Category: TV

You know what I love about Sherlock?  Every season you can watch the whole thing in three days!  It is great.  You don’t need to devote a lot of time to it, so it is easy to keep up.  There is nothing better than being up to date on a hit show, and if you haven’t seen Sherlock at all, you can watch the entire series in a week or two.

Even better, it is a pretty good show.  Season four has some issues.  It relied more on twists than mystery, but considering I only had to invest four and half hours it is hard to be that mad.  If they had plodded those twists out over sixteen episodes The Walking Dead style, I may have been.

As it is there is no reason not to watch Sherlock.  It is short and sweet (in a murder-y kind of way).  The only agonizing part is that since the stars are so busy you never know when the next season is coming out.  They have committed to season five, but we probably will not see it until 2020, so lucky you, you have three years to catch up.

I am a huge Guillermo del Toro fan, but his new show Trollhunters just doesn’t seem to click with me.  It has a cool visual style that I love, but it is just missing that hook that makes me want to keep watching.

The series follows Jim (voiced by the late Anton Yelchin), the first human ever to be name Trollhunter, as he learns about the troll world and how to protect the world with his new powers.  Meanwhile a threat is growing for both troll and man, and ready or not Jim is the only person who can stop it.

It is the standard good kid becomes a superhero plot, and of course his friends have to help him on his way.  I think this is why I am having so much trouble with Trollhunters.  It all feels so familiar.  Like I said, visually it I a homerun.  The cave world of the trolls in particular is amazing.  I just wish some tropes were turned on their heads is all.

To be fair I haven’t finished the show, but that is because I am having a hard time staying interested.  With twenty-four episodes it is twelve hours of TV to watch, and I already have a lot of TV to catch up on, so if the hook of the show isn’t great in the first few hours, I am going to have a hard time finishing it.  Something tells me if I was in the target demographic I would probably love this show.  Maybe I will have time later to finish this show, and I will change my mind.  You will be the first to know if I do.

The Walking Dead started off season seven with two really good episodes.  Some people complained that they were too violent, but you know what?  You are watching a horror show about the zombie apocalypse, so if it gets violent that shouldn’t be that surprising.  Sadly the show then went in to filler mode.  Five episodes straight of do-nothing moping.

Thankfully the mid-season finale got the show back on track.  I am not sure that it was even that good of an episode, it definitely didn’t need to be 90 minutes long, but it was way better than what came before it.  Hopefully the show stays this good with the next eight episodes, so that we can finish season seven strong.  I have my doubts, but I don’t think the show can get as bad as it has been unless they introduce zombie sharks or something.

The Walking Dead used to be the only show around with a high level of tension and serialized mystery on TV, but the TV landscape has changed, and if they go back to filler mode audiences will start leaving the show in droves.