I Survived the Television Apocalypse

Backstreet's Back... Alright.

It's official, Sunday did not kill me, and while it is currently 6:36 PM on Monday and I am still wrapping up the insane Sunday night line up of television by writing this and watching Homeland simultaneously. It's a bit of a hard task, especially considering that Homeland is such a good show, but I had to post something, and I couldn't let Homeland wait until Tomorrow or later tonight after 11:00. 

The Monday night line up isn't anything to shake a stick at either, If I don't watch those three hours of CBS programming live, I would be attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis. That's right, screwed.

And yes, I did steal that from The Big Bang Theory, and that is why I included the Bazinga .GIF. God, Homeland is a great show, Sorry to go off on this tangent (I'm really not sorry, that was just a formality) but, I have literally no idea why I am writing this while watching it. I have it paused right now to finish this thought, but the next words I type, after this sentence, will be following the completion of the episode. 

Okay, so the episode was exceedingly better than I had expected it to be. Season two was such a drop in quality over season one that I didn't really think the show would be able to come back to the feel of season one. But somehow it managed, perhaps it was the lack of Brody, and the entire tonal shift of the show. What made season two so weak was that tonally it tried to be a carbon copy of season one, but the material called for something different, something more grim and dark, but they kept the tone the same. Now it's much darker than before, forget the ending though.

In true Homeland fashion however, they had Claire Danes do her crying thing, in the final shot of the episode. I have nothing against Danes at all, I'm actually a fan. But the show does this, a lot, too much even. So much so that it has become the main reason as to why people are not able to take the show post season one seriously. It almost gave it a comedic undertone when they more than likely did not want to. 

When these images have become what people think of when you say Homeland, you've made a mistake somewhere along the line. I get it, she is really good at conveying emotion, especially sadness, and bat-shit insanity. But when that is all you have her do it's just too much.

How about that Breaking Bad though. I'm sad it's over, yet so damn happy with the way it ended. I do my best to avoid spoilers. But be warned, they may exist in the coming paragraphs, albeit subtly, so, tread lightly. See what I did there? No? Uhhh...

How about now? Got it? Good. From a writing standpoint, as an aspiring screenwriter/novelist. Breaking Bad is the ideal. It has become the level of writing I strive for, something that episode after episode improves on itself culminating into a finale, that not only ties up all the loose ends, but does so in a way that satisfies its audience. It's the kind of writing that someone can only dream of achieving solo, let alone on a team. All I can do now is hope that one day I will be fortunate enough to work on something as spectacular as Breaking Bad was, just so I can rub it in people's faces and say "Yeah, I wrote that."

Masters of Sex, Showtime's new show, had its premiere last night as well, but apparently the first two episodes had been posted online for quite a long time before hand. I was unaware of this and so I watched both episodes this afternoon between my classes. Luckily, my school work hasn't been so overwhelming as to keep me from watching all the shows, and writing this. The show has quickly rose in my rankings of premium cable, breaking the top 10 possibly even top 5 with just the premiere, and it's not just because of the copious amounts of nudity and sex in the show. It's the way the show is filmed, acted, and written.

Being that I watch, basically all the shows on HBO and Showtime, excluding House of Lies and Shameless (because I haven't gotten to them yet), and plenty of R rated films, sex and nudity has left the list for viable reasons to watch a show. Period shows seem to be consistently fantastic, at least on HBO or Showtime. Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood (from word of mouth), and now Masters of Sex. That, and Lizzy Caplan is in it.

No Lizzy, you are. God, it takes me forever to write these, probably because I watch shows while I write it so a lot of my time is spent watching television, rather than writing about it. As I am watching Mom right now, I notice a trend in upcoming shows involving teen pregnancy in comedies, so much so I'm surprised Modern Family hasn't tackled that one yet. I guess that's just more props to Modern Family, but this seems to be the launching point for both Mom and Welcome to the Family (aptly abbreviated to WTTF), Hostages even (which is starting soon). As much as I respect Modern Family for not going this route, there's still a whole season to go, and so many kids that can end up as parents themselves, and I feel that from a writing standpoint Modern Family would pull the swerve that both girls wind up pregnant at the same time. Maybe that is a bit too predictable.

Hostages starts soon, and then I have to try and knock out all the other things that I missed, so I'm going to try and wrap this up as quickly as possible. 

So, movies, haven't touched that list yet, it's still at 107. There wasn't a midnight movie last week, and I was just too unobservant to notice. Actually it's probably a bit more than 107, because there's a few HBO movies that came out, most notably Behind the Candelabra and Clear History. Gah, I am bad at this wrapping up thing. 

I haven't been writing nearly as much as I should be. Nor have I been reading much either. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle, and have only read/listened to A Storm of Swords. I want to read Gone Girl, but I just don't have the time and I should. I don't know why television has taken this hold over me, but I can't seem to break it. THERE'S JUST SO MANY SHOWS AND I CAN'T HANDLE IT!

I really need to write more of my book. Actually, I just need to write more in general. It's a tough horse to get back on after you take such a long time off. I planned on this being somewhat of a kick starter to getting me back on, but that hasn't happened yet. I just kind of write this, instead of that. Because I only have the free time to write this.

Didn't i say I was going to wrap this up like four paragraphs and 35 minutes of writing ago... Yep, I did do that. It's not really writer's block, it's just I don't sit down to write, I just do my homework, then watch my shows, and either play a game, or decide I should start watching another show I haven't watched yet for whatever stupid reason pops into my head. I pretty much watch everything as it is, I don't need that to become literally everything. 

Help me, I have a serious wrapping things up problem. I just can't seem to do it. So here's a video, I'll see you in a few days: