Last Week’s Television Shows This Week

Where we discuss episodes from the past couple weeks.

1. Constantine and Grimm

I’d lost interest in these shows a while back, so the episodes had been piling up on the DVR.  Due to a tv drought (after all, how many times can you rewatch Outlander?), I finally caught up.  Guess what?  They’ve been kind of good.  Grimm in particular.

2.  Constantine and Supernatural

The Winchester conduct some good old-fashioned flashlight-foo.

“A Whole World Out There,” Constantine’s 11th episode (which aired way back on Jan 30) felt a lot like Supernatural.  Sure enough, this past week’s Supernatural‘s “Halt & Catch Fire” was eerily similar.  Both shows featured four college students (two guys, two gals) dealing with spirits beyond our realm.  Three of the students died:  first one of the guys, then a gal, then the other guy; leaving only the final gal to survive, but not before a close encounter with the dead spirit.  Methinks there is formulaic television at work.  Constantine‘s episode was more macabre than Supernatural‘s, but then, Constantine is pretty damned macabre in general.

3.  Arrow Last Week

Last week’s Arrow, The One Where Oliver Returned “Uprising,” left me uninspired.  Maybe it was because Felicity rejected Oliver.  Or because Ted Grant died (I’m assuming).  Two developments I  deeply dislike, so nothing to say.  Moving on…

Fandom-meter Readings

The winter hiatus is upon us.  With several posts sitting in my Draft box, perhaps it’s time to try a new tactic. The authors at Previously.TV use several different formats for their reviews, one of the being “Rankled,” in which characters (and maybe events?) are ranked according to their actions in various episodes.

Now is the perfect time to reflect on the shows I’ve been watching.  What are these shows and how do they fare on my current “fandometer”?  More importantly, which shows are interesting enough to cover?  (The photos below should give you a hint.A)

The Flash

Arrow

Supernatural

(How funny that these three shows are on the CW, because I am far from the demographic they’re aiming for.)

1.  The Flash is living up to its pre-season hype.  It’s been rather light-hearted (for a series that deals with crime, death, and evil).  Will that continue now that we’ve had two (re-)defining episodes?  More thoughts will be forth-coming.

2.  Arrow.  Yep, The Flash/Arrow crossover did exactly what it was supposed to do—pique my interest in a show I hadn’t watched recently.  I don’t know if Arrow will remain in the #2 spot, but since I’ve been watching seasons 1 and 2 nearly non-stop, this is where it stands as of today.  Again, more thoughts will be posted during the hiatus.

3.  Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  (That’s the last time you’ll see me type out the “official” title for a while.)  This show has been so good this season, it’s currently out-ranking Supernatural on the fandometer.  But a great first part of the season does not guarantee a great second part, especially given a watershed episode such as “What They Become.”

4.  Supernatural.  It’s hard to maintain momentum when a show’s been running as long as Supernatural.  The second half of season 8 proved the show still has some juice in it, and the Dean’s Mark of Cain could prove to be as engrossing as the Trials of season 8 if the show doesn’t veer too far into its “brother lying to brother” mode.

5.  Gotham.  Unlike The Flash, it hasn’t quite lived up to its pre-season hype.  The show has become so bogged down with the “Making of the Penguin” story, I’m not sure I’ll continue watching.

6.  Constantine.  It might have been ranked higher than Gotham, but I’ve yet to watch the latest episode, so how high can my interest be?  Actually, “A Feast of Friends,” in which John Constantine convinced an old friend to host an unbeatable demon nearly turned me off the show.  But the subsequent “Danse Voudou,” along with the introduction of recurring character Joe Corrigan, changed my mind.

7.  Grimm is another show I watch, but am seldom moved to discuss.  Nor do I see that changing in the near future.

8. Sleepy Hollow.  I’ve officially given up on the show.  “The Akeda” was yet another “end of the world is nigh” episode, and was a solid zero on the fandometer.  Not only did I stop watching after the first three minutes, I immediately deleted it from the DVR.

What’s New This Fall?

Last year, the 2013 television season brought us several new scifi-oriented shows.  Only a couple of them survived.  Does this year bode as well (or as poorly) for the genre?  I’m not sure.   I’ve been checking out some of the new show previews on Xfinity.  Here’s what I’ve gleaned so far.  Interestingly, these three remind me of three current shows.

Gotham (Fox)

The Gotham cast: All the main players are here.

The most highly-anticipated show of 2014 is a prequel to the Batman saga.  As with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I’m behind the power curve, having seen only a handful of the many Batman movies made in the last several years.  Ratjer, my exposure to the Batman world came from the Adam West Batman series of yesteryear; and its campy, cartoonish vibe was much different from the dark, forlorn tone of the movies and (I suspect) the comic books.