So I know I’m waaaay late to this game, but my husband and I started streaming Friday Night Lights recently, starting from season 1 of course since we’d never seen one episode before, and I absolutely love the show. For regular network TV, which I’m usually not a fan of unless you’re talking Lost, this show is really great.

It is well written, superbly acted and sucks you in to these characters from the get go.  Albeit, the only part that may be a bit unrealistic if you’re a football fan is all the last minute nail biting wins the Panthers tend to experience.

I surprised myself with liking this show because I’m really not a football fan myself. My husband is a huge football fan though, and he likes the series too. It’s not just about football of course, so even the casual fan like myself can get in to the stories of these kids and the adults that mold and teach them, and all the teen and adult drama that goes with it.

We’re about nine episodes in, and there hasn’t been one bad episode yet, although I’m sure there will be one since they put a whopping 22 episodes in their first season, a bold move for what could have been a short lived series if it wasn’t picked up.

Kyle Chandler is great as the young Eric Taylor who coaches the small town Texas football team who is on their way up. The sport means everything to the people in the town of Dillon, including the boosters that support the team and the football fanatical mayor of the city.

The kids are under immense pressure to perform for college and pro scouts, and most of them are just small town kids that are looking to make something of themselves.  The first episode has the star quarterback getting hurt badly. You think he may be off the show, but in fact his rehabilitation ends up being one of the more gripping story lines of the series.

The actor who plays the first quarterback Jason Street is a pretty amazing actor. He makes you feel for him and how drastically his life has changed from being a top tier prospect for the pros to being in a wheelchair.

We also have Connie Britton, who plays Coach Taylor’s wife.  She’s an excellent actress as well, and for me it’s quite a departure watching her in a happy marriage, which is a huge departure from her unhappy tortured marriage in the more recent “American Horror Story”.

Friday Night Lights is immensely enjoyable, and it captures the spirit of a small town well, the good and the bad.

So, American Horror Story has ended its first and very interesting season recently.  This leaves us hungry for a season II as we see clearly where the producers of this series are headed – a clean cast and new story lines for season II as it seems the LA house they lived in previously is pretty much done.

The first season followed the story of Ben and Vivienne Harmon, a pshychiatrist and his wife who are recovering from Ben’s infidelity earlier on, where she caught him in bed with one of his students (he also taught at a local university).

Their rebellious teenaged daugher Violet was a main part of the haunted house story as well.  All are very talented and pretty looking actors that made the story more compelling.

However, perhaps the most compelling characters were the next door neighbors, the ghost teen Tate, played by a masterful young actor Evan Peters who is bound to become a teen heart throb after playing the tortured, dark soul Tate who’s done some very disturbing and evil things and still manages to find his way into the audience’s forgiveness.

You find yourself sort of rooting for this guy for no apparent reason.  The first season follows this dysfunctional family through their trials and tribulations that the house puts them through, including an impregnation by the ghost Tate, a gay couple who still haunts the house, an ex mistress who haunts Ben and too many other ghosts to keep track of.

My husband and I thought they could have scaled back on the ghosts a bit, and thought the series always seemed to “blow its wad” in one episode and drop multiple story lines, almost too many to keep track of instead of building a slow horror.

However, now knowing that the series intends to put a new family in a new situation every year, it now makes sense on why the first season seemed to move at lightning speed in the story lines and character development.

Jessica Lange also adds to the talented cast. Nominated for multiple acting awards over her career, you can see why in this show.  Lange always tends to add a very dramatic flair to her roles, almost too dramatic at times, but those are the characters she plays, and this one is supposed to be over the top.

The first season was pretty solid. It’s edgy, and that’s why it’s on so late at night on the FX channel, plus it shows partial nudity and some very adult situations.  Looking forward to the next story in season II!!!

My husband and I have been watching the Johnathan Ames inspired show “Bored to Death” about 3 slackers who are emotionally unavailable to anyone but themselves in this quirky comedy.  We’ve decided that it’s pretty good filler tv. Never must-see, mind you, just a good solid filler for in between when you don’t want to think a whole lot.

It’s a very subtle comedy that stars Jason Schwartzman as Johnathan Ames, who writes a lot of the episodes and has written stories about himself and his days as a private detective for hire (with  no real accreditation, assumingly he did it because he was just bored and needed the excitement!)

But Schwartzman isn’t the richest part of this little half hour escape from reality.  Ted Danson plays his wealthy pothead friend who still has money enough to spend and open a restaurant, although it seems he’s never really worked a day in his life and is well past his prime.

Then we have Zack Galifanakis, who plays his other friend, equally as much of a slacker. He’s an unemployed cartoonist who’s got some really quirky habits.  He’s also part self-loathing, part self absorbed and a great part of the ridiculous story lines they find themselves in.

Usually they’re just following Johnathan around on his various private dick assignments and getting themselves into a lot more trouble than is necessary.  The show, mind you, is far fetched, but it’s just pure quirky fun with some of the most unique characters I’ve seen on a television show since Seinfeld.

My husband and I watched the first season of AMC’s Walking Dead out of pure dedication to the comics that he loved to read.  Through his enthusiasm for the comics, I figured I would also love the series. He said some of the story lines were amazing, and he really liked how the characters in the comic were built.

With Frank Darabont at the helm directing, we figured how could this be bad or even average?  Darabont did some of my favorite movies.  For starters, there is The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption, both adaptations of Stephen King novels.  Then there is The Mist, another low budget adaptation of a Stephen King novella.

He did an excellent job on all of them.  However, the first season of The Walking Dead really was missing something.  The actors seemed wooden, the plot lines contrived, the dialogue ridiculous, and the characters were either over the top or simply not endearing or likable.  The zombie makeup was another story.

It was phenomenal. So there was sort of this disconnect on the actual characters and story and the phenomenal makeup and effects for the first season.

The second season seems to be making up for all the mediocrity of the first season in spades.  The first episode of the second season had me at hello. It was fascinating, gripping, edgy, and suspenseful. I actually began to – well, like the characters and care about what happens to them!

Characters that I formerly found annoying or nebulously uninteresting I now find interesting, and I actually care about several of them who I understand are supposed to be the core, main cast.  Three episodes in now, I actually look forward to this show as much as I used to look forward to Lost.

It is written more intelligently this season. I had heard that the writers were all replaced for the second season, and I’d be surprised if that’s not true seeing the huge improvement on the development of plot and more intelligent scripting.

Of course, the special effects and makeup are still excellent as well. One scene with zombies in wedding gear in a church was particularly haunting and disturbing.  I also like the fact that the threat factor is higher, with younger, fresher zombies able to move faster and be more agile than the older zombies who’ve been around a while.

The series is also going a bit darker, which I think is helping its credibility and realism. It’s definitely edgier, and I think it’s really going to pay off this season in higher ratings and more invested viewers.

Ok, so my hubby and I got hooked into watching the latest creepy horror show.  We started watching Walking Dead again (which by the way is way better this season already than the last crappy season), and we are also now watching “ American Horror Story”.

American Horror Story is a television show that definitely isn’t for kids. There’s lots of racy content, but that’s no surprise since it’s partially from the guys who brought us Nip/Tuck which is one of the more guilty pleasures in TV land.

It tells the story of a house that has really messed up the lives of whoever lives in it. But yet we still don’t know exactly how or why three episodes in. But we’re interested – and that’s what’s important. It’s got a sort of stylish look to it too, which adds to its appeal.

The only thing I don’t like is that people do obviously stupid things, like not telling their spouse about an experience the definitely was wrong on all kinds of counts.  Or keeping silent about something that could change the course of events for the better. 

The only other thing I might not like about it is that they seem to be going for some obvious shock value. Other than that, this show could very well be added to our list of “guilty pleasures” – somewhat fluffy, but very fun to watch and with pretty people in it! 

It’s not nearly as smart as say a Twin Peaks is, but it’s got that somewhat hip flair to it. 

We couldn’t wait for the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to hit. Now, our wait is over, and we actually had a couple piled up on our DVR because we had so many obligations other than watching TV for a while!

The new season is pretty good so far. The first episode got off to a bit of a slow start, but the second the gang was already hilarious in their trip to the Jersey Shore. My husband and I were hoping and praying that we would get to see Mac and Dennis, and maybe even Frank, dress up in Jersey guido gear. We also thought we might see Dee in a snookie style poof, but instead she went to the shore in braids ala “Ten”.   Not sure I really got that part, but the rest was pretty funny.

The best part of the show was Dennis and Dee’s foray into drugs and crime when they stupidly accept the offer of a drugged out woman at the hospital to hang out. They end up unkowingly smoking angel dust and participating in a bank robbery.

Dennis is forced to drive the getaway car at gunpoint, all while they are both high as a kite of PCP.  Pretty funny stuff.

Meanwhile, Charlie gets to have the dream night of his life when he runs into the waitress on the beach. They have a great time together, almost unbelievable really. They find seashells along the shore, find an adorable puppy, and end up seeing a spectacular display of fireworks. They fall asleep next to eachother and wake up the next morning.

The waitress is in her usually sour mood, and tells Charlie that she took ecstasy last night (hence her agreeable demeanor).  Hilarious stuff – we knew that it had to be too good to be true. By the way, that’s Charlie Day’s real life wife (he’s the guy who plays Charlie).

All in all, it looks like it’s gonna be a pretty solid season of awful people doing awful things to eachother and making us laugh. Onward!

When my husband and I saw the preview advertisements for the HBO period piece fantasy series “Game of Thrones”, it didn’t really show us what an incredible experience this show would be. This show is nothing short of superb.

It is the best show we have watched since Battlestar Galactica, and we never thought we’d find another show of such complex character, beautiful and visually appealing scenery and costumes, and some of the best acting I’ve ever seen.

The combination of character, storyline, excellent and intelligent writing, and the visually stunning element combine to make the series Game of Thrones one that you cannot afford to miss. It will stick with you for days after you complete the ten episode first season.

The characters really get ingrained into your psyche, and you feel for them almost as you would feel for someone in your family. They become dear to you.  The emotions you feel when things happen to certain characters in any show or movie really show how effective the director, producers, and actors are at portraying a fictional work and really transporting you to another time and place.

You will feel empathy for these characters, you will get entrenched in the world in which they live, and every episode will stick with you, I promise you that. I don’t want to give anything away at all by telling you plot lines, but this is really the story of a united kingdom under which several smaller kingdoms, or houses, reside.

Each has their own personality, and each has their own tales of greed, power struggles, and family relationships.  Sean Bean (Ned Stark) and Mark Addy (Robert Barathian) headline as the two main characters, and each does an amazing job at portraying imperfect, if not well meaning leaders who have a friendship that goes back very far.  You become attached to each one.

Even the children in this movie are superb actors. None are the sugary sweet kids you see in movie who aren’t believable at all, but stoic, strong personalities, who also garner the audience’s love over a short period of time House Stark is no doubt the most noble and well intentioned house of all, and you become so attached to the entire family that you take it personally in every episode.

Not one bad actor on this show, kudos to all of them for making this one of the most riveting, intelligent, and engrossing shows I’ve seen in years.  Thank God they have been signed to do a second season. Rumor has it that they were signed for a second season after reaction was so favorable to the first airead episode!

We were so desperate to continue our enjoyment of this series that we downloaded every single one of the extras and behind the scenes, and “making of” shorts that were On Demand.

Big Brother is back with season 13, and my husband and I couldn’t be happier. We were in quite a lull there for a while with TV, but now a couple of our shows are back on, and we have quite a few built up from Sunday night alone because it seems all the shows we like are on Sunday nights.

Breaking Bad is back, as are Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood (which sucks this season, can’t stand it), and Big Bro too. We couldn’t ask for much more during the summer, when we traditionally have nothing to watch until July some time.

This season of Big Brother is not short on the twists, and as a lot of other reality shows are doing, Big Brother has brought back some previous beloved players (and not so beloved, but fun to watch) to play with some “newbies” in the game.

As per usual, they have gotten a cute young guy who models in Dominic, a cute young girl who also models, Cassi, and a host of other diverse characters, ranging from weird to annoying to cool and level headed (Shelly).

Among the “veterans’ they have invited back are Evil Dick, who had to take an early exit from the show much to the shock of his houseguests due to a personal emergency, his estranged daughter Danielle, Rachel and Brendan, and the cutest couple on the face of the earth, Jeff and Jordan.

The newbies are definitely getting licked so far.  They fell apart basically after having the easy out of just all voting with eachother and getting the upper hand against the veterans, two of them split off and voted their own way, at the behest of the veterans, siding with them and creating a divide down the newbies.

No there is distrust amongst the newbies, as everyone denies that they voted to get rid of the ousted Keith when they had all agreed to get rid of the disloyal Porsche. I am shocked that they couldn’t pull this off.

They could have easily had this in the bag had they all stuck together, and I’m still not sure why exactly the two that split off (Shelly and Kalia) voted the opposite way.

Perhaps they felt more comfortable playing with people who knew what they were doing, or they wanted to play with the veterans simply because they liked them better.

One thing is for sure, this will be a very interesting season to watch, but I hope it’s not just a case of them picking players off one by one. There needs to be some sort of drama to make it go down unexpectedly.

I had high hopes for the new HBO show “Game of Thrones”, a period piece about the struggle over king’s thrones in medieval times, with a possible supernatural element to it (at least so I thought by seeing previews of some of the shows).

Sean Bean heads up a cast of great actors on this, mostly made up of unknowns, except for him and Lena Heady, who starred as John Connor’s mom in the Terminator TV series, and also starred alongside Gerard Butler in the hit movie 300.

Lena Heady, as I came to find out in the first episode, plays a not so good character, which is what you are lead to believe until you see the end of the episode. My husband feels she is a bit miscast in an “evil” role (sorry, spoiler alert), but I think she does a great job, the blonde wig notwithstanding.

We have only seen the first two episodes thus far, as we downloaded them from HBO On Demand. The last episode has actually already aired real-time, so we are going to have to get through them quickly as I don’t think they’re available much longer.

The first episode of Game of Thrones is a little confusing, as most ensemble cast shows are, since there are multiple story lines and character’s names that you have to remember.  However, the second episode ties it all together nicely and you start knowing what certain scenes meant in the first episode and putting things together of who’s who and what everyone’s agenda is on the show.

Essentially, it is about the battle for power in a fictional land, where there are several kindgomds by geographic area.  Some kingdoms are those of savages, and some are of peaceful people, while others are richer and rule with a heavier fist.

Sean Bean’s is the more peaceful, just of the kingdoms, as we see in to episode 2.  I think there is a supernatural element to the show, but my husband is not convinced. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!  There are savages called “white walkers” that we saw in the opening scene of the first episode, but it is not clear whether they are simply humans or a supernatural force, even though their eyes appear to glow.

A supernatural element would be pretty cool, and I hope that the book this is based on has that story line.

Oh, before I start this review of Jersey Shore Season 2, let me wish you a Happy Fourth of July! Hopefully you’re gonna go party and see some fireworks tonight.  I wanted to review the second season of Jersey Shore, the ultimate Guido and Guidette reality show that exploded in popularity since it was introduced in MTV’s lineup a few years ago.

I admit, I’m late on the draw in watching the series, but we just like to watch everything unedited, and on DVD or Blu Ray, so we can watch it whenever we want, at our own pace, and we don’t have to deal with censors getting rid of the juiciest and most lascivious parts of the show.

Jersey Shore, my friends, is definitely a show that you want to watch unedited if you can.  First of all, they do bleep a few things out, but they let everything else fly. I’m not sure why they would bleep out certain things, but they let all the f bombs fly, and some other very bad words.

The second season shows the gang in Miami Beach, where they are living in a nice little complex together, and get to hit all the Miami clubs like BED, Clutch and more. They even reportedly got banned from several clubs in Miami who wanted nothing to do with the theatrics and attention the gang commanded, plus the hot tempers on some of them.

But that didn’t stop girls from swarming on Pauly D, Vinnie and Mike “Situation” at some of the clubs. It amazed me that many of these girls actually went home with them, knowing full well what male whores they are and that they were really only into girls that were “DTF” (that’s Down to F@#$).

But hey, that’s girls for ya!  At least the types these guys like to bring home.  Snookie was a little low key this season, while Jenni seemed to kick her girl fight powers into high gear, getting into fights with Angelina and Sammi (Sammi held her own, trust me).

Of course, Sammi and Ron fought a lot, but not as much as last season, and there was a bunch of drama about a note that Snooki and Jenni “anonymously” wrote to her about Ron’s antics when they were actually not together anyways.

This show is still immensely entertaining to watch. The cast is mostly likeable, and Angelina took off again with no one really caring, so what’s new with that.  Overall, season 2 was very good, and we can’t wait for the third season to come out on DVD. Bring it on!