If you want something really, really bad...

Inspired by lovis.

Lets see how my shows fared during their first half (or at least close to it) of the new Season (occassional spoiler tags, just in case):

Bones - still watch for the revolving interns basically and I will compliment them on doing a really decent 9/11 ep with all of them but WTH was that last episode before hiatus? Oy.
Castle - okay, I guess, they`re even handling Castle and Beckett as a couple reasonably well (in the "it could be way worse" sense)

NCIS - same old, same old, nothing ever changes here (unless a cast member wants out)
NCIS Los Angeles - pure popcorn entertainment but on that level it works, it`s uncanny, though, how many bad guys the team shoots in every single episode, I can think of no procedural that is sooo trigger-happy

Arrow - still like it, still like gloomy Ollie ( spoiler ); thing is, Oliver is so profoundly lonely, he is a very tragic character for me
Supernatural - better than the last three years but the writing issues in general (pacing, multiple plots at least for main characters, lazy characterization issues) didn`t improve as much as I previously hoped, ( spoiler )
Criminal Minds - much like NCIS, same old, same old, the new character brought nothing in terms of new dynamics, she neither enrages nor enraptures, ( spoiler )

The Vampire Diaires - oh dear, it`s kinda like riding a train but thinking you spot a large gap in the tracks further down the road, you`re not sure yet and you have some hope it will all work out but, like Han Solo, you have a bad feeling about it; ( spoiler )
Beauty and the Beast - yup, still watching. Anyone`s guess as to why because it`s really pedestrian but I have developed this stubborn desire to see the titular characters together because, seriously, glaciers move faster than this.
Person of Interest - like it as much as in Season 1, two wonderfully stoic characters bringing each other back into the world, ( spoiler )
Elementary - enjoy it more than I thought I would and I`m really, really impressed that so far they haven`t validated my cynical belief that soon enough Sherlock and Watson would play the will they/won`t they game
The Big Bang Theory - it still makes me laugh occassionally but why did Amy get the sexaholic character overhaul? That`s cringeworthy.

Fringe - this Season is weird for me, I don`t dislike it but it never really got going for me ( spoiler )
Haven - I do not understand ( spoiler ) That said, I have quite enjoyed the Season for the most part.
Grimm - holy crap, they really brought a few things to a head, ( spoiler )

Merlin - like I said, the only question becomes on how much they are gonna screw up Christmas as it seems crystal clear that ( spoiler speculation )

Watched the two new CW pilots this week:

Arrow - that was pretty good, I thought the ( spoilers )

Beauty and the Beast - you know, I will go ahead and say that I didn`t actually hate this. Nope, it doesn`t have great or even good writing and it`s a lot less profound than the original but I didn`t expect any of those things going in anyway. It will be a romance mixed with a procedural, highlighted with cheese. Sometimes when I`m in the mood, I like those. Maybe next week I`ll be reaching for the bleech again. *g* Also, surprisingly, I didn`t get "OMG, it`s Lana, nooooooo" factor much, as I had feared. ( spoilers )

Other TV reactions in one sentence or less:

Haven ( 3.04 )

Fringe ( 5.03 )

Vammpire Diaries ( 4.01 )

Grimm ( Forgot the ep number )

Haven 3.03 - Wow, what a punch to the gut. ( spoilers )

Fringe 5.02 - Am still not quite at home in this variation of the show. Though ( spoilers )

One after another, my shows are starting again and my TV week is filling up. So far I watched:

Bones - mostly I watch to see which of the revolving interns will amuse me this week
Castle - okay to we`ll see how it goes
NCIS - bit of a letdown after the Finale
NCIS LA - I kinda knew it because oh well
Criminal Minds - not a fan of the new character

And today: Fringe ( 5.01 )

Haven ( 3.02 )

Only SPN, TVD and Community to go now. Oh, and possibly Arrow and/or Beauty and the Beast (the latter looked so hilariously bad, I need to watch at least the Pilot so gauge out the amusement factor).

Holy fucking crap, THIS is a trailer for Season 5 of Fringe.

I want to watch this Season. And I want it NOW.

I had kind of a renewed interest after the last thirty seconds of the SPN Season 7 Finale but the first spoilers out have already cured that. Completely. Same old, same old.

( spoilers )

I'm not sure if this is the longest I've ever held on for a show that makes me wanna drive spikes through my head - nope, X-Files still holds that record, in the end I cried every year when I heard they renewed it. Still, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins, I'm sending you my therapy bills. :-p

Meanwhile, I also read some basic spoilers for Season 5 of Fringe. And while those make my stomach clench, they do so in a good way. ( more spoilers )

I'm sad it will end after only 13 more episodes but if they manage to pull the last one off, too, they will have had an - for me - unparalleled winning streak. I can't recall ANY genre show like this where I liked ALL the Seasons. Even if I meassure only the first five years of all my shows, they always had at least one real stinker in them. Fringe, so far, hasn't had one. Sure, I have my fave as well - Season 2 - but that doesn't mean I hate the others.

So maybe it will be good to go out on a highpoint. Hopefully.

Used my first "free" day to finally catch up on the last few eps of Fringe. I started watching in real time Season 4, then had to stop quickly because it made me hurt for the characters and I can only really take that when I know it gets better (and soon). So I waited out the Season and have been marathoning properly. Now, I can even take the beginning without breaking a sweat. :D

I dreaded ep 19 "Letters in transit" somewhat, given what I had read about it but my fears were unfounded. I was thouroughly entertained and loved the characters.
( Is that still a spoiler? Better safe than sorry. )

Also, and that was not only brought on by Fringe but several things I watched recently: suspense-building in either a breaking/entering/storming the fortress or a getaway scenario. You know, the good guys either try to get the bad guys or trying to make a run for it. And you know what? I think it's actually not that hard to generate suspense during scenes like that. Working on the assumption that your audience cares about the well-being of the good guys, all you need to do is make it a bit hard for them, have the bad guys nearly catch them, have someone trip and fall for godssakes.

I'm not talking about every show doing it as thrill-rid-y and masterfully as the Person of Interest Finale but watching Fringe today, I kinda had a weird retroactive "okay, that's fucking it" moment re: the SPN Finale. And it's all mareen's fault because she totally put the thought in my head and it grew and grew there. :-P Now, I still am deliriously happy over some stuff in the SPN Finale, mainly the very end, but while it didn't bother me while watching I'm no longer sanguine about: ( again spoiler, I guess )

I know, I'm like months behind everyone else on this reaction but the Fringe Season 3 Finale? whuuuuuuuuut?

Given the givens, this is the show I most look forward to next Season.

My ( prediction? )

As I'm currently marathoning Fringe Season 3, I once more marvel on how the show is one of the very, very, very few in TV history that manages to make redemption believable for me.

Despite redemption being a big theme in fictional stories, most of the usually screw it up badly. Bad deeds are either retconned away, woobie-ed away, blamed on someone else or buried under Sue-torture, sometimes all of those combined. *gives certain shows the stink-eye here* Occassionally, depending on my goodwill for a character, I will still be able to like them, most times it makes me hate them but no matter what, I never, ever buy the so-called redemption.

In Fringe, though, I see a rather heartwarming wonderful yet honest portrayal of a character who has done something so horrific that others would be justified in totally condemning it but because I don't feel they do any of the above things in adressing the misdeed, not only do I feel sympathy, I also am not angry for in-show characters extending that sympathy as well.

The only anger I feel is towards writers of all those other shows who take all kinds of "tell, not show" shortcuts in creating sympathetic characters and interaction.