Thoughts and Words: TV Shows

(So apparently I'm including the song I'm sharing with you guys at the top of the post today, because blogger simply loves not cooperating with me. Oh well. Hope you guys enjoy this great song all the same, which I first heard on The Fosters, my favorite TV show, as I will shortly discuss.)

Hey guys!

After sharing with you some lists and descriptions of my very favorite books, I thought it would be cool to do the same with some neat TV shows that I've enjoyed in my day. There's not nearly as much to talk about here, as I only have a couple of TV shows that I'm really into to any major extent. But nonetheless, I hope you enjoy hearing about them and that my praises may become of value to some of you. :) Let's go.

1) The Fosters - One that I started watching in the spring of 2015 (two weeks before my IB exams, no less; my timing for discovering and getting addicted to shows is ostensibly not the best), this is undoubtedly my favorite show ever to date. When I started watching it, I got hooked in a way I never had on a TV show before, discovering the true meaning of "binge watching." The show is in essence about the life and times of a family formed by two moms, one of the moms' son from a previous marriage, their two adopted twins, and then a brother and sister who they start fostering and eventually adopt into the family too. The title of the show is a double entendre, being a reference to the last name of one of the two moms, Foster, but also being a reference to foster children, as that is what the brother and sister are when they first enter the family. The show does a great deal to publicize and bring awareness to the struggles typical of the foster community and the cause of aiding it. There is also great attention to representation of actors and character story lines of diverse racial and queer identities, and to touching upon various issues, from questioning one's sexual orientation at a very young age to police brutality against people of color. The show also boasts the honor of having featured the youngest same-sex kiss ever broadcast on American television, between the two characters who form my OTP, no less (meaning, as described on Urban Dictionary, "'one true pairing' in a work of fiction; a favorite combination of characters in a fandom; two characters a person thinks work well together"), who are the subject of that fan fiction I'm currently writing (so not sorry). Need I say more? It's amazing and in many ways unprecedented for all of the aforementioned reasons. It's entertaining, it's compelling, it's easy to get super into (as can be easily seen in my case). It's definitely geared towards a more younger audience, but I think people of all ages can easily find a lot to take away and appreciate from it. Check it out, folks. I'm sure you won't regret it.

2) The Tudors - This is a show I had seen my mom watch several years ago, but I only just really watched and got into it myself earlier this year. I got hooked on and was definitely binge watching this one a good deal as well, though not quite as quickly and precipitously as when I got hooked on The Fosters. This show is a dramatization of intrigue, scandal, love, and life in the royal court of Tudor England, focusing on the reign of King Henry VIII and his numerous wives - six, to be precise. I will forewarn you all that it can be quite raunchy and violent at times. Unsurprisingly, as this is medieval Britain we're talking about, after all. And though the historical accuracy is overall not too outrageously deviant from reality, the writers did take occasional liberty with it, so I would advise anyone watching that has any interest in making sure that they understand what really happened to do a bit of research alongside the show. But be all of that as it may, it's well acted, well put together, with beautiful costumes and scenery to match, and an inviting ease to viewing it which will get both giant history buffs and the unrepentantly not alike hooked like me.

3) The Simpsons - I've liked this show a lot for a very long time, and recently I was looking back on my life, thinking hard so as to identify how exactly I had started watching it in the first place, as I couldn't recall for the life of me. I've since determined that it was because in eighth grade, a teacher who I did not take from but taught people in my grade played The Simpsons in his room during lunch, as an alternative for anyone who didn't want to eat in the cafeteria (naturally, being the shy, uncool little fourteen-year old that I was, I relished the chance to take refuge with my soggy pizza and slushies anywhere that was not the cafeteria if possible, and just so happened to get into The Simpsons by taking advent of this one in particular). The show satirizes a great many aspects of American culture, society, television, and the human condition in imaginative and comical ways, and also is very easy to view in that it doesn't need to be watched in any sort of strict or linear chronological order. For the most part, all episodes consist of individual, stand-alone plots, so when examining different episodes, you can very easily just pick at random and enjoy. My personal favorites are the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, which are the Halloween themed ones that feature two or three little story segments that are oriented in some way to this particular holiday.

(I couldn't find a more general trailer-type thing for the show as a whole, so I just used this random one.)

4) Red Band Society - Before I discovered The Fosters, the closest I'd ever come to truly getting hooked on a show was Red Band Society. I remember seeing a trailer for it in a movie theater, and thinking that it seemed interesting. So when I came across it one day while perusing Hulu, I remembered that, and gave it a try. At the time, new episodes of this show were coming out. For the first couple of months of my senior year, in the months right after I had gotten back from Turkey, it became a weekly ritual - I would come home from school, late since I had a two-hour martial arts enrichment after school, and immediately watch the new episode of Red Band Society. This show is about the life, times, and friendships that unfold between a group of teenagers living as patients in the pediatric ward of a hospital, all told from the perspective of a boy in a coma. It may sound like a downer, but for such seemingly intense subject matter, it was quite upbeat for the most part, while still paying ample respect to the issues at hand. It focuses on the ups and downs of how the various patients in the hospital deal with their own individual issues, as well as the friendships and drama that develop between them in rhythms staggeringly typical of "normal" teenagers. Unfortunately, for reasons unbeknownst to me as a big fan of the show, it was cancelled and not renewed for any further seasons. Admittedly, I too could benefit from a reviewing of the one season that does exist, as it's been a long time since I've seen it at all. But in any case, I would recommend it overall.

5) Nurse Jackie - I have to admit that my grasp of this show is not up to par, as it's been a couple of years since I watched it seriously in any capacity, and I'm not at all caught up. But it's a show that I watched quite a lot back in the day (and still do from time to time) with my family, mainly my mom. Again the premise seems a bit intense - it's basically about a nurse named Jackie (shocker, I know) who is a drug addict. It also depicts the struggles and stresses of her everyday life in her harrowing work environment and at home with her husband and two daughters, and struggles to come to terms and deal with her own issues as a drug addict. Naturally, I suppose, given the subject matter it concerns, things do get heavy at times. But all in all it makes for a pretty interesting and entertaining viewing.

(Couldn't find a trailer-type video, so I'm just being lazy and using the title sequence.)

6) Rome - Be warned: good and compelling as this show may be, it's raunchy and violent à la The Tudors, but even more so. This show is a British historical fiction dramatization which takes place in the 1st Century BCE, during Rome's transition from republic to empire. A number of very famous historical figures feature in this show, including Julius Cesar, Pompey, Mark Antony, Octavian, and even Cleopatra. The lead characters, though, for all intents and purposes, are a pair of soldiers named Titus Pullo and Lucius Verinus, whose life events ultimately intertwine with each other and with important historical events going on at the time. The show is exceedingly well-acted, has a very authentic and true feel to it, and for the most part is pretty historically accurate. Good stuff for sure. (No trailer for this one though, unfortunately.)

7) The Daily Show - This one is terribly famous, so I don't think I need to go too much into talking about it. Just in case you've legitimately never heard of it before, it's a comedy show that draws its humor from satirizing the news and the incredibly ridiculous and often effed up world we live in. I admit, I haven't watched it that much since Jon Stewart left. But the new episodes I've watched more recently with the new host Trevor Noah have been great too. Definitely with a different sort of feel somehow, and it's a little strange for me since this show is really something I associate with Jon Stewart. But great nonetheless.

8) Last Week Tonight - Essentially the same as The Daily Show in its premise and function, this show is hosted by John Oliver, who actually also took over as host of The Daily Show for a time while Jon Stewart was taking a break to help direct the movie Rosewater. This show is one that I've watched a lot more of recently, and it's fantastic. John Oliver's style of humor is one that I really click with somehow, and this show is always entertaining. He also seems to go interestingly off the beaten path in some of the issues he covers on the show, the best example being a 2015 episode I remember in which he talked about the shockingly unfair and antiquated laws restricting the citizenship rights and governmental representation of people from U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and American Samoa. Not too much more to say about this one; it's just really good. Check it out!