30 Days of TV: Day 10

A Show You Thought You Wouldn't Like But Ended Up Loving

As you know, I only have Netflix, so my TV viewing is limited.  I actually had cable when this show started, but never watched it.  Back in September 2013, I began watching a show that I really didn't think I would be interested in.  It had the formula of the shows I usually enjoy:  good guys versus bad guys, chases, shootouts, great character stories; but for some reason I just never got into it when I had cable.  I decided to try it one day, and was hooked.  I had finished the entire 10 SEASONS of this show within 3 months, I became so addicted to it.  

The show I thought I wouldn't like but ending loving is:

I'd never watched NYPD Blue, so I wasn't familiar with David Caruso.  Well, I knew that he left the show and that many thought that was the dumbest decision of his life.  Anyway, he was what drew me to the show to begin with.

As with most shows, it took a few episodes to completely hook me, but once it did, that was it.  I love the story lines; unrequited love, siblings with secrets, moles inside the team, characters finally finding love only to have it taken away so quickly, unknown children, crazy ex's, team members finding themselves in dire circumstances, team members dying, and great villains.  This show has it all, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

David Caruso's character Horatio Caine became famous for his one-liners at the beginning of the show, along with the sunglasses he always wore.  Some made fun of it, I LOVED it!  Another reason it was fun for me was because almost every person who played a secondary role on Burn Notice, including Jeffrey Donovan himself (Michael Westen), showed up!

Below is a video summarizing the 10 seasons of the show.




And I've got one more video here

This show is currently on Netflix, and worth looking at.

30 Days of TV: Day 9

A TV Show You Used to Watch, but Don't Anymore..and Why

I first caught this show years ago while I was watching reruns on A&E.  I fell in love with it, and was hooked.  I loved the characters, the plot developments, everything.

I loved the idea of a group of people who would profile bad guys (Behavioral Analysis Unit) in attempt to find them and bring them to justice.

The best story, by far, was The Reaper in season 5.

To make a very long story short, a man named George Foyet, a.k.a., "The Boston Reaper", was a serial killer that Aaron Hotchner had hunted 10 years earlier.  Foyet became the arch-nemesis of Aaron.  He shot Hotch at the end of season 4, and has been taunting him ever since then.

Foyet comes back to town and Aaron's ex-wife and son end up having to go into the Witness Protection program to keep them safe.  Foyet manages to track them down, killing the U.S. Marshal protecting them.  Foyet calls Haley (Hotchner's wife), and posing as an employee of the U.S. Marshal service, claims that her safety has been compromised and arranged for her to return home and meet her there, still posing as the Marshal.  During a phone conversation with Hotch, Haley is informed that the man in the room with her, Foyet, is The Reaper.  She puts the phone on speaker and Hotch instructs Jack (their son) to help him "work the case", and Jack runs off to an unknown location inside the house.  Hotch, and the rest of the BAU are racing to Hotch's home, and they hear a gun shot.

Hotch arrives at the home to find Haley dead, and he and Foyet engage in a brutal fight.  Hotch eventually beats Foyet to death, and has to have his friends take him off of Foyet once they finally arrive.  We then find out, through a flashback, that whenever Hotch was working, Jack would hide and say that he was also "working the case".  This was the hiding place that kept Jack safe from The Reaper.

Click here for a video about the story line.

Click here one more that goes deeper into the emotions of the story.  Listening to the conversation between Hotch and Haley is almost too much for me.

I cried and cried when this episode was on.  Heavens, I just cried watching this video.

So why, do you ask, did I stop watching the show?  Well, it simply got to be too gruesome, too graphic, and too violent.  And that is saying A LOT for me. I enjoy all of the criminal shows, but this one just became too much.  I was sad to have to let it go, but I just couldn't keep watching.  I did, however, watch the season finale episode years later when my beloved Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker, (Mark Hamill) was discovered to be the bad guy....and he was a REALLY bad guy!

30 Days of TV: Day 8

A Show Everyone Should Watch

"My name is Mike Rowe, and this is my job.  I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty; hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.  Now, get ready to get dirty".

That is how each episode of the show that I think everyone should watch begins.  That show is:

I think that everyone should watch this show because not only is Mike Rowe HILARIOUS, but it takes people inside the world of the jobs THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD NEVER WANT TO DO, (myself included) but need to happen every day so that our lives are a little easier.  I appreciate all the workers on this show because in this day and age, many people believe they are entitled to a certain kind of job, lifestyle, etc.  The men and women on this show take on those disgusting jobs with pride, and show us that they actually enjoy them.  It's an important lesson that I think everyone should learn.  If you're willing to work, even if it's the really dirty jobs, there is work available.

Below are a few clips from this show.  The show is currently on Netflix, and is disgusting fun!


Sewer Inspector




Diaper Cleaner




San Francisco Dump




Guts Galore




Cleaning a Toilet

30 Days of TV: Day 7

Least Favorite Episode of My Favorite TV Show

This comes from a post I wrote when the episode originally aired.  I've updated it a bit.

Season 5 of Burn Notice brought in the greatest villian yet....and that's saying a lot for this show.  He is the last man standing in the organization that not only burned Michael, but he's the last man left since Michael and his friends destroyed the organization piece by piece.  Oh, did I forget to mention that he's out to rebuild the network using any means necessary?  Yeah, bad, bad news.

His name is Anson Fullerton.  Long story short, he posed as a good guy needing help from Michael, framed Fiona for a murder she didn't commit and used his evidence as leverage to blackmail Michael.  End of season 5 Fiona turned herself in to authorities to get Michael out from under Anson's thumb.  She has been in jail and Michael has been doing all he can to find Anson and free Fiona. 

Basically that brings us to this episode.  I could go on and on, but you can read more about it here.  Just scroll down to the season synopsis.

K, so the creators of Burn Notice did something stupid in my opionion:  they told the audience that someone important would be killed during the promo for the episode Shock Wave. 



After watching this clip, I knew that it wasn't Jesse, Michael, or Pearce.  I also know there's NO WAY they would kill off Sam or Fiona.  So, I figured it was one of two people:  Rebecca, the dirty CIA agent that Anson was also blackmailing, or Nate, Michael's younger brother.

My suspicion was confirmed the moment I started watching the episode:  Michael is finally close to catching Anson, and the CIA won't let Sam, Michael's best friend and former Navy Seal, go with them.  Instead, they let Nate, a CIVILIAN, go with them.  What?!?  I have a hard time believing that any branch of government would let a civilian, like myself, with no training whatsoever, go on a mission to capture a murdering sociopath.  Guess I could be wrong.

The episode continued with Michael and Nate fighting.  Michael has always protected his brother.  When they were young, he protected him from their abusive father.  As an adult, when Nate would get into trouble, Michael would help bail him out.  This fighting continued to set the stage for what was going to happen.  The moment Michael ordered Nate out of the hotel room they were hiding out in, I knew Nate's time was over.  It was just a matter of how it was going to happen.  Was Anson going to find him?  What would he do to Nate? 

Suddenly, Michael calls Nate and asks him to "keep eyes" on Anson.  Apparently he's in the casino that Nate is at, and Michael needs time to get there.  Knowing Nate's character, I knew he was going to butt in...and he did.  Nate managed to sucker punch Anson (the BEST moment of the show, something that all Burn Notice fans have personally wanted to do for a year!), and it looked like Michael was finally going to get the man who had caused so much pain, destroyed so many lives, including Michael's.  However, this is television.  Does anything ever happen the way it should?

Roll the clip:



It's obvious who the real target was....Anson.  Nate was "collateral damage".  Nate's character had gone about as far as he could go.  Last season they tried to give him more of a storyline by having him get married and have a baby, but it felt like more of a "jump the shark" moment since we only saw his wife once, she was odd, and I believe we only saw the baby once. When he returned this season, he was getting a divorce and had fallen back into gambling again. No character growth usually = death of an expendable character. I knew Nate was going to die, but I still cried. Yeah, I'm that kind of dork!

So here's where I have issues with some of the events of this episode:

- Nate would NEVER have been allowed to go on that mission....period.  Sam would've been allowed to go.

- They made it SOOOO obvious who was going to die.  From fighting with Michael to all the dumb things he did on the mission (like ordering pizza, risking being seen by Anson), and then having Nate "keep eyes" on Anson, they practically painted a sign on Nate's face saying, "I'm going to be killed".

- Fiona had been working with the CIA to get out of jail.  I was under the impression that catching Anson meant she would be released.  He was killed.....maybe since he can't do any more harm they decided to completely believe the fact that Fiona had been framed?

- That was a massive hole blown through the wall when Nate and Anson died.  What in the world did that come from?

And my biggest issue with the episode:

MICHAEL DIDN'T GET TO TAKE ANSON DOWN!!!  We've waited a year to watch this awesome villian get what was coming to him, and instead of satisfaction, we had to wait even longer to find out who killed him!!!  Major disappointment. 

30 Days of TV: Day 6

Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show

It was too difficult to choose just one episode of one show!  So I'm changing the rules here and bringing you a list of a few from each of my favorite shows!

First up:  my favorite episodes of Burn Notice

Season 2, episode 11;  Hot Spot.  See the promo for it here:

The "uniforms" sell this episode.  Watching the 3 of them getting dressed and then walking out of the loft is by far the best part, along with all the explosions!


Season 2, episode 13; Lesser Evil

Season 2 was by far the best season of Burn Notice.  It found it's groove and the story line was filled with non stop action.  This was the season finale episode, and it gets better and better each time I watch it.  Victor, (the man in the picture) was once an enemy of Michael's.  In this episode they end up working together to bring down the organization that burned them.  Between what happens with Victor, and the helicopter jump at the end, it is one of the BEST episodes.




Season 4, episodes 17 & 18;  Out of the Fire/Last Stand

"Dead" Larry

Brennon

Michael has always had some very worthy adversaries.  Brennon was one of the best.   He once strapped a bomb to a child, shot Michael's brother Nate, and was just really good at being really bad!  For the 4th season finale, Brennon brought hell down upon Michael, his friends, and family.  As if having Brennon back wasn't bad enough, Brennon brought "Dead" Larry back to help keep Michael "in line"; basically he was there to make sure Michael did what Brennon wanted him to do.  These two episodes have so many twists and turns, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.




Season 7, episode 2;  Forget Me Not

This was the 100th episode of Burn Notice and the fans finally got what we wanted:  to see more of the back story of Michael and Fiona.  Jeffrey Donovan (Michael Westen) directed this episode, and it is so fun to watch.  It is both exciting, and heartbreaking.  Having gone undercover in the Dominican Republic, Michael's cover has been blown so he has to return to Miami, but he isn't allowed to see his friends or family.  The episode is made up of flashbacks that show us how Michael and Fiona met, fell in love, and what kind of "mayhem" they caused in Ireland.




Season 7, episode 13; Reckoning

It's fitting to end with this episode, as it was the SERIES finale of Burn Notice.  I just finished watching it, since season 7 posted to Netflix this morning.  The best part about this episode is that it takes the lines from the characters in title sequence that we've heard throughout the past 7 years and uses them again.  Below is a video I made myself, so that you could see the opening sequence and the phrases that we've heard for 7 years.



This episode has it all:  danger, excitement, sadness.  At times I was sitting on the couch with my heart in my throat because of fear; other times I was actually yelling at the TV because of what was happening.  For fans of this show, the finale gave us everything we could've wanted and more.




And now moving onto to one more TV series.  My favorite episodes of NCIS.

Season 3, episode 23 & 24; Hiatus

Tony, McGee, and Ziva wait in a car as Gibbs contacts an undercover government agent on a Turkish ship. They witness an explosion from the ship which kills the agent and severely injures Gibbs, leaving him in a coma. In his comatose state, Gibbs has flashbacks of the murder of his wife, Shannon, and eight-year-old daughter, Kelly, and being wounded during Desert Storm.  The entire first episode is completely devoted to learning about the story of Gibbs' family.

Watch a video about the first half of Hiatus here

During the second part of Hiatus, Director Shepard informs the team that Gibbs has regained consciousness but can't remember anything after 1991, which is a problem because he is the only one who has important information about a pending terrorist attack.  Several characters attempt to help Gibbs regain his memory.  This is when we first meet his former partner, Mike Franks.  Ziva visits Gibbs on his last night in the hospital in desperation to help him remember, grabbing his hand and using it to show him his trademark "head slap".  This, together with her emotionally reminding him that she had killed her own brother to save his life, shocks Gibbs into regaining his memory.

In a live video conference, Washington bureaucrats ignore Gibbs' recommendations.  As a Navy frigate attempts to board the freighter, the terrorist detonates his bomb and destroys both ships while the NCIS team watches on a large surveillance screen. Infuriated, Gibbs resigns and hands his badge to Tony, telling him that he is now in charge of the team and is ready for the responsibility. The episode (and season) closes with Gibbs arriving at Franks' house in Mexico.




This episode had me crying from the moment it started until it finished a week later.  We had always heard whispers about Gibbs' family, but this is when we finally got to see it; and it was very sad.  Watching Ziva struggle through Gibbs' not remembering who she is, watching Gibb's quit, and seeing all the emotion from all characters was simply amazing television.

By far my favorite episode is their 200th episode.  Season 9, episode 14; Life Before His Eyes.  It was all about what Gibbs' life might have been like had he made different choices in his life....kind of like a Christmas Story type thing.  Gibbs' friend Mike Franks comes to take him through the journey.  We see what life would've been like had his wife and daughter not been killed, if Kate had never died; we even see Ziva in a very different role.