TV lately

I should first point out that I don't actually watch TV per se - just watch catch-up on my laptop (thank you, Couchtuner, Hulu etc!). And this considers mostly American shows (not other shows I'll watch up on catch-up like on BBC iPlayer)

Was disappointed with Season 5 of Game of Thrones. Not in the "oh-my-god-they-killed-my-favourite-character-again! type of dissapointed, either (well, that didn't entirely escape my notice: it still managed to keep up getting my hopes up that some characters would survive and then BAM! they're dead). Just disappointed. It felt a little flat. Unlike previous seasons, where the tension was realy ramping up the entire time til the epic end-of-season cliffhanger, The end of the season here was kind of flat, though it definitely didn't help with my mother naively giving away the ending in a 'subtle' (i;e: not so subtle) manner. I binge-watched seasons 4 and 5 in quick succession, so I might mixup a few details, but I liked the firt few episodes: they really ramped up the tension for the first few episodes of Season 5, but after that, every "shocking" ending felt like "meh". I can't really explain it. The war with the Wildlings was amazing - when they marched on the wall 100,000 strong, with their torches out, while Jon Snow and the rest of the Night Watch looked out on them gave me a similar feeling to when I saw the Orc army stood outside the walls of Castle...something in The Two Towers. I was expecting an amazing, epic showdown. But not really. The giants are incredible, but it was a bit..I dunno, empty. Every episode in seasons past built and built to an amazing climax, and regardless of whether or not the ending had been given away for me, the conclusion to this one was just ";;;oh." Several characters STILL didn't get their comeuppance, of course. Stannis let that goddam Fire Witch off!! After she convinced him to BURN HIS DAUGHTER AT THE STAKE!! Are you fucking kidding me??! The writer of GoT must have some kind of sick fetish for cruel and unsual women, because he LOVES letting the vilest women off the hook. Now the Fire Witch is looking all forlorn and sad that her visions didn't come true? Well, if she fully believed in it then WHY THE FUCK DID SHE RUN FROM STANNIS??! Because she meant to cost him his only daughter!! Anyway where was i? I got distracted. Oh, well yeah, the ending of this season felt. Shame.

Another show I got into was Arrow. Arrow has basically launched the DC TV connected universe, which surprises me because Green Arrow is not a big star in comics. Never has been. Howeever, the show has been a hit. When I started watching, I didn't realise I had so much to catch up on. Damn three seasons of 23 episodes each? Christ. So I grabbed a steaming cup of coffee and settled in, and I quickly came to the realisation: they're very hard to watch. I don't know what it is about it, but Arrow is quite hard to watch. I thought "ah, it's only 40 minutes each episode? Easy". Yet for most of it, I was expecting "ok, so this is the conclusion?" Nope. "Oh, this must be the end." No. "Is this?" Christ,let me check the time...I'VE GOT 20 MINUTES LEFT??!" etc. Still, the show itself isn't bad. It's just not great. The actor who plays Arrow, I've tried to give him loads of leeway, but he just seems wooden. I thought he was playing him stoic, but I'm not sure... Still,like I said, the show is pretty good - and I'm determined to stick it out and catch up, because I want to see the DC Universe unfold, and I've heard there'd a looad of characters/elements/tropes/whatever from the wider DC Universe that are featured in it (I've yet to see Ray Palmer, but I want to get a glimpse). I just hope this show doesn't go the way of Smallville , which from all I've heard, became absolutely fucking ridiculous by the end (I've only seen stills of the Hawkman from that show, but oh my god...). I've seen little glimpses of Atom's upcoming design (I think) and it doesn't look great, but still, DC are trying to catch up to Marvel, who have a very VERY well established (and worked-out) interconnected universe - and as a sort-of related note with Ray Palmer: Ant-Man (Marvel's "version" of Atom), looks VERY good. Of course Ant-Man won't be a massive world-beater. In fact, I have a feeling it'll be one of the lowest-grossing of the MCU films, but I've always kinda dug Ant-Man, just as I've always loved the visuals/potential of Atom, even though neither of those guys are the biggest stars in their respective universes, no pun intended (well, slight intended pun). Still, back to Arrow: It's good, don't get me wrong, but there's something kinda lame about a man with a bow and arrow threatening gangsters to "DEPOSIT $40MILLION INTO THIS ACCOUNT!" and they do it, out of fear for a man with a bow & arrow. Hmm.. I think the reason I haven't liked it as much as I would have, is because I inadvertently compared it to...

Daredevil!! I watched the first episode of Daredevil before trying to catch up on the way-more-episodes of Arrow, and I was truly spoiled. The first episode of Daredevil is EX. CELLENT. Utterly brilliant in every way. Like Arrow, Daredevil has never been the main star in his respective Universe, but, like Arrow, he seems to be the focal point of launching their TV show universe (well, online TV, but TV nonetheless- actually, is there a word for shows like this? There must be...). So, unfortunately for Arrow, it had a LOT to live up to, and if I'd watched them in reverse, Arrow might have had a chance at impressing me. But it can't really compare, so I've decided to switch back to Daredevil. I'll complete that, and switch back to Arrow, but I have a feeling Arrow is going to be left in the dust, and I'll only watch one or two episodes a week maybe, to catch up (which will mean wa? Over a year''s worth of watching/ Wow. Anyway, what can I say about Daredevil? One episode (which I think would've been the pilot) and I was hooked, and it's not got any flatter. I think I'm 8 deep so far, and I'm loving LOVING everyone in it. Foggy is played well. Karen is played well, Matt/Daredevil is played BRILLIANTLY (and let's give a hand to ANOTHER British actor who has blew everyone away playing an American superhero! Seems to be the thing to do these days), but of all of the characters, I was most looking forward to seeing Wilson Fisk. I know they haven't given him the name yet, but godDAYM if he isn't the Kingpin in the flesh. That scene where he pulls the Russian out of the limo just looked so authnetic - his furious face looked like it was straight out of the comics. Admittedly, he's not as large as the comic-book kingpin, but who would be (apart from the late rapper Big Pun? RIP Pun!) Oh...and that leads me onto the tantalising possibility of another character who, as far as I've seen hasn't been introduced/even referred to yet, but is rumoured to be in the second series. Because Big Pun took his name from his favourite comics character (and it's actually an abbreviation of) Punisher!!! I'm salivating at the idea of them building up to him. Don't spoil it for me, please, as I build up to the final few episodes of this series and see if Punisher will be alluded to/introduced, but MAN, Daredevil is something every single tv lover needs to get on. And, if this show is any indication, then the Marvel TV universe will set new standards for how TV shows are supposed to be. In fact, after watching the first epsiode, I was straight away thinking "holy shit, THIS is a comic book tv show?" (we all know how they've done in the past - only two have been moderately successful/quality without taking the piss out of the source material: Agents of SHIELD and Arrow itself. I'm looking forward to seeing where this one, and the others, will take us!