{"id":4052,"date":"2017-12-17T10:22:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T10:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/?p=4052"},"modified":"2017-12-17T16:23:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T16:23:58","slug":"assorted-procedurals-and-dramas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/assorted-procedurals-and-dramas\/","title":{"rendered":"Assorted Procedurals and Dramas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another group of non-Anime shows recently watched on a whim: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">House M.D.<\/a>: Yeah, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sherlock_Holmes\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sherlock Holmes<\/a> in a hospital is an apt description. So it&#8217;s not surprising that, as with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/random-movies-tv-shows\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sherlock<\/a>, the banter ends up the best part of the show. The dramatic aspects (particularly the crime-related ones) don&#8217;t work anywhere near as well&#8230; which ends up becoming a serious problem when it begins to place a much larger focus on them. The end of the 4th season marks the turning point and I wouldn&#8217;t suggest watching beyond the 5th unless you don&#8217;t mind skipping through large swathes of melodrama to reach the intermittent good bits.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Unusuals\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Unusuals<\/a>: Tries too hard to be quirky and ends up blatantly artificial. Still often amusing in its ludicrousness though, and does manage to strike a more believable balance as it progresses.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Once_Upon_a_Time_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Once Upon a Time<\/a>: A mix of fantasy and urban fantasy that would&#8217;ve been better without the kid. I like the way it interweaves the various story-worlds together, but that&#8217;s about it.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Wonderland\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Once Upon a Time in Wonderland<\/a>: While heavier on the fantasy aspects, it has the exact same feel as the parent series.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stalker_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stalker<\/a>: Like a stalker <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inception\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inception<\/a> or something. Stalkers everywhere. It&#8217;s actually pretty interesting, albeit incredibly creepy.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Designated_Survivor_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Designated Survivor<\/a>: Exciting, but it could do without the family issues angle. The spontaneous roadblocks\/escalations early-on also tend to come across as forced.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Good_Wife\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Good Wife<\/a>: Features a solid mix of drama, thriller-like suspense, and situational comedy (both low-key and exaggerated) with a fantastic cast. The main flaws would be an unfortunate fondness for dramatic zooms and lingering close-ups along with the seemingly neverending game of law firm musical chairs.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rosewood_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rosewood<\/a>: Eh. The smugness is kinda overwhelming and the lab segments come across like performance art.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Castle_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Castle<\/a>: The first episode has a number of serious structural and personality-based issues which are thankfully nowhere near as severe in later ones. Eventually it becomes a highly entertaining mix of drama and comic interludes with a dynamic very similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bones_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bones<\/a>&#8216; (with a less believable romance angle). I strongly suggest skipping the last season however, as similar to <em>House<\/em> this show suffers when that balance gets upset and later seasons lean more and more toward drama.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/CSI:_Cyber\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CSI: Cyber<\/a>: Incredibly staged. This kind of style might work for a campy gameshow; it&#8217;s a complete failure in a crime procedural.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Secrets_and_Lies_(U.S._TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Secrets and Lies<\/a>: Nice atmosphere, but a couple key characters (including the detective) simply don&#8217;t work at all.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Murder_in_the_First_(TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Murder in the First<\/a>: Gritty. In a good way for the most part. Gets over-zealous with its messaging though.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cracked_(Canadian_TV_series)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cracked<\/a>: I don&#8217;t like the male protagonist at all. The level of crazy is also, perhaps unsurprisingly, very high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another group of non-Anime shows recently watched on a whim: House M.D.: Yeah, Sherlock Holmes in a hospital is an apt description. So it&#8217;s not surprising that, as with Sherlock, the banter ends up the best part of the show. The dramatic aspects (particularly the crime-related ones) don&#8217;t work anywhere near as well&#8230; which ends up becoming a serious problem when it begins to place a much larger focus on them. The end of the 4th season marks the turning point and I wouldn&#8217;t suggest watching beyond the 5th unless you don&#8217;t mind skipping through large swathes of melodrama to reach the intermittent good bits. The Unusuals: Tries too hard to be quirky and ends up blatantly artificial. Still often amusing in its ludicrousness though, and does manage to strike a more believable balance as it progresses. Once Upon a Time: A mix of fantasy and urban fantasy that would&#8217;ve been better without the kid. I like the way it interweaves the various story-worlds together, but that&#8217;s about it. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: While heavier on the fantasy aspects, it has the exact same feel as the parent series. Stalker: Like a stalker Inception or something. Stalkers everywhere. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[173,176,28,64,412,411,95,30],"class_list":["post-4052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-tv-related","tag-comic-relief","tag-drama","tag-fantasy","tag-romance","tag-series","tag-televised","tag-thriller","tag-urban-fantasy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}