Rewind: The Walking Dead S2

The Walking Dead has some amazing makeup artists that achieve the impossible in showing convincing zombie portrayals that I haven't seen yet in the zombie genre.  It's by far the best thing about the show.  I felt I should start this review with something positive, because most of this review will not be positive.  (That's a warning for TWD fans)

This isn't a very good show.  Basically, to me at least, the appeal of this show is "Do you like zombies?"  You HAVE to like zombies to like this show.  You have to find zombies awesome actually.  I'm mildly interested in the zombie genre and I've actually liked quite a bit of the movies in that genre so The Walking Dead should theoretically appeal to me.  The problem though is that if you don't love zombies, if you don't love mindless action, this isn't a good show at all.

A very important part of making a good television show involves making interesting characters who you want to see succeed.  The Walking Dead does NOT have that whatsoever.  I kind of care about Rick, Glenn, and Daryl.  I'm not sure if that's because of the writing or if it is because those are the only good actors on the show.  (Though Dale is played by a good actor too and I stopped caring about him in this season - except for his tendency to widen his eyes for serious moments).

Having character development is vital to a show where anyone can die.  If you care about the majority of the characters, every scene is heightened because of that potential - especially in a zombie genre.  When you don't care about the characters, you don't really care if they die.  I know that Sophia was a kid, but this show made zero attempt at making me care if she lived or died and they wasted six episodes until that resolution was cleared up.  In the five episodes before, I could not care less if they found here - to the show's credit I just assumed she would live so I guess points there.

This show is poorly written.  The writers basically came up with interesting ideas that they wanted to explore and then wrote ways to get to that idea.  None of it is very organic and nearly every conflict needed to be brought about by a character doing something stupid, usually by the apparently brain dead Lori.  An example: Rick and Glenn go find Hershel, who's at a bar.  They go explicitly to find Hershel.  Lori objects to this because Rick needs to stay with their son.  Then they leave and she GOES OFF AND ABANDONS HER SON TO FIND THEM.  What did she think she was going to do?  Save them from zombies?  Yeah, right you're going to be able to horde off zombies when Rick and Glenn can't.  Anyway, then she crashes her car because she's reading a map while driving.  SO STUPID.

Then there's the fact that almost all of these characters are unlikeable.  I've already mentioned Lori, who exists to give the negative feedback.  Andrea is another character who is pretty easy to hate - she gets mad at Dale for saving her life, then shoots at Daryl with three people around him (assuming shooting was the right move).  I like Maggie I guess.  But I think liking her is just an extension of me liking Glenn really cause her purpose is to date Glenn and not much else.  The female characters on this show are not written well at all.  Then there's T-Dog who gets jackshit to do all season. (I'm sure I will care about his obvious and inevitable death soon)

This show is poorly acted for the most part as well.  Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Steven Yeun as Glenn, Scott Wilson as Hershel, and Norman Reedus as Daryl are all good actors who seem to elevate the material they are given.  The rest though?  They leave something to be desired.  Jon Bernthal as Shane is mediocre at best and sometimes he's given more than he can handle.  Chandler Riggs as Carl is straight up awful as an actor, but he's a kid so I guess that's more understandable.  And Sarah Wayne Callies isn't great as Lori.  It's partly the writing, it's also partly the bug eyes she develops anytime she's mad, frustrated, upset, or really any emotion.

Yet another problem with this show is the lack of tension.  The zombie scenes create a certain amount of tension, but I was pretty sure who wasn't going to die.  And I was mostly right.  A zombie show should NOT have zombie scenes where it seems like nobody will die.  And if somebody does die, it's usually someone the audience just met like Otis.  It's hard to care about a character dying after two episodes. (Side note: It should be a sin that on a show as poorly acted as this, that they bring in Michael Raymond-James of Terriers and Pruitt Taylor Vance of Deadwood and have them killed off almost immediately.  Raymond-James was scary good in his 10 minutes of screen time.  Someone give this guy a TV show... oh wait someone already did.  Sigh)

While I'm being honest, this review was written after having seen the first 11 episodes.  I haven't seen the last two yet which I've heard are among the show's best.  Overall, I don't think that changes anything I've said yet.  I'm done watching this show for good now.  For people who want to complain "If you don't like it, don't watch it" I won't.  I watched the rest of season two specifically to write this review or I would have stopped.

The Walking Dead is a more apt title for the living "characters" on this show than the zombies - oh I'm sorry "walkers."

Playlist
1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen
2. "Centerfield" - John Fogerty
3. "Real World" - Matchbox 20
4. "Multiples" - Atmosphere
5. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" - Arcade Fire

The Sopranos: Season 1

Confession: I'm writing this review having seen the first season of The Sopranos sporadically at best for the past five or so months.  But if I don't write it now, it won't get written and I do want to get my thoughts on this season out there.

Looking back, The Sopranos had a surprisingly clear run of episodes that I find easy to clump together as separate parts of the season.  The first six are universally great, fantastic in execution with some interesting ideas raised in each.  The next six episodes I find uniformly mediocre (with one exception), raised only by the fact that each episode advances the plot in a major way usually.  The finale of the first season rivals some of the best episodes of this series finishing out the season on a high note.

I'm not sure any other season (I'm only through four) has that sort of hit or miss impact that this season has.  Saying the episodes are hit-or-miss isn't exactly correct in the sense that the "mediocre" episodes don't miss so much as disappoint in one way or the other.  But I wonder if that run of mediocre episodes would be a record for The Sopranos - as arbitrary as it would be.

"Down Neck" prominently features Anthony, "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti" features an awkward and somewhat out-of-place analysis of Italian Americans as portrayed in the media, "Boca" has large sections of its episodes on a soccer coach who we never meet again, "A Hit is a Hit" has some pretty weak representations of African Americans, and "Isabella" features what I consider to be a sorry excuse for an attempted murder.  (To clarify that last point, two professional hit men miss Tony who is literally feet away from them.  I know Tony needed to live, but you could have made it more plausible.)

The one exception in that run of episodes is "Nobody Knows Anything," the episode where Tony is told that Big Pussy is wearing a wire.  This episode is elevated for me in hindsight seeing that Tony is given every indication that Big Pussy is a rat, and yet he refuses to believe it.  Also, Livia Soprano makes her move convincing Junior to murder her son.  Tony's struggle with dealing with possibly having to kill Big Pussy definitely is the highlight of the episode for me.

I find the pilot of The Sopranos to be one of the best it ever did.  I really like its unconventional nature from the rest of the series.  In a way, it reminds me of "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" (another one of my favorites) in how different the structure of the episode is from the rest of the series.

Then there's "College," commonly regarded as the best episode The Sopranos ever did.  I'm not sure I'd go that far - I mean I have an incomplete list at best right now - but it certainly changed the landscape of television.  A lot of important things happen in this episode.  Edie Falco expresses her acting chops and reveals herself to be more than just your stereotypical mob wife.  Tony brutally murders another man in harsh detail that's rough to watch.  Also, one minute Tony is making progress, connecting with his daughter and the next minute he's forced to lie to her and somewhat sabotage that relationship for the future.

In my personal opinion, The Sopranos first season ages a bit badly.  There's a few story lines here where we are introduced to a character we've never met and then never meet again and it's the A story in the episode!  They severely cut down on that in future seasons (and when it did do that, it was more effective to me - "University" for instance).  The problem isn't so much that we just met the character, but that's its random and there's little reason why they only show up once in the series.  Typically, these people live in the same mob world as Tony so you'd expect they'd cross paths a few times.

My typical complaint that some of the plots on this show are contrived doesn't really fit in this season.  They put the most plot they ever did in this season (through four seasons at least) and it's by far.  They didn't have as much room for contrived standalone episodes.  The one standalone episode in this season is College (which isn't contrived at all!) - I think every other episode is vital to the plot.

The Sopranos were experts at two things in my opinion: just about every main character was as well-written as they come and the acting of the cast.  Rarely if ever did any character do something that made you question the character you've come to know.  Sure, they did bad things, but they were usually perfectly in character.  And of course, James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and the rest of the cast brought their "A" game every week.  That kind of consistent production makes even bad episodes of The Sopranos enjoyable to watch.  The plot wasn't always up to par with the rest of the show and it didn't really even matter.  (In fact, relying on plot tends to make episodes either great or terrible if the characterization isn't there.)

Overall, The Sopranos doesn't quite live up to its reputation in this season.  It comes really close though.  But still.... this season had in my mind four classic episodes.  That happened in a season that didn't live up to my enormous expectations.  I'm also unfairly watching this season having seen many of the shows it influenced, but my theory is that if the show is to be considered one of the best of all time, it needs to hold up.  This show does hold up to be clear.  I do, however, think age has slightly diminished this season - something I don't think about any other season by the way.

Grade: A-

Playlist
1. This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You) - The Isley Brothers
2. The World I Know - Collective Soul
3. Goodbye - Slaugherhouse
4. Percussion Gun - White Rabbits (If you must only listen to one song, pick this one)
5. Trapped - Tupac 

Rewind: Downton Abbey S2

Well, Downton Abbey is officially considered a soap opera in my book.  It's a nice-looking and well-acted soap opera, but it's still a soap opera.  I do not consider this a positive.  I've heard that Downton Abbey progressively gets worse and worse with each season.  This is absolutely accurate so far.

Here's the biggest problem that the season suffered: they had basically one overarching story line for each character.  They visited that story line every episode.  If you did not like the story line or were annoyed by its repetitiveness, well it didn't matter.  Because it happened EVERY episode.  You see sometimes you're not supposed to like a character and that's why the story line annoys you, but other times the character behaves wildly out of character and that's why the story bothers you.  Or the plot keeps throwing curveballs at an inevitability in ways that feel contrived.

Examples of a story line that bothered me because a character behaves unlike the character we've come to know: Sybil decides she loves Branson.  I can buy that Sybil is the type of person who would run away from Downton Abbey because she wants her own life.  We are given no indication of WHY she loves Branson though.  Branson just kind of declares his love for her, offers her marriage, and then there's barely any time spent on explaining why exactly Sybil would want to be with Branson.  Especially since Branson's scenes were spent badgering her about giving up her life and spouting his radical political ideas.  Each successive Branson/Sybil scene infuriated me, because I did not buy this romance.

Another example of a story line that bothered me because of inconsistent characterization: Robert Crawley having a affair on his wife (though nothing actually happened).  This just tells me the writers had nothing to do with this character so they invented a conflict that could not possibly occur with the season one Crawley.  They gave him weak scenes were he fought with his wife, but nothing that drives a man to cheat on his wife.  Also, this needed to happen so he could understand where Sybil was coming from - but that just kind of seems more like "How do we play out a scenario where he'd accept Branson?" more than anything organic.

Story lines that bothered me because they showed the same scene each episode with a different variation and no progress on it developed whatsoever until the end: Anna and Bates, perpetually destined to never be happy for some reason.  Creating conflicts between two people that would be happy if they were together is just lazy because they are afraid they won't have anything to write if they are together.  So you're telling me Bates' wife hates him SO MUCH that she would kill herself and frame Bates.  Needless to say, it's hard to take this show too seriously when they have soap opera villains like that.

That's not to say they didn't at least nail some characters down.  If only they had mastered every character as they do with Mr. Carson, then this would be an all-time classic of a show.  And surprisingly, the Matthew Crawley and Lady Mary romance did NOT feel contrived.  Up until Lavinia dies and Matthew annoyingly doesn't want to be happy for the rest of his life, everything felt like natural developments.  It wasn't hard to buy why they weren't together even as we knew they would end up together.  It helps that Sir Richard is an awesome character if somewhat one-note in being evil.  (You could argue that Sir Richard being actually an appealing mate would have been better writing, but then again Lady Mary and Matthew never end up together if that is true.)

As for the rest of the cast?  Well some of them annoyed me, but not to the point to where it's a weakness (Isobel's arc) and some of them I liked, but not enough to be impressed by (Mrs. Hughes).  Besides, this cast is so enormously large, I can't really go through each character and say a particular strength or weakness without boring you.  (Side note: I couldn't get through this entire review without mention Maggie Smith as Violet, who is still a highlight and almost worth watching the show by herself.)

The shame about the writing being the show's weakness is that it's pretty much the show's only weakness.  Like I said above, the acting is top-notch across the board.  The period drama aspect is... umm accurate I guess?  I can only assume on that one.  The direction usually has a few shots each episode that stand out to me.  The lackluster and far-fetched at times plot is the show's downfall from being a legitimately good show (which I don't think it is at this point in their run).

Interested in Downton Abbey?  Watch the first season, which I wholeheartedly recommend and then stop if you can.  Unless the soapy aspects of this show is the type to draw you in - and it very well could be - I wouldn't watch past the first season.

A necessary disclaimer: I hate most romantic comedies (I refer to them as rom coms; if it's a good romantic comedy, I don't call it a rom com) so the romance in the show is not inherently appealing.  If you like romance in your shows, definitely watch this show as its about the only story line for about 70% of the characters.  I could forgive this if the writing made me invested in the romances, which for the most part it did not.

I can't recommend the second season and if you're the type of person to continue watching a show just because you started, don't start at all.  (I kind of suffer this problem; I may or may not watch the third season, which I haven't exactly heard good things about either.)

(If you're interested, my Season 1 Review)

Playlist
1. "I've Got a Name" - Jim Groce
2. "Feel Tall" - Oncue
3. "Y Control" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. "Country Grammar" - Nelly
5. "Provider" - N.E.R.D.

The Sopranos: I Dream of Jeanie Cusamano

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the final episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

Boca

A Hit is a Hit

Nobody Knows Anything

Isabella

This is kind of an important episode in the series, and yet I forgot most of what happened.  I watched it for the first time earlier this year so this is particularly odd.  I honestly think I accidentally skipped over some of the episode, because some of the scenes seem brand new to me.  (Or I was half-asleep and managed to somehow pick up the major things happening)

First, let's talk about Tony and his mother, Livia.  It's a shame that Nancy Merchand's health starting declining after the first season and she basically became a non-entity in the storylines.  The idea of Tony's mother lived on, but the character of Livia itself was barely present after the first season and then of course, she passed away between the second and third seasons.  I would have loved to see what they did with her character.

Tony has his fair share of problems with his mother, but in his mind, she's his mother.  He can complain all he wants, but she gave birth to him, raised him, and molded him as an adult.  He just cannot accept that his mother would try to have him murdered.  He's more infatuated with the image of his mother than Liva herself.  She's basically worthless as a human being, and Tony's continued interactions with her is likely due to an internal sense of obligation.

Dr. Mefli broaches the topic that possibly Livia may have had something to do with his attempted "carjacking."  Mefli wants to be more aggressive with Tony, because if she isn't able to get to the root of the problem, he could just keep denying his mother's insistence on destroying Tony - both figuratively and literally.  And that could lead to his death.  Melfi is sort of a moral guide on this show so she does her best to "save his life" which she sees as convincing Tony that his problems - at least immediate ones - are the fault of his mother.

Tony reacts violently, threatening Melfi and in the scene, you can see James Gandolfini's spit fly into her face.  It's a well-acted scene - I have some problems with this show, but it's never the acting.  Only thanks to an FBI intervention in a misguided attempt to get him to testify does he find out that his mother was responsible.  Undeniable proof.

Also a prominent storyline that ties nicely in with Livia's betrayal of her son is Artie Bucco finding out that Tony burned down Vesuvio's (I think that's how you spell it).  In this case, Livia's "dementia" works against her, because Tony uses it in his argument for why he wouldn't.  Of course, Artie doesn't buy it, but he refuses to call the cops and when he goes to tell his wife, his wife is so pleased with the way the restaurant is shaping up that he can't work up the nerve to ruin her mood and honestly make his life more difficult.

This is the kind of thing The Sopranos did often.  Showed a supposedly moral character have a line that they are willing to cross to make their life easier.  Everyone has a price.  Artie's price is the ability to run a restaurant that he wants to.  Because honestly, I don't think calling the police would help his business a whole lot.  They go to this well often throughout the series, though I think this is the most effective.  It's mostly extremely effective just because of the stakes and it again tied in with the Liva storyline in the most organic and natural way possible - something The Sopranos doesn't do very well in my opinion.  (To clarify, The Sopranos nails down its characters, but its plot is contrived quite a bit.)

Meanwhile, with the news that Junior DID put out a hit on Tony confirmed, it's time to enact revenge.  First, they figure the likely assassin will be someone that Junior can trust - Chucky.  Well, Chucky meets his death early in the episode - in broad daylight by the dock.  Then they nab Mikey as well when he is on his morning jog.  Mikey's sprint towards the woods reminded me of Pine Barrens.  Wonder if that sequence in any way motivated Pine Barrens or if the Sopranos writers are just fascinated with killing in the woods.

Junior is asked if he is not really the mob boss.  That he was just a fall guy and that Tony was really the boss.  This was basically true, but Junior's dignity and pride would not allow him to give Tony credit.  Reminds me of Walter White's pride actually.

In an episode with so much happening, I find it hilarious so much screen time is given to showing how much of an enormous asshole that Father Phil is.  What's funny is that his advice is usually spot-on and nobody follows that advice due to an unwillingness to change.  It was funny when Carmela just had enough of his shit.  There was a good point though in that Father Phil has a price as well.  He gets to smooch off food and wine and watches movies he wants to watch in huge houses and convince himself he's only doing it because he wants to change Tony.  Even though he knows full well Tony's not changing.

This finale is a lot better on re-watch I have to say.  For one, it concludes many of the major and minor storylines.  In an episode where Tony becomes the official mob boss, wipes out the entire section that opposed him (and the rest were arrested), and Tony finally comes clean about seeing a psychiatrist, they managed to do two major character studies in Father Phil and Artie Bucco, two essentially side characters.  They did it in a way that fit into the larger narrative and helped moved the more essential storylines forward too.

Deaths

Jimmy Altieri - The "rat" who was much worse at being a rat than Big Pussy - also less interesting.

Chuckie Signore - To my surprise he was in three episodes, but he gets killed personally Tony (which I can't imagine would happen in a hypothetical real world given Tony's status) on his own boat.  Likely Tony's hitman if Tony didn't strike first.

Mikey Palmice - I was a fan of Mikey and am sorry to see him go.

Quotes

"You smell like Paco Rabonne crawled up your ass and died." - Chris on how Jimmy smells for the Russian girls.  

"Hey my mother never went after my basket" - Basket meaning penis of course

"I'll take care of my uncle and I'll take care of Mikey P, but inside, I'll know" - Tony

"Yes, I'm humbled that you would take my word." - Tony hilariously says.  It's a good point that Melfi fears for her life and yet is willing to take Tony at his word

"Pussy, Booty, I don't know his last name." - Melfi with a collection of words she will likely never repeat in her life

"I didn't burn down your restaurant.  I swear to God on my mother" - Artie doesn't know how little this swearing means.  Might as well swear to the shirt he's wearing.

"I want to fuck Angie Dickinson, see who gets lucky first?" - Junior to the FBI agent

"Someday soon, you'll have families of your own and you'll remember the little moments - like this that were good." - Tony in a touching last scene

Playlist

1.  The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit

2. Hip Hop is Dead - Nas ft. will.i.am

3. Dreams Old Men Dream - Cold War Kids

4. Hell of a Life - Kanye West

5. Fly - Sugar Ray

Rewind: Sons of Anarchy Season 4

I'm a little disappointed.  Season 4 was better than the previous season without a doubt and it's far from bad television, but let's just say at this point in the show, I have lowered my expectations from what I thought this show could become.

Let me explain.  Sometime in the middle of the first season, Sons of Anarchy began an incredible run of television that I think rivaled some of the best television out there.  The downfall of this run was when creator Kurt Sutter went overboard at the very end of the second season.  He had Gemma Teller framed for murdering two people with a cop present and Jax's baby was stolen.  These are two things that aren't easy to come back from and I'm not sure they handled it well.

Basically, when he decided to go out with a bang to end the second season, the show lost all momentum it had been building.  I didn't know it then, but that decision plagued the third season. The third season dragged out the storyline with the stolen baby and it didn't have anything pay off until the 11th episode when Jax ultimately decided to give up his kid.  There was no threat of that baby being killed or lost for good so those 10 episodes were frustrating for me.  The correct way to handle that baby theft would have been to get it resolved quickly, because in my opinion there's not much tension that the baby will die or get lost.  They did the exact opposite and made it a season-long storyline.

And the Gemma story line was never going to work either because Katey Sagal is too damn good in this role.  She was going to get out of it some way, some how.  Let's just say that the way she got out of it was entirely ridiculous and implausible.

So Season 4 essentially started from scratch.  Let's go back to the basics and go to what made this show work.  But it's very difficult for a show to get back on track.  This season came across more as a very flattering yet lesser imitator of the pre-S3 show.  It's almost like they took the things that worked, and copied that for the fourth season.  That doesn't sound like a bad plan in theory.  The problem is that it's been done before so they need to put a new spin on it.

Sons of Anarchy is a bit too plot-focused.  There's so much going on in this season that there was barely any time for character work.  Charming Heights is being built.  They need to stop the unstoppable force that is Mayor Jacob Hale.  They have a criminal investigation led by Linc Potter trying to bust the Sons.  There's a new sheriff in town who won't put up with the Sons' shit.  The Sons are getting into bed with the Mexican cartel.  The two leaders of the Sons are more in it for themselves than the club.  Tara has information about Jax's father.  Opie's marriage happens and simultaneously is put in question.  Juice is worried the club will find out he's black after three seasons where the audience is given no indication the club would even care.  I mean some of these stories should have been more spread out and not all put in the same season.

The fact that I just watched two seasons of The Sopranos is doing this show no favors of course.  To defend my review though, I watched half of this season about a month ago (before The Sopranos) and the other half in the past week.  Watching The Sopranos felt like getting dropped in everyday life.  Some events led to something important, others didn't.  Watching Sons of Anarchy feels like I'm getting the highlights of their exploits, not anything resembling real life.  I suppose that's ok, except I thought I was watching a different, better show when I started.

It's not all bad though.  While Lincoln Potter (played by Ray McKinnon) is repetitive, he's basically a better version of Agent Stahl.  He's more calculating, he's better acted, he's more interesting, and he's unique.  I mean yes, ultimately, he's kind of nuts and doesn't care about the law just like Stahl, but he's a nice twist on a familiar formula that works for the Sons.

On that same note, Eli Roosevelt (Rockmand Dunbar) is a better version of David Hale from earlier seasons.  He's better acted, more compelling, and is not quite as super clean as Hale as to make it impossible for him to do anything. (I refer to the time when he destroyed the Sons' clubhouse)  He's also in power and can do things about the Sons, unlike Hale under Unser.

I have mixed feelings on this season overall.  I straight up didn't like the season until "Kiss," the ninth episode.  I was seriously contemplating quitting the show for good (after finishing the season of course).  Then "Kiss" was a strong episode and it followed that with the best episode of the season and the best episode of SOA I've seen since Season 2 in "Hands."

The season was going in the right direction, and then the finale happened.  And almost nothing that happened in the season mattered at all.  Clay's not going to die, which is bullshit.  The writing manufactured a way to keep him alive unfortunately.   The RICO investigation didn't matter at all it turns out.  None of the Sons - except for Otto - will be serving time.  Juice begins next season without any indication that his storyline in this one happened.  The problem with the finale is it absolves just about every problem presented in this season - I'll call it the Dexter problem.

One big thing happens of course: Jax becomes president of SAMCRO.  Clay is forced to step down.  Tig loses his position (whatever position that was: right-hand man to president?) to Chibs.  So that's the one interesting thing that happened.  I want to find out how they operate with Jax as the president and Clay on the outs.

Overall, this season was hit-and-miss.  It started slow, picked up speed toward the middle, and ultimately fizzled in the finale.  A strong finish to this season would have catapulted it, but ultimately for me, it lands as the second worst season of the series only ahead of Season 3 - which at least was ambitious.

Programming Note: For the remainder of the fall, I will post two times a week on Sunday and Thursday.  Sunday is the day where I review an episode or episodes of a classic show.  Thursday is going to fill up my season reviews.

Beginning this Sunday, I will finally finish Season 1 of The Sopranos and also give my thoughts on Season 1 as a whole after I'm finished with the episode reactions.  After that, I will be doing Friends episodes from Season 1.  I'm going to go over multiple episodes per post.

In the season review portion of my blog, I have Season 2 of Downton Abbey scheduled.  Following that is the second season of The Walking Dead.  Further along the line will be in some order The Simpsons (S3), Star Trek (S2), and Justified (S1).

Playlist (Sons of Anarchy songs)
1. House of the Rising Sun - Battleme & The Forest Rangers
2. House of the Rising Sun - The White Buffalo & The Forest Rangers
3. Strange Fruit - Katey Sagal & The Forest Rangers
4. Los Tiempos van Cambiando - Franky Perez & Los Guardianas del Bosque
5. What a Wonderful World - Alison Mosshart & The Forest Rangers

Breaking Bad: Where does it rank all-time?

I keep flip-flopping on the finale of Breaking Bad - if it slightly diminished the series or if it was brilliant in giving the audience all possible endings.  I don't know if I'll ever truly make up my mind on it, but I'll never fully embrace it the way I did immediately after the episode.  That episode provided me with a state of instant gratification, but it's best if you don't think about it too much.

There's a few schools of thought on the finale, one of which makes the most sense to me and for this series.  In a series where just about nothing went as planned - with a few exceptions - everything goes to plan for Walter because he finally accepted the evil monster he is.  He's accepted he's a terrible person who did all he did for himself.  Once he came to that understanding, he could fully embrace his Heisenberg persona.  That's one theory.  He could never get his plans to come to fruition because he kept lying to himself.  (Another is that he died in the cabin and the finale was his dream - because literally every fucking thing went right and his plan was incredibly improbable)

It's ironic I think.  Vince Gilligan wanted to tie up all loose ends and yet here I am pondering the finale as if it hadn't.  But then again, I don't think this series could have really just ended on Granite State - Jesse perpetually a slave to Neo Nazis isn't exactly a thing I wanted.  And really, the ending wasn't a happy ending at all when you put it in perspective.  Walt gets his version of a happy ending, but Jesse's life will suck, his family is deserted, and there's no guarantee that Flynn will accept the money (which even he would recognize as fishy) or that Skylar's legal problems are finished.

That's enough about the finale.  Let's talk about the series and it's place in history.  Here I will confess that before the finale aired, I planned to write about how Breaking Bad is the best series ever.  Now, the finale didn't change my mind about it, I just thought more deeply about it and realized that doing that would be a mistake.  First, I'd suffer from recency bias and secondly, if I'm going to proclaim something like that, I better be sure about it.  Well, I'm far from sure.

For now, my publicly declared greatest series ever will remain The Wire.  I'm finishing up The Sopranos - safely in my Top 5 - and still need to watch Deadwood and The Shield.  Honestly, I probably shouldn't declare a greatest series ever until I finish those three shows.  The only reason I'm even doing it is because I'm very skeptical any show can surpass The Wire.  So skeptical in fact that I feel reasonably comfortable declaring it my greatest series.  (Mad Men is widely considered to be among these shows; I've seen four seasons and I just don't think it's on the same level unfortunately.  Alas, that's for another post)

I'm going to self-impose a waiting period of a year to re-asses Breaking Bad and see where I place it then.  Right now, it's definitely benefiting from a recency bias.  I remember almost every detail of the show from the past five seasons (I watched the entire series before this last season in less than three weeks).  Considering the emphasis placed on detail in Breaking Bad, this would tend to positively influence my perception.  Although, I do think the finale did more harm than good in my overall view of the series.

I will say this: In my personal ranking of TV shows - I don't have an official list because like I said I lack some shows that are considered - Breaking Bad is safely a Top 5 show of all time.  I consider it behind The Wire, but for now at least, I have it above The Sopranos.

Breaking Bad did do something that no other television show did.  It made a seemingly sympathetic, good man into an evil monster.  To use the cliche, it turned Mr. Chips into Scarface.  Now, The Shield fans, I unfortunately know a spoiler about that show - just for the pilot though.  I know (SPOILER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHIELD - ALSO CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG HERE) that the main character kills another cop and that decision leads him down a road similar to Walter White's.  Here's the difference.  That cop clearly wasn't already Mr. Chips.  When you decide to kill another cop - no matter how bad that cop is, you clearly aren't a seemingly sympathetic good man.

Now the original picture of Walter White wasn't completely accurate as the details on his past are revealed, but being a pride-driven man hardly makes you a bad person.  What made Walt a bad person was a series of dangerously self-rationalizing decisions that kept escalating and he kept rationalizing until he was stuck in a cabin alone with his thoughts and he realized what he became and he was ok with what he became.  So Breaking Bad managed to do that which I'm fairly certain The Shield couldn't have done, because he killed a cop in the first episode thus making him not really a good person.  (SPOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHIELD STOPPED).

Unfortunately, Gilligan's insistence on closing every plot thread hurt the series more than it helped it.  For instance, we sort of got a farewell sequence to Skinny Pete and Badger, but it made absolutely no fucking sense for them to be the ones Walt hired.  That was pure fan service.  I don't want ambiguity in my finales or anything, but you don't need to close EVERY plot point.  Doing so makes it feel like the writers are manipulating events, not like it's an organic plot development - something the series successfully did in the series.

Anyway, I don't think Breaking Bad is the greatest series of all-time.  If I had to guess, one of the three shows I still have yet to finish will end up surpassing Breaking Bad too.  I feel pretty confident in saying Breaking Bad will end up as my #3 greatest series of all time.  I think it's place as a consensus top five show of all time is pretty safe as well.

Sorry if that's not exactly a definitive answer, but the answer to this question is definitive.  The important thing to remember is that this was one of the best series of all time and I enjoyed the ride.

I set up a poll.  I want to know where you think Breaking Bad should be all-time. (The poll is to the right of this post >>>>>>>)

Playlist (Best of Breaking Bad Season 5 Part 2)
1. "Where is Santa Claus?" - Mr. & Mrs. Yellowman
2. "Oh Sherri" - Steve Perry
3. "She's Blinded Me With Science" - Thomas Dolby (Todd's ringtone)
4. "Take My True Love" - The Limeliters
5. "El Paso" - Marty Robbins
6. "Baby Blue" - Badfinger

Pilots Part 3

The Crazy Ones (Thu., CBS, 8:00 CT)
For better or worse, this show is Robin Williams at his most Robin Williamsy.  I'd argue for worse, because his fast-paced rambling isn't remarkably funny and it's certainly a little old by now.  Also, in the first episode already, there's blatant product placement with a story revolving around McDonald's and a "big" guest appearance from Kelly Clarkson that is almost entirely pointless and unfunny.  (Does even the concept of Kelly Clarkson wanting to sing a sex song in a McDonald's commercial song sound funny at all to you?)

Williams is Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar is competent.  The supporting players are pretty broad humor-wise.  There's Zachary who apparently sleeps with a lot of girls.  Then there's the clueless assistant who flashed the McDonald's execs and allowed Williams to smell her hair to motivate him.  Yeah, to say the least, they are thinly veiled characters.

If shallow characters, obvious product placement, and a guest star appearance whose only purpose is to showcase her vocal ability and to collect a paycheck appeal to you, then this is the show for you.  Apparently, 15 million people watched this premiere - I don't think it really looked good in commercials either - which is immensely depressing to me.

Verdict - Unless you're a huge Robin Williams fan - of his comedy specifically - I'd avoid it.

Back in the Game (Wed., ABC, 7:30 pm)
To my complete surprise, I liked this pilot - with some serious reservations.  It's the kind of pilot where I inexplicably liked it yet I know that there's basically no way that the show will be any good.  There are big red warning signs that are surmounted past in this one episode thanks to... sheer luck?  I don't know.

Maggie Lawson is charming as a single mother, recently divorced and forced to live with her alcoholic, uncaring father.  James Caan plays him, which is depressing, but also probably why I liked it.  Unfortunately, he plays an asshole who doesn't appear to have any redeeming qualities - he DID watch every one of his daughter's baseball games - but that's just about the only good thing about him.

The side characters is where the show really shows why it won't continue being a decent show.  The fathers (or villains) are caricatures - there's not even an attempt to show them as human beings.  They are delusional sexists who make fun of little kids.  The kids who are on the "bad" baseball team - they are also caricatures - outrageously unrealistic one-note kids.

Verdict: I liked the three leads, but really the show's portrayal of anyone else is so mind-numbingly bad that there's no way this will be a good show.

The Millers (Thu., CBS, 7:30 pm)
Arrested Development, Running Wilde, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Up All Night: What do they all have in common?  It's a cancelled Will Arnett sitcom.  He's like cancer to a sitcom's chances.  This show has a good shot, because it follows the The Big Bang Theory, but it's also probably the worst of his five shows.  (I've only not seen Up All Night)

The cast is magnificent.  I'm not kidding when I say I liked everybody who was prominently featured.  The aforementioned Arnett, Margo Martindale (The Americans), Beau Bridges, J.B. Smoove, Jayma Mays, and Nelson Franklin (unknown, but I loved him on New Girl) were in the pilot.  Unfortunately, more jokes than not miss and for some reason, the laugh track hasn't died yet.

The premise is that Arnett's character got divorced, he keeps it from his parents (does this happen?) for three months, and then when his parents find out he's divorced, they split up themselves.  Because they only stayed together to not set a bad example or something.  The actors did the best they could, but the material is just not there.  I may watch to see if they are maximize their cast, but I am skeptical.

Verdict: Unless you're really looking for a new show or love Will Arnett and want him to succeed, this show can easily be skipped.

Updated Thoughts on New Shows
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The second episode and some digging on the people involved with this show have made me come to an unfortunate realization.    The second episode was merely serviceable.  That's fine except for the fact that I kind of want to watch shows that qualify as better than "serviceable" given the options I have.  Hell, I'd rather re-watch Friday Night Lights or Buffy than watch a serviceable show for the first time.

I'm not quite giving up on this show, but I need to shorten my leash with shows like this.  I have a limited amount of time and if I watched every mediocre show, I'd be losing the opportunity to watch shows like Deadwood or The Sopranos.  I'll give it a few more episodes.

With that said, make no mistake, this is not a Joss Whedon show.  Last week's pilot was co-written by Whedon and directed by him, but post-pilot, he's basically not involved.  This show is like a lesser imitator of Whedon.  Almost everyone involved has extensive experience working on Whedon shows.  The co-creators with Whedon - Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon - worked with Whedon on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and Dollhouse.  No offense to those two projects, but Buffy, Angel, and Firefly are all significantly better  (Given what I've heard about Dollhouse at least.)

Then, the only other writer involved in the four episodes available on IMDB are to Jeffrey Bell, who wrote on Angel and was the head writer for a time.*  But he was the head writer on Season 4, which was the worst season behind Season 1.  This show is kind of seemingly like Whedon at his worst.  Whedon at his worst is mediocre.  All I'm saying is this show has the tag of a Whedon show, but it's actually a Whedon knock-off.

*Knowing the behind-the scenes for Angel's fourth season makes sense of why that show lost its way for a little.  Whedon was pretty busy with two other shows.  Talented writer Tim Minear wrote just one episode in that season and David Greenwalt - co-creator - left the show after the third season.  The man who was supposed to become head writer left due to creative differences.  That's a whole lot of change.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
They seemed to have built strongly off the pilot with pretty good episodes.  Most importantly, the characters are people I want to hang out with on a weekly basis and it has its fair share of laughs.  It isn't a great comedy yet, but it is just oozing with potential.  The first three episodes have earned enough goodwill for me that I will watch the rest of the season barring an immense drop in quality.  If and when it ever reaches that potential, I'll make sure to be there to see it.

The Blacklist
I think my original plan was to watch more than just the pilot, but I have absolutely no desire to watch any more episodes when it came time to pull the trigger.  Sleepy Hollow provides me with my improbably stupid show, but does it ten times better.

Trophy Wife
The second episode was pleasant with some mild laughs.  I really like Malin Akerman in this role and all of the characters are likable and smart.  Bradley Whitford plays the sort of cool, relaxed dad that I wish I had.  I'm going to continue watching and hope it hits its stride soon.

Playlist
1. The Keepers - Santigold
2. Soapbox - Cyne
3. No Way Down - The Shins
4. The Way - Fastball
5. Get By - Talib Kweli