My TV catch-up post

Ok, so if I can't be persuaded to say anything rational or informative about my personal life (and it just seems like it would be a great big jinx to do so!), at least I can tell you what's been going on in my world of TV. To start with, I have a lot of new hardware. Last week my new TV arrived: a 24" Viewsonic. It's taking some getting used to the finer points of its operation, but there's no going back. The old one has gone back into the box and is never coming out again! (And if anyone out there would like to take it off my hands, please let me know. Right now it's just taking up space.) Then I got my digital cable and DVR. They are also taking some getting used to, but again, there's no going back. And yesterday my Roku box arrived, which will allow me to watch instant Netflix movies on my TV. I haven't gotten it hooked up properly yet, but it's just a matter of needing to go out and buy the right cables. I'll probably do so tomorrow!

So what have I been watching since I got back? Well, I saw the Doctor Who special "Planet of the Dead." It was only so-so, in my opinion, but I did like Lady Christina a lot. On the other hand, Torchwood: Children of Earth was riveting. I agree with everyone who says they can't understand what the new season would be like now, but I'm glad they took the kind of risks they did. In my opinion, they really paid off.

In ongoing series news, I finally got to see the last two episodes of Season 2 of Primeval, and I was underwhelmed. I'm not sure how excited I am to see Season 3 at this point. I felt exactly the opposite about Better Off Ted, though. In just the last week, I caught up with all six of the episodes I had missed, and I thought they were great. Now I'm really sad that there won't be any more until January!

I've tried a couple of new series, too. Being Human is a new show on BBC America (yes, I have that channel back again, finally!) that I'm really loving, about a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf who all live together. From that premise, I thought it would be a comedy, but it's actually your typical British drama in the Torchwood vein. I've seen the first three episodes, and after I watch the one that aired last night, I'll be all caught up, which means I have to wait another week to see another one, and I'm sad about that!

The other new show is Defying Gravity, which I'd heard mixed things about and didn't really expect to like. But three episodes in and I'm hooked! (Again, I've caught up to this show in real time and am now going to have to wait for new episodes.) It's about a group of astronauts who have just left on a mission to visit all the planets of the solar system in 6 years. It alternates scenes of life on the ship, life back home on the ground, and flashbacks of things that happened when the group first met during training. All these are mixed together in a sophisticated way that's more subtle than the kinds of flashbacks that usually happen on TV; it's more like reading a postmodern short story. I hear it hasn't been getting good ratings, but maybe now that I'm back that'll all change!

A new show that I'd planned to watch when I got back is Warehouse 13, but now I'm not sure if I'm going to or not. I've already missed 5 episodes, and while they are all available on Hulu, I'm just not sure if it's worth my time investment to watch them or not. I've yet to meet anyone who says that it's "must-see," but if any of you readers feel that way, please do let me know.

I'd also hoped to find the pilot of Virtuality, but from what I can tell it's not available online anywhere. I'd heard that it would really break my heart to never know what else was going to happen after the pilot was over, but I still wanted to see it for myself, and now I guess I will be spared the heartache.

In DVD news, I've started on season 3 of Northern Exposure, thanks to the dear man I visited while I was at home in North Dakota. I continue to love this show so much, and a lot of what was over my head when I was a high school student now impresses me with its sophistication and wit. They may have been in the middle of nowhere, but Cicely was no backwater! And 1991 doesn't seem that long ago to me until I see the fashions that everyone was wearing, especially Maggie. Her clothes were supposed to be non-descript and blend right into the wordwork, not fashion-forward in any sense, and yet now I can't help noticing how extremely 1991 they are!

As you can tell I've been making up for lost time, and I plan to do more of that in the 3 weeks before school starts. Once that happens, all bets are off!