Monday, August 04, 2008

Show Time

It's no secret that one of my favorite things is to "devour" (as an old Professor of mine put it) a good series. Having moved steadily through just about every network show that fit the bill, I've taken to examining the premium channel fare with some vigor - and with my favorite serials (Lost, Battlestar, Smallville, to name a few...) currently absent, I'm loving every second of it.

First off, let's discuss Weeds Season 4. I was a latecomer to this show (like everything else on Showtime, I marathoned through the first few seasons on DVD, before catching up to the weekly airings). Mary Louise Parker's drug-dealing mama is only the tip of the iceberg of goodness, leaving plenty of room for a well-fleshed cast to flex. The current season, which sees Parker's character dealing in a new town, getting spanked by the Mayor of Tijuana, and pelting her ex-best-friend across the mouth with a .45 in one hand & iced latte in the other, is the best one yet. Sad though, that Conrad hasn't shown up yet...

Now, Dexter. It's a rare thing to adore a series purely for the writing - as in, if there was nothing but a pile of scripts, I would still go at every single one like Christian Shephard at a bottle of scotch. And then there's the fact that Michael C. Hall brings alive the most socially-conscious serial killer of all time without ever slipping out of character. And the fact that the rest of the cast feels so natural, so effortlessly good at what they're doing, that you can't help but be enthralled. And then there's the fact that all of Season 2 is available On-Demand. In HD.

Finally - let's discuss Californication. Chili-Peppers rip off claims and underrated David Duchovny aside, this show is delectable. Forget every 'family' show you've ever seen, and tune in to watch Duchovny's Hank Moody utterly unraveled by Los Angeles. References and inside jokes abound - so be forewarned, this one is not for the culturally illiterate. But it's funny as hell. 

And whatever happened to HBO? Well - with The Sopranos having sung their swan song, Rome having reached a point in history where nothing can happen in the story for...ohhh...about seven hundred years, Entourage & Flight of The Conchords not yet returned, and John From Cincinnati having sucked hard - Showtime is kicking the ass of the network that once claimed to be "not TV". (In the network's defense - Tell Me You Love Me was brilliant, and there's always The Wire.) Here's to healthy competition between the premium powerhouses - and here's to the joys of DVR, On-Demand, and TV on DVD.

Tomorrow, back to the usual non-sensical rants. Because this so wasn't, right?



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

...please where can I buy a unicorn?