy. It’s ridiculous and reinforces a mainstream thing that I have no small issue with, but I can get past that to appreciate the other things about it.

Fairly Legal

I love the focus on mediation and everyone getting something out of the process and where the focus is on compromise. The characters are adorable and I think I’m up to S3? This is on my list of things where I need to re-figure out where I am up to because I really enjoy the show – but I also haven’t watched any since the beginning of the year.

Elementary

I’m actually still on season one with this because I lost track of where I was up to and it was too hard to figure it out during the semester. I mainlined the  end of S1 and I have just started S2 and I’m just loving it!

Castle

Crack. Amusement. A great ensemble cast. Nathan Fillion. This is case-of-the-week, but it’s familiar and fluffy and rewarding because of it. The wit and the humour is also great. I am just about to finish S5 and am ready for S6

Once Upon a Time

Fairytales and the modern world, magic and intrigue – plus lots of female characters being awesome. I love this – I’m part way through S2 and must work out where I’m up to catch up.

Scrubs

Ral and I have been watching this for the past year it’s partly been a rewatch for me, but I haven’t seen the later seasons and we’re up to S8. It’s been interesting – equal parts hilarious and poignant with the occasional moment that I wish had been dealt with differently. Still one of those things that works really well for the need to watch something that is digestible and doesn’t often need a great deal of deeper thought (although sometimes that’s untrue and it really gets me!).

Ugly Betty

I have had a hankering to revisit this for a while and I’m hoping to get Ral into it because I think he’ll appreciate all the character dynamics. It’s ridiculous on the surface – and seems so superficial but the addition of an exceptional character like Betty – played to perfection by America Ferrara really changes things. I loved this show and am enjoying the rewatch – currently up to S1.

Lost Girl

I need to pick Lost Girl up again – I think I’m midway through S3? The writing was shocking in that season any way, but I understand it gets better. Plus! I love the show and the characters so I do want to watch it regardless.

House MD

As if I needed another thing! This wasn’t my idea but Ral’s because he hasn’t watched any since becoming a med student. He says it’s kind of ridiculous watching it now with that in mind. But, it’s generally light entertainment that is impossible to take too seriously. Also, I really do adore Hugh Laurie. We’ve already watched S1 (with Newsroom and Ugly Betty languishing) and are halfway through S2.

One Born Every Minute and The Midwives (UK)

Reality/documentary style shows focused on midwifery in the UK – this is awesome to watch because I’m learning this stuff and it’s quite strongly related to the things I’m actually doing and will be doing. Real people and lives even if it’s through a television process and has thus been edited and cut to tell a particular narrative. It comes across very genuine.

 

The Deeper Stuff:

This next part is stuff that I really enjoy but don’t watch as the last thing before sleeping, or if I’m in the middle of semester and studying heavily. Or sometimes I make exceptions, it’s a mixed bag. There are definite shows on the list that I watch using certain comfort measures only.

Silk

Follows the story of a female barrister, I’m up to S3 now I think and it’s just brilliantly written and acted – everything about this series is understated because the acting and writing are just that good. Up to S3 I think.

Scott & Bailey

Female detectives in London, with a female boss. And they’re so different! And they’re friends! But also professionals – and different kinds of professionals. Love this so hard. Written and acted brilliantly. Up to S3 or S4 I think…

Rizzoli and Isles

I love this, a female detective and medical examiner, best friends, chalk and cheese, in Boston, a mother who has grown and changed throughout the series, and an extended cast of characters that are great with each other. Love this, once it grew beyond an episode of the week series it really came into its own and it really shows now that it’s a few seasons in.  I’m up to S5 I think.

Covert Affairs

A female spy, a female boss, competence all over the place! A prominent character with a disability that gets to be both competent and attractive in ways usually reserved for able bodied characters. This is utterly bubblegum and a bit trashy, but I do like it. Watching S4 at the moment, enjoying it.

Blacklist

This is on my list of ‘watch with comfort measures’ (no exceptions). It’s amoral and twisted and James Spader is great in it (when is he not?) It starts in such a way that for 1.75 episodes you think that the plot twists are going to be exactly the kind you’ve come across from American television before. At the culmination of episode 2, that assumption is blown out of the water. Also, you’re clear that Reddington is very much acting on his own agenda but you know very very little about it. Plus the cases that he helps the government to solve *are* interesting and well plotted – and they’re the kind of scary that one can imagine are really out there. Or not. I hope not. I’ve finished S1 and I’ve got the first chunk of S2 ready to watch.

Downton Abbey

I loved season 1, the character interaction, story and all the setting and costumes were just glorious. S2 is much more slow moving and I haven’t managed to go back to it yet – but I’m planning to.

Newsroom

Ral and I finally finished S1 earlier this year and we’ve just now started on S2, it’s especially heartbreaking to watch at this point in time with all the Australian media being so decidedly awful. It’s just so disheartening every time we watch and see what’s possible…

White Collar

Matt Bomer. Wow. Love this. It’s like crack to me. I’m going to inhale S5 like there’s no tomorrow this week or next. Thief honour and friendship with a government agent, and Elizabeth is awesome! And Mozzie! Love this show so hard x eleventy! I’ve started S5 but I’m waiting to be in the right headspace to just mainline it.

Offspring

There are many reasons why this is an unlikely show for me to like, there are plenty of others whom have related TV taste to me who dislike it intensely. But, I really like the hodgepodge of the family. I love that it somehow manages to ping as alternative as it does mainstream. I like that they’re there for each other no matter what. I actually notice the characters growing and changing – even if I wish that Nina would hold onto some of her growth. That said, I love her uncertainty and her angsting and wrestling with stuff, all the stuff we all kind of wrestle with or wonder – or bits of it.  I’m up to S3.

Flashpoint

Canada’s answer to SWAT – special forces, trained to do all kinds of reacting to extreme situations, but they actually spend most of the time talking. Negotiating. Trying to ‘keep the peace (their motto) and preserve life, lives. I really like that they have an awareness that as a team they’re meeting people in the worst 15 minutes of their life. I’m eking out S5 because I know it’s all about to end.

Sons of Anarchy

Honour Crack. I shouldn’t like this as much as I do. But it’s brilliantly written, and for a premise that is so misogynistic the array of female characters are deep, complex and three dimensional. The non-white characters also have presence – though they’re not part of the main cast enough to really fully be realised like the female character. Brotherhood and intimacy between men, deep friendship and overwhelming emotion. Also a whole lot of self-created badness of epic Shakespearean proportions 😛 This is another one of the shows I watch with specific comfort measures (Prky), and not late at night.  Currently Prky and I have plan to get together and mainline as much of S6 onwards as we can to catch up.

Fringe

I’ve just started watching this with Ajax because I promised and so far I’m enjoying it (4 eps in). It’s interesting enough to get me past the 3 episode trial I give but the downside is that it’s a bit too horror-y for me to have picked up myself, though no more so (I guess) than Blacklist. I’m told that Olivia’s character improves and so far I’m most enjoying watching her face off with the exec from Massive Dynamic. Walter is creepy as fuck but an interesting character. I don’t know that I’d keep watching it without Ajax, but I am enjoying watching it with him, we’re partway through S1.

The Honourable Woman

Wow – this show packs an incredible punch. Maggie Gyllenhal is incredible in it – truly exceptional. There’s a lot of women characters, Jewish and Palastinian characters. The white British people are very much supporting characters and that’s awesome. I love the family interactions and the importance placed on them, I love the unfolding of the story – it’s just so brilliantly written. It’s also heavy, and some horrible stuff happens but I also think it’s well handled and not gratuitous (for example a rape). I’m really enjoying this, but it’s another one I don’t tend to watch last thing before bed. I’m currently watching S1.

Scandal

This is something that started off really interesting and my interest has kind of waned a bit. It does have multiple female characters and the central protagonist is a woman of colour, Olivia Pope (and the actress does an awesome job of the role I have to say!). The scandals being dealt with are less political and more sex related which kind of impacts it in my head making it seem a little soap-opera-ish. I’ll probably still finish S2 though.

Doctor Who

I’m midway through S7 and need to sit and watch – I haven’t enjoyed Moffat’s oversight of the Doctor’s story as much as I wanted to, but I do love a lot of the things about it, I feel like it overall falls short. I will get there though, I’ll mainline it when the fancy takes me.

 

Things I’ve yet to try:

• Some of these I may or may not get to, but the first three are a definite.
• Orphan Black
• Orange is the new Black
• The Mindy Project
• Perception
• Cold Justice
• Magic City
• Sleepy Hollow
• Gotham
• Constantine
• Agents of Shield