As 2013 progresses, I realize that I’m watching much less in the way of movies lately, and catching up with more television series. In terms of “appointment television”, I still don’t watch much, but I do like to catch up with some older seasons of good stuff, and streaming sites like Netflix are a big enabler on some of this stuff. So what are some things I should probably catch up with?
- Breaking Bad – Everyone loves this show so damn much, but I found the first season a bit of a slog. Some high points mixed in, for sure, but it always seems to slow down and focus on certain conflicts that I find really dumb. That being said, the beginning of the second season was amazing. It’s bogged down a bit again right now, but I’m sure I’ll continue to make slow progress.
- Mad Men – A show I’ve never been particularly interested in, but heck, it’s on Netflix, so why not give it a shot sometime.
- Doctor Who – Speaking more of the “recent” incarnation of the show, which is all available on Netflix right now. Boy, that Christopher Eccleston season sure did suck, but it started to find a groove at some point, and the second season really does pick things up. Looking forward to catching up with the these at some point. I grew up watching the old Doctor Who episodes on PBS… even if I can’t remember much of those episodes, I did enjoy them.
- Twin Peaks – Many moons ago, a friend loaned me his DVD set for Twin Peaks season one… and I started watching, only to find that… the pilot episode was missing! It was apparently some sort of legal limbo or somesuch. Well, that’s all settled now, and the whole series is up on Netflix. Sign me up.
- Arrested Development – I’ve seen a bunch of individual episodes of this in isolation, and probably the entire first season, but I’ve never really finished it off. I seem to go in chunks though, watching about 5-10 episodes in a row, then burning out and moving elsewhere for a while. But since new episodes are coming, I figure I should probably finish the series off.
- Parks and Recreation – I watched the first season of this a while back and found it diverting enough, but I’m told that it really doesn’t hit its stride until season 2 and 3, so I guess I’m in for some more of this…
- Alias – For whatever reason, I never watched this J. J. Abrams series. Well, it’s all on Netflix, so why not give it a shot? I mean, I like spy stories as much as the next guy, and Abrams seems pretty good with that sort of thing.
- Supernatural – Last year, I watched a bunch of old X-Files episodes and I got that itch for episodic “creature of the week” type of shows, and this one seems to fit the bill nicely. Honestly, while there does seem to be some sort of overarching continuity to the series, most of these are standalone stories, which is actually kinda fun, especially when you’re bogged down with a bunch of other series that are all so involved (and probably not going to pay off)…
Well, that should keep me busy for the next five years or so. I should probably go and watch some of these right now.