TV Dramas
I don't tend to watch a lot of TV dramas. I've never really been one for lawyer shows, police shows, hospital shows. I've gotten caught up in some hour-long sf shows, (various generations of Star Trek, Quantum Leap, Firefly) and I was an avid fan of the first few seasons of "Northern Exposure", but I've never really engaged in reality-based TV dramas.
This week, though, I've managed to catch two new TV dramas that I liked well-enough that I will find myself seeking them out more than once.
With all the hype that "Lost" has gotten in the press and in Tolkien fandom, it was pretty inevitable that I would watch the premiere of this show. Like most folks, I'm ticked off that ABC only showed one half of the premiere last Wednesday night, but managed to schedule in -two- hours of "The Bachelor". Huh. Anyway, that first half of the "Lost" premiere interested me enough to check it out again next week. My prediction is that the show is going to be a huge hit. It's combination of Survivor/Gilligan's Island/Land of The Lost/Lord of The Flies should appeal to a large cross-section of people. The first ten minutes were pretty intense for me, but it hardly seems a plane crash could be -less- intense. There's a lot of characters with interesting potential and tons of secrets and, of course, some invisible beastie rampaging through the jungle to ratchet up the suspense level. Don't completely know yet if it's my type of show, but I will check out the second-half of the premiere next week.
Tonight I saw my first episode of "Jack and Bobby", which I really liked a lot and which made me cry. Unfortunately, I missed the premiere of this series, but I've read enough about it to know the basic plot. It examines the childhood of two boys, one who will grow up to become president of the United States. The series has nothing to do with the Kennedys, the names are purely a audience-grabbing gimmick (and from what I can gather tonight it's Bobby who will grow up to become a Republican president). The show cuts back and forth between childhood scenes and documentary-like clips of people doing a retrospective on Bobby's presidency. The jumping back and forth through time are particularly intriguing. Christine Lahti plays the boys' single mom and she is terrific. I realized afterward that she reminded me a lot of the mom Frances McDiarmid played in "Almost Famous", both confident and eccentric and dancing as fast as she can. The two boys were very sympathetic, too. I'm looking forward to seeing this series again.
QUESTION: Do you watch hour-long TV dramas regularly? What are your favorite TV dramas currently on the air? Why do you like them? What are your favorite TV dramas from the past?
Exercise log: Six miles on the weekend, which officially takes me into Lothlorien. Fifteen minutes of weights today with my new toned-down 2.5 pound weights. And, hey, I tried on two pairs of jeans today that I couldn't get into three months ago and they fit again, so, scale going down or not, yay, me :).
This week, though, I've managed to catch two new TV dramas that I liked well-enough that I will find myself seeking them out more than once.
With all the hype that "Lost" has gotten in the press and in Tolkien fandom, it was pretty inevitable that I would watch the premiere of this show. Like most folks, I'm ticked off that ABC only showed one half of the premiere last Wednesday night, but managed to schedule in -two- hours of "The Bachelor". Huh. Anyway, that first half of the "Lost" premiere interested me enough to check it out again next week. My prediction is that the show is going to be a huge hit. It's combination of Survivor/Gilligan's Island/Land of The Lost/Lord of The Flies should appeal to a large cross-section of people. The first ten minutes were pretty intense for me, but it hardly seems a plane crash could be -less- intense. There's a lot of characters with interesting potential and tons of secrets and, of course, some invisible beastie rampaging through the jungle to ratchet up the suspense level. Don't completely know yet if it's my type of show, but I will check out the second-half of the premiere next week.
Tonight I saw my first episode of "Jack and Bobby", which I really liked a lot and which made me cry. Unfortunately, I missed the premiere of this series, but I've read enough about it to know the basic plot. It examines the childhood of two boys, one who will grow up to become president of the United States. The series has nothing to do with the Kennedys, the names are purely a audience-grabbing gimmick (and from what I can gather tonight it's Bobby who will grow up to become a Republican president). The show cuts back and forth between childhood scenes and documentary-like clips of people doing a retrospective on Bobby's presidency. The jumping back and forth through time are particularly intriguing. Christine Lahti plays the boys' single mom and she is terrific. I realized afterward that she reminded me a lot of the mom Frances McDiarmid played in "Almost Famous", both confident and eccentric and dancing as fast as she can. The two boys were very sympathetic, too. I'm looking forward to seeing this series again.
QUESTION: Do you watch hour-long TV dramas regularly? What are your favorite TV dramas currently on the air? Why do you like them? What are your favorite TV dramas from the past?
Exercise log: Six miles on the weekend, which officially takes me into Lothlorien. Fifteen minutes of weights today with my new toned-down 2.5 pound weights. And, hey, I tried on two pairs of jeans today that I couldn't get into three months ago and they fit again, so, scale going down or not, yay, me :).