Category: TV

It has taken me awhile to get around to Parks and Rec Season Six, but too much stuff has happened this week for me to get to it in a timely manner.  Overall I found the whole of season six to be more of the same, but the finale was wonderful.  It packed in tons of guest stars while setting up season seven to be something special.

This season was all about change for the crew of Pawnee Parks and Rec.  Leslie is recalled from City Council, Chris and Ann become parents, Ron becomes a family man himself, Tom continues his entrepreneurial dreams, and Ben becomes the City Manager.  If the season was about change, the finale was about the characters getting everything they wanted, so I am guessing next season will be about whether they got what it takes to handle their success.

The finale changed everything for the show, so just as the show was getting a little repetitive for me, they found a way to get me excited for next season.  You know that Leslie will be able to make it all work, and that she will have her trademark excited smile on her face when she does.

 

 

As summer TV premier week continues, I got a chance to watch AMC’s new show Turn.  It is about George Washington’s spy ring in New York during the Revolutionary War.  AMC needs something to replace Mad Men for its summer line up when Mad Men goes off the air after this season, and I am not sure Turn is it, but it definitely is interesting.

The story starts off with some American rebels getting slaughtered by the British, and just one soldier Ben Tallmadge (Seth Numrich) making it out alive.  He blames the defeat on British spies, and he is trying to get his commanding officer to allow him to start a spy ring of his own.  Meanwhile a young farmer Abraham Woodhull (Jamie Bell) has fallen on hard times, and the British are not making it any easier.  Will they join up and gather intelligence on the British?  It would kind of be a crappy show if they didn’t.

This episode felt a little long, and I know that is because a lot of it was setup, but the extra thirty minutes of run time made it drag in places.  When the story was moving forward however, it was very interesting, and I do want to see what happens next.  If they can pick up the pace a little bit, AMC will have a good and very unique show in its hands.

The cast led by Jamie Bell and Kevin McNally is quite good.  If this show fails it will not be due to a lack of acting talent, and it looks like the actors are enjoying working in this setting.

Since I can’t think of one other period spy drama on TV right now (or ever), I think AMC has a real shot at a hit with Turn.  They have earned my attention for at least a few more episodes, and that is all a TV pilot can hope for.

I think Mike Judge has finally made the sequel to Office Space.  It is called Silicon Valley on HBO.  The show follows a group of young programmers that want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg in the titular Silicon Valley.

The main character Richard Hendrix (Thomas Middleditch) has created an awful music license checking website, but the backend lossless compression software, and an algorithm that can quickly search inside those compressed files, might be worth a fortune.  Now it is up to him and his programmer buddies to try and become the next group of billionaires.

This show gets Silicon Valley so right, and it understands it so well that almost all of its jokes land.  Plus it has Mike Judge doing office humor again, and that is always worth watching.  I guess Judge’s first job was as a software programmer, and it shows.  I can’t wait to see how he lampoons it all next week.

The group of actors they got together are all very believable nerds, and they play their roles so convincingly it seems like they must have been tech company interns at some point.  Shows end up all being about the talent of their cast, and I think Silicon Valley has a great one.  I mean it has Kumail Nanjiani in it, and I can’t even look at him without laughing.

Silicon Valley is off to a great start.  It was thirty minutes of non-stop laughs, especially if you follow tech news at all.  Since it is on right after Game of Thrones, there is almost no chance I will miss it.  If you do not have HBO you can watch the first episode for free on YouTube.com, so there is no reason not to give it a shot.

It seems like it has been off the air for forever, but Game of Thrones is back.  Season four kicked off predictably by just showing us where most of the main characters are.  Nothing too exciting happens, but it was nice to see everyone again.  I think the only characters left out of this show were Bran, Hodor and crew, but I am sure we will see much more of them in the episodes to come.

The basic feeling I got from this episode, is that if you have liked what Game of Thrones has offered so far, than you will get more of the same.  I think for most viewers that is quite alright.

The biggest downer of the night was that HBO Go crashed again on probably the biggest premier in the channel’s history.  Considering this happens a lot, I think that HBO is going to have to invest more in to their cloud infrastructure.  Still with The Walking Dead off the air, I am glad that Game of Thrones is back.