Tag: Television

TV Schedule

Synetech 1 Comment

I hate television. Not only are most of the shows on TV not good (in fact a large portion are outright garbage), but there are just so many shows; so many that there is just not enough time for them all.

I am going to find a way to somehow suffer through the rest of this season, then from next season on, I am going to stop watching all of the bad shows. It won’t be easy because I have OCD, but forcing myself to watch them all is even more painful than not watching them (even if it means stopping in the middle of a show).

Here’s what’s left to watch this week followed by the full week’s schedule:

Clone Wars – Watch Out!

Synetech 6 Comments

Well, I have recently finished watching season four of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and am about to start watching the first half of season five. This is making me really nervous. Every time that I start watching a show that others have already been watching for years, I start after season four, and catch up so that I can watch (most of) season five live with everybody. The problem is that whenever this happens, the show always seems to get cancelled, so season five is the last season. This has happened several times now, so I am worried that it will happen to Clone Wars as well. Here is a list of shows that got cancelled once I finally started watching them (I’ll add the ones I can remember off the top of my head and add more when I look them up):

  • Angel (This was the first time I noticed “the curse”.)
  • Alias (I started watching just before the last season.)
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003) (After season three, I watched the original 1978 and 1980 versions, then 2003; it was cancelled the next season).
  • Primeval (It was cancelled in season five, just before I started watching.)
  • Merlin (The library has the first four seasons, so I decided to start watching it, then I heard that season five is the last.

Unfortunately, I don’t actually have the “power to cancel shows” by just starting late because there are some shows that don’t/wouldn’t stop: Californication, Boardwalk Empire, Lost, Jersey Shore, Gossip Girl, The Hills, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Shameless (both), Spartacus, True Blood

Some other shows that I began watching late have fortunately survived my curse: Game of Thrones, Borgias, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dexter, Face Off, MythBusters, Pawn Stars, Ricky Gervais Show, The Office (UK), Stargate SG1, Breaking Bad, Being Human (UK), The Shield. And of course Star Wars; I had heard people rabidly love it for decades. I finally watched the films and they were okay. I then watched Clone Wars which made me like it even more. (If I have to choose, I’m still a Star Trek guy though.)

My Mother Hates Everything

Synetech Leave a comment

My mother does not enjoy any shows or movies (well, nearly none; a show or movie she likes is rarer than a leprechaun). The reason is quite simple: she cannot be surprised. Any show or movie that she watches, she figures out and predicts early on, so she is always bored and disappointed. That is why the small, small handful of shows or movies that somehow did manage to surprise her are the few that she likes. Fortunately, there are an even more rare, select few that she does figure out and predict, yet still likes because either she was not certain she was correct, or because it was still amusing enough that the predictability was irrelevant.

A few examples of movies she likes are Primal Fear, and Above Suspicion (and old epics of course). As for television shows, she still likes SVU for the time-being, and has started watching Criminal Minds again (and some British shows like legal dramas; and I’m expecting she’ll like Game of Thrones).

Theme Season

Synetech Leave a comment

This past television season has had several shows that were very similar, falling into a few themes. For example, The Ringer and The Lying Game both involve a down-and-out female taking the place of her affluent identical twin, investigating a mystery involving secrets and murder, and finding that the new family likes them much more than their twin. In fact, these two shows are ridiculously similar, the difference being that The Ringer is orders of magnitude better. Another new show this season falls in the same theme. Switched at Birth while not about twins, is about a couple of girls who switch (to some degree) families after finding out that they were, well, switched at birth.

Another theme this season has been oldies. Trying to follow in the shoes of Mad Men (for some reason), there have been several shows that take place in the past this season. There was the short-lived Playboy Club, the more successful Pan Am, and the Canadian (and older-set) Bomb Girls.

A third theme this season was that of fantasy. Both Once Upon a Time and Grimm are about fairy-tales in real-life.

Not surprisingly the whole vampire-werewolf-etc. fad continued its presence on television with the release of The Secret Circle and a TV adaptation of Teen Wolf.

I don’t know if it is just coincidence or studios trying to cash in on fads while they can (the way that they all release low-budget movies that have the same theme as a current blockbuster). Either way, this season was very theme-heavy compared to usual.

Antiques Shows

Synetech Leave a comment

Even though I love knowledge, I was not too fond of the History Channel because the shows tend(ed) to be kind of dry and boring. However, recently (particularly during the winter holidays since the flood of normal shows has paused), I have been watching the History Channel a lot and it is growing on me. It also helps that I have recently become quite fond of antiques type shows and History Channel has a couple of them. At this point, I like the following shows quite a bit.

ShowNetwork
Auction KingsDiscovery Channel
OdditiesDiscovery Channel
American/Canadian PickersHistory Channel
Pawn StarsHistory Channel
PawnathonHistory Channel
Deals from the Dark SideOutdoor Life Network

Discovery Channel Shows

Synetech Leave a comment

Good ShowsNot Good Shows
Auction KingsAmerican Chopper
Cash CabAmerican Loggers
CuriosityBreaking Point
Daily PlanetBreakout
Destroyed in SecondsCanada’s Worst Driver
Dinosaur RevolutionCanada’s Worst Handyman
Future WeaponsDeadliest Catch
How Machines WorkDesert Car Kings
Inventions that Shook the WorldDirty Jobs
Junk RaidersFlying Wild Alaska
MythBustersGold Rush: Alaska
OdditiesHow It’s Made
River MonstersMan vs. Wild
Shark WeekMayday
Smash LabMegaWorld
Things You Need to KnowMighty Ships
VerminatorsNatural Born Dealers
Worst Case ScenarioSons of Guns

Television Show List

Synetech Leave a comment
Show([–])Notes
$H!* My Dad Says
2 Broke Girls
10 Things I Hate About You
30 Rock
Alias
Alphas
American Dad
American Horror Story
American Pickers
Anger Management
Animal Practice
Archer
Arctic Air
Auction Kings
Awkward
Bad Education
Battlestar Galactica
Ben and Kate2
Better Off Ted
Big Bang Theory, The
Bionic Woman (2007)
Black Donnellys, The
Boardwalk Empire
Bob’s Burgers
Body of Proof
Bones
Booth at the End
Borgias
Brand X
Brickleberry
Bunheads
Cajun Pawn Stars
Californication
Cape, The3
Caprica
Castle
Chicago Fire
Chuck
Citizen Khan
Cleveland Show, The
Cold Case
Community
Copper
Corner Gas
Cougar Town
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Day Break
Defenders
Dexter
Dirty, Sexy, Money
Doctor Who (2005)
Dollhouse3
Drive
Eastwick
Elementary
Eli Stone
Endgame
Eureka4
Face/Off
Family Guy
Flash Forward
Game of Thrones
Gates
Geordie Shore
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Mine
Glee
Go On
Good Guys, The
Good Luck Charlie
Gossip Girl
Gravity Falls
Greek
Grey’s Anatomy1
Guys With Kids
Hannah Montana
Harry’s Law
Hart of Dixie
Hawaii Five-0
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Hills, The1
Hot Set
House M.D.
How I Met Your Mother
Inbetweeners
Jersey Shore
John Doe
Key & Peele
L.A. Complex
Las Vegas
Last Resort
Law & Order
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Los Angeles
Law & Order: SVU
Legit
Life on Mars
Life Unexpected
Lost Girl1
Lost
Mad Men2 3
Major Crimes
Make it or Break it
Melissa and Joey
Miami Med
Middle, The
Mike & Molly
Mob Doctor
Moone Boy
Moonlight
Mr. D
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
My Name is Earl
Mythbusters
Nashville
NCIS Los Angeles
NCIS
Neigbors From Hell
New Girl1
New Normal
Nine Lives of Chloe King, The
Nine, The
No Ordinary Family
Numb3s
OC, The
Oddities
Office, The (2004)
Office, The (2005)
Outsourced
Parenthood
Parks and Recreation
Partners
Pawn Stars
Pawnathon Canada
Person of Interest
Persons Unknown
Phineas and Ferb
Playboy Club
Pretty Little Liars
Prison Break
Private Practice
Pushing Daisies
Raising Hope
Reaper
Revenge
Revolution
Ricky Gervais Show, The
Ringer
River
Robot Combat League
Rules of Engagement
Running Wilde
Scandal
Scret Circle, The1
Secret Life of the American Teenager, The1 2 3
Shameless UK
Shameless US
Simpsons, The
Six Degrees
Skins (UK)
Skins (US)
Smash
South Park
Starate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Universe
Stranded
Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The
Suite Life on Deck
Surface
Swingtown
Switched at Birth
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Mindy Project
Three Rivers
Torchwood
Two and Half Men
Ugly Americans
Unsupervised
Up All Night
V (2010)
Valleys, The
Vampire Diaries, The1
Vegas
Walking Dead, The
Warehouse 13
Wizards of Waverly Place
Workaholics

Array
Legend / Key
Pre (()Impression before starting (eg “hype”)
Start ([)Impression during early parts
Mid (–)Impression through most of it; current impression
End (])Impression at end (or towards the end)
Post ())Final, overall impression
Not applicable; haven’t/hasn’t started yet; have not heard of it
Hate(d) it; was/is a mistake/waste of time; dreading it
Negative feelings; a chore; not looking forward to it
Neutral feelings; no opinion; can take or leave it
Positive feelings; want more; looking forward to it; heard good things
Love(d) it; worthwhile; can’t wait for it