The 2014-15 TV Genre TV season so far...

One of the few downsides of spending every October focusing on a specific aspect of the horror genre is that it diverts my attention from other places - various games, books, movies and television series all have to wait until I have the time to see a few episodes and give my first impressions.

This year has actually been pretty fun overall, The Flash has been a surprisingly fun superhero story that keeps me coming back every week, Gotham, although flowed with a similar premise to Smallville (let's make a superhero show that we promise will never, ever have a superhero in it - except for maybe in the series finale), has been fun to watch and putting the focus on Jim Gordon has made for a pretty compelling story overall.

I'm a little on the fence still about Constantine - as a long time Hellblazer fan myself, and still feeling a little burned by the 2005 feature film adaption (which would have been a fine film if they just hadn't demanded we view it as a Hellblazer film), the series (which has just been limited to a 13-episode run) does some pretty neat things, in tone it's pretty much on the mark, but a bit too heavy on letting John use overt magic, but as I've found most of the episodes to be pretty fun, I think I'll stick out the run as is.

What has surprised me the most this year is ABCs Forever, a crime procedural which focuses on an immortal man which merges a standard murder-mystery with fantasy elements.  If you haven't checked it out yet, it is well worth the watch.

The Walking Dead is Back!

Although I've spent a lot of my last month working my way through various films nominated for the Best Picture Oscars (8 down, 1 to go - I'm looking at you Nebraska) today marks the return of one of my current favourite television shows currently on the air.

The Walking Dead is back!

Tonight's episode had me pretty excited as it's quite (sorry, mild spoiler here) Carl-focused, which is really nice, because the story of this kid growing up in a world overrun by zombies is one of the more intriguing ones to me.

Anyway, although I'm enjoying the various Oscar-nominated films a lot (haven't found one I regret yet - also go see Gravity in theatres if it is at all possible for you to do), there is something really great about being able to look forward to some great quality television.

Catching up with Spartacus

Working on my never-ending quest to catch up with what was popular a few years ago, my wife and I have recently begun to watch teh Starz series Spartacus.

For years now I've been a pretty big fan of the classics, whether the stories of mythology, the actual history, or many of the fascinating novels, films, televison and games that have used Ancient Greece and Rome as a resource.

Spartacus was a bit of a hard sell for me - when I initally looked at the advertisements for the series it all looked pretty fake - both the sets looked a little too computer generated, and the actors looked far more muscularly toned than any ancient gladiator would ever have been (they preferred bulk over tone).  But as the guy who owns more than a few series set in the ancient world, eventually I was going to give it a try.

Honestly?  I'm really liking it!  Even though I'm familiar wih the story of the historical Spartacus, and therefoer aware of most of the broad strokes of the story, I was very quickly drawn into the drama and action of the series, and as we are now almost halfway through season 2 (which is technically season 3), I'm pretty sure I'm going to be championing this show for a while - it's relatable, filled with good characters and a lot of sex and violence (so definitely not for the kids), and is completely, almost addictively watchable.

If you've never given it a shot, it is worth a look - although to be fair, once you start you may find it hard to stop.

Genre Character of the Week: Dirk Gently

Earlier this week I got a copy of the 2010 BBC series Dirk Gently from my library, which features a detective called Dirk Gently who bases his detection method on the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things" mostly meaning that his methods seem (to the outside observer) as insane, or like he isn't actually doing any work at all.

Interestingly, I read the original two Dirk Gently novels back in the sixth grade, when, after having finshed the author's more famous novels, I was exploring his other works, which lead me to crime and mystery novels which are one of my current favourite genres (especially mystery novels involving time travel - which are rarer than you think.) 

The television series, which starred Stephen Mangan (pictured left) as Dirk, only lasted for four episodes but really captured the bizarre and strange cases which appeared in the original novels, as well as Dirk's strangely mercenary view on changing his clients (and sometimes taking payment after they have died, from their wallets, before the police arrive).

Overall, a very fun show based on two great books and I wish it had lasted longer than four episodes.

Series Review: Adventure Time

During my time off between courses I've decided to check out a bunch of genre stuff I've been meaning to get around to - first stop - Adventure Time.

First appearing online back in 2006 by Pendleton Ward, the series was adapted to television in 2010.  It follows a human boy named Finn and his shapeshifting dog Jake.

Together they go on adventures - bizarre, Dungeon & Dragons-style adventures.  At 12 episodes in I've seen them fight zombies, vampires, other various monsters and go on some pretty crazy quests.

This show is weird.  The first episode sort of jumps right in to the middle of their story so can't really give a background to their world - just think of it as a little kid and his dog fighting monsters in a traditional Sword & Sorcery setup and you have a pretty good idea of what is going on.

If you've never given it a try, it is definitely worth looking in to - it's pretty silly, but a heck of a lot of fun.

Thing’s I’ve noticed: Planning my TV-on-DVD summer is complicated

Now that the 2011-12 TV season has pretty much run its course (I’m still waiting on Cougar Townand Mad Men to wrap up, and deciding on whether or not to watch season 2 of The Killing) I’m looking forward to attacking my towering stack of TV shows on DVD.

Last summer my wife and I checked out the HBO series The Wire, which rests comfortably in my top five favourite TV shows of all time, so this year I figure we should follow up with a show from FX I’ve always been meaning to finish, The Shield.

Years ago we watched the first four seasons, but after taking a break of a couple years found we were totally confused by the beginning of season five, so over the next few months we are going to do our best to watch the whole series at a rate of a couple episodes a night.  On top of that we’ve got about a dozen other shows we’ve been waiting for the summer to see, so now we decide whether or not to alternate between The Shield and other shows season by season, or to just watch The Shieldstraight through and see how much time we have left afterwards.  One thing I will say for most of the shows from Showtime, FX and HBO – the fact that these seasons run 10 – 13 episodes definitely makes for a great feeling of productive tv watching once you decide to check out any of their shows.

On the horror/SF/Fantasy front, the only shows I’ve got are the final season of Millennium and perhaps a re-watch of The X-Files, oh yeah and a Bruce Campbell series called Jack of All TradesI’ve been meaning to check out.

The next few months are looking pretty good, and if I juggle all my goals of school, family, TV watching, Video Game playing, Movie watching, book reading and whatnot, I might even get outside for a few hours before September!

Things I've Noticed: Wating for a series to finish can be tricky

Here's the thing, I'm not a big fan of cliffhangers. I don't like reading a series and getting really into books two through five only to catch up to the author and be stuck waiting for him/her to deliver number six. That's simply not my style.

Instead I'm a big fan of waiting for the entire series to come out and then enjoy it after the fact. This is how I watched Star Trek DS9, Buffy, and Battlestar Galactica, and I've got to say that I am a big fan of watching TV shows at my own pace.

When I was in Junior High, all of my friends were reading Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time series, it seemed that everywhere I looked I found another friend recommending this series to me. Now back then it was going to be a series of seven books, and as the first two had been released I figured that I could simply wait and check the books out after they had all been released. As of right now, the author has passed on, and the final book is due out late next year. If after that I get told by all sorts of people to give the series a go, I probably will.

There are some series I'll read as they come out, I've reviewed both The Passage and The Strain here, and both promise to be the first of a series, but that is the exception, not the rule. I'm not sure if I'm missing out, but what I am sure of is that usually I'm not reading the sequel to some book I read a dozen years ago and no longer remember the main character or what the whole thing was about.

It may not work for you, but it definitely works for me - what do you think? Should series be read as they come out, or should the be read only after they have completed?