TV 2: Shows

Last post I blogged about TV sets. Least any of you are worried that Nicole and I are falling too far behind the popular culture trend and therefore won't invite us over for pizza and a movie, I want to emphasize that we do watch TV shows and movies. We just don't watch them on TV. And, perhaps more to the point, we never sit in front of a TV set and click through the channels to see if there's something on.* All our TV show watching is pre-planned.** There are several shows that we enjoy and might even recommend, and in that spirit, I present



Our Top Ten TV shows***:

Monk: One of the shows we watched when we were dating. It's on USA network, Fridays at 9 but we just watch the DVDs. It is also avaiable at http://hulu.com/ which is a great service all around. We've got most of the rest of my family hooked on this one, it's a keeper. The show will start its 8th and final season this summer, (the title character likes things to be even).
>Premise: Monk is a former homicide dective whose OCD and multiple phobic personality symtoms increased to the point of incapacitation after his wife's death. Somewhat recovered he now serves as an "eccentric" consultant to the San Fransico police as he tries to find his wife's killer and hopefully become re-instated as a cop.
>Genre: Police procedural/Comedy
>Family Friendliness: Very Family Friendly. Monk is extremely straight-laced (although ostensibly because of mental health issues not morality). He doesn't smoke or drink or look at naked people (he even puts his hand in front of his face if someone's immodestly dressed). Each show, however, begins with a murder, and that can be a little violent and gory (although it's usually not too bad). For a show about murderers it's surprisingly light and amusing. Occasional "mild" profanity (the ones in the Bible somewhere). Occasional "adult" themes (i.e. ADULTery and murder often go together).

Psych: The show Psych is like the younger, hipper, funnier version of Monk, without the mental health issues. It is quickly becoming close to my complete favorite show. It's on the hour after Monk on USA. Again, we have the DVDs and it's on Hulu. They have just finished their third season and will return for a fourth this summer.
>Premise: Shawn Spencer is a skilled slacker who was trained by his police father to be a crack detective, but rebelled and became a bit of a goof-off. He made up a story about being a psychic when the cops wouldn't believe that he could call in a case-solving tip without being an inside man in the crime. Since then he and his best friend Gus opened up a private [fake] psychic detective agency. Humor ensues
>Genre: Comedy/Buddy Show/Police Procedural
>Family Friendliness: No quite as clean as Monk in that Sean is more than comfortable with flirting innuendo, however, they don't always show the murder so it can be less violent.

Burn Notice: Renewed for a 3rd season starting this summer, this is also a USA original series, airing on Thurdays nights, and again on Hulu. I'm impressed at USA coming out with so many good series, but their last effort "In Plain Sight" restored my usual low expectations for the network.
>Premise: Michael Weston was a spy who got fired ("burned"). Now he's restricted to Miami and uses his special skill set to help out people in desperate need as he tries to unravel the mystery of why he was burned, what a clandestine group wants with him, and who are the people trying to kill him. He's aided by his "ex"-girlfriend, Fiona, and old special ops buddy, Sam.
>Genre: Mostly Action with a little bit of wry, tongue-in-cheek humor, buddiness and romace
>Family Friendliness: Very little sex (just two off-scene implications across two seasons) although Fiona dresses, as Nicole put it "very skankily," and there are regular "establishing shots" of Miami bikinis. There is abundant action violence: explosions, fisty-cuffs, high-speed car chases and guns. There is not much strong language, although there is one in the title sequence. I wouldn't recommend it for children, but I certainly enjoy it. It's great to run to because of the high-adrenaline action and entertaining humor.

Lie To Me*<-This * is not a footnote, it's part of the shows title): This is a brand-new show from FOX that irregularly shows on Wednesdays. We were unsure at first, but both Nicole and I both really enjoy it. It too is on Hulu. >Premise: Dr. Cal Lightman is a psychologist who studies micro-expressions and lying. He and his team/company serve in D.C. as consultants to various agencies typically in criminal investigations.
>Genre: Psychological Fiction/Police Procedural/Subdued Comedy
>Family Friendliness: As a broadcast show, it meets certain standards, but the situations are regularly more "adult," again lying and Adultery seem to go together a lot. There's only been 4 episodes so far, so we'll see.

Eureka: We discovered this on Hulu. It's an original show from the Sci-fi channel. I don't know it's broadcasting info, but it's going strong in its third season.
>Premise: U.S. Marshal Jack Carter gets transfered to be the sheriff of small-town-with-a-secret, Eureka, supported by the DoD.. Eureka is a town of geniuses too smart for their own good. Jack, while still not understanding nuclear physics, is intuitively gifted and frequently has to reign in an experiment or experimentor gone awry.
>Genre: Fun and light Sci-fi/some drama
>Family Friendliness: Extremely family friendly.

NCIS: Highly popular show in its 6th season on CBS. Broadcasts on Tuesday nights. Not on Hulu, although Hulu links to CBS's website which shows recent episodes. It was recommended to me by a friend, although I can't remember who. I have the first three seasons on DVD, but I usually just watch it online now.
>Premise: NCIS is a show about the agency of the same name. It focuses on a team of investigators including a forensics expert, computer hacker, M.E., and others.
>Genre: Police Procedural/Ensamble drama
>Family Friendliness: While it is a broadcast show and therefore avoids language and nudity, it's about murderers and contains adult themes. Nicole is mostly turned off by occasional excessive gore, including autopsies.

Chuck: I saw the second season premire on a free Amazon.com unbox preview and fell in love with it. I bought the first season on DVD and enjoyed it and have stridently avoided watching on Hulu, so I can enjoy the second season DVDs (it's good enough to own). It aires on NBC on Mondays, I believe
>Premise: Chuck Bartowski, is a nerd working computer support at a "Best Buy" type store when his old college buddy (who became a spy) emails him all of the government's secrects embedded in images (non-conscious). Now lots of people (including our government) are interested in Chuck. He is assigned a NSA and CIA agent to keep an eye on him and to respond to threats when he "flashes" on some bad guy (when the info in his head reconizes something). He maintains his old life as a cover identity. His best-friend and worst-nerd Morgan doesn't know his secret, and neither does his sister, with whom Chuck lives. Sister's fiancee also lives with them and is called Captain Awesome by Chuck.
> Genre: Action Comedy
>Family Friendliness: The show's hilarious and on a broadcast station, but it's a bit more adult themed. There are frequent plays on "femme fatale" stereotypes and frequent innuendo. Not recommended for children.


Honourable Mentions (Things we have DVDs of, but are not actual TV shows - they're from the 80's):

He-Man and She-Ra: 'nuff said

Remington Steele: We enjoy detective shows, and I like Pierce Brosnan, largely because he's Irish. It's a fun show and also interesting as a snap shot of 80's gender roles. If I teach psychology of gender this summer, we'll have to watch a clip or two of it.

Wow, even with the honorable mentions, we still don't have ten...*** maybe I should have added The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. A Cowboy/Comedy/Action/Buddy/Romance/Sci-fi show from the mid nineties that started Bruce Campbell, who now plays Sam on Burn Notice. It was only one season, but it was a good long one. We did watch Heroes for the first season, but couldn't really get into it after. We also will occasional laugh at The Office, but it's not something with watch with any regularity.

*Unless we're at a hotel on vacation at which point Nicole tells me to just pick one channel or turn it off ;)

**This is a really good thing because Nicole has a hard time noticing anything else while visual media is on. Even if she hates the show and is bored to tears.

***I doubt there'll be ten, but nobody wants to read the top 8 of something.