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Jan/10

3

TV Shows – A Decade in Retrospect

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.

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Categories: Short Review, Thought Storm
Tags: 24 · Alias · Angel · Babylon 5 · Battlestar Galactica · Being Human · Bones · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Burn Notice · Chuck · Dexter · Doctor Who · Farscape · Firefly · Friends · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · James Bond · Knight Rider · LOST · MacGyver · Six Feet Under · Smallville · Star Trek DS9 · Superman · Supernatural · The A-Team · The Big Bang Theory · The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy · The Sopranos · The Wire · Thursday Next · True Blood · Twin Peaks · Two and a Half Men · Veronica Mars
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Sep/09

28

The Pilot Marathon Part 9

Deutsche Version | Part 8

Burn Notice

What’s the show about?
Michael Westen used to be a spy. But one day he got “burned” and was dumped in Miami. Ever since he tries to find out why he was burned and by whom. In the meantime he helps people the normal police can’t or won’t help. He has help, though: A trigger-happy ex-girlfriend, who used to rob banks for the IRA; another retired spy who has settled down in Miami and makes his “special lady friends” happy; and his mother!

“Pilot”
Michael Westen was about to finalize a deal with a local crime lord to protect a certain piece of land in Africa, but when he tries to get the money wired he’s informed that the deal is off because he got burned. Although they beat the crap out of him he manages to escape. The next time he regains full consciousness, he’s in Miami and his “emergency contact” (his ex-girlfriend) Fiona is sitting by his bed. He tries to find out why he got burned and how his mother had fount out that he was in town. Since his credit cards won’t work anymore he takes a small job to find out who stole a number of paintings from a rich man’s house.

My Opinion
In the beginning it was just OK, but it got better with every episode, especially when the “burn notice” arc fully kicked in. The characters are all great, especially when Michael’s mother Madeline becomes more and more involved in Michael’s cases and he has to deal with her and Fi at the same time. The show is very humorous but it’s still an action show and people get killed all the time – but usually not by any of the good guys: Michael is a master “chess player”, he usually manages to make the bad boys kill each other, thus solving the problem.