Kingdom

When it comes to TV shows, I'm extremely picky when it comes to watching something weekly and religiously. Unfortunately I do not have Showtime, HBO, Starz or AMC which means I do not watch four specific shows that I really like with great frequency (and I'm too lazy to watch it online on my laptop, so I wait for DVDs). My interests come and go, shows come and go, shows finally end and well it's back to finding something to replace my pop culture black hole. Just last week, it was announced that "House" would be ending. That has always been a staple for me for...well since I started college. "Smallville" ended in the spring of 2011, a show that I've been watching since high school for crying out loud. And a show I had been glued to since it's inception, "Crime Scene Investigation", had replaced Gil Grisson with Neo years ago and became extraordinarily uninteresting.

Scamble mode. I am left with only "Criminal Minds", which fortunately is on nearly every channel every day every waking minute so that's ideal for an addict like myself. And that was it. I was losing or had completely lost interest in everything else. I tried a few shows on SyFy and wasn't sold enough. But, as luck would have it...or well. Actually, one show I was very intrigued by due to the creators + cast. Another I just stumbled on to and gave it a whirl. And the last one...found me again, by reminding me that '....everybody knows my name.'



The Return:

"CSI" came back. With a vengeance. And Ted Danson. Honestly, I thought this would be worse than Laurence Fishburn. Especially with Danson's blinding grayish white hair, some mistaking him for Gandalf. Zero expectations. And then, wham. He's quirky and silly and dramatic enough. He's not Cheers or even Becker. He's.. Ted Danson. Which has given the show personality again, and I guess as a trickle down effect, the crimes are once again interesting. Furthermore, Elizabeth Shue is joining the cast. Yes. Elizabeth Shue back in Vegas, no word yet if Nicolas Cage is going to have a cameo as man dying from alcohol poisoning. There used to be a time where I could not miss this show. I remember when it, along with the early days of Nip/Tuck, were discussed in some of my college classes. Now there's a spin off for every major city..well..okay maybe not yet.


The Intrigue:

It's about the elements that you uniquely combine to create a show that I am telling you now, I strongly recommend. If you liked "Lost" before it truly got lost, if you like superhero movies, and if you like bizarre technology and ongoing mystery, then you need not look any further than "Person of Interest". The elements are Jonathan Nolan and Jim Caviezel, the superhero aspects. Then there's J.J. Abrams and Michael Emerson, the mysterious "Lost" elements. This is not "Lost" in New York. This is more of a well-crafted show about a vigilante that we know nothing about working under a brilliant and rich man, that we know nothing about. And as only Michael Emerson can do, we have no idea if we can truly trust him or not. You have a show that's in the hands of two guys who have endless visions for the craft. It has a lot of action, but a lot of "I still really have no idea what's going on" to keep you fully guessing. And if you have no clue who Jonathan Nolan is, he helped bring us "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight". Just sayin'


The Accident:

Very rarely do I watch NBC. Sorry, I go against conventional trendy tastes and I do not watch the Office, Chuck, or any of those other shows frequently highlighting their slate of shows. I really didn't know anything about this show until I saw a commercial for it one day, randomly, and though "oooh, kinda X-Files-ish". Except, not really. Turns out that ABC has a similarly themed and complicated fairy tale story-themed show called "Once Upon a Time" and I had heard of that, but was not really interested. So I check out "Grimm" only to be pleasantly and delightfully surprised. It's set in a real world, only there's creatures from the stories in the real world. And my favorite part is that the subtly reference the stories- i.e. Hansel and Gretel were two homeless teenagers named Hanson and Grace. It blends a lot of things and sometimes can be very goofy. But it's weirdly intriguing. It has "cop procedural/criminal investigation", "supernatural appeal", and ongoing mystery because well, the main villain just happens to be the main hero's boss and they're both cops and well...try it, you might like it.