TV #47 of 2023: Star Trek: Enterprise, season 4 I gather conventional wisdom holds that the latter two seasons of this TOS prequel series are better than the first, and sure, I’ll mildly agree to that. The writers understand their characters and the other strengths (and limitations) of the program a little more clearly now, …
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TV #30 of 2023: Gilmore Girls, season 5 This is kind of a weird season of television! I’m not sure if I ever noticed before this rewatch, but this does seem to be the point where the series starts running out of ideas, making some choices that don’t feel especially true to the established characters …
TV #23 of 2023: Six Feet Under, season 5 This final season perpetuates a lot of my existing frustrations with Six Feet Under, and as I watched, I expected that I’d probably give it the same two-star rating that I handed the previous year. The characters are all melodramatic and self-sabotaging far more often than …
TV #1 of 2023: The Shield, season 4 This is a rebuilding era of sorts after the shakeup of the previous year, with the Strike Team disbanded and Aceveda finally moving on from the Farmington precinct, albeit for a supervisory political position that keeps him relevant. In the wake of those familiar power structures, we …
TV #35 of 2020: The Office, season 1 This 2005 debut was a little rough at the time, and another decade and a half of evolving cultural norms haven’t made it any better. Michael Scott is of course a walking HR complaint of offensive and inappropriate behavior, but even our ostensible hero Jim would be …
TV #31 of 2019: Veronica Mars, season 1 What an incredibly satisfying and well-crafted season of television. The high school noir tone is pitch-perfect, the title figure is layered far beyond her initial feisty appeal, and subtle clues to the ultimate answer of who killed the teenage sleuth’s best friend are threaded brilliantly throughout the …
TV #46 of 2017: The West Wing, season 6 Oh man, late West Wing is such a mixed bag. I think season 5 is unquestionably the worst, and that lingers a little bit into the start of this next one. The primary campaign is a real shot of adrenaline, though, and it definitely works as …
TV #25 of 2016: Deadwood, season 2 This season is a big improvement over the first, which was already a solid prestige western. More supporting characters get fleshed out this year, and there’s an interesting overarching serialized plot over most of the season. This is probably never gonna be my favorite show — although I …
TV #41 of 2015: Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 1 I know this is close to sacrilege in certain circles, but I’m pretty thoroughly underwhelmed by this acclaimed cartoon series so far. It’s very… adequate? I guess it feels kind of like the show ReBoot to me: above average children’s entertainment with some occasional cool …
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