Monday, February 29, 2016

Primetime TV Update - February 2016

Here's a quick description of all of the shows I've watched and completed in February 2016. Of course, as always, there is a possibility of spoilers for any prime time show I mention.

On BBCAmerica, I watched "London Spy", which aired earlier on BBC One in the UK. This was a five part series, starring Ben Whishaw as Daniel a gay man, who fell in love with a spy, who was closeted. This was a major conspiracy theory show, and not something you'd normally see on US network television. Jim Broadbent played Scottie, his confidante and Mark Gatiss played Rich who also had a same sex liaison. The most shocking thing, which I don't want to spoil had me floored, as it is one thing I've never seen on television before, which is a good/bad thing.

On Lifetime, I watched "War and Peace", which began airing on BBC One in the UK late last year. The US episodes were two hours in length and had advertising, so our edit was a bit different. The mini-series was based on the Tolstoy book and starred Lily James (who was in Downton Abby, and the movies Pride, Prejudice and Zombies and Cinderella in the last couple of years) and Paul Dano (aka the teen who said nothing in "Little Miss Sunshine" and the only American in the cast) and James Norton with his hair dyed so it took me a bit to go oh that's the "Grantchester" guy.

On NBC via USA and Hulu, I binged the first half of "Blindspot" season one. The show has both procedural elements and a longer term narrative. Since it is filmed in NYC, the city is another character in the plot. Jaimie Alexander plays an amnesiac, who has tattoos over her body that helps the FBI solve crimes. I know her best from "Kyle XY", Sullivan Stapleton, who plays Kyle the male lead I haven't seen in anything else. As someone who watched "Growing Pains" back in the day, I think it is hilarious that Ashley Johnson aka the youngest member of the family is still acting and portrays the head of the forensic science department who also can program. 

On PBS, I watched "Mercy Street", which was a masterpiece production filmed on location in Virginia. I wish it was a stronger series, though I hope it doesn't deter PBS from doing more US-based historical fictional programming. The story was about life during the Civil War in a field hospital and starred many actors whom I was familiar with, but didn't recognize initially like Gary Cole.

With reality shows, I completed three in the month of February: "The Biggest Loser" on NBC, "Kids Baking Championship" (season two) on Food Network, and "Project Runway: Junior" on Lifetime. This was the first season in a long time I watched TBL, but due to them doubling up and running for two months I had the time to watch. Kids Baking Championship had a slight change, as there was only one challenge per episode, which made it frustrating to watch as the amount of contestants became smaller. The junior version of Project Runway had a different host and judges, but otherwise was virtually the same to the regular series. The cast was full of teens, and the prize included a scholarship, instead of solely money.

So that's what I've watched and finished during February 2016. Happy Viewing!

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