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The short version: more shows than Brilliant Husband and I can actually watch in a week. We got behind in the fall, caught up between semesters (when most shows took a few weeks off) and are now behind again. Also, I have probably forgotten a show or two. I hope they aren't important ones. Last time I did this, I forgot one of my favorites!
Agent Carter: My favorite favorite show right now—please watch if you are a Neilsen family, or watch on dvr in the first 24 hours if you can, so that the ratings will go up and it might get another (limited) season! I've already told you why you should be watching here. Those reasons still stand. And while I wish they would have more characters of color and hope that we didn't just see those few they do have in one episode, I have even more reason to love the show now.
Elementary: This show keeps developing the characters. In too many shows, characters stagnate (there's a TV Tropes term for when a character becomes increasingly defined by mannerisms, but if I look it up I'll never get this posted). On Elementary, Sherlock has grown greatly, and Joan perhaps had less growing to do, but she is also changing. And this season added Kitty Winter, about whom I won't say more because then I'd need the whole entry to be on Elementary. I highly recommend the show.
Agents of SHIELD: I'm not quite as enamored as I once was because Spoilers! I think the show has had problems with African American characters from the very start. I keep meaning to do a whole post on it. They were getting better this season, and now it's looking like hey! They really did add a couple of African American characters so that they could make us care about them and then threaten to kill one and, in a lovely bit of misdirection, kill the other! Instead—or possibly in addition! Seriously, guys? Also, Skye was never my favorite character, although I do like her, and I'm not entirely pleased with how centered around Skye the show has become.End spoilers I do like the additional characters and just hope they don't kill most of them off!
Gotham: I should not be watching this show. It's too brutal for sensitive me. Yet I got hooked, and now I'm kind of stuck. Camren Bicondova is a scene-stealer as Selina Kyle—every scene she's in, and I wish she were in more. Sean Pertwee as Alfred! And I love the relationship they've built between Gordon and Bullock. The scene where they meet again after Jim's reassignment! That was a "stop the TiVo while I digest this scene and stop laughing so I can hear what comes next" moment! Those actors have great chemistry together, and they've really developed it—that relationship is in a very different place than it was at the start of the season, and they're completely convincing. Jada Pinkett Smith is also compelling: I don't like her character, but I love that they're writing a woman as bad as the male villains and smarter than most. Set and atmosphere are brilliant, but very dark.
12 Monkeys: also probably too brutal. Oops. I thought the movie was really good (pace Roger Ebert, requiescat in pace). The series has characters with similar names and a similar basic premise, sending a man back in time due to a terrible disease, but most of the premise is different: where the movie presumed time can't be changed, the series counts on time being changed. I find the leads very appealing. I was about to complain about the very white cast, but I went to IMDb and found: the one character whose race I really couldn't determine (this show is also very dark! I'm having trouble seeing faces in some scenes!) is in fact non-white (and mixed race), and I see someone listed as appearing in most episodes who looks to be African American whom I don't recall seeing. Maybe I need to watch more than two episodes before I complain. Still, the ones I understand to be the core characters are all white. I may be wrong about the core, however.
Castle: Still watching. I am considering forgiving them for last season's cliffhanger, but it will never be the same. I feel that they went way too dark, and they haven't finished working through that arc. I do love that the show often manages to pass the Bechdel Test, albeit briefly: most conversations will work their way around to Castle eventually, but having the chief be a woman really helps. (We will get Lanie again too, right? They've had the other medical examiner the last few episodes.)
I will watch when we get it on BBC America: Broadchurch s2. Please don't spoil me!
Agent Carter: My favorite favorite show right now—please watch if you are a Neilsen family, or watch on dvr in the first 24 hours if you can, so that the ratings will go up and it might get another (limited) season! I've already told you why you should be watching here. Those reasons still stand. And while I wish they would have more characters of color and hope that we didn't just see those few they do have in one episode, I have even more reason to love the show now.
Elementary: This show keeps developing the characters. In too many shows, characters stagnate (there's a TV Tropes term for when a character becomes increasingly defined by mannerisms, but if I look it up I'll never get this posted). On Elementary, Sherlock has grown greatly, and Joan perhaps had less growing to do, but she is also changing. And this season added Kitty Winter, about whom I won't say more because then I'd need the whole entry to be on Elementary. I highly recommend the show.
Agents of SHIELD: I'm not quite as enamored as I once was because Spoilers! I think the show has had problems with African American characters from the very start. I keep meaning to do a whole post on it. They were getting better this season, and now it's looking like hey! They really did add a couple of African American characters so that they could make us care about them and then threaten to kill one and, in a lovely bit of misdirection, kill the other! Instead—or possibly in addition! Seriously, guys? Also, Skye was never my favorite character, although I do like her, and I'm not entirely pleased with how centered around Skye the show has become.End spoilers I do like the additional characters and just hope they don't kill most of them off!
Gotham: I should not be watching this show. It's too brutal for sensitive me. Yet I got hooked, and now I'm kind of stuck. Camren Bicondova is a scene-stealer as Selina Kyle—every scene she's in, and I wish she were in more. Sean Pertwee as Alfred! And I love the relationship they've built between Gordon and Bullock. The scene where they meet again after Jim's reassignment! That was a "stop the TiVo while I digest this scene and stop laughing so I can hear what comes next" moment! Those actors have great chemistry together, and they've really developed it—that relationship is in a very different place than it was at the start of the season, and they're completely convincing. Jada Pinkett Smith is also compelling: I don't like her character, but I love that they're writing a woman as bad as the male villains and smarter than most. Set and atmosphere are brilliant, but very dark.
12 Monkeys: also probably too brutal. Oops. I thought the movie was really good (pace Roger Ebert, requiescat in pace). The series has characters with similar names and a similar basic premise, sending a man back in time due to a terrible disease, but most of the premise is different: where the movie presumed time can't be changed, the series counts on time being changed. I find the leads very appealing. I was about to complain about the very white cast, but I went to IMDb and found: the one character whose race I really couldn't determine (this show is also very dark! I'm having trouble seeing faces in some scenes!) is in fact non-white (and mixed race), and I see someone listed as appearing in most episodes who looks to be African American whom I don't recall seeing. Maybe I need to watch more than two episodes before I complain. Still, the ones I understand to be the core characters are all white. I may be wrong about the core, however.
Castle: Still watching. I am considering forgiving them for last season's cliffhanger, but it will never be the same. I feel that they went way too dark, and they haven't finished working through that arc. I do love that the show often manages to pass the Bechdel Test, albeit briefly: most conversations will work their way around to Castle eventually, but having the chief be a woman really helps. (We will get Lanie again too, right? They've had the other medical examiner the last few episodes.)
I will watch when we get it on BBC America: Broadchurch s2. Please don't spoil me!
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*sigh*
I totally agree with Agent Carter and I still rather love Castle and Shield, though I can also see you annoyances with some of the aspects of the shows!
*HUGS*
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AoS has been doing quite a bit of misdirection with characters and plots in relation to the movies and comics, trying to be clever but it's often fallen flat.
If you want to know who Skye is really based on in the comics and what her backstory is comics-wise, take a look at this Wikipedia entry. It's not exactly a secret, but it wasn't spelled out because a lot of the comics stuff would be in her future.
There are two reasons they're centering around her, one of which is they're establishing the concept of Inhumans instead of mutants in the MCU because another studio owns the rights to use "mutant" for people with superpowers that didn't come from an experiment like Captain America or Hulk. Doesn't make me any happier to have the show focus on her even if we now know she was an already established character in the comics. First impression still sticks with me.
We've got two more movies in Phase 2 (Age of Ultron and Ant-Man), and a movie with the title Inhumans is next to last in Phase 3, but that won't be out until 2018. They're laying the groundwork both in the TV series and upcoming movies now.
I'm still in denial about Triplett. There were some comics fans who said he could be another Inhuman who has the ability to disappear. So when the cocoons broke open, it would appear that he crumbled to dust, but he just wasn't visible.
Series 2 of Broadchurch is on my list as well. I've had to opportunity to see it through other means, but I've been good and waited for BBC America. Mostly because I've got too many other things I'm trying to watch. I swear 90% of what I watch is on Tuesday night, and it takes me the rest of the week to watch it.
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It seems ridiculous to me that MCU can't use the word "mutants" freely. It's a perfectly good word and shouldn't be a trademark or anything of the kind.
I will join you in denial! I want Triplett to live! I was sure they were killing and then that they had killed Mac, but it seemed by the end of the episode that it was a fake-out. They introduced two African American male characters, made me like them, made me think I was losing one, and then took away the other. Grrr! Well, I'll try to hope for Triplett—but I don't want to hope too much, because there are Whedons involved.
I swear 90% of what I watch is on Tuesday night, and it takes me the rest of the week to watch it.
I don't even know what night some things air! When is Gotham on? I'd have to Google (or check the TiVo). We basically watch nothing during its actual time slot. Once BH unexpectedly got home and suggested we watch SHIELD, and I didn't even know it was on then!
I came to SHIELD for Phil Coulson. I stay for Melinda May. I always want more of May—and Coulson. They've had some great scenes together.
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I didn't know until I was looking up something else that in the comics, Eric Koenig was originally written as a Nazi who began to question his loyalties when Hitler invaded Poland. Then he ended up being put in charge of guarding Nick Fury, who convinced him to switch sides and help him escape. He eventually became a Howling Commando (those were Nick Fury's in the comics), and later a SHIELD agent.
In the MCU, Koenig is a SHIELD agent with two identical brothers (so far), with a little wink-nudge that they might actually be Life Model Decoys.
Things may change on the use of "mutant" in the future. A deal was just cut to finally bring Spider-man into the MCU, so anything can happen. Though at least for now, the X-Men version of a "mutant" can't be used, but they can use some of the characters by tweaking them to gain powers in other ways.
Denial is a wonderful place. I visit there often. Especially when Whedons are involved.
I don't pay attention to when most stuff airs, but Tuesday was so stacked I literally had to make a spreadsheet of what was on various channels in each time slot because the DVR kept giving me error messages about conflicts.
I theoretically have three tuners. One is routing my local broadcast channels into my DVR, the other two are for Dish channels. Before we got the antenna tuner into the Dish DVR, I paid for a local channel package, but stopped paying for it over a year ago... yet I'm still getting them. I'm not telling. :) If I didn't have that, I'd have to use my old standalone DVR to record some stuff from broadcast channels on Tuesday.
I love May and Coulson, and really want to see their history. I loved that great May vs. May fight scene, but also loved her deadpan delivery when she had to dress up with heels.
Phil Coulson: This is fun, right? Isn't this fun? Look. Cuff links.
Melinda May: [sternly] I will pay you $500 right now for a pair of flats.
I also have a soft spot for Fitz, and though I hate to see him dealing with permanent problems, I think it's good that the show had him acknowledging the risk before he blew the glass and actually going through with it and having lasting damage. Most shows would have had him come out fine, or there's a miracle cure or even long-term treatment as a fix, but that didn't happen and you have to see his friends expecting the "old Fitz" and not knowing how to deal with the Fitz they have.
I adore Mac coming in with no preconceptions and just listening to him, figuring out his intelligence is still in there, he just can't always get the words out, especially when his teammates are waiting expectantly for an answer. And yes, I ship them. ;)
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Melinda May: [sternly] I will pay you $500 right now for a pair of flats.
I love that scene! I pretty much love all their scenes together. (Sometimes, it feels like they're the only grownups—but they're the most fun.)
I am very fond of Fitz and of Simmons. I like that there isn't a magic cure for Fitz but that he has been slowly improving. I especially loved when he practiced and practiced for their latest mission and couldn't get the time below the maximum—because he was practicing with his bad hand. I'd had a moment of "wait—isn't that his bad hand? Why is he—" but cut myself off with "I must just be misremembering." I am torn between liking that the writers aren't settling for an easy solution for Fitz and for the difficulties he and Simmons are having, and being frustrated that they're torturing the characters. (And why can't Fitz and Simmons just talk like adults? Once they get through the latest crisis—if there isn't another immediate crisis. . . .)
I adore Mac coming in with no preconceptions and just listening to him, figuring out his intelligence is still in there, he just can't always get the words out, especially when his teammates are waiting expectantly for an answer.
YES!
I'm liking Bobbi too, but she needs to get over Hunter.
I want Triplett to live. Shoot, I want pretty much everyone to live. Except Ward. I think I've had enough now, and I wouldn't mind losing him.
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I like Bobbi, but I honestly don't see what Hunter adds to the group other than being her bitter ex who's still in love with her. Though I guess it's a change from the usual setup of the woman being the bitter ex who's still in love. Bobbi recommended him for the job, so that shows she still trusts him as an agent, but I really don't really see her as still being in love with him.
I do like that they seem to be going in the direction of Ward being more than a little insane with his delusions of being with Skye, but yet ultimately he's in it for #1 and isn't going for a real redemption arc. He doesn't deserve it, and at this point, I don't see how he could ever earn it. It would be a cheap plot to have him sacrifice himself for redemption, and I'm really hoping they don't end up doing it that way. He's evil. Let him stay that way until he dies. Which will hopefully be soon. It's a tossup on whether I want Skye or May to do the honors.
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My favorite line right now is "You think you've been playing nice?"
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I agree about the Nygma issue. Unlike Oswald Cobblepot, I feel like we're supposed to be watching a somewhat sympathetic character turn bad but I hate his behavior enough that I've already lumped him in with the villains.