This passed week has seen a few of my favorite shows come to a close for the season. With many more coming within the next 2 weeks. Time for a run down.
Justified has ended it’s 5th fantastic season. It really is one of the best and most consistent shows that airs today; the writers keep coming up with new, inventive scenarios for Raylan Givens and match it with brilliant dialog. So many great characters continue to flourish (if they make it through to the end) like Boyd and Ava Crowder who I was really pulling for at the end of the season. A lot of big events went down this season setting up another promising journey for fans next year.
FX as a whole is just doing really awesome work. Archer is having a great season as is Legit. The Americans is one of my favorite new shows, love the cast and the story on that one.
FaceOff had a quality season. Coming into it, I thought the whole cast looked super strong but there were a lot of stinkers in there. Half of them were just not up to par, at times they could have done a few double eliminations to get rid of the dead weight. I had a good idea of who the final 3 were going to be and really any of the last 5 had a really good chance to win it all. There was some great designs this year, one of my absolute favorite of the whole series was from House who made this killer candy clown with a huge mouth on her stomach. The next season kicks off at the end of August, I’m looking forward to it!
The Following continues to walk the fine line of entertainment and cheese. There’s a lot of wacky stuffy going down that can be hard to swallow, namely the reach of the cult. But when you read about actual cults, the stuff they do is downright bewildering so it does make the show seem plausible. Hannibal just started and I have yet to watch it, but I’ve heard good things.
Spartacus has 2 episodes left and in typical form the show really took off at the half way point (episode 4 for me, but that’s close enough to half way for me). The last episode was a rough one, some major losses to the rebel side and the pressure on the Roman dogs has never been higher. The end seems very clear, it’s just the path and the quality of the resolution(s) that I’m anxious about.
Grimm has been a fun watch too! I came into this show late last season, but it’s quickly become one of my favorites as well as a welcome replacement for my Fringe timeslot.
Picked up on the new BBC show Orphan Black and the gears are just starting to spin on that one. The promos have given away much more than the the premiere so far, but it’s about a woman who’s made some crummy choices coming out of hiding. She witnesses a girl who looks just like her commit suicide at a subway station and decides that it’s the perfect chance to run a quick identity con for some quick and serious cash. Nothing can go wrong with that idea.
Showtime’s Sunday block ends this weekend with Shameless, House of Lies and Californication. I’ll write about those after they close, but I will say I’ve enjoyed all of them so far.
The Walking Dead finished up season 3 with record high ratings. Thankfully the stupidity has been greatly reduced over last season which gave the show it’s best season so far. There were major deaths with major character arcs that have changed people forever (looking at you, Carl). I was left disappointed at the final credit roll, expecting an epic war and got more of a quick battle. Thinking about it aftwards, it was a strong finale. A lot made sense, the prison team used the home advantage to it’s greatest advantage and came out on top as a result. They weren’t stupid, they made a strong plan to avoid brute force and it paid off. Andrea’s roll has turned into one of my favorites, she got a lot of great moments this year. Just 6 months till it starts back up again, I hope they can continue to make the show better and better.
With the Dead shuffling off, Mad Men returns this weekend! Exciting stuff, it’ll be great to get back into the 60’s.