tvthatdoesntsuck

REVIEW FOR

The Ex-List
Season One
Episode Four
“Do You Love Me, Do You Surfer… Boy”
Written by Matt McGuinness
Directed by Tamra Davis

I’m starting to really like this show.  After four episodes, it’s getting close to I’m-buying-this-season-on-DVD status.  This time around, Bella runs into an ex (surprise, right?) who is a former beach bum, current business man posing as a beach bum to make a profit off of his image.  The twists and turns in this episode keep the premise–which could easily wear thin and become monotonous–alive, keeping the readers and characters on their toes.  I also love and, as a writer, look up to the way the writers always have all of the main characters involved in their own subplot, which never takes away from the main arc of the episode.  It just makes each act of the show seem very full and textured.

8/10

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REVIEW FOR

Life on Mars
Season One
Episode Two and Three
“The Real Adventures of the Unreal Sam Tyler” / “My Maharshi is Bigger than Your Maharishi”
Written by Brian Oh / Written by Tracy McMillan
Directed by Michael Katleman / Directed by Michael Pressman

Sorry I missed out on this one last week.  There’s so much good television out right now that it’s really hard to make myself stay on top of the newer shows.  I’m glad I DVRed the second and third episodes, though, because they were actually very good.  Every bit as good as the premiere, and the third was even a bit better.  The series tackles current issues like homosexuality and war protesters, setting up nice conflicts between Sam with his modern outlook on things and his department, with their archaic 1973 prejudices.  There are a few moments during the show where I felt a guilty pang in my chest, though, because I take a firm stance against police procedurals which, by and large, f***ing suck.  But this is innovative enough with a big enough twist to avoid getting pulled into that blanket of meh, and I’m glad that each episode keeps the plot focused around Sam’s very odd situation, instead of letting him grow accustomed to his surroundings like I feared he would.

7/10

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