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Three in One Review: Desperate Housewives, Looking HBO, and Six Feet Under
Wow, my readers are so lucky. First, I stop updating regularly, then I stopped updating at all!
Well, while I was off of this blog, I was working on stuff and watching a bunch of television shows that I figure some of you would like to hear about. Because you guys love me and value my opinion, right?
It took me quite a good bit of time to get through Desperate Housewives. I finished Looking in two days. Six Feet Under had me so attached I didn't care about how long it took me to get through it.
Now, uh, let's start those reviews, shall we?
Summary: Desperate Housewives is a show that I think a lot of people might get into in the earlier seasons. It has a strange appeal to it I can't entirely place my finger on. If you hear the title of show and think it's some dramatic mess, you're right. It's not the show meant for housewives, really. In fact, most traditional housewives probably loathed this show.
The Good: I don't regret watching it. Sure, sometimes it really jumped the shark and did some trick shots on the way, but other times? It was pleasant. It could even be ridiculously absurd and still manage to keep a steady pace, but other times it often felt like it was going nowhere at a ridiculously slow speed.
The Ugly: God. Susan. If I had to name characters that annoyed the shit out of me, she would be on my top ten ranking in at number two. Number one would be Meredith Grey. Yeah.
I don't even consider Susan a housewife. I consider her a damn pain in the ass and an eyesore to a series I would have rated higher if she just... died. They killed off plenty of other characters. Why couldn't they have killed off her?
Most of the times when Desperate Housewives got really boring is when it became very Susan-centric. Her plot lines were reused over and over again. When did she ever have to get a job? When did she ever have a juicy affair? When did she do anything other than whine about fucking Mike for the entire series?
My gripes with this series mostly revolve around Susan, if you cannot tell. I think that Edie, Bree, Lynette, and Gabrielle were far more interesting. I mean, think about it. Edie was the gorgeous blonde woman who seduced men and had a pretty sad life. Bree was the 'perfect' housewife who had her entire world rocked because of her family mess. Lynette was the housewife who didn't exactly want to be one because she desired her career. Gabrielle had an affair with a much younger man after her husband stopped paying attention to her.
Sure, the other housewives weren't perfect, but at least they were more interesting than some ditzy dumbass who wandered around the neighborhood watching men she wanted to fuck and ignoring her teenage daughter.
Final Thoughts: I think this show should have ended way, way sooner than it should have. After season five, the show just got... tired.
If the show stayed at the same quality as season one and season three, it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, this is television. Nothing stays perfect.
Overall Rating of Looking: 6/10
Summary: Looking (HBO) was a show that was canceled after just two seasons. It's a very artsy series about three gay men going about their lives in San Fran. While I will say that there was a lot that was left out of this series because of the short lifespan of the show itself, I do think that a lot of the promise of the show wasn't kept. Maybe that is why people didn't want to tune into it.
The Good: Jonathan Groff was the main character. The bad? His character was boring and thirsty for the other most boring character.No spoilers, but Mr. Boss just didn't have much appeal to me. Maybe it's my lesbianism speaking out, or maybe it was just the fact that, hey, he didn't have much development. Richie was way better.
The Ugly: God. I think the thing that really fucked this series over was the fact that there wasn't very much time involved in it. Every episode was twenty minutes long. If each episode was forty minutes long, I think this show would have done way better. It didn't have enough time to have any character driven plotlines. Why? Because we barely got to understand any of the characters to begin with. Even Patrick.
Final Thoughts: If I had to describe this show in one word, it would be subtle. It was never over-the-top. There was no heart pounding scenes that had everyone on the edge of their seats. It didn't have enough time to have enormous plot holes at every turn. It had a few pop culture jokes here and there that may catch you in a giggle or two, but it was never too hilarious or out there. It was just Looking.
Overall Rating of Six Feet Under: 9/10
Summary: A wife becomes a widow, her three children lose their father, a worker loses his boss, and a funeral home loses its owner. The two sons of the family must pick everything back up and put it back together while struggling with their own personal lives. Every single episode starts off with a death which ends up as the Fishers' clients.
The Good: Oh god, it was just so, so good. For five seasons, they kept all sorts of cast members on the show and never had people leaving. It was one of the best character-driven shows I've ever seen. In fact, this show is probably one of the best shows I've ever seen in general.
The characters are very diverse. There's a lot of issues about death that are addressed in the show. One of the biggest ones that I won't forget anytime soon (no spoilers) is the idea of how we should treat the families of violent criminals who died. Should we dehumanized them? Should we see them as the cause of suffering? Or should we see them as people who feel guilty for grieving?
This show made me go through so many existential crises. It made me rethink how I should live my life. It made me rethink how I should see death.
And don't even get me started on 1x11.
This is not the show for someone who lives off the thrill of watching car chases. This is the show for the person who wants to see the aftermath.
The Ugly: Uh, let me just say that you should not jump into this show just to watch the ending. While you will probably remember the ending for the rest of your life, it is not the entire show. It was just well-written. That's what happens when you end a show on a good note rather than trying to keep it alive for as long as possible to cash in on it.
Also, I think it was kind of screwed up that us viewers didn't get to see more musical numbers. I prayed. I prayed.
Final Thoughts: It's a very depressing concept, but trust me, it's worth it.
Anyways, I'm going to try to get back into the blogging spirit again before too long. I don't know what exactly to blog about, but eh, I'll think of something. I missed you guys! I see all the pageviews I've gotten since I went AWOL on here. I've been busy. First, I had a crazy schedule do to finals approaching, then it was the fact I am graduating... I know these sound like excuses, but I promise I've only played The Sims 2 for at most thirty hours since I stopped updating.
The Ugly: God. Susan. If I had to name characters that annoyed the shit out of me, she would be on my top ten ranking in at number two. Number one would be Meredith Grey. Yeah.
I don't even consider Susan a housewife. I consider her a damn pain in the ass and an eyesore to a series I would have rated higher if she just... died. They killed off plenty of other characters. Why couldn't they have killed off her?
Most of the times when Desperate Housewives got really boring is when it became very Susan-centric. Her plot lines were reused over and over again. When did she ever have to get a job? When did she ever have a juicy affair? When did she do anything other than whine about fucking Mike for the entire series?
My gripes with this series mostly revolve around Susan, if you cannot tell. I think that Edie, Bree, Lynette, and Gabrielle were far more interesting. I mean, think about it. Edie was the gorgeous blonde woman who seduced men and had a pretty sad life. Bree was the 'perfect' housewife who had her entire world rocked because of her family mess. Lynette was the housewife who didn't exactly want to be one because she desired her career. Gabrielle had an affair with a much younger man after her husband stopped paying attention to her.
Sure, the other housewives weren't perfect, but at least they were more interesting than some ditzy dumbass who wandered around the neighborhood watching men she wanted to fuck and ignoring her teenage daughter.
Final Thoughts: I think this show should have ended way, way sooner than it should have. After season five, the show just got... tired.
If the show stayed at the same quality as season one and season three, it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, this is television. Nothing stays perfect.
Overall Rating of Looking: 6/10
Summary: Looking (HBO) was a show that was canceled after just two seasons. It's a very artsy series about three gay men going about their lives in San Fran. While I will say that there was a lot that was left out of this series because of the short lifespan of the show itself, I do think that a lot of the promise of the show wasn't kept. Maybe that is why people didn't want to tune into it.
The Good: Jonathan Groff was the main character. The bad? His character was boring and thirsty for the other most boring character.No spoilers, but Mr. Boss just didn't have much appeal to me. Maybe it's my lesbianism speaking out, or maybe it was just the fact that, hey, he didn't have much development. Richie was way better.
The Ugly: God. I think the thing that really fucked this series over was the fact that there wasn't very much time involved in it. Every episode was twenty minutes long. If each episode was forty minutes long, I think this show would have done way better. It didn't have enough time to have any character driven plotlines. Why? Because we barely got to understand any of the characters to begin with. Even Patrick.
Final Thoughts: If I had to describe this show in one word, it would be subtle. It was never over-the-top. There was no heart pounding scenes that had everyone on the edge of their seats. It didn't have enough time to have enormous plot holes at every turn. It had a few pop culture jokes here and there that may catch you in a giggle or two, but it was never too hilarious or out there. It was just Looking.
Overall Rating of Six Feet Under: 9/10
Summary: A wife becomes a widow, her three children lose their father, a worker loses his boss, and a funeral home loses its owner. The two sons of the family must pick everything back up and put it back together while struggling with their own personal lives. Every single episode starts off with a death which ends up as the Fishers' clients.
The Good: Oh god, it was just so, so good. For five seasons, they kept all sorts of cast members on the show and never had people leaving. It was one of the best character-driven shows I've ever seen. In fact, this show is probably one of the best shows I've ever seen in general.
The characters are very diverse. There's a lot of issues about death that are addressed in the show. One of the biggest ones that I won't forget anytime soon (no spoilers) is the idea of how we should treat the families of violent criminals who died. Should we dehumanized them? Should we see them as the cause of suffering? Or should we see them as people who feel guilty for grieving?
This show made me go through so many existential crises. It made me rethink how I should live my life. It made me rethink how I should see death.
And don't even get me started on 1x11.
This is not the show for someone who lives off the thrill of watching car chases. This is the show for the person who wants to see the aftermath.
The Ugly: Uh, let me just say that you should not jump into this show just to watch the ending. While you will probably remember the ending for the rest of your life, it is not the entire show. It was just well-written. That's what happens when you end a show on a good note rather than trying to keep it alive for as long as possible to cash in on it.
Also, I think it was kind of screwed up that us viewers didn't get to see more musical numbers. I prayed. I prayed.
Final Thoughts: It's a very depressing concept, but trust me, it's worth it.
Anyways, I'm going to try to get back into the blogging spirit again before too long. I don't know what exactly to blog about, but eh, I'll think of something. I missed you guys! I see all the pageviews I've gotten since I went AWOL on here. I've been busy. First, I had a crazy schedule do to finals approaching, then it was the fact I am graduating... I know these sound like excuses, but I promise I've only played The Sims 2 for at most thirty hours since I stopped updating.
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