Well, now the elephant has left the room. B & B are finally married. Only it just does not feel that way, everything is as if nothing has changed. But that's my personal opinion and in my view, it's actually a good thing. As long as the constant back and forth stops I'm fine. I just wish Booth would once stand his man and he would tell Bones to shut up. Anyway, the focus is no longer on these two, which creates time and space for the other characters.
In general, the stories are good, the show has long since set and does what it does best. And finally, Pelant is history! Although his mind lingers throughout the season. Which brings me to the Ghost Killer, something I did not like. It leads to an exciting season finale, but the connection to Pelant, who discovered at least the tip of the iceberg, is thin at best. No explanation as to the why. Or did I miss that ?
I feel relieved after this season because I was afraid that I would reach a point where I would stop. If nothing completely stupid happens, I am confident that I will finish this series.
In its entirety better than the previous season. There were some really good episodes like "The Patriot in Purgatory" or "The Spirit in the Machine". Some good moments alltogether. But I still shy away from the B & B romance. One of the show's strengths in its early parts was the relationship between these two characters. Now I think that's one of the weaknesses. It's just too much in the spotlight after 8 years. I have lost all interest in this topic and am much more focused on the characters of the second level.
For the most part, the show is at a standstill. It does what it does best but brings little new.
After the revelation of the pregnancy I feared S7 would gonna be bad. When I started watching this show B&B seemed like a natural fit. You know, like opposing sides attracting each other. Brennan's awkward, quirky behavior against Booth's straight forwardness and honesty.
Now that they are together it isn't working. They are more like two cogs in a gearbox that are running tooth on tooth. If they don't find the clutch it will never work. And to be honest, althought I really liked the character of Brennan at the beginning and found her to be quite amuzing, now I cannot comprehend how anyone would want to spent time with a person like that. She has become even more bitchy. It is either that or my perception of her.
The whole show in large parts is drifting towards a soap-op. Mamys talking about their babys, releationship troubles and stuff. Althought this was never a hard crime show to begin with I feel the cases are becomming less and less relevant.
I am determined to close this show out but I can understand the comments not liking the show in its later parts.
I can only rate this a 6 because it was the worst of the show so far. There wasn't much I liked and I was actually glad it only had 13 eps.
For me S6 was much, much better than the previous two. Better written stories, some even creating an arch, resulted in better episodes. For me there was one reason - the main focus was not B&B. As I've written before that whole thing was dragged out for too long and the show was much better without that.
Of course it couldn't last. The last two episodes threw everything around, althought my guess is it was more out of necessity because it felt hasty and rushed. Emily Deschanel was pregnant for real so they had to do it now. They slept one time together and hit the jackpot. I was pi**ed that the trigger was the death of Nigel-Murray. Athought that, too, might not have been intented. Speaking of that death - I hated it. First Zach had to leave, now my favorite intern.
What I really like to see more and more is the story of Jack and Ang which feels much more natural and fluid. It is so much more better written than the other one. And, of course, I always love to see Billy Gibbons.
Everything taking into consideration I had much more fun, and emotional moments, this season so it's a step up to a solid 8.
I've finished S5, and already I am a good way into the sixth, when I realised that the end of S5 was when I stopped the show on its original run. Althought I can't remember why that was. Might be something trivial like just not having the time. But it could have been something else, too.
A large part of this show, well the main part really, is centered around the connection between B&B. The seed, that there is something grewing between them is planted very early. The problem is that they dragged that out for too long maybe because they didn't know how long the show would last and they didn't wanted to jump the gun. When they finally decided for Booth to confide his love to Bones and she rejected him the thing was already a dead horse. It had reached a point were it became annoying for me to watch that constant back and forth.
Another thing that really became annoying, in itself and in relation to a possible romance, is Bones behavior in general. Now, I know she is supposed to be that way but the constant correction of others and her rationalizing everything makes her more and more unlikable. The character hasn't really shown any developement since day one and I have now reached a point where I wouldn't want B&B to end up together.
Luckily there is a lot more to the show once you look past that non-romance so I have ample reason to go on. Still a 7 for the season.
One thing I hate is the imbedded commercials by Toyota were the characters literally cite brochure texts. I know product placement is normal but, please, make it less obvious
For me season 4 was the weakest so far. Not bad or awful just, you know, the weakest.
It started with that badly cobbled together England episode. Then there is that thing with the intern-of-the-week. Hated that. Althought in the long run I began to like them more they are all no replacement for Zach. I hoped they would bring him back at some point, since it was hinted that he did not actually kill someone. Well, didn't happen.
The plot for Angela and Jack was something that felt like if they did not know what to do with the characters. I was alright with the break-up. That was concievable and legit. But throwing her head over heels in another romance with her ex Roxy, who appered out of nowhere, only to drop that also just a couple episodes later was a waste of time. But it was good they did because it wasn't working. And now the Ang and Jack romance is in limbo althought at the end of the season they were talking about starting over. My guess is the show runners don't want another romance to distract from the main one.
What else ? Max Keenan - they wrote him out of jail only to dissapear into nothingness. He has one small showing in one episode (I don't count the dream-episode).
Some episodes I did not particulary enjoy include the circus, the ghost and the steal-the-body-from-the-wake. They had some good parts but were alltogether to cliched and especially the later felt so overdone. Maybe 22 episodes would have been better.
But even with all this negatives I consider Bones still one of the better shows and it still had many good things to go for. I am now maybe more analytical while watching then, say ten years ago, so everything is fine.
A good 7 for season 4.
The third season of Bones was cut short due to the strike and I think it hurt them. More later. Overall it was still a great year but there where things I did not like. The positives first.
They added another character with Dr Lance Sweets, played by John Francis Daley. At first I found him annoying and not really likeable. I would have loved to have Stephen Fry as Dr. Wyatt as a regular but in retrospect I guess that was a pipedream. Anyway, in the long run Dr Sweets complemented the characters of Booth and Bones rather well and he was kind of the missing part to a pair already there. I hope this is comprehensible.
What else ? Of course there was the first kiss between our main protagonists (look for the extended scene of that kiss, it is on the DVD) and seeing Brennan and Baby Andy was another highlight. After those it was hard finding arguments any longer that there is nothing going on.
So what didn't I like? First the way Max Kennan got off scot-free. Just didn't felt right. And now comes the part where I think the strike hurt the show. Maybe I am reaching but it felt pretty rushed towards the end. That psycho-stalker that shot Booth was a good storyline that felt cut short. Could have been an entire episode with maybe Brennan getting kidnapped or something like that. And that whole thing with the funeral - yeah, right. That was a bit lame.
And the elephant in the room - Gormogon. They underlying plot of season 3. That turned out to be a bit dissapointing. Not because they took Zach to be the apprentice. Fun fact: You can clearly identify him when he kills the guy in his closet. Try going frame by frame. Cleary I did not see this when watching it on TV. No, I think they already knew at the start of that story, that one of the main characters was to be the apprentice. But that whole finale of season 3 was anticlimatic. It resolved too fast. Althought at this point I don't know how, or if, there was further developement of that plot - I just can't remember.
All in all I give this season either a really good 8 or a very weak 9. It is somewhere inbewteen. I had my share of laughs and emotinal moments in this season as well.
Second season really builds great upon the first. The character development is really good because this is first and foremost a show about people, the crimes are but the tool to tell their stories.
Their were some changes, some of which I liked and some I don't. Lets start with the character of Dr. Saroyan. I was totally fine with Dr. Goodman. He could have been developed further, plus there wasn't really a need for another female role as we already had Bones and Angela. But one thing Dr Goodman never could have been - an ex-lover to Booth. Interestingly Tamara Taylor was only hired to do six episodes at first and then her character was to die but they decided diffenrently. The producers tried a lot to convince audiences that their is nothing growing between Booth and Bones. Other clues are his short flic with his ex Rebecca and then there is the thing between Bones and Sully, who is really kind of a Booth look alike. Maybe I am reflecting because I already watched most of the show but even when I watched it initially, it never felt convincng.
Some great additions in the secondary with Stephen Fry as Doctor Wyatt, who was absolutely brilliant but unfortunately only did a few episodes, and Paticia Belcher as Caroline Julian.
I was glad they ended Howard Epps because he was to generic, the kind of mad psycho stalker you had in so many movies and shows. The romance between Jack and Angela was something I liked. Yes, it was to be expected that some of the characters would be involved at some point and it seems to be a bit early but I am sure that no one had foreseen a 12 year run of the show.
So, another 9 for season 2, slightly below thefirst, but with lots of laughs and love.
Bones was one of the last shows I really, really loved to watch. Where I would look forward to every new episode. This show was great right out of the gate because it was well crafted and developed. The characters had enough depth from the pilot on, to be interesting, and enough in the background to be developed. It was easy to attach to them and care for them. They were all perfectly cast and everybody gave it their best.
We all know that in the long run their would be the romance on the horizon but personally I think in the early parts of the show it did not stand in the way. It has always been a character driven show so those things are to be expected. But it also felt believable, the affection, the care, the friendships - I totally bought into that.
There are always pros and cons in re-watching a show. You know what will happen so it's fun to look for clues when things started to develope. But because of that, it also takes away a bit, because of what you know.
After now having completed the first season, again, I have to say that I still love this show. Interesting cases, great, snippy humor - there were several attemps to do a character like Bones in similar shows, as is always be the case when something is succesfull. None came close. There is only one Bones.
I give this season a very strong 9, trending towards a 10.
Season 2, in my opinion, was just a little bit too much of everything. Too many twists, too many side storied, too much violence. On the other hand it lacked in mystigue. The implied story of the evolution of an AI into independence degenerates into the old story of the search for immortality. With the upper echelon having the upper hand because of their money. As for the violence in this season: I don't think it was nessessary. In S1 the violence shown by the guests towards the hosts made sense to underline that human thought of them as toys, as a lower form of existence. After all, a host can't die so what do we care. Now it seems violence is just there to be there, everything has to be bloody. And we have a load of muscle packed, stupid security that gets shot down at every instance.
While watching further and further I wondered how this could ever generate into a third season. To be honest I am totally fine if the ending of this season beeing the end of the show. A kind of open ending where you can let your imagination fill in the rest. We know that a third season is already confirmed and the post credit scene of the final episode layed the foundation. But I am not sure it would be a direction that interests me.
The 11th, and final, season started of with some really stupid episodes like "Twisted" or the two-parter "Requiem for a Chevy-Weight" which probably is the reason I never finished the show during its original run. It wasn't so much the stories but the behavior of the characters that were a bit too much even for this show.
Now, after I finally watched the complete season I think it had some really good episodes after all. But ultimately it was time to close the book. I usually binge watch most of my shows and I did so with MwC at the beginning, too. I love the show, it is one of my all time favs, even now I had tons of great laughs but due to the repetitive nature of the stories I couldn't binge this.
But it is one of the few sitcoms that you can watch whenever you find an episode. And no matter how often you may have seen this particular episode, you still get a laugh.
In retrospect I must say this season marked the beginning of the end.
First, the whole thing with Peggys mother (never seen but always there) and her hillbilly Wanka father was boring as hell. I also didn't like Buck being gone and then coming back as another dog. I'd rather have them had no dog any longer. And with David and Christina getting older their characters lost something of believablity. Alltogether there were less really great episodes, most are just OK.
But I admit that all didn't bother me back in '95 - just now, watching this again is another thing.
I have no idea why they thought they needed another kid. That Seven was totally annoying and did nothing for the show. Plus that motherly behavior of Peg at the beginning of the season didn't work. I don't remember if they ever explained what happened when Al found the relatives and why he lied that he didn't found them. Luckily the kid was used very sparsely.
I do understand they had to write in the pregnancy for Peggy because Katey was pregnant in real life. But why on earth give Marcy one , too ?
Due to the unfortunate fact that Katey lost the baby it became a dream sequence in the show. But I can't help asking myself what would have happened had she had the baby.
I don't remember that arkward theme in this season. Sounds like some kiddy cartoon clown show.
It's entertaining and literally starts with a bang. Interesting idea to make into a TV show. Strong start but becomes a little shallow towards the middle with no clear focus on what this is about - politics or action. While it could be both it is not mixing well. A shorter season would have help the pace and kept a lot of unneeded stuff out. Sutherland plays a good and believable part so does most of the cast. But the whole show is at times over dramatized. The score, the fanfares almost every second scene, it drips patriotism which probably not everyone can relate to. And of course the bad guy gets away in the S1 finale.
So either this show ends with the conspirators caught at the end of the second season, because dragging this on through several more seasons would be boring as hell. It was a good way to get the ball roling but after it was discovered that it was national terrorism and not muslim it basically went nowhere but sideways. Or they turn more towards the politics and show the problems in rebuilding but that too might not be enough for x number of seasons. Either way, right now I don`t see how this show can run for many more seasons.
I have just finished re-watching this in preperation for the 11th season and I must say with the exception of the Were Monster and some nice Mulder/Scully moments it wasn´t that exciting. And seeing how they concluded the cliffhanger at My Struggle II it puts the whole season down another step. There has just too much time past this could not have been how they originally envisioned the story to be.
I wouldn´t say this is better than the first season. That would have been a tough thing to achieve. But it sure isn´t a let down. It´s a different plot but still, in my book, by far the best of the Marvel shows by a wide margin. The main characters are so well written and the performances, again, superb. Daredevil is such a deep and rich character and I hope they can do the same with The Punisher in his own show bacause I love what I´ve seen so far from him. It´s always the characters with a dark spot that are the most interesting.
I don´t know where to put Elektra. I´ve hoped for here to come back to screen but so far not sure what to make of her. Is she like that in the comics ? A spoiled, rich little b**** ?
The romance between Matt and Karen never worked for me. It´s that kind of thing you saw coming from day one yet hoping it wouldn´t surface. When it does you know it wouldn´t, couldn´t, work.
With Bernthal as The Punisher they added another strong actor to an already great cast. He really sells Frank Castle. Also, we see D'Onofrio again who ownes every second he´s on screen.
In this show there are very long scenes at times but they never feel long or boring because those actors fill every second of them with life. Even if you just focus on someones face for seconds without any dialogue there is so much going on on their faces. That´s what you get when you have a great cast.
Just finished season two and I am still not feeling it. And right now I am asking myself why I should continue ? Because of the show itself or the MCU tie-ins. Upon further inspection both arguments don´t seem to be compelling right now.
It is not an awful show but it isn´t exceptional either. I wish they would get rid of Hydra once and for all. Like Rayna said - it is so 1945. And all this back and forth twisting makes me wonder if this will be another show where they are writing themselves into a dead end street and then do a ridiculous twist out of that. Production is good thought.
And as far as the MCU tie ins are concerned, how, if anything, does this fit together? Because it seems the show is doing its thing for 98 % of the time and everytime a new movie is about to premiere they are writing in some lines to remind people that, yes, we are in the same universe. You really don´t lose out if you only watch the movies. And if you´d ask me it would be a better fit within the X-men anyway.
I´ll give this season another six while in reality I think of it more of a higher five.
I knew nothing of the character before the Affleck movie. And while that one wasn´t a revelation I really liked the idea behind Daredevil. That´s the kind of superhero I like - in general a human being. Not some alien fallen to earth, a god out of mythology or a guy that turns big and green (to name a few to make my point).
This is one of the best shows first season I´ve ever seen. The dark and gritty atmosphere got me pulled in instantly. I don´t think there was a bad or boring episode. The whole thing builds up to a great finale. Both, the hero and the villain, are well written and superbly brought to live by Cox and D´Onofrio alike. That doesn´t mean the suporting cast is weak. On the contrary - they all have their moments and have a place in the story. Which I hope will go on for a long run.
I just recently finished season one. I´ll have to admit had I watched it at the original airdate I probably wouldn´t have made it past episode five. But since so many people said it would become better I continued.
It looks cool, the action is good but althought beeing part of the MCU it felt more like watching Fringe or X-files most episodes. It is missing the real superheroes. Maybe it was never supposed to have them but after watching the movies it feels like that.
From the main characters only Coulson is really great. His story, the mystery surrounding him, is what drives this show so far. I also liked Mae but the rest are weak. Skye is an arrogant I-know-it-better-typ and that kind of wunderkind has been overdone. Ward is the stereotype muscle. I disliked him even before he turned out to be a traitor. And that romantic arc between Skye and Ward was on the wall from episode one And don´t get me started about Fitz/Simmons because they feel more like something from a Disney kids show.
The scripts became better towards the end, more cohesive, but I also must say the villain(s) left a lot to be desired. It´s always the take-over-the-world type with little depth.
That is my assessment after the first season. I haven´t yet watched the rest so please don´t spoil. Maybe some of the things I mentioned will change later on.
I´ve had a lot of fun watching this season but hopefully this isn´t the end. It can´t be. I just hope the gamble will pay of and the story continues.
Another great season of DS9. This is more like a 26 hour feature. The quality is awesome and it´s a reminder of what can be accomplished in TV if given the chance. Shows like this don´t come/came often. I dare to say there is nothing on todays listing that can compare. If so I haven´t seen it, yet.
I´m almost reluctant to watch the next season knowing it´s the last one.
Voyager became a different show with season 4. It wasn´t a big overhaul but a lot of little things that finally made this show reaching up to it´s potential.
The addition of Jeri Ryan as Seven was a big plus. Althought she was ment to be the babe and bringing some sexy looks she´s done so much more. Seven brought conflict to the show. She was the sandpaper between the rest of the crew, always questioning their methods and motives. She was the strong opposite to Janeway, the both of them clashing horns at every corner, and I think a lot of time Seven was spot on in her assessment of Janeway. They wrote more interesting stuff for Seven in even half of the season than they ever did for Kes. I liked Jennifer Lien but I felt her character never really went anywhere in terms of developement.
I also liked the B´Elanna/Tom relationship. It was bound to happen to couple two characters and those two seemed to be the only ones believable.
Overall scripts became better, the show alltogether had more and better continuity. I still didn´t like any character particulary which over the whole run of the show never really changed. Personally I would have liked to see more of the Hirogen who, from the introduction, were far more interesting and threatening than the Kazon ever became. But I´ll admit that ultimately the Hirogen were maybe a bit to single minded and since Voyager was bound to move on draging the Hirogen along would have ultimately been the same as with the Kazon.
Just finished season three of Voyager.
Luckily the Kazon are gone. If you´ve read my other reviews you know why I never liked them. That freed up time for other stories and species. In a way they pushed the reset button on certain things which helped the show in the long run. I would say this is the better Season 1. This Season has one of the best episodes up to this point f.e. "Unity", "Real Life", "Distant Origin" which was my favorite of this year. We meet the "Q" again, "Before and After" was really well made and "False Profit" was a fun episode to watch. But this season also contains the infamous "Trilogy of Terror". If you don´t know what this is about google it. For me it felt like a rolercoaster that has some really exicting sections and than some boring ones. They still couldn´t keep it on the same level for a whole year. Since there were more good episodes than in the first two season combined (this is my personal opinion I´m sure other´s feel different) I´d rank this as the best Season so far.
I could never quite figure out why Voyager was my least favorite of all the Star Trek shows. With TNG and especially DS9 I was hooked after Season 1. Voyager was more of an effort to like. Since it was Star Trek I wanted to watch it and like it. Which ultimately I did. For me until the end of this year in general everything was "just-so". Watching it now, almost 20 years later, I wonder if it hadn´t been Trek would I have had the patience to see it through ?
One of the best seasons of all of Star Trek. There isn´t a bad or weak episode. The continuity and complexity is outstanding and could only be achieved in the setting of a fixed location. Yet the show never became boring. They went to places, even back to earth. The depth of the characters is amazing and the writers added layer after layer. Everyone had an episode where he could shine. There is the right amount of action, fun, drama - it is well balanced. The storys were building on each other with an all encompassing storyline that connects the beginning with the end of the season which was rare at the time and not without risk. But when this season ends you know you haven´t reached the top of the mountain yet.
The second season didn´t provide much progress compared to the first. They were still doing what worked best before. I saw little in terms of character developement.
The whole idea of the show was to put a ship literally "where no one has gone before" but we only see glimpses of other cultures. Instead they keep dragging the Kazon along and it became more and more aparent with every Kazon episode that they didn´t work. As the writers and producers agreed later it was unfathomable that you travel a year and a half at high warp and still haven´t left them/their space behind. After all they were a sub-culture that overthrow their supressors just 30 years ago.
I still couldn´t pick a favorite character. Althought I don´t really hate one each of them had a minor flaw or two as far as I saw it. K. Mulgrew does a great job but I never could bring myself to like Janeway. Chakotay is kind of the dog that wants to please his master. The Doctor was still to arrogant but showed promise. Neelix is symply irritating. I can´t really say why I never liked Tuvok. Kes is a non-factor - they just didn´t found a way with her. B´Elana, Tom and poor Harry Kim all had there moments in the show but nothing that got to me. This was unusual because with every other Trek incarnation I had a favorite right from the get-go no later than the end of the premiere season.
But overall it still was on a level back at the time that few shows had so there was reason to go on.
I think the first season was so-so.
They took about everything that worked for Star Trek so far in the past in terms of stories. We had Holo-Adventures, Alien-mind-takes-over, some sorts of time travel, other dimensions, nebular entities and so on. The rare exception, and highlight of the first year, being "Jetrel". Very powerful episode. And some stories just don´t work at that early stage of the show. I mean you build a whole show about the fact that they need 70 years to come back and than you have early episodes that promises to take out huge chunks of that trip. Not going to work.
I never quite had a favorite character from the beginning as I did in TNG or DS9. The Kazon were a race I never liked - I always saw them as a poor mans Klingon. Another general flaw of the show for me was althought they wanted to show that they are one crew, a Starfleet crew, and did everthing possible to create togetherness, you could always identify Marquis from their rank insignia. It might look minor but that shows seperation in my eyes.
Nevertheless, as with most shows, the first season is a building block from which you go on.
It´s been so long since I last watched it I´d forgotten how good this show was from the beginning. There were already some really good stories, some I even consider to be among the best of the complete run of the show.
