My Sunday Night TV Shows

I very rarely watch any of my shows when they air live (probably only Pushing Daisies), but still it’s easier to break down my TV watching habits by the night they originally air. (All shows listed alphabetically)

Brotherhood

I started watching Brotherhood right before the second season premiered. I really hadn’t heard too much about it, other than general “This show is pretty good, you should watch it!” type reviews.

It’s a show about 2 brothers in Rhode Island – one a politician, the other a mobster. Similar in some ways to The Sopranos, but even if it had Sopranos-like acclaim, it would never be as popular as The Sopranos was in its heyday.

Brotherhood is filled with terrific actors, notably Fionnula Flanagan as the matriarch (like Livia Soprano, but Irish), Jason Clarke as Tommy Caffee, the corrupt-ish politician and Jason Isaacs as Tommy’s brother, Michael, currently the boss of the local Irish mob. Isaacs also plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and is equally as excellent here as he is in those movies (obviously playing two completely different characters).

But the best of the bunch on Brotherhood are the two that surprised me the most. The first is Annabeth Gish, who I really had only known for jumping on the sinking ship that was The X-Files. She is phenomenal as Tommy’s bored housewife. Her work, especially in the first season, is something I never saw coming. She makes you feel pity for her even though her problems are generally her fault and you feel anger with her even when she’s wrong.

The second, and most surprising, is Ethan Embry. Absolutely riveting every second he is on screen. The weird kid from Empire Records does more acting with his sad eyes in one scene than Milo Ventimiglia has done in 2+ seasons on Heroes. His story is actually the only one with a glimmer of hope this season (the third) as he attempts to get his life back together and reconcile with his wife.

All that said, Brotherhood is tough to watch sometimes. It’s not really a feel-good show, which is odd to me because I prefer to watch it in chunks instead of week to week. (I’m 3 episodes behind right now). But it is compelling and well-made and definitely deserves more attention than it seems to get.


Brothers & Sisters

Brothers & Sisters can be a decent show, but its writers keep making irritating decisions that make me often question how much longer I want to keep watching the show.

I guess the acting is what keeps me coming back to the show (well, mostly). Sally Field is always good. Rachel Griffiths is fantastic. Matthew Rhys and Luke McFarlane are great together. Calista Flockhart actually makes me like Kitty a good portion of the time, which is surprising to me. Dave Annable is also surprisingly good, especially since I only knew him from Reunion on Fox a few years back and he was unsurprisingly terrible on that. Emily Van Camp makes Rebecca identifiable, sympathetic and never annoying, though she really should be. Patricia Wettig does a great job with an unlikable character. I like Ron Rifkin, but Saul is unnecessary. Rob Lowe is just there most of the time. Sarah Jane Morris is also just there, but she just kinda pops in and out whenever. Balthazar Getty is terrible and makes Tommy more irritating than he should be.

Every now and then, there will be an episode that I really enjoy and that gives me hope that this show is better than I think it is. Which is unfortunate, because when the show began, it wasn’t great, but I stuck with it and it got better, but then it seemed to reach the top of the mountain and they’ve been sliding down ever since.

Generally speaking, when they are drinking, the show is light and funny, and that’s when I enjoy watching.


Californication

Californication is a show that I never thought I would like. I liked The X-Files, but I never really like David Duchovny’s performance as Mulder and never quite got his appeal. The funny thing is that Duchovny is my favorite thing about Californication. That I like someone as sycophantic and self-absorbed as Hank Moody is due to Duchovny’s funny performance.

I also like Natasha McElhone as his ex, more this season because she is rid of her dull fiancé from last season. And Madeleine Martin as his daughter sometimes plays the deadpan a little too much, but she’s generally amusing as well. Also, the appearance of Callum Keith Rennie (from Battlestar) this season has been fun because he seems to be having so much fun with his character.

What I don’t like is anything to do with Evan Handler and Pamela Adlon’s characters. Handler’s Charlie Runkle was somewhat amusing last season but everything to do with him and his wife this year really strains the credulity of even this show. (And this is a show in which Hank Moody pretty much has sex with every female he looks at…) Handler and Adlon are not terrible actors; they are just saddled with annoying, stupid, irritating characters that bring down a show that’s only mildly amusing to begin with.

It’s a background TV show – something I watch while I’m cleaning or exercising. Nothing that I really have to pay too close attention to, and nothing that I would really miss if it was cancelled.


Desperate Housewives

I’ve been really enjoying this season of Desperate Housewives. I don’t know if it’s quite as engrossing as the first season (I still miss Rex), but it’s much better than the last few seasons.

I didn’t really like the second season at all and the third and fourth seasons certainly had their moments, but this year has really been consistently entertaining. With the five year jump, Susan has been (mostly) less annoying, Lynette is no longer a mopey-cancer patient, Bree is still Bree (of course) and Gabrielle has become my favorite of the four (and I was pretty much done with her last year). They’ve also found a way to bring Edie back that made sense (and I really like Neal McDonough). Shawn Pyfrom finally has something to do (though I do miss scheming Andrew). And it seems that James Denton has remembered how to act.

It’s not a perfect show, and these “event” episodes are getting a bit annoying, but I do still like the show and that doesn’t always happen with shows in their fifth year.


Dexter

I say this in the nicest way possible: Dexter peaked in season two and I do not think it will ever be the fantastic, edge-of-your-seat ride that it was last year. Breaking from the books (all of which I read) after a first season that followed the first book pretty closely was a really smart idea and made for great TV.

Michael C. Hall really came into his own least year and the whole show came together around one main story. They created a great, hateable bad guy in Lila. Doakes became a true adversary for Dexter, beyond the cartoon he was in season one. And while you knew that they show would be back, so Dexter was never really going to be caught, I found myself briefly wondering if he wouldn’t get away with it all. It all ended in a supremely satisfying finale, which I really don’t think the series can ever match. On one hand, that’s great. On the other, it’s unfortunate, because I’m left comparing season three to season two and it does pale in comparison.

That’s not to say that this season is bad. It definitely is not, especially in the last few weeks. Jimmy Smits has been a great addition to the cast, surprising me week-to-week. Absolutely everything with him and Dexter has been fantastic. And now it seems as though the show’s stories are all coming together to complete the whole story and I hope that it will make for a great finale in two weeks. I truly do not know how it will end and I think that’s excellent.

My problem this year has been with characters other than Dexter. I like Deb. I think Jennifer Carpenter does a great job with her. But the stuff with her and Internal Affairs did not work for me. I’m not crazy about the stuff with Anton, either. At least Anton is part of the main story, but they really telegraphed their relationship too much. I like Angel too, and I don’t really mind his story romancing the other cop, but I wish we saw less of it. I don’t care that much.

I do think that Rita’s pregnancy and her and Dex’s upcoming wedding storylines have worked, especially lately. And LaGuerta’s storyline has been handled well also. LaGuerta does not even survive the first book and I did not like her at all in the book, so her continued evolution is especially enjoyable to me.

I do still look forward to watching every week (I really can’t wait for next week) and I do still think it is a great show, but I can’t help but compare it to last season. I think that’s a good complaint to have, but a complaint nonetheless.


Summer Heights High

Don’t really have too much to say about this one yet. I’m only three episodes in, and it’s fairly amusing, not really laugh out loud funny. It’s certainly better than the last two “comedies” HBO offered, Little Britain USA and The Life and Times of Tim. (I probably have more bad things to say about those shows than I have good things to say about Summer Heights High.)

I like the show, but I don’t love it.