Some Television Thoughts, Plus Violence in Film and TV

First of all, I just wanted to say that I managed to get my hands on "Dead Snow", which Kenton Larsen suggested to me. I'll watch it when I get the time, and when I do, I'll post my thoughts.

It's been a tough week for me, school-wise. Failed a PR assignment I'd have otherwise done very well on, because I didn't capitalize the "t" in "YouTube". I felt extraordinarily dumb after that, and have sworn to never make that mistake again. The problem is that I'm so used to not capitalizing it, I just didn't think to check, even though I was actually ON the YouTube wiki page to look something up as I was writing the assignment.

I also got back my streeter assignment, and failed it as well due to a foolish spelling error. I spelt a name wrong (in my defence, her name was very unusual). I had the name right in my interview notes, but spelt it wrong as I was writing my article. Another foolish mistake I don't want to make again. But I do feel pretty lousy about failing...I'm not used to it!

Monday is my big tv night...at least in the sense that so far it is the only night I have more than one show to watch. I watch Heroes and Trauma. I do wonder why I even bother with Heroes any more. It is a tragedy, because the first season was fantastic, second season mediocre and finally, the third season was almost impossible to watch. This new season is not looking much better. At this point I only really watch because I want to know what happens in the end. I don't know if it will last more than another season or two because the ratings have been dropping, and it is a very expensive show to produce (ensemble cast, excellent special effects, etc).

On a better note, I did like last night's Trauma. More character development, and a really interesting story line. "Rabbit" is still my favourite character, he's the only intriguing one really. I'll be watching again next week. It's a very gory tv show though, and since I can be quite squeamish, there were some unpleasant parts. I'm a bit strange when it comes to violence and gore. In movies and on tv, I can watch people get shot, stabbed, etc, but show me a guy about to get his arm chewed up in machinery, or a gushing leg wound...and I freak out. There were moments I was covering my eyes and squealing, much to the amusement of my Mom, who is a retired nurse.

Similarly, the gore is why I had to cover my eyes during Watchmen. I said that normally I can take violence, but there were bits in that film that were just too much for me. I guess you can say I don't like disgusting things, or the aftermath of a violent act. I can take it and am fine with watching most movies or tv shows with stuff like that, but I may have to cover my eyes. But violence for the sake of violence (for example, the Saw franchise) does bother me. I used to be a bit more fearless when it came to that sort of thing but more recently, I've started to become more affected by it. I'm sure ER showed things as bloody and gory as Trauma did last night, but it never got to me. Maybe the reality of the situation being shown is starting to hit me harder than it once did? Or maybe I have just developed a weaker stomach. Needless to say, I would prefer not to have to deal with gushing leg wounds anytime soon, though should I be presented with such a situation, I promise to try not to faint, cry or throw up.

Trauma!

Trauma is a new show that premiered on NBC tonight. I tuned in with my parents, as we were all ER fans and are looking for something to "fill the void". Theoretically, I could be watching the early seasons of ER, but I've never been good at watching tv on DVD. I didn't start watching ER regularly until about season 13 so I've been watching the early seasons on DVD. I'm almost done season four right now...been "almost done" it for about six months. I tend to go in spurts, I'll watch several episodes in a two week period, then not pick it up for a year or so. But I love the early seasons very much.

Back to Trauma. It wasn't a bad show, but I could tell that the characters were heavily modelled off of ER characters. They shared some of the same characteristics anyway. Cliff Curtis, the New Zealand actor who played "Porourangi" in Whale Rider, plays one of the main characters, Rabbit. I thought he was a real find, easily the stand out among the cast. His character is the most interesting of the bunch so far. I suppose it's easy to say that the characters are based strongly off of ER characters because ER is such an iconic show, and many of the characters presented on that show have become sort of "stock characters" anyway (the fresh, young doctor, the rebellious but oh-so-lovable doctor, the responsible doctor with the troubled family, the doctor with the rough past, etc).

Will I be watching again? Most likely. I'll be giving this show a shot, considering a lot of my shows got cancelled last year (Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), or ended (ER). The premiere wasn't fantastic, but I've seen a lot worse. I'll watch a few more episodes, see if it gets itself into a good groove, then decide whether I'll start following it or not. NBC is banking hard on this show becoming the next ER, so we'll see how it does.

I'm also thinking about getting into Flashforward on ABC. The only thing stopping me is that I've heard it is like Lost, in that if you miss an episode, you can't really catch up. That, and I'm always reluctant to get into new tv, since shows seem to be cancelled left and right nowadays. I just don't think I could take the heartbreak of another Pushing Daisies, a show I loved with all my heart that ABC gave up on. There was very little conclusion with that show. However, I just read some awesome news via Wikipedia. Turns out the show will be back for a "third season" in comic book format! Here's hoping that offers a bit more closure than the tacked on "series finale" ever did.

Has anyone watched Flashforward? If so, is it worth watching?