All things TV

Okay, so this is an overly ambitious title. "Some things TV" or "Some things about Some TV" would be more appropriate.

I worked two part-time jobs last year to support my Masters degree so barely had time to wipe my arse let alone have "fun" and I certainly had no time to watch the TV that everybody kept telling me I "just had to watch!" With unemployment there are many cons but one of the pros - for me at least - has been being able to watch the stuff on that moving picture box that everybody is going on about. And I've watched a whole lot over these past four months. So here are some things I have watched and what I think about them. Some are recent, some aren't, and some are honorable mentions as I have simply had the opportunity to re-watch them in between getting job rejections.

Game of Thrones
This show was somewhere on the periphery of my radar when it debuted in 2011 - a time which, according to my diary, I did have some fun - but it largely passed me by. After numerous recommendations by friends I decided to sit down and watch and this was the first show I devoured once I moved back home. Much has been written by more knowledgeable and widely read bloggers so I will just say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable and often stayed up until stupid o'clock watching the next episode, and the next. I found the story compelling but would be lying if I said I could completely ignore all the problematic elements, but I did my level best and just reveled in the gratuitousness and the hedonism. Arya is my favourite character.

Orange is the New Black
This is the first original Netflix series I watched and again it had been on my radar for a good few months prior to my watching. Hilarious and heartbreaking, the thing I love most about this show is the fact that a whole cross-section of women's stories are being told. Taylor Schilling is an all-American lead actress but it is the stories of the other women in the prison that I feel I want to know more about. Piper Chapman isn't a particularly likeable character, purposefully so, but just as in one moment you experience a slight feeling of schadenfreude in the next you are routing for her to get one over Michael J. Harney's Sam Healy. Fantastic actress Laverne Cox brings a wonderfully nuanced performance to her character and it is the other flashbacks and wee scenes between the different inmates that flesh out this comedy-drama into something great. Janae is the most interesting character for me, can't wait to see what season 2 brings for her.

Hannibal
There is only one word to describe this show; thrilling. A production that has the phrase "viewer discretion advised" running at the bottom of the screen during the opening scene, you know that this isn't going to be quite like other crime dramas. I had heard one or two good things about this, but from external sources rather than friend's recommendations, and Lawrence Fishburne was the one who sealed the deal for me. Based on Red Dragon and at its core a police procedural, the pop culture phenomenon of Thomas Harris' books and the ensuing films mean that any sort of reveal that Hannibal was, in fact, the murdering cannibal all along is impossible so this show keeps the viewers on their toes by weaving in more unexpected twists into the "crime-a-week" mold largely through the editing. Boy, the editing. Close ups of mouthwatering food being served at Hannibal's dining table immediately proceeding a gruesome comment or shot leaves the audience unsure of what the other characters are actually putting into their mouths. There is a delicious sense of the macabre about this show and sterling performances turned in by Hugh Dancy and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen make this show so completely watchable. Some interesting cameos here and there and my favourite character is Gillian Anderson's Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Hannibal's own psychotherapist.

Sleepy Hollow
Like National Treasure but with more ghosts and less Nicolas Cage, Sleepy Hollow is a veritable whistle stop tour of stone mason mythology, mysteries surrounding the Founding Fathers and the events in the Book of Revelations. On paper it looks like there is just too much going on in this show but somehow on screen it pulls together wonderfully and you get swept along. A quietly confident Nicole Beharie is our present-day Police Lieutenant Abbie Mills and striking Tom Mison is our displaced Ichabod Crane. The first act of the first episode sets up the premise of the series: Ichabod, having changed allegiances to the Colonials during America's War of Independence, is killed by a Hessian soldier, not before beheading him, on the battlefield and emerges from the ground 250 years later in present day Sleepy Hollow, New York. Dazed and confused, his path crosses Abbie's when her mentor, the Sheriff, is beheaded by the headless horseman, who has also risen from the dead. The apocalypse is coming and our unlikely pair have to stop it. I won't say anything more for now just that one of the best things about this delightfully camp series, apart from the comedy derived from Mison's adjustment to modern day life, is the diversity of the cast and how organic this feels. Beharie is African-American, as is Orlando Jones' Police Captain Frank Irving (nods to the source material abound in this show) and as we are introduced to their families there are automatically more black and African-American characters on screen. John Cho also stars as Beharie's childhood friend turned colleague and supporting performances from Nicholas Gonzalez mean that this onscreen portrayal of a New York police station actually reflects the state in which it's set. Demons and monsters notwithstanding. Middle Earth veteran John Noble has a recurring part and the guy from the old cinema Orange adverts also pops up in the season finale, which I watched last night, and it left me with an open mouth. I'm not one of those annoying viewers who always says "oh I knew that was coming" but I can often sense the direction a story is going, however, I let out a disbelieving "hooo-hoo!" at one twist last night. There is a whole lot more to say about this show, and I'm sure others have said it better, so for now I'll leave it with Jenny Mills is my favourite character.

Top of the Lake
Jane Campion's eerie detective miniseries had me thinking about different episodes well into the night, there was just something so lingeringly creepy about it. Set in Campion's native New Zealand, fantasy film fans will view the landscape in a completely different way as the warm, inviting yet mysterious terrain quickly becomes cold, isolating and...mysterious. Elisabeth Moss leads the cast as the young detective determined to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Jacqueline Joe's Tui Mitcham and as layer upon layer is peeled back there are "nothing is as it seems" underneath "nothing is as it seems." Peter Mullan, David Wenham and Holly Hunter, whilst being completely different characters, are all just so watchable. I know that sounds like an obvious statement to make about seasoned performers but it is just so apt for this series, my eyes are glued to the screen. I don't think there was any one particularly likeable character but it is their relationships to each other, the crime and the land itself - in fact, New Zealand could be a character in its own right in this show - that makes this show leave its mark hours after viewing. Holly Hunter is sublime as the kooky, bitter leader of the woman's retreat and, though her screen time is less than many others, is my favourite in this.

Angels In America
Okay, so I know this is about ten years old, but I only got round to watching it. Based on a play of the same name, this HBO series has one of the best ensemble casts I have seen on television. Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Jeffrey Wright play multiple parts (one of Streep's turns I completely missed, such is her acting talent) in this drama. Set in New York 15 years before it aired, this miniseries combines fantastic dream sequences with all too real kitchen-sink confrontations and raises questions of love, spirituality and conscience in Reagan era America. There is also an interesting blend of historical figures with original characters here which invites the audience to view the fear and paranoia that surrounded AIDS in the 80s through a different lens on top of the obvious retrospective that comes with a 21st century audience. Brilliantly paced and with just the right mix of biting political satire and tender moments I would wholeheartedly recommend this, get it watched. It's a toss up between Mary-Louise Parker's Harper Pitt and Meryl Streep's Ethel Rosenberg for my favourite character.

Six Feet Under
Another HBO show and another one that I'm late to. Centering around a undertakers and how the death of the patriarch affects the family, this series is subtly written and raises questions of death, family and spirituality. I'm only on season 3 just now and whilst I don't necessarily feel like I have to watch the next episode immediately after finishing the previous one I know when I do sit down and watch it I can pick up where I left off and enjoy watching the characters grow and develop painful bit by painful bit. It's another one where each of the characters has distinctive unlikeable elements but you can't help rooting for them all along. Ruth is my favourite, there is just so much to unwrap.

Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
This ABC show and its spin off are wonderfully camp and quite frankly - a word I cannot lay claim to - Shitastic. The fairy tale characters we know and love have been displaced from their quasi-medieval fantasy world of The Enchanted Forest and now live in 21st century Maine, but they do not know their real past. I have actually been following this from the beginning but missed quite a few episodes as I was writing my dissertation so had a catch up session then followed it until its mid-season break in December. It's no real spoiler to say (but if you are particularly bothered then skip this next sentence) that by the end of season one they discover the truth as we are in the middle of season 3 and it would be difficult to string that plot out for 3 seasons. There are twists, turns and fans of the Disney films will squeal at various points as ABC are owned by Disney so can use licensed character names and plot elements. The spin off focuses on Alice after Wonderland and, again, a lot of comedic moments are found in the book-character-meets-21st century moments but my one criticism of this show would be that it does not make quite enough of these. In the main show Regina is my favourite and in the spin off I really like the Knave.

Shows I have re-watched!
 Buffy
Obviously
Being Erica
This Canadian show combines two of my favourite things: time travel and publishing. As it's Canadian I think it has that humour about it which is a tad more self-deprecating than the television from south of the border and aligns it more with my dry Britishness.
Sex and the City
It has become the cool thing to hate on, of late. Kind of like Coldplay. But I don't actually like Coldplay. I do like this show, though. Of its time and very obviously about four, privileged white women in New York, I don't think it pretended to be anything else. The later seasons leave me wanting but the earlier ones are just so funny and raise real questions about gender roles in life and love. Some definite problematic elements but, like Game of Thrones, I revel in its gratuitousness and hedonism. And I love Samantha.
Life on Mars
Excellent. Get it watched. As well as a great police drama a lot of comedy is derived from Sam's displaced in time detective. Can you sense a timey/displaced theme yet?
Community
A show for people who love shows. Any and every TV genre, trope and franchise is sent up affectionately by an ensemble cast. Again, the diversity in the cast makes this one a winner for me. Season 5 is just starting and I am excited.

There are probably a few more that I can't think of just now and will add. Any thoughts on the shows I've mentioned?