Hawaii Five-0 @ Wikipedia
Hawaii Five-0 @ IMDb

Steve McGarrett is a Navy Seal who resigns his offto work as a cop on his home island Hawaii. But just not as any cop and not just for some reason. His father was killed by the man he has been hunting for years and the HPD can’t be trusted to solve this case. His team works under direct authority from the governor and gets way more leeway to solve their cases. He’s supported by a not so ordinary team.

The cast reads intriguing: Scott Caan (Ocean’s Eleven, The Fast and the Furious), Daniel Dae Kim (LOST), Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), Masi Oka (Heroes) and of course James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville).
The problem for me is that it is a straight-forward cop show like CSI or NCIS. There’s no special element in it. I’m sure it’s a good show that many people will enjoy but it’s just not my kind of show.
It doesn’t help at all that I’m partial towards the supposed baddie (Marsters).

What have Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof done to the mystery genre as such?

Who is ever going to believe the next guy who comes along in fall 2013 claiming to have written THE mystery show and promising that it will all pay off in season five?

Everyone will throw them seven letters into his face: BSG + LOST. And nobody will believe that he can do it – even if he actually could.

Is LOST the “cry wolf” one too many?

Why don’t they hire someone like J. Michael Straczynski who has proven(!) with Babylon 5 that he can keep track of a five season arc and do modifications should the need arise (actor jumps ship, …)?

(Can you see that I’m a teeny-tiny bit pissed off? See here and here, too.)

Dollhouse

The Dollhouse is a place where you can rent an actual person which will be imprinted with anything one desires (from being a professional hit man to being an exceptional escort).
When this show went into its last intermission I kinda lost track of it. I always enjoyed it but somehow I never managed to come around and watch the last five or six episodes. Maybe I’ll do it in the summer.

Heroes

Certain people discover that they have abilities that would be described as “super-human”. They use them to protect us while living in secret.
Once this was a great show (in season one). But ever since then it has been declining and gotten more illogical with every season. I’m not sad that it was discontinued.

LOST

The plane Oceanic 815 crashes on a tropical island. The survivors have to fight against the island, a smoke monster, the Others and several other parties. Not only in their own time, but also in the past and in other realities.
“It’s all about the characters.” From now on I will understand this as “We have no plan were we are going and it will make no sense but at least you’ll see the characters in a lot of emotional turmoil.”. The more distance I get from watching the finale the more disappointed I become. I wasn’t too keen on the Battlestar Galactica end either but at least they had a physical voyage that leads them somewhere in the end. And here? We have only vague hints of what would have happened if Smokey had left or if the island had sunk. Where’s the re-watch value? Why bother to look for clues in the early episodes when you know that there won’t be any answers for which the clues could be useful?
In essence, J. Michael Straczynski is still the only person who actually can pull off a five season arc.

Supernatural

Sam and Dean Winchester fight all kinds of supernatural beings that kill or use people in their plans to bring the Apocalypse.
Technically this show isn’t over. There will be a sixth season and maybe more. But the big arc that has driven the show over the last five years is over now and I’m glad I was on board for it, even though my trip was shorter (I watched the pilot merely a year ago).

Chuck 3×07 Chuck vs the Mask
This episode has cause quite an Internet Backdraft, for example: Chuck, “Chuck vs. the Mask”: Night at the museum, The Double-Edged Sword Of Devotion: ‘Chuck’ Vs. The Entitled Fan Base.
I agree on the part that Sarah/Clark KentShaw was indeed a bit rushed. But I disagree on the Chuck/Lana LangHannah part. And I think that both couples actually do have chemistry. Maybe that’s the reason people are so irritated about it.
I also agree on the assessment of one of the commentators on the first link that Chuck is trying to wear a mask to become a better spy and that he runs the risk of becoming the mask. My prognosis is that the mask is shattered when (and I’m totally guessing here, I have no actual spoiler infos) something happens to Hannah – she’s only a guest star after all.
So in sum, I liked this episode because I didn’t think it was unbelievable what I saw.

Heroes 4×19 Chapter Eighteen ‘Brave New World’
When a friend told me last week that this would be the season finale I was stumped. I couldn’t fathom how they could bring all these loose ends together in just one episode. They somehow did but it felt very rushed and in my opinion it fell a bit flat – but that seems to be a Heroes tradition since season one.
I liked it when they started slow, I got a bit bored when it didn’t speed up in the middle and then it end abruptly.
To be perfectly honest I wouldn’t care if there were never a fifth season – but if there is I’m probably going to watch it anyway in the slim hope that they manage to return to the quality of the first season (excluding the end).
Heroes seems to be the perfect example of a New Year rocket. It rises fast, burns brightly and is burned out even faster.

House M.D. 6×13 5 to 9
That was a great Cuddy episode, it worked really well. From this point of view it’s even more astonishing how Cuddy can bear House and his games and habits.
What bothered me about this (and also last(?)) episode is Lucas’s behaviour. House is a jerkass (with a heart of gold), he always has been and Cuddy knows that. But Lucas isn’t that much better. We saw him threaten House and Wilson over the condo issue and now he’s betting with House about his sex with Cuddy?! If he isn’t a good person, Cuddy might as well choose the original bad one instead of this copycat…

Human Target 1×05 Run
The show is very predictable; there are no hidden plots or meaning, no surprises: WYSIWYG. For example, it was totally obvious that the D.A. was his daughter. But somehow that is part of the fun. It’s like riding a rollercoaster. You know it’ll be fast, you’ll get two downhills, maybe a looping but in the end you’ll get safely back to the station.

Castle 2×15 Suicide Squeeze
Parts of the reveal were pretty predictable this time, with Castle’s background and all… Apart from that not much else happened either.

Burn Notice 3×13 Enemies Closer
One has to wonder why Michael actually does what he does. The series premise prevents that he actually becomes a spy again or the show would be over. But that is a narrative point of view. But even inside the question stands whether Michael actually wants to become a spy again one day. He has been burned for 2.5 years now and his life has changed. He isn’t the man who got beaten up in Africa anymore. So why does he bother himself with Gilroy and his secret agenda?

Cougar Town 1×15 When a Kid Goes Bad
A cool episode again. What’s great about this show is that it hasn’t two or three distinct plots per episode. Sometime it’s even hard to figure out what the plot actually is. Everyone is running into everyone else and taking part in their story. This episode started out with the issue of manscaping and ended up with Christmas decoration on Valentine’s Day…

How I Met Your Mother 2×15 Rabbit or Duck
“The Phone from Hell” was great and so was “The Naked Man”. It was funny to see this extremely fast-paced episode and it had a heart-warming ending.

Leverage 2×14 The Three Strikes Job
It was certainly a very interesting start but I’ll hold judgement until I’ve seen part 2.

Life Unexpected 1×04 Bong Intercepted
I’m afraid this is not my kind of show; it’s too happy-worldy-endy for my taste. Nothing against a happy end, but not in every episode after a major blow-out. I’ll keep watching for a few more episodes to give it a chance, but I don’t think it’ll work for me.

LOST 6×03 What Kate Does
This was a bit of a letdown after this superb season opener. Once again it didn’t happen much on the island (or off for that matter) and I have no idea where the off-island story is supposed to be going (and not in a Oh!-So-many-clues-and-riddles! way). I hope they know what they are doing and don’t deliver a Battlestar Galactica or Heroes ending.

Smallville 9×12 Warrior
This was another really cool episode. It was funny to see Chloe and “Warrior Angel” together and also Clark and Zatanna. I also really liked the ending because it would be another great pairing.
Too bad they didn’t show the scene where Lois and Clark went to the Costume Ball, I really would have liked to see this.
I also really liked it when Clark made the typical superhero move and ripped his shirt open.

Supernatural 5×14 My Bloody Valentine
It was a really good and dark episode where one can really feel that the Apocalypse is actually coming. I especially liked Jensen’s portrayal of the slowly breaking Dean who becomes ever more “mechanical” and less of a real person – and then having this end of the episode…

The Big Bang Theory 3×15 The Large Hadron Collision
When Penny showed the first signs of sickness I thought Sheldon had something to do with it – but I guess that would be against the mood of the show.
I liked the fact that Leonard openly stood against Sheldon and his ridiculous “roommate agreement” until the end. I think that’s good for both of them and the show itself.
Overall I had much fun with this episode.

The Good Wife 1×14 Hi
“Number 12. A judge….” I loved it how Kalinda managed to phrase her statement in a way that “convinced” the judge to stop this kind of questioning.
But I also liked the primary case and how it played out.

The Vampire Diaries 1×14 Fool Me Once
As I’ve said before I like it that they don’t stretch the arcs to all eternity but give the viewer an intermediate result once in a while. OK, so Catherine wasn’t in the tomb but at least they opened it now and can get on with it.

Two and a Half Men 7×15 Aye, Aye, Captain
These two episodes were very funny, the second one in particular (when Charlie was drunk) but the downer ending was still fitting. I just hope that this isn’t the end because Chelsea has become an important part of the show for me and seeing what’s going on in Charlie Sheen’s real life there is a chance that this could be the last season…

White Collar 1×11 Home Invasion
I have to admit, I did not recognize her by her face, but when she spoke I knew I knew that voice and suddenly it made *bling*: Smallville’s Alicia Baker (aka Sarah Carter).
I enjoyed the episode with Peter’s staying at Neal’s and the interference of Alex during the undervcover op and all. It’s a lot fun to watch.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1×03 / 1×04 Legends / The Thing in the Pit
It’s still a lot of blood and sex. But apart from that? Not much to be honest.

CW 07

Human Target 1×01 Pilot
The pilot episode certainly looked interesting. The action was well balanced above realistic and below unrealistic. It looks like as if it’s going to be Die Hard or Lethal Weapon in a series format and I certainly will watch more episodes of it.
“You wore a vest? Where’s my vest?” – “I’m your vest.”

24 8×01 – 8×04 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Dammit. I should have known better. I decided to watch the season en bloc when it is over. But I just had to peak a little and was already drawn back in…
I love Jack’s new “Are we done here? Can I go home now?” attitude. Of course they aren’t done and Jack can’t go home.
When I read that that Freddie Prince jr. (Wing Commander, Scooby Doo) – He married my Buffy, dammit!!! – would take the part of the leading CTU Field Officer I was a bit worried. But he has gotten older and looks like he can pull it off.
Of course there are again the typical 24 plot points like the incompetent CTU boss, the CTU member who has private problems and I am already wondering who the mole is – but that’s OK, it’s 24 after all.
What I also like is that – aside from the 24 alumni who have returned this season – these episodes feel like a huge School Reunion party: The aforementioned Freddie Prince jr., Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica) – looks gorgeous btw -, Paul Wesley (Stefan in The Vampire Diaries), Cliff Simon (Ba’al in Stargate SG-1), David Anders (Takezo Kensei / Adam Monroe in Heroes, Julian Sark in Alias), Jürgen Prochnow (Dune, Das Boot) and according to the CTU files Callum Keith Rennie (Ray in Due South, Leoben in Battlestar Galactica) will also appear anytime soon.

Life Unexpected 1×01 Pilot
I was made aware of this series at least twice. The second time was a few days ago when blogs reviewed the pilot episode. But I’ve seen bits and pieces of this episode before – most likely in a trailer a few months back. And even though I had forgotten the show in the meantime I now remember that I decided back then that I’d give it a try.
I really liked the pilot. The characters are believable and down-to-earth. Even though the show runs on The CW this isn’t Beverly Hills 90210 or Gossip Girl, this is different. As with every show it now depends on what kind of storylines they are going to tell and how this triangle+attachments is going to work out.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1×01 / 1×02 The Red Serpent / Sacramentum Gladiatorum
Lots of nudity (male and female). Even more blood. Better you put a bucket below your telly in case it spills out of the screen. The optic leans more towards 300 than Gladiator, especially when there’s blood flowing. The problem is the story. These first two episodes show how Spartacus became a Gladiator but it didn’t give the viewer an idea what the entire show is going to be about. And that’s why I am not yet convinced. To quote Buffy’s Spike: “I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke” but I also need a real story in between.
Time will tell … at least you now get the chance you never got with Xena: To see Lucy Lawless in the nude.

Chuck 3×04 Chuck vs Operation Awesome
The only thing I’ve ever seen Brandon Routh in was Superman Returns but here he didn’t remind me of his character there. I like him as addition to the team because he could stir things up a little.
I don’t know if it’s just my imagination because they announced it but the show actually feels a bit less funny and a bit more serious. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an Action Comedy and there’s plenty of fun in it. But the general tone during the spy action seems to have darkened a little since last year. I’m not complaining – I like it.

Castle 2×13 Sucker Punch
I didn’t think that they would ever bring up the topic of Beckett’s mum’s murder ever again since they so thoroughly dismissed it at the beginning of the season.
I liked how they handled this case and I also liked the end a lot. Now I hope that they don’t forget it again but actively push that story forward.

House M.D. 6×10 The Down Low
This episode had the perfect House mix. Both ploys were really enjoyable (though I had suspected that House helped Foreman – which he did not) and the case was a really good one. I liked how the characters interacted and I also thought it was a good ending to the story even when it was a sad one.

How I Met Your Mother 5×13 Jenkins
While the name-giving Jenkins story was funny I loved the “but, erm” storyline. The drinking game was so cool.
Only while I am writing this I notice that the “mother” topic was put on hold again, but since I didn’t miss it during the episode I can’t really use it as an argument…

The Big Bang Theory 3×13 The Bozeman Reaction
He considers Penny a friend, how cute. I thought it was great that all the characters got their fair share of jokes and screen time (even though Sheldon was the light house again).
I am also pleasantly surprise of how much a non-issue Leonard’s and Penny’s relationship is. I feared it would become the center story with an ultimate break-up and then on and off again (Ross/Rachel or Clark/Lana anyone?). To not making it a major plot point is certainly an interesting move (though I still think there is something coming…).

Two and a Half Men 7×13 Yay, No Polyps
This was also fun, especially the way it played out – even though it played with an old cliché.
Funny thing: I recently showed someone the Pilot episode and recognized Chelsea in there. As it turns out, before Chelsea became Chelsea in Season 6, she also was Suzanne (Season 1), Tina (Season 2) and Nina (Season 5). Not that I mind but since when does Hollywood have a shortage of beautiful women?

Heroes 4×15 Chapter Fourteen ‘Close to You’
I don’t want to complain – or actually I want, otherwise I wouldn’t write this – but the season has aired about 2/3 of its episodes and by now I wish something big should happen. As I said in the beginning I have nothing against a slow start but I didn’t mean that nothing should happen. The goal of the season has been clear for a while now (stop Samuel) but when they did the same thing in the first season with Sylar it was much more interesting – except for the end which was kinda lame.

Heroes 4×16 Chapter Fifteen ‘Pass/Fail’
I have to say I found this episode a bit boring, neither the Hiro nor the Sylar/Claire nor the Samuel storyline really worked for me, especially since I don’t really know what to make of that trial (Was it a dream? But the how he got healed? Was it “real”? I hardly think so). And that Samuel is not the most stable person isn’t exactly news.

Cougar Town 1×12 Scare Easy
And Jules dumped another guy. It was an OK episode but Jules was a bit too quirky for my taste in this one. But I liked the ending; it’d make for a cool Slasher movie.

Cougar Town 1×13 Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Oh yeah, this one will have consequences. I liked the switches between all the couples and their conversations to point out all the differences between them. And I like their attempts at writing songs, it’s a cool new element (or I haven’t noticed it before Scare Easy).

The Good Wife 1×12 Painkiller
The case itself wasn’t that interesting this time, but the story around Kalinda was. Maybe I missed a bit but I couldn’t figure out for which side she’s now really working and where she’s only pretending – if she doesn’t play them all. That was very intriguing and I will figure it out over the next episodes.

Bones 5×12 The Proof in the Pudding
That was a really nice toying with the JFK assassination conspiracy. I liked it how went back and forth about whether this was actually him and thus whether JFK was shot by two persons. But the panicking Camille was also great.

Burn Notice 3×10 A Dark Road
Finally Michael is back. And Cagney & Lacey, too. Both women interacted very well with each other until the bitter end. I still like this show very much, it’s a great cast and a cool story, even though they just exchange one bad guy who looks over his shoulder with the next and everything else remains the same.

Human Target 1×02 Rewind
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous episode but I hope that was just a glitch. Time will tell.

Leverage 2×11 The Bottle Job
I believe this story actually worked better with Jeri Ryan in it. Nothing against Gina Bellman, but Jeri is sexier and that was exactly what they needed to pull this double con. And I have to say I didn’t see that ending coming. Especially the recaps were fun because of this.

The Vampire Diaries 1×11 Bloodlines
Just when I feared that they had softened Damon I can calm down, he shows that he’s just as nasty as ever. Good for him.
What I didn’t understand was why they revealed the secret whether or not the teacher was a Vampire (with a ring); they could have toyed with the viewers for a while there.

White Collar 1×08 Hard Sell
So, no game-changer after all. OK then, fine with me.
Even though I am not a big comic collector, I would totally be awesome to have the contents of that vault, especially the “Action Comics” #1 issue.

Supernatural 5×11 Sam, Interrupted
That was a nice twist on the “checked into an asylum” storyline that appears on every fantasy show at some point. It was just a bit incredible how Sam and Dean were constantly able to open all kind of doors in the loony bin. Security and sweeping of patients does not seem to be a big issue there.

CW 04

Since everybody seems to be starting to count at zero instead of one the first decade of this century and millennium is now over. So it’s time to recap these past ten years and take a look at the TV Shows it has given us.

Let me give my résumé at the beginning: Of the four decades I know TV Shows from (70s – 00s) this was without question the best decade for us TV junkies. When you read my review you might say in the end “Hey what about <insert your favourite here>?” (e.g. The Sopranos, Dexter, The Wire, Six Feet Under, …) but that’s exactly my point. This decade has given us so many outstanding shows that it was impossible to watch them all. Also, everybody has a different set of favourite genres but I’d say that every genre got their fair share of excellent series in the last years.

But let’s face it: There’s rarely any series (if there’s one at all) that could keep up the quality and its appeal for its entire run. Some had a bad year in between, some fell short at the end. But even in these “bad years” they had more quality episodes in it than entire shows from previous decades. So all the shows I am going to name have of course aspects that can be criticized and I invite you to do so.

For me the most outstanding characteristic of this past decade’s shows is that they are more often than not more about the “journey” of the character(s) than the actual events. It’s not the character who shines a light upon the unfolding events but it’s the events that shine a light upon the character and his development. I have to say that shows (hereby excluding comedy shows that work with stereo- and archetypes) that don’t have a real character development don’t interest me at all. But if the character development is interesting I might even watch shows from genres that usually don’t interest me at all.

If the character development is interesting enough I might even set the fact aside that my second favourite characteristic is missing: A real story-arc. The first TV Show in my TV universe that had a real story-arc, was Babylon 5. Later Star Trek: DS9 did the same albeit not in that quality and complexity. But these shows were two of the rare exception in the 90s (another famous exception would be Twin Peaks, but I never watched it). It seemed that viewers weren’t interested in either developing characters or story-arcs.

This drastically changed in this decade and one show had an early start to this:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

I believe Buffy is one of the most studied TV Shows there is, possibly only surpassed by the Star Trek universe and comparing the age of both franchises one sees how truly amazing that is. Just take a look at Slayage Online to get a glimpse.
I had of course heard of Buffy but ignorant as I was I did not watch a single episode during its original run. It was only in the year 2007, three years after the show had ended, that I discovered it for me and it swept me of my feet. This show does not deal in black & white, every character is flawed and yet tries to contribute in the ultimate fight against evil.
For me there’s not one season I’d qualify as “bad” even though some of them are very different than the others.

Angel (1999-2004)

On the dawn of the new millennium Angel relocated from Sunnydale to Los Angeles and opened a second front against the apocalypse. The show was different from Buffy but the characters were still wonderfully drawn and the story was very good. The show had its down during the fourth season which I didn’t like that much but got better again only to get cancelled. But it went out with a BOOM. “Let them fight the good fight. Someone has to fight the war.”

And then the new millennium began.

24 (2001-)

“All Events Occur in Real-Time.” This show introduces a whole lot of concepts in a TV Show. Since everything happens “live” they depend heavily on split-screens to show multiple events in different places. It’s also one of the first shows that uses technology to a sometimes ludicrous extend. But its compact and thrilling story-telling totally makes up for it.
There have been years where the story absolutely jumps the shark, especially the fourth and fifth season. But then the writers manage to refresh it again end they’ve delivered a real highlight with the seventh season and I truly hope they can keep it up in the soon-to-begin eighth year.

Alias (2001-2006)

The show surely declined during its five-year run but overall it’s a fascinating piece of television, with its elaborate Rambaldi-arc and its shifting allies and enemies. It especially wins it fascination from all these grey characters where it isn’t certain on which side they’re on (for now) and what their hidden agenda is. It also uses a remarkable amount of plot locations all over the world that coincides with the number of wigs the main character Sydney Bristow seems to have.

Smallville (2001-)

Smallville is a complicated topic. The label says “How Clark Kent became Superman”. On its face it’s a show about teenage drama mixed with some action pieces. Many don’t like it because it often breaks with the official Superman canon (whatever that means in a comic universe that retcons itself all the time…). Others have problems with Clark himself who is not yet the iconic character he’s supposed to become. Still others had problems with the prolonged presence of Lana Lang and the very existence of the not-in-the-comic character Chloe Sullivan. And they are supported in their criticism by the often kitschy storylines and the Freak-of-the-Week episodes in the early seasons. The show also lacks a mastermind who has a clear idea of where the journey is supposed to end up. This was painfully obvious during the seventh and eighth season that fell flat on every aspect of story-telling.
But still, the show has something that draws me in – even though I never read a single Superman comic. Despite their problems the characters are really enjoyable and most of them undergo a real development. If I had to name a favourite character (excepting Clark) it would be Allison Mack’s Chloe Sullivan even though they heavily damaged the character in the last two years. The second one is Erica Durance’s Lois Lane who is slowly taking the place that is rightfully hers.
I have to admit I was nearly giving up on the show but the ninth season is developing really great so far – let’s just hope they can keep it up this time.

Firefly (2002)

Maybe it was so good because it was so short-lived but the 14 episodes of this series showed a potential worthy of a Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel) show. This show literally brought the wild west into space. One has to wonder what this show could have achieved if it would have had a reasonable lifetime.

Two and a Half Men (2003-)

Sitcoms have always been era-bound for me. I’ve watched many sitcoms during their original run. When I watched them again years later I didn’t find them as funny as the first time or don’t find them really funny at all anymore. Maybe all the sitcoms in this list will fare the same fate. But for now I really enjoy the two brothers, their house-keeper, their mother and their son/nephew very much.

Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)

Most sci-fi shows are plot-oriented. The spaceship that flies from planet to planet to go where no one has gone before. The station that is the last hope for peace. The team that searches for technology to protect Earth from the Evil Overlords. The fleet around the Galactica also has a goal: to find Earth. But the story is about the crew of these ships and about their robotic enemies who are as diverse as the Humans. In the end it’s not as simple as in the beginning: Humans vs. Cylons. The journey will re-shape all of them in a way none of them could have anticipated.
Unfortunately the end was a bit disappointing because the writers thought too late about where the journey is supposed to be going.

House M.D. (2004-)

House is a typical Procedural. Basically every episode has the same general plot. If that were everything to it, I would not bother to watch it. But it is more. All the other characters sum up to a counter-balance to House, to keep him in check. While House spirals down in his medication addiction they try to pull him up again and they manifest as a wall when he tries to go too far. Every one of them is necessary and due to recent events in the sixth season I fear that one element will be sorely missed in future episodes: Humanity. They have to find a way to restore the balance. House doesn’t work with just House.

LOST (2004-2010)

A great mystery show that will hopefully have an end this year that is worthy of it. For me the entire appeal of the show depends now on if they manage to give satisfying answers to all (or at least most of) the riddles they produced over the last five years. Otherwise it might have the same fate as Battlestar Galactica. They promised that they would have a satisfying end in mind – let’s hope they can keep this promise. If they do this will be one of the most memorable shows of this decade.

Veronica Mars (2004-2007)

After the 80s I was never to much into private investigation stories but this show was highly praised – even though German television dump-aired it in the middle of the night. And it rightfully got the praise. It combines teenage drama and crime/PI stories to an excellent mix and has an excellent cast, especially the ones of the Mars family. Unfortunately the third season deviated from the way the story was told in the first two seasons and the show never got a fourth season. But these three seasons are absolutely worth checking out.

Bones (2005-)

Another Procedural that combines technological overdose and a relatively strict plot pattern. But it has a fascinating set of characters who complement each other (both at work as well as emotionally). Just with House I do not watch it for the case of the week but to see how the characters grow and how they struggle with their past and try to find their future.

Doctor Who (2005-)

The Brits are different. But that doesn’t make them less interesting. The Doctor is a national institution just like the Queen. The show as a whole has been running since 1963 with a big break during the nineties. In 2005 they revived the show and the Ninth Doctor and his companion Rose took the TARDIS and travelled to the end of the Earth. The Tenth Doctor even took it to the end of the universe itself. And in 2010 the Eleventh Doctor will take command of ship and he too will travel to places and times one can hardly imagine.
In order to like Doctor Who one has to like a certain kind of humour and has to appreciate weird stories and ideas. To give you an idea: If you like/disliked the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series by Douglas Adams or the “Thursday Next” book series by Jasper Fforde or the Australian TV Show Farscape you’re probably going to like/dislike Doctor Who.

How I Met Your Mother (2005-)

In one regard sitcoms are like all other shows: There are those that are episode-based and those that are arc-based and then there are those in the middle. While Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are more (though not strictly) episode-based, so is HIMYM more arc-based. The very title points to it. In this regard HIMYM is the successor of Friends; the life of the characters is actually changing and not a (relative) constant.
Although, now that the show is in its fifth year I feel that it is time that Ted actually meets his future wife. I don’t have the desire to drag out every show endlessly. I prefer a good closure over a never-ending story.

Supernatural (2005-2010?)

Two things brought me to Supernatural: Firstly my disappointment of Smallville over the last two years. While reading and writing in the KryptonSite.com forums I often read good comments about this show that otherwise totally went below my radar. Secondly my getting closer to the horror genre by watching Buffy and Angel. I’ve never been a great friend of the horror genre and probably never will be – but this show intrigued me. At first it looked like a standard Monster-of-the-Week show but soon it developed its own story-arc that is culminating in this year’s battle against the apocalypse and Lucifer himself.
According to the show runner, this will be the last year of Dean’s and Sam’s journey and I really like that idea because then the show has managed something many shows fail to do: To tell one big story and to bring that story to a defined end.

Heroes (2006-)

Heroes is now in its fourth year and it’s doubtful whether there will be a fifth. It started with great promise and the first year was really great. But then basically everyone lost their way and the characters started to act uncharacteristically and erratically and unpredictably and it all went down the drain. I am still watching it because I like the characters but it’s not nearly as much fun as in the beginning.
If you’re new to this show, buy the first season and probably leave it that.

The Big Bang Theory (2007-)

The best sitcom there currently is. The four geeks and their hot neighbour are a really great ensemble and the hilariousness goes up to eleven when Penny and Sheldon clash into each other. There’s nothing I can laugh more about than these five.

Burn Notice (2007-)

I don’t even remember how I stumbled across this show but Michael Westen is basically James Bond and Q in one person. He’s the spy who builds his gadgets himself. His entourage is also great: The trigger-happy ex-IRA ex-girlfriend, the now retired former spy and friend – and his mother. Since he can’t work as spy anymore he has become the local MacGyver / Michael Knight / A-Team of Miami, Florida. He still tries to get his old “job” back but there is someone who does not want him back and Michael has no idea, why.

Chuck (2007-)

Chuck is an action comedy about a guy who accidentally gets all the secrets of the CIA and NSA uploaded into his brain. What makes things worse: His knowledge is now the only copy in existence. He gets two personal bodyguards: The CIA agent Sarah Walker and the NSA Major John Casey. The three of them try to use Chuck’s knowledge to protect the country while hiding the fact that he knows what he knows and without getting exposed as spies by enemies and family.
This show is pure fun and I am really glad that they got a third season. The three main characters are great but all the supporting characters from Chuck’s family and the Buy More superstore form a great ensemble.

True Blood (2008-)

There are Vampires in the world and they live openly among us. But not only Vampires, but also mind-readers and shape-shifters and others. And in Bon Temps, Louisiana the waitress Sookie Stackhouse meets Bill – the very first Vampire in their small town. But mankind has still getting used to the idea that Vampires actually exist and there are quite a few animosities between both groups, especially when people get killed and it looks like Vampires were behind it.
This is a very graphic show based on the “Sookie Stackhouse” book series by Charlotte Harris. But it’s quite fascinating to watch all these different people and how they deal with life (and death).

Being Human (2009-)

A Vampire, a Werewolf and a Ghost are moving in together. What sounds like a joke is basically the question that what it means to be Human. All three struggle with themselves and their fate. The Vampire is the oldest one; he’s fought as a young man in the First World War. The other two have only recently become “different”. This British series is not a comedy although it is funny at times and as most British series relatively short (the first season has only six episodes). But the story it’s telling is really worth watching.

So, that’s it. Let’s hope that this new decade can at least hold the quality bar if not even outshine the last decade since the producers should have learned by now that high-quality television is something viewers do appreciate.

You Can’t Go Home Again

Synopsis: During the last attack Starbuck’s Viper was heavily damaged and she had to eject in the atmosphere of a small moon. But she also shot down the Raider that shot her down and it crashed on a near-by site. The problem is that she has no means of communication, Galactica does not know where to look for her and she’s running out of oxygen in 46 hours. Luckily for her, Adama is not willing to leave her behind.

My Opinion: I love this episode because it showed perfectly the triumvirate Adama²-Starbuck who would do anything for one another and once again Starbuck was awesome. Could you be more cool than return home with a commandeered enemy ship even when you stink like a latrine? But I also liked how the Cylons on Caprica (especially Caprica-Eight) manipulate Helo. Their scheming shows how human they really are.

Litmus

Synopsis: It is not yet publicly known that Cylons can look like Humans and another Number Five (looks like the reporter Aaron Doral) walks into Galactica and kills himself in a suicide bombing after he was cornered. Adama orders an investigation on how Doral got his hands on explosives and a detonator and the Master-at-Arms discovers that Chief Tyrol is lying about his wherabouts during the time of the bombing which makes him a suspect of treason.

My Opinion: Now the secret is out. This episode reminded me of Star Trek TNG’s The Drumhead which also featured a witch hunt but here it wasn’t fully believable. Yes she may be the Master-at-Arms and Adama gave her command authorization but she went over the line too quickly for someone who isn’t used to boss Commanders around.

Six Degrees of Separation

Synopsis: Another Number Six copy with the name Shelly Godfrey comes aboard Galactica and claims that she has evidence that connects Dr. Baltar to the failure of the colonial defences and that in fact he planted a bomb in the defence computer system. Baltar finds this outrageous (he didn’t plant a bomb after all, he just unknowingly slept with the enemy) but he can’t tell anybody that Shelly is a Cylon (Why would he know that?).

My Opinion: Baltar and Head-Six, what a lovely pair. It was such a great scene when Baltar was in CIC and was introduced to Shelly and he searched for her, totally ignoring the woman standing in front of him – assuming that this was his imaginary Six. I like Head-Six scenes in general because she gets him in awkward situations where he has to simultaneously* talk to her and the other (real) person in the room. And once again he managed to wind himself out of a tight spot. Even if he isn’t a real villain like the classic Baltar, he’s my favourite villain on the show.

* I wonder if I will ever write that word correctly, spellchecker has to correct me every time…

33

Synopsis: The Cylons somehow always know the position of the fleet and follows it mercilessly. 33 minutes after the fleet has arrived at the new jump coordinates a Cylon fleet arrives also and starts to attack. The fleet has just commenced its 237th jump and the pilots and the crew of the Galactica have been awake for more than 5 days straight without relieve or pause. They have to put an end to this or they will make one final, deadly mistake.
Meanwhile another Number Eight (numerical designation of human copies that look like Boomer) pretends to have come back to Caprica to get Karl “Helo” Agathon out of there.

My Opinion: This was a great start to the show because you are thrown right in. One doesn’t know how much time lay between their jump over the “red line” and the first time the Cylons found them again but it can’t have been much. And then we see them already 5 days into this 33 minutes rhythm, all exhausted and on duty for over 130 hours and no hope of release except death. It was only the first of many hard situations to come but it showed directly that this won’t be an easy journey.

Water

Synopsis: When Boomer (a Cylon who doesn’t know she is one) regains consciousness she finds herself soaking wet and she also has a plastic explosive plus a detonator in her hands. When she secretly brings it back she discovers that 6 more are missing from an arms locker. Soon after a huge explosion erupts in Galactica and 60% of the water tanks are emptied into space. If the fleet doesn’t find a new water source it won’t survive.

My Opinion: This was also a good episode, I liked it how Boomer struggled with herself, how she tried to override her Cylon programming without even knowing that it’s there. I also liked it how both Adama and Roslin didn’t really like the ceremonial pomp but both did it to make the other one feel better. I also took notice of Alex “Crashdown” Quartararo for the first time, because now I know his actor Sam Witwer from the eight season of Smallville.

Bastille Day

Synopsis: They have found water, but in its liquid form it is to salty to be used, but there are also huge masses of frozen fresh water. It will be hard and dangerous work to mine that water and Apollo offers freedom points for the men on the prison ship if they are willing to help. But the prisoners stand united behind former terrorist Tom Zarek who uses the situation to take hostages and demands elections.

My Opinion: While I liked to see the classic BSG alumni Richard Hatch (Apollo in classic BSG), I never cared much for Tom Zarek or his “mission”. At no time this character was somehow likeable, he’s simply a bad guy who happens to be human. This was also the first episode that Starbuck becomes an all-purpose Swiss knife (Is that a pleonasm?) because otherwise there would be no reason why she would lead the marines to rescue the hostages and it’s also her who carries the sniper rifle. But I am not mad about this, because it gives her more screen time.

But I really love this quote from Adama: “There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

Act of Contrition

Synopsis: An accident on the landing deck occurs which kills twelve Viper pilots and injures seven more. Adama gives Starbuck the task of training pilots to become Viper pilots since Starbuck had been an instructor before the war. What Adama doesn’t know is that Starbuck passed Adama’s son Zek in basic flight even though he should have failed because she was engaged to him. Soon after he died in his plane.

My Opinion: Another thing I like about this show: Past events are rarely forgotten, no pushing of the reset button after the episode has ended. And also the occasional flashback to a pre-war Caprica. This episode also introduces two new pilots: Brendan “Hot Dog” Costanza and Louanne “Kat” Katraine and the latter one will become a worthy challenger of Starbuck’s and she will call Starbuck out when no one else dares to. Starbuck needs that on occasion and that’s why I like Kat.

Season 1: Disc 2

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Synopsis: John awakes in a hospital and is told that it’s shortly after he crashed Farscape-1 and blew the experiment. But John is not falling for this again. Still, in the beginning everything is much more realistic than the holo show the Ancients created. But then his shrink is a blue woman that looks suspiciously like Zhaan. Now the question is where is he and what does the person want that keeps him there.

My Opinion: One of these wacky episodes take that place in John’s head and where even more weird things happen than in a usual episode. Funny to see this episode one day after Galactica’s Six Degrees of Separation with the difference that John ignores Head-Scorpius (or “Harvey”) in his head and Baltar ignored a real Six in the real world. What I also find really enjoyable, is when these alien characters are placed in a real-world environment. On Moya it all feels natural but when Dargo and Chiana ride a cabriolet on a highway somehow that looks really strange.

The Locket

Synopsis: In order to hide from the Peacekeepers, Moya has entered a nebula that strongly reduces sensor range and makes it hard to navigate. Aeryn takes a shuttle to take a look at the other side but when she returns she is 165 cycles older and claims to have lived a long and peaceful life on a planet. Then she returns to her granddaughter. But John won’t give up on her and follows her only to get stuck, too. But it’s not them who live in the wrong time frame, it’s the nebula where time stands still and Moya has to get out of there quickly.

My Opinion: Faster aging (at least from the POV of the viewer). Another common theme throughout science-fiction series. I like this kind of episodes, especially when more than one character is involved, even when it’s always undone at the end of the episode. It gives the authors and the characters a chance to undergo a certain developement, to create a relationship that might not be possible under normal circumstances (e.g. when they are both military) or that so far is only an allusion. So yes, that was a good episode.

V @ IMDb
V @ Wikipedia

Out of the blue huge spaceships appear above the major cities all over the world. In 29 ships the Visitors – as they call themselves – came to Earth to make trade. They need a mineral that exists in abundance on Earth and they are willing to give technologies and cures that don’t exist on Earth. But are they really putting all their cards on the table?

It wasn’t bad. And I bet for someone who doesn’t know the original it’s a cool start. But this wasn’t a restart like the one from Battlestar Galactica. Somehow this felt a bit too indistinctive, even when they used a slightly different back story. But all the other elements were there. The Human spokesperson, the secret resistance, the resistance within the aliens, the “Hitler Youth”-alike youth organization, … Don’t get me wrong I will watch it, but so far the only thing that surprised me was the identity of resistance alien.