Blue Bloods – Family Crimefighting

Blue Bloods, CBS’s new crime drama, is one of the few shows I picked up this fall season. Too be honest, I wasn’t sure that I needed one more crime drama on my plate, but I’d enjoyed Donnie Wahlberg in Rizzoli & Isles over the summer, so I decided to watch a few episodes before I made up my mind.

The show surprised me. The great acting and sleek presentation reminded me of ABC’s Castle (which is currently tied with NCIS for my top crime drama, and is also set in New York City). But instead of Castle’s humor and writing references, Blue Bloods chooses one distinctive quality to make it stand out from the crowd – family.

It’s a quality that works extremely well, making the character-driven aspects of the show strong. It has also made the show thrive in the usually dead zone of Friday nights. While Blue Bloods has many elements that appeal to TV’s prime viewing target range (18-34-year-olds), the family dynamic lets the show reach the heart of the people who are more likely to be home on a Friday night – namely, families.

Tonight’s episode had a special treat – guest star Gloria Votsis, who plays Alex in the show White Collar.

Chuck – Is He or Isn’t He?

Warning: This post may contain spoilers, up to Chuck season 4, episode 10.

Okay, I don’t know about you all, but I’m not sure that Chuck’s dad is dead. I mean, they killed him in the same building that was used to bring Daniel Shaw back after being shot. And it makes sense that the Ring would want him alive, with all of his knowledge and abilities. The only reason he was killed was to disable Chuck.

I’m curious where the show’s going to go now that Chuck has the intersect working again. Was it just me, or was the line, “I know kung fu . . . again!” extremely cheesy? I think they could have gone a few more episodes before bringing Chuck’s abilities back. I’m interested in knowing what Chuck would have been doing for the CIA without the intersect, as Beckman mentioned.



HIMYM – Caught Up

I first started watching How I Met Your Mother back in July 2010. I’d finally seen every episode of The Big Bang Theory, and was looking for another short comedy show to watch over my half hour lunch breaks at work.

This show reeled me in with the very first episode, despite it’s cringe-worthy laugh track. The only actor in the cast I was familiar with was Neil Patrick Harris, whom I’d loved in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Being more of a Firefly/Dollhouse Joss Whedon fan, I wasn’t even aware that Lily was played by the same actress who played Willow throughout the Buffy series (I found out a few days ago).

I must admit it was Ted’s hopelessly romantic search for “the one” that pulled me into this show more than anything else. While the show is undeniably funny (although a bit too crass at times for my taste), even when some jokes fell flat I was rooting for Ted all the way.

I took a break from the show when my job ended, and was further sidetracked when the fall 2010 shows started. But I missed hanging out with Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Barney, so I came back to it like a child who’d been grounded from video games for a month. And despite a few hate-worthy episodes in early season five, the show is even funnier than I remember.

And now, a few weeks later, I’ve finally caught up to where the show is on TV. No more avoiding spoilers online. I can discuss the latest episode with friends all I want. But the accomplishment has a severe drawback – I can’t watch hours of new episodes anymore. I have to wait a week or more for a slice of HIMYM’s humor like everyone else.