Monday 30 April 2012

The Awesome of Television (or Why I Have No Reviews to Post)

As you may have gathered by the lengthy title of the post, or from my incessant tweeting, I've been watching a lot of TV lately. If you follow me on Twitter, you can probably just stop here because you'll have seen it all before on there. Really, it's all I've been talking about these past couple of weeks. But I just need to talk about them, because I need to get all of my feelings out before I melt into a puddle of fangirlishness. Or something to that effect. So let us get on to the list of TV shows I've been watching (don't worry, it's not too long):


1. Game of Thrones
I first heard about GoT last April when it first starting airing. Actually, a bit before that because there were loads of people on Twitter who were really excited for it. Anyway, my mum watched it when it first aired and she told me all about it, and it kind of put me off it forever because she only really talked about the gross sex and violence. Which, to be fair, is quite a lot of it. But anyway, I thought I'd never even give it a go. But then my dad starting watching it this year and he told me to watch it, and I was like, 'y'know what, I'm 15 now. I think I can handle this shit', and so I watched it, and I was so annoyed at my 14 year old self who thought that just because it's content was a bit gratuitous, that meant it was crap. Though I don't think that my 14 year old self would've been able to cope with it.

It just works on so many levels, from story to characters to the quality of production. I never thought I'd be into something so high-fantasy, let alone have it make me want to read five 900 page long books, but Game of Thrones has accomplished all of that. 

Also, I don't think I've ever hated a character as much as I've hated Joffery before. You may have seen me on Twitter just ranting about him, but there are very few character who whenever I see their face I physically want to punch them. I don't, of course, because it's on a screen and I treasure my laptop far too much to risk it. It's just that there's absolutely nothing redeemable about him. He's just a massive arse, and he's cruel, and he can even make Sansa look pitiable and tolerable by comparison, which is quite a task. But I adore Arya and Tyrion and Dany and Jon, and they're segments if the plot have been my favourites. I know that all the other characters are really important too, and I like all of their bits too (though not THOSE kinds of bits. Jeez, get your mind out of the gutter).

The plot itself is just so clever. I never really know what's going to happen next, even though not a lot actually happens because despite everything that happens, the plot is quite meandering. But not in a bad way, in that 'I'm an epic fantasy series so everything that happens must happen very slowly' kind of way. But I like that it happens like that because it means that I can usually keep up with what's going on, so yay!

I think I'm going to have to read the books over this summer, after I'm done with my exams and stuff. See if I love them like I love the show.


2. Freaks and Geeks
I watched the entirety of Freaks and Geeks in three days. To be fair, I didn't do much else, but I still consider it kind of an accomplishment. It's pretty much the best teen TV series that I've, like, ever seen. It's just so GOOD. I don't even know what it is about it, but it just grew on me I just couldn't stop watching until I'd finished. I didn't even know that it had all of these amazing people in it, and when I saw Jason Segal and James Franco I was just like WHAT?! And as soon as I saw the opening credits (Bad Reputation by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts) I was like, 'I am going to enjoy this series muchly.'

It's just so funny and sweet and adorable and occasionally cringe worthy, and I think that anyone who is a teenager should watch it, so that we can all be incoherent about it's greatness together.

I just loved all the characters. I can't think of a single member of the main ensemble that I didn't like, apart from Cindy. But Cindy's just a bitch. I mean, what sort of person asks how much a freaking heirloom was, as opposed to just being completely honoured that a boy actually gave you a family heirloom on their second or third date?! What a cow. But Lindsey and Sam were awesome, even though they sometimes did really stupid things (like that freaking jumpsuit. What the hell was Sam thinking?!). And I even liked Kim which really surprised me, because I was setting myself up to hate her and then she ended up being okay. I love the fact that Lindsey's main love interest was Daniel, too, because that's what you'd expect, but instead it's the nice guy! I think that Ken and Bill were my favourite out of all of them though. I mean, Bill is just adorable. How can anybody NOT love him. Seriously, he's the funniest thing I've ever seen.

What I just need now is for someone to basically write Freaks and Geeks as a YA novel or something now please, because I'm pretty sure that would make my life.

3. The Legend of Korra
Guys. Just, guys. This show. This show has already surpassed my expectations for it (which were really freaking high) in FOUR. EPISODES. Right, first off, I should probably say that if you haven't watched any of Avatar: The Last Airbender, then you should rectify that immediately. And secondly, no, it does not count if you saw the film. I refuse to acknowledge
 the fact that that film happened.

 Okay, so, the Legend of Korra is set seventy years after TLA, and Korra is the new Avatar. There's this whole revolutionary movement called The Equalists who are trying to change the fact that Benders always seem to be the one's in charge, treating non-benders like second class citizens. And obviously, they're not all too fond of the Avatar, notorious for being able to bend all four elements. Throw in a love square, awesome characters, and a beautiful animation, and you've got yourselves a winner.

One of the best things about Korra is that there is light and dark, and the world is not black and white like it's so easy to do in cartoons mainly aimed at children (though judging that the whole cast is older, one would thing that they've caught on to the fact that whole swath of people who are not children watch this show religiously). The Equalist movement is terrifying, mainly because of Amon, and what he does to Benders is awful, but it's also kind of scary how easy it is to see where they come from. While the majority of Benders that we see in the main cast of both shows are people not focused on proving authority or power over other people, but instead focus on peace, there are a lot of Benders who do see themselves as better than Non-Benders, and as such a sort of heirarchy has obviously been formed. We even see in episode four that it appears that there is no representative for Non-Benders on the Republic City Council. Amon's approach to the situation, and his cruel retaliation to how Non-Benders have been treated over the years isn't the right way to go about it, but that doesn't mean that the Equalists themselves are evil. It's not just a case of beating up the bad guys and having the Benders prevail once again, while the Non-Benders continue to suffer. Because it wouldn't stop the movement.

I just love the dark nuances and the political undertones to the story. It's such a well thought out series, and it constantly amazes me how anyone could not watch it in the basis that it's a cartoon.

Also, the setting is brilliant. They continue the world building from TLA so impeccably well, and the world has developed in such an interesting way over the 70 years between the two series. Republic City has been based on Shanghai in the 1920's, and has a really interesting mix of Asian cultures, which is one of the things I loved so much about TLA. Also, props to the creators for creating a follow up series to a TV show primarily aimed at 12 year old boys centred around a female character. But as I read somewhere, they don't care if she's a girl because she kicks ass. But not only that, she has a deeply vulnerable side too, and even though she's funny and an awesome bender and fighter, and brave as hell, she also struggles with issues like identity and responsibility. She's just so three dimensional! She is pretty much my ideal heroine, and I'd love to see more main characters like her in YA. Mako and Bolin are also really freaking great, and I adore them so much already. I love Bolin and his 'ladykilling' ways, and his joking around all the time, and I probably wouldn't mind if he and Korra got together for a bit, but I'd rather that her, Mako and Bolin formed the kind of friendship that Aang, Katara and Sokka had before anything like that happened, even though that's less likely because of the fact that they're all 16/17, whereas the old gang were a bit younger. Mako is so lovely as well, and when we get past his kind of brooding facade, he's actually pretty funny. I was surprised when I watched the most recent episode of how much he looked like Bolin. I'd never really seen it before, but there's definitely a family resemblance. If any of you watch this show, talk to me on Twitter, because I need more people to fangirl about it with, otherwise you're going to have rambly posts like this all the time because of all the feelings I have to express about it. All the people IRL are fed up of me talking about all these TV shows that they've never even heard of before.

 I just have an immense amount of love for this universe, as you can probably tell, and I'm going to stop this here because I've basically written the equivalent of a book review about four episodes of a cartoon. I should probably leave the house more.

Hm. So this post was a bit longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that. I just have a lot of feelings.

3 comments:

  1. No ANTM??!!! bahahahahaha :P I haven't watched any of these, though I've heard a lot about Game of Thrones and Freaks and Geeks. Will have to check them out!

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  2. I watch GoT too, but so far I like the first season better, although my hubby keeps telling me the best is yet to come. (he's read the books)

    I don't mean to feed your TV addition, but you should check out Fringe, Blackout, Grimm, Castle, True Blood, Walking Dead, and Falling Skies. lol Is my TV fanatic showing?

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  3. TLOK!!! TLOK! After the first 2 episodes I was dying to have someone to fangirl with! With every episode the show just keeps on getting better and better! With episode 4, we see so much more of Korra's vulnerabilities and that she's not always strong. We also see just how scary the notion of having her bending taken away from her -- especially her. She's the Avatar, this is her identity. What is she without that title to her name? We're already seeing such deep issues thrown at us that we started to really see in Avatar Book 3. Love it!

    I love seeing the parallels between TLOK and Avatar, but even more, I love that the creators did decide to have the main cast in their older teens. Seriously though, seeing the evolution of Metalbending and also that there's much more focus on Non-benders than in Avatar. Have you been following the tour on the Nickelodeon site? The detail they put into that is just amazing.

    I'm just BUZZING with energy right now, I want to watch episode 5! I've made an effort not to expose myself to any of the sneak previews anymore. It doesn't do any good for me. :P Still doesn't stop me from Youtubing Korra fanvids. Do you reckon Asami is TOO innocent and nice? I'd be a little disappointed (in the creators) if she was just nice and happy and pretty and rich and had no other side to her character. Also, both brothers were really cute last episode (Bolin-when he gave Korra the flowers as thanks for saving his life, Mako-when he was fawning over Asami). I hope that Korra goes into the Spirit World soon, maybe once she locks into her spiritual side a bit more. Also, Avatar State and maybe talking to Aangie?

    @cc9309 ;)

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    The only other "new" tv show I've been watching actively is Awake. I don't consider myself a big crime show fan, but when I press play I'm captivated for 40 minutes. Plus, there's that whole Which one is the dream? aspect that won't let me let go of this show just yet. I just wish the ratings were better...

    If I had more time I'd pick up more tv shows, but I usually just occupy myself with old favourite tv shows.

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