Binge Worthy TV Shows

Sometimes I think the DVR is the best and worst invention ever.  The best because I can record shows when I'm not home and watch them whenever.  The worst because I record a lot of TV shows and then I end up watching an entire season over the course of a day or two. For a television junkie, the DVR is a big old enabler. 
 
Here are a few of my favorite binge worthy shows: 


Angie Tribeca on TBS

From the mind of Steve Carell and his wife, Nancy Walls Carell, Angie Tribeca is a police procedural satire in the spirit of Police Squad.  Rashida Jones plays the titular detective who gets a new partner in the pilot episode. TBS aired the first season of 10 episodes as a 25-hour marathon, so this show was truly made for binge watching.  The humor is very reminiscent of the movies Airplane! and The Naked Gun. Surely (don't call me Shirley) you will want to give this show a try. 




Killjoys on Syfy

Killjoys follows a trio of bounty hunters, Dutch, Dav and Johnny as they work in a four planet system called The Quad. Hello, space bounty hunters!  What isn't to love about this show?  Killjoys, especially in the second season is a great mix of humor, drama and action.  The leader of this rag-tag trio is Dutch, and she is a woman who knows how to take care of herself.  You wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.  The best part of this show is her relationship (strictly platonic) with Johnny.  Also Pree, every episode with Pree is automatically my favorite episode. 




Dark Matter on Syfy

Dark Matter is a bit darker (ha) in tone than Killjoys.  A group of six people wake up on the space ship Raza, with no memory of who they are.  They name themselves One through Six based on the order in which they woke up.  Dark Matter was created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie based upon their comic book of the same name.  Both men at one time or another were writers and executive producers on the Stargate TV shows. If you are a fan of the Stargate shows, you will see some familiar faces pop up now and then. Even without their memories, it becomes clear that the leader of the Raza crew is "Two" and she is a kick-butt, take names later (if they are still alive) kind of woman.   

 
The 100 on the CW

This post-apocalyptic drama follows a group of teens (100 of them in all) as they become the first humans to return to Earth, 97 years after a devastating nuclear apocalypse.  The twist here is that the teens are all technically criminals and Earth isn't quite as uninhabited as those still living in space think.  Also, the colony of space ships is failing so returning to Earth is pretty much their only chance of survival.  The CW is famous for dramas with very pretty people, and The 100 does deliver on that front. However, they don't stay so pretty (yes they actually get dirty and the dirt sticks) and life on planet Earth is BRUTAL.  Think Lord of the Flies, Game of Thrones brutal.  I record this show because sometimes I just need to stop my DVR, walk away and decompress.  Fair warning, this show will bring about emotions.


 UnREAL on the Lifetime channel.

I did a review of this show that you can read here.  Basically this is a show about the making of a fictional reality dating show and it is CRAZY.  Plus each season (season 2 just ended) is only 10 episodes long so you could easily watch a season in one day.







~Amy, Adult Services

Staff Review: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany

Where do I begin? To review something that you have undying affection for is harder than you might think. I suspect I need to delve a bit deeper than: I ♥ Harry Potter ♥ always.

As most of you know, the Harry Potter stories were published in seven books and through these
books, we see the whole story arc of wizard Harry's teen years (the glorious triumphs and far too many tragedies) and the ultimate fight of good versus evil, love versus hate. The last book came out in July 2007. Nine years ago! For those of us who are super-fans, that is eons. My love for Harry Potter knows no bounds and I was beyond thrilled when I realized that there was to be "the eighth Harry Potter story" coming out.

What surprised so many people was that this eighth story is a written as a play. It is being performed this summer in London. So many of us will never get the chance to see this play across the pond, but we do get the script for it.

I knew it was going to be a play script. I knew it would be different. But what I didn't expect was how quickly the story jumps right into the action. But that makes sense, I realized, because a play is all dialogue. All the words need to count and they need to propel the action forward.

I can only hope that someday the play will come to Iowa. I'd even be happy with a DVD of the stage production in London. I think that there must be so much visual storytelling here that we miss a lot of the drama of the words in the script: all the meaningful looks, pregnant pauses, no-doubt gorgeous and magical set pieces. I miss J.K.'s ability to bring you into the story by her fantastic descriptions of magical locations, also the peeks into the minds of the characters and how they are feeling. All of these things are burned in my memory, but for someone who hasn't read these books *cough* so many times, they might not get it at all.

...Angie, may I hijack your review for a moment? This is Amy.  I'm also a huge Harry Potter fan, but nowhere near as obsessed as Angie.  Though I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I feel cheated.  I feel cheated because J.K. Rowling is a masterful story teller and I really want to return to the world of Harry Potter and see Hogwarts as it is now.  With Harry, Hermione, Ron and yes, even Malfoy's children attending school, learning spells, getting into shenanigans and forging their own path in the world.  But alas I don't think that will ever happen. So curse you J.K. Rowling for dangling this carrot and then just taking it away.  Okay, selfish rant over.  You may return to Angie's review now...

Thanks, Amy, for that insight. I will say that I always hold out hope that there will be more written about the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling. This seems to be the case on her website "Pottermore" After the heaviness of what happened in the last few books, however, I don't think we will be able to get our innocence back. Sigh. That doesn't mean I won't keep reading them however. These books are like family to us super-fans.

Update: Rumors are flying that some film producers want to make this play into one, or some say even three movies. Who knows if this is true, but we can always dream.

~Angie (and Amy), Adult Services

Staff Review: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany

Where do I begin? To review something that you have undying affection for is harder than you might think. I suspect I need to delve a bit deeper than: I ♥ Harry Potter ♥ always.

As most of you know, the Harry Potter stories were published in seven books and through these
books, we see the whole story arc of wizard Harry's teen years (the glorious triumphs and far too many tragedies) and the ultimate fight of good versus evil, love versus hate. The last book came out in July 2007. Nine years ago! For those of us who are super-fans, that is eons. My love for Harry Potter knows no bounds and I was beyond thrilled when I realized that there was to be "the eighth Harry Potter story" coming out.

What surprised so many people was that this eighth story is a written as a play. It is being performed this summer in London. So many of us will never get the chance to see this play across the pond, but we do get the script for it.

I knew it was going to be a play script. I knew it would be different. But what I didn't expect was how quickly the story jumps right into the action. But that makes sense, I realized, because a play is all dialogue. All the words need to count and they need to propel the action forward.

I can only hope that someday the play will come to Iowa. I'd even be happy with a DVD of the stage production in London. I think that there must be so much visual storytelling here that we miss a lot of the drama of the words in the script: all the meaningful looks, pregnant pauses, no-doubt gorgeous and magical set pieces. I miss J.K.'s ability to bring you into the story by her fantastic descriptions of magical locations, also the peeks into the minds of the characters and how they are feeling. All of these things are burned in my memory, but for someone who hasn't read these books *cough* so many times, they might not get it at all.

...Angie, may I hijack your review for a moment? This is Amy.  I'm also a huge Harry Potter fan, but nowhere near as obsessed as Angie.  Though I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I feel cheated.  I feel cheated because J.K. Rowling is a masterful story teller and I really want to return to the world of Harry Potter and see Hogwarts as it is now.  With Harry, Hermione, Ron and yes, even Malfoy's children attending school, learning spells, getting into shenanigans and forging their own path in the world.  But alas I don't think that will ever happen. So curse you J.K. Rowling for dangling this carrot and then just taking it away.  Okay, selfish rant over.  You may return to Angie's review now...

Thanks, Amy, for that insight. I will say that I always hold out hope that there will be more written about the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling. This seems to be the case on her website "Pottermore" After the heaviness of what happened in the last few books, however, I don't think we will be able to get our innocence back. Sigh. That doesn't mean I won't keep reading them however. These books are like family to us super-fans.

Update: Rumors are flying that some film producers want to make this play into one, or some say even three movies. Who knows if this is true, but we can always dream.

~Angie (and Amy), Adult Services