Thoughts on the Walking Dead mid-season finale...

Spoilers abound! Hit the jump for some short thoughts that I pretty much just copy and pasted from an email.

Too Many Shows!

Ironically, I saw this tonight while I was trying to clear space on my DVR.

I'm Back

Dang. I certainly dropped the ball, huh? Truth is, towards the end of September work got real busy, which makes me not want to do as much at home. Then along came October, which means most of my media consumption focused on horror movies, and the TV I did watch didn’t get written about. During that time I set up a Letterboxd account to keep track of what I movies I watched. It’s pretty helpful because my memory is going south, and while I can usually remember what I’ve seen and if I liked it, I can rarely remember what I liked (or hated) about it. Anyways, because of all the movies I’ve watched, I fell behind on the TV I planned on watching.

You’ve seen my post on the first episode of Walking Dead. You could probably tell I wasn’t too impressed, and that first episode just didn’t keep me interested to stay on top of the series. I will catch up eventually. From what I’ve heard it’s getting better, so I guess I’ll catch up soon.

I’ve watched the first five episodes of Boardwalk Empire. Now that it’s out from Breaking Bad’s Sunday night shadow, it’s back on the top of my list. The fifth hour, titled “Erlkönig” was particularly great, and extremely beautifully shot. I may still do a post for that.

American Horror Story: Coven has also stepped firmly to the top of my list. It’s so creepy, pulpy, sleazy and gross, but in all the right ways. Plus the cast is pretty stunning. Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates all play great, strong, interesting characters, and watching them interact with each other is great every time. I haven’t seen the latest ep, but I may try and start with weekly writeups, especially if anyone else is watching.

The last thing I’ll say is I really miss Mad Men. Now that the story of Walter White is complete, I’m reminded how much I want to see Don Draper’s story continue. I’m pretty unhappy with AMC’s decision to split the season in two (the same way they did with the last season of Breaking Bad), but what am I going to do, not watch it? I think this article is what really got me thinking about Mad Men again. It reminds me of the good times speculating on the secrets of LOST. Anyways, I’m not sure if Mad Men is a better show than Breaking Bad, but I may find it more interesting. That’s easy to say now that Breaking Bad has wrapped up and there’s still a lot of story to tell with Mad Men, so take that statement with a grain of salt.

The Walking Dead 4.1 "30 Days Without An Accident"

Now that Breaking Bad is over, I have a big hole in my heart and Sunday night TV schedule. So it’s a bit unfair for Walking Dead. I don’t think anything is ready to live up to the expectations, let alone a show that I struggled to stay interested in during its last season.  

The previous season of Walking Dead left me feeling a bit indifferent to the series. Season 3 felt like such a slog to get through. As a reader of the comics I knew the Governor was a bad dude (though I feel he was a much worse dude in the books) so it was tedious watching the story line develop, and when all was said and done I just didn’t care enough about any of the characters, who mostly went undeveloped save for fluctuations in their mental stability.

So I was actually pleasantly surprised to find our survivors somewhat leveled-out, living a closer-to-normal communal life in the prison. It seems to be re-fortified, they’re starting to farm and there’s a council to provide a little governance. Honestly,I find this setting much more interesting than a bunch of scared folks hiding out in a dark prison, facing attack after attack from walkers and humans alike. It gives us some stakes. Something for them to lose other than human life, and, let’s be honest, the show is pretty willy-nilly about when it decides to give any importance to the death of a human being.

It’s also strange to see smiles from the likes of Michonne, Daryl, and Rick. I’m not sure which was stranger, Michonne riding a horse through the gates with a smile and armful of comics for Carl, or Carol calling Daryl “Pookie.” Of course, outside the walls the world hasn’t got much better. Rick runs into a woman with an accent (was she Irish?) who he forces to carry a Chipotle burrito back to her camp in order to answer 3 riddles. Of course, she’s gone off the deep end, and she was going to feed Rick to her husband (or baby?) who is kept under some burlap.

Meanwhile, on a supply run, we get a fun scene where zombies come crashing through the ceiling and explode, or chase survivors around, or dangle by their intestines. Some really gross things happen (many of which don’t really make sense biologically, but questioning the realism of this show would make my head explode.) We get some hints at an alcoholism subplot with the ex-Army medic, and Beth’s possible love interest gets bit. I saw that coming, but maybe not quite so soon.

The only bit of mystery we get from this episode comes from young Patrick, who wanders into a shower and starts bleeding from his face. Probably from banana peel smoking or Mollys or butt-chugging, or whatever the kids these days are into. Or maybe the virus is mutating!

As if it’s not obvious, I’m still having trouble caring about this show. It’s nice that’s it’s not constantly bleak so far. I’m excited to see how the communal living develops. Honestly the only characters I care about and find interesting are Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, and now Beth. I’d be happy if the rest of the series was about the remnants of the Greene family on their homestead with the occasional walker wandering through the background. I’m sure that’s not what I’ll get, though, but we’ll see if they can offer up anything else to keep me interested.

Breaking Bad Series Finale - "Felina"

Well, I sure didn’t predict that. I was expecting a curve ball. Instead I got a finale that was so nicely wrapped up and straight forward I feel like I should feel disappointed. But I’m satisfied. I feel like every question was answered, and pretty much everyone got what they deserved.

More after the jump.

Breaking Bad 5.15 "The Granite State"

It's gonna be a crazy week both at work and at home, and I have to travel for work for a few days, so I probably won't really post.

Walter White sure was a sad sack for most of that episode though.

Boardwalk Empire 4.1 "Resignation"

Another placeholder. Don't miss the Breaking Bad one below.

Breaking Bad 5.14 Ozymandias

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said,  tweeted or otherwise posted on the internet about “Ozymandias,” the third to last episode of Breaking Bad. I feel like using the words “intense” and “holy shit” come off as rhetoric, as everyone, including myself, seems to have a hard time talking about any episode of Breaking Bad, let alone this episode of Breaking Bad, without using those words.

But holy shit, that was intense.

More after the jump.

Better Call Saul *UPDATED* (with a few thoughts)

Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff, is happening.

What do you think of that?

The thing is I love Breaking Bad, Bob Odenkirk is one of my all-time favorites, and the I love watching Saul Goodman in the world of Breaking Bad. He's always good for just the right amount of levity. I'm just not so sure I'll be interested in watching his adventures outside the confines of BB.

I also am curious to know what kind of format they'll be going for. Will it be a full hour like most of AMC's shows? Will it be more like a sitcom? Will it be serialized or will each episode be self contained? I think I'd be pretty into it if it was done like a sketch show, with a couple wacky cases per episode. It would also be nice if Huel, Bill Burr and maybe Mike were included, every once in awhile.

I’m glad Odenkirk will have steady work (though he’s also got a sketch show called “The Birthday Boys” premeiring on IFC soon) but I don’t know if I’m ready to see him playing the same character for any length of time.

Unless of course, that character is Brian Wilson Willips Brighton.

And just for fun, here's a longer sketch featuring Willips.

Breaking Bad -To'hajiilee (and a few other things)

Before I get to the Breaking Bad stuff, is anyone else watching this season of Boardwalk Empire as it airs? The first episode was last night, and it was great, but I won’t worry about recapping and discussing if no one else is watching yet. But if at least one person speaks up, I’m down.

Wow. That was a lot handle. I watched last night's episode with five other people, and there was a lot of leg shaking, face covering, and head shaking last night, not to mention a plethora of "oh shit oh shit oh shit"s going on.

The recap I linked to as a placeholder is great, so check it out if you want a more in depth summary. Despite it's pretty stupid name, Bad Ass Digest offers a lot of really great articles on TV, movies, and other pop culture stuff. They're usually my go-to for Breaking Bad recaps and discussion, as well as "genre" movie reviews.

While we're on the subject of Breaking Bad coverage, and actually TV talk in general, I'm also really into Dan Feinberg and Alan Sepinwall's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast. These guys know their TV, and while they can have some pretty annoying banter, they often offer some really good insight to the shows. If you subscribe in iTunes and look at the podcast info, they tell you the timestamp of each show they talk about, which is nice. That way you can skip past the stuff you don’t care about and get right to the good stuff.

A few thoughts on To'hajiilee, after the jump.

Breaking Bad "Rabid Dog"

Ack. Sorry I'm slacking! Was out and about yesterday for a warm and rainy holiday, and today I'm writing this on what may be my deathbed, for I have fallen ill. In fact, I'm using the Blogger app on my phone, which I don't think I've ever even opened before. 

All I have to say for now is "The virtues of child poisoning" might be the hardest I've laughed at this show. 

Please discuss in the comments. I'll catch up tomorrow. 

Breaking Bad "Confessions"

This is kinda funny. Really my favorite part is his impression of Vince Gilligan. 

Dean Norris Spoils Breaking Bad from Dean Norris

A few thoughts on the episode after the jump.

---

Okay, so maybe Hank is starting to lose a little sympathy from me. BUT I stand by my comments in the last episode's thread. I stand by it, but I think now that he realizes Skylar has already chosen Walt's side, he's not so interested in protecting her. He's probably more willing to bring Walt (and maybe both Skylar) down by any means neccesary, but I still think his main motivation lies with "Flynn" and Holly, not to mention protecting Marie and himself.

Then poor Jesse finally realizes the truth about Brock's death. I'm glad it happened, but it seemed a little convenient that it happened when it did. This is the first time I've had any kind of deus ex machina issues with Breaking Bad but I also watched LOST for 6 seasons, so I won't complain. The series is winding down, and it had to happen at some point, right? Anyways, one thing I had forgotten until I read it on another blog was that Jesse blamed himself for losing the ricin laced cigarette. He had assumed Brock found it and poisened himself that way, right? I imagine that revelation would result in a pretty heavy flood of emotion. Like enough to travel to Walt's house and soak it in gasoline. Does he ignite it? Or does he settle for spraypainting "HEiSENBERG" in bright yellow across the wall?

Breaking Bad 5b.2 "Buried"

What’d you all think of Sunday’s episode, “Buried”? I’m not going to bother recapping everything from every episode. It’s a little pointless when there’s so many recaps out there that are so much more well written then mine. A few spoilery thoughts after the jump.

Breaking Bad 5b.1 "Blood Money"

I’m so happy Breaking Bad is back, and so sad that there’s only 7 episodes left. Sunday's Season "5b" premiere was pretty great. Recap/review/commentary after jump.

Bad Breaking Bad Form

Oops, Breaking Bad is returning this Sunday, and I'm going camping and probably won’t be home until late Sunday night. I know there were a few people who talked about watching together, which I'm way into. I’ll be recording it, so is anyone interested in watching it on Monday the 9th? If you read this blog and I know you in real life, consider yourself invited, just let me know if you're interested.

ArScheerio Paul

Sorry for not posting in awhile, for anyone that’s noticed. Life and work got a little hectic for a bit there. Again, we’re still in a bit of a TV lull, so there wasn’t anything too pressing to write about. Expect posts about watching the pilot of the Wire, the new FX series The Bridge, and Emmy nominations soon-ish.

In the meantime enjoy some episodes of the ArScheerio Paul Show, in which Paul Scheer and special guest reenact some historical segments from the Arsenio Hall. I remember trying to stay awake on Friday nights to watch some of these. After watching the reenactments I watched the original clips, and they really are that awkward. I think Vanilla Ice and Madonna & Rosie O’Donnel are my favorites, but they’re all pretty great. The opening is so spot-on and hilarious it's worth watching every single time.

Watch: Orange is the New Black

I can't stop watching Netflix's new show Orange is the New Black.  I had read and heard a lot about the show -- my good friend had recommend the Moth podcast that Piper Kerman was featured on -- so I was eager to check it out.  I had also read that this might be the most diverse show that you've seen in awhile and one that features so many women.  And it is.  It's actually so refreshing to see so many different types of people and so many strong female actors.  But what I think really gets me is just seeing prison life in a day-to-day way.  Much like how I was fascinated by the West Wing because of the setting, I'm fascinated by Orange because I want to know how it all works.  The show also has a bit of the Weeds vibe (it's creator is the same), in that it leaves you with a cliffhanger type ending at the end of every episode, leaving you wanting more.

So, I'm going to go ahead and blog about a few episodes at a time (the beauty of Netflix -- you can watch the whole series at once!!).  So here's episodes 1-3.  Stop here if you want to catch up!  If you’ve watched the whole thing, please don’t comment spoilers!!  

Full House

There's nothing I love more then watching an episode of Full House.  For me, it's like comfort food.  I grew up on the show and I've seen every episode more then once.  I know it's terrible, but I can't help it.  When I was a kid, my older brother was so annoyed with my constant Full House watching that he would ask me trivia questions about the show.  I could never remember the details (I was also 7) and then he'd be upset that I couldn't even remember what I was watching.

The Wire & The Bridge

Looks like I’ll be starting up the Wire, which is sort of the way I was leaning anyways. Plus my wife is interested and Yolkie might watch along, which makes it way more fun. It seems like it could be difficult to schedule a time to get together for all 60 episodes, so do any of you who have seen it have any suggestions of key episodes to watch with a group? Episodes that have good “holy shit!” moments? Maybe the season premieres and finales?

Also, I’ll be checking out The Bridge tomorrow (10pm on FX). It’s an American remake of a Scandinavian show (like the Killing) that puts two mismatched cops together (like the Killing) to solve a murder (like the Killing.) All jokes aside, I’ve never seen the original but have heard fantastic things about it, and moving the setting from the border of two Scandinavian countries to the US/Mexico border seems intriguing. It’s produced and written by Meredith Stiehm, who worked on Homeland (which I also haven’t seen but I’m sure is great) and the pilot is directed by Gerardo Naranjo, who I believe is a pretty well regarded Mexican director. I’m sure some of the plot points will have to do with the Mexican drug cartel, which sort of terrifies me in real life but is also what made Breaking Bad so great, so it has that going for it too. If anyone else watches let me know what you think.

This Is England

Last day to vote to help me decide what to watch next! So far it's looking like the Wire is gonna take it. Which is fine by me!

Do you ever look at your Netflix queue and start to feel burdened by the movies at the top, as if they are holding you back? You put them on there for some reason or another, but just never felt like watching them? For a long time, This Is England sat at the top of my queue. Finally one day when I couldn’t decide on what to watch I put it on. It was great! After I finished the movie I sought out the two follow up TV series, This Is England ‘86 and This Is England ‘88.

I’m sure I added it when I browsed past it’s cover; a bunch of early 80s punks standing in an alley. It reminded me of Suburbia, a terrible movie that I loved so much as teen just because it had all kinds of punks and rad bands in it. This Is England focuses on Shaun, a friendless 12 year old boy who lost his father in the Falklands War. After getting picked on by some older mod kids at school, he runs into a group of older deadbeat skinhead* and punker types led by Woody, who takes him under his wing.

And it’s great because they aren’t portrayed as these super cool kings of the subculture types. They’re that small group of kids in a small-ish city that look to the cool kids from the bigger cities. While in the bigger cities there were probably huge sub-groups with the punks separate from the skinheads which were separate from the mods who were separate from the rudeboys or whatever. In this group there’s a couple skinheads, but there’s also the punk guys and the goth girl and rudeboy guy and the rockabilly guy. At this point in my life I’m aware that trying to belong to any one of these subcultures is pretty silly, but This Is England reminds me so much of being a stupid kid trying to belong to some specific group while hanging out with the other kids that want to belong to another specific group.

Thomas Turgoose, who plays Shaun, gives probably the best performance by a child I've ever seen. Every reaction, every word that comes out of his mouth, seems absolutely genuine, as if he's experiencing everything that's happening as himself for the first time. The way he wines to his mother, how he adopts the older boys' slang ("Classic! That's Classic!") the way his brow furls when he is upset (and there's a lot for him to be upset about) seems so sweet and real that I couldn't help but identify with the kid and the guys who decide to take him in. It's painful to witness when he goes astray, because it's easy to project your little brother or some other family member into those little boots.

The film takes place in 1983, and the subsequent series take part in 1986 and 1988 (with This Is England 90 in the works). This span of time allows Shaun to grow up and the focus to shift to Woody (who is a mod now, of course) and his one true love, Lol. But everyone is back, including Stephen Graham (Al Capone from Boardwalk Empire) as Combo, the guy who really fucks things up for the group in the movie. The series can be hilarious a lot of the time, but it’s also so heartbreaking. A few moments are downright devastating. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but if there’s something you know you can’t stomach talk to me and I’ll fill you in on what to expect. So upsetting, but ultimately worth it, in my opinion.

This Is England (the original movie) is available to stream on Netflix. This Is England ‘86 and ‘88 are currently hard to come by. They’re unavailable on DVD in the US, and I’ve yet to find a legit source to stream them online. I believe I watched them split into multiple parts with Spanish subtitles on YouTube. Kind of a pain but worth seeking out, I promise.

*Not to go too far down the rabbit hole, but I wanted to take a second and acknowledge the whole skinhead thing. I feel like everybody I know is aware that all skinheads aren't racist and began as a subculture of working class kids (many of them black) in the late 60's. However, it was always my impression that even though skinheads weren't (or aren't) always racist, they’re still mostly assholes. Which is one of the reasons this movie/show is great. It manages to zoom in on almost the exact point in time where these dudes became assholes. Or at least some of them, thanks to Combo.

The Sopranos vs The Wire

There's a major lull in new TV right now. Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Veep and most network fare is on hiatus, and Breaking Bad doesn’t come back for another month. So now is as good a time as any to catch up on one of the many shows I haven’t seen but probably should have, especially considering I have a TV blog. So, give me your opinion using the poll to the right, and if you’d like to make your argument (or suggest something else) in the comments, even better.

"Everybody got guns!"

I finally finished Boardwalk Empire season 3 last night. Now that all is said and done, I’d definitely put that on my list of top 10 currently running shows. I can’t get over how many great performances by actors in super intense roles there are. It’s like watching a show with 10 or so Walter Whites.

I was especially into Bobby Cannavale’s Gyp Rosetti in the third season. For those of you who haven’t gotten to the third season yet, fear not, this is no spoiler. It is apparent from the first scene what Rosetti is all about. He reminds me of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet; a laughable creep who absolutely explodes with fits of violence. Pure sociopath. Nearly every time he appears on screen I’m filled with dread and prone to that sort of nervous laughter you hear from theaters filled with annoying teenagers during scenes building up to a scare.

And he’s just one! Michael Shannon as Van Alden! Every smile is a wince from that guy. (I feel like he’s been great in everything he’s been in, though I haven’t seen Man of Steel yet.) Stephen Graham’s Capone! Richard Harrow! Chalky White! Nucky! Even Lucky Luciano, who felt like a caricature of a spoof of a cartoon of a 1920’s Italian gangster at first, grew on me.

Can’t wait for season 4 to start up in September.

Nightly Schedule, 1998-2000

11:00 pm The Late Show with David Letterman

11:35 pm Switch to The Tonight Show with Leno to see who the guests were. Usually immediately switch back to Dave.

12:00 am The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn

12:35 am Late Night with Conan O’Brien (Switch back to Kilborn if he had a good guest.)

1:35 am Later (different guest host every week) This is the point where I’d usually fall asleep unless...

2:05 am Rerun of the Tonight Show. I would stay up and watch this (or sometimes set an alarm) if I couldn't sleep or there was a musical guest I wanted to see that I missed the first time around.

3:05 am Rerun of Conan. If he had a good guest but I had switched to Kilborn earlier I'd try and stay up or set an alarm for this.

4:05 am Lay in bed and worry about my grades or Y2K (no joke!)

5:30 am Wake up to get to school by 7am for a zero period class.

The entire night I had my VCR queued up with a blank tape to record musical guests and sketches from Conan. If there were ever a fire, I would probably save these tapes after my wife and pets.

Power Ranking!

By DB’s request, here’s my personal Top 10 list of active shows based on their recent output. It’s pretty hard to choose in any kind of order, and I feel like it’s especially hard pitting heavy hitting cinematic dramas like Breaking Bad and Mad Men against the comedies, especially something like Totally Biased or SNL, which have a much shorter turnaround time between shows. I was tempted to split it up into two lists of dramas and comedies. Instead I imagined missing a week of TV and recording every show I’m currently watching. I’m pretty sure this is the order I’d watch them in:

1. Breaking Bad
2. Mad Men
3. Game of Thrones
4. Parks and Recreation
5. Girls
6. The League
7. Veep
8. New Girl
9. Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell
10. Kroll Show
    
    

Numbers one and two are practically interchangeable. I have a feeling I rated them that way today because I just saw the season finale of Mad Men and can’t wait for Breaking Bad to start back up on August 8th.

I'm also feeling the urge to preemptively defend some of my picks, but there will be plenty of time for that in future posts, I suppose. If you’d like to call me out on anything in particular, feel free and maybe I’ll cover them first.

Remember the time when...

Archie Bunker accidentally joined the KKK?

I wish I could find part one of this two part story arc, but no luck. Or at least the final scene, when it was reveled that that fraternal order he thought he was joining was actually the Ku Klux Klan. If you don't have time for this whole episode up there, skip ahead to 18:40, when Archie takes a stand against the bigots and still manages to be kind of racist.

We're Gonna Have A TV Party Tonight: An Introduction

I love TV. I know it’s not really cool to love TV, but I always have. Some of my earliest memories are waking up early to watch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe while my mom got my older sister ready for school. In the early 90’s, I spent the whole school week looking forward to Friday night. TGIF. Embarrassing now, sure, but man, did lil’ 4th grade Cody look forward to the ever-expanding Tanner household and Urkel’s hi-jinks every week. Then came the X-Files, which scared me to no end for the first few seasons. I lived vicariously through Dawson Leary, the blond-haired blue-eyed movie nerd that had the girl next store jealous of his relationship with the semi-delinquent new girl in town. Soon I became enamored with late night TV (so much so that I’ll address it in a later post, I think). Eventually, I got friends with cars who played in bands. Punk shows took precedent over TV shows. My late teens and early 20’s were filled with ill-informed opinions on the art of cinema, and I’d watch heavy foreign language Films (never “movies”) which I didn't understand, but made me feel kind of smart, instead of anything on network television. This gap in TV is probably fine, because right now I can’t think of any great TV I missed out on from that era. (It bears saying that cable TV, let alone premium channels like HBO, was so far out of my reach that shows like the Sopranos and The Wire weren't really missed, but ignored altogether.)

 Then came LOST. I can’t even remember why I watched the first episode. It must have been because a Hobbit was in it, or possibly because I thought it involved dinosaurs. (I’ll still watch the first episode of anything that involves dinosaurs. I’m looking at you, Terra Nova.) I watched the first episode of LOST, and was intrigued. I don’t even think I planned on following up with the 2nd episode, but I was living at home and it was on. Still not quite sold. Then, episode 3. Walkabout. The first John Locke episode. That reveal at the end! It was great. I could think back to the earlier episodes and see how it was set up. Mind blown. I did everything I could to convince anyone I knew to watch it. I don’t know that I was able to convince anyone at that point. Everyone thought it was a dramatized version of Survivor. And the serial format of LOST made it hard to jump into. Finally, when the show was released on DVD (remember DVDs?) I could give my copy to someone to watch. Sometimes they would have it for weeks, never getting around to watching it, but finally, when they did, they would watch every episode in a matter of days. And it was so fun talking about it. I loved hearing what people had to say as they were watching, knowing what was going to happen before they did and listening to their theories. Dealing out my own crackpot theories, which changed week to week. Of course, not only would we talk about LOST when we were talking about LOST; we would discuss mythology, and religion, and physics, and time travel, and storytelling. For good or bad, LOST became a social shortcut for me. Instead of comparing the usual specific cultural credentials (bands, books, movies, etc.), I could just drop an offhand LOST reference. If they responded, we had something to talk about for the next couple of hours. If they didn't, at the very least I could try and convince them they’re missing out. (Side note: if I did this to you, I’m sorry. That was probably pretty annoying. Unless I convinced you to watch and you loved it and now we’re best friends, in which case, you’re welcome.) I loved talking about LOST, and everything that comes with it, so much that my pal Madeline and I started Orange Peel Mouth, a blog dedicated to the show. We may have never shed any real light on the mysteries, or even approached it in a unique way, but that wasn't the point. For me, the point was in that comments section. I could spend the day typing thoughts and theories and posting them, and then reading others’ reactions, plus their own theories. It was a virtual water cooler to gather around (I just cringed while typing that, but unfortunately it’s a pretty apt description.) After LOST’s disappointing ending (which I never really had the heart to cover on OPM - maybe I’ll finally do that here, as well...) there was nothing left for me to write about. I didn't miss trying to write show recaps (something I was terrible at and don’t really plan on doing again) but I sure missed having surefire thing to talk with my friends about every week.

 Which brings me to this blog. TV is fucking great right now. “The New Golden Age of Television” and what-not. I watch a lot of it. So much, in fact, that at any given time I’m either watching something, thinking about a show I’m currently following, or feeling guilty that I devote so much time to television. I’m hoping if I can get myself to write about it, it will feel less like a time-suck that I’m kind of ashamed of, and more like a hobby that I can share with friends. Of course, like most bloggers I’m really hoping that the comments section gets some action, but I’m going to try to not let that dictate what I’m doing. There’s plenty of shows I watch on a weekly basis (thanks to the modern convenience of the DVR, I don’t have to set my schedule with a TV guide...) I’m not sure which ones I’ll write about on a regular basis. I’m not going to force myself to write weekly recaps of every show I watch. I don’t want to turn this into a chore. But if something is worth talking about, or if there’s something in particular that I want to hear other’s opinions on, I’ll try. I may also look back on some old favorites, or talk about an upcoming show or episode I’m excited for. I’d really like to host a re-watch, where we can pick a show available to stream on Netflix or Hulu, and all watch together and touch base here once a week. If anyone is interested in that sort of thing let me know. Personally I’d like to start with my current favorite, Mad Men, but I’m definitely open for suggestions. There’s a plethora of series I haven’t seen (the aforementioned Sopranos and The Wire, for example), so perhaps a good place to start is there.

I know I’m probably picking a terrible time of year to start a TV blog. The Sixth Season of Mad Men is ending next week, and there will be a pretty huge void until Breaking Bad returns for it’s final eight episodes in August. There’s three episodes of HBO’s Family Tree left, and I've yet to find another person who’s watching (it’s good!) Next weeks is the season finale of Veep. Other than Breaking Bad, there’s not a whole lot to look forward to until the fall. Until then, I suspect this blog will be slow going, hopefully with a weekly re-watch entry and a few TV related ramblings randomly posted.

So, what are you watching? What to do you want to watch? Whether you watch “live” week to week, on Netflix or Hulu, or are buying seasons on iTunes, Amazon, or DVD, let me know.