I’m watching: Television

I should be posting a preview of my next game, but I’ve been keeping busy in… other ways. So in an attempt to make my loitering productive, I give you reviews:

The Last Man on Earth

This follows the titular character as he does the absolute minimum required to survive in a post-apocalyptic setting, and the absolute maximum to goof off when there are no more rules. The title is only true for the first few episodes though, and soon the main character turns into the weaselly hotel manager from Deadwood. I’m caught up with season two, and though I enjoy the show, it’s not the first time that I am sick of Phillip Tandy Miller. There are signs that the show is about him finally growing a spine.

Elementary

I must admit that I haven’t yet read the original stories by Doyle, but this seems to be as good an adaptation as any. The Sherlock Holmes mythos gets an update into the modern world of DNA testing and absurd TXTing contractions, where Watson is a woman (Twatson?). If I hadn’t been watching this, I would happily be keeping up with Limitless, never knowing that it’s merely a knock-off of Elementary shoe-horned into a premise that could have been much more.

Code Black

This show adequately brings across the frenzied pace of an emergency room in panic mode, and even manages to include a medical mystery for those recovering from House withdrawal. This setting could easily be abused to keep a lot of melodrama afloat, but even though there are only 3 episodes of this so far I feel confident that this is probably going to be a great show.

Kingdom

Ever since season 1 ended, I’ve been waiting for the next season to kick off, and s02e01 did not disappoint. Between the ex-champ gym owner, the troubled future champ, the underdog, the closeted bender and the woman muscling her way into a male-dominated field, it seems to present a pretty good cross-section of the MMA world.

Blunt Talk

Being a huge Star Trek and TNG fan I’m of course very happy to see Patrick Stewart doing what he does best. In fact, I probably wouldn’t be watching this otherwise. Naturally it feels that he’s underutilised when he isn’t carrying the full weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. Rather than being funny, this is instead very very droll, more in the vein of something like Trailer Park Boys. Having recently seen the 9th episode of season 1, I’m glad that I stuck with it, because the show seems to be coming into its own.