Favorite TV

Next in a continuing series of seemingly popular threads here is where we can discuss our favorite TV shows.

Much like I noted in the movie thread I like action that feels like it's real people carrying it out. Burn Notice feels like just that. While they do enjoy explosions, there are explosions in the real world, and they are spread out enough that they don't feel over used.

The main character Micheal Weston is also constantly speaking in  voice over as well, letting you know the tactical and strategic value of what it is he is doing, leaving you with that feel this is a real guy who has to be real paranoid or he would be really dead.

He isn't just some growling muscle bound dude blasting away with an auto weapon, but a thinker who makes himself stay one step of those he is up against.

And when he fails to do so he really gets his ass kicked, and not in just cosmetic ways.

Another show I love that uses the voice over is Dexter, and it has to when your main character is a serial killer with a code. That's what first attracted me to the show when a review talked about how his cop foster father recognized the signs in a young Dexter and realized he couldn't “fix” him so he trained him, trained him to take out his murderous impulses on those who deserve it.

It is a wicked indulgence, but we all have our dark side, and when Dexter is taking out his murderous impulses on child murderers and the like mine is well fed.

On those who really get their asses kicked in fights I HAVE to mention Supernatural. I've always liked shows with a paranormal theme, and loved shows like Buffy (I still like to say Amber Benson made me gay  but that's a much longer story).

Supernatural though is about two brothers who are “Hunters” people with the self appointed mission to battle the supernatural predators that live out there in the night.

These guys however really are fighting monsters and get the hell beat out of them on a regular basis, which gives the show a greater sense of reality even though it's about fantastic concepts.

I don't want to go into the story of any of these because they are all still running and all worth checking out.

For those shows that are said and done I have to think everyone has seen some Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and while that show went on two seasons too long in my opinion it earned it's iconic status.

My all time favorite however would have to be “The Shield” and my love of the show could be summed up in the story Micheal Chicklis (the star) once related on a talk show… how he got a letter from a law class that said how they would watch the show and then debate the ethics.

My favorite example from the very first episode… a little girl is missing, has been missing for a good twenty four hours. They KNOW they have the guy, but he's a doctor and has the kind of mind that will take a while to break in interrogation.

The problem is that the girl has been missing twenty four hours and if she hasn't gotten water she doesn't have much time left. The other idea was to let him go and tail him to the girl.

The problem with that is if he shook the tail the first thing he would do is dispose of the girl and dump the body.

Their Captain grabbed Chicklis' character Vic Mackey… and Vic BEAT the information out of the guy. On the DVD extras there was a cut scene where the guy was shown in the interrogation room afterward, beaten, bloody, having actually pissed himself.

BUT the girl was at the address Mackey beat out of the guy, and she was found alive.

We can debate the ethics of that if  everyone would like, but that was what the show did… kept things in that gray area. It lived there and took the viewers with. Doing so in a way that still can enthrall me when I put those discs in.

Wow… did the preview… yeah TV is my thing.