Hey everybody! First off, I want to apologize for my lack of writing these last few weeks. To be perfectly honest, the reason for this is that I have not watched that many movies during that time. I’m working on fixing that as soon as possible. But until I see another movie worth writing about, I thought I’d spend a little time talking about another valuable aspect of cinematic entertainment, that being the TV series.
So this week I will be counting down the top 5 seasons of television series’ that I have seen. Note that I’m not looking at the series as a whole, but instead I’m looking at each individual season. The reason I’m doing this is because the I’ve seen shows whose entire premise changes from season to season. So I’ll be looking at each season as it’s own unique creative work. My criteria are as follows:
1. Each episode of the show must be 1 hour long, including commercials.
2. The season must have at least 10 episodes.
Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware that I have not seen every TV show. I haven’t even come close. These are merely my picks from what I have seen. I fully understand that there are great shows out there that I have not seen (yet).
With that being said, let’s get to it.
Number 5
Chuck, Season 2, NBC
Season 2 of Chuck is an odd collection of many different kinds of episodes, which is why I couldn’t place it any higher. The more comedic ones are pretty formulaic, which lowers the average of the season. Though the comedy does manage to evoke some laughs, it’s not funny enough to be brilliant, and doesn’t contain enough seriousness for me to really appreciate the depth of the characters. This is sad, because some of the characters actually do have a lot of depth. (Not all of them, just some.) The first half of the season is generally filled with these kinds of episodes, which can drag down the overall value of the show.
However, once the show hit the halfway mark, it really picked up. I guess the writers decided it was time for the show to take a more serious turn. What made it so good was that it never lost the funny aspects that had made the first season so enjoyable. It just added on another layer of complexity to the relationship between the two main characters, which added a lot for me, as I was starting to get bored with the standard plot devices that made up so much of the series prior to that point.
This combination of different types of episodes was both a blessing and a curse for Chuck. On one hand, it managed to keep itself fresh, just when it started to look like the series had jumped the shark. However, at points it fell prey to it’s reliance on plot crutches that had already been used. Also, the lack of consistency from episode to episode made it sometimes difficult to watch, as certain aspects of the storyline would be put on hold to make way for some (admittedly good) comedy.
All in all, Season 2 of Chuck is a fine piece of television, but it falls just short of greatness. If it had gone either more serious or more comedic, I think it would have been better, but instead it managed to fall right in between. Nevertheless, it definitely deserves a place on my top 5. Tune in tomorrow for number 4.
Until next time,
Harry
So this week I will be counting down the top 5 seasons of television series’ that I have seen. Note that I’m not looking at the series as a whole, but instead I’m looking at each individual season. The reason I’m doing this is because the I’ve seen shows whose entire premise changes from season to season. So I’ll be looking at each season as it’s own unique creative work. My criteria are as follows:
1. Each episode of the show must be 1 hour long, including commercials.
2. The season must have at least 10 episodes.
Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware that I have not seen every TV show. I haven’t even come close. These are merely my picks from what I have seen. I fully understand that there are great shows out there that I have not seen (yet).
With that being said, let’s get to it.
Number 5
Chuck, Season 2, NBC
Season 2 of Chuck is an odd collection of many different kinds of episodes, which is why I couldn’t place it any higher. The more comedic ones are pretty formulaic, which lowers the average of the season. Though the comedy does manage to evoke some laughs, it’s not funny enough to be brilliant, and doesn’t contain enough seriousness for me to really appreciate the depth of the characters. This is sad, because some of the characters actually do have a lot of depth. (Not all of them, just some.) The first half of the season is generally filled with these kinds of episodes, which can drag down the overall value of the show.
However, once the show hit the halfway mark, it really picked up. I guess the writers decided it was time for the show to take a more serious turn. What made it so good was that it never lost the funny aspects that had made the first season so enjoyable. It just added on another layer of complexity to the relationship between the two main characters, which added a lot for me, as I was starting to get bored with the standard plot devices that made up so much of the series prior to that point.
This combination of different types of episodes was both a blessing and a curse for Chuck. On one hand, it managed to keep itself fresh, just when it started to look like the series had jumped the shark. However, at points it fell prey to it’s reliance on plot crutches that had already been used. Also, the lack of consistency from episode to episode made it sometimes difficult to watch, as certain aspects of the storyline would be put on hold to make way for some (admittedly good) comedy.
All in all, Season 2 of Chuck is a fine piece of television, but it falls just short of greatness. If it had gone either more serious or more comedic, I think it would have been better, but instead it managed to fall right in between. Nevertheless, it definitely deserves a place on my top 5. Tune in tomorrow for number 4.
Until next time,
Harry
No comments:
Post a Comment