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| Check Out Some of Television's Hidden Treasures, Part I
A guide by Andrew, College Student, Film/Television Geek
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Are you sick of having to watch new reality shows each week that are trashy, mind-numbing, and drawn out? Do you find yourself realizing that a good majority of shows are mere carbon copies of each other? This handy guide will clue you in to programs that are either lesser known or ignored.
We'll start with an old favorite, Buffy the Vampire Slayer ('Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Series (Seasons 1-7)'). While Buffy isn't an unknown show, many people dismiss it as childish and/or girly. This is not the case. Buffy is one of the most intelligently written shows in recent years. The dialogue is witty and real, as are the stories, even though they involve vampires, demons, and monsters. The creator, Joss Whedon, uses monsters, magic, and other fantasy elements as metaphors for things that actually happen to people. Each season has a theme to it; 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete First Season' is about high school as hell (which also carries over into seasons 2 and 3). 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Second Season' deals with the "bad boyfriend" idea that states that after a girl sleeps with a boy, he turns evil. In 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Third Season', Buffy and friends deal with a corrupt government, while in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Fourth Season', they tackle scientists playing God. 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Fifth Season' is both about female extravagance and the importance of family. In the darkest year, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Sixth Season' has life itself in the role of the villain (the characters are at a point in their lives when they are no longer kids, but have just become adults, and they don't know where to go with their lives). Finally, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Seventh Season' brings the series full circle and is about power.
Buffy also had a great spin-off, 'Angel - Season One', which lasted for five seasons. Although 'Angel - Season Two' was nowhere near as known as its parent series, it was just as good. 'Angel - Season Three' dealt with a lot more adult issues than Buffy did, and while it had similarities to Buffy, it was definitely a different show. Sadly, 'Angel - Season Four' was killed way before its time. It was still fresh after five years on the air, and the writers had so much more story to tell, so when the last episode of 'Angel - Season Five' aired, fans were left wanting more.
'Firefly - The Complete Series' is probably one of television's least known yet extremely amzazing shows ever. From Joss Whedon, 'Firefly - The Complete Series' was a sci-fi/western about a crew aboard a small, firefly-class transport ship named Serenity. The captain and his first mate were veterans of a civil war (which they lost) that would determine how the solar system would be governed. They are crooks, who pull jobs for people in order to keep food in their stomachs and gas in the tank. But when two high-profile fugitives get onboard, things take a turn for the worse. Sadly, only 15 hours were produced, and only 12 of them actually made it to the airwaves. Fortunately, DVD sales were so high that Universal Studios is making a feature film sequel, Serenity.
Next up are two great comedies, 'Arrested Development - Season One' and 'Scrubs - The Complete First Season'. As of this writing, both shows are still in production. Arrested Development is a show, which is shot as a documentary, about a once-affluent family that lost nearly everything when the patriarch was arrested for accounting fraud. Michael Bluth, the son of the imprisoned George Bluth, is forced to take over the family's development company and try to keep everyone together. Michael is pretty much the only sane member of his family. The rest of the cast includes his socialite mother, his hack-of-a-magician older brother, his spoiled twin sister, his man-boyish younger brother, his sexually ambiguous brother-in-law, his rebellious niece, and his son who has a crush on the niece. Not only is the main cast great, but the recurring charcters are great as well, especially the family attorney, who has his own legal problems. Strangely, for as brilliant as Arrested Development is, the ratings are tiny, and it has barely made it to a third season. It is still on the air due to critical acclaim, ardent fan support from the few who watch the show, and numerous awards (including an Outstanding Comedy Emmy for its first season). Scrubs is a medical comedy about a group of interns learning about hospital operations and politics at an insane hospital. They must deal with evil superiors, rude patients, a psychotic janitor, and their own fears and shortcomings. Along with regular dialogue-based jokes, the show uses cutaway scenes as the source of a lot of humor. Also, this show isn't afraid to get serious when it needs to. Since this is a medical show, death sometimes rears its ugly head, and when it does, the writers show proper respect. While this show isn't in trouble the way Arrested Development is, it has never reached the popularity levels of certain shows of inferior quality. It has been on the air for a few years now, but it was never nominated for an Emmy until its fourth season, making it long overdue for some recognition.
'Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season' is next. While shows like 'Lost - The Complete First Season' and Desperate Housewives get all the attention for reviving the scripted series, Veronica Mars is just as deserving of the credit. Veronica Mars is a show about a high school girl who is an apprentice private investigator for her father. While the whole "girl detective" thing sounds off-putting, this really is an amazing show. It is smartly-written, the characters are fleshed out, and the story arcs are very compelling. Many fans and critics have referred to Veronica Mars as the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I don't think that assumption is too far off. Not only that, but this is probably UPN's best show ever. To be continued... |
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be a Vampire Slayer expert: A guide by amerdale876, writer, movie fanatic
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