10 Binge-Worthy Shows

Article first published as 10 Binge-Worthy Shows on Seat42F.

The leaves are turning, the air is growing chillier, and it’s beginning to be the season where a lot of us just want to curl up on the couch and stay inside. For just such an occasion, I have a list of ten television dramas (sorry comedy fans) that would make great binge-watching projects this winter. They are not in any particular order, but all are worthy of your time.

Gilmore Girls ~ Last week, Netflix announced it was making a brand new season of Gilmore Girls! What better time to relive the seven previous years than right now? Netflix has the entire quirky, charming series ready to welcome you back to Stars Hollow. Just have some tissues ready whenever Richard Gilmore comes on screen. His presence will definitely be missed when the show returns.

The X-Files ~ Similarly, FOX is bringing back The X-Files in January. Some people say it may be a little late to tackle all nine seasons, but personally, I think it’s a challenge to accept. You’ll get all the Mulder and Scully, all the weird aliens, and all the Smoking Man. Just login to Netflix or Hulu and let the marathon begin! (And invite me over, because this is the one show on this list that I haven’t managed to get to yet, but I know it’s awesome!)

Lost ~ For my money, Lost is one of the best shows ever made. The twisty ABC drama kept fans obsessed and guessing for six years, all of which are now free for Netflix subscribers. This is definitely a series that begs for binge-watching, as so many little details dropped in one hour matter several installments later. The ending was admittedly polarizing for fans, but if you enjoy character-driven programs, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ~ As far as rewatchability goes, Buffy is at the top of my list. The tale of the Slayer, who faces the demons and forces of darkness, never gets old. From the goofy high school days, to the uber-depressing sixth season, to the heart-breaking series finale, Buffy is great all the way through. It’s the perfect mix of humor, action, and compelling drama. And while you’re at it, stay on the Joss Whedon kick and go through Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. (On Netflix and Hulu.)

Fargo ~ Looking for a show that’s still on the air to get into? Might I recommend FX’s Fargo? Season two just began, so you can plow (sic) through the first year’s ten episodes in a weekend on Hulu, if you’re so inclined. It’s an outrageous show in the style of ‘true crime,’ with a top-notch cast that includes Martin Freeman, Oliver Platt, Kate Walsh, Colin Hanks, Keith Carradine, Allison Tolman, Key & Peele, and, surprisingly enough, Billy Bob Thornton. (Trust me, Thornton is the best you’ve ever seen him.) Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, you should definitely check out the series, which tells a different tale. And season two has a new cast and story, so you can jump in at any time.

The Wire ~ Are you tired of all your friends telling you that The Wire is the absolute best show ever made and you having no frame of reference? I was, too, but now I’m almost done with season one, and I totally get it. Last year, HBO released all five seasons of the David Simon drama in HD for the first time ever. If you already have an HBO subscription through your cable company, you can login via HBO Go to watch. If not, HBO Now is available as a stand-alone service you can sign up for directly, and if you start soon, you’ll be all ready when Game of Thrones comes back in the spring. (Or binge watch Game of Thrones on the service, too.) Simon’s excellent Treme is another great one to check out.

Justified ~ Like Westerns? FX has a doozy of one that recently came to an end in Justified. Starring Timothy Olyphant, each of the six seasons found a lawman tangling with various gangsters and locals in the underpopulated, heavily treed state of Kentucky. The first scene of the pilot will hook you right away, Olyphant’s smoldering hero radiating cool, and the ending of the show is about as perfect as any series finale I’ve ever borne witness to, with four words just as meaningful as those that famously conclude 1984. It’s all available now on Amazon Prime.

The West Wing ~ If the craziness of the current presidential election primaries are bumming you out, why not go for the ideal administration? President Bartlett saved me from my second-term-Bush woes, and I’m sure he can do the same for you, no matter which side of the aisle you fall on. With a smart, witty staff, whose dialogue is as sharp as the ideals represented, I cannot recommend it enough. Bonus points if you make it an Aaron Sorkin trilogy and take in Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom as well. (I wanted to recommend Sorkin’s Sports Night, too, but it’s a comedy, and this list is only for dramas.)

Felicity ~ The original Crazy (not quite) Ex-girlfriend, Felicity is a coming-of-age drama about a girl (named Felicity, duh!) who travels across the country for a guy, and it’s available on Hulu. For four seasons, there were only a few hints of weirdness underlying the surface (the shoe box episode, Pink Power Ranger Amy Jo Johnson’s small screen return, Greg Grunberg and Ian Gomez). Then, after the series finale the writers wanted, its forced resurrection resulted in a handful of hours that push the show far outside of its genre, and give answer to the concerns of those that think Felicity ultimately chose the wrong guy. Plus, see Jennifer Garner before she was famous! (Then continue on the J.J. Abrams train and check out Alias, which features Bradley Cooper before he was famous.)

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 ~ What can I say? I’ve been a Trekkie since long before I got into television. Deep Space 9 has always been the black sheep of the franchise, never being on the air alone, trapped between more popular siblings The Next Generation and Voyager. Yet, being confined to a single locale made it different than any other Star Trek series. Seven years of religion, politics, hopeless war, and a recurring cast of dozens make this one of my favorite shows of all time, and if you missed the overlooked gem, now is the time to redeem yourself. It is available on both Netflix and Hulu.

Honorable mentions ~ The original programs made by the streaming services themselves! We’re still in the early days of high-quality, long-form shows that you can’t get in your cable package. But from Netflix’s House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, to Amazon’s Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, to Hulu’s… well, Hulu will get there some day, there are very good shows on a variety of platforms. Scroll through the offerings on each of these, and you’re likely to come across some really neat stuff.

R.I.P. Finn Hudson

Article first published as R.I.P. Finn Hudson on Blogcritics.

Death is always tragic, never more so than when the deceased is young. Even when drugs and alcohol and poor choices are involved, there is still great regret to see someone lose their life. The recent tragedy with Glee’s Cory Monteith, only 31 years old, despite being nothing new for Hollywood, is such a terrible event.

However, the story must go on. Glee has other seasons to produce, and the characters have to continue their arcs. It is the unenviable task of writers, who care about a series and quite possibly its stars, to have to figure out how to handle the next few episodes in order to pay tribute to the character and the performer behind them. This is the case no matter what the age of the actor, and given production schedules, not much time can be spared to mourn.

Many series have handled this in different ways. Recently, TNT’s Dallas wrote Larry Hagman’s JR’s death into a season-long mystery arc and used some special effects trickery to build JR himself into the plot. The West Wing had Leo McGarry die off screen when John Spencer passed, although it somewhat changed their direction for the rest of that final year.

Recasting a role may be an option in some instances, but not in this one. Monteith is arguably one of the show’s two most central characters, and any attempt to put someone else in the part would result in a huge fan backlash that would cripple the show in such a manner that it would never recover.

So Finn will either have to be killed off or be said to have departed to somewhere that he will not return from. Given his importance to Glee, it’s likely to be the former, since having Finn gone somewhere, without seeing his happy ending, would feel hollow and forced, given the direction the character has gone in.

It would have been easier, story-wise, if this had happened last summer. Season three ended with Finn joining the armed forces, and as cliché as ‘died in combat’ may be to a show, it would have made sense. Instead, the last we see of Finn, he makes up with Will and agrees to help coach the New Directions in competition… which he is never seen doing because Monteith unexpectedly went to rehab while those episodes were being filled. Frustratingly, the writers did not explain or address his absence, but surely they cannot continue that tactic now.

How will Finn be killed? I can’t imagine it will be by drugs, something his character is never shown to favor. Most likely a car wreck will be the culprit, which is also pretty done before, and Glee has already had a character critically injured in one, but it requires little explanation and will feel more natural than most choices.

Despite the comedic tone of Glee, Finn will need to go in an emotionally moving way, one that allows his cast mates to show their sorrow on screen. This will be especially true for Lea Michele, Finn’s real life girlfriend and on screen love interest. Rachel will never get to be with Finn, and that should be a driving arc for her for some time, restructuring her entire tale this fall.

Fans wants to mourn with those on screen. The actors know Monteith as a friend, but viewers feel sort of that way, too, at least towards the character of Finn. We need to say goodbye in some kind of tribute that remembers the good, minimizing the bad. There may be a funeral, there may be a montage, there may be teary speeches, but there will be something sad and honorable. No matter what Glee chooses to do, it will probably be a sorrowful, touching first hour back.

Glee will return, sans Finn, this fall on FOX.

When Good Shows Go Bad

Article first published as When Good Shows Go Bad on Blogcritics.


NBC's The Office was once one of the most praised, funniest sitcoms on network television. Community, on the same channel, was a brilliant, creative, original show that broke all the traditional bounds of what sitcoms were capable of. FOX's House was an intelligent character study wrapped in a medical procedural. What do these all have in common? They were great shows that fell apart in the end.

Although I list House, which I still enjoyed through to the end, even if I admit I see the point many make about the creative sagging of the final couple of years, this is usually more of a sitcom problem. A show that is funny and beloved will frequently age and tarnish. I think it's something about a certain type of comedy that just begins to wear thin over time. Jokes are only good for so long, and then they stop getting a laugh out of us. If a comedy series doesn't adapt and grow with its audience, rather than deliver the same thing over and over again, it begins to wither and die.

This isn't a new phenomenon. Many criticized Friends as it approached its end, frustrated with an unrealistic Joey / Rachel romance. The Seinfeld series finale is renowned for how much it disappointed fans. But it's also not going away, as The Office and Community prove. A show that once delighted can go sour.

Perhaps it's a lack of passion. A new show runner may feel edgy and their creative juices may flow, but they can get tired after awhile of working with the same characters and premises. Or new writing staffs may come in and just not understand what makes the characters tick.

The latter is definitely true for Community. Abed used to be the linchpin that made the series work. Even in the installments that could be considered filler, his keen eye and specific viewpoint always made things rise above what seemed to be happening on the surface. Now in its fourth year, with series creator Dan Harmon ousted from the project, Abed is easily the worst character in the ensemble, and the show suffers mightily for it. It may go off the air for good this week, with no fanfare and a very unsatisfying ending.


The Office, on the other hand, is taking its victory lap. It struggled to find its way after losing the star of the show, Steve Carell, and his wonderful Michael Scott. After over a year of floundering, the team threw in the towel and began gearing up to send the characters grandly off into the sunset. It's made the show seem a little better, with the players having some direction and the plot getting movement. But it's curtain call, which, while well deserved, should have come much earlier.

A series can pull itself out of a creative rut. After several strong initial seasons, CBS's How I Met Your Mother spiraled into unfunny drivel for a few years. It clawed its way back to being good by adding emotional heft. This was present in the beginning of the show, of course, before disappearing, but now it's the bread and butter of every installment, with the drama being of a far better quality than the comedy. Even as the final push begins, as next season will be its last, all the major stories are based on pathos, not gags.

But reinvention isn't always possible. Sometimes it's better just to end things, whether the show's story gets tied up or not. NBC pulled Heroes after a fourth season cliffhanger, and ABC didn't give Brothers & Sisters its due five years in. But neither of these series were worth watching anymore, and the networks decided to cut their losses and move on. This outraged fans, but most soon forgot about it.

Maybe we'll never know exactly why our favorite shows can't remain our favorite shows forever. For every Lost and Battlestar Galactica, which maintained quality through the finish line, even with polarizing swan songs, there are plenty like The X-Files or Veronica Mars, which just never recaptured what once made them so special. I'm sorry Veronica Mars fans, I've donated to the Kickstarted campaign and am greatly looking forward to the film, but it's true that each of the three seasons was weaker than the one before it. Storytelling is a tricky thing.


I do think series tend to be better if they maintain one creative vision. Gilmore Girls and The West Wing faltered after losing their guiding person (though the latter eventually found its stride again). A single voice having control allows better consistency than a production team; ask George R.R. Martin. However, if The Walking Dead can continue to thrive, even though it is now on its fourth show runner, this can't adequately explain away the phenomenon.

Taste is not only varied, it is fickle. Catching lightening in the bottle takes a high degree of skill and luck, but to cultivate that lightening and to not let it burn out for one hundred and fifty or two hundred episodes is a very rare feat. Maybe this could be solved with shorter seasons, like the cable channels tend to do, as you'll notice I've mainly talked about programs on the broadcast networks. But systems are slow to change, and there doesn't seem to be movement on that front.

Awesome television that doesn't age well will always be a part of life, sadly. For now, I guess we just enjoy what's good while it lasts.

Is Outlaw Just Another Legal Drama?

    Last night, NBC aired the pilot of Outlaw, several nights before its Friday night time slot. It stars Jimmy Smits (Dexter, The West Wing) as a Supreme Court judge named Cyrus Garza who resigns the bench so he can fight for people getting screwed by the system. The first 20 minutes of the show showed Garza agonizing with a moral dilemma of playing by the rules, or overturning a death penalty on an innocent man. Of course Garza did the right thing, then promptly quit.

     After that, the show felt very rushed, trying to get to the typical legal procedural. Garza was able to find a law firm to hire him, and put his name on the letterhead, in one scene. He maintained the staffers the audience has already been introduced to, and then recruited the defense attorney named Al (David Ramsey, Dexter).

     And that's the problem with the show. I loved the opening. I love Jimmy Smits. I think the premise is interesting, but it certainly feels like plenty of other legals shows. In fact, it's most like the former series Shark. Garza's team includes the smart blonde trying to prove that she has brains as well as beauty (Ellen Woglom, Californication), the stuck-up guy who won't admit to his co-workers that he actually respects his boss, all along working to please him (Jesse Bradford, The West Wing), and the dangerous outsider who doesn't seem to belong, but gets things done (Carly Pope, 24).

     Clearly, between the star power and the unique setup, there are the makings of a good show somewhere in here. Sadly, the writers don't want to seem to find it. I don't know if the show will do well or not; plenty of same-thing-every-week crime and legal dramas thrive on television. But if it doesn't get better soon, even Smits won't be able to keep my TiVo season pass going.

     Outlaw will re-run the pilot tonight (Friday night) at 10pm on NBC, which will be its regular time slot.

Article first published as TV Review: Is Outlaw Just Another Legal Drama? on Blogcritics.

The Good Guys is bad a**

    Fox has a new buddy-cop show this summer, called The Good Guys.  Two episodes have already run; the first ran many times over a two week period.  It's odd for a summer series to get so much attention and air time, but this is no ordinary summer series.  In fact, if they just cleaned up the writing a little bit, it could be a good contender at any time of year.  In fact, with twenty episodes now ordered, it will be running in the fall on Friday nights, which could spell doom.  However, it seems it's being given a fair shake, on Monday nights this summer.

     The show is from creator Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and stars two cops.  The new-ish partners are washed up legend Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford, The West Wing), and abrasive, going-nowhere Jack Bailey (Colin Hanks, Roswell).  Though, Dan seems to be anything but ineffective and Jack can solve cases with the best of them.  So how they became the no-go duo is kind of anyone's guess.  In the first two episodes they turned routine cases into big take downs.  For reality's sake, the cases are either going to have to get more minor, or they are going to need to get promoted.  Hopefully it'll be the latter, because what's happening on screen is great fun, the primary component being the wonderful chemistry between the two leads.

     The series also stars the lovely and talented Jenny Wade (Reaper) as Jack's ex, Liz, and the tough and feisty Diana-Maria Riva (Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip) as their boss, Lt. Ruiz.  It's a shame they weren't given a larger group to work with, because I wish Julius (RonReaco Lee, In the Motherhood), their snitch, was sticking around.  He brought much levity to the first two episodes.  But from the cast, to the colorful setting of Dallas, the show has plenty going for it.

     An annoyingly too-often used device in recent television is showing the ending of the episode first.  The Good Guys often does this, but many of the other scenes also air non-chronologically.  It's always done for good reason, and actually adds another fun element, rather than falling into the cliche trap.  I hope they keep it up.

     If you want to watch The Good Guys, and I certainly hope you do, please tune into Fox Monday nights at 9pm.

Nurse Jackie is back

      Showtime's Nurse Jackie is a brilliant show.  Here's why.  It's a totally character driven drama.  Sure, other shows are character driven dramas, too, like House, or virtually any show on USA.  But Jackie does it better.  The main character (the amazing Edie Falco) is completely morally ambiguous.  She seems like a devote family woman, but she carried on an affair for a year with her pharmacist.  She frequently steals and abuses medicine, yet she goes out of her way to help patients.  She hides every bit of her personal life at work, but has the best bedside manner of anyone on the staff.  Is she a good or bad person at heart?  That depends.  Certainly she violates at least one of your decency standards, and yet, it's hard not to like her.

     She is also surrounded by a slew of interesting co-workers.  Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith, The West Wing) may be my favorite.  She's the hard nosed administrator who only occasionally let her soft side out, but it's always a delight when she does.  Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best) is Jackie's best friend, and doesn't judge her, despite knowing most of the sordid details that no one else does.  Even Cooper (Peter Facinelli, Twilight) started annoying, but has grown into a highly entertaining plaything for Jackie's mental games.

     In the season premiere last night, Eddie (Paul Schulze, 24), Jackie's spurned lover, swallows a bottle of pills so he can see her as a patient in the ER.  It seems that he will endeavor to become more and more involved in her life, even though he now knows all about her family.  The walls are also closing in on Jackie at work, as her boss is becoming suspicious that someone is stealing meds.  Also, the temp she fired last year for coming to work high has been hired full time, and he may have figured her out.

     All in all, it was a thrilling half hour, with more promising plot to come.  If you want to see television's most well developed shade of gray, tune in to Nurse Jackie Mondays at 10pm on Showtime.

Don't Psych Juliet Out

USA’s best show, Psych, is heating up!  If you don’t know, the show is about a faux psychic detective, who uses his keen observational skills and overacting chops to solve crimes, usually in very entertaining and funny ways.  Last season, the ‘psychic’, Shawn (James Roday) has to choose between high school crush, Abigail (Rachael Leigh Cook, She’s All That) and co-worker, Detective Juliet O’Hara (Maggie Lawson).  Shawn made, to many viewers, the wrong choice, picking Abigail.  For the show’s creators, it was another roadblock on the way to the romance that has to be: Shawn and Juliet.
Like any good romantic tension between two show leads, it must be strung out for many years.  Psych is currently in it’s fourth season.  Unlike other shows, however, they are not the two main characters.  Shawn and Gus (Dule Hill,The West Wing) are, if any two, and Juliet and her partner,  Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), are more supporting.  However, the “will they, won’t they?” has become of issue as the show goes on.
Romance can be successfully done mid-series.  While critics often point to Moonlighting as an example of failure, this past season The Big Bang Theory showed that it can have two main characters get together, and the show doesn’t lose anything for it.  Psych needs to copy the latter.  The longer they wait, the more frustrated audiences get.  Look at Bones and Booth on Bones.  Fans won’t stand them apart much longer.  Psych should not make the same mistakes.
That being said, this has been a banner year for the dramedy, and each episode has been better than average.  Last week’s guest appearance by Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, Suddenly Susan) continues the trend of ’80’s references.  And Shawn almost told Juliet how he felt about her.  Plus, during this winter run, the extended theme song has played every episode, and it it truly the best current theme song on television!  Tune in every Wednesday night at 10pm, including tonight, to see how it all plays out.

Past Life already past its shelf life

     Fox added a new show to their lineup last night called Past Life.  Taking Fringe's normal Thursday 9pm time slot for now, aside from last night's 'special preview episode', it is clear that the network is hoping to cash in on viewers already accepting of the strange and supernatural.  That idea would be sound, if this show were any good at all.

     Following a long-used formula, two partners attempt to solve crimes.  The believer is Dr. Kate McGinn (Kelli Giddish, All My Children), who has recently hired ex-police detective Price Whatley (Nicholas Bishop, Home and Away) to assist her.  Of course, Price is skeptical, but Kate says that is fine, as long as he uses his skills.  By the end of the preview episode, he is starting to believe.  A lot too quickly.  Combine that with his natural superstitiousness, and none of it even feels genuine.  Both characters are flat, predictable, and too ill defined, as well as poorly acted.  Their chemistry is not great, even though surely that is what is supposed to hook viewers enough to tune in week after week.

     They are joined on the team by Dr. Malachi Talmadge (Richard Schiff, The West Wing) and Dr. Rishi Karna (Ravi Patel, Easy Money), the grumpy boss and the token Indian, respectively.  And who came up with the character names on this series?  Anyway, considering the premise, that they are investigating people who remember past lives, and were victims of an unsolved crime in said past life, you'd imagine the client list is small, no?  Yet, they can budget four professionals, three of them with doctorates, in an office?  I don't believe it.  I have a hard time believing they can find a dozen or two clients a year in the entire country, let alone this.

     The script was weak, the acting hokey.  Schiff can act, but he's wasted here.  I recommend not tuning in.  However, if you are so inclined, it will be airing on Fox Thursdays at 9pm.

Rob Lowe bails on another show

     Rob Lowe (Austin Powers) has asked to be let go from the show Brothers & Sisters, despite being under contract, and ABC has agreed to write him off later this season.  This is devastating news for fans of the show.  Rob Lowe's character of Robert was introduced midway through season one, quickly fell for Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal), and soon married her.  The two happily hummed along through season two, but in season three, their bond was plagued with trouble and an emotional affair.  This past fall, after Robert's heart attack and Kitty's bout with cancer, both have recovered now, and the couple finally seemed to be in a good place.  Thanks a lot, Rob Lowe, I say sarcastically.  Chances are, either the fighting will come back and quickly culminate in divorce, or preferably Robert will suffer a second heart attack and die.  I say preferably because I don't see fans of the show welcoming him back down the road after abandoning the character at this juncture.

     Lowe has a history of jumping off of shows.  He starred in The West Wing for the first three seasons (and part of season four), but in that show, turnover made sense.  In fact, the show kept most of the presidential staffers for the entire run of the series, despite the fact that their real life counterparts don't last nearly as long.  Lowe, though often thought of as the star of that show, and on a high from a career revival because of the series, was forgiven for leaving, and invited back to reprise his role at the end of the series.  Of course, it was often rumored that he left that show because of money issues, while this time he's citing lack of creative development.  He's had at least as much plot as anyone else in the cast!  He knew it was a large cast when he signed on.  Get over it!

     ABC isn't nearly as angry at Rob Lowe as much of America is about to be.  In fact, he is currently in talks to remain on the network, starring in his own show.  This time, he would be the lead, not one of a large ensemble.  I think I can speak for many when I say that I hope it flops as big as his previous attempts to do the same thing (Dr. Vegas, The Lyon's Den).  Don't get me wrong.  He's a wonderful actor.  He just apparently likes to disappoint.

     Brothers & Sisters, for now including Rob Lowe, runs on ABC on Sunday nights at 10pm.