Finishing off the Librarians

It took me a while, but I finally finished off The Librarians on TNT. I had kind of lost interest the first time around -- evidently because TNT made it difficult at the time to catch shows on demand when the DVR failed. But since my DVR was set to catch any "new" episodes, it went ahead and captured those episodes when they became available again. So, over the next few years, I pretty much had the entire rest of the series waiting for me. And then when I had made the decision a couple of years ago to get rid of cable, I saw this series' existence on my DVR, and I finished it out.

So yes -- it's one of those shows that I had a hard time getting excited about, but it was interesting enough for me to finish. It's one of those shows where I got around to it after catching up on my other shows, but yet I was able to enjoy watching while I watched. Each episode was decent and funny. Every now and then there would be really good episodes that actually had me looking forward to the next episode.

The Librarians are guardians of the Library, which contains a whole bunch of magical artifacts. Several bad guys try to destroy or take over the Library along the way. Noah Wyle plays the main Librarian, who trains three other uprising Librarians. Rebecca Romijn (of X-Men/Mystique fame) is also in there.

What I liked: the show had a lot of energy and kept my attention. It also doesn't involve much brain power to process, so it's good show to relax to. The characters were interesting enough to like.

What I didn't like: the show seemed to lack direction. Each season has an overarching arc, but it was still really "bad guy of the week."

There are four seasons, and the last one comes to a satisfying conclusion. There were plans for more episodes, but I'm not going to miss it very much. It was a fun memory and now I'm done.

My recommendation: if you're looking for something simple, low-level thinking, funny, energetic, and not much of a commitment -- then check it out.

Fear the Living Dead: Giving Up

I made it through four seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, and I've just had no inclination to continue. It was a fun ride for the first three seasons.

Season 1 started off strong, giving a glimpse into the beginnings of the zombie apocalypse -- the main aspect that attracted me to the show in the first place. But toward the end of season 1, the writers decided to skip a whole week, and it felt like the energy dropped -- now that everyone had a better idea of what was going on, it had, as several of my friends called it, turned into just another Walking Dead.

However, the writers kept things interesting with the whole plot of the government mishandling things.

Season 2 was okay, as the families journey on Strand's boat and end up in Mexico. It had a lot of slow parts, but there always seemed to be something to keep me going. Plus, it has lots of good Spanish to listen to.

Season 3 picked up big time -- definitely the highlight of the show -- IMO, building to an explosive finale.

But then Season 4 happened. Unfortunately, the writers decided to do a crossover, bringing in Morgan from The Walking Dead. I was most disappointed because this necessitated a gigantic time jump so the two shows could catch up. You remember all that energy that built up at the end of Season 3? It was all dispersed instantly with this poor choice of events. The main aspect that had attracted me to this show was the fact that it wasn't The Walking Dead, and again, someone thought it a good idea to crossover. Why?

The writing was still decent -- but it just got boring. I liked Dorie, and some of the new characters. Even that bad guy Melvin (almost the same as my name) was interesting. The overarching plot just felt forced to bend to some executive's whim, and it lost direction. So much so that when Season 5 started back up, I was all -- who cares?

If I hear that it gets better, I may pick it back up once the show is done -- we'll see. It was fun, and now I'm done.