TV Review: Skins – Volume Two

Skins Volume Two

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Mike Bailey, April Pearson, Hannah Murray, Joseph Dempsie, Larissa Wilson, Dev Patel, Mitch Hewer, Kaya Scodelario, Aimee-Ffion Edwards

Series Creators: Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain

TV Review: Skins – Volume One

Skins Volume One

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Mike Bailey, April Pearson, Hannah Murray, Joseph Dempsie, Larissa Wilson, Dev Patel, Mitch Hewer

Series Creators: Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain

TV Talk: My Television Schedule

Here’s something many of you probably never expected to hear me say (or read me write for that matter): I watch too much TV. Okay, I don’t really mean that, at least not in the traditional sense. I don’t actually have a problem with the number of hours I spend in front of the television (well, okay, in front of the computer which is in front of the television), but rather the number of shows I’m currently watching.

What’s the issue? Well, every week it seems that most of my free time is spent keeping my DVR clear of the new shows that air, leaving me less time for other important matters, like movies or TV box sets (ha… and you thought I was going to say “reading”). This is an issue because there’s a good chunk of TV series that I’m currently following that aren’t as good as the ones I’d like to be watching on DVD (The Shield in particular). So I figured a good exercise would be to look at all the TV series currently airing new episodes that I follow, and maybe make some choices that will ease my burden (or, you know, “burden” as it were). After all, the last time I used this space to muse about a show that I no longer cared for, I cut the cord a week later.

Plus, I thought it could be fun for you all to see exactly what I’m watching, day by day. You know, if you were wondering.

TV Review: Breaking Bad – Season One

Breaking Bad Season One

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte

Series Creator: Vince Gilligan

TV Review: The Shield – Season One

The Shield Season One

Starring: Michael Chiklis, Kenneth Johnson, Benito Martinez, Catherine Dent, Walton Goggins, Michael Jace, Jay Karnes, CCH Pounder

Series Creator: Shawn Ryan

TV Talk: Heroes Season Three Premiere

TV Talk: Heroes Season Three Premiere

Starring: Kristen Bell, Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, James Kyson Lee, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Dania Ramirez, Cristine Rose, Milo Ventimiglia

Series Creator: Tim Kring

Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Top Five.

This is it, the end of the list. If you were saving your comments for the list in full, speak now. I don’t really mind if few people were reading this, it was fun to put together either way. If you wanna see all the screen caps I made, including episodes that didn’t make the cut, you can see them HERE. If you want them for yourself, feel free to take them. It’s not like I own the copyright. Just don’t hotlink.

Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Numbers 10-6.

Here it is, the start of the top ten. A quick note to be made here is that I didn’t miss number 8. Number 7, “Graduation Day” is a two-part episode, and thus is a tie. It is both number 7 and 8 on the list, or, 7a and b. If I were only doing a Top Ten, then I’d probably just rank it as one episode, but since this is a Top 25, I figured that they should take their own spots on the list as a tie. To see what ranked 15-11, click HERE.

Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Numbers 15-11.

Numbers 20-16 can be seen HERE.

Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Numbers 20-16.

Time to continue with the Big List. The reason why I’m breaking it down into 5 groups of 5 is that I worry that no one would read the whole thing if I posted it at once. Most would start off reading it, then they’d scroll down, maybe read an episode they love, then scroll some more. Of course, that could still be happening, but breaking it up increases the possibility that some people might read the whole deal. To read what ranked 25 through 21, click HERE.

Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Numbers 25-21.

One of my favourite reads this summer has been Noel Murray’s posts about the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for The Onion’s AV Club. Murray is a first time viewer of the show, and reading him discover the brilliance of one of my all-time favourite shows has been a fun way of re-living the series, so if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you check out his posts (which finished up today, to be continued with season three some time around December).

Inspired by this trip down memory lane, I thought I’d re-post my Top 25 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer list that I originally wrote way back in 2005. While an older piece of writing (and thus possibly not as strong as my current writing), it’s still one of my favourite blog posts ever, both in terms of how much fun it was to put together and pride in how in turned out. Read on past the jump to find out the first five episodes to make the list, along with some of my reasoning at the time for the post. Numbers 20-1 will follow shortly (or, depending on when you’re reading this, have already been posted).

TV Talk: The Barren Summer TV Landscape

The end of the TV season is almost here. There’s a two-hour finale of Grey’s Anatomy tonight (that I hardly care about, but I watch because my wife does… even though she hardly cares now too), and the two-hour finale of Lost next week (which I am very excited about, as this has been the best season of the show since the first. Perhaps better even). Then that’s it, it’ll be time for broadcast television to go into hibernation mode.

Even though I’m an admittedly voracious consumer of television, I like the slow summer TV schedule (particularly since I’m also a voracious consumer of movies… and apparently not that much of a consumer of sunlight). It’s a great palette cleanser that allows me to get excited about shows again come fall. More than that, in recent years I’ve been able to use the three months of summer to catch up on shows on DVD that I would have otherwise missed. Last summer, we watched all five season of Six Feet Under, the first seasons of Dexter and Friday Night Lights, the first three seasons of The Wire, and re-watched the first season of Big Love, meaning that we probably ended up seeing better quality television from June-August than we did from September-May.

With that in mind, I figured I’d lay out my summer viewing plans here, and ask for any input any of you might have regarding how I might best use the months ahead (you know, besides silly stuff like getting outside to enjoy nature or whatever).

TV Review: In Treatment – Season One

In Treatment Season One

Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Blair Underwood, Dianne Wiest, Josh Charles, Embeth Davidtz, Melissa George, Mia Wasikowska, Michelle Forbes

Series Creator: Hagai Levi, developed by Rodrigo García

Top 25 Characters from The Wire: Numbers 10 – 1

Numbers 25 through 11 can be found here.
A note on spoilers: because I know not everyone is caught up on all five seasons of this show, but I still want as many people to read this as possible (I’m vain that way), this list will be as spoiler-free as possible. I will have to reference some events in order to talk about the characters, but no major events will be discussed (especially the ultimate fate of any character). Also, since characters move up and down their career fields throughout the series, I’ll avoid referring to character by title as much as possible. When it is needed to refer to a character by their job title (i.e., Lieutenant, Judge, Mayor, etc), I’ll only refer to the job title the character holds when we are first introduced to them. That said, if anyone wants to get into spoilers, I’ll gladly do so via comments (with spoiler warnings).

Top 25 Characters from The Wire: Numbers 25-11

I already had a lot to say about this series earlier, but didn’t get into the terrific cast of characters both because my post was already long, and I had this post in mind. If you’ve never watched the show, you may think a list of 25 characters is a touch of overkill. However, if you have watched it, you’re probably thinking to yourself: only 25?

There’s never been an ensemble as deep as that of The Wire, which completely eschewed stars and delved into the lives of dozens of characters and how they affect, and are affected by, the city of Baltimore. The cast grew exponentially as the seasons went on, with the show introducing several new characters at once in an attempt to expand the scope of the show and the picture of Baltimore. Managing all these characters was a Herculean task, one that the show managed on an incomparable level. All the characters mattered, and each fit into the puzzle perfectly. When you consider that other shows have difficulties managing casts of less than ten, you start to get an appreciation of what The Wire did with five times that amount. When putting together this list, I came up with a list of over 50 names of characters I enjoyed that were vital to the show, so that should give you an idea of why a list of 25 top characters is a perfectly acceptable number.

By “top 25″, I’m taking a few things into consideration. “Best” is too abstract an idea to apply to any type of standard, but I did try and decide which characters were the most unique, which actors performed the best in their roles, which characters were most significant for the show, who was the most memorable, etc. Then my personal tastes and favourites were factored in, and viola, a “Top 25″ is made.

A note on spoilers: because I know not everyone is caught up on all five seasons of this show, but I still want as many people to read this as possible (I’m vain that way), this list will be as spoiler-free as possible. I will have to reference some events in order to talk about the characters, but no major events will be discussed (especially the ultimate fate of any character). Also, since characters move up and down their career fields throughout the series, I’ll avoid referring to character by title as much as possible. When it is needed to refer to a character by their job title (i.e., Lieutenant, Judge, Mayor, etc), I’ll only refer to the job title the character holds when we are first introduced to them. That said, if anyone wants to get into spoilers, I’ll gladly do so via comments (with spoiler warnings).