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DiogenestheCynic
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I think I may be once again guilty of rating the show somewhere between how good it was and how good it should have been, but not being sure I know what I'm talking about has never shut me up before and I'll not let it start doing so now.
Witchblade has an interesting concept and I certainly enjoyed the first issue of the comic I read before the show came out. The show didn't quite live up to my hopes, but I think a lot of that is simply the technological limitations of the time. Well, that and budgetary restraints. I think a remake with modern CGI would be fantastic, so I hope they give this show another chance.
While an amusing concept, the characters eventually became so toxic that I couldn't watch the last two seasons. So up until the end of season three, my vote for the worst goes to Lindsay for the worst.
This is not a pilot, per se, but a quick adaptation of the prologue of a book that only made it to screen in order to maintain film rights. Still, they didn't do a half bad job of turning those few pages into a nice little teaser for a show that may one day be made. Baalzamon wasn't as threatening as I would have liked, and Lews Therin wasn't as obviously insane as he should have been, but it was a good effort for a teaser. I suppose I should admit that my rating for the show may reflect my anticipation for a show based on these books as much as my opinion of the pilot, so perhaps a grain of salt is in order.
Though vampire dramas were old even before zombies took center stage, I still rather enjoyed the show. I suspect this is large due to relationship between the stars of the show, one pint-sized and the other of Saved By The Bell fame. While I couldn't give this show as high a rating as I would have liked due to the overused vampiric plague premise and ludicrously stupid decisions many characters were forced to make to keep the plot moving in an interesting direction. I mean, you know that the vampires are getting stronger as their numbers increase, but you can't kill the oldest one without killing a child, so you leave them all alive?! Kill the others! It's really simple! Ah, well. Without people making stupid decisions shows would be much harder to write, I suppose.
This review contains spoilers. Click the text to reveal.
Sadly, this show turned out to be a cookie-cutter police procedural known more for behind-the-scenes and very public conflicts. The stars of the show were never quite as likable as their movie counterparts (prior to the unfortunate antics of one of the moves' stars), and the lack of any significant overall plot made the show entirely too disposable.
I'm sad to see this show end, though the loss of my favorite character in season 3 had me undecided whether I would watch season four at all. Overall I think it was a very good example of near future science fiction. While the themes (robots displacing humans, emergence of AI) have been done before, this show did a great job of showing them on a personal level. They portrayed the synths who gained sapience as being on a spectrum of emotional complexity and human-like behavior, with some synths that seemed more robotic on one end and others indistinguishable from humans on the other. It really is one of the best portrayals of this that I've seen, as seeing the newly-awakened synths as being so varied and influenced by their individual circumstances made them seem more 'human', than making them all completely human-like would have been.
This review contains spoilers. Click the text to reveal.
Despite my police procedural exhaustion I decided to give this show a chance as I'm a fan of two of the stars: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter & Limitless), and Morris Chestnut (V, AHS, and his awesome name). Unfortunately the show failed to distinguish itself very well. While I do they the cast did a good job with the material there are two factors that really kept me from enjoying the show.
First, the premise is one that has be used time and time again. The investigative team is forced to work with an undesirable outsider who possesses a special genius or unique expertise. I don't watch many procedurals but there have been quite a few of this nature. Monk (saved by Tony Shahloub's greatness), the Mentalist, Psych, Limitless (which even had Carpenter in a main role!), and others. These shows hang even more thoroughly on the ability of the 'outsider' to engage the audience. Carpenter did a great job with trying to make the audience empathize with her character, but there are simply too many demons in that character's past for many viewers to really connect with her.
The second issue I have is that the show is too focused on one villain. The team itself exists solely for the purpose of catching one person, and the aforementioned 'outsider' is only unusually effective when dealing with that person. What happens when that villain is caught or killed? Will the show continually try to pull other horrible people from the Outsider's past to keep her relevant? Or will the show keep dragging back the same villain season after season? A villain that is never truly beaten requires some extraordinary quality, and I don't think that's the case here.
Well, those are my thoughts on the matter. It's my first review, so I hope that those who read this won't be too harsh with me. Thanks for reading!
Yet another police prodedural, this one is saved from the discard bin by the depth the villains are given.
Absolutely brilliant! I hate to admit how many of the issues he covers I had no real comprehension of before seeing his show. His political leanings are clear, but he and his staff base their arguments on facts and data, which sets them apart from the political pundits we always see on TV. Also, I really love the bits of random absurdity that they include in each episode, like the Chippendale's workout video clip. The only thing I could do without is his turning to yell at whatever graphic is up on the screen. That joke has gone quite stale.
This show won be over completely with the dance scene in the first episode. Gave just a tiny bit of characterization to each of the main characters in a nice, quirky way. We spent the first season learning who the characters are (and were) so there wasn't much chance for character development, but I have high hopes for season two.