TV Shows

TV shows come and go, some disappearing quickly, others hanging on forever.  One show I liked this year only hung around for a few episodes:  Kevin Williamson's Time After Time, with H. G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper into the present in his time machine.  It was perhaps too complex for many viewers and too expensive for the network.  The movie of the same name, made by Nicholas Meyer in 1978, is available.  Meanwhile, I am watching the following shows:

Noah Hawley's Fargo.  It's based, somewhat, on the film of the same name by Joel and Etham Coen.  It reminds one of a demented version of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon stories and causes one to miss A Prairie Home Companion, though the humor in Hawley's show is much darker.

Designated Survivor has had four showrunners so far this season, with Keith Eisner most recently replacing Jeff Melvoin.  The show has gone back and forth between West-Wing-style politics and family to deep conspiracies, with Kiefer Sutherland not afraid to ask, "Who are you working for?," just as he did on 24.  Eisner previously worked on The Good Wife so I expect future shows to have less conspiracy and more family drama.

Joe Weisberg's The Americans is an intelligent Reagan-era spy drama, with a Russian couple in deep cover as ordinary travel agents while stealing secrets and occasionally killing Americans (usually in self-defense)  The show is effective, with a number of different layers, including the Russians' love for their country and their ambivalence about America.

I watched the first two seasons of Paul Scheuring's Prison Break in 2006 and 2007, with the first season about the break and the second season about avoiding capture.  I stopped watching when they went back to prison in the third season.  They are back this year in an attempt to break out of a prison in Yemen and then out of the country.  So far I find it a bit too specific, lacking the original abstract intensity,especially of the first season.

Eric Overmeyer's Bosch is an impressive attempt to merge stories from different Michael Connelly novels  about LA detective Hieronymous Bosch; it's in its third season, ten episodes each, on Amazon.  The best episodes are those written by Connolly himself, where the action slows down and Bosch muses about his life while listening to his favorite jazz. Excellent use of Los Angeles locations.

I don't know if Colony will be returning next season but the show, created by Carlton Cuse, is stylishly made and with considerable relevance to the current political climate, with Los Angeles being ruled by alien conquerors helped by human collaborators.  I also look forward to the return of Timeless, the time travel series by Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan, where the time travelers attempt the impossible combination of improving the past without changing anything.