This show, man. I’m only 5 episodes in, but I am loving it. I had to take a couple days break, though, because I was so enthralled with the story that I could not sleep afterward.
I love the 80s aesthetic and settings. The child protagonists, ala movies like Goonies (I can still at my age feel that longing for adventure in my bones) are great. Winona Ryder and the other adults do a really good job as well. This is one of those shows that you finish and immediately go looking for something like it, and are both disappointed that there isn’t much like it and also reassured because one of the main reasons your like it is because it is so unique.
I came across this song in an episode of a CW TV show called The 100. It was in one of those scenes where there dare you not to cry. It’s good stuff.
The 100 is a really excellent show you should watch. I’m working my way through Season 1 for the second time as I also watch the current season, week by week. This is what wikipedia says about The 100:
The series is set 97 years after a devastating nuclear war wiped out almost all life on Earth. The only known survivors lived on 12 space stations in Earth’s orbit prior to the war. The space stations banded together to form a single massive station named “The Ark”, where about 2,400 people live under the leadership of Chancellor Jaha.[1] Resources are scarce, so all crimes – regardless of their nature or severity – are punishable by ejection into space (“floating”) unless the perpetrator is under 18 years of age. After the Ark’s life-support systems are found to be critically failing, 100 juvenile prisoners are declared “expendable” and sent to the surface – nearby former Washington, D.C.[6] – in a last ditch attempt to determine if Earth is habitable again, in a program called “The 100”, for which the show is named. The teens arrive on a seemingly pristine planet they have only seen from space. They attempt to find refuge and supplies at an old military installation, Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. However, they land some distance from the intended target and soon face other problems. Confronting both the wonders and the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community. They soon discover that not all humanity was wiped out – some people on Earth, called Grounders, survived the war, and there are more dangers lurking: Reapers (Grounders who have become cannibals) and Mountain Men (who live in Mount Weather, The 100’s original destination).
So, it is sci-fi, with a slight mix of drama. Now, the first few episodes of Season 1 are quite CW-ish: pretty people doing young people things. But things escalate and mature quite fast. And you soon realize NOBODY is safe. And then you are hooked.
So give it a shot. The first two seasons are on Netflix and the current season is on Hulu. It is worth your time.
So, two new episodes of one of my favorite shows, Community, released today. I haven’t watched them yet, but plan on it during my lunch break. You can watch them here: Community on Yahoo Screen.
It was a dark day last Fall, when NBC cancelled Community. Ratings weren’t great, but were stable. And I don’t think the current ratings system really captures how many people watch a show anymore. I mean, having kids, I can’t always be at the television at the exact moment a show “airs”. So I catch up on Hulu. Which doesn’t count on Nielson.
But then, at the last hour, Yahoo (not Netflix or Hulu) swooped in and saved the show. And they’ve actually been advertising the show and promoting it, as opposed to NBC. Obviously, I hope it does really well. But either way, we get at least a few more episodes.
When we moved to this (double the mortgage of our “starter home) house, we cut expenses where we could. One of the first things to go was cable tv. We’ve replace cable with antenna for over the air programming (coming full-circle to the “rabbit ears” days) and subscriptions to Hulu Plus and Netflix. Needless to say, I watch some weird stuff the general public goes not.
Hulu in particular has some interesting English television I’ve not seen. I’ve quite gotten into a program called Misfits, “a British science fiction comedy-drama television show, on E4, about a group of young offenders sentenced to work in a community service program, where they obtain supernatural powers after a strange electrical storm.” Basically, it’s a superhero show about people who don’t define themselves nor act like superheros. In other words, an actual interesting take on people with superpowers. Also, time travel.
It’s such a good show. I’m on Series 2, Episode 5, with episodes clocking in around 45 minutes each, so I still thankfully have a ways to go. There is nothing neat and tidy about the plots or the group. They do some pretty messed up stuff actually (from a moral point of view), but never cross the line to me where I’m not pulling for the characters.
I’m at a point where one of the characters who started as a creepy wreck, has switched to one of the most heroic. Now that I look back it had been happening subtly over the two series, but it also happened over the course of one episode. It’s just good writing.
The show switches back and forth between, funny, serious, and slightly disturbing. You should give it a shot. I can’t think of anything else that’s going to be on television this weekend (screw “The Big Game”).
The Struggling Writer 