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philquiram
Reviews
Six Feet Under (2001)
Best Ending Ever
I just loved the way that they ended this series. Out of all of the long running TV shows I have watched I would say this one had the best, most comprehensive, touching, and final endings I have ever seen. It literally brought me to tears. I also enjoyed seeing what Dexter was like before Dexter and seeing him in a different role was nice. All of the characters were complex and what happened with them wasn't super predictable like most shows. I enjoyed the mother character and I started watching American Horror Story and she is great in that too. Fabulous cast, great writing, and a story that has depth and is intriguing.
The Killing (2011)
Suspenseful , keeps you guessing, a departure from the 'law and order' formula
If you started watching this show thinking it was going to be another regurgitated "law and order/CSI" formulaic show, you will be disappointed.
If you wanted a super hot, charismatic, sassy/funny, hard edged female heroine that seems to have all the answers and keeps her perfect life in balance while solving murders, you will be disappointed.
If you are looking for a weirdo techy with tons of piercing and rainbow colored hair that can be counted on to do impossible feats with computers, you will be disappointed. There are a hundred of those shows, I could give myself arthritis listing them all.
I for one am sick of those shows, they all seem to be the same: The show opens on some people having a good time, that happen to stumble upon a dead body, or they themselves get murdered. The detectives find 1 little piece of evidence that leads to the most obvious suspect. Lets call them "Miss Direct", who always seems to have a rock solid alibi that clears them of any wrong doing or involvement. Throw in a couple more pieces of evidence, or perhaps Miss Direct pointed us to the next suspect, and the next suspect and so on. Then the 1 amazing piece of evidence brings us back to Miss Direct and they were our murderer all along.
The Killing is not like the shows I explained above. It is a more realistic look into the lives of a murder victims family, the detectives solving the crime, and the people trying to cover up their wrong doings.
Everything is not always wrapped up into a nice little package, just like in real life. I applaud the writers efforts to keep me guessing. Usually with a crime drama, I have it solved in the first 10 minutes because they are see-through and their writing is formulaic as I mentioned above.
So if you are looking for a departure from "Law and Order" and you want a more complex crime drama, The Killing is for you.
Touch (2012)
Manufactured Coincidences via dartboard story boarding
This is how I see a writing session of this show. Put a bunch of writers in a room, with a series of dartboards. Lets say there are 5 dartboards :
The 1st just has random numbers all over it. (12, 555 5555, 12345, 454 etc)
The 2nd has a series of objects that might be On a person. (tattoo, wallet, phone, clothes, jewelry, watch, etc)
The 3rd a series of objects that are just objects (A door, a bus,a bill board, a house number, a phone number, a book etc)
The 4th peoples relations to each other (mother, brother, husband, wife, friend etc)
The 5th is a list of countries. (Japan, Iraq, Liberia, USA etc)
Sprinkle in some 9/11 stuff.
They give the writers a bunch of darts, they throw them, and the episode writes itself. EXAMPLE 12, watch, door number , husband, Iraq.
The kid (jake) writes down the number 12 a thousand times in his notebook. Keifer looks at his watch and sees that it is 12:12. He realizes they are late for an appointment at the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital Jake runs away and finds a door in the hospital with a 12 on it. The man inside, a john doe, is in a coma. For some reason they are unable to identify the man, maybe his face was blown off. Maybe he was in Iraq. The episode ends with Keifer reuniting him with his Wife, who thought he was dead. Maybe he wakes up at 12 o'clock.
Doesn't that seem like a plausible episode of the show ? And it took me less than 5 minutes to write.
Awake (2012)
They are really reaching with this one
The thing that I don't really care for in this show is the way that they have the psychiatrists disprove/confirm both realities. You can watch the entire episode and find some facts that you think might prove/disprove one of the realities and then the psychiatrists chime in at the end of the episode and are able to rationalize anything to fit with their own narrative. Its like the second you think you have it figured out they chime in at the end of the episode and say "Oh that, none of that was real, or was it" It completely makes their storytelling a mute point if anything can be rationalized as real or fake. I watch but at the end of the episode I think " wow I have made no progress in determining which is real or fake", and it is for the simple reason that if they let us see "behind the curtain" the entire premise of the show would be ruined. I think he is in a hospital bed somewhere and his wife and son are still alive. I just hope the writers aren't that lazy and they come up with something a little more intriguing than that. If not then I saw through your premise on the first episode.