Confession: I Like Television

Yes, it's true. I like television.

 Well, I actually seriously hate most television, and most of the television I don't hate I still don't love. I loved the British Life on Mars, and I still very much like Justified. Oh, and of course Breaking Bad, which it seems academic dudes must love. I have opinions of all of these shows that I'll perhaps share with you in coming weeks, but my opinions of the shows I love are, I think, a lot less interesting than the ones about the shows I think are okay.

 Which brings me to Falling Skies. Fortunately, as the owner of a Tivo, I don't often need to choose which one television show to watch at a given time (and of course Ye Olde Internette makes it easy to catch something you missed). This is good in the case of Falling Skies, since I'm pretty sure I'd miss if it it were up against any of the many shows I like more, e.g. ... oh I don't know ... Wipeout or whatever. I watch it because it doesn't keep me from catching Impractical Jokers.

 To watch science fiction on TV in this decade means getting past the standard objection of "I can't believe they cancelled Firefly while this show keeps on going (can you say Eureka?). At some point you just gotta let it go. Besides, if Firefly had lasted, we might never have gotten to see Castle.

 That was a joke, mostly. But yeah, I watch Castle.

 Okay, so Falling Skies. It has Will Patton, who was great in the highly underrated sans-gills Costner flick The Postman and also played the only interesting character in Armageddon (aside from William Fichtner, I guess). On the other hand, it has Noah Wyle in the lead, and I'm sorry, but I just don't find him credible. Am I alone in this? I keep waiting for Bob Newhart to show up and summon him back to the Library.

 Another thing I kind of hate about the show is the My Three Sons rivalry thing (there are three of them, right? Most people under 25 pretty much look alike to me). These scenes frankly give off a Home Improvement vibe. That said, I do kind of like the premise, though on the other hand I kind of hate all the CGI. So it's a tossup all the way around. I wouldn't pass up a good show to watch it, but watch I do, and will.

But I thought The River was better. And maybe Alcatraz.