Well summer has hit in full force and that no doubt means that like me there are more happenings, such as bbqs and chilling on the patio, to pull you away from the TV than during the cold winter season.
I have found a few good shows to keep my TV interest alive while I await the full fall season. Here is what is keeping me interested until then.
Six Feet Under
The fifth, and final, season of Six Feet Under started a couple of Mondays ago. After two episodes the show has not lost a thing during its long hiatus.
The first episode dealt with Nate and Brenda’s wedding. Check out a full recap here. It was a solid beginning for the show’s final hoorah.
The thing that has struck me most about Six Feet Under in the first two episodes is how real it feels. Beyond the wacky dreams and apparitions of the main characters the way each character acts, reacts, thinks and talks feels so real. Sure things are taken to an extreme and the odds of so many “wacky” people ended up in the same family and circle of friends is incredibly low.
In the second episode Nate was out for a beer with one of his old high school buddies. His friend now is married with a couple of kids including a 14-year-old girl. He asks Nate if he ever looks at young girls and wishes he could be that age or have that again. Nate, sensing the guy slowly drifting towards paedophilia, mildly snaps at the guy, trying to reason with him. His friend, obviously going through a mid-life crisis, tells Nate how attractive some of his daughter’s friends are and how he thinks about being with them.
On the surface all of us would react like Nate and freak out on the pervert. The thing is the writers didn’t just put some pervert into the show. The vibe I got was that this guy was feeling this way not out of some sick sexual desire but more out of desperation of growing old and hitting forty. As weird as it seems you almost begin to feel sympathetic and bad for this 39-year-old pervert who dreams of his sleeping with his daughter’s 14-year-old friends. I guess you could say the same type of character was created in Kevin Spacey’s role in American Beauty (but heck Alan Ball wrote the movie and created Six Feet Under so he is allowed to rip himself off.)
Nate’s friend was such a minor role in the episode and the series as a whole, yet the writers didn’t cheapen out and make a simple one-dimensional role. They take the time to add depth to everyone and everything involved in the show. It sure is a refreshing change from most of the stuff on network TV.
I am sad that this is the last season of Six Feet Under but I am also excited because I know the cast and crew will do the best possible jobs they can to end the show on a high note.
Veronica Mars
Even though I heard great things about this show I never got to see it during the fall season because it always seemed to be on against another show I was already addicted to. Then I heard that CTV (a Canadian network) was going to be showing the whole season of Veronica Mars in the summer I figured I should give it a chance.
Man am I glad that I did. It seems I am not the only Canadian taking advantage of CTV’s plans as Farah posted her first recap of the show.
The show has its flaws and I am probably too old to be watching high school shows (nah, you can never be too old for stuff like that) but I think Veronica Mars is truly a diamond in the rough. Heck it is on UPN, which up until now I only knew about because they cancelled Enterprise (bastards!).
For the uninitiated Veronica Mars is a high school student and part-time private eye. Her father is a former sheriff who know runs a private investigation company. Veronica helps out her father from time-to-time and also takes on cases herself, much to the dismay of her father.
The big mystery surrounding the show revolves around the death of Veronica’s best friend, Lilly Kane. Her father was the sheriff in charge of the investigation and he went after Lilly’s billionaire-father. This turned out to be a big mistake which cost him his job and his marriage. Veronica had been dating Lilly’s brother, Duncan. When Veronica sided with her father she was dumped by Duncan and pretty much cast-out of the popular clique in her high school. Her mother also ended up leaving town with no way for Veronica to get in touch with her.
Everyone has rough patches in high school but Veronica Mars faces some bigger issues then most of us every deal with. Kristen Bell portrays Mars and has been given several nominations for her performance. Even though I have only seen two episodes so far I would not argue with the praise heaped upon Bell. I am definitely in the Kristen Bell fan club. The fact that she is so darn cute doesn’t hurt either.
Before Veronica Mars, Bell had a two episode quest role in Deadwood, where her and the actor playing her brother got what may be one of the best death scenes in TV history.
Hopefully the rest of season for Veronica Mars continues to impress me, please don’t send me any spoilers. The summer is great for catching up on shows you never gave a chance to. I got into Dawson’s Creek the same way several years ago when the first season was replayed during the summer.
Beauty and The Geek
So I have my one guilty pleasure of the summer season already. I must say I am quite amused by this show, even though it could be done SO much better if I were in control.
Seeing 7 guys on TV who openly admit to never having slept with or even kissed a girl sure makes “regular” guys like me feel pretty “non-geeky.” Plus having an assortment of attractive women on the show doesn’t hurt. Although as weird as it seems I am more fascinated by the guys.
I see beautiful women on TV every day and heck I would rather stare at Kristen Bell for an hour then any of the girls on this show. I thought Average Joe brought out some real geeks but those guys hold nothing compared to the assortment of gents on this show. I don’t want to be mean because most of the guys seem really nice and genuine. The fact that they are so open and honest about their lack of experience with the female gender is amazing. Good for them to just lay it on the line and not lie or exaggerate.
One of the “Geeks” already hooked up with one of the “Beauties”, sadly the geek got eliminated last week.
So yes I will keep watching this show, it will tide me overly nicely until Average Joe returns.
