Please make it stop

Oh come on.

I literally groaned when I read this headline: "Michelle Yeoh to Lead Blade Runner Sequel Series at Prime Video" Why? Who are all of these people clambering for more Blade Runner? And the title: Blade Runner 2099. My husband chuckled and said that sounds like a title out of the 1970s. All I can think now is how Network was supposed to be, you know, a warning, not a roadmap, but here we are.

To be clear, while I've criticized the movie sequel for its sexism, that's not my gripe here. I'm just so over sequels and reboots. I don't even have to watch them to be done with them--I can't escape them if I ever want to turn on a screen. More concerning, the fact that they are taking up all of the funding means that original content just isn't being produced. I am so done on so many levels.

I encourage people again to listen to Foreverism, an installment of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast, but also have a think on who is being served by the *constant* retread of material that hasn't been original since some of us were in grade school.

Deb in the City

Repeats and Redux (Day 34)

Today I watched an episode of the 60s series The Prisoner with my husband and a friend and later the first episode of the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender. I generally resist repeats and revisions, but it's fun to see something old through a friend's eyes, and my husband really watched to watch ATLA.

It was okay, though opening with genocide might be off-putting to someone who isn't familiar with the story. The acting could use some work--as in the animated original, Sokka and Zuko steal the show--but I'm not going to be too picky about *children*.

As for The Prisoner, it's hard not to chuckle when Number Six repeatedly asks after Number One and continues to assert that he is a person and not a number. Of course you are, you adorable nonconformist. The episode we watched, Dance of the Dead, reminded me of the pantomime I felt pulled into when I went to lobby a few days ago: the parade the Villagers traveled in was a small circle, and the dance required small, mincing steps that didn't allow you to move out of bounds. Sounds like every parade and choreographed group dance I've ever seen, as well as every election cycle, local, state, and federal.

Excuse me while I watch some original programming about South Korean divorce attorney who challenges the system while, ultimately, leaving it unchanged. (Irony intended.)

Deb in the City

Don't worry, I still love some things

I can be a snarky critic, but when something impresses, I'm a natural enthusiast. I can't have you read my last post and leave you with the impression that I'm looking at everything skeptically. Here's a list of what's currently knocking my socks off on TV. (Check my Amazon profile if you want to see what I'm loving in books.)

Legion Oh my god, this show. We're five episodes into an eight episode season, I can't tell you exactly what's going on, but I can't stop watching. How much do I love this? I actually stay up to watch this at 10 PM because I might not be able to sleep anyway if I have to miss it. Dan Stevens, who's almost unrecognizable from Downton Abbey, is David Haller, a super powerful mutant whose power (consciousness? brain? reality?) has been food for some kind of creature (another mutant?) since he was a young boy, and it's screwing with his mental health. Is he imagining everything we've seen since the first episode? Or is reality this disconcerting to someone with so much power? I can't tell you yet--hell, I can't even tell you when this is taking place--but I can't wait to find out. 

The Americans Another series on FX that's taking a much slower pace of storytelling, but it's just as engrossing. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are "Elizabeth and Philip Jennings" in the early 1980s, but they're really Soviet spies who have been here for decades and have gone full-on into their covers, including raising a family together. It's 1984 now, and the Cold War tensions are escalating. Elizabeth is a true believer and is willing to do anything to serve her homeland, while Philip has always tormented himself with questions before he does the same things. Giving them pause are their children, particularly daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), who knew something was off and had her worst theories confirmed. Elizabeth thinks they can be both good parents and patriots, but Philip knows that something is going to have to give. And that's just for starters. 

"Knock, knock"

The Young Pope I was as skeptical as everyone else about this series, and I was just as wrong. It's absurdist in part because nothing stays sub rosa for long, but part of its brilliance is its acknowledgement that everything changes eventually, even the Catholic Church, no matter how much the young, energetic pope can force his possible supernatural will over his minions. Jude Law is amazing--I need to be reminded that he's in fact British--as the man who's neither good nor bad but pure in it's most ruthless sense. 

Westworld Another example of someone taking a piece of Seventies schlock and turning it into an artistic masterpiece. How much consciousness does something have to have before it becomes immoral to treat it like a tool? And what does it say about someone who needs to play at inflicting pain in order to feel alive? Rachel Evan Wood, Thandie Netwon, Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins are mesmerizing as the people (and androids) both grappling with those questions and living out those consequences. 

Finally, while I don't get to movie theaters that much, I did get to see The Lego Batman Movie, and I was legitimately impressed. The whole movie is one big wink at superhero storytelling period, but it's brilliant in addition to being hilarious. And can we give a big shout out to the casting department, if only for casting Kate Micucci as Clayface? 

In praise of...The Blacklist

While a lot of the country, if not the world, sits back at 9 on Thursdays to watch Scandal, I get my fix of action, adventure and mystery with The Blacklist, possibly the best show on television right now.

Like many, I thought the premise of James Spader playing a super villain mastermind was kooky—they're totally going for a Lex Luthor thing with that bald head—but he's actually brilliant as Raymond "Red" Reddington. Reddington, a former Naval Intelligence Officer, inexplicably betrayed his country in the early Nineties and has gone on to become one of the most wanted men in the world. Just as inexplicably, Reddington turned himself in with the offer to help an FBI task force catch other super criminals- the Blacklist- but only if he can operate as a free man and, most importantly, if he can work with newbie FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). But why?

Just one of the many messes Red's gotten Liz into

In between his eccentric, seemingly non sequitur tangents that make everyone who works with him feel like they're trapped with their crazy uncle, the outlines of what Red is trying to accomplish are starting to become clearer. While it first seemed that he was merely disrespecting the "honor among thieves" (is that a thing?), it became clear that 1) he was being hunted by some very powerful people and 2) he was trying to take them down before they got to him. Since those people included not only rival criminal bosses but also highly placed government officials, it was only a matter of time before everyone he and Liz worked with were going to be endangered as well.

But why does Red insist on working with Liz? From the outset, the best fan theory has been that Red is Liz's father, and every time he protests that he's not, it seems like the show is still leaving the door open for that possibility. Yes, the big reveal last season—SPOILER ALERT (but so is this whole post)—is that Red rescued Liz as a small child after she shot her father dead, but the scars we saw on Red's back at the end of that episode just might link him to the fire Liz remembers her father rescuing her from earlier. Regardless, we finally know that Liz's biological mother was a legendary Soviet spy and that she and Red were, at the very least, close. If he's not her father, then why is he going to such extraordinary lengths to protect her?

How extraordinary? Tom Keen, Liz's ex-husband, was posing as an elementary school teacher but was in fact hired by Red to watch over her. When he went off script and wanted to see her romantically, Red fired him, which necessitated Tom going over to rival super criminal, Berlin. Liz was happily oblivious to all of this until Tom had murdered at least three people. Needless to say, this caused a huge rift between Red and Liz, especially when Tom killed yet again while in Liz's captivity...but this time to protect her. (You had to see the whole thing.)

"Tom" really doesn't look like someone who could kill several people with his bare hands...

Make no mistake: this is a crazy, convoluted show and the twists are unbelievable. What makes it work (in addition to my confidence that the writers actually know where they're going) are the consistently amazing performances of Spader and Boone. At this point, we expect Spader to do a good job with a crazy role (and, honestly, this is probably among his most straight forward), but kudos to Boone for being able to match him in every scene. Spader may be the mystery at the core of the show, but Boone is the detective we're following as she sorts it out.

Those two are the stars, but the rest of the cast is just as good: Diego Klattenhoff is Keen's tightly wound partner Donald Ressler, Harry Lennix is her honest but compassionate boss Harold Cooper ; Mozhan Marno is Samar Navabi, a former Mossad agent whom Red recruited for Liz's task force; Amir Arison is Aram Mojtabai, the earnest technical expert; Hisham Tawfiq is Dembe Zuma, Red's right-hand man and foster son who is a survivor of human trafficking; and Ryan Eggold is Liz's true love ex-husband, con man Tom. (The list of villains and recurring allies is too long to go into, but they're almost all stellar.) Through the course of the show, we've gotten glimpses into almost everyone's complicated lives outside of their jobs; as surprising as some of the stories can be, know that every human connection you see is an opening for one of Red's enemies to exploit.

As if this group wouldn't have enough problems without Reddington...

The best perk Dembe enjoys working for Red? Actually getting Red to shut up on occasion.

I have no idea where this is going, but I'm enjoying the ride so much that I'm willing to be surprised. The last time this happened? Mad Men.

Almost every episode, I marvel that this show exists: a smart action series with a female lead and a diverse cast that doesn't play to stereotypes on a major American television network. If this is an alternate universe, just leave me here.

In praise of...Empire

Terrence Howard is one of those people that's inspired me to embrace the concept of holding multiple opinions about the same thing. He is undeniably a talented, charismatic actor, and when he's on screen you can't help but stare. He's also just as undeniably an abusive bastard, and some of the statements he's made not only about his own history of domestic violence but others are horrifying, full-stop.

With that in mind, I resolved not to watch Empire and successfully avoided it for about a month before I accidentally found myself watching it. Within ten minutes, I was hooked. Believe me, I spend every episode reminding myself that Howard is an awful person- but I still love the show.

The conceit of the first season was that Howard's Lucious Lyon was an updated King Lear who knew he was degrading and had to decide which of his sons- all of whom were somewhat unworthy in his eyes- would be his lucky heir. The added twist: this Lear has a queen (Cookie Lyon as played by the amazing Taraji P. Henson) who spent seventeen years in banishment, also known as a stint in federal prison for drugs. Now she's back, and she's as hungry for power as her ex-husband, with the added fury that Lucious did a less than perfect job raising their three sons: Andre aka Dre, Jamal and Hakeem.

Television's best dysfunctional couple

You've all heard by now about the larger-than-life personalities and plots, the hairpin turns and the talented supporting cast (I would watch Gabourey Sidibe's Becky and Ta'Rhonda Jones' Porsha on their own show), but every week this show brings me to tears. Strip away all of the corporate maneuvering, violence, money and music, and it's a story about how no one can hurt you more than the people you love. 

Lucious has manipulated and lied to everyone on the show, but the flashbacks we've started to see this season from his childhood with a mentally ill mother Leah (Kelly Rowland) are heartbreaking. It's hard not to root for that little boy to survive, but was it necessary to ruin so many other lives in the process?

Cookie's childhood seems to have been only a little more functional, as evidenced by her sister Carol and cousin Bunkie's involvement in the drug world. (That her sister Candace (Vivica A. Fox) is making such a show of respectability seems almost more disturbing.) Still, Cookie's a fighter, and anyone who could survive seventeen years in prison separated from her three young children and then come back ready to fight for her share of the company she founded is someone you want on your team. If I had to put my money on Lucious or Cookie in a fight, Cookie would get all of it. And Lucious and Cookie fight a lot...when they're not protecting each other from treacherous lovers and business partners or taking a trip down memory lane in the bedroom. 

Of everyone on the canvas, it's Dre (Trai Byers) that breaks my heart pretty much every episode. The oldest son, Dre was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder as a young adult, but he's been sketchy at best about treating it, in large part because his father is reluctant to acknowledge it. His wife Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) has done her turns as a manipulative Lady Macbeth, but she's proven that her marriage to Dre is more important than taking control of Empire. Dre, who's not musically talented like his younger brothers, burns that he's most likely to be passed over in spite of his MBA. He's also ingrained covering for his father into his DNA, not only for Bunkie's murder, but going as far back as hiding guns for his father in his toys as a little boy. Dre feels the sting of his father's capricious rejections more keenly than his brothers, but he has no idea that Lucious sees his mother when he sees his son. 

The new Macbeths?

Jamal (Jussie Smollett), the middle child, is easily the "Cordelia" of the children. In some ways he combines the best qualities of both of his parents and his musical talent is obvious. The only keeping him from getting his father's unqualified stamp of approval is that he's gay. Lucious went so far as to marry him off to a young singer (Raven-Symone), then slept with her himself when she was miserable in the marriage. By the time Jamal was older, Lucious demanded that Jamal keep his sexuality under wraps if he wanted to succeed him. Jamal refused and sought his mother's guidance, eventually winning his father's grudging respect.

Standing up to Lucious was one thing. Will Jamal be able to make sure he doesn't turn into him?

Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), the youngest son, understandably had the greatest "mommy issues" as Cookie was sent away when he was a toddler. If Jamal's style is smooth and soulful, Hakeem's is edgy and angry. In spite of his outbursts against his family, deep down he's tenderhearted, and genuinely in love with the older Camilla (Naomi Campbell). Lucious' efforts to separate the two have come back to bite him hard, as Camilla and her wife (!) Mimi (Marisa Tomei) engineered a hostile takeover of Empire- and then turned it over to Hakeem.

For Hakeem, the line between proving himself to his father and destroying him is surprisingly thin

So what makes me choke up most? When these three come together to support each other, no matter how much they've hurt each other.

All they've ever had

This is just scratching the surface; I don't have space to go into Lucious' vengeful ex-fiancee Anika (Grace Gealey), the murder of Lucious' long-time advisor Vernon by Rhonda, Lucious' stint in prison or Cookie's new venture, Dynasty. And how awesome is the exploration of Latina singers this season? I clapped my hands and squealed when Laura (Jamila Vasquez) debuted with Linda Ronstadt's "Lago Azul".

The real reason I started watching Empire? It felt like I was coming home as I watched a show in which the cast wasn't predominantly white. I'm not African American, and it's true that there haven't been a lot of Asian American characters on this show, but I'm not the only person I know who's hungry to see a show that reflects the reality many Americans live in. While I don't live in the world of music production and it's clear that these characters are bigger than life, there's something refreshing about seeing a big deal soap opera (and that's what it is) with a diverse cast. 

May the backstabbing and heartbreak continue.

In praise of...Zoo and television's strong female characters

I released my short story on the 17th, and I'm putting out my full-length on the 28th. These new releases are all about power; some of it's politics, some of it's wealth. Like everyone else in the country, I'm mentally exhausted by this election season, and I think fondly back to the 2008 election, when I didn't feel compelled to watch every debate. (But the town halls can still stuff themselves.)

So I come to you here, not to talk about politics, but to talk about television.

I feel vindicated by all of the articles over the last few months that finally recognize that if you're not a straight white male, Hollywood studio movies- the kind people spend money producing and promoting- are not speaking to you. For those of you sick of hearing about "strong female characters", please stay far away from your television and head to the nearest movie theater, where those are few and far between. 

A couple of months ago, I finally got the chance to watch Now You See Me. I love magic, I love capers, I love twisty plots and I love revenge. So on paper this movie hit all the right spots, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. No, it's not because I couldn't see any possible way that Isla Fisher would be the one jilted by Jesse Eisenberg (but seriously, come on); it was that every time Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent) came on screen, she was nothing but an angelic foil for Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), and primarily there to accept his abuse. Eww.

They don't get how they could be a couple either

Be assured, Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is snarking at Dray (Melanie Laurent) and she's not giving it back

While I was thinking, oh my god, why doesn't she put him in his place and maybe show the audience the kind of deadly force training French agents get, my husband insisted that she was the same blonde actress who played another French character on the summer series, Zoo. He was wrong; the actress on that series is Nora Arnezeder. But the physical similarities between the two actresses on highlighted the stark differences between the characters.

On Zoo, Arnezeder plays Chloe Tousignant, a French agent who's trying to track down a biological agent that's causing animals to hunt people. She and her thrown together team (a journalist, a burnt out scientist, the prodigal son of the mad scientist who created the problem and a child soldier turned safari guide) track down the cause pretty quickly, but taking the corporation that unleashed the agent into the wild and then implementing a cure are going to be much harder. All of the characters have necessary skills, but in many cases Chloe is clearly in charge of the overall strategy. She is, in many ways, the leader.

Why is Chloe Tousignant (Nora Arnezeder) the only one standing? Because she's in charge

She's a wounded character, to be sure (she meets with another member of the team after she's dumped her fiance at the altar for sleeping with her sister), but this doesn't make her any less able to do her job. And she is a good, principled leader who protects the members of her team even that means putting herself at risk. No one has benefited from Chloe's protection more than disgraced journalist Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly), who killed a corrupt FBI agent in self-defense. That means that not only does Zoo feature two "strong" female characters, it also passes the Bechdel Test: these two named characters talk about plenty of things that aren't men. Now You See Me? Not so much.

It's worth mentioning that this series is on CBS, a network that has been rightfully criticized for its lack of diversity and conservative orientation. That even this network produces something with more believable female characters says something about Hollywood movies.

#ISawThatComing: Fringe and Grimm

I think there’s some truth to the notion that there are only so many plots. Seven, eight, twenty-one...it doesn’t matter, the number is much smaller than the number of works published every day. In my genre, Romance, there’s a basic plot structure that all are measured against: Girl Meets Boy, Girl and Boy Come Apart (in some way), Girl and Boy Come Back Together and Girl and Boy Get Their HEA, or Happily Ever After.

Perhaps you’ve heard that Romance consistently pulls in a lot of money for its publishers year after year. There are some stories people can’t get enough of and that’s okay (from my perspective, it’s a good thing). But discriminating readers will still gnash their teeth- or just stop reading- if they feel that they are literally reading the same story over and over again.

As irritating as it is to read the same story again and again, it can be even worse to watch the same story on an infinite loop. (Someone needs to explain to me why television is becoming more and more predictable even as our viewing options increase.) I’ve been able to see through plots since I was ten years old (“Of course Alexis is threatening to tell Fallon that Blake isn’t her real father; she’s the only person Blake loves without any conditions!”) but it probably has gotten worse since I started crafting my own stories. I’ve honestly lost count of how many times I’ve rolled my eyes and screamed at my television, but here are two that stand out:

Fringe Okay, maybe it’s not fair to pick on this show because I watched the @(#@^&!*( X-Files for years before that (and under duress for most of it), but every time I had to sit through an episode of Fringe I was unimpressed. The spooky dreams, the haunted victim of childhood experimentation, the mad scientist, the odd-looking humanoids, the shadowy government agency that might be working for good or evil and ultimately answered to themselves...yawn. And now cue the suspense...but did they know where it was going? (After the series finale, I’m not so sure they weren’t making it up as they went along.)

There's devoted parents...and then there was this guy

Points to the show for adding interdimensional travel? That was actually the final nail in the coffin for me. In an early episode, some reference to traveling between dimensions is made. About five minutes later, the Mad Scientist is having a conversation with his adult son about the time he was very sick as a little boy. “Really, Dad? I don’t remember that.” “I know you don’t, son.” At this point I shook my head. “Yeah,” I said drily, “because this guy’s son actually died and then he kidnapped his son’s double from the other dimension.” My husband thought that was crazy...until he saw a gravestone at the end of the episode which confirmed my theory. Or at least I think it was a gravestone; I didn’t even need to look at the screen to figure out what was going on.

Grimm If we’re going with The Seven Basic Plots, then Grimm is Overcoming the Monster- literally- every week. Nick Burkhardt is a detective in Portland, Oregon who discovers that he’s a Grimm, or a guardian who can see the true forms of human-monster hybrids (wesen) and protects others from them as necessary. Throw in some very old history with the powerful Royals and the fact that many wesen have a grudge bordering on a vendetta against the Grimms, then add that Nick is holding down a normal job while also maintaining relationships with human beings and this should be pretty exciting...but it’s falling short. 

Juliette is Nick's true love...

but it's a shame the show didn't have better reasons to put Juliette with Sean and Nick with Adalind

It’s not just that the dialogue is stilted- with one eye on the screen and the other in a book, my husband can predict what the next line is going to be- it’s that the story beats are so easy to guess even when they don’t make sense. If I see two good-looking actors of the opposite sex alone, it’s a pretty good guess that there’s going to be some romantic entanglement (or that they’re just going to have sex); if they do, there’s a good chance that someone’s going to get pregnant. This will hold even if it’s not in keeping with the characters, and the show will invent some convoluted reason why it will be so. Most recently, Nick's girlfriend Juliette was turned into a Hexenbeist (basically, a witch) to justify a partner switcheroo. It's a weird case of a nonsense plot twist to rush characters into something you saw coming a mile away.

Predictability isn’t the ultimate litmus test. And yet...Grimm is arguably more predictable than Fringe, but I will happily spend time watching that whereas Fringe felt like nails on a chalkboard to me. For me, the key is that I feel secure that Grimm has, basically, an idea of where it’s going in the series, while Fringe made me feel nervous about investing time into something that was going to implode under its own weight (did I mention it was a JJ Abrams’ show?). I’m happy to trade a little bit of finger-snapping surprise if I feel like the journey over all is going to be satisfying.

What about you?

Please be sure to visit my friend Caroline Fardig tomorrow as she shares her thoughts on predictability.

The #TVDoneRight Round Up

I wanted to thank all of the awesome bloggers who participated in my blog hop over the last two weeks. I love these women, but even I was surprised by the diversity of our choices. (Admit it: you were not expecting The Walking Dead, Chicago Fire and Daria, right?)

Here's a list of all who participated and what they covered. If you're so moved, please hop over to their blogs and let them know why you loved (or didn't?) their picks.

Caroline- Revenge

Isabella- Friends

Deb- Luther, Footballers Wives

Danielle-Claude- My So-Called Life, Daria

Erin- Hollyoaks

Deb- Mad Men

Jami- Sex in the City

Monique- Ally McBeal

Kerrie- The Walking Dead

Courtney- Chicago Fire

#TVDoneRight: Mad Men

As far as I'm concerned, Mad Men is some of the most perfect television I've ever watched.

Mad Men is the story of Madison Avenue ad man (see what they did there?) Don Draper in the 1960s. Much has been rightfully made of the show's attention to historical detail, from the set design and costumes to the overall zetigeist of the year (and there's a big difference between 1960 and 1969). But it's the writer's attention to character that makes the show.

I've always seen Don Draper as the epitome of everything we disdained about the age of advertising: good looking and seductive, he's also painfully self-aware and knows that he's a fake. He's not even Don Draper; that's the name of the man he switched identities with after an accident while he was in the army. Poor, unloved Dick Whitman suddenly had the chance to rewrite his life story, and he took it without bothering to think the consequences through, including the loss of the little brother who looked up to him and the "acquisition" of the real Dick Whitman's wife, who became the one person he didn't have to lie to.

The difference between Don Draper and a Ken doll? Ken just might have a soul.

It's not just that Don's biography is built on lies; it's not a stretch to say that he is as empty as the ad slogans he comes up with. He sleeps around like it's a job requirement, and even more so when he's married. And while Don has been known to show glints of humanity that spring from knowing what it is to hold a secret and be on the outside looking in, letting Don find you vulnerable can be dangerous. Don ruined Sal's career not because he was gay, but because he wouldn't put out for their most important client; when Lane temporarily embezzled funds, Don forced him to resign, which immediately led to Lane's suicide; and, perhaps most injuriously, he disapproved so much of Ted and Peggy's attraction that he thwarted every attempt of theirs to be together.

Overall, just about every character on the show is perfect. My favorite: Joan Holloway Harris, who's gone from biding her time as an office manager while she waited for a suitable husband to a well-deserved partnership in the firm...which she didn't get until she was convinced to sleep with a powerful Jaguar dealer from Jersey. Other favorites: callow but ambitious Pete Campbell, the young man born with a tarnished silver spoon in his mouth who can't socialize but who manages to come up with brilliant insights almost in spite of himself; and how do you not love jovial and witty Roger Sterling, even when his peccadilloes end up causing a restructuring of the ad agency?

Joan used her sex appeal to get what she thought she wanted, then realized her intelligence was her best asset.

January Jones doesn't have to be a gifted actress for her to easily telegraph Betty's frustration at being reduced to a shiny bauble.

Of all of the characters, Betty Draper, Don's ex-wife, is arguably the hardest to take, and that's due in large part to the weakness of the actress who plays her. In a way, however, that makes her perfect for the role of a woman who has perfected the art of being a beautiful object but struggles with being a real person (and those struggles are most painful to watch when she's interacting with her children). As far as I'm concerned, finding a way to use a weak actress effectively is a sign of a clever writer.

Thanks for stopping by! Please visit Jami Deise tomorrow to find out what her TV Done Right pick is.

#TVDoneRight- the British edition

Thanks to Caroline and Isabella for starting off the TV Done Right blog hop! This is my first installment (I told you, I love television). Today I'm going "across the pond" to talk about two of my most favorite shows ever.

Here’s what makes British television so good: brevity. It’s not that the episodes are shorter, but the seasons themselves. Whereas our seasons tend to go on for 22 episodes, in Britain eight is generous- and getting to five years is amazing. Why is that a good thing? Because it keeps everyone focused on the core story they’re trying to tell.

My picks: Luther and Footballers’ Wives. Other than the setting, they could not be more different, but they’re both equally well-done.

Luther is only 14 episodes long, spread out over three seasons. It’s the story of Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, who’s brilliant, hard-working and hot-tempered. That temper has cost him his marriage, and his wife has already moved on. So it’s that bit of instability plus the desire to solve a challenge that leads to what eventually becomes an obsession with Alice, a woman who called in the shooting of her mother but whom John realizes is actually the killer. Just one problem: Alice is as smart as Luther is, and whereas he’s constantly waging a war between his demons and his angels, she’s blithely thrown her lot in with self-preservation and has no qualms about breaking the law to get what she wants...or to help John.

While John and Alice are escalating their game of Will They Or Won’t They, John’s increasingly threatened at work, which I suppose you have to expect when you’ve pissed off one too many people. Everyone knew John cut corners, it was just a matter of catching him in the act. To top it off, John had horrible judgment in his personal life, which came back to bite him when  a good friend on the force not only found himself caught up in a crime ring but then killed John’s wife as part of a convoluted plot to protect himself. And who was the number one suspect? You guessed it- John.

"What? Isn't this what you look like during an interrogation?"

John found himself depending on Alice at the most interesting times, despite all protestations that she needed help (which, of course, she did). Most telling was when he pulled her out as his ace-in-the-hole when he needed to control a ruthless organized crime family- even though she hadn’t been in those episodes. Once we saw that, we knew that he was hooked even if he didn’t want to admit it.

Guess who's filled with respect for him and guess who's dying to take him down?

At the other end of the spectrum that is British television was Footballers’ Wives, the most trashtastic television ever produced. “Narcissistic” doesn’t begin to describe most of the characters, and yet you couldn’t help root for some of them, in spite of (or because of?) it. And, of course, sometimes we watched just to see someone get taken down...that, and the stories were brilliantly out of control.

Footballer Jason and his grasping wife Tanya (the eventual star of the show) caused team owner Frank to have a terrible accident, and while unconscious he’s repeatedly raped (!) by nurse Jeanette. Tanya uses this information to try and get Jeanette to kill Frank, but he makes a miraculous recovery. (Tanya’s tears during that scene were darkly funny.) Frank is convinced he and Tanya are having an affair, then remembers both being attacked and being raped. It takes him a little while, but he finally gets what he needs to blackmail Tanya- into marriage!

Please! This was just two guys having an affair- boring compared to the rest of the show.

What about Jason? Tanya’s philandering husband got around- including with his team mate Kyle’s mother Jackie. (Kyle’s model wife Chardonnay never looked twice at him, surprisingly.) When Jackie ended up pregnant, Kyle and Chardonnay passed the baby off as theirs...until Jason figured it out and brought baby Paddy to Jackie. His marriage to Tanya on the outs, he and Jackie might have lived happily ever after if it hadn’t been revealed that Paddy was really an intersex baby. Jason freaked out and went back to Tanya, and when Kyle finally found out that Jason was really his brother’s father, he almost killed him. Tanya, fed up with Jason’s constant indiscretions, humiliated him during their vow renewal ceremony in one of the best takedowns ever. After Jason punched Tanya, he went to drown his troubles in a bottle of champagne while sitting on a ledge- and there was killed by none other than sweet Chardonnay, who had been devastated over the loss of Paddy. Her comeuppance? Death by anorexia.

*This*, on the other hand, was nuts

Then Kyle started hitting his mother Jackie; Tanya..."fornicated" Frank to death so she could be with Conrad, who was ending his marriage to Amber; then Tanya passed off her baby with Frank as Conrad’s by switching her baby with Amber and Conrad’s- and then saw her baby suffocated to death by Amber’s poodle; Tanya grieved for about three minutes, then turned around and tried to gaslight Amber, who wasn’t as stupid as she’d previously acted and realized her baby was still alive. And...that’s just the first half of the episodes. I promise, the rest was just as consistently, amazingly trashy. 

As they say, go big or go home- and don't waste your time doing it.

What was your favorite, just-about-perfect television show?

Thanks for reading! Please join Danielle tomorrow as she takes on her favorites.

TV Done Right- coming to a blog near you!

Don't be fooled by the last blog hop I was in; I really love television. As much as I like to poke holes when something with potential goes wrong, when I find something good, I can be the biggest...er, "enthusiast" you've ever seen.

Last month Caroline Fardig hosted a bunch of fellow writers so we could tell you what went wrong with once good shows. This month, we're reuniting so we can tell you what we loved. (And I've got so much to say on the subject, I'm going to do so twice.)

Here's the tour schedule. Please be sure to stop by, read the posts and share your thoughts on which shows you loved.

See you soon!

Caroline- 8/19

Isabella- 8/20

Deb- 8/21

Danielle-Claude- 8/22

Erin- 8/24

Deb- 8/25

Jami- 8/26

Monique- 8/27

Kerrie- 8/28

Courtney- 8/29