This January, for my traditional reviewing of the previous year, I will be writing a series of articles that would recap or evaluate some (if I have the time, then all) of the highlights of 2012 that involved, concerned, compelled, and/or fascinated me… this is the third part…
This past year I had to say
farewell to three of my favorite TV shows.
With just one season without
Cuddy, House has to end? It gives the appearance that the show lost
its spirit with the absence House’s love interest. Which is a wrong perception, of course. Even without Cuddy, the show has been solid
and fresh. Yes, the verbal sparring and
wit wars between House and Cuddy were missed, but the show remained as funny,
intense, and exciting. Even more so in
some episodes. House is, after all, a show about House – the most awesome TVcharacter ever. The Hugh
Laurie-portrayed character alone is enough to carry the show. Such a shame House had to end considering that it was still going strong and
just had to end because of lack of appropriate support (i.e. financing) from
producers. Such a shame indeed. I felt it was still good enough for two or
three more seasons. Heck, something like
Smallville (which had its moments but
was clearly inferior to House) lasted
ten seasons, and House only had eight?! (Sigh)
Leverage’s season 5 was its last.
And its cancellation came as a sad surprise to me. The finale though was an awesomely written
episode. But I don’t dig the “wrap-up”
of the story in which Nate and Sophie had to retire, leaving the team to just
three members with Parker as the new mastermind. It doesn’t work. In the last scene, Parker would even replicate
Nate’s awesome monologue during the final scene of Leverage’s pilot episode.
That scene had been iconic because Nate smoothly delivered that
monologue which empathically defined what Leverage
is all about. Parker’s was flat. Moreover, my greatest disappointment was I had
been always hoping that the team’s line-up would have expanded – with new
members gradually joining the team – during the show’s run… and it didn’t
happen. Thus, though the story of the
final episode had been awesome, the closure of the show was unsatisfactory to
me.
This year also marked the end of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,
the greatest superhero animated TV series since Justice League Unlimited.
This was the superhero TV animated series that brought all of these
heroes together…
Not as impressive as JLU, but still awesome.
With House and Leverage gone,
what’s left for me are Psych and Sherlock. Psych’s
new season, however, didn’t start late in the year, as it usually does, but
will just be starting this February. Sherlock’s second season run last year –
after we, fans, waited since 2010. That’s
2 years! And it’s as if there will be no
Sherlock this year. Now, Sherlock
is an awesome show – one of the best shows ever created for TV. The problem with it, though, is it takes two
years for each new season to arrive, with each season having only three
episodes! Granted, that each episode’s
length is that of a mini-movie, it’s still not enough! It’s very very frustrating.
In 2012, however, I also got
hooked with two new shows.
Castle has been around for a while but it was only in 2012 that I
started watching it. My bestfriend Madel
was the one who introduced me to Leverage
and House; so after House ended, as I was searching for a
new awesome show to follow, I asked for her recommendation. She pointed me to Castle. I watched its pilot,
and I got hooked. Before Season 5
started this year, I have already watched all episodes from the previous
seasons (Thank God for the Internet. LOL).
Castle got me re-acquainted with
the geek god Nathan Fillion, who I first encountered and adored as Capt. Mal in Firefly. I’ve never really been a big fan of Nathan
prior to Castle; but because of this
show, I was led to check out his personality, interests, and career which made
me grew fond of the guy. And now, Nathan
Fillion is probably my most favorite celebrity.
The second show I got hooked this
year is Sherlock’s rip-off, Elementary. Like Sherlock,
Elementary is also a modern take on
Sherlock Holmes. However, the setting is
set in New York instead of London, Gregson works for the NYPD instead of
Scotland Yard, and Dr. Watson is female instead of male. Among the three, what
I don’t like most is the last one.
Watson should always be male! The
friendship between Holmes and Watson works best when both are male. Aside from these differences, Elementary also lacks the clever
allusions to the original material that Sherlock
has. Each case is almost always unique
in itself, with no reference to the adventures of the literary Holmes. Lastly, Jonny Lee Miller performance as
Sherlock Holmes is terrific, but he’s no Benedict Cumberbatch, who’s just
perfect. The better thing about Elementary than Sherlock is that it follows the traditional episode scheduling of a
TV season. Thus, with a new mystery to
look forward to each week, we get more dose of Sherlock Holmes with Elementary than Sherlock.
You might be asking why I haven’t
tried Game of Thrones yet,
considering it’s probably the best show out there right now. The answer is, I want to read the books first
before I check out the show. TV episodes
are readily available in Internet, anyway, so what’s the rush? LOL.
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