illusion is hope born from fear

I've been watching television! I know, shocker. ;-) I haven't seen all of the new tv shows because, well, some of them don't look like my kind of thing, but I've seen a few. And now I'm going to talk about them.

Death Valley: Seriously, why isn't the entirety of fandom watching this show? It's a lot of fun, it has zombies, werewolves, and vampires, it has very entertaing characters, and, well, it's awesome. Who doesn't like watching an awesome show? I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's just the kind of gory, light-hearted fare to cleanse the palate after all of the drama.

The Secret Circle: They're witches! Who are teenagers! With tragic pasts! This is just the kind of melodramatic genre romp I was hoping for. I need fandom to write me all of the possible combinations of Faye, Cassie, and Diana. Because OMG I love them all.

Terra Nova: We watched an episode last night, after which dodger_sister turned to me and said, "So, you're totally over this show, aren't you?" Apparently, I kept on making super-critical remarks about how things don't work that way. I'm more than willing to handwave stuff, like, say, ejecting the warp core to escape from a black hole (seriously Star Trek? WTF. I don't think physics works that way), but if the rest of the product is only mediocre and I don't care about any of the characters then apparently it doesn't work for me. Clearly, watching Nova has ruined my brain.

Suburgatory: I had an idea in my head of what I wanted this show to be and it wasn't that show. I tried it out for Alan Tudyk and Jeremy Sisto but it turned out to not be my cup of tea. Plus, it was very California for a show that was set in New York. Sadly, the main characters haven't discovered that their new neighbors are demons or witches or something cool like that. I would totally watch a show like that.

Glee: I've been a casual Glee viewer for a couple years now. I don't really love most of the auto-tuned music and the episodes are generally miss and miss, but the first few episodes of this season have demonstrated how having a full time writers' room is something that every show needs. The characters are real people again, rather than charicatures, and even the music numbers have improved. Marti Noxon was clearly a perfect fit for the show. Heck, it's made me have such vivid high school flashbacks that I kind of want to start trying out for community theatre. So kudos to them.

But that hasn't stopped me from yelling at the characters, telling them to stand up straight and breathe from their diaphragm. I know they're lip-synching, but if Idina Menzel can stand correctly then Lea Michele can too.

I hear that Homeland, starring Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, is really excellent. Sadly, my grr arghing capabilities are currently limited. Big Brother Comcast is watching.